Issues in comparative psychology at the dawn of the 20th century

Comparative psychology emerged as part of the "new psychology" that took hold in the United States around 1900. Many of the issues that have occupied comparative psychologists throughout the 20th century were developed as research problems during this period. In some respects, comparative psychology was then an integral and widely respected part of psychology at large; in others, it was already marginalized. Issues emerging during this critical period set the program for the upcoming century and included those of methodology in the conduct of experiments and conceptual issues related to evolution, development, intelligence, and higher processes.     

The psychology laboratory at the turn of the 20th century

The author provides a brief history of the psychology laboratory from 1879 to 1900, discusses its crucial role in the founding of scientific psychology, and describes how it enabled psychology's separation from philosophy. The laboratory model is described as a research and graduate training enterprise that operated with K. Danziger's (1990) concept of a "community of scholars" and was eventually extended to the training of undergraduate students.     

Measurements in the future: beyond the 20th century

This article presents a brief history of psychometrics and the development in the USA shortly after the end of World War II of university graduate programs to educate and train psychometricians. Three decades later these programs in North America were on a steady decline. But, at the same time there was a surge in universities abroad in producing well-trained psychometricians, particularly in Western European countries, especially The Netherlands. Broad implications of the effect of this movement on psychological testing are suggested.     

New Testament studies in the 20th century

Considered diachronically, NT studies in the twentieth century is a story of vigorous scholarship. Especially after World War II, there is increasing diversification in approach and in the makeup of scholars, with a noticeable shift of centre to English-speaking settings (especially North America), and greater involvement of Roman Catholic, Evangelical, and Jewish scholars, a growing prominence of women, and a proliferation of approaches.     

马克思哲学—政治思想与20世纪马克思主义——恩斯特·布洛赫报告:《马克思,直路,具体的乌托邦》解读

恩斯特·布洛赫的报告:<马克思,直路,具体的乌托邦>不仅是一部关于马克思的纪念报告,也是一部创造性的马克思主义文献.在这份报告中,布洛赫高度评价了马克思哲学一政治思想的丰功伟绩,实事求是地指出了他的哲学一政治思想中的某些"实质性缺陷",批判了斯大林主义的"奴役性实践",划清了前苏东"官僚主义的马克思主义"与"现实的人道主义"的原则界限.根据布洛赫的评估,随着历史的发展和时代的变迁,马克思哲学一政治思想中的个别结论已不再有效,但是,马克思的基本思想,特别是"辩证法思想"、"异化理论"、"现实的人道主义理念"等依然有效.     

African American marriage in the 20th century

It is not possible to understand African American marriages fully without attention to the social, economic, racial, and historical factors that have stressed male-female relationships beyond those stresses experienced by majority couples. I propose that the societal projection process (Bowen, 1978) has entrapped African Americans in ways that have continually and severely strained their marital and couple relationships. These experiences, and the ways in which African Americans have responded to them, have created a vulnerability that is compounded by societal shifts and changes, and is manifest in the precipitous decline of marriages at a rate higher than that found in all other racial groups in the U.S. I will examine the state of African American marriages in this cultural context, with specific attention to the effects of the unequal sex ratio, socioeconomic conditions, and overstressed male-female relationships. I will then discuss implications and offer suggestions for therapists who work with this population.     

Mikhail Lifshits and the fate of Hegelianism in the 20th century

In his essay “Das literarische Erbe Hegels” (“The fate of Hegel’s literary legacy”, 1931) Lifshits addressed the fate of Hegelianism in the first third of the 20th century. He observed a struggle surrounding Hegel’s heritage between Marxism on the one hand, and Neo-Hegelianism or ?the Hegel renaissance“ on the other hand and came to the conclusion that the only legitimate Hegel heir is—Marxism. According to Lifshits, Neo-Hegelianism exploits the “Hegelian state” to justify the modern power state by illegitimately shifting the meaning of the Hegelian concept of the state. Thanks to Kojève’s philosophy, a diffuse yet profound Neo-Hegelian influence continues to have an impact on modern thinking, which gives cause in this essay to examine Lifshits’ verdict on the illegitimacy of the Neo-Hegelian Hegel heritage by confronting his argumentation with Kojève’s Neo-Hegelian concept. So, this essay will update Lifshits’ perspective on the fate of Hegelianism and broaden it beyond the horizon that was available to Lifshits.     

Politics and naturalism in the 20th century psychology of Alfred Binet

Alfred Binet is internationally recognized as the "father" of the first intelligence test as well as the most faithful French representative of laboratory experimentalism. A historical analysis of his work is therefore necessary to get to a thorough comprehension of 20th century psychology. The present article, starting from Binet's intellectual path and from the suggestions of the previous historical literature, aims at providing fresh insights into Binet's work by trying to capture the intersections between Binet, his naturalistic culture and the political context in which he worked in the early 20th century, when he actively tried to apply experimental psychology to the pedagogical area. In fact, it is possible to underline, with reference to those years, an evident turn towards applications in Binet's psychological production. The article reconstructs the political and institutional background of Binet's research and shows how the naturalism and experimentalism he promoted were complementary to the solidarist conceptions that were particularly prevalent among those who supported his work during the Third Republic.     

Psychometrics and psychometricians in the 20th and 21st centuries: how it was in the 20th century and how it is now

This article is based largely upon the author's invited address at the 113th annual convention of the American Psychological Convention, Washington, DC, as the 2005 recipient of the Samuel J. Messick Award bestowed by APA Division 5 and the Educational Testing Service. The author summarizes the growth of graduate training in psychometrics and quantitative psychology, in the years prior to and following the end of WWII. He then opines the steady decline in the training of psychometricians and quantitative psychologists beginning in the 1970s and continuing into the 20th century. Likely causes of the decline are inferred and prospects for strengthening the quantitative skills of doctorates are discussed, including recommendations for reversing the downward trend.     

试论20世纪邪教泛滥的根源

20世纪,在世界范围内,邪教作为一种"坏"意识,几成泛滥之势,它不仅使世界各国以"理性"自居的人类痴迷于其中,成为自己的俘虏,也使中国人民饱受生命之辱,使国家深受信仰之痛。本文,从马克思主义哲学的立场出发,对邪教产生的各种根源进行解释,对其唯心的意识根源进行彻底地揭示,对其发展的社会根源从社会存在方面给以有力地批判。     

20世纪孟子学研究现代转型的四种进路

清末以来,伴随西学东渐的冲击与学科置换推动,孟子学由地位尊崇到逐步解体,迈向多元化,呈现出四个向度的转型:学科范式经历了由经学到子学,由子学到文、史、哲现代分科的递嬗;研究模式由经学时代的义理、考据转换为现代的方法多元;中西关系方面从“西学东渐”到“中西会通”,再到“回归儒学”;研究重心由传统时代的“内圣”为主转换到“...     

Modernity and its critique in 20th century Russian orthodox thought

Orthodox Christianity has often been understood as not pertaining to Modernity due to its different historical and theological trajectory. This essay disputes such a view with regard to 20th century Orthodox thought, which it examines from the point of view of a sociology of Modernity in order to identify where Orthodox thinkers of the Russian Diaspora and in Russia today position themselves in relation to modern society and philosophy. Two essentially modern positions within Orthodoxy are singled out: an institutional and an ontological response to the modernist paradigm.     

Cultural and historical influences on the concepts of guidance in late 20th century Russia

The article discusses the ways cultural and historical events have changed the concepts and practices of preparation for employment in Russian schools over the last 30 years. The discussion focuses on data on 30 teachers and 30 students which were analysed using a socio-cultural approach. Differences identified in the ways teachers treated and used the concept of upbringing (a combination of guidance and counselling concepts) are linked to the social transformations Russia experienced before and after the collapse of the Soviet regime. Three different generations of teachers represent three different pedagogic identities which have been formed in different times but are mixed in the same pedagogical context of the same school. Questions are raised about changes in the nature of preparation for employment in contemporary schools.     

British female academics and comparative psychology: attempts to establish a research niche in the early 20th century

Why was there a preponderance of women engaged in laboratory-based studies of animal behavior in Britain in the early years of the 20th century? As a new experimental subject with recently neglected potential, animal psychology then represented an opportunity for women to make further inroads into academic science. Because the study of psychology before World War I offered negligible professional opportunities for the application of the subject, the intake of students was restricted. Perhaps this encouraged academic access to it by aspiring female scientists who felt that career prospects, uncertain and socially unexpected of them in any case, were worth chancing for greater long-term rewards. The academic circumstances and contributions of 3 British female pioneers in experimental comparative psychology are discussed.