How comparative psychology lost its soul: Psychical research and the new science of animal behavior

General

A new piece in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences will interest AHP readers. “How comparative psychology lost its soul: Psychical research and the new science of animal behavior,” by David Evan Pence. Article Highlights:

  • The methods of 19th century comparative psychology have been mischaracterized.
  • Early comparative psychology bore methodological affinities with psychical research.
  • Fear of psychical research aided the rise of strict experimentalism in animal psychology.
  • Journal capture and the shifts in institutional support aided early animal behaviorism.

About Jacy Young

Jacy Young is a professor at Quest University Canada. A critical feminist psychologist and historian of psychology, she is committed to critical pedagogy and public engagement with feminist psychology and the history of the discipline.