Naming the Mind

How Psychology Found Its Language
Naming the Mind
May 1997 | 224 pages | Sage UK
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ISBN: 9781446226001
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Description

Intelligence, motivation, personality, learning, stimulation, behavior, and attitude are just some of the categories that map the terrain of psychology. These are the concepts that underpin theoretical and empirical work in psychology and yet are terms that have only recently taken on their current meanings. In this fascinating new work, author Kurt Danziger goes beyond the taken-for-granted quality of psychological language to offer a profound and broad-ranging analysis of the recent evolution of the concepts and categories on which it depends. He explores this process and shows how its consequences depend on cultural contexts and the history of an emergent discipline. Danziger develops a complementary account that looks at the historically changing structure of psychological discourse. Naming the Mind is an elegant and persuasive explanation of how modern psychology found its language; it will thus be invaluable reading for students and academics throughout psychology and for anyone with an interest in the history of the human services.

Contents

Naming the Mind

Naming the Mind

The Ancients

The Ancients

The Great Transformation

The Great Transformation

The Physiological Background

The Physiological Background

Putting Intelligence on the Map

Putting Intelligence on the Map

Behaviour and Learning

Behaviour and Learning

Motivation and Personality

Motivation and Personality

Attitudes

Attitudes

Metalanguage

  • The Technological Framework

The Nature of Psychological Kinds

The Nature of Psychological Kinds

Description

Intelligence, motivation, personality, learning, stimulation, behavior, and attitude are just some of the categories that map the terrain of psychology. These are the concepts that underpin theoretical and empirical work in psychology and yet are terms that have only recently taken on their current meanings. In this fascinating new work, author Kurt Danziger goes beyond the taken-for-granted quality of psychological language to offer a profound and broad-ranging analysis of the recent evolution of the concepts and categories on which it depends. He explores this process and shows how its consequences depend on cultural contexts and the history of an emergent discipline. Danziger develops a complementary account that looks at the historically changing structure of psychological discourse. Naming the Mind is an elegant and persuasive explanation of how modern psychology found its language; it will thus be invaluable reading for students and academics throughout psychology and for anyone with an interest in the history of the human services.

Contents

Naming the Mind

Naming the Mind

The Ancients

The Ancients

The Great Transformation

The Great Transformation

The Physiological Background

The Physiological Background

Putting Intelligence on the Map

Putting Intelligence on the Map

Behaviour and Learning

Behaviour and Learning

Motivation and Personality

Motivation and Personality

Attitudes

Attitudes

Metalanguage

  • The Technological Framework

The Nature of Psychological Kinds

The Nature of Psychological Kinds

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Naming the Mind

How Psychology Found Its Language


May 1997 | 224 pages | Sage UK

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Hardcover 31/03/2026 9780803977624 $242.00
Paperback 31/03/2026 9780803977631 $128.00
180 Day Ebook 28/03/2023 9781446226001 $75.00
Lifetime 28/03/2023 9781446226001 $109.00

Intelligence, motivation, personality, learning, stimulation, behavior, and attitude are just some of the categories that map the terrain of psychology. These are the concepts that underpin theoretical and empirical work in psychology and yet are terms that have only recently taken on their current meanings. In this fascinating new work, author Kurt Danziger goes beyond the taken-for-granted quality of psychological language to offer a profound and broad-ranging analysis of the recent evolution of the concepts and categories on which it depends. He explores this process and shows how its consequences depend on cultural contexts and the history of an emergent discipline. Danziger develops a complementary account that looks at the historically changing structure of psychological discourse. Naming the Mind is an elegant and persuasive explanation of how modern psychology found its language; it will thus be invaluable reading for students and academics throughout psychology and for anyone with an interest in the history of the human services.

Table Of Contents:

  • Naming the Mind
  • The Ancients
  • The Great Transformation
  • The Physiological Background
  • Putting Intelligence on the Map
  • Behaviour and Learning
  • Motivation and Personality
  • Attitudes
  • Metalanguage
  • The Technological Framework
  • The Nature of Psychological Kinds

Recent Product Reviews:

`I wish I had it in my power to make this book by Kurt Danziger required reading for any psychologist who teaches or contemplates teaching a course in the history of the field. Why? Because it eloquently challenges the current view that the category language of the 20th-century American psychology reflects a natural and universal order of psychological phenomena. In Naming the Mind: How Psychology Found Its Language, Danziger shows very convincingly what is wrong with that picture' -Theory & Psychology `Naming the Mind consolidates a vast body of scholarship on psychological language and offers a persuasive model for appreciating the dynamic play and implications of this expert language....For those researchers concerned with psychology's language, Naming the Mind is a smart read' - Feminism & Psychology

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