Experimental Psychology Its Scope And Method Volume Vii Psychology Revivals

First published in English in 1968, Joseph Nuttin contributes the first chapter, on Motivation. He discusses various aspects of the motivational process. Such as incentives, conflict, social motivation, and negative motivation, and describes the mechanism of the process. The second chapter, by Paul Fraisse, is on the Emotions. Fraisse examines the nature of the emotions, both on the behavioural and on the neurophysiological levels, and goes on to define and discuss moving situations. He shows the different types of expression an emotional reaction may take, and discusses the causes of hyper-emotionality. Richard Meili writes on the Structure of the Personality, showing the importance of the idea of trait in the psychology of personality. He describes the use of the factorial method in the analysis of personality, and gives an account of the beginnings of personality, as well as the different parts, known as instances, of the total organization of personality.

First published in English in 1969, the book opens with a chapter by Pierre Oléron on intellectual activities. These fall into three groups: inductive activities (the apprehension of laws, relations and concepts), reasoning and problem solving. It describes typical methods and essential results obtained by relevant experiments. There are two chapters by Jean Piaget and his collaborator Bärbel Inhelder. The first, on mental images, breaks new ground: it describes original experiments carried out by Piaget and associates with children of various ages. Piaget examines the relations between images and motor activity, imitation, drawing and operations. He also classifies images according to their degree of complexity and show why children have inadequate images of some processes. The second chapter is on intellectual operations and Piaget gives a summary of the main findings of a number of his earlier books, on the child’s notions of conservation, classification, seriation, number, measurement, time, speed and chance. In the last chapter, Pierre Gréco discusses learning and intellectual structures. He describes the work of psychologists with rats in mazes and formulating theories of animal learning. Gestalt psychology and various other interpretations are examined and Greco also pays attention to Piaget’s view of ‘structural learning’ based on experience.

Experimental Psychology, That Studies External Behaviour As Well As The Internal Processes Of The Different Stages Of Human Development As Also Of Animals, Is Considered The Most Important Branch Of Psychology. The Credit For Establishing Psychology On A Scientific Basis Is Given To Experimental Method. The Scope Of Experimental Psychology Is Widening With The Invention Of New Tools And Instruments For Experiments. It Is The Core Of The Curriculum Prescribed For Psychology In Almost All The Indian Universities, Both At The Undergraduate And Postgraduate Levels.The Present Book, Experimental Psychology, Is A Textbook Focusing On The Experimental Methods In The Fast Growing Area Of Psychology. It Attempts To Provide An In-Depth Study Of Important Areas Covered By Experimental Psychology: Physco-Physics, Animal Psychology, Learning Psychology, Psychology Of Individual Differences, Child Psychology, Education Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Industrial Psychology, Etc. Besides These, It Includes Experiments In Physiological Psychology, Nervous System, Mental Processes And Aspects Of Human Behaviour.The Book Has Been Particularly Designed To Help Students Prepare For University Examinations. The Language Used Is Lucid, Simple And Unburdened By Technical Jargon. The Presentation Of Subject Matter Has Been Made From The Pragmatic Viewpoint, Following A Tried And Tested Pedagogical Style, Enabling The Reader To Easily Understand And Grasp The Subject. It Is Hoped That It Will Prove Highly Useful To Both Students And Teachers Of Psychology.

In writing this little book, I have tried to keep in mind the purpose of the series to which it belongs. Having selected various topics which may fairly be considered typical themes of research in Experimental Psychology, I have endeavoured to present them in such a form as will give the educated reader a general notion of the scope of the science and of the experimental methods it employs. Of course these various topics will not appeal in equal degrees to different interests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

This introduction to experimental psychology defines the field from the standpoint of methods of research, rather than specific content areas. Topics covered include: ethics in human and animal research; the use of computers in psychology; and correlational research and experimental designs.