The Comprehensive History of Psychology

The book provides a basic understanding of major systems and theories in psychology. It covers in detail the historical backgrounds and discusses lucidly, with emphasis on the antecedent forces, and all the important systems of psychology. Besides the traditional systems, it also includes in separate chapters a discussion on Cognitive Psychology, Existential Psychology, Humanistic Psychology, and International Psychology. An overview of psychology in India is one of the salient features of the book. Written in an easy-to-understand style, the book is an ideal text for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in psychology.

The book contains twenty chapters. The first chapter is introductory and briefly introduces the different systems of psychology. Chapters second and third examine the status of psychology before Wilhelm Wundt. The fourth chapter is exclusively devoted to the contributions of Wilhelm Wundt, the father of Experimental Psychology. Chapters fifth to nineteenth present cogently different classical systems and modern psychology. The twentieth chapter predicts where psychology is going and what its position is today. The twenty-first chapter is exclusively devoted to the overall work of Indian psychologists. In the last chapter, an attempt has been made to understand and know about psychology at the international level as well as in light of recommendations of the International Union of Psychological Sciences (IUPSYS). At the end of each chapter, Know Yourself has been appended for healthy mental exercise for the students.

Arun Kumar Singh has been a university Professor & Head of the Post-graduate Department of Psychology, at Patna University, Patna. He holds an M.A. degree (Psychology) having the first rank in first class in 1968 from Patna University and also a PhD degree in 1977 from the same University. He had also been awarded Gold Medal for his M.A. degree. He possesses a postgraduate teaching experience of 44 years with equally rich research experiences. He has written several textbooks both in English and Hindi, meant for undergraduate and postgraduate courses. These books have been widely accepted and read by both teachers and students. He has successfully guided several research scholars leading to their Ph.D. degrees. He has also published several research papers in different journals of repute. His various psychological tests have also been widely used in research in both Psychology and Education. He has also been awarded the Best Psychologist Award, in 2009 by IPERA.

This book is intended for students of undergraduate and post-graduate classes. My major reason for writing it is my dissatisfaction with other texts available in the field, which I discovered through teaching the course for many years. The texts written in this field by foreign writers don't fully cater to the needs of our students at Indian Universities. Moreover, none of these texts mention the position of psychology in India. Instead, they concentrate only on Western positions. The students and many teachers, too, remain in the dark about the status of psychology in India. With the publication of The Comprehensive History of Psychology, this darkness will no longer remain in the minds of Indian students and teachers because a separate chapter on An Overview of Psychology in India has been added, apart from elsewhere discussion of the works of Indian psychologists. This book differs from others in the field in several ways :

• The text is shorter than many others so it can be easily handled by undergraduate and post-graduate students even in one semester where so provided.

• I have selected only important systems and theories that are often found in other texts. Therefore, I have gone into greater depth and detail. The advantage of this will be that students will gain indepth knowledge of those systems and theories rather than a little knowledge of each of the different theories and concepts.

• In discussing each system I have placed much emphasis upon the historical antecedents, which in itself, is unique. This will help the students understand those background factors that have led to the emergence of the different systems.

The book has been written in twenty chapters. The first chapter is introductory and briefly introduces the different systems of psychology. Chapters second and third examine the status of Psychology before Wilhelm Wundt. The fourth chapter is exclusively devoted to the contributions of Wilhelm Wundt, the father of Experimental Psychology. From Chapter fifth to eighteenth different classical systems and modern psychologies have been lucidly presented. Chapter nineteenth intends to predict where psychology is going and what its position is today. The tag chapter is exclusively devoted to the work of Indian psychologists from an overall perspective. At the end of each chapter, Know Yourself has been appended for healthy mental exercise for the students.

I am grateful to a number of people for their helpful suggestions and constructive criticisms. In fact, some students as well as teachers had shown very enthusiastic interest in reading the manuscript and pointing out the errors. I feel highly indebted to all those people.

Like all textbook writers, I owe a great debt to my wife, Kumud Rani, for extending gracious assistance through all phases of manuscript preparation. I am also indebted to Dr. Alpana Sen Gupta, Research Associate in Psychology for carefully supervising the typing of the manuscript. Finally, I am grateful to Publishers Motilal Banarsidass, Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Delhi, in general, and Shri Kamla Shankar Singh, Motilal Banarsidass, Patna in particular who took pains in bringing the book before you at the right time. Wherever errors have occurred and brought to my attention, they have been corrected. However, the final responsibility for any such errors remains with me. If you find any such error, provide feedback for which I am eagerly and earnestly waiting.