Concept
Theoretical psychology
Overview
Theoretical psychology is concerned with theoretical and philosophical aspects of psychology. It is an interdisciplinary field with a wide scope of study.
It focuses on combining and incorporating existing and developing theories of psychology non-experimentally. Theoretical psychology originated from the philosophy of science, with logic and rationality at the base of each new idea. It existed before empirical or experimental psychology. Theoretical psychology is an interdisciplinary field involving psychologists specializing in a wide variety of psychological branches. There have been a few prominent pioneers of theoretical psychology such as Wilhelm Wundt, William James, Sigmund Freud, and John B. Watson. There have also been a number of notable contributors, which include Jerome Kagan, Alan E. Kazdin, Robert Sternberg, Kenneth J. Gergen, and Ulric Neisser. These contributors may publish in a variety of journals, including journals for general psychology, like American Psychologist. There are several journals dedicated specifically to theoretical psychology, like Theory & Psychology and Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. Many other organizations are beginning to recognize theoretical psychology as a formal subdivision of psychology.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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But really we are here not dealing with faculties of thought that can in any way be separated, not even with functions of a different kind, but at bottom always and only with a participation of the apperceptions and associations that enter into all processes of thought, though distributed in a relatively different manner. It is therefore an absolutely wrong conception, if, according to the tradition of the old…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, An Introduction to Psychology Translated from the Second German Edition
States what Theoretical psychology is; the author is tied to Theoretical psychology in the knowledge graph.
The former is of a certain use in dealing, say, with questions of practical ethics and education: the latter is of more strictly scientific interest. Both of these distinctions—that between a speculative and an empirical, and that between a scientific and a popular treatment—affect the subsequent history of the study. Psychology is sometimes understood to mean the results of casual observation of our own minds by…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Philosophy of Mind
States what Theoretical psychology is.
Such is the situation as an affair of theoretical psychology and as most adequately stated by Aristotle. But this state of things is reflected in the constitution of classes of men and hence in the organization of society.
John Dewey, Democracy and Education
Opens on Theoretical psychology; names Theoretical psychology.
Philosophers who discussed Theoretical psychology
Related ideas
- Empiricism
- Emotion
- Cognition
- Philosophy
- Creativity
- Psychoanalytic theory
- University of Notre Dame
- Interdisciplinarity
- Mood (psychology)
- Love
- Metaphysics
- Mental disorder
- Social constructionism
- Psychology
- Sigmund Freud
- Skepticism
- Scientific method
- Social psychology
- Humanistic psychology
- Wilhelm Wundt
- Experimental psychology
- Philosophy of science
- Causality
- Wisdom
Place in the tradition
Part of Philosophy of psychology.