Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology: An Inclusive, Innovative, and Critical Approach (BPS Core Textbooks Series)

This unique textbook offers an inspirational and engaging guide to psychology’s past and present, told through fascinating stories about the discipline’s charismatic personalities and the controversies they generated. Geoff Bunn introduces students to an array of conceptual and analytical tools for critical thinking and demonstrates how to apply these tools to understand a variety of historical controversies, psychological theories, and individual personalities.

Each chapter focuses on a core area of psychological study and integrates both conceptual and historical issues in a ‘guide on the side’ approach, encouraging students to form their own opinions of what they have read. The book takes an inclusive approach, integrating equality, diversity, human rights, and intersectionality issues throughout, and introduces students to often overlooked figures and areas of study.

The text is supported by an extensive tutor guide featuring lesson plans, resources, key sources, recommended readings, and tried-and-tested classroom exercises that utilise tools for critical thinking. This is the ideal undergraduate textbook for conceptual and historical issues in psychology, whether taught as a stand-alone course or integrated into other psychology modules.

Geoff Bunn is Reader in Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and an internationally-recognised researcher in the history of psychology and education.