Contributions to the History of Psychology: Li. 1890–1935: An Era of Systems: A Period of Experimental Psychology in Practice

Abstract

The years 1890 through 1935 are often characterized as the era of systems of psychology, a time in which classic systems supposedly had profound practical and theoretical influence. In contrast to this view, psychology in America has been described as basically asystematic or functionalist in outlook and generalist in practice. The purpose of this paper was to gain perspective on these contradictory views of the role and significance of classic systems of psychology. A survey of the training and research of a “sample” of psychologists who held academic positions during the period 1890–1935 indicated that a majority of them were not directly trained or even indirectly influenced by the systematists. Systematic issues were not the foci of the research of the psychologists surveyed.