http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/3111953

A beginner's psychology

"In this Beginner's Psychology I have tried to write, as nearly as might be, the kind of book that I should have found useful when I was beginning my own study of psychology. Hence I have, in this book, written an inordinately long introduction, and have kept continually harping on the difference between fact and meaning. I try to make the reader see clearly what I take Science to be. The present work has its due share of the mistakes and minor contradictions that are inevitable to a first writing; at many points it falls short of my intention, and I daresay that the intention itself is not within measurable distance of the ideal. It is, nevertheless, the best I can do at the time; and it is also, I repeat, the kind of book that I should have liked to have when I began psychologising. Psychological text-books usually contain a chapter on the physiology of the central nervous system. The reader will find no such chapter here; for I hold, and have always held, that the student should get his elementary knowledge of neurology, not at second hand from the psychologist, but at first hand from the physiologist. I have added to every chapter a list of Questions, looking partly to increase of knowledge, but especially to a test of the reader's understanding of what he has just read. I have also added a list of References for further reading. It depends upon the maturity and general mental habit of the student whether these references--made as they are, in many cases, to authors who do not agree either with one another or with the text of the book--should be followed up at once, or only after the text itself has been digested"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

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