Part I: Theory and Practice -- Chapter 1. History of Psychology - What For? -- Chapter 2. The Universal and the Particular in Psychology and the Role of History in Examining Both -- Chapter 3. Six Meanings of the History of Science: The Case of Psychology -- Chapter 4. Beyond the "Variables": Developing Metalanguage for Psychology -- Chapter 5. The Shackles of Practice: History of Psychology, Research Assessment, and the Curriculum -- Chapter 6. History for "Polycentric" Psychological Science: An "Outsider's Case" -- Part II: History At Work -- Chapter 7. The Dominant as a Model Chronogenic Challenge: The Relevance of A.A. Ukhtomsky's and L.S. Vygotsky's Traditions for Systemic Cognitive Studies -- Chapter 8. Constructiveness in the History of Psychology: Bartlett from Past to Future -- Chapter 9. A History of Psychology's Complicated Relationship to Feminism: Theorizing Difference -- Chapter 10. Autonomy, Theory, and "Applied" versus "Basic": Work Psychology and Its Search for Identity in Finland, ca. 195 - 2000 -- Chapter 11. Subjectivity in the History of Psychology - A Systematic or a Historical Change? -- Part III: Commentary -- Chapter 12. Commentary I: Functions and Trends in the History of Psychology -- Chapter 13. Commentary II: The Past and the History of Psychology.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the purpose of history for psychology. Its purpose is to ask why history should be of concern to psychologists in teaching and research, and in theory and in practice. The future position of humanities subjects is currently highly debated on all fronts. Chapters focus on the arguments from psychologists, upgrade the precision and quality of discussion, and thus, provide a base for affirming the place of history of psychology in the broad field of psychological activity. A fundamental question dominates the discussion. Is the purpose of the history of psychology to serve current psychology, rather than to contribute to historical knowledge - and to enter large debates about what historical knowledge means for being human? If the answer is yes, as most psychologists who come to the issues will presume, in what ways? Are these ways philosophically grounded, or do the social and political conditions of power and funding in universities dominate the arguments? In this volume, the contributors demonstrate the relation between historical investigations and current practice. Featured topics include: The history of psychology and its relation to feminism. The history of psychology and its relation to current research assessment and curriculum. The history of science and its relation to psychology. The metalanguage for psychology. Case studies of history in theory construction. Centrality of History for Theory Construction in Psychology will be of interest to psychologists, professors, graduate psychology students, and scholars in the human sciences.