The 2nd edition of Historical and Conceptual issues in Psychology offers a lively and engaging introduction to the main issues underlying the emergence and continuing evolution of psychology.

In this book, Gregory Feist reviews and consolidates the scattered literatures on the psychology of science, then calls for the establishment of the field as a unique discipline. He offers the most comprehensive perspective yet on how science came to be possible in our species and on the important role of psychological forces in an individual’s development of scientific interest, talent, and creativity. Without a psychological perspective, Feist argues, we cannot fully understand the development of scientific thinking or scientific genius. The author explores the major subdisciplines within psychology as well as allied areas, including biological neuroscience and developmental, cognitive, personality, and social psychology, to show how each sheds light on how scientific thinking, interest, and talent arise. He assesses which elements of scientific thinking have their origin in evolved mental mechanisms and considers how humans may have developed the highly sophisticated scientific fields we know today. In his fascinating and authoritative book, Feist deals thoughtfully with the mysteries of the human mind and convincingly argues that the creation of the psychology of science as a distinct discipline is essential to deeper understanding of human thought processes.

This book is designed to help students organize their thinking about psychology at a conceptual level. The focus on behaviour and empiricism has produced a text that is better organized, has fewer chapters, and is somewhat shorter than many of the leading books. The beginning of each section includes learning objectives; throughout the body of each section are key terms in bold followed by their definitions in italics; key takeaways, and exercises and critical thinking activities end each section.

In a recent paper we (Speelman & McGann, 2013) argued that psychology’s reliance on data analysis methods that are based on group averages has resulted in a science of group phenomena that may be misleading about the nature of and reasons for individual behaviour. The paper highlighted a tension between a science in search of general laws on the one hand, and the individual, variable, and diverse nature of human behaviour on the other. This Research Topic explored this concern about the pitfalls of using the mean for the basis of psychological science. The problem is universal in its applicability to psychology, and opinion papers, reviews, and original empirical research from all areas of the discipline were invited. A total of 16 authors contributed 9 articles to the Topic. The range of issues that the authors viewed through the lens provided is impressive. The papers in this collection include a range of perspectives that provide concrete examples of how to approach research design, data collection, and analysis differently. No one contribution will provide a solution to our multifarious challenges, but nor should it. Our subject matter is complex and subtle, our investigations and methodological techniques will need to be equally so.

This book introduces the groundbreaking work of the German critical psychologist Klaus Holzkamp. In contrast to contemporary psychology's worldlessness, the writings present a concept of psychology based on the individual's relations to the world and open up new perspectives on human subjectivity, agency and the conduct of everyday life.

This inaugural issue is devoted to exploring measurement, research design, and statistics issues in six subdisciplines of exercise and sport science. Originally presented at the Eighth Measurement and Evaluation Symposium, all papers in this issue reflect the work of many renowned measurement specialists and content experts in their respective fields. The articles discuss the following topics: * standards of assessment quality for physical educators and the problem of providing adequate assessment without adequate resources; * the importance of properly conceptualizing and defining appropriate research questions as the "source and solution" for measurement and design issues in reference to motor learning/control and sport and exercise psychology; * the study of individuals -- single-subject and other small-sample designs -- in contrast to the more traditional study of groups; and * the importance of computing and reporting statistical power in research.