Journal Article Adam Barnett Journal Article Adam Barnett

Psychology as a Historical Science

Muthukrishna, Michael, Joseph Henrich and Edward Slingerland. “Psychology as a Historical Science,” (PDF) Annual Review of Psychology 72 (January 2021, published on-line October 2020). *

Psychology has traditionally seen itself as the science of universal human cognition, but it has only recently begun seriously grappling with cross-cultural variation. Here we argue that the roots of cross-cultural variation often lie in the past. We review examples of research that may be classified as historical psychology, introduce sources of historical data and methods for analyzing them, explain the critical role of theory, and discuss how psychologists can add historical depth and nuance to their work.

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