Review of A textbook of experimental and theoretical psychology

Abstract

Reviews the book, A textbook of experimental and theoretical psychology by E. B. Skaggs (1935). The author specifically points out three different schools of psychology, namely, what he calls "mentalists," "behaviorists" and a third school which is a combination of these two. He professes to write this book from the point of view of this third school. The reviewer contends that the treatment of several topics is too brief and vague to make this an adequate textbook of experimental and theoretical psychology. There are omissions of several important bodies of material on various phases of general psychology, for example, no mention is made of statistical measures, even the simplest measures of central tendency and dispersion. The manuscript for this book has been carelessly proofread. Within the text there is so much repetition that it serves as distraction rather than an aid to clarity. This book does not give the impression of being an important contribution to the long list of recent textbooks in the field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)