You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
By Floyd L. Ruch. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1937. 679 pp.
WORKING WITH PSYCHOLOGY. By Floyd L. Ruch and Neil Warren. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1938. 214 pp.
Elementary texts in psychology, of which a considerable number appear every year, tend to follow a strictly traditional pattern. Following a first chapter on scientific methodology of varying competence and an introductory section on neurology, which is usually neither up-to-date nor completely accurate, the author presents the factual data of psychology from the standpoint of his particular school. He does this usually quite pedantically with a great deal of the paraphernalia of scholarship including many citations of his own original papers and those of his friends. Such a scholarship can only be of interest to the specialist and I doubt if one student in a hundred ever pursues the references further. Besides, since the elementary text in psychology seldom either poses or attempts to answer those particular questions which the beginning student of psychology wishes answered, elementary texts tend to be dull in content as well as in form. There have been lately a few notable exceptions—Boring, Langfeld, and Weld's for form, Wheeler's for content—but the general run remains close to the traditions established by the leaders of German academic psychology and by William James before the dawn of the twentieth century.
Ruch attempts a clean break with the textbook tradition. He first ascertained by questionnaire methods just what beginning students wish to learn from the course. And then to the best of his ability he presents this information in a style and format which students should understand. Students as might be expected are intensely interested in 'personality problems', 'motivation', 'how to study effectively', and they have little interest in 'methods of