BPS Core Textbooks Series

Developed in collaboration with the British Psychological Society

Reflective Questions

  • Chapter 1 – Reflective Questions

    1. In what ways did phrenology reflect both Enlightenment ideals and nineteenth-century social anxieties?
    2. Why was phrenology so compelling to different groups, including reformers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and the general public?
    3. What does phrenology teach us about the risks of reductionism in psychology?
    4. How did phrenology contribute to, and benefit from, existing power structures such as racism, sexism, and colonialism?
    5. Can you think of contemporary examples where psychological or neuroscientific claims might be reductionist in a similar way?

  • Chapter 10 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does the concept of ‘companion species’ reveal about the relationship between researcher and animal in psychology? 
    2. In what ways did Pavlov’s dogs—and their reactions after the flood—disrupt the assumption that conditioning is purely mechanical? 
    3. Can animals be considered co-authors of psychological knowledge? If so, what are the implications for experimental design and scientific ethics? 
    4. How do cases like Clever Hans or Alex the parrot complicate the boundary between understanding and interpretation? 
    5. How might Barbara Smuts’ or Jane Goodall’s approach to animal research exemplify the idea of ‘situated knowledge’?

  • Chapter 11 – Reflective Questions

    1. Why did behaviourism become so dominant in American psychology, and what cultural or institutional factors helped sustain it? 
    2. How does Thomas Kuhn’s concept of a ‘paradigm’ help us understand the rise and fall of behaviourism? 
    3. What were the main epistemological assumptions of behaviourism, and how did they limit what counted as psychological knowledge? 
    4. In what ways did behaviourism act as a form of disciplinary power, and how might we critically assess its social uses? 
    5. How did the work of John Garcia disrupt behaviourist assumptions, and why was his research initially ignored?

  • Chapter 12 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does the concept of biopower help us understand about psychology’s role in eugenics? 
    2. In what ways did intelligence testing support systems of social inequality in the 20th century? 
    3. How did eugenics operate differently in Britain, the United States, and Scandinavia? 
    4. Why is it important to include dissenting voices, like Leta Hollingworth’s, in the history of psychology? 
    5. What are the legacies of eugenic thinking in psychology today?

  • Chapter 13 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does the concept of ‘psychosomatic protest’ reveal about the meaning of shell shock symptoms? 
    2. How did class and military rank influence the diagnosis and treatment of shell shock during the First World War? 
    3. In what ways did the treatment approaches of Rivers and Yealland reflect broader systems of power and control? 
    4. How does the concept of moral injury help us understand the long-term psychological impact of war on soldiers? 
    5. What role did literature and poetry play in shaping public understanding of shell shock?

  • Chapter 14 – Reflective Questions

    1. How did early industrial psychologists shape the definition of a ‘productive’ worker? 
    2. In what ways were psychological tests in the workplace mimetic rather than objective? 
    3. What does Foucault’s idea of ‘technologies of the self’ reveal about the power of psychological classification? 
    4. How did gender influence the design and application of industrial psychology, especially in the work of Lillian Gilbreth? 
    5. Can contemporary workplace assessments—such as psychometric profiling or performance targets—be understood as continuations of early industrial psychology?

  • Chapter 15 – Reflective Questions

    1. How has the dominant psychological model of the self changed from the 19th to the 21st century, and what social or economic factors have driven this shift? 
    2. What does Warren Susman’s concept of the ‘modal self’ help us understand about the relationship between psychology and culture? 
    3. To what extent can contemporary personality assessments (e.g. the Big Five, Emotional Intelligence) be seen as tools of empowerment versus tools of conformity? 
    4. How do different psychological models define what it means to be a ‘normal’ person? What assumptions do they make about gender, race, class, or ability? 
    5. What forms of power operate through personality psychology, and how have they shifted across the Moral, Modern, and Post-Modern eras? 

  • Chapter 16 – Reflective Questions

    1. How does the concept of ‘the Other’ help us reinterpret the voices of female analysands in early psychoanalysis? 
    2. What does it mean to treat a psychoanalytic case study as a ‘dialogic performance’ rather than a scientific report? 
    3. In what ways did Sabina Spielrein’s contributions challenge the dominant, male-authored psychoanalytic canon? 
    4. How do feminist critiques of the Oedipus complex destabilise Freudian theories of gender and development? 
    5. What power dynamics are at play in the relationship between analyst and analysand, especially when the analysand is culturally or politically marginalised?

  • Chapter 17 – Reflective Questions

    1. What is reification, and why is it particularly relevant to the measurement of psychological constructs?
    2. How did statistical tools like the normal distribution and factor analysis influence the development of psychological theory and practice?
    3. In what ways did the work of figures like Galton and Fisher both advance and compromise the ethical standing of psychology?
    4. How does Joel Michell’s critique challenge the legitimacy of psychological measurement?
    5. How can recognising the role of reification help students become more critical consumers of psychological research today?

  • Chapter 18 – Reflective Questions

    1. How did the lie detector reflect the changing understanding of criminality in early 20th century America? 
    2. In what ways did William Moulton Marston and Leonarde Keeler represent different visions of psychological expertise? 
    3. How does discourse analysis help us understand the lie detector not as a neutral device, but as a cultural artefact? 
    4. What forms of power operated through the use and popularisation of the lie detector, and how were these legitimised? 
    5. What does the history of the lie detector reveal about the relationship between psychology, science, and public trust?

  • Chapter 19 – Reflective Questions

    1. What role did the photographic dome play in shaping the concept of ‘normal’ child development? 
    2. How does the idea of ‘tools-to-theories’ challenge traditional views of objectivity in developmental psychology? 
    3. In what ways can developmental psychology be seen as a form of biopower?. 
    4. How have material objects such as toys or test kits embodied assumptions about gender, class, or race? 
    5. What lessons can be drawn from historical practices in child psychology for today’s digital tools for child monitoring and assessment? 

  • Chapter 2 – Reflective Questions

    1. What is naturalism, and in what ways did it help establish psychology as a science?
    2. How did Darwinian theory contribute to both the scientific credibility and the social power of psychology?
    3. In what ways did early female psychologists challenge the naturalistic fallacy, and why was this important for the development of a more inclusive psychological science?
    4. How does the Baldwin effect complicate the nature-versus-nurture debate in evolutionary psychology?
    5. What lessons can contemporary biological psychology learn from the historical misapplications of naturalism?

  • Chapter 20 – Reflective Questions

    1. How has psychology historically used parapsychology to define its own disciplinary boundaries? 
    2. Why might figures such as Leonora Piper be considered both central and marginal to the development of psychological knowledge? 
    3. In what ways did J.B. Rhine’s methods in parapsychology contribute to mainstream psychological science? 
    4. What does the chapter suggest about the ontological status of paranormal phenomena in psychology’s history? 
    5. How might the concept of a ‘haunted discipline’ help us understand the lingering presence of excluded ideas in contemporary psychology?

  • Chapter 21 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does the concept of ‘historical ontology’ reveal about the way psychological categories are created and maintained? 
    2. Why did ‘fugue’ as a psychological category appear and then vanish from psychiatric discourse? 
    3. How does Ian Hacking’s ‘looping effect’ challenge our understanding of diagnosis and classification in psychology? 
    4. In what ways do power dynamics influence which psychological categories become legitimate or dominant? 
    5. How have categories such as ‘emotion’ or ‘intelligence’ changed over time, and what does this suggest about their ontological status?

  • Chapter 22 – Reflective Questions

    1. Why was Dr John Fryer’s masked appearance at the 1972 APA meeting such a significant moment in the history of diagnosis? 
    2. What does the concept of interpellation reveal about the way psychological diagnoses are created and experienced? 
    3. How have patient advocacy and social movements contributed to changes in specific diagnostic categories, such as PTSD or autism? 
    4. In what ways do epistemological assumptions shape who gets diagnosed, and whose experiences are excluded from diagnostic systems? 
    5. Why is it important to understand psychological disorders as ‘human kinds’ rather than ‘natural kinds’?

  • Chapter 23 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does it mean to describe classic social psychology experiments as ‘parables’? 
    2. Why might the historical and political context of the Cold War have influenced the kinds of research questions social psychologists asked? 
    3. How does the Kitty Genovese story exemplify the role of myth in shaping psychological research? 
    4. What are the epistemological risks of assuming that laboratory behaviour reveals universal truths about human nature? 
    5. To what extent do experiments like Milgram’s and Zimbardo’s reinforce existing societal power structures, rather than challenge them? 

  • Chapter 24 – Reflective Questions

    1. How do humanistic and existential therapies differ from earlier forms of psychotherapy, such as behaviourism or psychoanalysis? 
    2. In what ways might the concepts of ‘self-actualisation’ or ‘personal growth’ be seen as politically and culturally situated? 
    3. What is the significance of using ‘hermeneutics’—especially the dialectic between trust and suspicion—as a critical thinking tool in this chapter? 
    4. How did therapists such as Violet Oaklander and Lydia James Myers expand the reach and inclusivity of humanistic psychology? 
    5. Can therapy be both a site of liberation and a form of social adaptation? How should we hold these tensions as future psychologists? 

  • Chapter 25 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does it mean to say that psychology is never neutral, and how does community psychology exemplify this principle? 
    2. How does Paulo Freire’s concept of ‘critical consciousness’ influence the theory and practice of community psychology? 
    3. In what ways does community psychology rethink the concept of power, and how is this rethinking reflected in its methods? 
    4. Why is the Marienthal study considered a landmark in socially conscious psychological research? 
    5. How do the lives and work of key individuals like Ignacio Martín-Baró, Carolyn Kagan and Mark Burton illustrate psychology’s potential to contribute to social change?

  • Chapter 26 – Reflective Questions

    1. Why does the chapter begin with the anecdote of Edward O. Wilson being drenched with water? 
    2. How does the concept of fantasy, as used by Žižek, help us understand the enduring appeal of evolutionary psychology? 
    3. In what ways do critics argue that evolutionary psychology reinforces traditional gender roles? 
    4. How does the chapter contrast the approaches of Edward O. Wilson and Joan Roughgarden? 
    5. What role does popular science, such as Desmond Morris’s Manwatching, play in shaping public attitudes toward evolutionary psychology?

  • Chapter 27 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does Wittgenstein’s concept of a ‘language game’ reveal about the relationship between language and meaning?
    2. How did the crisis in psychology during the 1970s open the door for discursive approaches to emerge?
    3. In what ways does discursive psychology challenge traditional ideas about the nature of psychological knowledge?
    4. How is power understood and analysed in discursive psychology, particularly in relation to Michel Foucault’s influence? 
    5. What are the implications of treating emotions, attitudes, and identities as discursive performances rather than internal states?

  • Chapter 28 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does the example of fago on Ifaluk tell us about the relationship between emotion and culture? 
    2. How did the transformation from ‘passions’ to ‘emotions’ change the way psychology approached human feeling? 
    3. In what ways did feminist theorists such as Arlie Hochschild challenge dominant understandings of emotion? 
    4. How do discursive psychologists argue that language shapes emotion? 
    5. What does the Critical Thinking Tool of social constructionism help us uncover about emotion?

  • Chapter 29 – Reflective Questions

    1. How did the military-industrial context of the 1940s and 1950s shape the development of cognitive psychology? 
    2. What does the concept of embodied cognition reveal about the limitations of the ‘mind as computer’ metaphor? 
    3. Why is Kenneth Craik considered such a pivotal figure in the emergence of cognitive psychology, and what aspects of his work remain overlooked? 
    4. In what ways can metaphor serve as both a creative and constraining force in psychological theory? 
    5. What might cognitive psychology have looked like if it had taken a more embodied or ecological direction earlier in its history? 

  • Chapter 3 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does it mean to classify criminality as a ‘natural kind’, and how did
    2. Cesare Lombroso use this classification to support his theory of the born criminal?
    3. How did Frances Kellor’s sociological approach challenge the assumptions of criminal anthropology?
    4. Why is the distinction between natural kinds and human kinds important in understanding the history of psychological science?
    5. What role did power play in the formation and application of early criminological theories?
    6. How do the historical debates around criminal anthropology continue to shape contemporary biological psychology and criminology today?

  • Chapter 30 – Reflective Questions

    1. What is neoliberal governmentality, and how does it shape the way psychology defines and promotes happiness? 
    2. In what ways did the pharmaceutical industry reshape public attitudes towards depression in Japan using the phrase ‘a cold of the soul’? 
    3. Why is Geni Núñez critical of Western psychological models of emotion and flourishing? 
    4. How do the key individuals discussed in the chapter reflect different relationships to power, resistance, and cultural values? 
    5. Is unhappiness always a problem to be solved, or can it be a legitimate response to structural injustice? 

  • Chapter 31 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does Zygmunt Bauman mean by ‘liquid modernity’, and how does it help us understand changing patterns in romantic relationships? 
    2. How did early figures like Edward Westermarck and John Bowlby conceptualise love, and in what ways do their theories reflect the ‘solid modern’ mindset? 
    3. What is the significance of the new vocabulary emerging around dating (e.g., ghosting, breadcrumbing, zombied), and what does it suggest about the ontology of contemporary love? 
    4. How do power dynamics manifest in liquid relationships, particularly in digital spaces? 
    5. Can psychology offer a stable theory of love in an unstable world? Or must psychological knowledge evolve with culture? 

  • Chapter 32 – Reflective Questions

    1. How did feminist psychologists expose the ethical failures of mainstream therapeutic practice in the 1970s? 
    2. What role does ‘experience’ play in feminist psychology as a form of evidence? 
    3. How did key feminist thinkers like Carol Gilligan and Sandra Bem challenge psychological assumptions about gender and development? 
    4. What is ‘hegemony’, and why is it a useful critical tool for analysing psychological knowledge and institutions? 
    5. In what ways did feminist psychology reimagine the purpose of psychological science itself? 

  • Chapter 33 – Reflective Questions

    1. How did psychology contribute to the pathologisation of LGBTQIA+ identities in the 20th century? 
    2. What was the significance of Evelyn Hooker’s research, and how did it challenge mainstream assumptions in psychology? 
    3. In what ways has queer theory redefined the way psychologists think about sexuality and gender? 
    4. Why is activism considered a critical thinking tool in the context of LGBTQIA+ psychology? 
    5. What does the story of intersex advocacy reveal about the relationship between medical power, psychological authority, and lived experience? 

  • Chapter 34 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does Black psychology reveal about the relationship between science and power? 
    2. In what ways does Critical Race Theory challenge the idea of objectivity in psychological research? 
    3. How have key figures in Black psychology used cultural traditions, spirituality, and community as forms of resistance? 
    4. What does the case of Daniel Prude illustrate about the stakes of psychological diagnosis? 
    5. How can psychology be reimagined to centre justice, lived experience, and liberation?

  • Chapter 35 – Reflective Questions

    1. Why did the ‘Jennifer Aniston neuron’ generate such excitement both inside and outside psychology? 
    2. What is meant by the ‘technological sublime’ in the context of cognitive neuropsychology? 
    3. How does the work of Oliver Sacks contrast with the use of fMRI and other forms of brain imaging? 
    4. In what ways can the promise of cognitive enhancement be both empowering and ethically troubling? 
    5. Why is it important to recognise the cultural and ideological dimensions of neuroscientific authority?

  • Chapter 36 – Reflective Questions

    1. How did the replication crisis reveal deeper epistemological flaws in psychology, beyond just methodological errors? 
    2. In what ways does the ethical crisis show that psychology has been complicit with systems of power, rather than independent of them? 
    3. What does the W.E.I.R.D. crisis tell us about the limitations of psychology’s claim to universality? 
    4. Why is the ecological crisis described as an ontological crisis, and how does the looping effect help explain psychology’s role in it? 
    5. How does the legacy crisis demand a shift towards critical historiography, and what does this mean for how psychology understands itself?

  • Chapter 4 – Reflective Questions

    1. How does Michel Foucault’s critique of the ‘repressive hypothesis’ change the way we understand Victorian sexuality? 
    2. In what ways did early sexologists like Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis contribute to both the medicalisation and normalisation of sexuality? 
    3. What is the difference between a natural kind and a human kind, and why is this distinction important when studying sexuality? 
    4. What does Ian Hacking’s concept of the ‘looping effect’ reveal about the relationship between classification and self-identity? 
    5. How do artistic and spiritual traditions (such as ars erotica and the Kama Sutra) offer alternative understandings of sexuality compared to scientific sexology?

  • Chapter 5 – Reflective Questions

    1. How did cultural assumptions about femininity shape the diagnosis and treatment of hysteria in the 19th century? 
    2. In what ways can hysteria be understood as a form of social protest?
    3. Compare and contrast Charcot’s and Freud’s approaches to hysteria. What do their methods reveal about changing ways of knowing in psychology?
    4. Why was the abandonment of Freud’s seduction theory controversial, and what does it suggest about the politics of psychological knowledge?
    5. How does the history of hysteria remain relevant to social psychology today?

  • Chapter 6 – Reflective Questions

    1. What is meant by the ‘metaphysics of measurement’ and how does this concept challenge the idea that psychological traits are naturally quantifiable? 
    2. How do the laboratories of Wilhelm Wundt and Francis Galton reflect different views about what psychology should be studying? 
    3. In what ways can the act of measurement in psychology be considered to be influenced by power? 
    4. What role did the concept of ‘normality’ play in Galton’s work, and how does Foucault’s idea of ‘normalisation’ help us critically understand it? 
    5. Why might early psychological experiments be better understood as social performances rather than purely objective scientific investigations? 

  • Chapter 7 – Reflective Questions

    1. How does the concept of situated knowledge challenge the idea that psychology is a universal science?
    2. What ethical tensions are revealed by the Torres Straits expedition, and how does it illustrate the problem of applying laboratory methods in the field? 
    3. In what ways did psychology contribute to social sorting and classification in schools and factories during the early 20th century? 
    4. What kind of subject (or ‘self’) is constructed in each of the psychological spaces explored in this chapter? 
    5. Why is this history relevant for social psychology today? 

  • Chapter 8 – Reflective Questions

    1. How does metaphor shape what psychology is able to see and study? 
    2. In what ways do Freud’s and Horney’s models of the psyche reflect different views on gender and power? 
    3. What role does biography play in shaping psychological theory? 
    4. Can psychology ever be free of metaphor? Should it be? 
    5. Why is it important to recover the work of psychologists like Horney and Hollingworth?

  • Chapter 9 – Reflective Questions

    1. Why did psychology settle on ‘intelligence’ as a key category, rather than instinct, reason, or intellect? 
    2. What does it mean to say that intelligence is a ‘constructed’ rather than a ‘discovered’ category? 
    3. How does the metaphor of ‘social distance’ challenge traditional views of intelligence testing? 
    4. In what ways has intelligence testing acted as a form of power in shaping people’s life chances? 
    5. What lessons can the history of intelligence testing teach us about contemporary psychological practices?