STUDENT GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY Introduction P sychology, that “nasty little subject,” as William James called it, embraces the full range of actions and events which appear to depend, at least in part, on perceptions, thoughts, feelings, motives, and desires. These very processes, however, also seem to depend, at least in part, on internal biological states as well as external social influences. To complicate matters even further, influences can be “social” only insofar as they are perceived or thought of as such, and can only be “influences” to the extent that they converge on motives, feelings, and desires. These considerations, in turn, reflect or are in some way conditioned by larger cultural and historical influences. In all, then, what James ironically described as a “nasty little subject” is in fact a complex and overarching set of problems and perspectives arising from the abiding project of self-knowledge. That project, of course, is not owned by any discipline or soci...
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