Editorial

Abstract

Free AccessEditorialEditorialKurt PawlikKurt PawlikSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:September 01, 2006https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.2.2.89PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditE-Mail SectionsMoreThis issue of the European Psychologist (Vol. 2, No. 2) and a thematically parallel section in the September 1997 issue of the American Psychologist (Vol. 52, No. 9; see below *) constitute a novel kind of “joint venture” in international publishing in psychology: to approach the same theme or topic in collaboration, but at the same time independently, within the North-American and the European psychological communities, respectively. Over a year ago, Raymond D. Fowler, Editor of the American Psychologist, and I agreed to plan on occasional parallel issues of this kind to further promote international exchanges in psychological science and among psychology professionals.While looking for a first theme for parallel sections in the two journals, we readily settled on the centennial of an historical marker event in psychology: the publication, in 1897, of Ivan P. Pavlov's founding book on the work of the digestive glands, which summarizes years of experimental groundwork completed in Pavlov's laboratory on the physiology of the digestive tract, including first experimental findings recognizing the role of psychological factors in digestive, and particularly salivary, functions. As will be all too familiar to readers, in the years to follow Pavlov's research led him to concentrate on the study of conditioned reflexes and of higher nervous activity, later on extending the study of salivary reflex conditioning into higher-order conditioning, the role of language as a second signal system, study of temperament and even abnormal behavior. A rigorous experimentalist and an innovative, stringent theoretician, Pavlov was to become on of the first to develop a system of experiment-based descriptive laws of behavioral learning. These Thematic Sections in the American Psychologist and the European Psychologist are dedicated to the memory of this outstanding personality in the history of psychological science. To facilitate cross-referencing and cross-reading of the two sections, the table of contents of each is also being published in the other journal (see below).I wish to thank all colleagues and authors, as well as Donald A. Dewsbury, Editor of the American Psychologist Special Section on Pavlov, for their intellectual freshness in approaching this historical theme from different perspectives, and—last not least—for their diligence in meeting tight deadlines. May these Thematic Sections reinforce international exchange in psychology and make us more conscious, as we approach the close of the century, of the common historic roots of our discipline and how they are reflected in the widespread branches of today's psychology.1American Psychologist, Vol. 52, No. 9 (September 1997) Thematic Section: History of Psychology—Pavlov's Contribution, Section Editor: Donald A. Dewsbury In Celebration of the Centennial of Ivan P. Pavlov's (1897) The Work of the Digestive Glands, by Donald A. DewsburyExcerpts From The Work of the Digestive Glands by I. P. Pavlov, by W. H. Thompson (Translator)Ivan P. Pavlov: An Overview of His Life and Psychological Work, by George WindholzFrom the Machine to the Ghost Within: Pavlov's Transition From Digestive Physiology to Conditional Reflexes, by Daniel P. TodesContemporary Research on Pavlovian Conditioning: A “New” Functional Analysis, by Karen L. HollisPavlov's Contributions to Behavior Therapy: The Obvious and the Not So Obvious, by Joseph Wolpe and Joseph J. PlaudFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 2Issue 2June 1997ISSN: 1016-9040eISSN: 1878-531X InformationEuropean Psychologist (1997), 2, pp. 89-90 https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.2.2.89.© 1997Hogrefe & Huber PublishersPDF download