This book explains the social factors that shape the nature of theory and research traditions in psychology. It presents a broad treatment of the construction of theory and knowledge in science and philosophy with particular emphasis on psychological thinking. Du Preez, emphasizing the "evolution of knowledge," discusses theory and research across behaviorism, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, cognitive psychology, and many other psychological areas, placing them in their socio-philosophical contexts.Sketches a theory of mind which is reflexively applicable to the theorist**Identifies selectors which influence the evolution of research traditions**Uses Kuhn's concept of a disciplinary matrix to describe the structure of research traditions**Illustrates the concept of a research tradition by reference to existential phenomenology, psychoanalysis, genetic epistemology, and radical behaviorism