Collected Papers in Psychology

The collection's central argument is that Tolman's purposive behaviorism is best understood as a system in development rather than a fixed doctrine. The volume is not a unified treatise but a chronological record of theoretical evolution, spanning 1922 to 1949. The papers document Tolman's successive engagements with behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, operationalism, and Freudian concepts, showing how his system expanded to accommodate new problems. A contemporary reviewer noted that the book gives "the history of a system coming into being and grappling in turn with virtually all the fundamental problems with which a psychological system must deal" . This developmental character distinguishes it from Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men, which presents the system as a finished structure.

The collection was initiated by an anonymous group of Tolman's colleagues and former students, who requested that he select papers representing meaningful steps in the development of his system. Tolman had no involvement in the book's initiation, and his only direct contribution was a footnote to the Foreword in which he expressed the wish "that a mere half of the kind things said had been true" . The editors selected nineteen items from a bibliography of eighty-two titles dating from 1917 to 1949 . A 1997 review notes that the collection was sponsored by former students and associates who asked Tolman to select papers representing meaningful steps from the system's "neonatal stirrings to its maturation" [citation:10].

Robert B. MacLeod, reviewing in Psychological Bulletin, characterized Tolman as a thinker who was "not ashamed of, or afraid of, our philosophical heritage," treating cognition and motivation as ultimately epistemological and ethical problems . MacLeod observed that much of Tolman's systematic writing took the form of protest, but that "behind every protest is an affirmation"—a commitment to an objective psychology that could still accommodate purpose and experience . He also noted Tolman's distinctive relationship with his experimental subjects: "Probably no psychologist has ever learned so much from rats. Tolman loves them, he is really curious about them, and he believes that the essential variables of human behavior are to be found in the rat" .

The volume opens with "A New Formula for Behaviorism" (1922) and closes with "Cognitive Maps in Rats and Men" (1948). Intermediate papers include "Can Instincts Be Given Up in Psychology?", "A Behavioristic Account of the Emotions," "Behaviorism and Purpose," "Purpose and Cognition," "A Behaviorist's Definition of Consciousness," "Sign-Gestalt or Conditioned Reflex?", "Gestalt and Sign-Gestalt," "Operational Behaviorism and Current Trends in Psychology," "The Acquisition of String Pulling by Rats," "The Determiners of Behavior at a Choice Point," and "A Stimulus-Expectancy Need-Cathexis Psychology" [citation:1][citation:16]. The sequence shows Tolman moving from early polemics against instinct theory and introspectionism toward increasingly formalized constructs like sign-Gestalt-expectation and cognitive maps.

The collected papers function as a companion and developmental record for the 1932 monograph. Purposive Behavior presents the system as a finished structure; the papers show the successive stages by which that structure was built. Several papers included in the collection were written before or alongside the monograph, and later papers extend the system into areas the book only gestured toward. A 1997 review observes that the collection was intended to document "the history of a system coming into being" and that the papers were selected to represent "meaningful steps" in that process [citation:10]. Together, the monograph and the collection provide both the systematic statement and the historical record of purposive behaviorism.

The papers document Tolman's sustained engagement with Gestalt psychology, operationalism, and Freudian theory. His concept of sign-Gestalt was explicitly borrowed and adapted from Gestalt psychology, and the paper "Gestalt and Sign-Gestalt" clarifies the relationship. His 1936 encounter with Vienna positivism and Egon Brunswik shaped his operationalist methodology, evident in "Operational Behaviorism and Current Trends in Psychology" . MacLeod notes that Tolman "did not by-pass" Freudian psychology as many colleagues did but "accepted the challenge and tried to find a place in operational behaviorism for the dynamics of the unconscious" . This integrative impulse was central to his system's breadth.