PhD (York University, Canada)

Background and Research Interests

Adrian was born in Gibraltar and raised in Manchester, England. After leaving school, he spent several years as a backpacker in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America. This background has led to a lifelong interest in international affairs and, in particular, the problems of the developing world.

At the age of 30, he enrolled as a mature student at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) and graduated with a first-class honours degree in Psychology. He then received an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Psychology from York University in Toronto, Canada. He was also an exchange student at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig in what was then the German Democratic Republic. On completing his studies, he taught at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, USA and University College Dublin in Ireland before taking early retirement.

Adrian’s PhD supervisor was Kurt Danziger who grew up in South Africa and was head of the psychology department at the University of Cape Town until his public opposition to apartheid forced him to leave. He was subsequently banned from entering the country until the political system changed. It was through him that Adrian began to make contacts in South Africa and he has had a close connection with the country ever since.

His research interests are in the history, philosophy and sociology of psychology. He is particularly interested in the social implications of psychological theory.

Selected Publications

Brock, A. C. (in press). Review of A History of "Relevance” in Psychology by Wahbie Long. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences.

Brock, A. C. (2017). The new history of psychology: Some (different) answers to Lovett’s five questions. History of Psychology, 20 (2), 195-217.

Brock, A. C. (2017). Alternative path for the future or a return to the past? Araujo's "philosophical" history of psychology. Theory & Psychology, 27 (1), 108-116.

Brock, A. C. (2016). The universal and the particular in psychology and the role of history in explaining both. In Klempe, H. & Smith, R. (Eds), The centrality of history for theory construction in psychology (Annals of Theoretical Psychology, Volume 14, pp. 29-46). New York: Springer.

Brock, A. C. (2016). The future of the history of psychology revisited. History of Psychology, 19 (3), 175-191.

Brock, A. C. (2015). Presentism and diversity in the history of psychology. Psychological Studies, 60 (4), 373-379.

Bock, A. C. (2015). The history of psychological objects. In J. Martin, J. Sugarman & K. L. Slaney (Eds.), Wiley handbook of theoretical and philosophical psychology: methods, approaches, and new directions for social sciences (pp. 151-165). Oxford: Wiley.

Brock, A. C. & Harvey, M. (2015). The status of the history of psychology course in British and Irish psychology departments. European Yearbook of the History of Psychology, 1, 13-36.

Brock, A. C. (2014). Psychology in the modern sense. Theory & Psychology, 24 (5), 717-722.

Brock, A. C. (2014). What is a polycentric history of psychology? Estudos e Pesquisas em Psicologia, 14 (2), 646-659.

Brock, A. C. (2014). History of psychology. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of critical psychology (pp. 872-878). New York: Springer.

Brock, A. C. (2013). The history of introspection revisited. In J. W. Clegg (Ed.), Self-observation in the social sciences (pp. 25-43). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction.

Brock, A. C. (2012). Ireland. In D. B. Baker (Ed.), Oxford handbook of the history of psychology (pp. 289-306). New York: Oxford University Press.

Brock, A. C. (2012). Kurt Danziger. In R. W. Rieber (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the history of psychological theories (Part 4, pp. 142-143). New York: Springer.

Brock, A. C. (2011). Psychology's path towards a “mature science”: An examination of the myths. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 31 (4), 250-257.

Brock, A. C. (2011). Why history of psychology is going global. The Psychologist, 24 (2), 150-151.

Brock, A. C. (Ed.) (2006). Internationalizing the history of psychology. New York: New York University Press. Reissued in paperback in 2009.

Brock, A. C. (2006). Rediscovering the history of psychology: Interview with Kurt Danziger. History of Psychology, 9 (1), 1-16.

Brock, A. C., Louw. J. & van Hoorn, W. (Eds.) (2004). Rediscovering the history of psychology: Essays inspired by the work of Kurt Danziger. New York: Springer.