ABSTRACT
Contextualism is being looked to as a framework within which psychology may advance, stripped of needless mechanism and needless philosophical inconsistencies. An examination of contextualistic writings leads quickly to two conclusions, however, both of which present problems for this progressive construction of the current situation. First, contextualism is not new. American psychology began with a very heavy contextualistic emphasis due to the early influence of James, Pierce, Dewey, and others. Second, there are many contextualistic approaches, each with very different perspectives. It is not yet clear that these different contextualists can even talk with each other effectively.
