Pub Date : 2022-11-21DOI: 10.1177/09593543221131782
Tim Newton
This article argues that the same epistemological assumptions cannot be confidently applied in the transition from the biological to the social arenas of psychology, as a consequence of the sociocultural instability resulting from human linguistic and technological flair. To illustrate this contention, reference is made to historicist theses within critical and sociocultural psychology, the work of Ian Hacking and Norbert Elias, the centrality of language and technology to sociocultural instability, and the illustrative issues raised by cultural neuroscience and replication studies.
{"title":"Psychology: Where history, culture, and biology meet","authors":"Tim Newton","doi":"10.1177/09593543221131782","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543221131782","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that the same epistemological assumptions cannot be confidently applied in the transition from the biological to the social arenas of psychology, as a consequence of the sociocultural instability resulting from human linguistic and technological flair. To illustrate this contention, reference is made to historicist theses within critical and sociocultural psychology, the work of Ian Hacking and Norbert Elias, the centrality of language and technology to sociocultural instability, and the illustrative issues raised by cultural neuroscience and replication studies.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"33 1","pages":"3 - 23"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42008569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-25DOI: 10.1177/09593543221127985
M. Borgstede, F. Eggert
Psychometrics builds on the fundamental premise that psychological attributes are unobservable and need to be inferred from observable behavior. Consequently, psychometric procedures consist primarily in applying latent variable modeling, which statistically relates latent variables to manifest variables. However, latent variable modeling falls short of providing a theoretically sound definition of psychological attributes. Whereas in a pragmatic interpretation of latent variable modeling latent variables cannot represent psychological attributes at all, a realist interpretation of latent variable modeling implies that latent variables are empty placeholders for unknown attributes. The authors argue that psychological attributes can only be identified if they are defined within the context of substantive formal theory. Building on the structuralist view of scientific theories, they show that any successful application of such a theory necessarily produces specific values for the theoretical terms that are defined within the theory. Therefore, substantive formal theory is both necessary and sufficient for psychological measurement.
{"title":"Squaring the circle: From latent variables to theory-based measurement","authors":"M. Borgstede, F. Eggert","doi":"10.1177/09593543221127985","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543221127985","url":null,"abstract":"Psychometrics builds on the fundamental premise that psychological attributes are unobservable and need to be inferred from observable behavior. Consequently, psychometric procedures consist primarily in applying latent variable modeling, which statistically relates latent variables to manifest variables. However, latent variable modeling falls short of providing a theoretically sound definition of psychological attributes. Whereas in a pragmatic interpretation of latent variable modeling latent variables cannot represent psychological attributes at all, a realist interpretation of latent variable modeling implies that latent variables are empty placeholders for unknown attributes. The authors argue that psychological attributes can only be identified if they are defined within the context of substantive formal theory. Building on the structuralist view of scientific theories, they show that any successful application of such a theory necessarily produces specific values for the theoretical terms that are defined within the theory. Therefore, substantive formal theory is both necessary and sufficient for psychological measurement.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"33 1","pages":"118 - 137"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49509880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-18DOI: 10.1177/09593543221131271
Michiel Meijer
This review essay describes, analyzes, and evaluates Kevin R. Smith’s two supplementary short books, The Ethical Visions of Psychotherapy (2021) and Therapeutic Ethics in Context and in Dialogue (2021). It describes the main purpose of the books—to develop the idea of therapeutic ethics—summarizes the content, analyzes Smith’s main approach and goals, and evaluates his success in developing therapeutic ethics. The main recommendation is that, while Smith builds on Charles Taylor’s work in illuminating ways, there are yet further resources available in Taylor’s philosophy for developing therapeutic ethics in more detail.
{"title":"Making therapy more transparent: On Kevin R. Smith’s therapeutic ethics","authors":"Michiel Meijer","doi":"10.1177/09593543221131271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543221131271","url":null,"abstract":"This review essay describes, analyzes, and evaluates Kevin R. Smith’s two supplementary short books, The Ethical Visions of Psychotherapy (2021) and Therapeutic Ethics in Context and in Dialogue (2021). It describes the main purpose of the books—to develop the idea of therapeutic ethics—summarizes the content, analyzes Smith’s main approach and goals, and evaluates his success in developing therapeutic ethics. The main recommendation is that, while Smith builds on Charles Taylor’s work in illuminating ways, there are yet further resources available in Taylor’s philosophy for developing therapeutic ethics in more detail.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"33 1","pages":"424 - 432"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47694556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-13DOI: 10.1177/09593543221126950
Vinicius Coscioni, M. P. Paixão, M. Teixeira
This article introduces a theoretical model of projects in motivated behavior. It begins with the discussion of two theoretical traditions that conceived a project as either an anticipation of action or a set of actions aimed at the same goals. The limitations of both traditions are discussed, and a project is then conceived as an integration of internal processes and actions. Next, a theoretical model of projects is presented, comprising cognitive, motivational, volitional, emotional, and behavioral components. A framework interrelating the different components of the model is presented. Considering the framework introduced, a project is then defined as a process comprising the formation, enactment, and maintenance of intentional structures and actions. The definition is comprehensive because it integrates both the previous theoretical traditions of the project in order to overcome the limitations of both. The applications of the new approach in existential theories and management sciences are discussed.
{"title":"A theoretical model of projects in motivated behavior","authors":"Vinicius Coscioni, M. P. Paixão, M. Teixeira","doi":"10.1177/09593543221126950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543221126950","url":null,"abstract":"This article introduces a theoretical model of projects in motivated behavior. It begins with the discussion of two theoretical traditions that conceived a project as either an anticipation of action or a set of actions aimed at the same goals. The limitations of both traditions are discussed, and a project is then conceived as an integration of internal processes and actions. Next, a theoretical model of projects is presented, comprising cognitive, motivational, volitional, emotional, and behavioral components. A framework interrelating the different components of the model is presented. Considering the framework introduced, a project is then defined as a process comprising the formation, enactment, and maintenance of intentional structures and actions. The definition is comprehensive because it integrates both the previous theoretical traditions of the project in order to overcome the limitations of both. The applications of the new approach in existential theories and management sciences are discussed.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"33 1","pages":"59 - 77"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41373666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-13DOI: 10.1177/09593543221128231
A. Sköld
This article outlines a social ontology of grief. With the point of departure in a relational understanding of subjectivity and an intergenerational notion of death awareness, the author develops a nonessentialist and nonpathological understanding of the experience of losing part of oneself following the death of another. Losing part of oneself refers, on the one hand, to a shattered subject trying to understand and come to terms with the death of another and a shared lifeworld that is irremediably altered. On the other hand, the partiality of this loss implies that the surviving person is forced to struggle with the quandaries of living on. Thus, a social ontology of grief captures the irreducible and painful aspects related to the loss of significant others, as well as the ethical predicaments related to continued existence, which are not exempt from possibilities and hope.
{"title":"A social ontology of grief","authors":"A. Sköld","doi":"10.1177/09593543221128231","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543221128231","url":null,"abstract":"This article outlines a social ontology of grief. With the point of departure in a relational understanding of subjectivity and an intergenerational notion of death awareness, the author develops a nonessentialist and nonpathological understanding of the experience of losing part of oneself following the death of another. Losing part of oneself refers, on the one hand, to a shattered subject trying to understand and come to terms with the death of another and a shared lifeworld that is irremediably altered. On the other hand, the partiality of this loss implies that the surviving person is forced to struggle with the quandaries of living on. Thus, a social ontology of grief captures the irreducible and painful aspects related to the loss of significant others, as well as the ethical predicaments related to continued existence, which are not exempt from possibilities and hope.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"33 1","pages":"24 - 41"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43754057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-13DOI: 10.1177/09593543221129235
Haris Psaros
In this article, I attempt to critically reflect on sociomaterial approaches to learning, especially as it is conducted with digital technologies. By pursuing detailed ethnographic case studies, these approaches argue for the active character of digital technologies in the constitution of learning. More specifically, digital technologies are treated in this paradigm as co-participants—along with humans—in the formation of learning practices. Despite their invaluable empirical insights, I suggest that these approaches do not adequately emphasize the transformative potential of learners and do not conceptualize learning from the perspective of human development. In addition, I propose that, apart from empirically based research, which is the preferred mode of research of sociomaterial approaches, there is also a need for categorical thinking to conceptualize the mediation of learning by digital technologies. In my critical reflection, I draw on scholars working in the traditions of cultural-historical theory and activity theory, and on materialist dialectics more generally
{"title":"Learning, digital technologies, and sociomaterial approaches: A critical reflection from the perspective of materialist dialectics","authors":"Haris Psaros","doi":"10.1177/09593543221129235","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543221129235","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I attempt to critically reflect on sociomaterial approaches to learning, especially as it is conducted with digital technologies. By pursuing detailed ethnographic case studies, these approaches argue for the active character of digital technologies in the constitution of learning. More specifically, digital technologies are treated in this paradigm as co-participants—along with humans—in the formation of learning practices. Despite their invaluable empirical insights, I suggest that these approaches do not adequately emphasize the transformative potential of learners and do not conceptualize learning from the perspective of human development. In addition, I propose that, apart from empirically based research, which is the preferred mode of research of sociomaterial approaches, there is also a need for categorical thinking to conceptualize the mediation of learning by digital technologies. In my critical reflection, I draw on scholars working in the traditions of cultural-historical theory and activity theory, and on materialist dialectics more generally","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"32 1","pages":"827 - 847"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46972492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-01DOI: 10.1177/09593543221104734
G. Wackers, Marthe Schille-Rognmo
Mental health surveys of general populations use psychometric instruments derived from psychiatric symptom checklists and assessment scales. Mental health surveys of this type have become so ubiquitous and influential that the psychometric methods that are at the heart of them seem to be beyond reproach. Are these the right tools to do the job of capturing the minds of general populations? This article pursues a critical assessment of psychometric instruments embedded in mental health surveys through a historical reconstruction of the major epistemic shifts in the investigative practices through which these psychometric instruments developed. The reconstruction traces a strong influence of physics and physicists’ notion of fundamental measurement of quantities on psychologists’ attempts to measure mental phenomena. Surveys employing these instruments inherit unresolved methodological issues from their psychophysical predecessors: problems of causal inference from mathematical abstractions (correlations) and reification of mental entities from theoretical concepts.
{"title":"Capturing minds: Towards a methods critique of questionnaire-based mental health surveys","authors":"G. Wackers, Marthe Schille-Rognmo","doi":"10.1177/09593543221104734","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543221104734","url":null,"abstract":"Mental health surveys of general populations use psychometric instruments derived from psychiatric symptom checklists and assessment scales. Mental health surveys of this type have become so ubiquitous and influential that the psychometric methods that are at the heart of them seem to be beyond reproach. Are these the right tools to do the job of capturing the minds of general populations? This article pursues a critical assessment of psychometric instruments embedded in mental health surveys through a historical reconstruction of the major epistemic shifts in the investigative practices through which these psychometric instruments developed. The reconstruction traces a strong influence of physics and physicists’ notion of fundamental measurement of quantities on psychologists’ attempts to measure mental phenomena. Surveys employing these instruments inherit unresolved methodological issues from their psychophysical predecessors: problems of causal inference from mathematical abstractions (correlations) and reification of mental entities from theoretical concepts.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"32 1","pages":"754 - 776"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46037608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-01Epub Date: 2022-06-22DOI: 10.1177/09593543221095079
Clara Bergen, Lisa Bortolotti, Katherine Tallent, Matthew Broome, Michael Larkin, Rachel Temple, Catherine Fadashe, Carmen Lee, Michele C Lim, Rose McCabe
When young people seek support from mental health care practitioners, the encounters may affect the young people's sense of self, and in particular undermine their sense of agency. For this study, an interdisciplinary team of academics and young people collaboratively analysed video-recorded encounters between young people and mental healthcare practitioners in emergency services. They identified five communication techniques that practitioners can use to avoid undermining the young person's sense of agency in the clinical encounter. They conceptualise the use of those techniques as the adoption of an agential stance towards the young person. The agential stance consists of: (a) validating the young person's experiences, (b) legitimising the young person's choice to seek help, (c) refraining from objectifying the young person, (d) affirming the young person's capacity to contribute to positive change, and (e) involving the young person in the decision-making process.
{"title":"Communication in youth mental health clinical encounters: Introducing the agential stance.","authors":"Clara Bergen, Lisa Bortolotti, Katherine Tallent, Matthew Broome, Michael Larkin, Rachel Temple, Catherine Fadashe, Carmen Lee, Michele C Lim, Rose McCabe","doi":"10.1177/09593543221095079","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09593543221095079","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When young people seek support from mental health care practitioners, the encounters may affect the young people's sense of self, and in particular undermine their sense of agency. For this study, an interdisciplinary team of academics and young people collaboratively analysed video-recorded encounters between young people and mental healthcare practitioners in emergency services. They identified five communication techniques that practitioners can use to avoid undermining the young person's sense of agency in the clinical encounter. They conceptualise the use of those techniques as the adoption of an agential stance towards the young person. The agential stance consists of: (a) validating the young person's experiences, (b) legitimising the young person's choice to seek help, (c) refraining from objectifying the young person, (d) affirming the young person's capacity to contribute to positive change, and (e) involving the young person in the decision-making process.</p>","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"32 5","pages":"667-690"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9445400/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33459428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-21DOI: 10.1177/09593543221122735
Fabian Hutmacher
Over recent years, several publications have drawn attention to the fact that mainstream psychology has neglected cross-temporal variability and the historicity of the human psyche. One of the early proponents of a historical perspective on psychological matters is German psychologist Gerd Jüttemann. Despite his pioneer work and his continued publication efforts from the 1980s until today, his ideas have largely been ignored by the academic discourse, both inside and outside Germany. The question is: Why? Based on a brief overview of his writings, this article argues that it was not (only) a result of Jüttemann being at odds with the zeitgeist, but was also caused by conceptual problems as well as practical obstacles. Understanding why historical psychology remained at the brink of the academic discipline can help contemporary scholars to develop a perspective on the historicity of the human psyche that has a better chance to be heard.
{"title":"Gerd Jüttemann’s “historical psychology”: Why it should have succeeded, why it was ignored, and what that means for the future","authors":"Fabian Hutmacher","doi":"10.1177/09593543221122735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543221122735","url":null,"abstract":"Over recent years, several publications have drawn attention to the fact that mainstream psychology has neglected cross-temporal variability and the historicity of the human psyche. One of the early proponents of a historical perspective on psychological matters is German psychologist Gerd Jüttemann. Despite his pioneer work and his continued publication efforts from the 1980s until today, his ideas have largely been ignored by the academic discourse, both inside and outside Germany. The question is: Why? Based on a brief overview of his writings, this article argues that it was not (only) a result of Jüttemann being at odds with the zeitgeist, but was also caused by conceptual problems as well as practical obstacles. Understanding why historical psychology remained at the brink of the academic discipline can help contemporary scholars to develop a perspective on the historicity of the human psyche that has a better chance to be heard.","PeriodicalId":47640,"journal":{"name":"Theory & Psychology","volume":"32 1","pages":"868 - 887"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45210614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}