Exploring the universality of personality judgments: Evidence from the great transformation (1000 BCE–200 BCE).

We examined whether personality judgments were present in texts of the diverse religious and philosophical traditions that emerged during the Great Transformation, an era spanning roughly 1000 BCE to 200 BCE. Some psychologists have suggested that the tendency of humans to judge personality has evolved; if some ancient societies failed to record personality judgments, it would be evidence against such an evolutionary position. In addition, learning about the prevalence and specifics of ancient personality judgments can help psychologists better understand the prehistory of personality psychology. Eight cultural traditions were studied: two each from China (Confucianism, Taoism), Greece (Classical and Hellenistic philosophy), India (Buddhism, Hinduism), and the Middle East (Judaism, Zoroastrianism). We found evidence that personality judgments were an important aspect of all of these traditions. Not only did people judge one another, but they also offered instructions on how to judge others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching psychology to jurists: Initiatives and reactions prior to World War I.

This article deals with the kind of psychology suggested for jurists that was thought to be necessary training for their work. An analysis of the content of two textbooks by Otto Lipmann and Karl Marbe reveals that such teaching activity involves two different levels of historical analysis. On the one hand, it relates to experimental research done by psychologists on law-related issues; on the other, it concerns the professional experience psychologists accumulated by acting as expert witnesses in court. The paper investigates how psychologists presented psychology to jurists, which methods and theories they suggested as being essential for juristic training and professional performance, and whether jurists appreciated these materials and efforts. These inquiries are embedded in the debate on the history of criminal psychology, taking into account the European, particularly the German, context. The author shows how specific historical developments led to an increased exchange between experimental psychology and criminal law during the first decades of the 20th century. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Psychology in Latin America": Errata.

Reports an error in the original article by Ruben Ardila (American Psychologist, 1968[Aug], 23[8], 567-574). The next to the last sentence in the first column on page 573 should read "In Table 5 I have listed 39 Latin American journals of psychology." On page 568 of the same article corrections for Table 1 are noted, and the corrected Table 1 listing the number of South American psychologists in 1941 and 1968 is given. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1969-01690-001.) Psychology in Latin America began as a practical discipline related to medicine, education, and philosophy. Scientific psychology started in 1898 with the foundation of the 1st laboratory of experimental psychology in Buenos Aires. Today there are departments of psychology in the majority of the Latin American countries, the main areas of interests being clinical psychology, cross-cultural research, psychometrics, operant conditioning, etc. Clinical psychology is growing as a profession, and in most of the countries there are professional associations of psychologists. Most psychological journals are devoted to general and applied psychology. Research and its applications are in progress, showing that psychology is a growing science and profession in Latin America. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modern history of pragmatic and sentimental attitudes toward animals and the selling of comparative psychology.

The philosophical extremes of Michel de Montaigne and René Descartes regarding animals are contrasted with the more moderate position of Charles Darwin. Tensions between extreme and more moderate positions are traced from Montaigne and Descartes through late 19th and early 20th century popular magazine articles written by eminent psychologists. Popular magazine articles helped shape public awareness of comparative psychology and created an important climate of expectation about what the new discipline could accomplish. In view of recent threats to comparative psychology, it may be necessary for animal researchers to follow the lead of pioneer psychologists and go to the public through the popular press to argue that a moderate philosophy is in the best interest of humans, animals, and the future of comparative psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hermeneutics and psychology: A review and dialectical model.

The authors encourage psychologists to transcend the simple but often made a contrast of quantitative and qualitative epistemologies by reissuing a call to consider a hermeneutical realist perspective. The authors recognize that such calls are not new and have largely gone unheeded in the past, perhaps because of how a more radical hermeneutical perspective has been conceptualized and communicated. Rooted in P. Ricoeur's (1981) philosophy of distanciation, the authors propose a dialectic of understanding and explanation that values both quantitative and qualitative methodologies by (a) tracing the philosophical development of hermeneutics as a paradigm for knowing, (b) demonstrating useful hermeneutical applications to psychology as a whole and to some specific subdisciplines, and (c) illustrating how a hermeneutic realist approach is beneficial to the multicultural study of virtue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is psychology ready to disregard philosophies of science?

Criticized B. B. Wolman's (see record 1972-20015-001) recommendation to psychologists to disregard the philosophy of science. Wolman erroneously assumes that a generally agreed upon philosophy of science exists. The philosophical problems of psychology are similar to the problems confronting other sciences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Free Will Versus Determinism.

Comments on an article by Rolland Waters (see record 1959-07228-001). The commentator states that this article has motivated him to make an observation about another situation which some persons perceive as a dilemma in psychology. He refers to the paradox of free will versus determinism in human behavior. The commentator states that the fact that some persons are still disturbed by the free will-determinism paradox is evidence that philosophical thinking in psychology is still somewhat confused. This would not be the case if psychological thinking was completely operational as most psychologists claim it should be. The bewilderment when faced with this apparent paradox is simply a function of language and not of human behavior. The commentator states that what we are doing is to employ two modes of thought or frames of reference simultaneously where this cannot be done. Lastly, the commentator admits that he may be incorrect in assuming that psychologists in general are not aware of this philosophical interpretation. However, the fact that the free will determinism paradox is still cited in many current works reinforces his belief. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling psychology in clinical health psychology: The impact of specialty perspective.

Not all clinical health psychologists are trained as clinical psychologists. A significant minority is trained and identifies as counseling psychologists. As a field, it is important to understand how the specialty-specific values, training context, scholarship, and parameters of practice of counseling psychology contribute to clinical health psychology. In this article, we (a) identify the core values and training context of counseling psychology, (b) review the scholarly history of clinical health psychology by counseling psychologists, (c) present the parameters of practice of clinical health psychology as identified from the extant counseling psychology literature, and (d) examine American Psychological Association membership status to investigate joint membership in the Division of Health Psychology and the Society of Counseling Psychology. Conclusions indicate that (a) an identifiable set of core values guides the training of counseling psychologists, (b) scholarly literature by counseling psychologists has contributed to the growth and development of clinical health psychology, and (c) parameters of practice reflect the specialty-specific perspective of counseling psychology. As professional psychology continues to grow as a health care profession, clinical health psychology will benefit from the knowledge, values, attitudes, competencies, and practice parameters of counseling psychology, and counseling psychology will benefit from recognizing what it brings to the practice of clinical health psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Methods of theoretical psychology.

Reviews the book, Methods of theoretical psychology by André Kukla (see record 2001-18914-000). This comprehensive survey of the tools of theoretical psychology is the culmination of the author's previous writings (e.g., Kukla 1989, 1995) wherein he tried to "convince psychologists that our discipline had suffered from a gross and systematic underestimation of the scope, variety, and import of theoretical work" and "persuade my colleagues that there are many important theoretical issues the resolution of which does not call for empirical research" (p. xi). This is not a book in theoretical psychology (the author cites as examples the volumes by Marx and Hillix, and Wolman), but a book about theoretical psychology, the "types of theoretical activities" that "require nothing but thinking" (p. xi). Notable is the book's epigraph, a quotation from Jerry Fodor claiming that the distinction between psychological and philosophical theorizing is merely heuristic, and issuing the moral challenge for a plurality of argument styles that transcends disciplines. For Kukla has written a book about the logic of science, or what was traditionally referred to as the philosophy of science, and, as might be expected, examples are strewn throughout from the natural sciences as well as some classic theoretical problems in psychology, most notably, cognitive science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theoretical and philosophical issues in industrial/organizational psychology.

In preparing to address the question posed to the various divisions regarding the extent and character of theoretical and philosophical concerns in the various areas of psychology, I informally solicited input from about 20 Division 14 members. Almost without exception I received the same response: the observation that philosophical issues are not central to the daily activities of most I/O psychologists. After a bit more thought, most were able to identify areas or issues within I/O psychology to which philosophical issues are relevant. In the comments which follow, I will make no attempt to be systematic or complete in presenting the philosophical/theoretical issues facing I/O psychology. I will present examples of different types of issues facing the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some theoretical & philosophical aspects of educational psychology.

The author was invited to discuss "the extent and character of the theoretical and philosophical aspects" of educational psychology. His own work in educational psychology, however, is concerned primarily with research methodology, measurement, and statistical analyses as applied in educational research methods, and his major tie to philosophy has been in the philosophy of science. Therefore, he touches on topics such as behaviorism, logical positivism, cause-and-effect relationships, objectivity and subjectivity, relationships among variables, and Evolutionary Critical-Realism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Realms of value: A critique of human civilization.

Reviews the book, Realms of value: A critique of human civilization by Ralph Barton Perry (1954). According to the reviewer, of all the many philosophical treatises on the subject, it is doubtful that any could possibly be more clarifying to the psychologist or more congenial to this author's taste. The author's pivotal concept is interest: "A thing--any thing--has value when it is the object of an interest--any interest" (p.3). Interest is anchored in the solid soil of motivation, cognition, and organization of personality, and conceptually is a close cousin of what most psychologists call attitude. The reviewer states that to a large degree, this author is forced to write his own psychology, since he finds relatively little illumination of "the architecture of interests" in current texts. He reviews what he calls "motoraffective psychology" (not a very happy label) in search of an adequate theory of interest, and finds the outcome mostly negative. The reviewer recommends this book for graduate instruction in psychology because the author's system lies close to the silent presuppositions with while psychologists ordinarily work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some comments on psychology and psychophysics.

Historically the development of psychophysical procedures was instrumental in fostering the growth of psychology and its emergence as a discipline separate from philosophy. At the present time, while psychophysical studies are still performed extensively, there has been a diminution of interest in them among psychologists and a misunderstanding of them among some other disciplines. The article discusses some of the problems faced by the psychologist engaged in psychophysical research. It is argued that there are two major areas of difficulty that are apparent. The first is the trend away from a psychological framework for psychophysics and the second is ignorance about sensory psychology and the methods it uses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

You say you had a revolution: Methodological foundations of closed-loop psychology.

To the extent that a scientific revolution represents a fundamental change in a discipline, the cognitive revolution in psychology was not particularly revolutionary. What changed least in this revolution was methodology. The experimental methods used in cognitive psychology are the same as those used in the behaviorism it overthrew. This methodological continuity results from the fact that both behaviorism and cognitive psychology are based on the same paradigm, which is also the basis of experimental psychology: the open-loop causal model of behavioral organization. A truly revolutionary approach to understanding the mind has been largely ignored because it is built on a paradigm that is inconsistent with conventional research methods. This new approach to psychology, called Perceptual Control Theory (PCT), is based on a closed-loop control model of behavioral organization that is tested using control engineering methods that are unfamiliar to most psychologists. This paper introduces the methodological foundations of closed-loop psychology, explains why the closed-loop revolution has not happened yet, and suggests what psychology might look like after the revolution has occurred. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The experimenter effect.

Recent investigations in experimental psychology have shown somewhat striking results which indicate that Es may and do influence their data. This problem was considered in relation to the areas of: experimental, counseling, and testing psychology. A historical review revealed that although the influence of E has been generally acknowledged, an unconcerned attitude towards this phenomenon has been taken, especially by experimental psychologists. Counseling psychology has been most concerned with the experimenter effect because this is closely related to the counseling situation. Workers in this area have not only recognized but have attempted to manipulate E influence. In the field of testing, investigators have reported significant variability in Ss' performances as a result of E characteristics. (42 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Philosophy of psychology.

Reviews the book, Philosophy of psychology by Daniel N. Robinson (see record 1985-97596-000). In this book, Robinson offers what might be considered to be four essays in the philosophy of mind. In these essays he has set out to clarify some rather fundamental concepts operative within the mainstream of psychology, and he brings to bear on these the conceptual machinery of philosophical psychology proper. That is, he asks foundational, or meta-psychological, questions about the reigning assumptions in the field. These questions fall into four general areas, or sub-themes, within psychology as a whole, each topic being taken in a separate chapter. These topics will be explored briefly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The challenge from biology to cognitive science.

Concepts from cognitive science have largely replaced behaviorist concepts as the primary explanatory tools of contemporary psychology. However, cognitive science is not without its critics and shortcomings. It would therefore be a mistake for psychologists to uncritically accept cognitive science as it uncritically accepted the logical positivism that undergirded behaviorism for so many decades. Effective philosophical criticisms of cognitive science have been offered by Searle (1980) and Dreyfus (1979). In this paper I will present difficulties with cognitive science that arise from the science of biology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Division 36: Psychologists Interested in Religious Issues.

As is true for most small divisions, membership in PIRI overlaps with membership in all other APA divisions. Thus, our members include hardcore experimentalists teaching in Christian colleges, social psychologists focusing on research in the psychology of religion, pastoral counselors, transpersonal psychologists, religiously-committed psychologists attempting to integrate psychology and theology, and numerous others. Our roots lie in the American Catholic Psychological Association; our branches point to religion in all its forms. Our common commitment is to the assertion that religion is a critical psychological variable. Examples are given of our theoretical and philosophical interests, including (1) Philosophy of Science; (2) Anthropologies/Theories of Human Nature; (3) Spiritual or Religious Development; (4) Psychology, Politics, and Ethics; (5) Religion as a Significant Psychological Variable; and (6) Critique of Psychological Theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Opinions about industrial psychology by different groups of psychologists.

"In general, the findings provide a partial sketch of how industrial psychology is perceived and evaluated by different groups of psychologists. The most common criticism is that industrial psychology is not sufficiently concerned with its ties to basic psychology… . In addition, serious questions are raised concerning the areas of research that are emphasized or slighted, the professional qualifications of many practitioners, tendencies to offer psychological judgments that reach beyond scientific results, frequent overselling of industrial applications, and an excessive accent on the practical in training industrial psychologists. Many psychologists also charge that industrial psychology is too management oriented, that it operates too much within a management frame of reference… . Finally, it should be noted that our results reveal wide differences of opinion among the psychologists questioned, not only between the industrial psychologists and the other professional groups but strikingly also within the ranks of each group." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)