Response to book reviews: Relating to my reviewers.

Responds to the reviews by K. O'Doherty (see record 2011-04026-005) and J. W. Clegg (see record 2011-04026-006) of the current author's book, Relational being: Beyond self and community (see record 2009-10534-000). One of my chief reactions to the resistances represented in these reviews is that the volume failed to make clear a vision of how we might go on together in the academic world where different viewpoints dominate. To elaborate: both reviewers take issue with my relational account in terms of its seeming dismissal or eradication of cherished concepts—including for Clegg, personal experience, genuine selfknowledge, and independent moral agency; and for O’Doherty, individual awareness, agency, and causality. In a certain sense their resistances are justified. My account raises critical concerns with such concepts, and in certain cases offers a radical reconceptualization. Both reviewers also suggest that these are questions of fundamental ontology, and offer arguments against what they see as my faulty foundations. However, as I tried to explain in the work, I approach theory development from a social constructionist perspective. This means replacing the traditional goal of the theorist to “tell the truth” about the world, with the attempt to generate an intelligibility that may foster different—and possibly more viable—forms of life. In effect, I am not attempting to articulate a final philosophy; I neither propose nor wish to argue ontology. From a constructionist perspective such arguments are futile; on what grounds other than those we construct could we settle such differences? Now to be fair, both Clegg and O’Doherty recognize this constructionist background, and my attempt to avoid eliminating alternative traditions or conceptions. However, this recognition does not deter them from returning to questions of fundamentals; they seem to want a knock-down conflict in which “justified true belief” will win out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religious experience and psychological conflict.

"I shall center my attention upon the constructive aspects of the profounder variety of psychological conflict to which we give the name of 'schizophrenia.' I shall submit and defend the position that psychological conflict, even in its schizophrenic manifestations, has religious significance." There are "forms of mental illness which are manifestations of healing power analogous to fever or inflammation of the body." An illustrative case history is presented. "Fundamental mental disorder is best understood as an attempt to deal with an intolerable sense of personal failure and guilt… . Other things being equal, the outcome of an acute schizophrenic episode is likely to be constructive insofar as it represents an honest attempt on the part of the patient to grapple with his real difficulties… . In order to understand either mental disorder or religious experience, the one should be studied in the light of the other." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response to Dr. Gallup on animal rights.

This article responds to Dr. Gallup's comments on animal rights. We are not yet ready to discuss whether animals have rights as long as we cannot give a better account of why human persons have rights than the account offered by Dr. Gallup. He thinks that persons have rights only if we say they do. I claim that we have rights for a very different and far more rational reason, namely because we are persons. We say we have rights not to create them but to register the existence of rights which we had before we said anything on the subject. Rights are social in the sense that they can be respected or violated only by another person. But they are not social in the sense that they are conferred by a social consensus. As soon as one person encounters another, the rights of each become actual, and this whether the rights are socially recognized and vindicated or not; for they emerge necessarily as a result of the fact that it is two persons who encounter each other. The only way Dr. Gallup can resist my position is to maintain that there are no persons in reality, but that a being is a person only if we say so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Art, wellness, and innovation: Heads up Kentucky! Puts psychology's contribution to healthy living in the public eye.

The Kentucky Psychological Association (KPA) Foundation is an organization that 2 years ago had little name recognition in its community or the state. In the past year, the KPA Foundation has contributed a major public art project to the city in which it resides, enhanced its financial assets, introduced educational material on the mind-body connection to public forums across the community, been the subject of feature articles in some of the community's major publications, taken health promotion curriculum to public elementary schools, and achieved national recognition for its public education campaign. This article describes the successful "Heads Up Kentucky!" campaign and the mobilization of the membership in the state's psychological association to make the fruits of psychological science accessible to members of the public. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unraveling mechanisms for expert object recognition: Bridging brain activity and behavior.

Behavioral sensitivity to object transformations and the response to novel objects (Greebles) in the fusiform face area (FFA) was measured several times during expertise training. Sensitivity to 3 transformations increased with expertise: (a) configural changes in which halves of objects were misaligned, (b) configural changes in which some of the object parts were moved, and (c) the substitution of an object part with a part from a different object. The authors found that holistic-configural effects can arise from object representations that are differentiated in terms of features or parts. Moreover, a holistic-inclusive effect was correlated with changes in the right FFA. Face recognition may not be unique in its reliance on holistic processing, measured in terms of both behavior and brain activation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing recognition memory for surface forms in discourse: A methodological note.

Two different experimental procedures have been advocated for testing recognition memory for surface forms in discourse. One involves using a reversed-text control group that reverses the roles of recognition targets and distractors. Experiments using this procedure have led some researchers to conclude that surface memory is a fairly robust phenomenon. The alternative procedure, which makes use of a no-text (or guessing) control group, has produced inconsistent results, leading other researchers to question the status of surface memory. The goals of this inquiry are to (1) explore the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, (2) assess alternative explanations for the inconsistency between them, and (3) evaluate the available evidence for better-than-chance recognition of surface forms in discourse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Social history, mental health, and community control": Comment.

Criticizes C. Hersch's (see record 1973-02889-001) article on social history, mental health, and community control. Hersch sees the mental health movement as being in a kinship relationship to the other movements of the 1960s, with the mental health movement having an environmental focus. Hersch's premise ignores the social unrest of the 1960s and contains other errors that derive from lack of recognition of the social and political realities of the era. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sollicitation de participation à une enquête par courriel: Effet de la présence sociale de l'attrait physique du demandeur sur le taux de réponse.

Many influence techniques increase response rates to a survey, but these techniques have been tested with face-to-face or telephone surveys. Few studies have tested the effect of compliance techniques in a Computer-Mediated Communication. The personalization of the relationship between the subject solicited and the solicitor as well as the physical attractiveness of the solicitor are factors which have been found to favor compliance to a request in face-to-face situation. Two experiments were carried out in two different situations in which a survey solicitation was sent by e-mail. The presence versus absence of the solicitor's picture in the e-mail and the physical attractiveness of the solicitor were used as independent variables. The results showed that the response rate increased when the solicitor's picure was presented but decreased when the solicitor had a low level of attractiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Taking Practice Seriously: Toward a Relational Ontology.

Mainstream psychologists have not only ignored the unique and radical character of practice; they have generally misunderstood it. A major reason for this ignorance and misunderstanding is mainstream psychology's assumption of a particular ontology--abstractionism. With abstractionism, psychologists have generally assumed that abstractions, such as theories, techniques, and principles, capture and embody the fundamentally real. Most pertinently, abstractions are believed to precede and lay the foundation for good and thoughtful practice. Indeed, practices do not exist, in an important ontological sense, except in relation to the concrete and particular situations and cultures that give rise to them, implying what we might call a relational ontology. The purpose of this article is to explore the possible meanings and implications of a relational ontology for psychology. I first attempt to clarify the important features of relational conceptions in general, distinguishing most importantly between their weak and strong forms. Then, I situate strong or ontological relationality historically by describing its initial embrace and eventual rejection by early scientists. To bring these historical lessons into the present, ontological relationality is next compared to the abstractionist understandings of the real and fundamental in mainstream psychology. These two forms of ontology are then illustrated by exploring their contrasting implications for individual and community identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On twisted coalitions and perverse–narcissistic configurations: From positivistic Oedipal third to an existential relational third: A case study.

The authors discuss 4 verbatim sessions of a treatment of a difficult-to-reach patient who can be said in classical nosology to manifest a perverse narcissistic character configuration. The authors discuss the clinical material seen through 2 different lenses based on the classical and relational paradigms. The therapist, Michael Shoshani, worked in a rather classical psychoanalytic model in which perversion was understood in a 1-person or 1-mind mode. With this lens, perversion is seen as a result of the distorted primal scene in which the child is narcissistically inflated, creating the psychotic-like symbolic equation that the child is the father. The father is annihilated and the unique perverse world is created. In contrast, within the relational perspective, the authors see the intersubjective dynamic of mutually knowing and not knowing as being a paramount theme in the treatment of Mr. A. The known and unknown character that a child possesses of his mother's sexuality creates a potential for a relational third. The perversion is the experience of child and parent mutually feeling a sense of being too full of mutual knowledge and not knowing each other at all, leaving a sense of suffocation and stifled vitality. The relational perspective strives to create a transformation from suffocation and stifled vitality to move to a third place offering potential, thus enabling the enigmatic, seductive encounter of the knowing and not knowing to create a sense of mystery, lying between fact and fiction and between sameness and difference, seducing one to want and be, to love while respecting the given universal boundaries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On resolving the enigma of infantile amnesia.

Historical and current theories of infantile amnesia are examined. To evaluate the viability of these theories, as well as the phenomenon of infantile amnesia itself, a review of memory development from birth through the preschool years is provided, including an overview of relevant perceptual and neurological maturation. In the context of this review, extant theories of infantile amnesia are shown to falter, and it is concluded that infantile amnesia is a chimera of a previously unexplored relationship between the development of a cognitive sense of self and the personalization of event memory. This hypothesis is examined in detail and discussed in the context of related developments in language and social cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Familiarity for associations? A test of the domain dichotomy theory.

Episodic recognition memory is mediated by functionally separable retrieval processes, notably familiarity (a general sense of prior exposure) and recollection (the retrieval of contextual details), whose relative engagement depends partly on the nature of the information being retrieved. Currently, the specific contribution of familiarity to associative recognition memory (where retrieval of the relationships between pairs of stimuli is required) is not clearly understood. In this study, we tested domain dichotomy theory, which predicts that familiarity should contribute more to associative memory when stimuli are similar (within-domain) than when they are distinct (between-domain). Participants studied stimulus pairs, and at test, discriminated intact from rearranged pairs. Stimuli were either within-domain (name–name or image–image pairs) or between-domain (name–image pairs). Across experiments we used 2 different behavioral measures of familiarity based on receiver operating characteristic curves and a modified remember–know procedure. Both experiments provided evidence that familiarity can contribute to associative recognition; however, familiarity was stronger for between-domain pairs, in direct contrast to the domain dichotomy prediction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The therapeutic community and new roles for clinical psychologists.

"The psychologist in the therapeutic community, as in many other settings, does formal class teaching with psychology interns, nurses, psychiatric technicians and other student and staff personnel in such subject areas as psychopathology and group psychotherapy and other group techniques. He also provides community education through talks to lay groups." The psychologist may have an administrative role; as a team member he may have the role of assistant team leader, or of acting team leader in the psychiatrist's absence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ripple effect of personality on social structure: Self-monitoring origins of network brokerage.

Despite growing interest in social network brokerage, its psychological antecedents have been neglected. One possibility is that brokerage relates to self-monitoring personality orientation. High self-monitors, relative to low self-monitors, in adapting their self-presentations to the demands of different groups, may occupy positions as brokers between disconnected social worlds. For 162 Korean expatriate entrepreneurs in a Canadian urban area, the results showed that those high in self-monitoring tended to occupy direct brokerage roles within the Korean community--in terms of their direct acquaintances being unconnected with each other. Those high in self-monitoring also tended to occupy indirect brokerage roles--in terms of the acquaintances of their acquaintances being unconnected with each other. Finally, for recent arrivals, those high in self-monitoring tended to establish ties to a wider range of important non-Korean position holders outside the community. These results (which controlled for strongly significant effects of network size on individuals' brokerage within the community) suggest a ripple effect of self-monitoring on social structure and contribute to a clearer understanding of how personality relates to brokerage at different levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why is psychoanalysis so controversial? Notes from left field!

Psychoanalysis is defined as a method and as an ontology of mental life. Its controversies are discussed both in terms of those within the discipline and in terms of the attacks on its scientificity by the proponents of "normal science" (analytico-referential or logical-empiricist). It is argued that the discoveries achieved by the free-associative method call into question the metaphysical assumptions on which all "normal science" is constructed. By showing that human consciousness is composed contradictorily of two dimensionalities of meaningfulness (semiosis and desire), psychoanalytic method challenges the axioms of a centered or unified rational subject that can aspire to formulate univocal "truths" about the self and its world. Our discipline thereby insists on a new notion of truth and of the knowing subject's relation to its own being. It is suggested that psychoanalysis is thus a "revolutionary science," in ways that have yet to be fully comprehended, and its method implies a critique of the underlying precepts of all mainstream psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A view from the Hill: The human element in policy making on Capitol Hill.

This article examines the process of federal policy making from the perspective of a community psychologist currently working as a congressional staff member. The author describes Capitol Hill as a unique community with its own inhabitants, rules, norms, and social processes. It is only by understanding this culture that members of Congress, staff, lobbyists, scientists, or anyone else hoping to influence the policy process can be effective in shaping legislation. Similarly, the activities in which members of Congress must engage to best understand and represent their constituencies are described as being analogous to those in which ecologically minded community psychologists engage. The primary purpose of this article is to help social scientists understand the policy-making process and the role they can play in influencing that process. It is hoped that the emphasis on the human element will make the process seem less mystifying and more open to influence by scientists who would not ordinarily become involved in federal policy making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The positive aspects of being a lesbian or gay man.

The need to provide culturally competent training for counseling gay men and lesbians (as well as other sexual minorities) is limited by the relative scarcity of research. Extant research has focused on psychopathologies and negative life experiences with little attention to the positive aspects of the lives of gay men and lesbians. An online survey collected data on perceptions of the positive aspects of being a gay man or lesbian (N = 553). Qualitative analyses revealed 3 domains with 11 themes. The positive aspects of gay or lesbian identity were belonging to a community, creating families of choice, forging strong connections with others, serving as positive role models, developing empathy and compassion, living authentically and honestly, gaining personal insight and sense of self, involvement in social justice and activism, freedom from gender-specific roles, exploring sexuality and relationships, and enjoying egalitarian relationships (lesbian participants only). These findings are discussed in light of recent literature on positive psychology and strength-based therapeutic approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Minority subcultures and the law of effect.

Summarizes research concerning the operation of the law of effect with economically disadvantaged children, defined as the children of families in the lowest 15% of the population in terms of income and parental educational achievement. It is hypothesized that children of this lower-lower economic group on the average show different kinds of learning behavior than children of the upper-lower and the middle-class groups. This difference is largely due to the differences in reinforcement received from the family, peer group, and teachers. A theory of the evolution of reward-punishment in humans is presented with the reward-punishment system being different in different social class and ethnic subcultures. There are 4 sequential types of reward-punishment: (a) satisfaction or deprivation of physical-physiological appetites, (b) praise or disapproval from persons, (c) approval or disapproval from the superego, and (d) approval or disapproval from the ego. Evidence indicates that economically disadvantaged children generally move up this scale more slowly than other children. Therefore effective teachers will employ different forms of reward-punishment for different groups of children, in terms of their positions on the scale of reward-punishment. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenic short-term memory: A deficit in subjective organization.

24 schizophrenic and 24 normal Ss received 3 trials on each of 2 lists of trigrams, 1 being for recognition and the other for recall. 1/2 of the Ss received special instructions for alphabetical ordering of the recall terms, while the other 1/2 was asked to do their best. Special instructions facilitated recall of normal Ss, but not of schizophrenics. Instructions had no significant effect upon the recognition scores. The effect of trials was to increase schizophrenic recall, but not recognition, while normals showed gains both in recall and recognition. It is concluded that the schizophrenic recall deficit results, in part, from an inability to subjectively organize memory store. (French summary) (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)