The radical empiricism of William James and philosophy of history.

William James's philosophy of history is explored in his classic psychological and philosophical works and in 2 articles he devoted specifically to the topic. Historical issues are set forth in terms of James's individualism, pragmatism, and radical empiricism. It is argued that a Jamesian philosophy of history provides a reasoned and believable middle way between the extremes of realism and constructionism. James believed that historical change is brought about both by the contributions of individuals and by forces in cultures and the environment that help shape the direction of things. Finally, the author explores implications of James's pluralism for history and his quarrel with absolutistic conceptual schemes that attempt to reduce all things to 1 thing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introspecting in the spirit of William James: Comment on Fox, Ericsson, and Best (2011).

Fox, Ericsson, and Best's (2011) thoughtful justification of the use of think-aloud protocols for revealing the stream of consciousness comes on the centennial of the death of William James, history's greatest practitioner and advocate of introspection. This confluence naturally invites speculation about how James might have responded to the analysis of Fox et al. I suggest that although James would likely view the think-aloud procedure as a scientifically rigorous form of introspection, he would also admonish us not to overlook its limitations. Most notably, although the think-aloud procedure readily captures substantive verbal thoughts, it is less able to capture inchoate cognitions. The conclusion that verbal protocols are nonreactive also raises several additional issues. First, the nonreactivity of thinking aloud does not necessarily speak to its validity. Second, the conclusion that verbal protocols are benign is at odds with recent findings in which verbalization impairs performance on various tasks. I suggest that whereas James might express some concerns regarding aspects of conscious thought that may be overlooked by the think-aloud procedure as well as some caution regarding the possible situations in which thinking aloud might still be reactive, he would almost certainly be pleased to see introspection finally getting the scientific grounding that it deserves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

William James and "Vicious Intellectualism" in psychology.

Linguistic concepts allow us to break our world into intelligible parts. William James warns, however, that conceptualizing can easily turn into vicious intellectualism. This happens when words (concepts) subsume unique particulars under one name, a quality is abstracted from the many particulars, the two are contrasted vis-á-vis, and then the abstraction is declared independent of, temporally prior to, and causally related to the events or processes from which it was derived. Psychology has committed this logical fallacy with concepts such as emotions, personality, and mental illness. To mistake these concepts for thing like entities that produce behavior is intellectually forgetful given their linguistic origin. The work of Emmanuel Levinas, Charles Taylor, and C. Terry Warner, among others, will be used to provide an alternative theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Hiring of James Mark Baldwin and James Gibson Hume at the University of Toronto in 1889.

In 1889, George Paxton Young, the University of Toronto's philosophy professor, passed away suddenly while in the midst of a public debate over the merits of hiring Canadians in preference to American and British applicants for faculty positions. As a result, the process of replacing Young turned into a continuation of that argument, becoming quite vociferous and involving the popular press and the Ontario government. This article examines the intellectual, political, and personal dynamics at work in the battle over Young's replacement and its eventual resolution. The outcome would have an impact on both the Canadian intellectual scene and the development of experimental psychology in North America. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Of faculties, fallacies, and freedom: Dilemma and irony in the secularization of American psychology.

In The Principles of Psychology, William James (1890) articulated an influential, boundary-setting argument against faculty psychology, subsequently dubbed the Fallacy of the Faculty Psychology. This argument was reiterated in American psychology textbooks for the next several decades, arguably solidifying and simplifying American perceptions of the "old" faculty psychology and establishing belief in the superiority of the "New Psychology." When placed in the context of American theological and philosophical history, however, the New Psychology argument appears unoriginal, somewhat unfair, and deeply (and even tragically) ironic. Despite their best intentions, a fallacy did emerge in the old psychology as they sought psychological foundations for libertarian free will. For those members of the New Psychology still committed to free will, then, the Fallacy argument cut both ways--refuting the fallacy also meant tearing down a long-standing foundation for free will in American psychology. Offering no viable alternative to fill the moral void, the New Psychology appeared at times conflicted with its new deterministic identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Entering the sacred: Prologue to a theory of transcendent consciousness.

The thesis of this paper is that the established profane knowledge of psychology is proving inadequate to contemporary human experience (Grof, 1985), and that psychology now has no choice but to "enter the sacred" by acknowledging and investigating integrative experiences associated with states of transcendent consciousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

James V. McConnell: American Psychological Foundation Distinguished Contribution to Education in Psychology Award.

Recognizes the receipt of the American Psychological Foundation's 1976 Distinguished Contribution to Education in Psychology Award by James V. McConnell. The award citation reads: "A distinguished scientist who loves to teach, an outstanding teacher who loves science, a scholar who learns with his students." A brief biography is included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychobiography and the psychology of science: Understanding relations between the life and work of individual psychologists.

This paper presents initial interpretive hypotheses about connections between the life and work of a number of eminent psychologists: Sigmund Freud, Karen Horney, Henry Murray, B. F. Skinner, and Paul Meehl. Each of these interpretations can be critically evaluated, revised and improved, leading to incrementally more adequate understanding of individual lives, interacting with advances in psychological theory and research. Psychobiographical studies of individual scientists are a valuable complement to experimental and correlational lines of research in the psychology of science. In the "Science Wars" of the 1990s, there was an apparent conflict between scientists and those in social studies of science. The psychology of science can contribute to this debate, exploring the ways in which scientific inquiry, social-political worlds, and personal-experiential processes construct each other over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Critique and metacritique in psychology: Whence and Whither.

Do mainstream psychologists think critically? And are the many critiques of the mainstream made by its (theoretical and philosophical psychology) critics “on target”? Answering both questions (critical and metacritical, respectively) requires consensus about what critical thinking consists in, and there seems to be little consensus in sight. I begin by accepting Slife, Yanchar, and Reber's (2005) claim that “rigorous thinking” itself is insufficient for critical thinking in and about psychology, and I then consider various suggestions made by critics of the mainstream about thematic assumptions (or content categories) that should be included in critical thinking about the mainstream. After identifying three areas of mainstream research in which some of these assumptions seem to have been challenged from within the mainstream, I conclude by considering how both critique and metacritique may be combined, repositioned, and/or recontextualized, to advance the important cause of (meta) critical thinking in and about psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A journal of interest: Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry.

The Review was founded in 1961 to bring an existential and phenomenological approach to the understanding of human experience. With a primary focus on the psychotherapeutic endeavor, the Review publishes original essays and first translations from the fields of literature and philosophy, as well as from psychology and psychiatry proper. The Review has published essays by nearly every major figure in the world, including Viktor Frankl, Eugene Gendlin, Jacques Lacan, R.D. Laing, RolloMay, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jacob Needleman, Carl Rogers, and Jean-Paul Sartre. In addition to continuing to publish original essays on a wide variety of general topics, in recent years the Review has published a series of special issues devoted to major figures in the field of existential psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Readings in social psychology: Classic and Canadian contributions.

Reviews the book, Readings in social psychology: Classic and Canadian contributions edited by Brian Earn and Shelagh Towson (1986). Earn and Towson argue that students should know that social psychology is an active discipline with significant contributions from their own nation, that there are areas of research of particular relevance to the Canadian context, and that they should be able to gain from incidental learning about their own society. The format of the book is rather conventional. Readings are grouped into content areas: social motives (aggression and altruism), social influence, attitudes, social interactions (attraction and loneliness), attribution and cognition, ethnic relations, prejudice, and applications (TV influence, social support, law). It includes contributions by many of the most prominent social psychologists in Canada, and several "classic" papers by U.S. social psychologists. As one who has long regretted the fact that we are compelled to teach social psychology with only foreign materials, the reviewer welcomes the publication of this book. The reviewer hopes that in the second edition the editors take more seriously the purpose of a book of readings, and set out to communicate to undergraduate students what social psychological research is all about. The reviewer also hopes that the publisher is able to produce a volume that looks more professional and is easier to read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eriksonian lifespan theory and life history theory: An integration using the example of identity formation.

Furthering the cause of consilience in the social sciences a model is proposed in which Eriksonian life span theory and life history theory are integrated. The model explains individual differences in the Eriksonian developmental stages as a function of the individual differences in developmental trajectories of life history theory as conceptualized by Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper (1991). Erikson's fifth stage of identity formation is used to examine the model, with the results of three studies presented to illustrate the viability of the model. Future research should examine other aspects of the model and the relationship between the developmental trajectories in life history theory and the Eriksonian stages in greater detail. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bettelheim: A life and legacy: On succumbing to the temptations of "celebrity biography."

Reviews the book, Bettelheim: A life and legacy by Nina Sutton and translated by David Sharp (see record 1996-97846-000). Sutton's professional interest and work until now have been in the field of journalism rather than in the study of psychology or the history of psychoanalytic thinking. This primarily journalistic interest has resulted in a book that appears to be more a "celebrity biography," so typical for our present time of media mass consumption, than a rigorous study in psychobiography. Dr. Bruno Bettelheim was Director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago from 1944 until 1969. While Director of the Orthogenic School, Dr. Bettelheim refined the principles of group treatment of children, in efforts that were directly descendent from the works of August Aichhorn, Anna Freud, and others. In addition to his therapeutic work with children at the Orthogenic School and his many writings on both clinical work and social theory, Bettelheim played a pivotal role in the history of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, where many of his most important papers first appeared. Those publications included not only some of his earnest contributions to the field of milieu therapy, but also his symposium disputations on the nature of autism with Leo Kanner, Lauretta Bender, Margaret Mahler, and others. Bettelheim wais also one of the founders of the American Association of Children's Residential Centers, which for many of its early years met annually for lively, heated clinical presentations and debates on the campus of the University of Chicago. As a leader of that professional group, Bettelheim's ideas helped to inspire others involved in the residential care of children to create group living settings that were based upon more compassionate and informed views of the inner needs of youth, and to attempt to displace the more primitive methods of custodial and "correctional" management of society's marginalized and thrown-away children. Sutton gives us several versions of how she understands her intent in writing about the life of Bettelheim. She tells us that the more immediate precipitant for her writing was her own reactions to Bettelheim's act of suicide, as well as to the flurry of accusations that shattered his reputation during the six months that followed his death. From that inauspicious vantage point, her work was influenced by others' probing curiosities about whether her biography would lead to a conclusion about the accusations of cruelty and abuse, serve as a sanitized detective story--would it ultimately take a polarized stand either for or against Bettelheim? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selected theoretical and philosophical aspects of counseling psychology: A personal view.

Counseling Psychologists have often reflected upon the special perspectives and philosophical aspects of their specialty. From the variance of our roots to the diversity of our current activities through the conflicts of contemporary psychology there is a certain stability of purpose and unity of belief about the crucial aspects of our area. Our view of human action sees persons as agents capable of managing and enhancing their inner selves, important commitments, interpersonal relationships and their world of work. This view doesn't prevail because we are segregated from or unaware of the biological determinism of Freudian thought or the environmental determinism of Skinner and other behaviorists. We have not chosen to ignore these traditions which are so much a part of psychology's history; rather, we seek in science and practice to know more about the multiplicity of influences that enter into the origins of human actions so that the exercise of agency and the possibilities for choice are enhanced. Our scientist-professional model allows us to test our theories in actual everyday situations, and return to our laboratories and classrooms with practical wisdom. This model also permits us to put theory and science at the disposal of those we serve. Whatever our future holds, at the present time we enjoy the best of two worlds as careful science and expert practice continue to inform our views of human action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Future development of psychology and its role in Canadian life: A personal view.

This is not a report; it does not arise from statistical analysis of data, or systematic survey of opinion, or discussions of a committee. There are no findings. This is a statement based on personal impressions gained during my two decades of close association with psychology in Canada. My focus is on consideration of the ways in which psychology, while continuing to flourish as a basic and applied science, may best play its role in promoting public welfare and the attainment of national goals. There are no recommendations. Where appropriate, I have made suggestions, some of which may be useful as starting points of discussions among those concerned with planning the future development of psychology in Canada. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Qualitative Research in Counseling Psychology: A Primer on Research Paradigms and Philosophy of Science.

This article presents an overview of philosophy of science and research paradigms. The philosophy of science parameters of ontology, epistemology, axiology, rhetorical structure, and methodology are discussed across the research paradigms of positivism, postpositivism, constructivism-interpretivism, and the critical-ideological perspective. Counseling researchers are urged to locate their inquiry approaches within identifiable research paradigms, and examples of "locating" 2 popular inquiry approaches--consensual qualitative research and grounded theory--are provided. Examples of how counseling research would proceed from varying paradigms are explored, and a call is made for expanding the training students receive in philosophy of science and qualitative approaches to inquiry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The quest for meaning: Religious affiliation differences in the correlates of religious quest and search for meaning in life.

Religious traditions are considered to provide their members with a way to integrate their experiences into a coherent, comprehensible whole; functioning as a meaning system. Given that religious traditions vary in certain ways, the meaning systems they provide to their members might also differ from one another. The present study was concerned with whether seeking existential meaning in religion and life is compatible with other expressions of religiousness across denominations. Using a multigroups application of path analysis, we investigated whether the relations of two forms of existential seeking, secular (search for meaning in life) and sacred (religious quest), with several religious and psychological well-being measures differed as a function of denomination in a sample of Catholic and Protestant young adults (Study 1; N = 284) and a sample of Catholic, Evangelical, and Non-Evangelical Protestant young adults (Study 2; N = 454). Although comparisons across studies are difficult because the “Protestant” category in Study 1 could have included both Evangelical and non-Evangelical Protestants, one consistent pattern did emerge: there were no denomination-based differences in any of the relations of search for meaning with any of the religiousness variables in either study. Also, in both studies, Catholics demonstrated a positive relation of search for meaning with religious quest and negative relations of search for meaning with presence of meaning in life and overall religiousness. Results for religious quest appeared unstable across studies, raising possible questions about its measurement qualities. Implications for the study of cultural and existential factors and religion are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reaching beyond arm length in normal aging: Adaptation of hand trajectory and dynamic equilibrium.

The authors investigated the influence of normal aging upon equilibrium and kinematics features during a whole-body task. Eight young (23±1.51 years) and eight elderly (74.5±4.5 years) adults reached from a standing position an object placed in front of them on the ground. The authors found smaller Center of Masse (CoM) and Center of Pressure (CoP) antero-posterior displacements in elderly than in young adults. Wrist paths were curved in young but straight in elderly adults. Wrist peak velocity and duration were respectively lower and greater in elderly compared to young adults. However, Principal-Component-Analysis did not reveal differences in angle coordination between the two groups, suggesting so that modifications in equilibrium and wrist kinematics reflect an adaptation process that compensates age-related physiological changes. The authors hypothesized that equilibrium preservation in elderly contributes to wrist kinematics modifications. The authors verified this premise by placing young adults under equilibrium restrictions (reduced base of support) and observing that they reproduced the behavior of elderly adults. The authors propose that wrist kinematics is equilibrium dependent and that such a strategy is included in the motor plan of elderly adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Metaphysical Club: A story of ideas in America.

Reviews the book, The Metaphysical Club: A story of ideas in America by Louis Menand (2001). In this highly entertaining and readable history, Menand examines the lives and thinking of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey, members of an informal (and short-lived) discussion group that met in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1872 that called itself the Metaphysical Club. Beginning with the Civil War and ending in 1919 with the Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Abrams, this insightful and thought-provoking book tells a story of the creation of the ideas and values that have shaped how Americans think and how we live. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)