Pre-unified separatism and rapprochement between behaviorism and cognitive psychology: The case of the reinforcer.

Psychology is in a preparadigmatic or pre-unified stage of scientific development. Two characteristics of psychology's status are: (1) lack of cumulative scientific growth and (2) experimental-theoretical overgeneralization. The reinforcer, as a construct in theories and as a critical element of behavioral change, has been a casualty of the separatism between such factions as radical behaviorism and cognitive psychology. In the end, psychology as a progressive science has been impeded, and psychological practitioners have been left to use intervention techniques that are not the most effective or efficient. In order to improve upon this situation, unification is needed between radical behaviorism and cognitive psychology, among other disciplines. However, the issue of the reinforcer is only one of many areas where such unification should be pursued and attained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology and personality: Toward a convergence.

Argues that social and personality psychology are becoming increasingly characterized by greater receptiveness to the other's theoretical assumptions, concern with similar problems and the development of similar solutions to those problems, and the tendency of members of one specialty to adopt the methodologies typically identified with the other. Three recent developments are reviewed to substantiate this claim. Several cases are presented that demonstrate the increasing willingness of social psychologists to treat situational and personality perspectives as equally valid approaches to understanding social behavior. Several social-psychological constructs are described, each of which had been first operationalized via experimental manipulations and then later reconceptualized as an individual-difference variable. Interactionism is seen as a logical bridge between the differing orientations of personality and social psychology, and the current enthusiasm over this approach is one that is shared by many in both disciplines. A 3rd area of convergence becomes evident from an examination of the close parallels in the recent histories of attitudes and traits—dispositional concepts that play a central role in social and personality psychology, respectively. Especially notable is the fact that some of the recent strategies for improving trait–behavior consistencies are techniques that have been shown to strengthen attitude–behavior links as well. (4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Mexican psychology.

The universality—not the scientific character—of psychology is challenged by data previously reported by the present author and other researchers suggesting the need for a sociocultural psychology of personality. Specific factorial scales of Mexican, natural language, and sociocultural premises are found to be meaningfully associated, at three different ages, with a number of reliable measures of psychological dimensions. A national, local-belief-based, clinical understanding of Mexican youth on the basis of intra- and cross-cultural studies is illustrated. From the evidence, it is proposed (a) that culture, as defined, can account for significant variance of bona fide psychological and other behavioral science dimensions; and (b) that there is a basis to speak about sociocultural psychologies, such as a Mexican psychology. The disclosure is made in the context of the author's attempts to understand the Mexican personality and society. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The great struggles of life: Darwin and the emergence of evolutionary psychology.

Darwin envisioned a scientific revolution for psychology. His theories of natural and sexual selection identified two classes of struggles--the struggle for existence and the struggle for mates. The emergence of evolutionary psychology and related disciplines signals the fulfillment of Darwin's vision. Natural selection theory guides scientists to discover adaptations for survival. Sexual selection theory illuminates the sexual struggle, highlighting mate choice and same-sex competition adaptations. Theoretical developments since publication of On the Origin of Species identify important struggles unknown to Darwin, notably, within-families conflicts and conflict between the sexes. Evolutionary psychology synthesizes modern evolutionary biology and psychology to penetrate some of life's deep mysteries: Why do many struggles center around sex? Why is social conflict pervasive? And what are the mechanisms of mind that define human nature? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The concept of personality in 19th-century French and 20th-century American psychology.

Since the 1920s, the road to the acknowledgment of personality psychology as a field of scientific psychology that has individuality as its object began with the founding of the discipline by Gordon W. Allport. Historians of psychology have made serious attempts to reconstruct the cultural, political, institutional, and chronological beginnings of this field in America in the 20th century. In this literature, however, an important European tradition of psychological studies of personality that developed in France in the 2nd half of the 19th century has been overlooked. The aim of this article is to cast some light on this unexplored tradition of psychological personality studies and to discuss its influence on the development of the scientific study of personality in the United States. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The two disciplines of scientific psychology.

"No man can be acquainted with all of psychology today." The past and future place within psychology of 2 historic streams of method, thought, and affiliation—experimental psychology and correlational psychology—is discussed in this address of the President at the 65th annual convention of the APA. "The well-known virtue of the experimental method is that it brings situational variables under tight control… . The correlation method, for its part, can study what man has not learned to control or can never hope to control… . A true federation of the disciplines is required. Kept independent, they can give only wrong answers or no answers at all regarding certain important problems… . Correlational psychology studies only variance among organisms; experimental psychology studies only variance among treatments. A united discipline will study both of these, but it will also be concerned with the otherwise neglected interactions between organismic and treatment variables. Our job is to invent constructs and to form a network of laws which permits prediction." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychology of science: Review and integration of a nascent discipline.

Disciplines that study science are relatively well established in philosophy, history, and sociology. Psychology of science, by comparison, is a late bloomer but has recently shown signs of codification. The authors further this codification by integrating and reviewing the growing literature in the developmental, cognitive, personality, and social psychology of science. Only by integrating the findings from each of these perspective can the basic questions in the study of scientific behavior be answered: Who becomes a scientist and what role do biology, family, school, and gender play? Are productivity, scientific reasoning, and theory acceptance influenced by age? What thought processes and heuristics lead to successful discovery? What personality characteristics distinguish scientists from nonscientists and eminent from less eminent scientists? Finally, how do intergroup relations and social forces influence scientific behavior? A model that integrates the consensual empirical findings from the psychology of science is proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality, development, and counseling psychology: Depth, ambivalence, and actualization.

Although there is a profound connection between personality and developmental psychology on the one hand and counseling psychology on the other, this relationship has been marked by ambivalence. Reasons for this are discussed, and it is suggested that the relationship is moving in the direction of actualization. Four substantive areas are explored in which personality and developmental psychology both inform and are influenced by counseling psychology: career behavior, cultural identity, psychoanalysis, and adult development. Finally, the "healthy personality" is examined as an area of personality and developmental psychology in which counseling psychology has not fulfilled its promise, and the importance and possible directions of such work are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nature of psychology: The great dilemmas.

Research about the nature of psychology, its subject matter, its level of analysis, its scientific laws, its relationship with other disciplines, and its social relevance has been a matter of great concern and interest during the development of psychology. This problem can be analyzed in terms of the dilemmas of the psychological discipline, which have been choice points, crossroads, alternative decisions that bring psychologists face to face with the following issues: (a) the subject matter of psychology: psyche, mind, or behavior?; (b) the role of scientific methodology: is psychology a natural science, a social/behavioral/human science, or a part of the humanities?; (c) the universality or particularity of scientific laws in psychology: are laws universal or culture-bound and contextual?; and (d) the balance between science and profession: is psychology a basic science, a socially relevant profession, or both? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An update on medical psychology and behavioral medicine.

Recent definitional developments have required a reevaluation of the term "medical psychology," expecially as it relates to the newly emerging interdisciplinary field of behavioral medicine. It is proposed that medical psychology should now most logically be considered as only one of many contributing specialties within the larger discipline of psychology that, along with other disciplines, converge to form behavioral medicine. A schematic representation of these relationships is proposed with special emphasis placed on the content areas (knowledge and techniques) through which the various disciplines interface. Recent organizational developments aimed at providing psychologists with more structured forums for political representation and ideal sharing are also discussed. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pursuing unity in a fragmented psychology: Problems and prospects.

Many psychologists are concerned that disciplinary fragmentation is precluding the accumulation of knowledge and catalyzing the dissolution of institutionalized psychology. Herein the authors review prominently discussed causes of fragmentation and the solutions thus far tendered. Their review suggests that fragmentation pervades the discipline at many levels and that numerous, competing solutions to the problem of fragmentation have failed to promote unity. The authors suggest that 3 key questions must be answered before a tenable unification strategy can be formulated. Answers to these questions will provide a common starting point for discussing the problems and prospects of unification and for evaluating specific unification strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond the two disciplines of scientific psychology.

Aptitude * Treatment interactions are demonstrated with reference to G. Domino's studies (1968 and 1971) of instructor demand and student personality and J. K. Majasan's (1972) study which found that achievement in college psychology was greatest when the student's position on a scale of beliefs regarding behaviorism and humanism were similar to his instructor's. Further evidence on interactions in social psychology, personality, learning, and experimental psychology is cited. It is suggested that higher order interactions make it unlikely that social scientists will be able to establish generalizations applicable beyond the laboratory or that generalizations established in the field work will be maintained. Social research should be less concerned with hypothesis testing and more concerned with interpreting findings in local contexts. (59 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward one discipline of scientific psychology.

Discusses views on the possibility of joining correlational and experimental psychology. The works and opinions of L. J. Chronbach are cited in particular. Presents the idea of outlining a paradigm for research which combines the major concerns of both correlational psychologists and experimentalists, and which employs, as a modus operandi, the subgrouping of Ss on the basis of their patterns of prior experience. The feasibility of employing such a paradigm as an operational plan brings at least 2 major operational concerns into consideration: (1) the subgrouping of Ss must have some consistency across samples, and (2) the entire scheme of classifying Ss to subsets must have something approximating generalized validity. It is stressed that the interactive research suggested can be expanded to include many different areas in psychology and other disciplines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuity and change in the development of psychology around the world.

A survey conducted in 1998 by the International Union of Psychological Science showed that psychology is continuing to grow and expand around the world. At the same time, psychology faces severe challenges, including these: (a) responding to increased demands for accountability, (b) developing research that will be applicable to such problems as resolving and alleviating ethnic conflicts, (c) gaining an appropriate classification for psychology among the disciplines, and (d) helping to meet the needs of the "knowledge society." Taking stock of psychology's present resources and state of development should be a helpful exercise in planning for further development. Some proposals are suggested and more are welcomed to deal with the challenges to be faced in the international development of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying psychology in outer space: Unfilled promises revisited.

Argues that numerous issues directly relevant to the field of personality and social psychology are present and may become increasingly important in the US space program. It is suggested that data from personality and social psychology have been underused resources in the US space program. The responsibility for this outcome is seen as resting both with investigators and in structural aspects of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The contrasting centrality of psychology in the Russian space program is noted. Suggestions for increasing the role of personality and social psychology in the US space program are offered. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mapping the structure and dynamics of psychological knowledge: Forty years of APA journal citations (1970–2009).

To understand how subfields of psychology relate to each other as a whole, we analyzed 40 years (from 1979 to 2009) of journal citation data collected from 17 American Psychological Association journals. The results reveal two stable underlying dimensions of psychological knowledge—basic versus applied, and population-specific versus population-general—that organize subfields of psychology. Within the structure, personality and social psychology is located at the heart of psychological knowledge. Analysis of the dynamic flow of knowledge between subfields of psychology further reveals that although the subfields engage in clear division of labor, they also engage in dynamic transactions of knowledge. Finally, an emergent subfield would first obtain its intellectual nutrients from the established disciplines. Once it has found its own niche, it turns into a spin-off and starts to assume the role of knowledge supplier. The implications of these results for psychology as a science are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of United States of America psychology by the "four-years-absent" method.

Criticisms are leveled at psychology in the United States: (a) psychology, both as a discipline and as a profession is vague; (b) psychology lacks goals; (c) psychology is fragmented—the specialities are isolated from each other with little effective inter-communication; (d) psychology appears to be angry—the profession lacks harmony; (e) psychology is insecure—we have a status problem; (f) psychologists suffer from inbreeding—their views are often narrow; (g) psychology lacks tradition; (h) psychology has no modern heroes; and (i) psychologists have surrendered—not only do we lack a concept of self, but "we do not seem to seek one within the framework of our profession." Remedies are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kuhn, Lakatos, and Laudan: Applications in the history of physics and psychology.

Presents a brief review, analysis, and application of some nonpositivist accounts of science and scientific change proposed since the early 1960s. The individuals most prominently identified with these accounts are T. S. Kuhn (1962), I. Lakatos (1970, 1978), and L. Laudan (1977, 1981). It is noted that Kuhnians depict the history of any scientific discipline as a succession of incommensurable paradigms. Empirical work done in one paradigm is of little relevance to another, and comparisons of paradigms on such familiar grounds as experimental adequacy are said to be inconclusive. Different paradigms do not agree on what constitutes knowledge or the meaning of truth. The recent work of other philosophers of science, such as Lakatos and Laudan, however, leads to expectations about the history of a scientific discipline that are different from Kuhn's. The present authors show that Lakatos's and Laudan's accounts provide more veridical analyses than popularized Kuhnian versions when applied to episodes in the history of physics and psychology. (122 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A place for discontent and tensions in psychology.

R. M. Cooper (see record 1983-26906-001) commented on the failure of psychology for physiological psychologists and advised his colleagues to abandon psychology in favor of the neurosciences. Cooper's discontent may be seen as arising naturally from certain inevitable tensions between perspectives and methods in the physical and behavioral sciences. Clinical psychologists are similarly caught between differing perspectives—those of behavioral science and clinical practice—and they also experience tensions and discontent. The discontent and tensions in psychology sometimes lead to overly narrow specialization and destructive rifts within the discipline. It is argued that these effects need not occur and that tensions between differing epistemic/theoretic perspectives in psychology are healthy and should be maintained. Such dialectics are needed to generate more complete and integrated knowledge, and the tension between science and practice is necessary for the advancement of clinical skills. (French abstract) (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)