A stimulus–response social psychology?

Comments on D. Kipnis's (see record 199707781-001) article that critically analyzes social psychology's assumption that psychological states can explain social behavior. The present author suggests that, essentially, Kipnis is calling for a return to behavioral social psychology, in suggesting that social psychology be solely concerned with explanations of what social behavior arises in response to objective changes in technology. The author continues that it is certainly not the case that humans are merely reactive in response to environmental stimuli (including technology), but, rather, as Dewey and Mead argued, they are equally proactive, causal, influencing agents acting on the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can social behavior be influenced by events that we are unaware of?

Responds to the comments of K. A. Markus (see record 199810886-007), T. D. Nelson (see record 199810886-008), and M. C. Green et al (see record 199810886-008) referring to D. Kipnis's (see record 199707781-001) article analyzing social psychology's assumption that psychological states can explain social behavior. In the present reply, Kipnis addresses the arguments contained in the 3 aforementioned comments, and concludes with the assumption that the content of consciousness is explained by people's interactions with events in their world, and, further, that the understanding of social behavior will progress when theory and empirical research are extended to include societal events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoneuroimmunology: The interface between behavior, brain, and immunity.

Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of interactions between behavior, the brain, and the immune system. This article is designed to provide an overview of this new field for the general psychologist. The existence of bidirectional communication pathways between the brain and the immune system and the implications of this network of behavior are emphasized. Implications are that behavioral-psychological processes ought to be capable of altering immune function and that events that occur as part of immune responses should modulate behavior. Evidence for influences in both of these directions is reviewed. The discussion of psychological modulation of immunity focuses on classical conditions and stress, whereas that of immune modification of behavior highlights behavioral effects produced by substances relapsed by the immune system. Finally, the adaptive role that such changes might play is considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between attachment, psychopathology, and childhood disability.

Analyzes the literature on 3 aspects of attachment—neurobiological influences, interpersonal and intrapersonal factors, and societal factors—in the psychological development of chronically disabled children. Evidence suggests that neurochemical substances such as cortisol and brain biogenic amine systems reciprocally interact with psychological and psychosocial factors to influence attachment. Interpersonal and intrapersonal factors such as temperamental characteristics of children, severity and type of disability, and family influences interact in the process of attachment. Social perceptions and prejudices about the disabled individual increase parental stress, and diminish parental involvement and resources, which are necessary for attachment. These 3 processes are powerful and interrelated forces in child development, with potential to modify social competence, neurological development, and psychosocial adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Societal-psychological constructionism: Societies, selves, traditions, and fusions.

Frequently cited problems of dualism, as it pertains to the relation of psychological mind to sociocultural world, arise from assumptions of fixed societal and psychological ontologies. If, instead, societal and psychological ontologies are understood to be both emergent and mutable, as a consequence of their dynamic relation, many of the metaphysical and epistemological difficulties encountered by classic psychological-sociocultural dualism are avoided. To this end, an ontological and epistemological position, called societal-psychological constructionism, is presented. The merits of this position relative to postmodern textualist and social constructionist alternatives to classic psychological-sociocultural dualism are discussed. The major advantages of societal-psychological constructionism stem from its metaphysical claim that the psychological derives largely from the sociocultural, but is not reducible to the sociocultural, and in the epistemological implications of this claim. These advantages are particularly significant when contrasted with postmodern textualist and social constructionist accounts that mistakenly conflate the origins of psychological phenomena with psychological experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social psychology and changing technologies: Reality versus caricature.

Comments on D. Kipnis's (see record 199707781-001) article that critically analyzes social psychology's assumption that psychological states can explain social behavior. The present authors point out that there are many sources in social psychology that, in fact, have revealed a vibrant and rigorous discipline in which, contrary to Kipnis's "caricature," explanations are routinely empirically questioned, variables are directly manipulated and measured, often along with their physiological and neuro-electrical correlates, and multivariate approaches address the separate and joint impact of multiple predictors on multiple dependent variables. It is also noted that Kipnis ignored social psychological research in which experimenters have assessed the physiological correlates of cognitive states. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Don't hide your happiness! Positive emotion dissociation, social connectedness, and psychological functioning.

It is now clear that positive emotion leads to enhanced psychological functioning. What is less clear, however, is just why this is so. Drawing on a social-functional perspective, we argue that positive emotional behavior that accurately signals to others the individual's internal state will enhance social connectedness. Positive emotional behavior that does not accurately signal a person's experience—such as a smile that is not felt—may impede social connectedness and, in turn, psychological functioning. This perspective suggests that (a) the degree to which experience and behavior are dissociated during positive emotional episodes, over and above level of positive behavior, should predict worse psychological functioning and (b) the effect of dissociation should be mediated by social connectedness. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a short-term prospective longitudinal study, with a baseline assessment of depressive symptoms and well-being at Time 1. Six months later, at Time 2, we used a novel within-individual laboratory paradigm to measure the degree to which positive emotional behavior was dissociated from (vs. coherent with) a participant's positive emotional experience. We also assessed level of positive behavior and experience. Then, another 6 months later, we assessed social connectedness as a mediator and depressive symptoms and well-being as outcomes at Time 3. Even when controlling for baseline functioning and for level of positive emotion behavior and experience, we found that greater positive experience–behavior dissociation at Time 2 predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of well-being at Time 3. As predicted, these associations were mediated by social connectedness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Chaos theory, nonlinear dynamical models, and psychological assessment.

This article is the first in a special section on chaos theory and psychological assessment. This introductory article provides the basic definitions, measurement approaches, and data analytic techniques that are collectively referred to as chaos theory (T. Y. Li & J. A. Yorke, 1975). Chaos refers to certain unstable transitional phenomena that heretofore had been viewed as random (S. Krasner, 1990). Some have suggested that unstable human behavior of interest to psychological assessment may be chaotic, such as some extreme mood changes (L. Glass & M. C. Mackey, 1988). Chaos theory testing involves quantification of idiographic time series data with nonlinear dynamic mathematical modeling. Chaotic behavior exhibits abrupt changes in the parametric values of variables that are an iterative function of past values, yielding an irreversible and hierarchical pattern. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Norm, factuality, and power in multiculturalism.

Comments on the article by B. J. Fowers and F. C. Richardson (see record 83-30335) which offered a comprehensive analysis of the logic underlying multicultural thought. Unfortunately, a lack of structural thinking and a focus on written and spoken texts, or social constructions, leads to deficits in Fowers and Richardson's arguments. As useful as a hermeneutic position may be in certain psychological contexts, it must be supplemented by a critical-theoretical perspective on social issues that can challenge the status quo of social power. And it is particularly necessary for a psychology that seeks to articulate the societal mediatedness of the individual to link psychological thinking with analyses of structural domination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological processes and mental states.

Comments on D. Kipnis's (see record 199707781-001) article that argues against the use of psychological processes as a basis for the explanation of social behavior. The present author concerns himself with Kipnis's use of "psychological processes" and "mental states" as synonyms. He claims that Kipnis overstepped his argument by generalizing his conclusion from the term "mental states" to "psychological processes." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development, microevolution, and social behavior.

The central questions of social development—from the roots of mother–infant attachment to the plasticity of aggressive behavior—pivot on the relations between genetic and ontogenetic sources of variance. It is proposed that (a) developmental, experiential, and microevolutionary processes typically collaborate, rather than compete, in achieving social adaptation; (b) social behavior patterns are mostly closed to modification in the course of development and across generations, but avenues of vulnerability exist in ontogeny and microevolution for dynamic, rapid, and reversible changes in key features; (c) a general avenue for change is delay or acceleration in the developmental onset of one or more features of the behavior pattern, which in turn modifies the functions and properties of the adaptive configuration; and (d) the features of social behavior that are open to rapid change in ontogeny should be open as well to rapid changes in microevolution, although different underlying processes may be involved. Empirical findings from the investigation of aggressive interactions are used to illustrate this proposal on the dual genesis and coincident adaptation of social behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tuning in to psychological change: Linguistic markers of psychological traits and emotions over time in popular U.S. song lyrics.

American culture is filled with cultural products. Yet few studies have investigated how changes in cultural products correspond to changes in psychological traits and emotions. The current research fills this gap by testing the hypothesis that one cultural product—word use in popular song lyrics—changes over time in harmony with cultural changes in individualistic traits. Linguistic analyses of the most popular songs from 1980–2007 demonstrated changes in word use that mirror psychological change. Over time, use of words related to self-focus and antisocial behavior increased, whereas words related to other-focus, social interactions, and positive emotion decreased. These findings offer novel evidence regarding the need to investigate how changes in the tangible artifacts of the sociocultural environment can provide a window into understanding cultural changes in psychological processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence.

In this article, research on how children and adolescents cope with stress and coping's role in reducing the adverse psychological states associated with stress is reviewed. Child and adolescent coping is reflected in seven different lines of research—infants' responses to maternal separation, social support, interpersonal cognitive problem-solving, coping in achievement contexts, Type A behavior pattern in children, repression–sensitization, and resilience to stress. A variety of different coping resources, styles, and specific strategies are important in successfully adapting to stress, including efforts that focus directly on the problem, as well as attempts to deal with adverse emotions associated with stress. Directions for future research are identified, emphasizing the need for more systematic comparisons of coping across different types of stress and over time in response to a single stressful episode. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pathways linking affective disturbances and physical disorders.

Comorbidity of psychological and physical disorders is substantial. This article presents a broad theoretical framework for identifying factors that contribute to and maintain comorbid conditions. The authors propose heuristic models of how co-occurrences of psychological and physical disorders are developed and maintained. The models specify biological, behavioral, cognitive, and social pathways that may account for comorbidity. Although the authors' discussion of psychological disorders is limited to the role of affective disturbances (subclinical negative moods as well as mood and affective disorders), the pathways they identify are thought to contribute to co-occurrences of other psychological disorders and physical disease as well. The authors emphasize that pathways linking comorbid states are bi-directional and that operative pathways differ depending on the specific affective response, illness behavior, disease, or disease stage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social inappropriateness, executive control, and aging.

Age-related deficits in executive control might lead to socially inappropriate behavior if they compromise the ability to withhold inappropriate responses. Consistent with this possibility, older adults in the current study showed greater social inappropriateness than younger adults—as rated by their peers—and this effect was mediated by deficits in executive control as well as deficits in general cognitive ability. Older adults also responded with greater social inappropriateness to a provocative event in the laboratory, but this effect was unrelated to executive functioning or general cognitive ability. These findings suggest that changes in both social and cognitive factors are important in understanding age-related changes in social behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation.

Human differentiation on the basis of gender is a fundamental phenomenon that affects virtually every aspect of people's daily lives. This article presents the social cognitive theory of gender role development and functioning. It specifies how gender conceptions are constructed from the complex mix of experiences and how they operate in concert with motivational and self-regulatory mechanisms to guide gender-linked conduct throughout the life course. The theory integrates psychological and sociostructural determinants within a unified conceptual structure. In this theoretical perspective, gender conceptions and roles are the product of a broad network of social influences operating interdependently in a variety of societal subsystems. Human evolution provides bodily structures and biological potentialities that permit a range of possibilities rather than dictate a fixed type of gender differentiation. People contribute to their self-development and bring about social changes that define and structure gender relationships through their agentic actions within the interrelated systems of influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group decision making and social influence: A social interaction sequence model.

Discusses the social interaction sequence (SIS) model, which represents the group decision-making process in terms of the sequential choice behavior—changes in preference and certainty—of group members. This model states that the probabilities of preference and certainty changes are related to the current distribution of opinion in the group. An application of the SIS model to a study of jury decision making (G. Strasser, 1977) is presented, and results of earlier empirical studies are predicted by a computer simulation version of the model. Shift and opinion change versions of the model are proposed, with both extensions incorporating the concept of a characteristic certainty distribution. Characteristic certainty distributions are used to examine the expected effects of group size and assigned-decision rule on members' confidence in a group's decision. (57 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Otto Rank, the Rankian circle in Philadelphia, and the origins of Carl Rogers' person-centered psychotherapy.

Otto Rank's will therapy helped shape the ideas and techniques of relationship therapy developed by the Philadelphia social workers Jessie Taft, Virginia Robinson, and Frederick Allen in the 1930s. Rank's work and these ideas and techniques in turn strongly influenced the formulation of Carl Rogers' person-centered psychotherapy. This article compares and contrasts will, relationship, and person-centered approaches to psychotherapy and discusses the social factors—primarily the professional conflicts between a male-dominated psychiatry and female social workers over the independent practice of psychotherapy—that were crucial in the dissemination of Rank's psychological thought and the early popularity of Rogers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adapted to flee famine: Adding an evolutionary perspective on anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is commonly attributed to psychological conflicts, attempts to be fashionably slender, neuroendocrine dysfunction, or some combination of these factors. Considerable research reveals these theories to be incomplete. Psychological and societal factors account for the decision to diet but not for the phenomenology of the disorder; theories of biological defects fail to explain neuroendocrine findings that suggest coordinated physiological mechanisms. This article presents evidence that AN's distinctive symptoms of restricting food, denial of starvation, and hyperactivity are likely to be evolved adaptive mechanisms that facilitated ancestral nomadic foragers leaving depleted environments; genetically susceptible individuals who lose too much weight may trigger these archaic adaptations. This hypothesis accounts for the occurrence of AN-like syndromes in both humans and animals and is consistent with changes observed in the physiology, cognitions, and behavior of patients with AN. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology at the Intersection of Work and Family: Recommendations for Employers, Working Families, and Policymakers.

Demographic data show that major changes have been occurring in the everyday lives of families over the last generation, with the majority of mothers of young children in the workforce and an increasing number of men and women assuming caregiving responsibilities for older relatives. Thus, the 2 primary identities of most adults, defined by their multiple family and work roles, need to be coordinated in ways that promote positive family outcomes, returns on investments for employers, and societal values. Despite changes in the workforce, the world of work is still largely organized for a family model that is increasingly rare--one with a stay-at-home caregiver. Recommendations based on psychological and other social science research are offered to align the needs of working families and employers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)