Is Folk Psychology Different?

In this paper, I seek to refute arguments for the idea that folk psychological explanation, i.e., the explanation of actions, beliefs and desires in terms of one another, should be understood as being of a different character than ordinary scientific explanations, a view defended most prominently in analytical philosophy by Donald Davidson and John McDowell. My strategy involves arguing both against the extant arguments for the idea that FP must be construed as giving such explanations, and also against the very notion of such a different kind of explanation. I argue first that the in some sense a priori and conceptual nature of folk psychological principles does not support the idea that these are other than empirical generalisations, by appeal to recent nativist ideas in cognitive science and to Lewis's conception of the meaning of theoretical terms. Second, I argue that there is no coherent sense in which folk psychological explanations can be seen as normative. Thirdly, I examine the putatively holistic character of the mental and conclude that that too fails to provide any cogent reasons for viewing folk psychological explanations as different from other kinds of explanation.     

When Is Silence Golden? A Meta-analysis on Antecedents and Outcomes of Employee Silence

Journal of Business and Psychology - Recent research on employee silence has grown rapidly, but findings remain quantitatively unsynthesized. This paper presents a comprehensive meta-analysis of...     

Spiritual Psychology and Psychotherapy: Is There Theoretical and Empirical Support?

This paper provides a meta-theoretical context for a spiritually oriented psychotherapy, namely Constructivism. It also presents some empirical and theoretical support for this Constructivist position which is consistent with cognitive psychology and concepts from both Western and Eastern traditions. It summarizes the work of Mahoney on Constructivism and integrates it with Personal Construct Psychology. It then provides the perceptual, theoretical, and empirical underpinnings for an integrative, holistically oriented clinical model that focuses on how clients construct their realities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the levels of therapeutic work that clients contract for, placing them in charge of their lives. The goal, for clients who chose the deepest path, is the philosophical understanding that they create the relative realities to which they respond, causing both their suffering and potential liberation. The ultimate choice is theirs, and not the therapist's.     

Is There a Role for Psychology in Ulcer Disease?

The discovery of the importance of bacterial factors in the etiology of ulcer disease has led to a neglect of psychological factors. However, both earlier theoretical and empirical approaches implicating these factors are supported by more recent studies, both epidemiological and experimental. While not ignoring the unquestioned role of Helicobacter, it is important for future research to recognize the multi-factorial nature of ulcer disease by which several factors, including stress, bacteria and non-steroid antiinflammatory drugs, may interact to drive a pre-pathology (erosions or ulcerations) to a pathological state (ulcer). Calls for general eradication programs should be cautioned in the light of possible unwanted side effects.     

Is Fifty Really the New Thirty? The Stigma of Age as a Form of Strain and its Role in Drug and Alcohol Abuse and Dependence by Women

Aging bodies stigmatize women. The effects of stigma, health issues, goal disappointment, and a combination of age and minority group status, overwhelm older women’s coping strategies, leading to maladaptive behaviors. General strain theory posits a relationship between negative stimuli and deviant behavior. Advancing age and age-related stigma reflect this strain. This study explores the relationship between strain and substance abuse or dependence, comparing subsamples of middle age (35- to 49-year-old women) and older middle age (50- to 64-year-old) women. Data suggest that minority age status coupled with acute or mental health issues increase substance abuse or dependence by older women.     

Has 60 Years of Research in Psychology Really Gone Astray?

The author presents several arguments against Toomela’s (Culture of science: Strange history of the methodological thinking in psychology. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 2007a, doi:, History of methodology in psychology: Starting point, not the goal. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 2007b, doi:) pessimistic thesis: “The last 60 years of research in psychology seems to have gone astray.” Nevertheless he admits that Toomela’s article despite the excessively categorical assessments contained in it and the undue pessimism crowing its conclusion, represents a substantial contribution to the highlighting of socio-cultural impact on various models of psychological cognition, which lurks behind the international unification of globalizing science.

Putting “Positive” and “Psychology” In Perspective: The Role of Indian Psychology

Rao (this issue) offers a trenchant critique of the field of positive psychology. He clearly shows the way positive psychology, as it has been thus far considered, is clearly a product of a Westernized psychology. He goes further though and proposes that some of the limitations of positive psychology might be addressed by considering the insights of Indian indigenous psychology. In this commentary I suggest that these limitations of positive psychology can be fruitfully framed by considering the nature of the self and the nature of the positive or good that any understanding of positive psychology must presuppose.     

How Abusive Supervisors Influence Employees’ Voice and Silence: The Effects of Interactional Justice and Organizational Attribution

In this research we investigated the influence of abusive supervision on employees’ prosocial voice and silence, as well as clarified the roles of interactional justice (as a mediator) and organizational attribution (as a moderator). Moreover, we examined a mediated moderating model stipulating that interactional justice mediated the moderating effect of organizational attribution on the focal relationship. A scenario experiment was employed in Study 1, and after analyzing data from 196 employees, we found that abusive supervision influenced employees’ prosocial voice and silence via interactional justice. In Study 2, data were collected from 379 employees in two waves separated by 1 week. The results not only replicated the findings of Study 1 but also indicated that organizational attribution buffered the abusive supervision-voice and silence relationship, and that interactional justice mediated this moderating effect.     

Is Silence More Golden for Women than Men? Observers Derogate Effusive Women and their Quiet Partners

Couples in which the woman is more verbally disinhibited than the man (man-more-inhibited couples) report lower satisfaction than couples in which the man is more verbally disinhibited (woman-more-inhibited couples). A violation of traditional gender roles is hypothesized to underlie this phenomenon. It was predicted that members of man-more-inhibited couples would be rated less likeable than woman-more-inhibited couples, and disinhibited men would be rated more competent than other males and females. To test these hypotheses, 95 undergraduate participants from a southwestern US university viewed a videotaped conflict between a man-more-inhibited or woman-more-inhibited couple. As predicted, members of man-more-inhibited couples were rated less likeable than members of woman-more-inhibited couples and disinhibited husbands were rated more competent than all other targets.     

The Acculturation of Community Psychology: Is There a Best Way?

In this paper I describe a community psychology perspective on acculturation and adjustment of immigrants and refugees and suggest that this field of acculturation research has in turn something to offer heuristically as we consider our identity and training for future generations of community psychologists over the next 50 years. I suggest that honoring our heritage, maintaining our disciplinary identity as community psychologists, and sustaining doctoral programs that offer training specific to community psychology are crucial for our survival as a field and is not antithetical to, and is indeed necessary for, interdisciplinary collaborations.     

What Is the Role of Transparency in Cancellation?

A series of experiments is reported in which the cancellation axiom is investigated by manipulating the transparency of gamble option formulations. The findings suggest that previous demonstrations of violations of the cancellation axiom might not be conclusive. While violations in nontransparent conditions have led to substantial changes in expected utility (EU) theory, the present data suggest that violations in transparent conditions require a fundamental change in the models that have been suggested as alternatives to EU theory.     

Theories and Methodologies in Acculturation Psychology: The Emergence of a Scientific Revolution?

Acculturation can be understood as the continuous meeting of different cultural elements. This phenomenon has increased globally due to advancements in technology, economy and globalization. The development of a psychological study of acculturation has been a complex process with great challenges. This new discipline within cross-cultural psychology has expanded with a great number of articles in psychological journals and subsequently increased in significance within cross-cultural psychology. The acculturation psychological theory of multilinear bidimensionality with its quantitative methodology has been the predominant framework. However, critiques have challenged this paradigm and suggested the emergence of a new paradigm founded on a cultural psychological approach. In this review, the different conceptions and methodologies within acculturation psychology are assessed and suggestions for future research using mixed-methods are presented.     

Education or Indoctrination? The Accuracy of Introductory Psychology Textbooks in Covering Controversial Topics and Urban Legends About Psychology

The introductory psychology class represents the first opportunity for the field to present new students with a comprehensive overview of psychological research. Writing introductory psychology textbooks is challenging given that authors need to cover many areas they themselves may not be intimately familiar with. This challenge is compounded by problems within the scholarly community in which controversial topics may be communicated in ideological terms within scholarly discourse. Psychological science has historically seen concerns raised about the mismatch between claims and data made about certain fields of knowledge, apprehensions that continue in the present “replication crisis.” The concern is that, although acting in good faith, introductory psychology textbook authors may unwittingly communicate information to readers that is factually untrue. Twenty-four leading introductory psychology textbooks were surveyed for their coverage of a number of controversial topics (e.g., media violence, narcissism epidemic, multiple intelligences) and scientific urban legends (e.g., Kitty Genovese, Mozart Effect) for their factual accuracy. Results indicated numerous errors of factual reporting across textbooks, particularly related to failing to inform students of the controversial nature of some research fields and repeating some scientific urban legends as if true. Recommendations are made for improving the accuracy of introductory textbooks.     

The Implicit and Explicit Effects of Negative Political Campaigns: Is the Source Really Blamed?

Despite the widespread use of negative campaigns, research has not yet provided unambiguous conclusions about their effects. So far studies, however, have mainly focused on very explicit measures. The main goal of the present work was to explore the effects of different types of negative campaigns on both implicit and explicit attitudes, as well as in relation to two basic dimensions of social perception, namely competence and warmth. Across a series of three studies, we basically showed that not all negative campaigns lead to the same consequences. Specifically, especially personal attacks toward the opposing candidate may backfire at the explicit level. More interestingly, at an implicit level, the reliance on negative messages was associated with more negative spontaneous affective responses toward the source, but also with a spontaneous conformity to such a source. Overall, it appeared that negative messages decreased the perceived warmth of the source while simultaneously increasing the perceived competence. Results are discussed by focusing on the importance of implicit measures in political psychology and on the crucial role of perceived competence.     

Gender Differences in Condom Use Behavior? The Role of Power and Partner-Type

The primary goal of this study was to experimentally investigate the theory of gender and power (Wingood and DiClemente, Health Education and Behavior 27:539–565, 2000) in order to better understand gender differences in condom use behavior. The influence of relationship power (equal or low), partner-type (serious or casual), and gender on difficulty implementing condom use was explored using experimental vignettes. Heterosexual, sexually active, undergraduate students from a private university in the United States (N?=?203) indicated how “difficult” it would be to implement condom use in a variety of situations. Results revealed a significant main effect for power and partner-type, qualified by a significant three-way interaction. The consistency of these findings with the predictions of the theory and methodological limitations are discussed.