Dialogical Meaning and Justice for Constructivist and Existential Psychologies

Constructivist and existential psychologies both contain tensions pertaining to self-centric and social-centric perspectives. The authors explicate these tensions and offer an alternative scheme based on dialogical philosophy. The dialogical alternative presented in this article has implications for counseling and social justice praxis.     

Introducing Science to the Psychology of the Soul: Experimental Existential Psychology

ABSTRACT— Humans live out their lives knowing that their own death is inevitable; that their most cherished beliefs and values, and even their own identities, are uncertain; that they face a bewildering array of choices; and that their private subjective experiences can never be shared with another human being. This knowledge creates five major existential concerns: death, isolation, identity, freedom, and meaning. The role of these concerns in human affairs has traditionally been the purview of philosophy. However, recent methodological and conceptual advances have led to the emergence of an experimental existential psychology directed toward empirically investigating the roles that these concerns play in psychological functioning. This new domain of psychological science has revealed the pervasive influence of deep existential concerns on diverse aspects of human thought and behavior.     

Points of Convergence and Divergence Between Existential and Humanistic Psychology: A Few Observations

Existential and humanistic approaches to the study of human behavior are often integrated into one, The Existential-Humanistic Approach, primarily because the two approaches are phenomenological in their orientations. However, despite the shared emphasis on subjectivity, authenticity, and freedom, a number of differences exist between the approaches. In this article, I articulate points of divergence between the two approaches as reflected in their subjects of inquiry, ontological positions, temporal orientations, therapeutic goals, growth motivators, and conceptualizations of the good life. The differences underscore the uniqueness of the each approach as well as the complementarity of the two approaches.     

Dialogue as Constructivist Pedagogy: Probing the Minds of Psychology's Greatest Contributors

In this article, I report on my use of dialogue as an exploratory teaching tool in an undergraduate colloquium titled Historical Foundations of Psychology. Students completed written assignments in which they identified the contributors to psychology associated with each of a series of position statements that capture the intellectual, philosophical, or theoretical views of these individuals. Students were not told in advance the identity of contributors relative to their respective position statements, which assumed the form of excerpts and quotations (direct or paraphrased) from original and secondary sources. As part of their written responses, students provided supporting rationale for their answers and discussed the truths and misconceptions inherent in each statement. Afterward, students engaged in class discussion involving peer critique of their written responses. Through qualitative assessment, the dialogue method was shown to advance critical thinking and participation in the learning process. Students generally described dialogue as challenging, helpful, and enjoyable in exploring the views of eminent thinkers throughout the history of psychology. Findings are discussed in light of constructivist pedagogy, in which students actively and interactively create their own conceptual understandings. In line with the conclusion that dialogue is a promising instructional technique, future classroom applications are also presented.     

话语分析与心理学研究的对话探析

话语分析（Discourse Analysis）是一种探讨不同场景下话语的组织方式及话语互动的过程和结果的研究立场。它与心理学的对话,在应用上促进了社会心理学、心理咨询与治疗的发展;在理论上补充了心理学的研究方法、加速了＂独白＂心理学向＂对话＂心理学的过渡、推动了心理学本土化的进程。话语分析为心理学提供了新的研究视角,但其反身性和缺乏客观性的特点受到了反对者的质疑。     

A Psychology of Religious Plurality: From Intra-Religious Dialogue to Intra-Psychic Reality

Panikkar’s (The intra-religious dialogue, 1978) classic, re-issued by Paulist Press in 1999, grapples with the theological challenges in the disciplines of comparative theology and the theology of religions through what he terms, “intra-religious dialogue.” In this psychology of religious plurality, I use works from a variety of disciplines to highlight the achievements of Panikkar’s intra-religious dialogue, as well as to critique his work in the hope of finding categories of understanding that can be profitably used to face the inter-personal crises of the contemporary world, namely religious terrorism.     

Dialogue and Synthesis: Developing Consensus in Visitor Research Methodology

ABSTRACT

This brief synthesis presents the main points of agreement between Dawson and Jensen's article, “‘Towards a ‘Contextual Turn’ in Visitor Studies: Evaluating Visitor Segmentation and Identity-Related Motivations” (this issue) and Falk's reply, “Contextualizing Falk's Identity-Related Visitor Motivation Model” (this issue), and it highlights important considerations for future research.     

进化发展心理学：发展中的人类本性

进化发展心理学研究社会能力与认知能力发展背后的基因与环境机制,以及基因与环境机制在特定社会文化中的表现。进化发展心理学探讨的主要问题与设计到的主要概念包括：（1）自然选择在毕生发展的早期阶段发挥作用;（2）进化发展心理学特别重视适应在婴儿期及儿童期发展中的作用;（3）儿童期的延长有助于儿童学习人类社会的复杂性;（4）发展背景的方法可以用来理解成人外显行为的进化起源;（5）基因与环境因素相互影响约束个体发展;（6）认知能力与行为活动敏感于早期环境,但二者发展也具有可塑性     

Cultural Psychology, Consciousness andTheology: Continuing the Dialogue

This essay extends arguments that cultural psychology is useful for dialogue with Christian theology by indicating its relevance for theologies of consciousness. Donald's cultural account is outlined, followed by Davies's theological treatment of compassionate consciousness. Interactions are considered between the two approaches, which are shown to be co-implicated in the teaching ministry of Jesus, and the subsequent development of the Christian religion, and to accompany the shift from discipleship, through apostleship, to a trans-generational cultural-symbolic system assisted by the development of theology. The essay concludes with reflections on the challenge to psychology of the ontological reality of being 'in Christ'.     

Critical Health Psychology: Developing and Refining the Approach

This article outlines the need for a critical health psychology and how this approach was originally formulated as a challenge to mainstream health psychology. Critical health psychology articulates the need for a more reflexive approach – one that is able to analyse the complex moral, emotional, ethical and political issues underpinning peoples’ experiences of health and illness. This article discusses how critics have responded to the development of critical health psychology, to debates regarding what actually constitutes a critical approach, and finally, to how critical approaches might be refined in future research.     

God and Evil: A Dialogue

There is a lot of badness around. And many have concluded that there is, therefore, no God. Why? Because God is commonly said to be omnipotent (all‐powerful), omniscient (all‐knowing), and good, and because it seems hard to see how such a God could ever permit the existence of the horrors we find in the world. But does evil show that God does not exist? Many people believe that it does. But what might they say to someone who takes the opposite view? Perhaps they might start by arguing as John does with Ron in the following discussion.     

An Inquiry into Views,Beliefs and Faith: Lessons from Buddhism,Behavioural Psychology and Constructivist Epistemology*

Abstract

 The causes of disagreements between individuals, social groups, cultural groups, political parties, and nations can be traced down to the basic human tendency to give form to – and to reify views, beliefs, and opinions. With this being the case, I would like to ask the question: what, exactly are ‘views’ (including here such overlapping categories as ‘opinions’, ‘beliefs’ and ‘attitudes’,)? How, exactly, do we give form to them? Why is it so difficult to change, or get rid of them? The Buddhist tradition since the time of its inception, has been greatly concerned with the matter of identifying ‘false views’ and replacing them with ‘correct views’. But serious and insightful research into the formation and maintenance of views and beliefs is by no means limited to Buddhism. It has been a topic of great concern in the past century to a wide range of secular researchers: social and behavioural psychologists; literary theorists and epistemologists; scientists and marketing strategists. What the specialists in these various fields have to say about beliefs is diverse – and yet there is much overlap. The ways in which they overlap are thought-provoking, and their differences are revelatory. In this paper, I investigate a few prominent approaches to the study of views and beliefs, and show how these various approaches can do much to fill in each other’s discourse. Finally, I reframe the Mahayana Buddhist notion of ‘correct faith’ within the context of this exploration of views.