Functions of knowledge in psychology

It is suggested that psychological knowledge serves three functions according to which subsystems of psychology can be derived: SCIENTIA provides an analytic account of parts of psychological objects or events, and is nourished by an implicit utopia to produce “better” and cumulative knowledge; CULTURA produces psychological meanings for individuals, communities, and cultures, and is nourished by an implicit utopia to improve the human condition; and CRITICA involves the deconstruction, reconstruction, and construction of psychological knowledge, and is nourished by a utopia to change psychological knowledge practices. It is argued, from a historical and theoretical point of view, that the proposed system can be used as a heuristic tool for understanding psychology’s complexity. Consequences for accepting or rejecting an equilibrium among the different knowledge functions are discussed.     

Psychology's contributions to understanding and addressing global climate change

Global climate change poses one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in this century. This article, which introduces the American Psychologist special issue on global climate change, follows from the report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change. In this article, we place psychological dimensions of climate change within the broader context of human dimensions of climate change by addressing (a) human causes of, consequences of, and responses (adaptation and mitigation) to climate change and (b) the links between these aspects of climate change and cognitive, affective, motivational, interpersonal, and organizational responses and processes. Characteristics of psychology that cross content domains and that make the field well suited for providing an understanding of climate change and addressing its challenges are highlighted. We also consider ethical imperatives for psychologists' involvement and provide suggestions for ways to increase psychologists' contribution to the science of climate change.     

Adapting to and coping with the threat and impacts of climate change

This article addresses the nature and challenge of adaptation in the context of global climate change. The complexity of "climate change" as threat, environmental stressor, risk domain, and impacting process with dramatic environmental and human consequences requires a synthesis of perspectives and models from diverse areas of psychology to adequately communicate and explain how a more psychological framing of the human dimensions of global environmental change can greatly inform and enhance effective and collaborative climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and research. An integrative framework is provided that identifies and considers important mediating and moderating parameters and processes relating to climate change adaptation, with particular emphasis given to environmental stress and stress and coping perspectives. This psychological perspective on climate change adaptation highlights crucial aspects of adaptation that have been neglected in the arena of climate change science. Of particular importance are intra-individual and social "psychological adaptation" processes that powerfully mediate public risk perceptions and understandings, effective coping responses and resilience, overt behavioral adjustment and change, and psychological and social impacts. This psychological window on climate change adaptation is arguably indispensable to genuinely multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and policy initiatives addressing the impacts of climate change.     

再论我国心理学的分化现象

我国心理学正处于分化过程之中,其中两个明显的例证就是:基础心理学与应用及人文心理学的分化,以及对心理学研究和服务成果的评价标准摆脱SCI的束缚.这背后深层的原因在于,若以科学哲学认识论的视角,人类的知识大致可分为可靠有用的知识和无用虚幻(伪科学)的知识,可靠知识又可进一步分为科学的知识和非科学的知识.心理学从诞生之日起...     

Some contributions of a psychological approach to the study of the sacred

ABSTRACT

This paper examines some of the contributions psychology is making to the study of the sacred and its role in human functioning. The focus here is not on the ontological reality of the sacred, but rather perceptions of the sacred. We suggest that psychological theory and research on this topic offers: a clarification of the meaning of the sacred; new knowledge about sanctification – the process through which people come to perceive the sacred in daily life; a response to criticisms about the scientific study of the sacred; a sharper perspective on the meanings of religion and spirituality; a method for measuring sanctification; knowledge about the ways perceptions of the sacred predict important aspects of human behavior, and; an understanding of the sacred as a product of psychological, social, institutional, cultural, and situational forces. We conclude that the sacred represents a vital phenomenon of interest for religious and spiritual study.     

Evolutionary Psychology and Feminism

This article provides a historical context of evolutionary psychology and feminism, and evaluates the contributions to this special issue of Sex Roles within that context. We briefly outline the basic tenets of evolutionary psychology and articulate its meta-theory of the origins of gender similarities and differences. The article then evaluates the specific contributions: Sexual Strategies Theory and the desire for sexual variety; evolved standards of beauty; hypothesized adaptations to ovulation; the appeal of risk taking in human mating; understanding the causes of sexual victimization; and the role of studies of lesbian mate preferences in evaluating the framework of evolutionary psychology. Discussion focuses on the importance of social and cultural context, human behavioral flexibility, and the evidentiary status of specific evolutionary psychological hypotheses. We conclude by examining the potential role of evolutionary psychology in addressing social problems identified by feminist agendas.     

六祖惠能的积极心理学思想蕴涵

六祖惠能的禅宗思想中蕴涵着丰富且深邃的积极心理学思想,其旨在解脱心灵、远离尘世烦恼的终极目标及其蕴含的生命的大智慧与当代积极心理学思想高度契合。其积极心理学思想主要包括积极心理品质、积极认知、积极人生态度、积极自我以及积极关系等方面,这些思想对当代社会仍具有很大的现实价值。因此,通过对惠能的积极心理学思想的研究,可加强传统心理学思想与现代主流心理学的融合,既继承与发扬中国传统文化,促使学者关注传统心理学文化; 又推动了积极心理学在中国的发展,使得当代中国人更好地理解和践行积极心理学思想,从而更好地生活。     

Public understanding of climate change in the United States

This article considers scientific and public understandings of climate change and addresses the following question: Why is it that while scientific evidence has accumulated to document global climate change and scientific opinion has solidified about its existence and causes, U.S. public opinion has not and has instead become more polarized? Our review supports a constructivist account of human judgment. Public understanding is affected by the inherent difficulty of understanding climate change, the mismatch between people's usual modes of understanding and the task, and, particularly in the United States, a continuing societal struggle to shape the frames and mental models people use to understand the phenomena. We conclude by discussing ways in which psychology can help to improve public understanding of climate change and link a better understanding to action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).     

Transpersonal psychology,physical health,and mental health: Theory,research, and practice

Abstract

Throughout its existence, transpersonal psychology has held a strong interest in exploring the implications of consciousness and spirituality for health, both physical and mental. This article provides a brief overview of the theoretical, empirical, and clinical contributions of transpersonal psychology to the understanding and facilitation of human health and well‐being. It also critiques the methodological basis of some of these contributions, concluding that transpersonal psychological studies of the relationship between spirituality and health are still in their infancy and that practitioners interested in using approaches based on these findings need to exercise caution as well as excitement about the interesting developments unfolding at an ever increasing rate.     

Students' Views on the Value of Psychological Research: A Contribution to Indigenising Psychology in Botswana

The goal of the study was to explore the value that psychology students accredit to psychological research in a country like Botswana where psychology is a relatively new discipline. Forty-five undergraduate students belonging to the first cohort of psychology students at the University of Botswana participated in the study (males = 7, females = 38, age range 18–23 years). Data were obtained from student essays and evaluated with Qualitative Content Analysis. Students were of the view that psychological research should (a) increase knowledge to better understand human beings and the world (epistemological value); (b) create awareness about psychology within society so as to to assist society in combating societal problems (societal value); (c) enhance individuals' understanding of psychology so as to to accept psychology (individual value); and (d) up-date psychological theories to ensure their applicability in present times (theoretical value). Considering students' views could play an important role in indigenising psychology in Botswana.     

Climate action now: How to fuel a social movement

Our research develops a framework that explores how to fuel the climate movement by accelerating grassroots, community-based climate action. Drawing on insights from consumer psychology, our framework identifies the psychological mechanisms that encourage and motivate people, both individually and collectively, to take climate action, thereby contributing to our understanding of how to advance social action and propel a social movement. Our climate action framework builds on: (1) individuals we describe as climate upstanders who rise up to take climate action with like-minded others, and (2) communities of climate upstanders who engage in collective action aimed at addressing the climate crisis. Our framework expands the field of consumer psychology by redefining the role of consumers to include the practice of social action and broadening the study of consumers to include collective, community-based action. We call on consumer psychologists to research individual and collective consumer practices related to social action and contribute to making social good central to the study of consumer psychology.     

创造力的心理学研究进展与研究取向

人类对创造力的认识进程,离不开哲学、生理学、脑科学和心理学等学科所作的研究贡献．但在对创造力的众多学科研究中,没有比心理学所作的研究贡献更大的了。本文着力从生理心理学、心理测量学、认知心理学和社会心理学等心理学分支学科的角度,分别阐述了创造力的心理学研究进展。本文认为．对创造力的心理学研究要有更理性的研究取向．那就是．应进一步加强和促进创造力的纵向研究和应用研究,应大力提倡创造力的多学科、多视野协同研究。     

The Future of Qualitative Research in Psychology - A Discussion with Svend Brinkmann,Günter Mey,Luca Tateo,and Anete Strand

In May 2014, a workshop on “The future of qualitative research in psychology” took place at Aalborg University (Denmark), Department of Communication & Psychology organized by Carolin Demuth. Participants from Aalborg University engaged in a lively exchange with the two invited discussants Svend Brinkmann (Aalborg University) and Günter Mey (Stendal University of Applied Science). The discussion started out by addressing the specifics of qualitative research in the field of psychology, its historical development and the perils of recent trends of standardization and neo-positivistic orientations. In light of the discrepancy of what could be potentially achieved with qualitative methods for psychological research and how they are actually currently applied, an emphasis was made that we need to return to an understanding of qualitative methods as a craft skill and to take into account the subjectivity of the researcher in the process of scientific knowledge production. Finally, a re-focus on experience as the genuine object of psychological research, as well as a transdisciplinary approach to our understanding of human psychological functioning within a socially co-constructed, biological, as well as material world was discussed.     

理解心理学:历史形态、特征与评析

理解心理学是一种坚持心理学的人文科学取向,倡导人特有研究方式的建构与运用,以达成对人及其心理生活本质或生命意义与价值的理解、描述为目标的心理学流派、思想主张或形态。其发展先后呈现出知识论取向的理解心理学、价值论(或生存论)取向的理解心理学、整合论取向的理解心理学。在方法论上具有鲜明的人文主义特征,致力于探究人的社会本性,构筑了人文科学心理学的历史样态。未来,理解心理学还需摒弃非此即彼的思维方式,携手说明心理学共同推动心理学走向成熟     

论威廉詹姆斯的心理学科学观

威廉?詹姆斯（William James, 1842-1910）被誉为“美国心理学之父”,他强烈反对当时学院派实验心理学家的小心理学观,在心理学史上第一次对他以前的心理学思想进行了整合,建构了一种整合的心理学科学观。他认为心理学既具有自然科学的性质,又具有人文科学的性质,这种科学观坚持心理学的人学性质,是一种“大心理学观”。詹姆斯的心理学科学观是解决当前心理学问题不可或缺的思想资源,对当前心理学研究工作具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Working Pasteur's Quadrant: harnessing science and action for community change

Community psychology in general and the field of prevention in particular has unquestioningly accepted the assumption that the research process should proceed in a linear fashion from a search for basic knowledge to application in the community context. This ignores the compelling insight offered by Stokes (1997) that the drive for new knowledge and the pursuit of application can be combined in a single effort. If research in community psychology pursues the drive for application without an equal commitment to the development of knowledge about underlying community processes of social cooperation and change, it will become a field less capable of innovative and enduring contributions to community well-being and effectiveness. Opportunities abound in community psychology for the simultaneous pursuit of new knowledge and more effective practice. We offer the example of a community leadership development program to promote collective efficacy as a case in point.     

人以天地之气生:气象对人类心理与行为的影响

从情绪波动到文明兴衰,研究者愈来愈意识到大气现象对人类的重要影响。气象心理学涵盖天气和气候这两大类大气现象作用于人类个体和群体的心理与行为乃至文化特征的各种研究。在个体心理层面,温度、湿度、日照等气象因素会影响个体情绪、工作记忆和认知能力。在个体行为层面,人际亲和行为和反社会行为也会被天气左右。在群体和文化层面,从长程上考察,气温和降水量与多尺度人类群体冲突爆发密切相关;气候冷暖和资源多寡也会共同形塑当地族群的文化心理行为特征。人类世界始终嵌入于天气和气候等宏观生态环境中并受其影响,气象心理学应当在心理学研究体系中占有一席之地。     

WOMEN''S HERITAGE IN PSYCHOLOGY

The American Psychological Association's Centennial provides a unique opportunity to celebrate, preserve, and interpret women's heritage in the origins and development of psychology. This special issue documents women's contributions to, and the impact of feminist critiques on, the discipline of psychology and its organizations. The articles in this special issue demonstrate how psychological theories and practice, research methods, and interpretation of data are embedded in social, political, and historical contexts. Moreover, they document how feminist critiques have challenged traditional assumptions about knowledge and served as a catalyst for the transformation of psychological theories, methods, and practice—a transformation that has just begun.     

When social psychology became less social: Prasad and the history of rumor research

Rumor research, in general, and its delayed incorporation of the work of rumor researcher Jamuna Prasad, in particular, exemplify how the intellectual climate of American social psychology discouraged the development of social approaches. In the present paper, we explain his conceptualization of how rumors start and spread, and explore findings from subsequent research supporting or negating his propositions. It is our contention that, although Prasad had identified the basic variables involved in rumor generation and transmission correctly, mainstream social psychological research in the 1940s did not incorporate his contributions. Instead, mirroring the Zeitgeist of American social psychology, rumor research was approached from a predominantly individual level of analysis. In the present paper, the authors have tried to resurrect some of the group-level variables from Prasad's treatment of rumor and to suggest that social psychology adopt a more 'social' approach to rumor.     

试论康德心理学思想及其对当代的影响

康德著作中蕴含着丰富的心理学思想,其在继承沃尔夫理性心理学与经验心理学二分的基础上,通过批评理性心理学,消解了我思的主体地位,为解决二元论问题做出了重要努力;通过批评经验心理学,指明了心理学在成长为一门科学过程中必须面对的诸多问题。新康德主义在继承并改造康德思想的过程中,发展出一系列影响深远的心理学理论;认知心理学的重要代表人物皮亚杰基于对康德思想独具特色的把握,提出了发生认识论;而当代认知科学的图式理论,则完全是建基于对康德经验图式理论框架的全面继承上。