Giving Psychological Science Away: The Role of Applications Courses

ABSTRACT— The applicability of basic research in psychological science is obvious to those in the field, but too often underappreciated outside of it. In this article, I suggest some reasons for that gap, including confusion between the relevance of psychological science and its actual application, which can lead to hype; the interdisciplinary nature of applied science, which can obscure the credit due to the field; and the considerable difficulty of moving basic research into application, including the potential for resistance to the products we deliver. I suggest that our own students constitute a relatively underutilized audience for demonstrating that psychological science has been critical to applications, and I describe an applied cognitive science course that is intended to make the case to them.     

Life,Chaos, and Transdisciplinarity: A Personal Journey

This article uses an autobiography as an object of research, to both illustrate some principles of chaos theory in analytic practice, and give those ideas a personal and social context, thereby producing a unique but explanation-rich history of chaos theory and recent intellectual history of transdisciplinarity and social research in the West. The ideas from Chaos Theory it uses and illustrates include: three-body analysis (Poincaré); fractals (Mandelbrot); fuzzy logic (Zadeh); and the butterfly effect (Lorenz).     

The Journey of Personal Growth: A Qualitative Exploration of Personal Growth Processes in Young Adulthood

The present study aimed at qualitative exploration of personal growth processes among young adults. It also explored the linkages of personal growth processes with implicit beliefs and possible selves. An extreme case sampling approach was used and it involved two groups of individuals, those high and low on action orientation. A semi structured interview was utilized to elicit subjective accounts of these individuals about their personal growth goals and related processes. A thematic analysis of the interview protocols that individuals actively striving towards personal growth often endorsed incremental theory beliefs (considered their current self as mutable) in comparison to people not working actively on their personal growth goals. As the study focused on malleable variables such as beliefs, strategies and manner of approach to life goals, it has implications in designing promotive intervention programs to help young adults discover ways of strengthening and sustaining their motivation and efforts in intentional pursuit of their personal growth goals.     

Changing Perspectives in Social Psychology in India: A Journey Towards Indigenization

The popularity and success of social psychology in the U.S. have created the impression that social psychology is purely a Western, if not a U.S. product. Many scholars from African and Asian continents accept this claim that the roots of social psychology are American, and have tried to emulate their research strategies and methodology. Only recently, the European social psychologists have established their identity and distinctness different from the culture of American social psychology. Among Asian social psychologists, there is a growing awareness of a distinct identity and a rediscovery of their cultural heritage. In particular, Indian social psychologists emphasize functional interrelatedness of the self, relations, society, and universe. With this indigenization process, social psychology in India is taking on a character distinctive from that of the West, is imparting a new look to social psychology, and promises to provide what the mainstream social psychology lacks.     

Judaism and the Dialogue of Religion and Science: A Personal Journey

ABSTRACT

Through a personal narrative about my own entry into the field of science and religion, the essay reflects on the interplay of religion and science in Judaism. In addition to documenting my involvement with the dialogue of religion and science, the essay provides a brief historical overview of the interplay of the relationship between science and religion in the case of Judaism and considers diverse approaches toward technoscience among the main strands of Judaism today. The essay ends by recognizing the importance of science in Jewish intellectual history and the potential contribution of Judaism to the field of religion and science.     

A 21st-Century Personal Construct Psychology Upgrade

Cromwell's (2010) Being Human: Human Being. Manifesto for a New Psychology described many familiar elements of Kelly's (1955) Psychology of Personal Constructs. Cromwell regarded Kelly's theory as having a range of untapped implications, and he extended and elaborated many of these elements and links them to contemporary research in a variety of fields and subdomains. These extensions and elaborations might serve as a basis for maintaining the fundamental identity of personal construct psychology (PCP) while also modifying it in a manner that could enhance its contemporary relevance and effectiveness.     

A Spiritual Journey Into the I-Thou Relationship: A Personal Reflection on Living With Dementia

This article is a personal reflection of the author’s spiritual journey after diagnosis with dementia. It draws on biblical texts to illustrate moments of trauma, then adjustment, and finally joy. The article concludes with a reflection on the experience of dementia as being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom.12:8). It suggests an approach in which the increasing disability caused by dementia may be regarded as “walking in the cool of the day” with God in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:8).     

Theological Education in a New Missional Era: A Personal Journey with Seven Theses

The author's personal journey in discovering, developing, researching and practicing adult theological education in the church is rehearsed, pointing out key learning moments along the way. Out of this praxis seven theses are offered that set an agenda for theological education in the new missional era in which the church finds itself.     

A Personal Journey Toward Culture‐Centered Counseling: An Interview With Paul Pedersen

Paul Pedersen's journey into becoming culturally competent has encountered interesting twists and turns. An introduction, a discussion of historical factors that help shape his life, a discussion of some of his major contributions, an assessment of the current state of multiculturalism, as well as Paul's vision of the future are all presented.     

论个体竞争性的心理学研究

个体竞争性是个体在竞争意识、动机、认知、态度等方面表现出来的稳定的心理特征的总和。揭示个体竞争性发生、发展的机制及规律,有助于个体更好地适应当代竞争激烈的社会环境。目前的研究主要集中在过度性竞争、个人发展竞争以及它们与其它人格特征的关系上。其心理机制还没有统一的见解,需要进行多方面的整合。当前需要解决的问题是:正确看待竞争所带来的心理效应;积极建构个体竞争性的结构模型;编制多样化的测量工具。     

Moral Foundations Theory and the Psychology of Charitable Giving

Moral foundations theory proposes that intuitions about what is morally right or wrong rest upon a set of universal foundations. Although this theory has generated a recent surge of research, few studies have investigated the real-world moral consequences of the postulated moral intuitions. We show that they are predictably associated with an important type of moral behaviour. Stronger individualizing intuitions (fairness and harm prevention) and weaker binding intuitions (loyalty, authority, and sanctity) were associated with the willingness to comply with a request to volunteer for charity and with the amount of self-reported donations to charity organizations. Among participants who complied with the request, individualizing intuitions predicted the allocation of donations to causes that benefit out-groups, whereas binding intuitions predicted the allocation of donations to causes that benefit the in-group. The associations between moral foundations and self-report measures of allocations in a hypothetical dilemma and concern with helping in-group and out-group victims were similar. Moral foundations predicted charitable giving over and above effects of political ideology, religiosity, and demographics, although variables within these categories also exhibited unique effects on charitable giving and accounted for a portion of the relationship between moral foundations and charitable giving. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

From Ego Psychology to Psychoanalysis in the Year 2000: One Analyst's Journey

Challenged by clinical findings and necessity, psychoanalysts proceed on a lifelong professional journey of exploring, deleting, adding, and integrating from various theoretical and technical paradigms. This article briefly depicts one analyst's journey from ego psychology in the early 1970s to the year 2000. The emphasis on retaining early valuable tenets and adding new theoretical and technical concepts. As an example, conflicts involving problems of the self and ego ideal, brought to the fore through work with patients having significant self-esteem, shame, and envy difficulties, are singled out. These conflicts are found in cases such as those with anorexia, body image disturbance, gender identity and negative gender message problems, and cases having early denigrating environments. Shame dynamics are addressed. The presenting pictures for problems involving shame are usually new compromise formations prompted by signal shame. A case is reported to depict the use of modern conflict theory in analyzing such problems.     

Proving Possession of Arbitrary Secrets While not Giving them Away: New Protocols and a Proof in GNY Logic

This paper introduces and describes new protocols for proving knowledge of secrets without giving them away: if the verifier does not know the secret, he does not learn it. This can all be done while only using one-way hash functions. If also the use of encryption is allowed, these goals can be reached in a more efficient way. We extend and use the GNY authentication logic to prove correctness of these protocols.     

Personal Construct Psychology in Preservice Teacher Education: The Path Toward Reflexivity

In times of rapid changes, it is necessary to prepare teachers to be agents of education reform and thus educate them for reflective practice. However, prospective teachers in Serbia rarely have the opportunity to reflect on personal constructs of the teaching profession and their own practice. With the aim of supporting prospective teachers to become reflective practitioners and persons-as-scientists, we organized “alternative lectures” as part of the compulsory study course for future teachers. Within four encounters with four groups of 8 to 10 student teachers, we applied three techniques, developed within frames of personal construct psychology. Modifications of the technique “river of experience,” Career Rivers, enabled student teachers to reflect on the past and reveal constructs that guided previous actions in the professional field. Two self-characterizations, one portraying them as teachers and another portraying them as specialists in a different profession (in accordance with their education), made their constructions of future jobs more permeable. Through the combination of the perceiver element grid and perceiver self grid, they were encouraged to enter the role relationship with pupils and community. Although it raised new questions, this cooperative enterprise resulted in the reduction of anxiety regarding future jobs, embedding the stance of a person-as-scientist and sowing the seeds of reflective practice.     

Rising Up From Down Under: A Response To Adams-Webber On Cognitive Psychology And Personal Construct Theory

This article is a response to Adams-Webber's (1990) critique of my discussion of the relation between personal construct theory and cognitive psychology (Warren, 7990). Several points of specific disagreement are raised in an effort to clarify my own position. Furthermore, this clarification highlights the need for “integrationist” perspectives to clearly and directly address the problems, as well as the prospects, of relating personal construct theory to other perspectives in psychology.     

Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Association for Women in Psychology: A Life in Feminist Psychology: A Long and Interesting Journey from Ft. Wayne to Newport (Herstory)

Sex Roles - The present commentary addresses the radical history of feminist psychology and the Association for Women in Psychology. In it, I explore innovations with roots in feminist psychology...