Can disability studies and psychology join hands?

Although the field of disabilities studies incorporates psychology within its interdisciplinary purview, it embodies a distinct perspective consonant with the new paradigm of disability. This perspective is contrasted with that of psychology, and the place of disability within psychology is examined. Although psychology has begun to embrace diversity, disability has remained marginalized. Four areas are presented in this article: (a) the foundational ideas of disability studies, (b) training in disability within psychology, (c) the paradigms of disability reflected in research on disability, and (d) future research directions.     

“Beyond words”: a researcher’s guide to using photo elicitation in psychology

The use of photo elicitation is limited within the field of psychology despite its theoretical and practical potential. It offers significant benefits as a qualitative method that could present a new and interesting way of exploring previously understood topics within the discipline. Within our discussion, we present a step-by-step guide outlining the key practical stages and ethical assurances involved in photo elicitation research, using our ongoing research as an illustrative example. It is intended that this could be used as a model of good practice for developing research paradigms beyond those typically used within the psychology discipline.     

Indigenous theorizing in a complex world

Indigenization in psychology leads to modes of theorizing based within local knowledge communities and defined in terms of culturally relevant criteria. The present study offers a conceptualization of the social psychology of science in terms of complexity theory. The value of alternative choices in advancing psychological knowledge is shown by a knowledge landscape whose shape depends on the diversity of paradigms within the community. Dominance by a single paradigm (such as a Western world view) leads to a single-peaked landscape where advances in knowledge are judged using only the criteria of that paradigm. Here, the most effective form of working is incremental step-by-step research; but this ignores the historical context of the indigenous community and runs the risk of promoting a kind of psychology that is irrelevant to its values and priorities. Indigenization is presented as a complexification of the knowledge community building on a diversity of world views, leading to a rugged, multiple-peaked knowledge landscape. Four features of working on rugged landscapes are examined: path dependence, showing the importance of history for shaping the direction of research; fostering research progress through seeding of multiple starting points; the benefits of locally dense networks within knowledge communities; and the role of policy-makers in tuning knowledge landscapes. Examples are drawn from the development of indigenous psychology within a number of countries.     

Qualitative research in multicultural psychology: philosophical underpinnings, popular approaches, and ethical considerations

This article reviews the current and emerging status of qualitative research in psychology. The particular value of diverse philosophical paradigms and varied inquiry approaches to the advancement of psychology generally, and multicultural psychology specifically, is emphasized. Three specific qualitative inquiry approaches anchored in diverse philosophical research paradigms are highlighted: consensual qualitative research, grounded theory, and participatory action research. The article concludes by highlighting important ethical considerations in multicultural qualitative research.     

Indigenous Epistemology Explored through Yoruba Orisha Traditions in the African Diaspora

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes an Indigenous epistemology explored through Yoruba Orisha traditions in the African diaspora. It also emphasizes the discordance between Euro-American psychology and African American women’s feminism. In particular, it presents decolonial woman-centered spriritual practices and the possibilities inherent in cosmovivencia. As an example, it draws from a symposium hosted by Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) at City University of New York in February 2016, entitled Trade/itions: Trans-Atlantic Sacred Orisha Traditions. The article is intended to open dialogue about the epistemic centering of Indigneous philosophies, as well as the historical and current practices within African diaspora spiritual systems to support individual and community well-being and social activism. In addition, it addresses the preponderance of damage-centered research about African-descended and Indigenous peoples and women, in particular, in the academic psychology literature and recommends emergent methodological strategies for resistance to those approaches that reinforce colonial paradigms. Lastly, it supports the integral connection with and reliance on the natural world and all living species within Orisha traditions. These vital connections intrinsically place women practitioners at the forefront of efforts toward environmental justice.     

Research as therapy, therapy as research: Ethical dilemmas in new-paradigm research

Ethical dilemmas are raised by changes in research paradigms which encourage the development of a relationship between researcher and participant. In such contexts it becomes increasingly difficult to tell the difference between a therapeutic relationship and a research interview. The rapid development of research within the therapeutic world of counselling and clinical psychology poses further ethical issues relating to the use of clients as participants in research studies. It is concluded that there must be an increased awareness of these issues and a need to accept responsibility for relationships with both participants and clients.     

认知主义与联结主义之比较

认知主义的研究定向和联结主义的研究定向是广义的现代认知心理学的两种主要研究范式。这两种研究范式都各有自己的研究内容和方法论,也取得了各自不同的成就,同时也存在各自不同的问题。通过对两种研究范式的比较,我们可以清楚地认识到二者的相互沟通和融合才是认知心理学未来发展的必然趋势。     

Thinking bigger: The Cronbachian paradigm & personality theory integration

Personality theories largely mirror disparities between fundamental paradigms that guide most psychology: one based upon Galton’s emphasis on inter-individual differences and the lexical hypothesis; the other inspired by Wundt is focused upon intra-individual processes, such as temperament and Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory. Previous integrations of personality models using these paradigms failed to account for observed variance, suggesting model incommensurability. We propose that a broader conception—developed from Cronbach and colleagues’ generalisability theory—provides an effective integrating framework, and show how Galtonian and Wundtian models may be assimilated within Cronbachian approaches. Additionally, Cronbachian models have novel practical implications. Application of the Cronbachian paradigm to personality will be challenging, but provides an opportunity to achieve genuine coherence in personality research.     

Qualitative research and its place in psychological science

In discussing the place of diverse qualitative research within psychological science, the authors highlight the potential permeability of the quantitative-qualitative boundary and identify different ways of increasing communication between researchers specializing in different methods. Explicating diversity within qualitative research is facilitated, initially, through documenting the range of qualitative data collection and analytic methods available. The authors then consider the notion of paradigmatic frame and review debates on the current and future positioning of qualitative research within psychological science. In so doing, the authors argue that the different ways in which the concept of paradigm can be interpreted allow them to challenge the idea that diverse research paradigms are prima facie incommensurate. Further, reviewing the ways in which proponents of qualitative research are seeking to reconfigure the links between paradigms helps the authors to envisage how communication between research communities can be enhanced. This critical review allows the authors to systematize possible configurations for research practice in psychology on a continuum of paradigm integration and to specify associated criteria for judging intermethod coherence.     

心理科学的两根拐杖

心理科学发展至今,一直受到哲学以及科学与技术发展的影响。哲学为心理科学的发展提供了方法论,科学与技术则为心理科学的发展提供了研究范式和研究工具。笔者认为:当今心理科学正处变革之中,后现代主义思潮与信息技术、纳米技术及生物技术的发展也许将孕育一场心理学革命。     

A History of Psychology of Religion in the West: Implications for Theory and Method

The study of religion in Western psychology has an interesting history that provides many lessons for future attempts to understand the spiritual aspects of human experience. In the past, psychologists have typically operated from one of three paradigms in their study of religion: (1) hermeneutic–phenomenological, (2) positivistic naturalism, and (3) religious integration. Each of these paradigms has a number of important theoretical assumptions and a preferred set of methodologies that offer significant advantages and disadvantages. The paradigm of positivistic naturalism, with its emphasis on quantitative questionnaire methodology, has been the most influential but also the least helpful in generating new ideas for the psychological understanding of religion, particularly as it is practiced in non-Western contexts. A historical survey of the other competing paradigms offers many insights and practical suggestions about how research in the psychology of religion might proceed in the twenty-first century.     

心理学非人性化和人性化的矛盾与冲突

心理学自1879年独立以来,由于种种原因,其发展一直存在着非人性化与人性化的矛盾与冲突,而这种矛盾与冲突所带来的最严重的后果是导致心理学出现了分裂,心理学成为了一门学派纷争、理论对立、组织分裂的学科。该文着重分析了心理学的两大研究范式间和科学主义心理学本身中所存在的非人性化与人性化的矛盾与冲突,希望借此能对我国心理学的发展有所启示。     

THE epistemologies of parsimony: A review of Ockham's razors: A user's manual by Elliott Sober

Sober analyzes two paradigms of parsimony that have been used successfully in science. These are associated with two interpretations of probability: Bayesian and frequentist. Sober applies these paradigms to problems in biology, psychology, and philosophy. In the chapter on psychology, he argues that objective data consisting of environmental input and two or more concurrent responses could be used to refute empirically the radical behaviorist thesis that probability of learned responses can be accounted for solely on the basis of environmental variables. Sober believes that such data are readily available and offers a thought experiment to illustrate his point. Behavior analysts, however, would want actual experimental data, undoubtedly with animals, before accepting any such refutation. Nonetheless, Sober's philosophical point about the type of experiment that would be capable of refuting this thesis is valid. The behavior analytic program, however, does not depend upon the truth of this thesis.     

An extraordinary ordinariness

Counselling psychology in the UK has evolved from the disciplines of psychology, sociology and philosophy, but more slowly than its counterpart in the USA. Counselling psychologists, it is argued, have the skills and training to integrate good practice with rigorous research. Expertise in rigorous research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, and skill in identifying new paradigms, make the interface between practice and research in counselling psychology an especially fruitful area for study.     

Neoliberal ideology in work and organizational psychology

This paper explores the role of neoliberal ideology in workplace practices and in work and organizational psychology (WOP) research. It analyses how neoliberal ideology manifests in these two domains by using a prominent framework from the field of political theory to understand ideology through three different logics: political, social and fantasmatic logics. We explore the main neoliberal assumptions underlying existing practices in the workplace as well as in WOP research, how individuals are gripped by such practices, and how the status quo is maintained. The paper analyses how individuals in the contemporary workplace are henceforth influenced by neoliberalism, and how this is reflected in the practices and dominant paradigms within WOP. In particular, we focus on three ways neoliberalism affects workplaces and individual experiences of the workplace: through instrumentality, individualism and competition. The paper finishes with practical recommendations for researchers and practitioners alike on how to devote more attention to the, often implicit, role of neoliberal ideology in their work and research. The discussion elaborates on how alternative paradigms in the workplace can be developed which address the downsides of neoliberalism.     

Mathematical models of foreign policy decision-making: Compensatory vs. noncompensatory

There are presently two leading foreign policy decision-making paradigms in vogue. The first is based on the classical or rational model originally posited by von Neumann and Morgenstern to explain microeconomic decisions. The second is based on the cybernetic perspective whose groundwork was laid by Herbert Simon in his early research on bounded rationality. In this paper we introduce a third perspective — thepoliheuristic theory of decision-making — as an alternative to the rational actor and cybernetic paradigms in international relations. This theory is drawn in large part from research on heuristics done in experimental cognitive psychology. According to the poliheuristic theory, policy makers use poly (many) heuristics while focusing on a very narrow range of options and dimensions when making decisions. Among them, the political dimension is noncompensatory. The paper also delineates the mathematical formulations of the three decision-making models.The authors thank Raymond Dacey for his helpful comments.     

Paradigms in the study of creativity: Introducing the perspective of cultural psychology

This article identifies three paradigms in creativity theory and research in psychology. The He-paradigm, focused on the solitary genius, has been followed, mainly after the 1950s, by the I-paradigm, equally individualistic in nature but attributing creativity to each and every individual. Extending this view, the We-paradigm incorporates what became known as the social psychology of creativity. The cultural psychology of creativity builds upon this last theoretical approach while being critical of some of its assumptions. This relatively new perspective, using the conceptual and methodological framework of cultural psychology, investigates the sociocultural roots and dynamics of all our creative acts and employs a tetradic framework of self - community - new artifact - existing artifacts in its conceptualization of creativity. The theoretical basis of the cultural psychology approach is analyzed as well as some of its main implications for both the understanding and study of creativity.     

Intérêts et limites de l’utilisation d’une méthodologie mixte : à propos d’une recherche en psychologie de la santé

Recently, the health social sciences, like some fields of psychology, have progressively adopted qualitative methods, particularly in English-speaking countries. When they come in addition to quantitative methods, they are called “mixed methodologies”. Among other reasons, these approaches suffer nonetheless of a lack of acknowledgement because of a still topical debate opposing the positivist-objectivist and the constructivist paradigms. Another reason to this lack of acknowledgement is due to the fact that several authors explain the use of a mixed methodology according to pragmatic arguments. The authors of this paper briefly present these debates and their pertinence in health psychology research and try to overcome them by showing that it is possible to make mixed methodologies fall within a constructivist approach. Their proposal is exemplified through a research work about organ donation decision led in Switzerland. Actually, this research embed multiple and complex factors that offer an appropriated ground for the use of a mixed methodology, qualitative and quantitative.     

Toward Unity in Psychology: The Experimental Synthesis of Behaviour

The current state of fragmentation of psychology is discussed in the context of Kuhn's paradigms. Schools of psychology are considered analogous to paradigms, although Kuhn would not think of psychology as a paradigmatic science. Schools gave origin to systems of psychology (neo-behaviourism, neo-psychoanalysis, dialectic-materialistic psychology, and humanistic psychology). A unifying paradigm, the experimental synthesis of behaviour, is presented as a programme. It is derived from the experimental analysis of behaviour. It is not an eclectic approach, but a new paradigm with the aim of unifying psychology as a science. Its main characteristics and advantages are discussed.     

N=1: An alternative research strategy for school psychologists

Single subject (N=1) research strategies deserve increased emphasis in the training of school psychologists. Single subject methodology has demonstrated credibility in research and in monitoring effects of professional interventions, but school psychology programs have typically not provided systematic training in this area. This paper suggests that N=1 research paradigms offer a promising supplement and, in some cases, an alternative to traditional large N between group strategies in school-based research; it reviews some examples of N=1 research design and methodology; it discusses some advantages and limitations of N=1 research strategies; and it argues that school psychology training programs must train graduate students in N=1 research and encourage this form of research methodology in practice.