Social psychology of institutional change: General principles for intervention

Six principles for achieving total institutional change are presented as a framework for developing intervention strategies for changing established human-service institutions for deviants. These principles are discussed and then explicated with examples from a total change effort in a state training school for adjudicated male delinquents. It is argued that most human service institutions for deviants are in desperate need of massive change and that all six of these principles must be realized, at least to some degree, if such change is to be effected.Numerous discussions over the years with Seymour B. Sarason, J. Terry Saunders, Brian P. V. Sarata, Charles W. Dean, and Leland Wilkinson have been instrumental in formulating the ideas expressed in this paper. The author is most appreciative of their support and contributions. Some of these ideas were originally presented in a paper of the same title by N. D. Reppucci, J. T. Saunders, and L. Wilkinson as part of a symposium at the Convention of the American Psychological Association, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1972.     

Promoting innovation: A change study

This paper considers how employee innovation develops during the course of introducing team‐working for production‐related staff. Longitudinal analysis revealed that different predictors were active at different phases. At first, changes in idea implementation were related to changes in management support. Subsequently, changes in suggestion making were associated with changes in job control and changes in idea implementation were linked to changes in team support for innovation. Results are consistent with the developmental notion that, whilst external support is an important predictor of innovation initially, structural job changes and local regulation are more important later.     

Politics and school psychology: A case study

School psychology is one of several professions in education which offer services beyond the regular school curriculum and program. Psychologists who work in school systems have long recognized the need to cooperate with these other professionals in school settings. In addition, they have been aware of the pressures from parents, teachers, and community groups which can impinge upon their jobs. However, limited availability of funding, federally mandated services, and legislation regarding certification are rapidly placing local, state, and national politics into prominance for school psychologists. An example is provided using the Commonwealth of Kentucky.     

心理学在社会服务体系中作用的思考——以复原力建设为例

在社会心理服务体系建设中, 心理学到底起着什么样的作用?怎样才能更好地构建全面系统的多主体社会心理服务体系?在社会心理服务体系建设中如何推动心理学自身的发展?这些问题一直受到广大心理学者的关注。以复原力为例, 通过对个体、团队以及社区心理复原力建设路径的理论总结, 加上实践案例, 以期为社会心理服务体系建设提供知识借鉴与参考, 并反思心理学在此过程中的作用与角色。心理学专业研究团队可以通过整合其在社会支持体系中的应用, 推动心理学在社会服务体系中的应用。     

Computer use in psychology instruction: A survey of individual and institutional characteristics

This paper reports the results of a national survey of psychology faculty regarding their instructional use of computers. The survey was designed to answer three general questions: (1) In what ways and to what extent are psychologists using computers in their instruction? (2) What individual characteristics differentiate among levels of users? (3) What institutional characteristics appear to promote or inhibit the instructional use of computers? The results reveal that, although there appears to be extensive use of computers to support instruction, there are both institutional and individual characteristics that differentiate among levels and types of use. Several factors are identified that could lead to increased instructional use of computers, but their impact will largely be determined by the characteristics of the individual and the institution.     

Excess disability and malignant social psychology: A case study of Alzheimer's disease

An in-depth case study was undertaken to assess the effects of what Kitwood has termed ‘malignant social psychology’ on the observed behaviour of an Alzheimer's disease sufferer. Interviews were conducted with the spouse and observations were made in an adult day-care centre, where staff members were also interviewed. Abilities that the spouse reported to be absent at home were readily observed at the day-care centre, lending support to Brody's idea of excess disability, i.e. disability not due to disease alone. Furthermore, forms of malignant social psychology existed in the home environment but did not exist in the day-care centre. Excess disability and its absence coincided with the presence and absence of aspects of malignant social psychology. The sufferer's behaviour was found to be affected not only by the extant neuropathology, but also by social relationships.     

The institutional evolution of religion: innovation and entrepreneurship in ancient Israel

In light of contemporary advances and in an effort to supplement and add to the vibrant discourse surrounding the evolution of religion, a distinctly sociological theory that returns to and pushes forward the insights of Durkheim and Weber is offered. The unit of evolution is the institutional sphere, or the macro-level structural and cultural sphere of religious action, exchange, and communication; and evolution is the process by which religious entrepreneurs are able to secure material and symbolic independence vis-à-vis other strata and, thereby, carve out an autonomous religious institution to reproduce their symbolic, normative, and organizational innovations. To illustrate the way this sociological theory of institutional evolution works, and how it accounts for multi-linear evolutionary paths, while considering contingencies, the evolution of the Ancient Israelite religion from the late 8th century BCE to the end of the Exile in the late 6th century BCE is examined.     

Bowlby before Bowlby: The sources of an intellectual departure in psychoanalysis and psychology

John Bowlby's first scientific papers express a viewpoint of the etiology of childhood disorders that gradually developed during his university years and the first years of his professional life. As becomes clear from, among other things, Bowlby's private correspondence, it was the period spent as a student at Cambridge, his work as a teacher at two progressive schools, and his work at a child guidance clinic that allowed him to articulate a view on childhood deviancy that was at variance with the Kleinian variant of psychoanalysis. Bowlby's position as an ‘independent’ thinker in the British Psycho-Analytical Society can be understood against the background of these intellectual influences. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Explaining change in psychology: The road not taken

I wish to express sincere thanks to the following persons who have given me the benefit of their comments and criticisms: Anthony S. Bryk, Renford Bamreough, Simon Blackburn, David Bloor, Jeremy Butterfield, Edward Craig, Jerry A. Fodor, Robert P. Gordon, P.M.S. Hacker, David Hansen, D.W. Hamlyn, Philip W. Jackson, Anthony Kenny, Peggy J. Miller, and Robert J. Richards. In addition, I gratefully acknowledge the support I received from a Spencer Seed Grant, University of Chicago, which allowed me to go to England in the summer of 1985 and discuss a version of this work with colleagues. Finally, I owe thanks to Benton Center for Curriculum and Instruction, University of Chicago, for various support services.