Psychology between science and common sense: William James and the problems of psychological language in the Principles

The suspicion that language can become an obstacle to human knowledge is not new in the Western intellectual tradition. Following the empiricist legacy, many authors have suggested the perils and pitfalls of common sense language for science. Applied to psychology, this leads to the issue of the reliability of psychological language for scientific psychology. William James, in his Principles of Psychology, was one of the first psychologists to address this problem explicitly. The goal of this paper is to situate his position and contrast it with contemporary debates over the status of folk psychology. The results indicate that James conceived of common sense psychology in a very complex manner, and pointed to a kind of illusion that remains ignored in the current literature, with negative consequences for psychology. I conclude by suggesting the relevance of James for contemporary debates in theoretical and philosophical psychology.     

Psychology and the science of human-environment interactions

Psychology has an indispensable role in understanding environmental problems and finding solutions. To fill this role, psychologists must work within an interdisciplinary effort to build a scientific understanding of human-environment interactions. This article enumerates 8 widely held beliefs about these interactions and assesses the strengths and limitations of each belief. It suggests that psychology can contribute more strongly by counteracting disciplinary biases, focusing research where a behavioral analysis identifies major opportunities, making appropriately modest claims, collaborating with other disciplines, and building on psychology's relative strengths among the human sciences.     

It's time to rework the blueprints: building a science for clinical psychology

The aims in this article are to connect the conceptual structure of clinical psychological science to what the author believes to be the omnipresent principles of evolution, use the evolutionary model to create a deductively derived clinical theory and taxonomy, link the theory and taxonomy to comprehensive and integrated approaches to assessment, and outline a framework for an integrative synergistic model of psychotherapy. These foundations also provide a framework for a systematic approach to the subject realms of personology and psychopathology. Exploring nature's deep principles, the model revives the personologic concept christened by Henry Murray some 65 years ago; it also parallels the interface between human social functioning and evolutionary biology proposed by Edward Wilson in his concept of sociobiology.     

Psychology as a quantitative rational science (excerpts)

The purpose of the Psychometric Society is to encourage mathematical psychology. This article justifies the emphasis on quantification, and upon rationalization in science, as well as the Society's conception of the fundamental nature of science.Editor's Note: On September 4, 1936, L. L. Thurstone gave the presidential address at the first annual meeting of the Psychometric Society in Hanover, NH. Uncertainties about the viability of the new journal,Psychometrika, led his colleagues to urge him to publish his address inScience. Excerpts from that paper are reprinted here. Thurstone's examples are now quite dated, and have been omitted, thus thwarting his major intent of providing examples of quantification. But his point of view towards the goals of the new Society is remarkably fresh, and is expressed with typical Thurstone clarity. The reference to the complete paper is:Thurstone, L. L. (1937). Psychology as a quantitative rational science.Science, 85, 227–232. (Copyright 1937 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.)     

Community science: bridging the gap between science and practice with community-centered models

A major goal of community science is to improve the quality of life in our communities by improving the quality of the practice of treatment, prevention, health promotion, and education. Community science is an interdisciplinary field, which develops and researches community-centered models that enable communities to use evidence-based interventions more effectively and efficiently. In this article, the gap between science and practice and the need to bridge the gap with new models serve as an entry point and guide to the development of a community science. Therefore, the article describes (1) the prevention science model of bringing science to practice, (2) why this model is necessary but not sufficient for influencing the quality of interventions in our everyday world, (3) the gap between science and practice and the need to integrate prevention science models with community-centered models in order to bridge the gap, and (4) features of community science.     

The empirical link between relationship marketing tools and consumer retention in retail marketing

This article focuses on the key relationship marketing tools of customer service, loyalty/rewards programs, brand/store community, personalization and customization, and their relationship with customer retention. The relationship between customer service, loyalty/rewards programs, customization, personalization, brand/store community and customer retention were examined via an empirical investigation of 450 loyalty/reward program members of three retail stores in Malaysia. The administration of the survey was personally administered but self‐completed. Four of the five relationship marketing tools, namely, customer service, loyalty/rewards programs, brand/store community and personalization, had a significant positive relationship with customer retention. The findings provided valuable insights into the loyalty program management practices of retail stores in a developing country context. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ageism in science: Fair-play between generations

This paper discusses the role of age in scientific practice from an ethical perspective. In social perception, people tend to categorise others rather automatically along three major dimensions: race, sex, and age.¹ Much empirical and theoretical attention has been devoted to the study of racism and sexism, but comparatively little research in the social and behaviural sciences has been directed at understanding what some refer to as the third ‘-ism’: ageism.² For a serious understanding of the implications of ageism in science, it is necessary to discuss, first, the conflicting relationships between classical and modern concepts of time and calendar age, and thereafter the concept of ageism. Paper presented at the Fondation des Treilles Colloquium “Ethics and the European Space”, Les Treilles, France, 3–9 April 2003.     

Death: Bridge between science and spirit

It is argued that contemporary health science, being part of a general cultural trend toward the materialism of scientific rationality, has reduced human health to a system of machine-like events. This philosophical trend has had the indirect effect of excluding the human spirit from playing any significant role in our understanding of man's health and well-being. The recent effort of biomedical science to extend this materialist philosophy into the area of human death and dying is examined in the context of this ideological trend. It is suggested that the trend has brought about an ever-widening conceptual gap between the realms of spirit and matter. The issue of bridging this contemporary conceptual gap is discussed in terms of recent research findings that suggest that the human brain may be capable of intergrating the logic of two seemingly irreconcilable ways of thinking into a whole which is enriched from the presence of both. This holistic possibility is discussed in the context of the philosophies that support the existence of spirit and matter.     

Systems marketing: a new operating model for pharmaceutical marketing

This paper introduces a new model for marketing based on systems design. Adaptive tactical systems are featured as a novel commercial approach that enables ROI to be measured holistically, and serves as a comprehensive strategy for progressive integration, accommodating new marketing components, on‐demand technologies, and business ideas as they emerge and are added to the same containing whole. Initially applied to the pharmaceutical industry, the paper details the design and evolution of a brand module, a tactical system focused specifically on harvesting top‐line sales from primary care brands in a middle market of the United States. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Philosophy between science and the humanities

Philosophy should avoid isolation, and should return to being curious and enthusiastic about explanation: about why- and how possibly-questions. The analytic and continental philosophical cultures should establish a dialogue, where each side brings out the distinctive qualities of its work while widening the scope of its concerns.     

Psychology and phenomenology: a clarification

Controversies are rampant in contemporary psychology concerning the appropriate method for observing consciousness and the role inner experience should play in psychological theorizing. These conflicting orientations reflect, in part, methodological differences between natural science and human science interpretations of psychology. Humanistic psychology and philosophical phenomenology both employ a human science approach to psychology that seeks to explain behavior in terms of a person's subjective existence. Maslow's and Heidegger's formulations are both fulfillment theories in that they specify moral values that suggest how life ought to be lived. Natural science methodology rejects the possibility that moral imperatives can be validated, whereas human science methodology allows phenomenological convictions to justify recommendations about a fulfilled life and a good society. The social role of psychology is analyzed within the framework of phenomenological convictions and scientific truth.