The mobile frontiers of Piaget’s psychology. From academic tourism to interdisciplinary collaboration / Las fronteras móviles de la psicología de Piaget. Del turismo académico a la colaboración interdisciplinaria

Jean Piaget’s (1896–1980) interdisciplinarity was related to his psychology in several ways. First, he was a simple tourist of other fields: an interested outsider. But as he became increasingly involved in the professionalization of the discipline, he moved through different contexts that constrained the possibilities for successful action in new and different ways. To make these clear, we adopt a little-known aspect of his later epistemological framework: the open hierarchy of levels. This then affords new perspectives of his life, his work, his theory and his location in the history of both Swiss psychology and French psychology. It also outlines his reasoning regarding the necessity of a disciplined approach to interdisciplinary collaboration, institutionalized in the founding of his International Centre for Genetic Epistemology. We therefore come not only to a fuller understanding of how Piaget thought scientific knowledge develops, but also of how the boundaries of scientific disciplines are pushed back.     

皮亚杰的方法论：体系、优势与启示

皮亚杰的方法论体系包括：(1）发生学的理念;(2)“适应”和“运演”的理论解释工具;(3)获取资料的临床访谈法．他以这样的方法论体系而建立起来的理论具有：理性性、解释性、整体性等特征。皮亚杰方法论对我们当前的心理学研究具有启示意义。当前的一些研究在很大程度上,恪守着“实证”与“量化”的规范;却忽视研究主体的理性建构作用。     

Prospects for a Cultural-historical Psychology of Intelligence

The ideas of cultural-historical psychology have led to a new understanding of the human psyche as developing in the process of the subject acting in social and historical contexts. Such a “non-classical” reinterpretation of psychological concepts should be based on a theoretical and philosophical framework in order to explain genetic sources of these concepts. For this purpose, Il’enkov’s philosophy is of great significance. This is illustrated by discussing a possible cultural-historical understanding of the concept of intelligence. “If we enrich Vygotsky’s ideas with Il’enkov’s basic postulates, modern psychology and pedagogy will take a considerable step forward in study of the genesis and development of consciousness and of the individual subject of activity” (Davydov 1998, 92).     

An epistemological history of time: From technology to representations

Abstract

This paper attempts to link the social history of the mechanization of time with the history of the psychological notion of time. Historical processes such as the mechanization of tower clocks from the Middle Ages onwards, the reform of the Gregorian calendar and the quarrel of the Christian and Chinese calendars characterized the modern representation of time on three points: isochrony, desacralization and abstraction. While Western societies learned to domesticate the practical aspects of time, the scholars of the Enlightenment naturalized time. They considered it a concept only related to man and used quantified time for scientific purposes. Empiricists saw time as a product of the succession of thought while idealists considered it a form necessary for the human experience to occur. Both trends agreed in removing time from nature and accepted isochrony, desaralization and abstraction as the necessary foundation for the modern notion of time.     

Toward a Metric for Mental Functions

The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between the incidence of decubitus ulcers and the level of spinal cord injury, sex, race, level of intellectual functioning, and level of academic achievement. A total of 114 subjects with spinal cord injuries were surveyed and tested at the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, Fishersville, Virginia. The results of this study indicated no relationship between the incidence of decubitus ulcers and the demographic or personality factors studied.     

Westernalization in the Mirror: On the Cultural Reception of Western Psychology

Miki Takasuna’s paper on “Proliferation of Western Methodological Thought in Psychology in Japan: Ways of Objectification” offers many significant clues for reconsidering the history and unity of psychology. Its treatment of the reception of psychology in Japan hints at the relevance of the models of the subject for psychology—including the allegedly “official” psychology. The aim of this paper is to suggest such reconsideration, on the basis of a distinction between psychology-importing and psychology-exporting countries, and provide a reflection on the cultural problems of assimilation by the latter of a discipline advanced by the former. This perspective leads us to acknowledge the existence of a variety of psychological programs corresponding to the transformation and modernization of different social realities. Also, an indication is offered of several possible levels of analysis of such programs, which are seen to be related with the emergence of psychology as the science of modernity.

Between Literature and Psychology: Konishi Masutaro (1862–1940) in the History of Russo–Japanese Scientific Connections

The aim of this paper is to describe some episodes from the life of Konishi Masutaro (1862–1940), a Japanese scholar and psychologist who obtained his theological and psychological education in Russia and who played a role in the development of psychological science in Russia. Masutaro is mostly known as a translator of Lev (Leo) Tolstoy, and the psychological side of his biography is not well studied. Masutaro's life and work in Russia occurred in the context of great political and cultural changes. He was one of the first authors who translated fragments from Eastern philosophy (works by Laozi and Confucius) into the Russian language. Personal and scientific details of the life of this educated scholar are also given in the present paper.     

Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists

Early Muslims wrote extensively about human nature and called it Ilm-al Nafsiat or self-knowledge. In many cases, their works seem to be the original ideas for many modern day psychological theories and practices. What is interesting however is that a lot of what the early scholars wrote was blended with Islamic philosophy and religious ideas. This paper covers major contributions of prominent early Muslim scholars to psychology and outlines the challenges faced by today's Muslims in adapting to the Western theories. It also offers a few recommendations on the indigenization of psychology for Muslim societies interested in seeking the Islamic perspective on human behaviors.     

心理学史教学与人才培养模式的改革

心理学史教学应成为大学心理学专业本科生的必修课,对于开启学生的心智和提高心理学理论素养具有其他课程所不可替代的重要作用。心理学史教学要探询古代心理学思想家的心灵智慧,把他们的思想活化,与我们进行心灵的对话。要通过与学生的思想交流,使师生之间就某些学术问题展开讨论,做到相互启迪,教学相长。心理学史教学的改革要加强学生哲学功底的培养,加强中西方思想的融合贯通,加强历史与现实的联系,有目的地培养心理学专业的理论人才。     

Evaluating young children''s cognitive capacities through computer versus hand drawings

Young normal and handicapped children, aged 3 to 6 years, were taught to draw a scene of a house, garden and a sky with a computer drawing program that uses icons and is operated by a mouse. The drawings were rated by a team of experts on a 7-category scale. The children's computer- and hand-produced drawings were compared with one another and with results on cognitive, visual and fine motor tests. The computer drawing program made it possible for the children to accurately draw closed shapes, to get instant feedback on the adequacy of the drawing, and to make corrections with ease. It was hypothesized that these features would compensate for the young children's limitations in such cognitive skills, as memory, concentration, planning and accomplishment, as well as their weak motor skills. In addition, it was hypothesized that traditional cognitive ratings of hand drawings may underestimate young children's intellectual ability, because drawing by hand demands motor skills and memory, concentration and planning skills that are more developed than that actually shown by young children. To test the latter hypothesis, the children completed a training program in using a computer to make drawings. The results show that cognitive processes such as planning, analysis and synthesis can be investigated by means of a computer drawing program in a way not possible using traditional pencil and paper drawings. It can be said that the method used here made it possible to measure cognitive abilities "under the floor" of what is ordinarily possible by means of traditionally hand drawings.