Multicultural minds. A dynamic constructivist approach to culture and cognition

The authors present a new approach to culture and cognition, which focuses on the dynamics through which specific pieces of cultural knowledge (implicit theories) become operative in guiding the construction of meaning from a stimulus. Whether a construct comes to the fore in a perceiver's mind depends on the extent to which the construct is highly accessible (because of recent exposure). In a series of cognitive priming experiments, the authors simulated the experience of bicultural individuals (people who have internalized two cultures) of switching between different cultural frames in response to culturally laden symbols. The authors discuss how this dynamic, constructivist approach illuminates (a) when cultural constructs are potent drivers of behavior and (b) how bicultural individuals may control the cognitive effects of culture.     

A constructivist approach to supervision: Some preliminary thoughts

Supervision from a constructivist point of view is explored. Supervision processes with three different therapists are presented to exemplify this constructivist stance. In this approach the relation between supervisor and therapist is seen as similar to that between therapist and client. Thus, a “therapist-centered” approach for supervision is outlined, the main points of which are as follows: The main focus of a constructivist supervision is the therapist, supervision should be centered on the therapist's complaint, supervision should generate a learning context, the therapist and supervisor have different types of expertise, the supervising context should generate alternative views about the problem, and the supervision context should be reflexive.     

Lessons and new directions for extended cognition from social and personality psychology

This paper aims to expand the range of empirical work relevant to the extended cognition debates. First, I trace the historical development of the person-situation debate in social and personality psychology and the extended cognition debate in the philosophy of mind. Next, I highlight some instructive similarities between the two and consider possible objections to my comparison. I then argue that the resolution of the person-situation debate in terms of interactionism lends support for an analogously interactionist conception of extended cognition. I argue that this interactionism might necessitate a shift away from the dominant agent-artifact paradigm toward an agent–agent paradigm. If this is right, then social and personality psychology—the discipline(s) that developed from the person-situation debate—opens a whole new range of empirical considerations for extended cognition theorists which align with Clark & Chalmers original vision of agents themselves as spread into the world.     

Lessons from Wittgenstein: Elucidating folk psychology

To the extent that psychologists are concerned to do more than collect raw data for possible interpretation, they cannot avoid interrogating the philosophical assumptions which inform their work. This paper argues that there is a vital need for conceptual clarification of many of the central topics studied by today's sciences of the mind. Yet, rather than offering a comprehensive survey of these, this paper focuses on one illustrative, high profile case: the way in which our everyday understanding of reasons for action has been wrongly categorized in terms of ‘theory of mind’ abilities. Focusing on this example I show how it is possible to elucidate topics in the philosophy of psychology by relinquishing certain powerful explanatory temptations and by attending more closely to our everyday practices and activities.     

Longitudinal studies of personality disorders: four lessons from personality psychology

The three longitudinal projects described in this special section of the Journal of Personality Disorders raise a number of intriguing questions concerning the natural history of personality disorders and offer more than their share of surprises. In addition, they underscore several valuable lessons derived from the literature on normal-range personality traits. Drawing in part from the writings of the American trait psychologist Gordon Allport, I describe four such lessons: (1) change and continuity of personality traits and disorders can and do coexist, (2) the covariation among personality traits helps to account for the "comorbidity" among personality disorders, (3) personality traits and disorders influence how individuals interpret life events, and (4) personality traits must be distinguished from behavioral adaptations to these traits. These lessons remind us that the science of personality disorders must be informed by the basic science of personality.     

The reliability of aggregated measurements: Lessons to be learned from psychometric theory

In a recent article, H. D. Day, D. Marshall, B. Hamilton, and J. Christy (1983, Journal of Research in Personality, 17, 97–109) have reported on a series of simulation studies designed to investigate properties of various coefficients of behavior stability as applied to cross-situational data. The results of their research have prompted them to suggest precautions regarding the measurement of behavioral regularity with conventional indices of response consistency. A critical review of their paper reveals aspects of the data, procedures, and interpretations of Day et al. (1983) which undermine many of their conclusions. Notable problems include (a) inappropriate comparisons of internal consistency reliability coefficients based on nonparallel analyses, (b) anomalous data which may be due to errors of rounding or recording, and (c) the failure to recognize certain assumptions underlying reliability estimation. More importantly, it is shown that the investigation of Day et al. (1983) represents primarily an empirical verification of several measurement principles for which algebraic proofs are amply documented.     

A practical approach to school psychology

Exclusive use of the clinical model in school psychology is impractical. This is discussed in terms of incidence of adjustment problems, psychologist-student ratios, and undesirable side effects that have resulted from sole use of the clinical model. Reasons for implementing developmental and preventive mental health programs in the schools are discussed, and examples of such programs are presented. Some alternatives to the usual ways of handling the remediation of currently existing adjustment problems are suggested.     

The American experience: Lessons learned

This paper discusses ten lessons learned since 1989 about handling allegations of scientific misconduct involving biomedical and behavioral research supported by the U. S. Public Health Service. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a symposium, Scientific Misconduct: An International Perspective, organised by The Medical University of Warsaw, 16 November, 1998. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Office of Research Integrity, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or any other federal agency.     

Lessons learned from pedestrian-driver communication and yielding patterns

Understanding the hidden patterns of tacit communication between drivers and pedestrians is crucial for improving pedestrian safety. However, this type of communication is a result of the psychological processes of both pedestrians and drivers, which are very difficult to understand thoroughly. This study utilizes a naturalistic field study dataset and explores the hidden patterns from successful and failed communication events using a pattern recognition method known as Taxicab Correspondence Analysis (TCA). The successful communication scenarios indicate the combinations of variable attributes such as eye contact, facial expression, the assertion of crossing, and effective traffic control devices are strongly associated with successful scenarios. The patterns for failed scenarios are most likely to be on the roadway with a relatively higher speed limit (e.g., 35 mph) and a relatively lower speed limit (e.g., 15 mph) under different conditions. On roadways with a higher speed limit, the failed scenarios are highly associated with passive and undecisive pedestrians, pedestrians far away from the crosswalk, regardless of pedestrian-driver eye contact and facial expression of the pedestrians. Instead of waiting for pedestrians to making a crossing decision, overspeeding drivers are more likely to speed up and pass the crosswalk. On roadways with a lower speed limit, the failed scenarios are often associated with distracted pedestrians, vehicles having the right of way, and the absence of effective traffic control devices. These findings could help transportation agencies identify appropriate countermeasures to reduce pedestrian crashes. The findings on driver-pedestrian communication patterns could provide scopes for improvement in computer vision-based algorithms designed for autonomous vehicle industries.     

Toward a new approach to the study of personality in culture

We review recent developments in the study of culture and personality measurement. Three approaches are described: an etic approach that focuses on establishing measurement equivalence in imported measures of personality, an emic (indigenous) approach that studies personality in specific cultures, and a combined emic-etic approach to personality. We propose the latter approach as a way of combining the methodological rigor of the etic approach and the cultural sensitivity of the emic approach. The combined approach is illustrated by two examples: the first with origins in Chinese culture and the second in South Africa. The article ends with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the combined emic-etic approach for the study of culture and personality and for psychology as a science.     

A functional approach to the psychology of helping

In this paper a critical review of psychotherapy and counselling is undertaken and an alternative approach, basedon concepts from cognitive, accupational and social psychology is proposed to help people overcome their problems.     

Lessons from social psychology on discrediting psychiatric stigma.

Advocacy, government, and public-service groups rely on a variety of strategies to diminish the impact of stigma on persons with severe mental illness. These strategies include protest, education, and promoting contact between the general public and persons with these disorders. The authors argue that social psychological research on ethnic minority and other group stereotypes should be considered when implementing these strategies. Such research indicates that (a) attempts to suppress stereotypes through protest can result in a rebound effect; (b) education programs may be limited because many stereotypes are resilient to change; and (c) contact is enhanced by a variety of factors, including equal status, cooperative interaction, and institutional support. Future directions for research and practice to reduce stigma toward persons with severe mental illness are discussed.     

How to achieve synergy in group decision making: Lessons to be learned from the hidden profile paradigm

Based on over 25 years of research on hidden profiles and information sharing in groups, and particularly our own work in this area, we outline a general model of how groups can achieve better decisions in a hidden profile situation than their individual members would have been capable of (i.e., synergy). At its core the model defines intensity and bias as the two key parameters that have to be optimised with regard to both the discussion of information and the processing of information in order to ensure synergy in group decision making. We review the empirical literature on information sharing and group decision making in the hidden profile paradigm (with a particular focus on our own studies) to illustrate how group decision quality can be enhanced by increasing intensity and decreasing bias in the discussion and processing of information. Finally we also outline why we think that the lessons learned from research using the hidden profile paradigm can be generalised to group decision-making research in general, and how these lessons can stimulate studies in other fields of group decision-making and group performance research.     

Practical recommendations for considering culture,race, and ethnicity in personality psychology

Personality science is the study of the individual. It aims to understand what makes people similar to others, different from some, and unique to themselves. However, there is room for research in personality to more thoughtfully consider culture, race, and ethnicity in order to better understand individual differences in people’s patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. High impact personality journals rarely include such factors into the interpretation of results, and cross-cultural and ethnic minority publications are limited within the discipline. This article offers a brief, non-exhaustive overview of how culture, race, and ethnicity are examined in relation to personality, showing that: (1) social structures continue to be neglected in the research, (2) we can learn from research being conducted in neighboring areas, and (3) valuable work is already being done within personality psychology. We offer recommendations that emphasize community based participatory research methods, combined etic-emic approaches, and contextualizing research findings to improve the consideration of culture, race, and ethnicity in personality research.     

The relationship between qualitative and quantitative research: Lessons from feminist psychology

The dominant methodological approach in psychological research has involved the use of quantitative methods within a positivist framework. In this article we argue that both qualitative and quantitative methods have their strengths and limitations, depending on the research question under investigation. We examine some of the advantages of qualitative methods, paying particular attention to the value of such methods for feminist researchers. We challenge the positivist assumption that all research should be apolitical and value-free, arguing that the political context in which all research studies take place plays an important role in decisions about the appropriate research methods to use. Despite the value attached to qualitative methods by feminist researchers, there may be projects for which quantitative methods, or a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques, are more suitable. We draw on examples from our research on the transition from school to the job market for young people, and a study of 16- to 19-year-old first time mothers to illustrate these points, examining the practical implications of our arguments for applied social psychology research.