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Psychology and the American Ideal
Abstract
Applies 3 recent criticisms of personality and social psychology—the historical, the dialectical, and the interdependence theses—to a critical examination of existing trends in theory and practice, in particular to concepts of androgyny, mental health, and moral development. The position is developed that existing conceptions in these and other areas emphasize a cultural and historical thesis of self-contained individualism; syntheses of opposing or desirable characteristics are located within the person rather than within an interdependent collectivity. By viewing these and other psychological concepts against this background, it can be better understood that (a) these (e.g., androgyny) are not fundamental psychological principles; (b) alternative conceptualizations are both possible and perhaps even more desirable; and (c) in an era in which collective problem solving is necessary, the perpetuation of self-contained, individualistic conceptions can stifle psychology's effort to contribute to resolving contemporary social issues. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Firstly, there is a lack of indigenous studies from various cultures, which could methodically explore and competently describe culturally exclusive findings. The second is methodological issues; most cultural studies and related disciplines are based on theoretical frameworks developed in a western cultural context, with scholars recognising that theories in general studies reflect the cultural values of western culture (Sampson, 1977;Shweder, 1991). This means that a large number of theoretical frameworks have not yet been validated for use with other cultures. ...
... Firstly, there is a lack of indigenous studies from various cultures, which could methodically investigate and competently describe culturally exclusive findings. The second is methodological issues; most cultural study and related disciplines are based on theoretical frameworks developed in the western cultural context, with scholars recognising that theories in general studies reflect the cultural values of western culture (Sampson, 1977;Shweder, 1991 Hofstede's (1991cHofstede's ( ) (1981Hofstede's ( , 1991 and Triandis' (1991) research claim that Chinese culture is a highly collectivist culture (e.g. China and Japan). ...
Despite efforts over the last 30 years to make tampons more appealing to Chinese consumers, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson only reach 2.5% of eligible users compared with 70% of consumers in the USA. Besides China, in Italy, most of Eastern Europe and South America, where tampons usage share is also very low. This discrepancy is due, in main, to cultural barriers.
Drawing on Behavioural Reasoning Theory and an emic approach, taking the case of tampons in China as example, this study explores the reasons against consuming a specific product category, the cognitive process of reasons, and cultural antecedents underlying these reasons, leading to a ‘reason against’ model, to accomplish the central aim of this research which is to better understand the under-researched national level phenomenon of anti-consumption towards a specific product category which finally categorized as ‘cultural sensitive product’ in this research.
This research utilizing semi-structured interview qualitative research method to achieve the research aim and answer the research questions. Randomly sampled 37 Chinese females who are tampons eligible users, 10 in the UK and 27 in China. Of those, 5 of 10 in the UK did follow-up interviews 6-to-9 months after their first interview. Interviewers’ age ranged from 21-50, 21-30 years represented 59% of the samples. 95% is Han Chinese, the main ethnic group in China which accounts for more than 90% of the population and constitutes the world’s single largest racial cultural group. The included native geographic places covered 77% provinces of Han Chinese habitation in mainland of China. Out of 37 participants, just one regularly consumed tampons (2.7%), which is very close the average usage in China at 2.5%.
37 semi-structured interviews result in three key findings: three ‘reasons against’, a set of emic cultural values and a model of ‘reasons against’ which together provide a more accurate insight into antecedents of anti-consumption. The first key finding, three ‘reasons against’ are risk aversion, undesired ‘Ren’ in relationships and situations, the lack of emic cultural recognised symbolic value added on tampons. These reasons are cohesively related to emic culture which confirms the main premise of Behavioural Reasoning Theory. These reasons are important linkages between cultural values and behaviours. The second key finding, a set of emic cultural values suggest that Chinese culture is oriented around ‘Personalism’, ‘personal physical health’ and ‘relational and situational Ren’. This supports the views of Chinese indigenous researchers which counters Western scholars’ view of Chinese collectivism culture. From a total of twenty-five identified emic values, fourteen have not been captured in the literature which updates the list of
Chinese cultural values and offers an invaluable resource for future (anti)consumption research. The third key finding, the model of ‘reasons against’ offers a cognitive processing model base to explore and evaluate the relationships of cultural values, product features and categories, along with product (de)benefits and ‘reasons against and for’ (anti)consumption of a specific product category, which theoretically guides further researchers on the intentional and meaningful rejection of the consumption of a specific product category in a specific cultural context. The findings fill the gap with insufficient non-individual level antecedent/predictors, and the national level phenomenon of anti-consumption, to explore anti consumption from multiple perspectives, taking a more comprehensive approach to the various phenomena of consumption.
The findings challenge marketing activities of tampons which overlook emic culture elements and are mainly concerned with providing the functional benefits or utilitarian values of tampons to consumers. Instead, the findings suggest emic cultural values-based symbolic added value interventions. This suggestion also serves as a proposal for other culturally sensitive products’ marketing strategy.
... On va relever que les scores de moralité sont plus élevés pour les sociétés occidentales que pour les sociétés traditionnelles. Ce constat va amener certains auteurs (Sampson, 1977 ;Simpson, 1974 ;Shweder, 1982b ;Sullivan, 1977) à avancer que le modèle de Kohlberg exprimerait un biais ethnocentrique pro-occidental qui serait très présent spécialement dans la définition des stades les plus élevés (où l'individu est autonome, indépendant). Dans ce cadre, ils diront que son modèle, en raison de ses références libérales (kantiennes, rawlsiennes en particulier), est propre aux sociétés occidentales, mais qu'il n'est pas valable pour les sociétés traditionnelles. ...
... On peut dire également qu'elle est individualiste dans le sens où elle repose sur la seule raison d'un individu isolé, et non pas sur des valeurs propres à un groupe social donné. Cette conception individualiste a valu à Kohlberg des critiques de nature idéologique (Sampson, 1977 ;Simpson, 1974 ;Sullivan, 1977). ...
Quels sont les mécanismes d'acquisition de la morale ? A partir de quel âge l'enfant prend-t-il en compte les intentions quand il juge la conduite de quelqu'un ? Les femmes ont-elles une orientation morale spécifique ? La morale varie-t-elle selon la classe sociale, la culture ? Comment les gens font-ils pour transgresser, en toute tranquillité d'esprit, des principes moraux, dont ils admettent par ailleurs la légitimité ? Voilà quelques-unes des questions auxquelles la psychologie morale donne des éléments de réponses. L'objectif de ce livre est de présenter ce domaine d'étude très développé dans les pays anglo-saxons, mais qui est peu connu en France. A cette occasion, plusieurs thèmes sont abordés : l'évolution de la morale de l'enfance à l'âge adulte ; les différents types de pratiques éducatives ; le rôle des facteurs intellectuels, sociaux et culturels dans le développement de la morale ; les rapports entre morale et action. Nous avons cherché à faire une analyse critique de ce domaine, en mettant en évidence le fait que la morale peut être envisagée en dehors de la dichotomie classique entre universalisme (une seule morale partout) et relativisme (chaque culture a une morale spécifique et incommensurable), qu'une troisième voie, pluraliste et psychosociale, est possible. Sans préjuger des questionnements philosophiques, inévitables et souhaitables dans un tel domaine, notre objectif est finalement de présenter une morale réaliste, c'est-à-dire qui tienne compte des possibilités, des principes de vie des individus, mais aussi des contraintes, des opportunités liées aux contextes sociaux et culturels. Pour citer : Tostain, M. (1999). Psychologie, morale et culture. L'évolution de la morale de l'enfance à l'âge adulte. Grenoble : Presses Universitaires de Grenoble.
... Allport (1968) suggests that 'as an attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others' which indicated that the group and cultural levels of analysis were not considered. Then the following scholars adopted that the individual should be the basic unit of analysis (Hogan, 1975;Pepitone, 1976;Sampson, 1977;Spence, 1985). As a result, either individual or group levels of analysis were neglected in that area (Pepitone, 1976;Sampson, 1977). ...
... Then the following scholars adopted that the individual should be the basic unit of analysis (Hogan, 1975;Pepitone, 1976;Sampson, 1977;Spence, 1985). As a result, either individual or group levels of analysis were neglected in that area (Pepitone, 1976;Sampson, 1977). ...
Open innovation can motivate individualism through increasing individual
creativeness. And Individualism motivates open innovation through individual
emergence (see Figure 1). Contrary to this, collectivism reduces the complexity
which was motivated by open innovation. But, open innovation decreases collectivism
through diverse emergence. Innovation of start-ups and firms in value chain
is based on the active interaction between collectivism and individualism through
open innovation by value chain firms.
... This is supported by recent Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigations of hippocampal functioning and social relatedness (Tavares et al., 2015;c.f. Laurita & Spreng, 2017) and is in line with the notion that one's self-concept is defined and enacted through social settings (e.g., Sampson, 1977), which are crucial during the coming-of-age developmental period as discussed above. ...
We propose that the positive effect of coming‐of‐age songs on ad effectiveness arises from a mediation process where the music‐evoked interpersonal memories of growing up stored in the brain and their accompanying emotions inevitably play a role, but not so straightforwardly as previously suggested. Rather, their effects work through the heightened familiarity of and peaked preferences for coming‐of‐age songs. We also propose that these sequentially mediated effects are moderated by viewers' developmental attachment styles. We test and find support for these propositions in three multimethod studies with more than 1200 participants born between the 40s and the mid‐70s and almost 60 popular songs released between the 60s and the 2010s. We discuss the implications of our findings, namely for age‐segmented video ads, and suggest future research directions.
... There are many studies on group dynamics in the literature which suggest that both trust and cooperation contribute to the development of group cohesion, which is the foundation for constructive cooperation among group members (Cartwright & Zander, 1968;Sampson, 1977). Cooperation was measurably affected by active exercises such as singing together and performing music together, while passive activities such as watching movies and listening to music resulted in a significantly lower willingness to cooperate. ...
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is a topic of increasing focus in the education sector. SEL is the process by which children acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to effectively recognize and manage emotions, to formulate positive goals, to feel empathy for others, to establish and maintain functioning social relationships. It develops to take responsible decisions, determine students’ successful academic performance, transformation into adulthood, useful work, a good quality of life, and well-being. By the end of the 20th century the educational role of music has come into the spotlight, and in addition to the impact of music on the development of general skills, its social and emotional effects are also the subject of research. This paper undertakes to explore the literature about the connections between music education and social-emotional skill development. For the collection and analysis of information, online sources of peer-reviewed scientific journals in addition to the university library were used. The study also examined the relationship between social-emotional learning and the world-wide well-known Kodály Concept and the effect of Kodály’s vision of music education as a forerunner of socio-emotional skills development. The relationship between social-emotional skills and music was explored by reviewing the international music-specific literature from music psychology, music education, music therapy, and music for health and wellbeing. In order to illuminate the problem and to develop a holistic approach, the 100 studies presented here summarize research findings made and presented in different countries around the world.
... Two basic value orientations-collectivism and individualism-define cultures (Greenfield and Bruner, 1966;Sampson, 1977;Ho, 1979;Hofstede, 1980;Bond et al., 1982;Triandis et al., 1986). These value orientations are reflected in mothering goals. ...
During the past four decades, China has gone through rapid urbanization and modernization. As people adapt to dramatic sociodemographic shifts from rural communities to urban centers and as economic level rises, individualistic cultural values in China have increased. Meanwhile, parent and child behavior in early childhood has also evolved accordingly to match a more individualistic society. This mixed-method study investigated how social change in China may have impacted parenting goals and child development in middle childhood, as seen through the eyes of the current generation of mothers. Thirty mothers of fifth-grade elementary school students from Shenzhen, China were recruited and took part in semi-structured interviews. Participants answered questions and provided examples about their children’s life, their own childhood, and the perceived differences between the two generations. Participating mothers were also asked to rate which generation, themselves or their parents, cared more about the childrearing goals of academic competitiveness and socioemotional well-being. Using both qualitative and quantitative analysis, we expected and found an intergenerational increase in the perceived value mothers placed on individualistic traits: current mothers care more about their children’s academic competitiveness, personal happiness, and social adjustment, compared to their experience of their own mothers’ attitudes during their childhood a generation earlier. They also experience conflict between their children’s academic competitiveness and socioemotional well-being. As a function of both urbanization and increased economic means, children’s collectivistic family responsibilities for essential household chores have declined as the importance of schoolwork has increased.
... Οι παραπάνω αντικρουόμενοι λόγοι οδηγούν σε μια «διλημματική» κατασκευή της ταυτότητας των ανύπανδρων γυναικών. Για παράδειγμα, ο λόγος της ανεξαρτησίας, ο οποίος εμφανίζεται ιδιαίτερα ισχυρός εφόσον χρησιμοποιήθηκε απ' όλες τις συμμετέχουσες, παραπέμπει στο ιδανικό του «αυτοπεριεγμένου» ατομικισμού (selfcontained individualism) (Sampson, 1977). Το ιδανικό αυτό απoτελεί μια ακραία έκφραση της ατομικότητας και της ατομικής αυτάρκειας των σύγχρονων κοινωνιών, καθώς περιγράφει ένα άτομο απολύτως αυτόνομο, με υψηλή εσωτερική αίσθηση προσωπικού ελέγχου και αυτοπροσδιορισμού, χαρακτηριστικά τα οποία παραδοσιακά αποδίδονται στην ανδρική ταυτότητα. ...
Understanding the experience of women who are not married and live alone has recently become an important issue within feminist psychology, since a significant and growing number of women belong to this category. The aim of the study is to examine the discursive construction of unmarried women’s identity. The methodology followed a poststructuralist approach in discourse analysis and data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with unmarried women, aged between 36 and 52 years. The analysis highlighted the three maindiscourses the participants used in their accounts: (a) the discourse of independence, (b) the discourse of loneliness, and (c) the discourse of stigmatization. The paper discusses the consequences these discourseshave on the construction of the women’s personal identity, on the reproduction of the dominant ideology regarding unmarried women in Greece, as well as on women’s counseling.
... Through early social experiences, individuals formulate a concept of the "generalized other" (Mead, 1934). Following this logic, many researchers (e.g., Hogan, 1975;Hofstede, 1980;Sampson, 1977;Spence, 1985) studied macro level societal phenomena from this individualistic perspective. One of the most famous among them was Hofstede who aggregated the responses of IBM managers from 46 countries to derive four major dimensions on which cultures were compared and contrasted Despite such a strong tradition of individualistic approach of self-reported evidence for constructing social reality, there were voices of skepticism that started rising in the Western psychology. ...
... Thus, Cambon, Djouary & Beauvois, Dubois, or Testé, Joufre & Somat [26,22,30] noted that internality (i.e. the tendency to declare oneself responsible for our actions or what happens to us) [31][32] was more rooted in utility than in desirability. Cambon, Djouary & Beauvois [26] and Dubois [22] observed that this was also the case for self-sufficiency (finding in oneself the answers to the questions we ask to ourselves [33]). Conversely, Dubois found that the individual anchor norm (i.e. the tendency to see our psychological reality without reference to our categorical or group membership) is more rooted in desirability [22]. ...
In this study we were interested in the behaviors of individuals who preserve the social and organizational environment by ensuring sustainability. More specifically we are interested in allegiants behaviors. Numerous studies have highlighted the normative character of allegiance. To confer an object the status of social norm means to assign value (in terms of desirability and utility) to that object. Therefore we questioned the value attributed to allegiance. 170 employees were questioned on the desirability and utility they attribute to a future work colleague (future peer or future subordinate) starting from the answers the latter was supposed to have given to a questionnaire on allegiance. It was observed that desirability and utility make reference to two independent dimensions, utility being often more important. It was also noted there is greater severity assigned to endo-group targets (future peers) than to exo-group targets (future subordinates). Finally, it was noted there was not so much a valuation of allegiant targets, but rather a rejection of rebel targets, which raises the question of the bi-dimensionality of the valuation-devaluation process.
... This mounting evidence of the contextualised view of the self provides strong support to the challenge that Sampson (1977) raised decades ago, arguing that the view of the self is bound within the body of a person is characteristically Western (see also , Shweder & Miller, 1991). ...
Collectivism and the development of indigenous psychology in South
Korea
... These definitions all conceptualise individualism as a worldview that centralizes the personal (personal goals, personal uniqueness, and personal control) and peripheralises the social (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, & Tipton, 1985;Hsu, 1983;Kagitcibasi, 1994;Kim, 1994;Markus & Kitayama, 1991;Sampson, 1977;Triandis, 1995). Parents in individualistic cultures prefer strategies associated wüh the goal of independence. ...
It is now widely recognised that culture plays an important role in shaping ideas about child development and parenting (e.g. Harkness, Raeff and Super, 2000). Numerous studies have shown cross-cultural differences in the types of competencies parents encourage in children, the age at which parents expect developmental skills to be acquired and the methods parents use to promote these skills. Cross-cultural differences have also emerged in relation to parents' ideas about developmental delay, their beliefs about intervention, and support seeking behaviours (e.g. Danesco, 1997). Within the UK, where referrals to child development and learning disability services are Increasingly culturally diverse, it is important for professionals to develop an awareness of cultural practices and beliefs in order to provide services which are culturally sensitive. This point is soon to be echoed in the new National Service Framework for Children (Department of Health, forthcoming). Despite the recent emphasis on delivery of culturally sensitive services, previous researchers have consistently highlighted the shortcomings of health and social care services for ethnic minority groups. Inequalities faced by parents from South Asian communities who have a child with a learning difficulty, have been a particular cause for concern. This group have been shown to experience substantial discrimination and inequality in their access to health, social, education and welfare services (e.g. Mir et at. 2001), a factor which Is often partly linked to poor professional knowledge and sensitivity to cultural and religious belief systems. Very little is currently known about South Asian parents' beliefs about child development, parenting and developmental delay despite the relevance of these areas to clinical practice. Therefore, 10 South Asian mothers and 10 white British mothers of a child with global developmental delay were interviewed about their beliefs about typical child development, their child rearing practices and the factors influencing their ideas about child development and parenting. Beliefs about developmental delay and support seeking behaviour were also investigated. The data were analysed using thematic content analysis and quantitative methods. In relation to typical child development, results indicated that South Asian mothers and white British mothers held similar beliefs about the age at which children achieve different developmental skills. However, differences emerged in terms of the importance attached to the development of different skills. South Asian mothers were significantly less likely to highlight the importance of self-help skills compared to white British mothers. South Asian mothers were also significantly less likely to expect gender differences in children's acquisition of skills. Factors influencing mothers' ideas about child development and parenting differed cross-culturally. Significantly more white British mothers than South Asian mothers were influenced by friends, professionals and books and media, whilst significantly more South Asian mothers were influenced by their religious beliefs. Parenting practices, such as toilet training, also differed between the two groups. In relation to developmental delay, the groups differed in terms of their understanding and explanations of developmental delay. South Asian mothers were less likely to use medical and biological explanations of their child's difficulties than white British mothers. Help-seeking behaviours also differed cross-culturally, with South Asian mother more likely to turn to religious persons for support and less likely to turn to professionals for support than white British mothers. In relation to experiences of support services offered, mothers identified similar shortfalls in service provision. These included "being kept in the dark" about their child's difficulties, being confused about the organisation of the support system, having to "battle" to receive support, feeling that resources were either too few or inappropriate, and feeling that professionals failed to hold in mind a complete picture of their child's difficulties. These results are discussed in the context of existing literature together with suggestions for future research and the clinical implications of the study.
... There are three main aspects of identity. First, identity can be defined as a self-concept (how we see ourselves); this aspect is rooted in individualist approaches to social psychology (Sampson, 1977(Sampson, , 1981Pepitone, 1981). From this perspective professional identity has been defined as "one's professional self-concept based on attributes, beliefs, values, motives, and experiences" (Slay and Smith, 2011, p.86). ...
Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM) has been subjected to a number of examinations, all concluding that PSM is not an academic discipline as it lacks its own theories and common themes of research. It is perceived by many as an applied social science and field of research applying theories from other disciplines. But, to date, these examinations have not revealed more definitively what PSM is, i.e., its identity. This Notes and Debates paper was stimulated by two focused meetings, a question panel at IPSERA 2019 and solicited views from IPSERA participants. These were synthesized and developed through grounding them in identity and social identity theories. They are provided to stimulate the debate on PSM's internal and external identity coherence and legitimacy.
... El primero hace referencia a un modelo de persona construido en un largo proceso histórico, hasta configurarse como trasunto psicológico de la organización social, política y económica que fundamenta las relaciones sociales en los sistemas liberales (Lukes, 1973). La psicología, como «ciencia del individuo», ha priorizado tradicionalmente modelos explicativos intraindividuales, esquemas causales que hacen casi siempre referencia al funcionamiento del sujeto individual considerado en abstracto, al margen de sus conexiones sociales concretas (Sampson, 1977). Además, con el propósito apenas velado de emular los usos, la fiabilidad y/o los resultados de las ciencias de la naturaleza, la metodología clínica y, en especial, la metodología experimental o de laboratorio han contribuido desde los orígenes a lo que José Ramón Torregrosa definía como «encapsulamiento del individuo», la autonomización y escisión del sujeto de contextos sociales en los que constitutivamente se inserta. ...
... In the broad literature of individualism there were both critiques and defenders of the concept of individualism. Among the researchers that criticized it are Hogan (1975), Smith (1978), Lasech (1978) and Sampson (1977). Other researchers argued on another version, consisting both of individualisms and collectivisms strongest points, defined as communitarianism (Rotenburg, 1977;Rakoff, 1978;Kanfer, 1979). ...
If we are to choose between two distinct statements, that the interest of the group prevails over the interest of the individual for the majority of people and that a minority of people in our world live in societies in which the interests of the individual prevail over the interests of the group, we can conclude, as Hofstede did, that there are two categories in which nations can fit: individualists and collectivists. The purpose of our study is to investigate the impact of this cultural dimension on the international trade of the European countries. Panel regression model with country fixed effects has been applied to the 21 years’ data (1997-2017. Based on prior studies conducted by Inglehart, the analysis of the World Values Survey, the cross-national values databases of Schwartz, Hofstede, Triandis, GLOBE, and Trompenaars, we proxied the individualism with three variables, i.e labor productivity index, higher education rate, and urban population growth rate. The findings of previous studies suggest that individualism has significant positive relationship with the imports and exports of Eastern European Countries, notably, Poland, Lithuania and Romania. Concurs with previous studies, our results show there is a significant positive relationship between individualism and international trade (both imports and exports).
... In the broad literature of individualism there were both critiques and defenders of the concept of individualism. Among the researchers that criticized it are Hogan (1975), Smith (1978), Lasech (1978) and Sampson (1977). Other researchers argued on another version, consisting both of individualisms and collectivisms strongest points, defined as communitarianism (Rotenburg, 1977;Rakoff, 1978;Kanfer, 1979). ...
There is no sales document as crucial to winning business deals as the business proposal document. We noticed that business proposals try their best to be persuasive, and yet, they do not have the impact they hope to create. In order to understand why we conducted detailed research and found out that customers simply refuse to read some proposals. There are three reasons for this: Logic, Clarity, and Aesthetics. Our research showed that the lack of logic or the presence of logical fallacies account was the reason most often quoted by customers (63% of the times) for not wanting to read the business proposal, followed by clarity, at 29% and aesthetics at 9%. To write this research paper, we’ve focused primarily on understanding logical fallacies, categorizing them and identifying which of them are the most identifiable and which of them are most frequent. We also recommend a systematic way to avoid logical fallacies in proposals.
... In the broad literature of individualism there were both critiques and defenders of the concept of individualism. Among the researchers that criticized it are Hogan (1975), Smith (1978), Lasech (1978) and Sampson (1977). Other researchers argued on another version, consisting both of individualisms and collectivisms strongest points, defined as communitarianism (Rotenburg, 1977;Rakoff, 1978;Kanfer, 1979). ...
If we are to choose between two distinct statements, that the interest of the group prevails over the interest of the individual for the majority of people and that a minority of people in our world live in societies in which the interests of the individual prevail over the interests of the group, we can conclude, as Hofstede did, that there are two categories in which nations can fit: individualists and collectivists. The purpose of our study is to investigate the impact of this cultural dimension on the international trade of the European countries. Panel regression model with country fixed effects has been applied to the 21 years’ data (1997-2017). Based on prior studies conducted by Inglehart, the analysis of the World Values Survey, the cross-national values databases of Schwartz, Hofstede, Triandis, GLOBE, and Trompenaars, we proxied the individualism with three variables, i.e labor productivity index, higher education rate, and urban population growth rate. The findings of previous studies suggest that individualism has significant positive relationship with the imports and exports of Eastern European Countries, notably,Poland, Lithuania and Romania. Concurs with previous studies, our results show there is a significant positive relationship between individualism and international trade (both imports and exports).
... The founding of modern psychology on the premise that persons are radically autonomous, self-contained individuals has been noted for at least four decades. As remarked by Sampson (1977), the psychologically selfcontained person, "is one who does not require or desire others for his or her completion or life; self-contained persons are or hope to be entire unto themselves. Self-containment is the extreme of independence: needing or wanting no one" (p. ...
This volume presents a re-envisioning of the field of theoretical psychology and offers unique visions for its present and future from leaders of North American philosophical psychology. It contends that theoretical psychology has reached ‘middle-age’ and must consider new directions to renew its growth. Rooted in a range of research traditions and the intellectual biographies of its authors, it paves the way toward this necessary revitalization of the content, activities, responsibilities, and hopes of theoretical psychology.
The authors situate their analyses in the context of the increasing gap between alternative and mainstream and between the discipline and the profession of psychology. They demonstrate that changes in society, culture and technology, the internationalization of the psychological humanities, and the cross-fertilization of intellectual innovations from other disciplines now afford possibilities for new orientations in theoretical psychology.
The volume aims to do justice to psychological topics, human beings, and the intellectual problems that psychologists encounter, while also providing space for (meta)theoretical engagement, often neglected in the discipline. Together, the chapters in this collection make the case that a renewal of the discipline and practice of psychology is a task that is best accomplished collectively, and, despite significant disagreements, in solidarity.
Thomas Teo is Professor of Psychology in the Historical, Theoretical, and Critical Studies of Psychology Program at York University, Canada. He has been active in the advancement of theoretical, critical, and historical psychology throughout his professional career. His research has been meta-psychological to provide a more reflexive understanding of the foundations, trajectories, and possibilities of human subjectivity.
... The founding of modern psychology on the premise that persons are radically autonomous, self-contained individuals has been noted for at least four decades. As remarked by Sampson (1977), the psychologically self-contained person, "is one who does not require or desire others for his or her completion or life; self-contained persons are or hope to be entire unto themselves. Self-containment is the extreme of independence: needing or wanting no one" (p. ...
Theoretical and philosophical psychologists have made tremendous strides in bringing philosophy and critique to bear on psychological understanding. This chapter draws attention to a vein of work that supplements philosophical and critical analyses with studies of historical particularities in which the assumptions, aspirations, and strategies of psychologists take shape. By illuminating the conduct of psychology in the context of historically situated research programs and practices, this vein of work brings added clarity, force, and relevance to purely philosophical and critical analyses. Informing arguments evidentially with history and thick descriptions of concrete particulars can help make what theoretical and philosophical psychologists have to say more convincing. To illustrate, psychologism is presented as a style of reasoning that has dominated psychology and set the agenda for what counts as psychological phenomena and how they are to be investigated and understood. The chapter begins by defining styles of reasoning and their characteristics. Psychologism is then proposed as a style of reasoning, its assumptions are explained, and particularities of its procedure are described that create a possibility in which psychological properties are made intelligible and achieve ontological status. This is followed by an illustration using the research of attitudes.
... In its abstraction of organism from sociocultural and historical context and its tendency to understand health and illness at the level of (increasingly microscopic) bodily processes moderated (or not) by social forces, the medical model resonates with and reinforces the individualist underpinnings of hegemonic psychological science (Jackman, 1996;Sampson, 1977Sampson, , 1981. The medical model fits especially well within the contemporary era of neoliberal individualism (see Cabanas, 2018) and its model of society as an aggregate of "free agents who are at liberty to engage in social relations based on some more-or-less rational calculation of costs and benefits" (Adams et al., 2015, p. 220). ...
This paper applies a decolonial approach to hegemonic psychological science by engaging marginalized knowledge perspectives of Disability Studies (DS) to reveal and disrupt oppressive knowledge formations associated with standard understandings of ability. In the first section of the paper, we draw upon mainstream DS scholarship to challenge individualistic orientations to disability (evident in the medical model and positive psychology perspectives) that pervade psychological science. The purpose of this approach is to normalize disability by thinking through disabled ways of being as viable and valuable. In the second section of the paper, we draw upon critical race and global disability perspectives to denaturalize hegemonic accounts of ability. Rather than essential properties of human bodies and minds, the capabilities of the modern subject reflect technological and ideological investments that enable a privileged few, while disabling the marginalized global majority. We conclude by discussing implications of decolonial theory for DS and ways in which considerations of disability subjectivity can inform the decolonial project.
... The value placed on gender equality and gender not making a difference in their university education is also commensurate with historically enduring discourses of the self. The ideal of the self-contained individual of the liberal post-war period (Sampson 1977) has become the ideal of the neoliberal subject of the twenty-first century: Bentrepreneurial actors who are rational, calculating and self-regulating^ (Gill 2008, p. 443). In today's neoliberal university (Seal 2018), students are positioned as consumers, who are motivated presumably by a desire for self-improvement and are held responsible for selecting an academic path by weighing the costs and benefits (Burke 2011(Burke , 2013Cech 2013). ...
Using discursive psychology as its theoretical and methodological framework, the present study explored male Canadian undergraduate students’ accounts of their reasons for studying psychology, their experiences of being male undergraduate psychology students, and their anticipated future careers. Ten men (19–29 years-old) who were at least in their second year of study in the psychology major program were interviewed. Contrary to survey research concluding that men who make gender-atypical vocational choices conform less to masculine norms than do men who make typical academic and career choices, our participants produced contradictory accounts. On the one hand, in talking about their experiences as psychology students in the context of the gender gap, they argued that gender does not matter. On the other hand, they showed that gender does matter in brief “boy moments” when they shared tacit gender knowledge with the interviewer and in justifying their academic paths toward futures that involved leaving psychology for a male-concentrated field. Thus, gender-does-not matter was the preferred argument when gender was an explicit topic of conversation, and the doing of gender occurred in unacknowledged ways.
... This gave us an insight into how these historical oppositions also involved a particular zerosum way of thinking, in which there were only two exclusionary options (Collins, 1998). Indeed, it was as if we had poked at one of the sensitive underlying pillars of a particular cognitive paradigm, tied up with issues of method, disciplinary identification, and even political, cultural and national identity (Sampson, 1977(Sampson, , 2008. I recall several conferences in the U.S. during which my exploration of social creativity was referred to as "socialist" or even "communist." ...
The increasing interest in "social creativity" over the last 20 years, has also led to a reflection on how "creativity" has itself been created by researchers. Different strategies in the study of creativity reflect different underlying assumptions about, among other things, the nature and role inquiry, the fundamental unit of analysis, the relationship between self and society, and the purpose of research. Two approaches are outlined in broad strokes, focusing on simplicity and complexity respectively. The former is inspired by the natural sciences and aims to abstract the essential feature of a phenomenon from unessential elements, with the laboratory as its gold standard. The more recent complex approach addresses context, relationships and connections as well as uncertainty and unpredictability. In order to address the complexity of connections, relationships, emergence, and factors that cannot be contained in one discipline, one of the central characteristics of a complex approach is its transdisciplinarity, and specifically Integrative Transdisciplinarity.
... This mounting evidence of the contextualised view of the self provides strong support to the challenge that Sampson (1977) raised decades ago, arguing that the view of the self is bound within the body of a person is characteristically Western (see also , Shweder & Miller, 1991). ...
This chapter reviews important concepts in indigenous psychology in Korea and cross-cultural studies where South Korean groups were compared with other cultural groups and suggests "familial group attachment" and "group dynamism" as important themes for future study of Korean collectivism and Korean psychology in general.
... At approximately the same time, Tajfel's (1972) "Experiments in a Vacuum" bemoaned social psychology's inattention to contextual (including cultural) influences on behavior. Similar lamentations have since been registered by other scholars, such as Billig (1987), Geertz (1973), Harre (1986), Sampson (1977), Shweder (1984), and Weisz, Rothbaum, and Blackburn (1984), all of whom have highlighted the relevance of culture for social behavior and the self. ...
The culture movement challenged the universality of the self-enhancement motive by proposing that the motive is pervasive in individualistic cultures (the West) but absent in collectivistic cultures (the East). The present research posited that Westerners and Easterners use different tactics to achieve the same goal: positive self-regard. Study 1 tested participants from differing cultural backgrounds (the United States vs. Japan), and Study 2 tested participants of differing self-construals (independent vs. interdependent). Americans and independents self-enhanced on individualistic attributes, whereas Japanese and interdependents self-enhanced on collectivistic attributes. Independents regarded individualistic attributes, whereas interdependents regarded collectivistic attributes, as personally important. Attribute importance mediated self-enhancement. Regardless of cultural background or self-construal, people self-enhance on personally important dimensions. Self-enhancement is a universal human motive.
... Bien qu'il soit cavalier de circonscrire une idéologie à la somme de ses valeurs constitutives, Fronty (1983) souligne que l'on adhère à une idéologie via ses valeurs. Parmi les valeurs d'affirmation de soi, la valeur autonomie est pour Sampson (1977) une valeur centrale de la conception nord-américaine de la personne. La personne autonome (ou encore autosuffisante) n'a pas besoin des autres pour se réaliser et ne le souhaite pas. ...
... Sarason (1981) in a most significant book has criticized American psychology for its commitment to individualism. Others (Hogan, 1975;Sampson, 1977) have made the same observation. Kessen (1979) has recently argued that child psychology, with its emphasis on the individual, is very much a reflection of American culture. ...
The focus of this article is the concern that psychologists may be insensitive in applying their insights in cross-cultural settings, because of the implicit Western bias in their knowledge base. The writer assumes that knowledge is culture-specific. Given the context of modernity, mainstream American psychology reflects the ethos of American culture: It does so in its implicit commitment to science, secularity, technology, capitalism, rationality, pluralism, and individualism. The American psychologist who uses Western psychology in cross-cultural settings may serve to socialize members of the host culture into modernity. The article raises the logical implication of a sociology of psychological knowledge for a criterion against which the value of psychological insights can be evaluated.
... It is well known that sociohistorical changes may exert influence on human culture and psychology (Buss, 1975;Gergen, 1973;Riegel, 1972;Sampson, 1977: Vygotsky, 1978; see also Chapter XX by van de Vliert). Over the past decades, the world has undergone substantial socioeconomic changes (e.g., economic growth, urbanization, technology advancement, social transformations) with globalization as a salient feature of the current global community. ...
Over recent decades, massive socioeconomic development and accelerated globalization have led to substantial changes in human culture and psychology, which in turn have prompted increasing empirical examinations. By reviewing the relevant empirical research, we identify a general trend of human cultural change around the globe: individualism has been increasing whereas collectivism has been decreasing. This trend is manifested in diverse social indicators, cultural products, daily practices, and various domains of psychology including cognition, personality, attitudes and values, and human development. Cultural change, however, is not linear. Economic depression as well as other external forces such as disaster and pandemic may interfere with it; aspects of cultural heritage may also endure over the course of modernization, and multicultural societies are burgeoning around the world. Our review highlights that culture is not a static construct but a dynamic process. Future studies may extend the content and scope of our current research, explore processes and mechanisms underlying cultural change, and examine how individuals, organizations and governments cope with this change.
... For example, John Bowlby's work on children in wartime Britain was initially held in contempt by his peers because he posited that events outside the self were significant for children's development (Greenberg & Mitchell, 1983). Indeed, as a number of scholars have pointed out, the folk psychologies of the self have provided the tacit set of assumptions upon 6 which expert psychological knowledge is founded (Baumeister, 1987;Cushman, 1995;Richardson, Fowers, & Guignon, 1999;Sampson, 1977). ...
... Por lo tanto, el análisis de la esencia sería inútil ya que en el proceso de acercamiento a la esencia nuestro mecanismo de análisis la desplaza, dejándonos sólo elementos del proceso de su construcción y no con el objeto deseado (lo deseado es, por definición, imposible de poseer). (Sampson, 1977;Doane, 1987) Desde estas perspectivas, la representación de lo femenino en el cine es el intento de construir lo que no es (en términos derridianos: lo femenino) e introduce elementos de significados compartidos o novedosos que serán compartidos. Esto se constituye en una doble hélice (doble nivel) de significados. ...
En este trabajo se explora la representación de lo femenino en el film Thelma & Louise. Se analiza esta representación primero contextualizando el producto cinematográfico como constructo y constructor del imaginario social y luego como texto discursivo que encierra una representación social. En particular se analiza como la representación de lo femenino encarnado en los personajes que dan nombre al film, nos llevan en una aventura que atraviesa paisajes y conflictos que culminan desde un aparente discurso “feminista” liberador donde dos mujeres rompen todas las ataduras del patriarcado y logran escapar en un desenlace inesperado: la fuga al vacío.
... Different factors intervening in the broadening of the horizon Gadamer (1975) claims that precognition is the basis of any knowledge; knowledge is an interpretation always embedded in a lived tradition. According to this view, the effort to reach an objective knowledge, a-historical, free from values, is not only impossible but also flawed.Today a postmodern hermeneutic exists and shows that there are cultural values that penetrate it from every side, despite the efforts of psychology to be neutral and objective (Christopher, 1999;Christopher, Christopher & Dunnagan, 2000;Cirillo & Wapner, 1986;Cushman, 1995a;Hogan, 1975;Kirschner, 1996;Richardson, Fowers, & Guignon, 1999;Sampson, 1977Sampson, , 1988Spence, 1985;Woolfolk, 1998). ...
... Different factors intervening in the broadening of the horizon Gadamer (1975) claims that precognition is the basis of any knowledge; knowledge is an interpretation always embedded in a lived tradition. According to this view, the effort to reach an objective knowledge, a-historical, free from values, is not only impossible but also flawed.Today a postmodern hermeneutic exists and shows that there are cultural values that penetrate it from every side, despite the efforts of psychology to be neutral and objective (Christopher, 1999;Christopher, Christopher & Dunnagan, 2000;Cirillo & Wapner, 1986;Cushman, 1995a;Hogan, 1975;Kirschner, 1996;Richardson, Fowers, & Guignon, 1999;Sampson, 1977Sampson, , 1988Spence, 1985;Woolfolk, 1998). ...
This article was originally published in Italian as 'La base empirica della medicina alla ricerca di umanità e una psicoterapia naturalistica alla ricerca delle sue radici ermeneutiche' in: "Psicologia Psicoterapia e Salute" 2006, Vol.12, No. 1, 1 – 30. The IFREP-93' review. This translation appears with the kind permission of IFREP-93.
... The 1970s also became referred to as the "me decade" (Ringer 1977;Sampson 1977) for a number of reasons, but most relevant to our context was a publicly growing, yet subjective, focus on personal development and assertiveness (Alberti and Emmons 1970;Boston Women's Health Collective 1971). Counselling had become a resource for empowerment, influenced in part by a self-help literature that came to be known as "pop psychology," and that amplified circulation of 1960sera human potential ideas. ...
This chapter presents human concerns and responses to them as cultural constructions that vie for plausibility and dominance. After defining discourse (as ideology in a critical theory sense), common approaches (psychodynamic, cognitive, poststructural, systemic, feminist) developed and taken up within counselling are reviewed as discourses. These “insider” discourses (to counsellors) are contrasted with other discourses for human concerns (spiritual, social justice), and then with medicalizing discourse. I consider how these discourses feature in everyday as well as counselling interactions, underscoring differences in such interactions and the later actions taken from them in addressing human concerns. Counselling is presented in pluralist terms, as potential discourses used in making sense of and addressing human concerns.
Psychology is a discipline with global influence, but continues to neglect disadvantaged minorities and continues to adopt an incorrect model of science. This volume explains what has gone wrong, and what steps should be taken for psychology to become a constructive international force. Historically, psychologists have focused only on causal explanations of behavior, neglecting normatively regulated behavior and intentionality. By giving greater importance to context and collective processes, moving from 'societies to cells,' psychologists can better understand and explain individual behavior. Poverty is an extremely powerful context that shapes cognitions and actions, with destructive consequences for disadvantaged individuals. The advocation of 'be happy psychology' and 'resilience' as solutions to problems faced by the disadvantaged leads to entrenched group-based inequalities, with the poor stuck at the bottom. Moving forwards, this volume proposes that psychologists should focus on normative systems to ultimately foster a more balanced field of study for the future.
A major task ahead for South Korea is to create age-friendly communities and environments that can support older residents' health, well-being, and quality of life. To that end, international partnerships have emerged to share information, assess need, and develop response strategies. In this study, the transferability of a US-developed age-friendly community resident survey, based on the WHO framework, was tested in two South Korean cities by comparing results to the same survey conducted in a US city. Descriptive, relational, and predictive analyses revealed the survey items were a better fit for the US city than the South Korean cities. Limited response variances collected in the Korean cities challenged the comparison of data between the Korean sites. Thus, a cultural lens was used to explain response patterns that reflect their understanding of social norms including avoiding disagreement and conflict in order to maintain social equilibrium and five cultural dimensions found in Western and Eastern societies (Individualism vs. collectivism, universalism vs. particularism, low vs. high power distance, low vs. high context, and inner vs, outer control). Recommendations for future assessments in South Korea include shifting focus away from the individual to the individual's social network and community to improve understanding of need.
Empowerment research has generally been limited to the individual level of analysis. Efforts to study empowerment beyond the individual require conceptual frameworks suggesting attributes that define the construct and guide its measurement. This paper presents an initial attempt to describe the nomological network of empowerment at the organizational level of analysis—organizational empowerment (OE). Intraorganizational, interorganizational, and extraorganizational components of OE are described. Implications for empowerment theory and practice are discussed.
This chapter provides a case for a critical social psychology of class. By way of doing so, it first traces some of the antecedents to critical social psychology through a discussion of the ‘crisis’ in psychology some several decades ago. We then provide an overview of the central arguments of Marxism, feminism and poststructuralist-informed discursive approaches (key influences on critical psychology) and present a selection of class-focussed research informed by these respective approaches. Finally, we point to what a critical social psychology of class might look like, drawing attention to the need for historical-discursive approaches to classification, the importance of intersectional analyses, and attention to the ‘everyday’ of class-making across a range of cultural sites.
This paper examines the production of scientific knowledge on children from a decolonial perspective, with two major concerns. The first relates to the interrogation of developmentalism and globalism as part of the hegemonic project of modernisation originated in Northern countries and projected onto the world as an inevitable and to-be-desired future. I argue that these major paradigms about children and nations attempt to legitimate a scientific framework which universalises the way in which all childhoods, their generational value and the future orientation of societies should be envisaged. They can be considered orientalist perspectives framing childhoods all over the world in normative ideals produced by and articulated with specific Western/Northern social and political conditions. The second interrogation, by relying on the insights provided by the orientalist critique, deploys the North–South divide as a strategic perspective from which to look at present geopolitical structures of world domination that condition forms of knowledge production about nations, collectivities, individuals and children.
In consideration of the three pillars of sustainability, alongside the environment, social andeconomic dimensions interplay valuable insight into how society is molded and what key componentsshould be considered. In terms of social sustainability, there are processes and framework objectivesthat promote wellbeing integral to the balance of people, planet, and profit. Economic practicesconsider the system of production, resource allocation, and distribution of goods and services withrespect to demand and supply between economic agents. As a result, an economic system is a variantof the social system in which it exists. At present, the forefront of social sustainability researchpartially encompasses the impact economic practices have on people and society—with notableemphasis centered on the urban environment. Specific interdisciplinary analyses within the scopeof sustainability, social development, competitiveness, and motivational management as well asdecision making within the urban landscape are considered. This book contains nine thoroughlyrefereed contributions that interconnect detailed research into the two pillars reviewed.
This brief essay is written to honor the memory of Edward E. Sampson, an American social psychologist. His work emphasized many things, among them that social inequalities and context and, language and action go together; metaphors and symbolic acts can extend the meaning of things. Various texts are produced, critical and discerning questions are raised (or not raised), and ongoing discourses enable (or suppress) certain remembrances and help to co-construct our social existence. Sometimes, language and action reveal contradictions and conflict. Decisions for good or ill must be made. The individual always participates in multiple and often contradictory systems. Systems, in turn, indwells personal reality.
This chapter considers the importance of culture and insider knowledge for research and practice in psychology with Pacific people from a Samoan perspective that is contextualised in relation to scholars from other Pacific nations. This chapter also responds to the fact that Pacific peoples have always been explorers and people on the move. As such, the primary focus is on how Samoan cultural understandings and practices are influencing research and practice in both Samoa and Aotearoa (the Indigenous name for New Zealand). Emphasis in this chapter is also placed on the fabric of the knowledge traditions of Fa’aSamoa (Samoan Indigenous cultural knowledge) that resides within the Samoan language, heritage, customs, and beliefs that people carry with them. This chapter should also be seen in the context of a Pacific-Indigenous researcher paradigm, which champions the need to consider different cultural approaches to research, and which has ignited exploration of re-theorising within the ‘practice’ of psychology.
This chapter reviews the experience of intimacy in love, its various interpretations and value in different cultures. It also discusses the Western and Eastern ways of expression of intimacy, as well as the cultural variety of specific norms of expression of intimacy. Among those, the most studied in cross-cultural research are closeness, communication, self-disclosure, and self-expression. The role of cultural parameters, such as individualism vs. collectivism, gender equality, is discussed. The cross-cultural studies of self-disclosure and expressions are reviewed in detail. The chapter reviews the variety of experiences and expressions of intimacy, the methods and measures, which researchers employed to study those, and the results that they obtained in their studies. The chapter describes in details (1) the research designs, (2) methods, (3) instruments and measures, (4) samples (including their location, sample size, and other details), and (5) the data and results of studies (including descriptive statistics, such as means and size of correlations). The details of descriptive statistics help readers understand what the differences in the means for cultural samples are, what is the size of correlations, and other statistics. These details allow readers to make independent judgments about reliability and validity of results.
Androcentrism is common and well-documented in undergraduate psychology textbooks. Many pioneering women are missing from the history of psychology, especially women from non-Western countries like Russia. The Russian physiologist Ivan P. Pavlov is a canonical figure in American psychology, yet historical accounts of his work have followed an androcentric great man narrative. This paper presents characterizations of Pavlov in introductory and history of psychology undergraduate textbooks, alongside general scholarship on Pavlov, and remedies omissions by documenting and describing the lives and work of women who worked in Pavlov's labs. The primary reasons for these omissions are ideological and barriers to a global history of psychology.
An examination of the differences between collectivists (those who view themselves primarily as part of a whole, and who are motivated by the norms and duties imposed by the collective entity) and individualists (those who are motivated by their own preferences and needs).
Grace alone or in combination with intrinsic religiosity was associated with less narcissistic Exploitiveness, Machiavellianism, and individualism while being congruent with a belief in authority and equalitarianism. Measures of individualism were related to a manipulative style of interpersonal relationships. The failure of religious variables to predict healthy self-functioning as measured by the Personal Orientation Inventory appeared to reflect an antireligious ideological bias built into this humanistically based questionnaire. Although humanistic self-values did not generally promote interpersonal manipulativeness, the data nevertheless supported recent arguments by communitarian theorists that an excessive individualism may have unfortunate social consequences and that beliefs rooted in the biblical tradition may help work against such liabilities.
It was once assumed that the bedrock concepts of psychology held true for all the world’s peoples. More recently, post-modern approaches to research have expanded on these Western models, building a psychology that takes into account the sociopolitical, historical, religious, ecological, and other indigenous factors that make every culture, as well as every person as agents of their own actions.
Indigenous and Cultural Psychology surveys psychological and behavioral phenomena in native context in various developing and developed countries, with particular focus on Asia. An international team of 28 experts clarifies culture-specific concepts (such as paternalism and the Japanese concept of amae), models integrative methods of study, and dispels typical misconceptions about the field and its goals. The results reflect culturally sound frames of reference while remaining rigorous, systematic, and verifiable. These approaches provide a basis for the discovery of true psychological universals.
Among the topics featured:
• Scientific and philosophical bases of indigenous psychology
• Comparisons of indigenous, cultural, and cross-cultural psychologies
• Socialization, parent-child relationship, and family
• The private and public self: concepts from East Asia, Europe, and the Americas
• Interpersonal relationships: concepts from East Asia, Europe,, and the U.S.
• Factors promoting educational achievement and organizational effectiveness in Asia
• The growth and indigenization of psychology in developing and developed countries
• Are any values, attitudes, beliefs and traits universal? Cross-national comparisons
• The potential for indigenous psychology to lead to a global psychology
With this book, the editors have captured a growing field at a crucial stage in its evolution. Indigenous and Cultural Psychology benefits students and researchers on two levels, offering groundbreaking findings on understudied concepts, and signaling future directions in universal knowledge.
Presents an analysis of theory and research in social psychology which reveals that while methods of research are scientific in character, theories of social behavior are primarily reflections of contemporary history. The dissemination of psychological knowledge modifies the patterns of behavior upon which the knowledge is based. This modification occurs because of the prescriptive bias of psychological theorizing, the liberating effects of knowledge, and the resistance based on common values of freedom and individuality. In addition, theoretical premises are based primarily on acquired dispositions. As the culture changes, such dispositions are altered, and the premises are often invalidated. Several modifications in the scope and methods of social psychology are derived from this analysis. (53 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two different conceptions of social interaction, the "normative" and the "interpretive," are examined in terms of the mode of description required for deductive explanation. It is shown that if social interaction is an interpretive process, descriptions of interaction cannot satisfy the requirement for literal description imposed by the logic of deductive explanation. Consequently, sociological explanations of patterns of action must necessarily be interpretive and purposive, in the sense developed by Weber and Kaplan. In addition, this view of social interaction suggests that the process of interpretation itself be taken as a phenomenon for investigations as proposed in ethnomethodology and sociolinguistics.
Argues that the model by D. T. Campbell (see record 1976-12046-001) on the application of evolutionary theory to human social behavior is not a basis on which to build a moral system. Finding a balance between culture and biology is relevant to the needs of the social order in its ecological context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Kurt Lewin's work as a pioneering student of basic and applied psychology is placed in its theoretical, historical, and biographical contexts. The ten principles of re-education that Lewin, along with Grabbe, articulated in 1945 are then sys tematically reviewed and criticized in the light of major developments in training (and in planned change more generally) through the twenty-five years of experi ence and experimentation following their original publication. The piece thus provides at one and the same time an assessment and illumination of Lewin's theories and of recent and current trends in training theory, methodology, and practice in America.
Suggests that important unstated assumptions inform a large portion of psychological theory and research in the US. These assumptions concern the nature of the relationship between the individual and society. In particular, much American psychology seems committed to a form of individualism, and this commitment leads to both practical and theoretical paradoxes. An alternative and equally defensible perspective is outlined, and some of its consequences are traced. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
"In this article an attempt has been made to sketch out a theory of cooperation and competition and apply this theory to the functioning of small groups… , (i) social situations of cooperation and competition were defined; (ii) some of the logical implications inherent in the definitions were pointed to; (iii) with the introduction of psychological assumptions, some of the definitions of the two objective social situations were then drawn; (iv) the psychological implications, with the aid of additional psychological assumptions, were then applied to various aspects of small-group functionings to develop a series of hypotheses about the relative effects of co-operation and competition upon group processes; and (v) finally the concept of group was defined and linked with the concept of cooperation, thus making all of the preceding theoretical development with respect to cooperation relevant to group concepts." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Uses the term "social trap" to describe situations like a fish trap, where individuals, organizations, and societies get started in a direction that later proves unpleasant or lethal but difficult to back out of; actions or inactions prompted by self-interest create long-range effects that are to almost no one's interest. Skinnerian mechanisms of reinforcement of behavior are applied to this concept. Examples of 3 types of trap are given: the 1-person trap, which may be caused by delay, ignorance, or sliding reinforcers; the group trap, or "missing-hero" type; and the collective trap, caused by too many individuals seeking the same good. Locked-in patterns of collective behavior, characteristic of social traps, are described as the "invisible hand," "the invisible fist," and the "invisible chain." Ways out of the social trap are suggested. "Nested traps"-the most difficult to escape from-are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Discusses ways in which psychology participates in establishing and in implementing new social priorities through theory, methods, applied research, and professional skills. The social import of the "metapsychological" assumptions about human nature purveyed by psychologists is stressed. The assumptions of Skinnerian behaviorism and of "humanistic psychology" are both challenged in terms of their scientific base and social consequences. A humanized scientific psychology is advocated. (37 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study is concerned with the way in which 14 subjects co-operated in performing 18 simple tasks, selected to resemble tasks used by Zeigarnik, when a "planted co-worker" asked them to "come and help her do some work." In some of the tasks the co-worker interrupted the task and proceeded to finish it herself; in the other tasks the co-worker withdrew, leaving the subject to finish the task. Provisional conclusions are that task completion by another person than oneself can be satisfactory, that motivation in work need not necessarily be egotistical (hedonistic theory), and that, on the contrary, the person is frequently motivated directly by the demands of the objective situation, including the requirements of another person. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Hypothesized that psychologically "androgynous" individuals (as measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory) might be more likely than either masculine or feminine individuals to display sex role adaptability across situations, engaging in situationally effective behavior without regard for its stereotype as more appropriate for one sex or the other. 2 experiments with a total of 108 college students supported this hypothesis. Androgynous Ss of both sexes displayed "masculine" independence when under pressure to conform, and "feminine" playfullness when given the opportunity to interact with a tiny kitten. In contrast, all of the nonandrogynous Ss displayed behavioral deficits of one sort of another, with the feminine females showing perhaps the greatest deficit of all. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article presents evidence for the hypothesis that cross-sex behavior is motivationally problematic for sex-typed individuals and that they actively avoid it as a result. In particular, when asked to indicate which of a series of paired activities they would prefer to perform for pay while being photographed, sex-typed subjects were more likely than either androgynous or sex-reversed subjects to prefer sex-appropriate activity and to resist sex-inappropriate activity, even though such choices cost them money. Moreover, actually engaging in cross-sex behavior caused sex-typed subjects to report greater psychological discomfort and more negative feelings about themselves.
Male (N = 248) and female (N = 282) subjects were given the Personal Attributes Questionnaire consisting of 55 bipolar attributes drawn from the Sex Role Stereotype Questionnaire by Rosenkrantz, Vogel, Bee, Broverman, and Broverman and were asked to rate themselves and then to compare directly the typical male and female college student. Self-ratings were divided into male-valued (stereotypically masculine attributes judged more desirable for both sexes), female-valued, and sex-specific items. Also administered was the Attitudes Toward Women Scale and a measure of social self-esteem. Correlations of the self-ratings with stereotype scores and the Attitudes Toward Women Scale were low in magnitude, suggesting that sex role expectations do not distort self-concepts. For both men and women, "femininity" on the female-valued self items and "masculinity" on the male-valued items were positively correlated, and both significantly related to self-esteem. The implications of the results for a concept of masculinity and femininity as a duality, characteristic of all individuals, and the use of the self-rating scales for measuring masculinity, femininity, and androgyny were discussed.
Discusses the definition of problems and causal attribution bias in psychological research into social problems. An analysis of the literature on blacks covered in Psychological Abstracts during a 6-mo period indicates the types of variables studied (person vs. situation) and the causal relationships between them. It is concluded that too much research emphasis is placed on "blaming" the personal characteristics of those experiencing problems, and that greater attention should be given to the possible influence of external factors. (21 ref.)
Discusses the effects of socialization (i.e., the internalization of values) on sexual identity, and presents a framework for studying this identity concept in which changes in sex-role definitions are integrated with ego and cognitive developmental tasks. Cross-cultural and longitudinal experiments by the author and other researchers are described. Results indicate that the culturally determined socialization process broadens the sex-role definitions and behavioral options of males while limiting those of females.
Describes the development of a new sex-role inventory that treats masculinity and femininity as 2 independent dimensions, thereby making it possible to characterize a person as masculine, feminine, or "androgynous" as a function of the difference between his or her endorsement of masculine and feminine personality characteristics. Normative data, provided by 561 male and 356 female college and junior college students, are presented, as well as the results of various psychometric analyses. Findings indicate that: (a) The dimensions of masculinity and femininity are empirically and logically independent. (b) The concept of psychological androgyny is a reliable one. (c) Highly sex-typed scores do not reflect a general tendency to respond in a socially desirable direction, but rather a specific tendency to describe oneself in accordance with sex-typed standards of desirable behavior for men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)