No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Taking things more seriously: Psychological theories of autism and the material-social divide
... In developmental psychology children's relations to objects have tended to be seen as operating in a physical, asocial realm as distinct from the sociocultural realm of other people. This material-social dualism results from a propensity in psychology as a whole to limit conceptions of the "social" only to person-to-person interactions, as if we lived in "a world of actors devoid of things" (Costall & Dreier, 2006;Joerges, 1988, p. 220;Williams & Costall, 2000). Furthermore, the psychological importance of objects has tended to be underplayed with many psychologists appearing to be convinced that the only real "object" of study is not what people actually do and the material conditions of this action but the internal structures and processes underlying human agency (Costall & Dreier, 2006). ...
... This article challenges the notion of a rigid separation between the social and material in children's developing understanding and use of objects, drawing on evidence of the widespread disruption of object use in autism extending well beyond the special case of pretend play (Williams, 2003;Wilson et al., 2017) and on research and theory from developmental ecological psychology and sociocultural psychology that highlight the reciprocity of our relationships to people and things (Costall, 2012;Costall & Dreier, 2006;Leontiev, 1981;Preston, 2000;Szokolszky, 2006;Valsiner, 1987;Williams & Costall, 2000). Both the developmental ecological and sociocultural approaches highlight the key role that other people play in introducing children to the "proper" use of everyday objects in the context of daily routines and play, whereas these same objects, in turn, shape our human practices in shared ways and are an enduring source of social influence. ...
... Bodies of research and theory within developmental psychology broadly guided by the sociocultural (Leontiev, 1981;Tomasello, 1999;Valsiner, 1987) and ecological (Costall, 2012;Costall & Dreier, 2006;Preston, 2000;Szokolszky, 2006;Williams & Costall, 2000;Williams et al., 2005; van Leeuwen, Smitson, & van Leeuwen,1994; van Leeuwen & Westwood, 2010) frameworks challenge the assumption of a rigid separation between the social and the material in children's developing understanding and use of objects. Proponents of these approaches contend that assuming such a dualism (a) fails to recognize the far-reaching impact that commonplace artifacts (such as eating utensils) can have in shaping everyday human practices in common ways and (b) ignores the fact that we encounter objects in a social context and other people play a key role in introducing children to, and guiding directly and indirectly, their "proper" use. ...
Children's relations to objects are often seen as operating in a physical, asocial, realm distinct from the sociocultural realm of other people. The most influential theories of autism exemplify this assumption, emphasising problems in relating to other people alongside relatively intact dealings with objects. This paper challenges the notion of a rigid social-material divide. It examines evidence of widespread disruption in the object use of children with autism, alongside developmental ecological and sociocultural research highlighting the mutuality of our relations to people and things, to argue that difficulties in relating to other people should themselves lead us to expect corresponding problems in object use.
In support of this argument findings are presented from an empirical study comparing the triadic (parent-object-infant) play of children with autism (aged 1–6) and their parents to that of developmentally matched typical and Down syndrome dyads. Children's response to parental invitations and the proportion of time each child spent engaged with objects and/or their parents were compared. In contrast to the children in the comparison groups, those with autism were more likely to ignore parental invitations, or be preoccupied with their own use of an object. They also spent less time jointly engaged with their parent and an object and more time unengaged or focussed exclusively on their own use of an object. These findings are discussed in the context of Gibson's concept of affordances to further our understanding of the social mediation of object use in autistic and non-autistic children, and the role unusual child-object relations in autism might play in disrupting on-going interaction.
... A modern pszichológia mentális reprezentációkban való fixálódása nem csupán eltereli a figyelmet a gyermeket körülvevő emberek tárgyhasználat során tanúsított szerepéről, de maguknak a tárgyaknak a pszichológiai jelentőségét is lekicsinyli (Williams és Costall, 2000). Ezen materiális világ azonban számos információt hordoz számunkra kultúránkról és társadalmunk működéséről. ...
... A változatos környezet a gyermek játékának színvonalára is kedvező hatást gyakorol (Ward, 1969). A tárgy használatának szélesebb körű alkalmazása pedig tovább fokozza a gyermek tevékenységben való részvételi kedvét és maga kezdeményezte akcióit (Williams és Costall, 2000). ...
... A szociális gondozók szerepe is fontos, akik jelenlétükkel és verbális-nonverbális megnyilvánulásaikkal hasonlóképpen befolyást gyakorolnak a gyermek (tárgyválasztási és -használati) magatartására (Williams és Costall, 2000). A mikrokörnyezet (család) és másodlagos szocializációnk helyszíneinek (óvoda, iskola) felnőtt tagjai modellként, viselkedésünk jutalmazással-büntetéssel és verbális instrukciókkal való formálóiként támogatják beilleszkedésünket társadalmunkba, kultúránkba. ...
... Men også hér har flere kritikere af den økologiske kognitive psykologi påpeget, at dét er problematisk, fordi Gibson med affordancebegrebet stadigvaek smider det repraesentative ud med badevandet. Inden for udviklingspsykologien ses denne kritik blandt andet rettet fra Sinha (1988), Loveland, (1993, Costall & Stills (1989) og Williams & Costall (2000). Faelles for disse kritikere er, at de på den ene eller anden facon forsøger at udvide eller aendre affordancebegrebet i retningen af det mere sociale. ...
Udvikling finder sted i en heterogen social verden, hvor eksempelvis beskrivelsen af det dyadiske mor-barn forhold ikke kan betragtes som en tilstrækkelig udviklingspsykologisk model. Det økologiske perspektiv med dets inddragelse af omverdenen, giver derimod mulighed for en mere kontekstuel forståelsesramme, men samtidig afskriver teoretikere inden for et klassisk økologisk perspektiv – med en kollektiv skræk for det indre mentale – sig ofte muligheden for at kunne forklare årsagerne til de psykologiske forandringer hos individet. I artiklens første del præsenteres først Gibson og Bronfenbrenners klassiske økologiske modeller. Dernæst inddrages relateret aspekter fra Vygotskys teoretisering om barn-omverden, og fra teorien om »cultural learning«. I forlængelse heraf illustreres den empiriske anvendelse af et økosystemisk perspektiv i forståelsen af mexicanske indianerbørns legeaktivitet. I artiklens anden del præsenteres den sociogenetiske tilgangs bud på kontekstuelle udviklingspsykologiske mekanismer, samt nogle af de konceptuelle uenigheder vedrørende mekanismernes ontologi. I sidste del eksemplificeres situeret semiotisk mediering som udviklingspsykologisk mekanisme ud fra Oliveiras’ observation af brasilianske småbørns rolleleg. Afrundingsvis påpeges nogle metodemæssige problemer ved et økologisk udviklingspsykologisk perspektiv, og nødvendigheden af en intenderet tese mellem et økologisk perspektiv og social mediering, i forhold til udviklingspsykologiens gradvise erkendelse af at tværkulturelle data er afgørende for at bevare forståelsen af, at en stor del af vores forskningsmateriale og udviklingspsykologiske teorier har relativ karakter.
... It needs to be mentioned here that embodiment, as in "culture as embodiment" or embodied cognition, is expanded upon by researchers on earlier or parallel tracks (e.g., Barrett, 2011;Chemero, 2001aChemero, , 2009Varela et al., 1991) and has been applied to organizational contexts (e.g., White, 2017). Also, the idea of "arrangements," as conceptualized in this article, bears similarity to ecological psychologist Gibson's (1966Gibson's ( , 1979Gibson's ( /1986) original idea of "affordances" to pay more attention to environment and embodiment in explanations of how behavior is generated and how animals and humans alike, in turn, become part of a group by learning these affordances (see also Chemero, 2001bChemero, , 2003Williams & Costall, 2000). This similarity is especially apparent in the definition of affordances proposed by Rietveld and Kiverstein as "relations between aspects of a material environment and abilities available in a form of life" (2014, p. 335). ...
Since the 1980s, psychologists and management scholars have contributed significantly to the popularity of the idea of culture in organizations. A common and tenacious pitfall surrounding this idea, at times pointed out by these scholars themselves, is that culture is too often hypostatized and superimposed upon people. In doing so, this can have harmful consequences for employees at every level of organization. In this article, we reiterate this critique, challenge familiar managerial notions used to address “shared” behavior among employees, and answer to an old but neglected call to bring back real people to the forefront of our analyses. Based upon our adaptation of the enactive approach to the social tuning of behavior developed by Paul Voestermans and Theo Verheggen—made applicable in empirical studies on culture change conducted by the first author of this article—and inspired by principles of Gestalt, we propose a novel heuristic model to address organizational culture change. We attempt to do so both from an analytical and interventionist standpoint, while avoiding attributing causality to the idea of culture.
... The only clear weakness in this seems to be a prioritisation of language, which neglects the material aspects of socialisation (cf. Williams and Costall 2000). The final chapter, 'Towards a counter-modern archaeology', presents a summary of all that precedes it and highlights important themes for an alternative programme, including a dialogic ethics, and ways of putting them into practice. ...
... In my work with Emma Williams, we found, contrary to the standard "Theory of Mind" accounts, that children with autism do have difficulties tuning into the objective meanings of things (Williams & Costall, 2000;Williams et al., 1999Williams et al., , 2005. This is not just a consequence of poor communication with others, but also itself a potential source of disrupted communication because of difficulties in establishing shared contexts of meaning. ...
... The only clear weakness in this seems to be a prioritisation of language, which neglects the material aspects of socialisation (cf. Williams and Costall 2000). The final chapter, 'Towards a counter-modern archaeology', presents a summary of all that precedes it and highlights important themes for an alternative programme, including a dialogic ethics, and ways of putting them into practice. ...
... Yet very few investigators have focused directly on the nonconscious role that mundane inanimate objects-that is, objects that are both very common and relatively subtle-can play in directing everyday interpersonal judgments and perceptions, especially those judgments and perceptions that occur in regular social contexts (such as business settings) in which the objects in question are commonly embedded. As Williams and Costall (2000) reflected, Psychology appears to have special problems with objects. To the limited extent that psychology even touches upon things, they have been regarded as existing primarily in a physical, asocial realm, as distinct from the socio-cultural domain of people (p. ...
Inspired by potential theoretical linkages between nonconscious priming work in psychology and the anthropological emphasis on the impact of material culture, five studies were conducted to investigate the role of implicitly presented material objects and automatic processes in interpersonal and organizational contexts. These studies showed that exposure to objects common to the domain of business (e.g., boardroom tables and briefcases) increased the cognitive accessibility of the construct of competition (Study 1), the likelihood that an ambiguous social interaction would be perceived as less cooperative (Study 2), and the amount of money that participants proposed to retain for themselves in the “Ultimatum Game” (Studies 3 and 4). A fifth study, in which the ambiguity of the governing social situation was manipulated, demonstrated that these types of effects are most likely to occur in contexts that are ambiguous and/or lacking in explicit normative demands. The importance of these situation-specific “material priming” effects (all of which occurred without the participants' awareness of the relevant influence) to judgment and behavioral choice in specific contexts, as well as to the fostering of less competitive organizational settings, is discussed.
Specifically addressing the means and manner whereby the divine might be materialized or presenced in a particular matrix, divine images might act on and interact with individuals, and inanimate or even animate objects or entities might acquire a measure of divine agency so that they come to function , in effect, as (secondary) divine agents, this contribution (as well as the diverse essays contained in this volume) maintains a central emphasis on and exploration of the communicative potential and actuality of the material divine. It also explores, as a corollary, such issues as mimesis and portraiture in the context of divine representations, the definition and application of the terms animate and anthropomorphic to the material and materialized divine, and the nuanced distinctions between the concepts of image, likeness, and representation as these are negotiated in diverse cultural and spatiotemporal contexts.
Material culture surrounds us and yet is habitually overlooked. So integral is it to our everyday lives that we take it for granted. This attitude has also afflicted the academic analysis of material culture, although this is now beginning to change, with material culture recently emerging as a topic in its own right within the social sciences. Carl Knappett seeks to contribute to this emergent field by adopting a wide-ranging interdisciplinary approach that is rooted in archaeology and integrates anthropology, sociology, art history, semiotics, psychology, and cognitive science. His thesis is that humans both act and think through material culture; ways of knowing and ways of doing are ingrained within even the most mundane of objects. This requires that we adopt a relational perspective on material artifacts and human agents, as a means of characterizing their complex interdependencies. In order to illustrate the networks of meaning that result, Knappett discusses examples ranging from prehistoric Aegean ceramics to Zande hunting nets and contemporary art. Thinking Through Material Culture argues that, although material culture forms the bedrock of archaeology, the discipline has barely begun to address how fundamental artifacts are to human cognition and perception. This idea of codependency among mind, action, and matter opens the way for a novel and dynamic approach to all of material culture, both past and present. © 2005 by University of Pennsylvania Press. All rights reserved.
This book explores alternative ways to consider the relationship between mathematics and the material world. Drawing on the philosophy of Gilles Châtelet and the post-humanist materialism of Karen Barad, the authors present an 'inclusive materialist' approach to studying mathematics education. This approach offers a fresh perspective on human and nonhuman bodies, challenging current assumptions about the role of the senses, language, and ability in teaching and learning mathematics. Each chapter provides empirical examples from the classroom that demonstrate how inclusive materialism can be applied to a wide range of concerns in the field. The authors analyze recent studies on students' gestures, expressions, and drawings in order to establish a link between mathematical activity and mathematical concepts. Mathematics and the Body expands the landscape of research in mathematics education and will be an essential resource for teachers, students, and researchers alike.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.