A window on the self: Reconstructing thought processes to understand human action

Abstract

Abstract Jane Ogden (this issue) has provided a thoughtful analysis of how we see the individual with the eyes of our changing profession and how we simultaneously constitute the individual by our theoretical contemplation and our preferred research methods. Her historical analysis may suffer from the fact that the formal discipline of health psychology was nonexistent two decades ago, so she has to reconstruct other research agendas such as stress or pain research as an equivalent of health psychology. This is well done, and she has shown a trend leading from an environmental view to an interactionist view that now seems to turn into an intraactionist view. That is, there is an emerging focus on the self as an active agent who is responsible for a variety of outcomes, be it in the environment or in the person. These are not qualitative leaps but mere trends that reflect a notable shift in focus. The environment continues to be influential, and health psychologists are aware of the abundance of stimuli th...