Psychological Inquiry Research Articles

At both ends of the gun: testing the relationship between community violence exposure and youth violent behavior.

Much psychological inquiry has focused on understanding the contribution that exposure to urban violence makes to violent behavior among youth. However, other ways in which these variables may be related have been largely overlooked. This study compared four alternative social-ecological models of the link between community violence exposure and violent behavior to determine the degree to which (1) community violence exposure contributes to violent behavior, (2) violent behavior contributes to community violence exposure, (3) both are consequences of common antecedents, and (4) both are manifestations of the same higher order construct. Two hundred and seventy-seven adolescent offenders were interviewed about family, neighborhood, cognitive, and peer characteristics, in addition to violent behavior and community violence exposure. Results suggest that a plausible way to understand the association between community violence exposure and youth violent behavior is to consider both as representations of a general involvement in violence.

Shaping the Discourse of a Practice: The Role of Linguistics and Psychology in Language Teaching and Learning

This article treats the Modern Language Journal (MLJ) as a site for observing how a particular community, foreign language teachers, over an 85‐year period shaped its practices discursively, gradually developing a particular kind of professional identity. Instead of treating the current situation as the result of a straight‐line sequence of rational choices, this article points to various dynamics external and internal to the field whose influence was by no means preordained nor even necessarily beneficial. Focusing on the relationship between language teaching and disciplinary inquiry in linguistics and psychology, it identifies (a) a period in which the Journal and its readership circumscribed their interest in teaching modern, as opposed to classical languages; (b) a period in which both linguistics and psychology offered important insights, with linguistics, ultimately, dominating practice; (c) the rise of psycholinguistic models that, alongside existing understandings, led to enormously varied beliefs and approaches; and (d) a time for renegotiating our professional identity in light of a multiplicity of voices, interests, and models of research and practice. It concludes that the advantages of professionalization through disciplinary inquiry and the power it conveys to certain voices need to be balanced against the gains made possible with a kind of professional multilingualism.

The Darker and Brighter Sides of Human Existence: Basic Psychological Needs as a Unifying Concept

(2000). The Darker and Brighter Sides of Human Existence: Basic Psychological Needs as a Unifying Concept. Psychological Inquiry: Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 319-338.

One year follow up of spinal cord injury patients using a reciprocating gait orthosis: Preliminary report

To examine the influence of social, physical and psychological factors in determining the usage/non usage of reciprocating gait orthosis (RGO) in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. Prospective clinical trial. A large rehabilitation hospital in Rome, Italy. Twenty four SCI patients of traumatic aetiology (all fulfilling the criteria to prescribe the device). Social, physical and neurological examination according to ASIA standards; psychological enquiry by means of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the scale for self rating anxiety and depression of the Cognitive Behavioural Assessment. After 1 year follow up 11 (46%) of our patients no longer used the RGO. There was no statistically significant difference between patients who used the RGO and those who rejected the orthosis with regard to social and physical data. There was a significant difference (P=0.005 at the end of training and P=0.003 at 1 year follow up) with regard to functional ambulation level. With regard to psychological enquiry RGO-non users showed a higher frequency of values over the mean in the E scale (extroversion) of the EPQ than RGO-users (P=0.05). None of the identified parameters were useful to predict the use/rejection of the orthosis. Although they need to be confirmed, our psychological data suggest that extensive psychological testing could be useful to sharpen the ability to predict.

Examining the Cultural Context of Consultation

The articles in this mini-series present a conceptual model of multicultural consultation, advance the study of culture in school psychology inquiry, ground consultation inquiry in naturalistic paradigms, and contribute to our understanding of cross-cultural consultation competencies important to the successful delivery of consultation services. They also offer examples of the complex issues and challenges that consultants face when working to create a culturally inclusive environment during consultation. The major themes addressed by the articles are discussed and commonalities that emerged across articles in cross-cultural consultation competencies are explored.

Psychological Inquiry and the Pragmatic and Hermeneutic Traditions

Psychological practitioner inquiry differs in kind from psychological researcher inquiry. From the perspective of researcher inquiry, practice should consist of applying research-generated knowledge. Because practitioners consistently report that this is not how they approach their clients, and because the epistemological foundations of psychology research inquiry have been questioned, it is necessary to study how practitioners actually engage in practice. The hermeneutic tradition of Heidegger and Gadamer and the pragmatic tradition of Dewey provide a philosophical groundwork for the study of practitioner inquiry. Gadamer and Dewey propose that in everyday functioning people primarily act out of their internalized, culturally provided knowledge, which primarily functions outside of awareness. However, they also hold that people are not locked into their socially transmitted backgrounds. People can advance the effectiveness of their received practical knowledge through reflective inquiry and trial-and-error activity. People learn from the effect of these trials and thereby expand their background understandings. For ordinary everyday functioning, psychological practitioners are assumed to engage in a process similar to the one outlined by Dewey and Gadamer.

The Self-Regulation of Moods: Second Thoughts on the Importance of Happiness in Everyday Life

(2000). The Self-Regulation of Moods: Second Thoughts on the Importance of Happiness in Everyday Life. Psychological Inquiry: Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 142-148.

Maintaining Hedonic Balance: Reply to Commentaries

(2000). Maintaining Hedonic Balance: Reply to Commentaries. Psychological Inquiry: Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 218-225.

Culture and Social Prediction

Human behavior under uncertainty has been an important area of inquiry in social, decision making, and cognitive psychology for the past few decades. The current research examined the role of different types of information in enhancing individuals’ confidence in making social predictions in a variety of uncertain situations across cultures. Chinese and American participants were given either individuating information (e.g., accomplishments) or relational information (e.g., social groups) about a target with whom they would have to interact. They were then asked for judgments regarding the usefulness of the information, as well as estimates of their confidence in making predictions about their own and the other person’s behavior in four hypothetical situations. The results indicated that for U.S. subjects, individuating information was deemed much more useful and enhanced confidence in making social predictions, as compared with relational information. The reverse was true for the Chinese participants. Implications for the individualism-collectivism theory and cross-cultural research on social prediction are discussed.

A psychological analysis of a psychological phenomenon: the dialogical construction of meaning

It is the task of psychologists to describe and explain psychological phenomena, though the meaning of both description and explanation varies widely. One way to deal with psychological phenomena is to transform them as soon as possible into data (by which is meant quantitative data), which then can be analysed by ready-made methods (by which is meant inferential statistics). An unfortunate result of this politically fortified procedure is that the availability of methods (for data “collection” and analysis) comes to dictate the whole research process, including the construction of the phenomenon and its operationalization. As a consequence, various opponents of this non-scientific procedure have challenged psychology with a new dogma: the need to replace quantitative methods by their qualitative counterparts. Recently appearing “new turns” in psychology (as the narrative, the hermeneutic, the discursive turn, etc.) in particular, define qualitative approaches as the via regia for psychological analyses. I argue that both “schools” are caught in the same trap: ready-made methods and belief in the superiority of one rather than the other dominate all other aspects of methodology and psychological inquiry in general. I suggest that it is the theoretically derived phenomenon that - depending on the specific research question under consideration - requires the construction (rather than the application) of an adequate method for its analysis - be it qualitative or quantitative. I give an extended example for a psychological analysis of a psychological phenomenon - the construction and reconstruction of meaning - with the help of a qualitative experimental approach.

A Pragmatic Basis for Judging Models and Theories in Health Psychology: The Axiomatic Method

Psychology and its subfield of health psychology suffer from a lack of standardized terminology and a unified theoretical framework for the prediction and explanation of health behaviour. Hence, it is difficult to establish whether a given theory is logically consistent and to compare different theories. Science involves both empirical and conceptual issues. It is asserted that psychology has overemphasized the former and underemphasized the latter. Empirical psychology needs an explicit, shared conceptual system in order to develop its theories. An example of an axiomatic method (Psycho-Logic; see e.g. J. Smedslund.Psychological Inquiry 1991a; 2: 325-338) is applied to show how the Health Belief Model,the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Social Cognitive Theory all conform to the a priori conditions of acting. One implication is that studies of the predictive power of theories stated as definitional truths only assess auxiliary hypotheses, i.e. the extent to which the measuring instruments are reliable and valid. On the other hand, the introduction of logic into health psychology can facilitate genuine empirical studies by helping to avoid so-called 'pseudoempirical' work (Smedslund, J. In Smith, Harré & Van Langenhove (Eds.) Rethinking psychology, 1995). Systems such as Psycho-Logic can also enhance conceptual integration by using logic to explicate and demonstrate intuitive relations. Implications for practitioners are discussed briefly.

Review of Critical psychology: An introduction.

PART ONE: CRITICAL OVERVIEWS Introducing Critical Psychology - Isaac Prilleltensky and Dennis Fox Values, Assumptions and the Status Quo Repoliticizing the History of Psychology - Benjamin Harris Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology - Louise H Kidder and Michelle Fine A Radical Tradition Ethics in Psychology - Laura S Brown Cui Bono? Understanding and Practicing Critical Psychology - David Nightingale and Tor Neilands PART TWO: CRITICAL ARENAS Theories of Personality - Tod Sloan Ideology and Beyond Abnormal and Clinical Psychology - Rachel T Hare-Mustin and Jeanne Marecek The Politics of Madness A Critical Look at Intelligence Research - Zack Z Cernovsky Developmental Psychology and Its Discontents - Erica Burman Social Psychology - S Mark Pancer The Crisis Continues Community Psychology - Isaac Prilleltensky and Geoffrey Nelson Reclaiming Social Justice Cross-Cultural Psychology - Fathali M Moghaddam and Charles Studer The Frustrated Gadfly's Promises, Potentialities and Failures Lesbian and Gay Psychology - Celia Kitzinger A Critical Analysis Psychology and Law - Dennis Fox Justice Diverted Political Psychology - Maritza Montero A Critical Perspective PART THREE: CRITICAL THEORIES Feminist Psychology - Sue Wilkinson Critical Theory, Postmodernism and Hermeneutics - Frank C Richardson and Blaine J Fowers Insights for Critical Psychology Discursive Psychology - Ian Parker PART FOUR: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS A Critical Look at Critical Psychology - Julian Rappaport and Eric Stewart Elaborating the Questions

The psychology of human possibility and constraint

The way to read this little book is to share in the authors' concern for understanding individuals and for vindicating psychology as a discipline concerned with the psychological of individuals. The authors' collaboration in the pursuit of understanding of socioculturally enabled individual psychological development (p. xvi) is an extended argument that is didactically satisfying, even as it is intellectually promiscuous. It is satisfying because their concerns are of the heart; it is promiscuous because their expressed effort is one of borrowing and attempted reconciliation from divergent philosophical perspectives. Ironically, there is little concrete psychological inquiry here, and little on the meaning and significance of human suffering in becoming a person. Rather, its strength as well as its weakness resides in the perspective and approach it advocates in the study of human being, and so provides, as Donald Polkinghorn writes in his illuminating Foreword, a groundwork that other scholars can use to explore personhood further (p. xiv).The first three of the book's six chapters are devoted to a presentation and elaboration of the authors' metaphysical thesis of interactionism, the last three to an instantiation of this thesis in the domains of psychotherapy, education, and psychological inquiry. Throughout these chapters the authors juxtapose social constructionism and cognitive constructivism as instances of holism and atomism, respectively, and as extant psychological paradigms for the understanding of individuals. Since they recognize that these paradigms have fundamentally different assumptions and metatheories and so preclude integration, they assume as their task to formulate a theoretical approach, one with ontological and epistemological assumptions different from either of the positions, so as to ground the relation between social-cultural and psychological individual realities (p. 5).This new theoretical approach borrows explicitly from recent continental philosophy, notably from Heidegger's ontology and from Gadamer's hermeneutics conceived as an epistemology for psychology and the human sciences. Less explicit but evident throughout the text are borrowings from Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology and from Charles Taylor in support of the individual -- that is, the person -- as that incarnate mode of experience sublimated in language, meaning, and history. Later, in an instantiation of their thesis in the context of education, the authors also find their perspective converging with the work of Mead and Dewey, and indeed, for better or worse, the style of the entire theoretical formulation exemplifies a strong pragmatic orientation. Not surprisingly then, even if their theoretical approach is philosophically overdetermined and therefore promiscuous, they do stipulate their use of such frequently occurring terms as metaphysics, ontology, and epistemology.The proposed metaphysics of dynamic interactionism is presented as a challenge to the lingering Cartesianism of the discipline that separates mind from body and individual from social-cultural context. It is also intended to avoid the conclusions of post-structuralist thought (Barthes and Derrida are cited) that dissolves the individual into text, and the excesses of social constructionist thought that dissolves the individual into social and linguistic practices. Instead, the authors conceive of individual psychological experience and its constituting social-cultural context as shifting ontologies that are dynamically related in a manner that is historically emergent and mutable, and do not permit ontological reduction of one to the other. So that while the social-cultural context is conceived as an enabling and constraining source in the formation of the individual self -- here the authors take cognitive constructivism to task -- the individual is underdetermined by its social-cultural sources. …

Significant samples: The psychological study of eminent individuals.

Psychologists occasionally study eminent individuals, such as Nobel laureates, U.S. presidents, Olympic athletes, chess grandmasters, movie stars, and even distinguished psychologists. Studies using such significant samples may be differentiated along 7 distinct dimensions: qualitative versus quantitative, single versus multiple case, nomothetic versus idiographic, confirmatory versus exploratory, crosssectional versus longitudinal, micro versus macro analytical units, and direct versus indirect assessments. However, the vast majority of psychological inquiries may be clustered into just 4 types: historiometric, psychometric, psychobiographical, and comparative. After presenting the intrinsic and extrinsic justifications for studying famous persons, the main methodological issues concerning sampling, measurement, and analysis are discussed. The future prospects of significant samples in psychological research are then briefly examined.

“Wheelchair” patients with nonorganic disease: A psychological inquiry

We studied ten patients referred from the neurology service with severe disability associated with the use of a wheelchair, but with no organic disorder to account for their disabilities. All patients were assessed using rating scales as well as a standardized psychiatric interview (SCID), and all medical and psychiatric case notes were examined. We also interviewed key carers for their views on the information and assistance the patients had received. All but two of the ten patients were women, and the mean age was 45.4 years ( sd=5.4). All had current diagnoses of conversion or somatoform disorders and six had previous episodes of major depression. Most patients expressed beliefs about their illness that were not consistent with the medical facts, and only two of the carers were satisfied with explanations they had been given by doctors. The results suggest that requests for psychiatric help once patients have become grossly disabled are unlikely to lead to recovery. The psychiatrist, however, can help the primary care doctor to formulate a plan of management aimed at preventing further deterioration.

Applying the Unimodel to Political Persuasion

(1999). Applying the Unimodel to Political Persuasion. Psychological Inquiry: Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 137-140.

Cultural Psychology: Implications for Basic Psychological Theory

A theoretical argument for the importance of culture in psychological explanation is offered. It is maintained that the view that culture is integral to psychological theory rests on a meaning-based view of culture and on the recognition that culture is necessary in individual psychological development. Research on cognition and on the self is discussed briefly to illustrate ways in which work in cultural psychology is contributing to basic psychological theory. In future research, greater attention needs to be given to developing more sensitive understandings of culture and to incorporating these understandings in the constructs and methods of the discipline. In conclusion, cultural psychology is shown to represent a perspective to bring to bear in all types of psychological inquiry. While building on existing work in the field, cultural psychology offers an alternative vision that underscores respects in which psychological development represents an open, culturally mediated process.

Rhetoric and the recovered memory debate.

AbstractWe examine arguments about repression and dissociation in recent writings on the debate about the veracity of recovered memories of childhood abuse. Using the contributions of rhetorical psychology (e.g., Billig, 1987, 1991), discursive psychology (e.g., Edwards & Potter, 1992; Potter, 1996), and conversational studies of argumentation (e.g., Apotheloz, Brandt, & Quiroz, 1993; Sillince, 1995) we studied the deployment of repression and dissociation by supporters of recovered memory, the refutations of skeptics, and the means by which arguments and counter-arguments were presented as factual. Supporters situate repression and dissociation within a long tradition of scholarly inquiry and draw on clients' personal accounts. Skeptics deny the existence of scientific evidence for the concept of repression. They suggest that dissociation, while a plausible phenomenon, cannot justifiably explain recovered memories. The implications for stasis and change within the recovered memory debate are discussed.The recovery of memories of childhood sexual abuse is one of the most controversial contemporary topics in the field of mental health (Gleaves, 1996). Arguments about the accuracy of recovered memories have engaged psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists from an assortment of professional backgrounds (e.g., Conway, 1997; Kristiansen, Haslip, & Kelly, 1997; Lindsay & Read, 1994, 1995; Olio & Cornell, 1994; Read & Lindsay, 1997; Saraga & MacLeod, 1997; Schacter & Curran, 1995). In order to defuse the intensity of this debate, Lindsay and Briere (1997) examined reasons for the contentiousness of the issue of recovered memories. These authors discussed general cultural and psychological factors as well as those associated with the recovered memory debate specifically. To make future dialogue about recovered memories of child sexual abuse more constructive, Lindsay and Briere (1997) recommended avoidance of generation of and overreaction to potentially polarizing (p. 643).The function of the term in the foregoing quote might be to dismiss certain opinions by characterizing them as exaggerated and insincere. But there is another sense in which rhetoric may be used. The study of rhetoric within the recent turn to discourse in the human sciences focuses on argumentation as social interaction (Antaki, 1994). Some factors Lindsay and Briere (1997) mentioned as increasing dissension about recovered memories (e.g., the dichotomizing of complex phenomena, the dissemination of polarized views by the media, and differential use of terminology by supporters and opponents) may be understood in the context of knowledge about discourse and argument. The purpose of this paper is to promote such reflection on arguments about repression and dissociation within the recovered memory debate. The latter two concepts have been invoked in explanations of the forgetting and subsequent remembering of childhood abuse. Our aim is not to review the considerable literature on this subject nor to deliver yet another opinion on the truth status of these terms. Rather, we explore a sample of writings on the use of repression and dissociation as explanations in arguments about recovered memories. We examine how repression and dissociation are used by proponents to support the veracity of recovered memories, how refutations by opponents are constructed, and the means by which participants on both sides of the debate attempt to depict their claims as fact.Turning To Discourse, Rhetoric, And ArgumentThis approach is situated within the turn to discourse that characterizes postmodern inquiry in psychology (Gergen, 1985). Language is viewed as situated social practice and is examined in terms of its construction, function, and variation (Potter & Wetherell, 1987). In contrast to a realist depiction of language as the transparent reflection of the world, the discursive turn stresses the power of language to construct or constitute reality (see Kroger & Wood, 1998). …

Motivated Cognition and Self-Deception

(1999). Motivated Cognition and Self-Deception. Psychological Inquiry: Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 59-63.

Psychology's reality debate: A "levels of reality" approach.

For different reasons, some modern and postmodern psychologists are skeptical about the of psychological phenomena as irreducible, influential entities. Nonetheless, much psychological inquiry presumes precisely such a reality. We present a of reality approach to psychological that we believe can assuage some of the concerns of psychological skeptics. Our approach treats psychological as inseparably embedded in sociocultural, biological, and physical levels of reality, without being reducible to any of these other levels. We develop our of reality approach in relation to four different doctrines of realism, and elaborate its implications for understanding psychological phenomena. As we enter the twenty-first century, we psychologists are having trouble with reality. Some of us who hold more or less traditionally modern views with respect to psychological science want to treat psychological as if it were akin to physical (e.g., Matthews, 1998) and are therefore anxious to reduce psychological phenomena of interest to their presumed neurophysiological, chemical, and biological correlates. Some of us who hold postmodern and related views with respect to psychology as a human social construction are skeptical about psychological and physical alike (e.g., Gergen, 1994), especially when psychological is asserted to be natural or essential. To complicate matters, many of the reality-concerned of modern or postmodern persuasions appear to hold rather different conceptions of realism. In this article, we describe a of reality position that we believe might illuminate and possibly resolve some of the confusions and impasses in psychology's contemporary struggles. To set the stage for our presentation, we first offer three different, traditional doctrines of realism and consider a variety of brief examples of how these might play out with respect to various levels of physical and human phenomena. We then distinguish realism from related, but different, philosophical doctrines of naturalism, essentialism, foundationTh is d oc um en t i s c op yr ig ht ed b y th e A m er ic an P sy ch ol og ic al A ss oc ia tio n or o ne o f i ts a lli ed p ub lis he rs . Th is a rti cl e is in te nd ed so le ly fo r t he p er so na l u se o f t he in di vi du al u se r a nd is n ot to b e di ss em in at ed b ro ad ly . 178 Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psy. Vol. 19, No. 2, 1999 alism, and reductionism. We start this way because, on our reading of their works, many modernists, postmodernists, and others frequently conflate one or more of these doctrines or positions with realism or its opposite, and in so doing, contribute significantly to our woes. However, proceeding in this way also makes it apparent that traditional philosophical doctrines of realism may be inadequate with respect to ascertaining the ontological status of psychological phenomena per se. We therefore make one final preliminary move prior to presenting our of reality position and argument. This move consists of introducing a line of thought with respect to questions concerning that effectively rejects the entire debate between metaphysical realists and anti-realists as arising from a failure to understand human life and existence properly in the first place. This type of thinking takes human existence in the world as a basic, unitary that is not amenable to traditional metaphysical conjecture. It is available most originally in the work of Martin Heidegger (1962, 1982), especially as developed and extended by Charles Taylor (1985, 1995) and Charles Guignon (1991, Richardson, Fowers, & Guignon, 1999). Of particular relevance for our of reality position is the Heideggerian claim that meanings are as much a part of the world as are gravitation and mass. With these preliminaries in place, we turn directly to an explication of our of reality position and argument and conclude by considering some of its possible implications with respect to psychological inquiry. The point of all of this is to argue that psychological is neither as reducible as some modernists claim, nor as problematic as some postmodernists assert. Rather, psychological is irreducibly nested within physical, biological, and sociocultural levels of reality, all of which both enable and constrain it. Further, while psychological is not fixed, nor knowledge of it certain, it also is not so ephemeral and subjective as to escape psychologists' attempts to study it, so long as the conclusions from such studies are regarded as contingent, fallible, and subject to revision.