Phenomenological Psychology Research Articles

A Critical Analysis of Blaustein\u2019s Polemic Against Husserl\u2019s Method

The aim of the article is to define and investigate an interpretative framework for the philosophy of Leopold Blaustein, a student of Twardowski in Lwów (Lvov, Lviv) and Husserl in Freiburg im Breisgau. The author defends the thesis that it is justified to refer to Blaustein’s philosophy not as phenomenology sensu stricto, but as a phenomenologically-oriented descriptive psychology related but not equivalent to the project expounded by Husserl in the first edition of Logische Untersuchungen as well as in his project of phenomenological psychology (as formulated in 1925). The article traces Blaustein’s critique of Husserl’s phenomenological methods, putting it in the historical context of the discussion with Ingarden. Next, the author juxtaposes Blaustein’s understanding of psychology with Husserl’s project of 1925, which makes it possible to identify not only the differences between the two projects, but also their similarities. The article also raises questions about the scope of descriptive-psychological analyses.

Phenomenological pedagogy

There is pedagogical direction, inspired by Husserl phenomenology and existential philosophy appeared in Holland in the 60-ies of 20 sent. The paper describes the principles and essential phenomenological psychology, the main theme of which is the understanding of the subjective world of the child's soul and a description of the child's experiences. Phenomenological pedagogy ideas had a great impact on the education system of the European countries, and have not lost relevance today.

Descriptive and analytical psychology of Wilhelm Dilthey as theoretical source of phenomenological psychology of Edmund Husserl

The article contains the critical reconstruction of descriptive and analytical psychology of Wilhelm Dilthey and its influence on the phenomenological psychology of Edmund Husserl. Dilthey describes three fundamental features of intrinsic psychic life, which make it different from external physical world: 1. Immediacy — psychic life is directly perceived as intrinsic process; physical world is indirectly perceived as external reality. 2. Connection — psychic life is organic connection of interrelated experiences, physical world is conglomeration of the separate facts. 3. Value — psychic experiences use to have the value to us, physical facts can be irrelevant to us. According to Dilthey descriptive and analytic psychology is possible since the psychic life is directly given as organic connection of experiences, which have a special value. The main method of psychology should be description of the psychic experience. Dilthey sketches out three main direction of this description: 1. Description of the main types of the psychic processes. 2. Description of the main connections of the human experiences. 3. Description of the special parts of the human experiences. On one hand, the phenomenological psychology of Edmund Husserl is grounded on the descriptive and analytic psychology of Wilhelm Dilthey. On another hand, Husserl criticizes some crucial points of Dilthey’s conception. First of all the founder of phenomenology and phenomenological psychology points out the connection of the notions “understanding” and “induction” in the psychological conception of Wilhelm Dilthey. On the contrary, according to Husserl the method of understanding should be based on the concept of intuition, which plays an important role in his phenomenological project.

Investigating the Experience of users in a Coexistence Community Center from the perspective of humanistic psychology and phenomenology

This paper presents the results of a qualitative research of phenomenological nature that aimed to understand the experience of people who attend a Coexistence Community Center (CECO). Individual dialogical encounters were held with seven adult users of both sexes. After each meeting, the researcher wrote a Comprehensive Narrative, based on his own impressions, about the participant's experience. A Narrative Synthesis was then constructed containing the significant elements of the experience of all participants in relation to the experiences in the CECO. The phenomenologically revealed elements, that constituted the results of the research, can be expressed as follows: (1) interpersonal relations, mediated by professionals in the context of the CECO, are guided by respect, understanding and mutual interest; (2) from the daily coexistence with other people and from participation in collective activities, users can creatively develop their skills and interests; and (3) when they feel welcomed and respected as people, users also develop a positive affective relationship with the service. In conclusion, CECO is a space conducive to the development of individual and collective potentialities and to the valorization of constructive social relations that facilitate and preserve the inherent tendency of people for growth, autonomy and psychological maturation. Palavras-chave : Coexistence Community Center; Phenomenological Psychology; Narratives; Psychological Attention in Institutions; Public Health.

Reception, Circulation and Disciplinarization of Gestalt-therapy in Mato Grosso do Sul

Gestalt Therapy has been growing and developing since its arrival in the 1950's. For some authors, Gestalt-therapy is involved in the process of receiving phenomenology in Humanistic Psychology. However, specifics and institutionalized aspects of its studies, as disciplinarization, are barely visible in Mato Grosso do Sul (MS). In this scenario, this research aims to describe and analyze Gestalt-Therapy's disciplinarization in MS, between 1980 and 1990. Methodologically, this is a research in History of Psychology that uses Documentary and Content Analysis from oral and textual sources. Results indicate that Gestalt-Therapy's disciplinarization happened at the same time the firsts psychologists graduated in the city. They also highlight the involvement in the Gestalt-Therapy's training as a possibility of expansion knowledge, considering the scenario of Campo Grande, at the time, made it difficult to access complementary education. Finally, they suggest an eminently female group profile that shows the importance of therapeutic experiences in the group formation. Therefore, by unveiling this process, we understand certain aspects of the history of Brazilian Psychology, in addition to clarifying untold aspects of this local history. Palavras-chave : History of Psychology; Local History; Clinical Psychology; Gestalt Therapy.

Phänomenologische Anthropologie und Psychologie im Werk Javier San Martins

The relationship between phenomenology and the sciences is of complex nature. In particular, the transcendental phenomenological position seems to promote skeptical reservations about the scientific attitude. Phenomenological anthropology and psychology, however, are an exception. The work of the Spanish philosopher Javier San Martin addresses the relationship of Husserlian phenomenology to these two particular sciences. In this paper, the work of Navarrese will be revisited as an occasion to reflect on the relationship between phenomenology and the sciences. In the first part, San Martin’s philosophical approach is presented and put in relation to its counterpart, namely ratiovitalism, which has dominated phenomenological research in the Spanish-speaking world throughout the last decades. The second part is devoted to the question of whether phenomenological transcendentalism is compatible with anthropological research. It also describes San Martin’s contribution to cultural philosophy. The relationship between phenomenology and psychology is discussed in the third part. San Martin develops a critical account of empiricist psychology which he confronts with his proposal for a ’posttranscendental’ psychology that is based on the critique of psychologism and representationalism. The last section compares San Martin’s idea of anthropological and psychological science with other forms of scientific theory which contribute to phenomenological methodology in empirical research.

Phenomenology and Psychology

Edith Stein came to phenomenology after beginning her university studies in psychology. She struggled with the inability of psychology to justify and delineate its founding principles. She found in Edmund Husserl, though his sustained criticisms of psychologism, the possibility of a phenomenological ground for psychology. This article demonstrates how Stein, drawing from but also distancing herself from Husserl, justifies the possibility of a phenomenological psychology framed within a personalist structure of subjectivity and sociality.

Оценка ситуации пандемии COVID-19 жителями России и Беларуси

Objective. Comparative analysis of assessing the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic depending on the age of the respondents and the strategies of state regulations against infection (example of Belarus and Russia). Background. The study of COVID-19 assessments by residents of regions with different state regulations of the pandemic situation makes it possible to identify the similarities and differences in assessments of the situation, the degree of its impact on different spheres of life, fears, their capabilities and to outline the directions of psychological assistance. This is one of the first attempts to identify the personality-environment-activity interdetermination of psychological phenomenology is presented. Study design. The study was conducted from April 11th to June 4th, 2020 using Google Form. Measurements. Specially designed questionnaire with scores from 0 to 10 (on the Likert scale) of the COVID-19 situation and an open-ended question. Participants. It was attended by 439 people from 18 to 62 years old: 231 Russians (77.9% of women; average age 32.68+9.16 years) and 208 Belarusians (75.5% of women; average age 30.94+10.28 years). Of these: 1) Russian youth from 18 to 30 years old (N=91; average age 23.6+4.21 years) and Belarus youth (N=113; average age 23.1+3.8 years); 2) the mature generation of Russians from 31 to 60 years old (N=140; average age 38.6+6.25 years) and Belarusians (N=95; average age 40.25+7.37 years). Results. Both Belarusians and Russians highly estimated their capabilities and resources. Older people in both countries give a more negative assessment of the pandemic situation, while at the same time giving a higher assessment of their resources than young people. In self-isolation the intensity of fears decreases, the situation is assessed more positively, but the influence on physical activity and mental state increases. Global and personal fears dominate in the absence of self-isolation, while social fears dominate in the absence of self-isolation. There is a positive correlation between person’s capabilities and resources and the assessment of fears, the difficulties of the pandemic situation, and the degree of its impact on various aspects of life in the situation of self-isolation. Conclusions. Assessments of the pandemic situation complexity, the degree of its impact on various aspects of life, and fears are higher among the residents of Belarus, which may be explained by the lack of additional measures against the spread of coronavirus infection.

PSYCHODIAGNOSTICS AND PSYCHOCORECTION OF BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS AND DISADAPTATION IN ADOLESCENTS WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL DEPRIVATION

Aim of the study on the basis of study of abnormal psychology phenomenology to learn propensity to disorders of behavior and displays of disadaptation for teenagers, as a factor of origin and realization of different forms of victim behavior that can become reason of origin of propensity to the destructive options and tendencies of behavior in interpersonality relations for teenagers with a psychological deprivate and to work out fitting for their psychocorrection.Materials and methods. By us were inspected from 2018 to 2020 50 teenagers by age 16-18, that was brought up shelter of domestic type for the children of orphans and children confined of the paternal caring.Experimental psychological researches included: test of А.Н. Orel is for the exposure of indexes of propensity to disorders of behavior of teenagers, that sent to the estimation of readiness or inclination of teenagers to realization of different forms of deviative behavior; test of О.О. Andronikova for the exposure of indexes of propensity to victim behavior of teenagers.Results. As a result of this study, psychodiagnostics and psychocorrection were carried out to 50 teenagers with a psychological deprivate, it was educed greater propensity to victim behavior and characteristic intentionally creation or provocation of conflict situation for the pupils of refuge for children-orphans, than for teenagers that was brought up in families.Conclusions. On the basis of analysis of individual, personality, social-psychological factors, that stipulate forming of social psychological rejections in behavior of teenagers with psychological deprivation, necessary application of timely complex, psychocorrection, due to renewal for the teenagers of social psychological adaptation, also on psychoprophylaxis of forming of victim and aggressive character traits.

IMAGE OF THE FUTURE: DESIGN AND REPRESENTATION

Problem statement. It is shown that the main scientific vectors of the study of the personality image of the future can be considered philosophical, sociological, psychophysiological and psychological. In psychology, the future is revealed as a property of the mental. It is determined that the psychological phenomenology of the image of the future is that it is a holistic view of the individual about the future. It is in the mind and constantly affects behavior, activities, and its emotional state. The ability of an individual to construct his own future is due to the peculiarities of his individual psychological representations. This aspect is little studied in psychological science. The purpose of the article is to present methods and techniques of research of representations and designing the world image of the future by the person. Results of the research. It is noted that the process of forming the image of the future is not only a vision of the end result, but also the impact on the assessment of behavior, consolidation of moral, volitional, intellectual efforts to realize their own expectations. This emphasizes the subjective nature of this process. In the framework of the research of mental representations and the peculiarities of constructing personality images of the future in a particular individual context were identified the mediative and moderative components that influence this phenomenon. The author’s method of assessing the world image of the future is presented. It is a technique of subjective scaling — that is, it shows how the individual imagines his future. To assess the relationship between the studied indicators, which are operationalized as concepts of psychosemantic analysis, a multidimensional deployment was used. Conclusions and prospects for further research. It is concluded that the psychosemantic approach is the most informative in the identified abilities of the individual to construct images of their own future. It is noted that the prospects for further research will be to identify the re lationship between forms and strategies for building mental representations of the image of the future with strategies for individual behavior in difficult life situations.

Clinical and psychological phenomenology of pain in autoinflammatory diseases

BackgroundPain is the clinical hallmark of patients in patients with autoinflammatory diseases (AID) caused by variants of the NLRP3-, MEFV- or TNFRSF1A gene. However, no systematical analysis of the clinical and psychological presentation of pain has been performed to date.MethodsTwenty-one symptomatic patients with variants in the NLRP3-, MEFV- and TNFRSF1A gene and clinical signs suggestive of an AID were retrospectively included in this monocentric cross-sectional case-series study. Patients were examined and interviewed using the German pain questionnaire. The hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) was applied to screen patients for anxiety and depression.ResultsTwenty out of 21 AID patients (95%) reported pain at the time of examination. Mean current pain intensity in all AID patients comprised 3.6 ± 1.3 and mean maximum pain intensity was 7.0 ± 1.6 on a 11-point numeric ranging scale (NRS). In 15 patients (71%), pain was present for more than 60 months. Ten patients (48%) experienced recurrent attacks with asymptomatic intervals and 7 patients (33%) suffered from constant pain, while 4 patients (19%) experienced both. Nociceptive pain including musculoskeletal and visceral affection was the most prominent type of pain (n = 20; 95%). Pain symptoms were treated continuously with analgesic or co-analgesic drugs in 10 patients (48%). Five patients (24%) have been positively screened for concomitant depression or anxiety.ConclusionsEarly and prompt diagnosis is necessary to provide multimodal pain treatment and to avoid the development of chronic pain in patients with AID.

Shadows: A Phenomenological Analysis

Abstract Shadows are intriguing phenomena. They do not have mass or energy. So, they are unable to have some basic characteristics of the objects of which they are shadows: they cannot move by themselves and they cannot experience the same kind of changes. At first sight, any theory of perception can skip this optical phenomenon or look at it only as a side-effect. Actually, in order to be seen objects must be illuminated and one of the consequences of this is that they project a shadow over the surrounding space. Is that all? In this paper I will argue that, from a phenomenological point of view (or at least from a Husserlian oriented phenomenology), shadows, with their specific hyletic data, must be considered as an element of the process of constitution of spatial-temporal objectivities. In other words, shadows no less than other predicates, like extension or hardness, although in a different manner, belong to the a priori structure of those objectivities. This means that their ontological status is quite different from that of fictitious objects or hallucinations. To show this I will draw mainly in Husserl’s Lesson Thing and Space, from 1907, and other unpublished texts during Husserl’s lifetime, like the second volume of the Ideas and the Lesson of 1925 on Psychological Phenomenology.

Richard Kearney’s Relevance for Psychology: A Review Essay

Abstract This essay argues that Richard Kearney’s philosophical work has something important to say to phenomenological psychology and, in turn, has something important to learn from it. It begins by highlighting a movement of return after deconstruction, consistent throughout Kearney’s oeuvre, that emerges clearly in the recently published Imagination Now collection—which contains some of Kearney’s most important writings. It then shows how this movement is a fundamentally therapeutic endeavor. A quick review of several recent volumes about Kearney’s work makes clear how his philosophy suggests an embodied and not simply a linguistic approach to therapy. As such, a certain phenomenological psychology is revealed as being implicitly operative in Kearney’s work. The essay then ends by highlighting three possible benefits of having phenomenological psychologists engage with Kearney’s work: a revaluation of the non-cognitive aspects of subjective constitution, a renewed look at the role of both the narrative and carnal dimensions in psychological research and psychotherapy, and an even more enhanced socio-cultural role for phenomenological psychology.

The Experience Qualities Approach to Leadership and Employee Well-being

A phenomenological psychology approach in organizational studies has been somewhat overlooked, particularly in research on leadership and employee well-being. This study presents a new way of examining leadership and employee well-being. A novel experience qualities approach was utilized with the aim of revealing the authentic structure of human experiences, particularly experience qualities such as emotions, knowledge, and assumptions. This study investigated the role of leadership in creating employee well-being experiences in a professional organization. The data were collected from 23 in-depth interviews conducted with company leaders and employees in Finland and then analyzed using the phenomenological method. The results indicated affirmative similarities and differences (experience domains) in experience qualities of well-being between leaders and employees. By identifying different experience qualities of well-being, leaders can promote their own and employees’ well-being more precisely and effectively. Practical implications for leaders are discussed.

A Brief History and Overview of Existential-Phenomenological Psychology

This article surveys the background and theory of the existential-phenomenological approach to psychology, with a particular focus on its reception in the United States. The article begins with a discussion of what exactly existential-phenomenological psychology is, including the theories underlying this approach and its basic practices. The article then discusses how the approach developed, including its roots in the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology, its first appearances in Europe, its globalization, and finally its arrival in the U.S. The article then discusses struggles that the existential-phenomenological movement in psychology is currently facing and the concerns of those involved in the movement for its future. Finally, the article closes on a summary of all the information presented as well as of the contributions to the field of psychology that it and the existential-phenomenological movement can make. KEYWORDS: Existentialism; Phenomenology; Psychology; United States; Existential Psychology; Phenomenological Psychology; Existential Psychotherapy; Philosophy of Psychology

Developmental phenomenology: examples from social cognition

We explore relationships between phenomenology and developmental psychology through an in-depth analysis of a particular problem in social cognition: the most fundamental access to other minds. In the first part of the paper, we examine how developmental science can benefit phenomenology. We explicate the connection between cognitive psychology and developmental phenomenology as a form of constructive phenomenological psychology. Nativism in contemporary science constitutes a strong impulse to conceive of the possibility of an innate ability to perceive others’ mental states, an idea which also has a transcendental implication. In the second part, we consider how phenomenology can contribute to developmental science. Phenomenology can go beyond the necessary evaluation and reinterpretation of experimental results. Some phenomenological notions and theories can be put forward on a par with alternative cognitive-psychological models and compete with them on grounds of empirical adequacy. For example, Husserl and Merleau-Ponty’s notion of pairing can constitute a viable account of how infants access other minds. We outline a number of ways in which this account can be tested and can thus contribute to generating empirical knowledge.

Atravessando a tormenta: imagem corporal e sexualidade da mulher após o câncer de mama

Trata-se de um estudo descritivo-exploratório qualitativo, apoiado no referencial teórico-metodológico da Psicologia Fenomenológica, realizado em um ambulatório de mastectomizadas, no ano 2014, na cidade de Ribeirão Preto, com o objetivo de compreender as vivências da imagem corporal e sexualidade de mulheres com câncer de mama. Os dados foram coletados durante uma oficina com a construção de imagens e colagens. Houve a participação de 36 mulheres e, foram elaboradas seis categorias temáticas, referentes à questão norteadora “Como os outros me veem?”: Câncer como metáfora da morte, perdas, mutilação e deformidade corporal; Desvelar a doença e revelar a saúde; Câncer como forma de renascer para a vida; Feminino silenciado. E a questão norteadora “Como eu me vejo?” construiu-se duas categorias: Imagem corporal idealizada pela mídia e, Descobrindo a beleza de vencer o câncer. O conhecimento gerado enfoca a necessidade de sensibilização dos profissionais da saúde em relação às perturbações da imagem corporal e da sexualidade, contrariando a lógica disseminada pelo discurso biomédico da sobrevivência.

Being and the Cosmos: From Seeing to Indwelling by Robert E. Wood

Reviewed by: Being and the Cosmos: From Seeing to Indwelling by Robert E. Wood George Lucas WOOD, Robert E. Being and the Cosmos: From Seeing to Indwelling. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2018. viii + 118 pp. Paper, $34.95 The intellectual sources of this book are many, varied, and impressive in their scope. But the spirit of the book seems most naturally akin to the long tradition of holistic evolutionary cosmology, from Friedrich Schelling to Samuel Alexander, Bergson, Whitehead, and Teilhard de Chardin (and now even, apparently, Thomas Nagel). Citing the latter's turn toward a teleological conception of evolution in which human consciousness is the supervenient stage, Wood maintains that the cosmos itself manifests no sharp boundaries or distinctions between what is apparently physical, material, biological, psychological, or ultimately spiritual. It can be best understood instead as "the World (the 'Whole') coming, in time, to a conscious awareness of itself." The task of metaphysics is to defend this speculative cosmology, sorting out and displaying the temporal relationships between these domains of "seeing" or experience, describing their evolutionary emergence from one to the other in increasingly complex arrangements, while resisting the bifurcating and destructive dialectic both of reductionism and simplistic materialism on one hand, and of deconstruction(ism) and relativizing antifoundationalism on the other. The fundamental fallacy of these caustic (but only partial and limited) rival modes of explanation is what each invariably denies, overlooks, or omits, namely, the recognition of (and provision of room for) "interiority" or the inwardness of Being. The outwardly observable physical cosmos itself, and the varied "furniture" of this universe, we might observe, simply "has no insides," exhibiting only external mechanical relatedness. Neurophysiology based upon such truncated modes of thought, for example, cannot prove valid if it first germanders out of all consideration some of the most interesting and important features of neurocognitive experience that beg for explanation. This brief work consists of an introductory overview of this perspective, followed by four chapters on neuropsychology, the concept or notion of Being, what Professor Wood terms the "bipolarity" of human awareness, and a concluding chapter entitled "The Universe has an Inside," which provides a succinct summary of his evolutionary cosmology. All four chapters originated in lectures or presentations given by their author over several years, including three terms as president of the North Texas Philosophical Society. Three of these lectures were subsequently published, including one in this journal. Wood grounds his work in the organic holism of ancient Greek cosmology, for which his principal resources are Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Aquinas. This is certainly more than sufficient, but there are other allied and friendly authorities whose voices are either missing or perhaps (given this author's scholarly reach and erudition) tacitly presupposed in his graceful, summative philosophical perspective. R. G. Collingwood, for example, whose Idea of Nature traced the century's long competition between the organic and mechanistic-materialistic worldviews, showed how the profound insights of ancient Greek cosmology were once again [End Page 863] reasserting their authenticity in the contemporary era (precisely as Professor Wood does in these essays). My own esteemed teacher, the late British idealist philosopher Errol E. Harris, repeatedly espoused a modern, holistic (and organic) cosmology grounded in the natural sciences, along the lines that Wood defends in this treatise, in which Mind is likewise, in a very real evolutionary sense, "the World come to consciousness of Itself." Harris's highly regarded work Nature, Mind and Modern Science (1954) is cited in the author's bibliography. What distinguishes Wood's approach to speculative cosmic holism from these many other companionable and supporting conceptions is his derivation of Indwelling (the interiority of Being) from his own phenomenological analysis of "seeing," aided by the philosophical musings of the later Heidegger. He is highly critical, by contrast, of the limitations inherent in superficial representational or "picture-thinking" of materialist neurological accounts of Mind, like those of Daniel Dennett and Patricia and Paul Churchland, that claim explanatory adequacy and yet miss (or deliberately ignore) so much that a phenomenological bracketing discloses. Something like the phenomenological psychology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the author believes, is far closer to providing an adequate pathway toward...

THE CONCEPT OF HETERO-LEVEL INTEGRATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE

The article justifies the concept of different-level integration of psychological knowledge, defines the purpose of it development and presents the methodological-theoretical guidance for it. The concept development is based on the general scientific principles of integrity, activity, development, on the humanistic methodological orientation (G. Ball) combined with the analysis of modern studies on psychological knowledge integration. The concept must meet the following criteria: logical consistency, internal coherence of its conceptual positions; sensitivity to the modern socio-cultural and cognitive situations, it must use ideas and methods from other integrating approaches and have strengthened explanatory capacity. We identified the tasks for the concept development. We put forward the idea of different levels of psychological science and discussed the differences in integration processes at these levels. We identified the ways facilitating integration processes on the above mentioned levels and substantiated creating a “matrix” of research methods, improving the existing models of psychological theories and heterogenous psychological phenomenology. The task to promote the formation of researchers’ integrative views was posed. The concept consists of the following positions. The integration processes at different levels of psychological science have their peculiarities; in particular, integration processes can differ by the ratio of spontaneity and controllability. The integration processes can be facilitated from the top (i.e. from the meta-theoretical point of view) by: a) creation of a general multidimensional meta-theoretical space (the matrix of theories) and arrangement of different theories in it, taking into account their epistemological coordinates, explanatory potential; b) creation of a matrix with  research methods; c) construction of a model of the heterogeneous psychological phenomenology; d) determination of complex relationships between space-models of theories, methods  and  the psychological phenomenology. The integration processes can be facilitated from the bottom (i.e. from the point of view of the primary study of a particular psychological problem) by: the determination of a problem field in the modeled multidimensional space of the psychological phenomenology; considering the explanatory potential of different theories for a particular problem; using the resources (constructive components) of different theories, approaches (and their methods) for this problem research. Researchers’ integrative dispositions can be expanded, in particular, by activating their reflection on the factors forming their individual scientific views. In this context, it is important to analyze the dependence of a researcher’s individual cognitive “habitus” (according to P. Bourdieu): 1) on the cognitive trends of the epistemic community to which the researcher belongs, 2) on the dominant paradigm of the scientific field, 3) on the syntagmatic experience of trans-disciplinary research. &nbsp

The Problem of the Task. Pseudo-Interactivity as an Experimental Paradigm of Phenomenological Psychology.

Real-life problems are almost always socially complex, even when we are by ourselves. Psychological problem-solving research must therefore integrate complexity as a domain of investigation. However, the simulation of complex interactions represents a major challenge to designing experiments dealing with the nature of social interaction: Simulated social interaction, even when enacted by confederates, is not identical to the actual social interaction. Subjects will tend to enact simulated interaction in distinct ways. To understand these differences, the different situation enactments ought to be analyzed psychologically. Essentially, an instruction to perform in an experimental setting cannot guarantee that the experimental subject will take a certain attitude toward the situation. Early psychology of thought considered the social nature of the experimental situation when discussing the notion of the task. Modern experimental psychology can draw on these reflections in order to grasp better the essential characteristics of social complexity and to establish pseudo-interactivity as a phenomenologically enriched experimental paradigm. Its methodological power is illustrated by an exploratory experimentation on problem-solving.