Psychological Repertoire Research Articles

Developing an authentic sex: Deconstructing developmental–psychological discourses of transgenderism in a clinical setting

The paper is based on a broader study of the use of discourses of transgenderism among sex-reassignment evaluators in Sweden. In this paper we explore how a developmental–psychological discourse was reproduced by the evaluators in their discursive negotiations of transsexualism. We found that maturity and authenticity are two key concepts that illuminate how the developmental–psychological discourse both clashes with and works together with a medical–pathological discourse of transgenderism. The developmental–psychological discourse can help to produce a definition of transgenderism that is more diverse regarding male/female dichotomies. This in turn can create a wider range of possible subject positions for patients who are seeking help. The developmental–psychological discourse also imposes additional limitations regarding the subject positions available to transgender persons through a demand for maturity and for having gone through all of the steps in the expected identity development process. The developmental–psychological repertoire casts transgenderism as an identity crisis.

Culture in the history of psychology in Canada.

Culture as a theoretical construct and an empirical variable evolved steadily in the history of psychology in Canada. This historical account is offered to record important contributions made by Canadian psychologists to the understanding of culture, both within the Canadian context, and internationally. The distinctive demographic, historical, political, and social contexts of Canada are examined, which provided the direction and the focus for the psychological examination of culture. Research and theory on culture are mapped across time and topic in three principal domains: intercultural, culture comparative, and indigenous approaches. Additionally, the evolution of professional associations, academic activities, and pedagogy pertaining to culture are examined. It is concluded that Canadian psychologists have made a distinct and substantial contribution to the understanding of relationships between culture and behaviour, in Canada as well as in the global context.Keywords: cross-cultural psychology, culture, history, intercultural psychology, multiculturalismHistorically, Canada has always been a culturally diverse region. At present, there are 6.2 million foreign-bom people (about 21% of the population) from 234 countries speaking 94 different languages (Statistics Canada, 2006a, 2006b). The 2010 World Migration Report has ranked Canada fifth in the world for the largest foreign-born population (World Migration Report, 2010). As this incoming migration pattern has unfolded, Canada's public policies on how best to settle the annual flow of about 225,000 immigrants and its mandate to accept refugees from troubled countries have profoundly affected the psychological experiences and daily lives of all Canadians. The original inhabitants of Canada (Aboriginal Peoples) have been most deeply and often negatively impacted by the massive migrations of Europeans who began arriving in significant numbers in the mid-18th century. Ongoing contact between Aboriginal and immigrant peoples has contributed greatly to Canada's political, cultural, and social development. With multiple cultural, ethnic, and religious groups calling Canada their home, it was inevitable that the diverse demographic features of Canada's cultural make-up, including the presence of Aboriginal Peoples, would become infused into our psychological repertoire. Beginning in the middle of the 20th century, Canadian psychologists came to examine the role of culture in psychology, responding to this continually evolving multicultural context.The rise of culture within the larger frame of the history of psychology has been examined previously (Berry & Triandis, 2006; Kashima & Gelfand, 2012); however, this present examination of culture in the study and practice of psychology is focused specifically on the Canadian context. This historical account is derived from the conceptual view that the evolution of scholarly ideas and research pursuits reflect and parallel the historical, social, and political happenings of a certain time and region (Danziger, 1990; Leahey, 1987). We explore how Canada's history, demographic trends, and related political decisions are reflected in the direction and content of Canadian research in psychology involving culture, both as an empirical variable and as a theoretical construct. Following a brief description of the Canadian context, we aim to map three broad domains of psychological research: intercultural, culture comparative, and indigenous psychology. Additionally, we examine the formalization of the CPA Section on International and Cross-Cultural Psychology and provide a brief account of culture in the curriculum of psychology departments across Canadian universities. The scope of this account covers a period from the 1930s to the start of the millennium, recognising that further growth continues into contemporary times.The Canadian ContextAboriginal Peoples provide the original source of cultural diversity in Canada. …

Towards A Natural Justice of Right Relationships

Most people growing up learn to recognize two fundamentally different ideas of justice: the justice of "rights" and the justice of "right relationships." The justice of rights is the more familiar goal of current criminal law, with its normative lines in the sand and penalties for transgression. The justice of rights is not, however, the only kind of justice. There is also the justice of right relationships. Neither kind of justice can exist without the other, but the two are not equal. Indeed, a mere "relationship of rights" is a very poor proxy for a right relationship. For a social species such as ourselves, having a psychological repertoire replete with emotions sparked by human interchange, it is relationships not rights that people really live for. Rights are at best a partial means to right relationships, a way of providing background conditions in which right relationships can be established and fostered. Ultimately, however, no depersonalized system of rights and rules can mediate, except in a crude and clumsy way, the intricacies of interactions among persons. As fundamental legal concepts, rights alone produce only a poor simulation of actual right relationships Unlike the rigid, one-size-fits-all justice of rights, the justice of right relationships does not consist of fixedly norm-based "entitlements." It is, by contrast, intrinsically indefinite so as to provide individualized justice that is tailored to particularized human beings and the uniquely personalized connections among them. Broadly, right relationships are relations in which each (or all) seek, without abandoning themselves, to be attentive and responsive to the needs and emotions of one another, quite apart from considerations of entitlement. The important "negative" markers of right relationships are that they are free of systematic oppression, exploitation or manipulation. That is, a relationship is not "right" if participants seek to overbear in power (oppress), to overreach in resources (exploit), or to mislead for selfish advantage (manipulate). The ideal of right relationships holds it is ultimately more important to mend tears in the social fabric than to demand rights within it, better to respond to harmful acts by making things right, not merely by making things "even." It is the justice that fixes hurts with healing, instead of just inflicting more hurt in return. By contrast, when people insist mainly on rights, letting the chips fall where they may, the result is rarely justice but, instead, the endless series of affronts, reprisals and retribution that we now see all around. Drawing on the work of Carol Gilligan and others, this article sketches how the law might begin to actually resolve social conflicts instead of merely subliminalizing them - pushing them beneath the surface by dint of superior force. It gives particular attention to the case of the criminal law, in which the justice of right relationships would require that the primary effort be not to harm (punish) the harmdoer but, rather, to reestablish the harmdoer in a network of relationships that will conduce to a law-abiding life.