Psychological Discourse Research Articles

Counter-Extremism and ‘Critical Thinking’ as a Measure of the Human

Educational approaches to counter-extremism are proliferating globally, claiming to foster ‘critical thinking’ amongst those deemed vulnerable to extremism. These projects ‘make sense’ through two mutually-reinforcing discourses: a psychological discourse that adjudicates the moral value of different ways of thinking through scientific measures; and an ethical discourse of liberal education that idealizes critical thinking as essential to human development – becoming more human and humane. Counter-extremism mobilizes both to over-represent a ‘dominant genre of being’, to take Sylvia Wynter’s phrase, as if it were the only way of being human. Such projects show how expert and everyday understandings of ‘critical thinking’ have been shaped by psychology’s history as a race science and liberal understandings of education that have legitimated hierarchies of being human. I argue that these conditions of possibility that shape critical thinking must be grappled with in any critical pursuit against hierarchies of being human.

Rhetoric for Crowds

Gustave Le Bon’s eminent work The Crowd is considered as one of the fundamental works in mass psychology. Concurrently, the importance of this work and the impact it had on communication practices has been recently recognized by some of the scholars. While The Crowd primarily places focus on meticulous description of origin and psychological condition of the crowd, this paper suggests that, among others, Le Bon uses psychological discourse to define rhetorical precept that can be used as an agency for eliciting such condition. It is the purpose of this paper to extract and present the guidelines suggested by Le Bon in his work for mass oratory and corroborate it with apposite rhetorical theory in order to lend credibility to this thesis. Through broader treatment of rhetorical modes of pathos (state and language that induces it), orator, oration, and kairos (the right moment), with other hitherto rhetorical and linguistic insights, Le Bon constitutes activation means for evoking the psychological phenomena of the crowd. This paper represents Le Bon’s explicit and implicit rhetorical instructions in The Crowd by constructing the rhetorical model and indicating that his scholarly contribution was rhetorical as was psychological, suggesting consideration of his inclusion in the history of rhetoric and his contribution to the development of contemporary communication practices. This paper represents an interdisciplinary rhetorical model that engages the field of interest of various scientific disciplines, such as linguistics, rhetoric, communicology, public relations, and their subbranches.

Phonological Indicators Indicationg Psychological Discourse in the Imperatives of Al-Maarri (Selected Models)

Phonological Indicators Indicationg Psychological Discourse in the Imperatives of Al-Maarri (Selected Models)

A Reclassification of al-Ījī’s Akhlāq al-ʿAḍudiyya into a Model of Traditional Islamic Virtues (TIV)

While psychologists have only recently become extensively interested in character development and virtue acquisition, such an interest has existed for centuries among Muslim scholars. Islamic scholars have created many typologies and classifications of the virtues building upon the tradition they inherited from the ancient Greeks. Among the most notable works in this genre is the treatise most famously known as al-akhlāq al-ʿaḍudiyyah, written by the 14th century scholar ʿAḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī (d. 756 AH/1355 CE), which provided a comprehensive yet concise manual of the Islamic virtues that synthesized the previous work of Islamic philosophers situated within Islamic scripture. This paper provides a revised classification of the Islamic virtues by adjusting al-Ījī’s classification of virtues in his al-akhlāq al-ʿaḍudiyyah. This revised classification of virtues, referred to as Traditional Islamic Virtues (TIV), adopts the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, temperance, valor, and justice, with the addition of spirituality as an independent chief virtue with accompanying sub-virtues. TIV provides an aggregation of many of the sub-virtues enlisted by al-Ījī due to the degree of overlap between them. TIV also makes minor linguistic revisions and adds a few new sub-virtues. The definitions of each of the TIV sub-virtues are constructed by drawing upon numerous sources in the Islamic tradition while still relying mostly on al-Ījī’s classification. The process of aggregation and revision has produced five cardinal TIV virtues with 31 sub-virtues. This paper further demonstrates that a review and integration of the Islamic tradition into mainstream psychological discourses can greatly enrich the holistic practice of clinical and community psychology.

Critical analysis of academic psychological discourse on terrorism

The following article contains a critical analysis of nine psychology articles published in the journal American Psychologist, which examine the topic of terrorism from different angles. In these articles, the authors discuss the process of radicalization through cognitive opening, with possible causes of becoming a terrorist including emotions, social identity and mental health problems. Through analysing these discourses, it will be argued that the a priori goal of such mechanistic models and theories of terrorism is the delegitimization of the political phenomenon, thereby implicitly or openly reflecting the ideological standpoint of their authors.

Niño, infancia y educación en las páginas del periódico Estado de Minas en la década de 1930

The article presents and analyzes conceptions of children, childhood and education contained in the pages of the Estado de Minas newspaper in the 1930s, indicating the existence of two predominant tendencies within the news: one new, more liberal and modern, called Americanism; the other old, more conservative and traditional, called Iberian Federalism. The interpretation of the news’ contents occurred based on authors such as Bardin (1988), Werneck Vianna (1997), Nunes (1998) and Guimarães (2013), among others, aiming to systemize, group, describe and categorize the conveyed messages. As a result, it is shown that the symbiosis between the new and the old stems from the moral, medical and psychological discourses which leave their mark on the debate about the assistance and education of the children. The newspaper Estado de Minas, as a space of ideological dispute for the power to form the Brazilian people and nation was not immune to this movement and this simbisosis. Liberals, "moderns" and Americanists advocate schoolnovism. Conservatives, "ancient" and Iberian defended religious and Christian education with fervor. However, the crisis of capitalism in the world manifested in the American crisis of the 1930s does not cease to appear in the pages of the newspaper and in the educational debate.

Book Review: Katherine E. Calvert: Modeling Motherhood in Weimar Germany. Political and Psychological Discourses in Women’s Writing

Book Review: Katherine E. Calvert: <i>Modeling Motherhood in Weimar Germany. Political and Psychological Discourses in Women’s Writing</i>

The Scientist, the Therapist, and the Conspiracy Theorist: Three Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Within the Ultra-orthodox Jewish Revival Movement in Israel.

This article examines the responses of three rabbis to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Israel and the distinctive approach and strategy expressed by each of them: (1) rational-scientific, (2) emotional support, (3) resistance and distrust. The first two rabbis maintain that they trust the medical institutions and the government, whereas the third rabbi evinces distrust, expressed through conspiracy theories. These different approaches can be explained by their dispositions prior to the pandemic, which were exacerbated by the Coronavirus. Hence, COVID-19 served as more of a reflecting phenomenon than an agent of change. Analyzing the dispositions of the three rabbis can show us how they are related to two significant forces of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries-science (rational-scientific and resistance and distrust) and psychology (emotional support). Psychological discourse has been used to promote public health. On the other hand, the scientific discourse has been used to promote adherence to government and health ministry directives, as well as to oppose those directives.

The heterogeneous impact of psychological discourse on (our view of) recognition

Over the last century, psychological discourse ranks among the main cultural forces in Western societies. As such, it undoubtedly exerts considerable influence on how we express, demand, struggle for, and conceive of recognition. However, since psychology is far from being a monolithic discipline, said influence is exerted in non-univocal, sometimes contradictory ways. In this paper, I explore this heterogeneous impact by contrasting the idea of recognition underlying two popular psychological schools. On the one hand, psychoanalysis’ emphasis on trauma stresses our dependence on being recognized by others, vindicates the importance of communication, and contributes to redefining the status of victim. On the other hand, positive psychology’s advocacy for autonomous self-fulfillment seems to downsize the importance of recognition, and of the struggle for it, based on a statistical, morally-neutral approach.

Botho/Ubuntu paradigm as cognitive justice in psychology

The concept of Botho/ Ubuntu emerges as a balancing paradigm poised to drive cognitive justice in psychological discourses. A paradigm is a universally recognized scientific model that represents a worldview of the nature of the world. There are enduring concerns about the privileging of Western European paradigms, ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologies over their African counterparts. In this article, we present the Botho/ Ubuntu paradigm as a strong contender for the promotion, and humanization of epistemologies in psychology. The 59th annual conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) in Washington, DC in 2015, whose theme was “ Ubuntu! Imagining a Humanist Education Globally,” as well as the World Council of Comparative Education Societies’ (WCCES) recent book, Comparative Education for Global Citizenship, Peace and Shared Living through Ubuntu, are examples through which Ubuntu began to emerge as a paradigm poised to deliver cognitive and epistemic justice in the area such as psychology. We use Critical African Psychology as a lens through which we interrogate cognitive injustice. We conclude by demonstrating that Botho/Ubuntu paradigm might serve as a driver of cognitive justice in psychology and makes inroads into major discourses driven by African scholars.

Intra‐Asian Creativity in Hong Kong Education and Activism

ABSTRACTThis essay draws on empirical research from two studies examining creativity, activism, and education in Hong Kong. We use a decolonizing and deimperializing approach to centering creativity as a lever for social change, and demonstrate the ways in which the specifics of culture, region, time, and place uniquely produce forms of creativity, as has long been documented by creativity scholars. We build upon Kuan‐hsing Chen's Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization (2010), applying it to creativity and the ways in which we can better attend to cultural and regional differences rather than adhere to universalizing “creative industries” or developmental psychological discourses. Here we are not interested in documenting “non‐western” modes of creativity, in the ways this has sometimes been addressed as local craft or traditional cultural practices. Rather, we advance a theory of intra‐Asian creativity (including Australia) with its own onto‐epistemological legacies and innovations. We celebrate these formations as emergent from and imbricated with conceptual traditions such as Taoism and Western knowledge systems, rejecting binarized individualist “versus” collectivist approaches. The emerging field of critical creativity studies points to the ways in which decolonizing, deimperializing and collaborative research are reorienting our work toward benefit for all, rather than the (white) (western) few.

Toward decolonial community psychologies from Abya Yala.

The epistemologies generated from colonized spaces such as Latin America and the Caribbean have been excluded from the dominant Euro- and US-centric discourses of community psychology. Modern science is compartmentalized into disciplines forming silos and boundaries among them. Historically, psychology has been authored by European or North American White men, claiming superior expertise as detached researchers who study, analyze, interpret, and represent the inferior objects of study. Therefore, we should ask: what type of knowledges does psychology generate, with whom, and for what? Our praxis constitutes a political act which should question and challenge coloniality. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we became increasingly aware of the importance of generating knowledges about the communal (lo común)based on the experiences of Indigenous people in the Americas. Epistemologies from Abya Yala delink from the hegemonic, US-Eurocentric paradigms and address the structural violence of the neoliberal system. To co-create an inclusive and pluriversal discipline of psychology, we need to disrupt the linguistic colonization executed by the imposition of the English language legitimized as universal. We ought to convey the many examples of epistemologies and praxes from Abya Yala that contribute to the co-construction of decolonial psychologies emerging from their own localities and cultures. We propose counterepistemologies that disrupt a monocultural, monolingustic, universal, and hegemonic epistemology. This paper reviews selected decolonial contributions from Abya Yala and sketches pathways toward the making of decolonial community psychologies anchored in pluriversal ecologies of knowledges.

‘I’ve tried not to show it too much, and not burden others with my problems’: A discourse analysis of understandings of grief among siblings bereaved by drug-related deaths

This article explores discourses of grief and loss among siblings bereaved by drug-related deaths. Although sociocultural context influences how grief is expressed and understood, there is a lack of knowledge about how prevailing discourses on grief provide conditions for dealing with grief. The aim of this study was to draw attention to cultural understandings of grief with the research question: ‘Following a drug-related death, how do bereaved siblings draw on discourses in their talk about grief and how do they position themselves accordingly as bereaved?’ We also examined some social consequences of siblings’ positionings. The data were obtained from in-depth interviews with 10 bereaved adult siblings talking about their experiences. The data were analysed using the interpretative repertoires and positioning perspectives from discourse psychology. Findings revealed four interpretative repertoires displaying a variety of talk about grief: grief as being visibly affected; grief as a hierarchy; grief as something to be managed; grief as a reaction which follows death. These repertoires portray different understandings of grief used by siblings in meaning-making relating to their own experiences of bereavement. The positions produced by the repertoires have consequences for bereaved siblings’ access to help and support. Siblings frequently placed themselves or were placed in positions that produced a lack of social recognition of their grief and hence they were deprived of help and support.

Rhetoric of psychological measurement theory and practice.

Metascience scholars have long been concerned with tracking the use of rhetorical language in scientific discourse, oftentimes to analyze the legitimacy and validity of scientific claim-making. Psychology, however, has only recently become the explicit target of such metascientific scholarship, much of which has been in response to the recent crises surrounding replicability of quantitative research findings and questionable research practices. The focus of this paper is on the rhetoric of psychological measurement and validity scholarship, in both the theoretical and methodological and empirical literatures. We examine various discourse practices in published psychological measurement and validity literature, including: (a) clear instances of rhetoric (i.e., persuasion or performance); (b) common or rote expressions and tropes (e.g., perfunctory claims or declarations); (c) metaphors and other "literary" styles; and (d) ambiguous, confusing, or unjustifiable claims. The methodological approach we use is informed by a combination of conceptual analysis and exploratory grounded theory, the latter of which we used to identify relevant themes within the published psychological discourse. Examples of both constructive and useful or misleading and potentially harmful discourse practices will be given. Our objectives are both to contribute to the critical methodological literature on psychological measurement and connect metascience in psychology to broader interdisciplinary examinations of science discourse.

The Effect of an Educational Program Based on Visual Discourse Psychology for Developing Skills in Painting Creation among Students of the Institute of Fine Arts

The Effect of an Educational Program Based on Visual Discourse Psychology for Developing Skills in Painting Creation among Students of the Institute of Fine Arts

Constructing the 'Self' in Islamic Psychology: Challenges and Opportunities

The Self is one of the core concepts in Islamic psychology. However, the concept of the Self found in recent Islamic psychology discourse is still quite unclear since its understanding of the soul remains debatable. A deeper study on the concept of the Self should be carried out to refine the essence of the Self in Islamic psychology and straighten the problematic and reductive understanding on these issues. This paper will give brief review on the studies of the Self in Islamic psychology, then provide some views about the challenges and opportunities to develop this concept. Further discussions about this issue are also discussed in this article.

Muhasabah as A Moderator Variable To Strengthen The Relationship Between Neuro Linguistic Programming and Subjective Well-Being

The purpose of this study is to conduct an analytical study of the concept of muhasabah as a moderator variable to strengthen the relationship between Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Subjective well-being. The research method used is a qualitative study with a descriptive approach through a review of a number of literature on mu??sabah, NLP and Subjective well-being then looking for common ground for improving Subjective well-being. The analysis was carried out using Schleiermacher's hermeuntic theory. The results showed that (1) that the muhasabah step can be a moderator variable to strengthen the relationship between NLP and Subjective well-being; (2) the integration of Muhasabah into NLP practice or vice versa is important to be carried out in order to strengthen the discourse of Islamic psychology as the current trend develops.

‘Imaginary’ friends: the roles of imaginary/invisible companions in the classroom

ABSTRACT ‘Imaginary friends’ are a widespread cross-cultural phenomenon and for some children they are as important as their human friends. Exploring a gap in the literature, this paper details why and how they might be incorporated into the classroom, initially contextualised in socio-cognitive and Vygotskian socio-cultural frameworks. Applications to practice are offered, using children’s literature as a starting point for other activities. The paper is then interrupted with a challenge to the dominant Euro-Western psychological discourse, which assumes that all of these friends are playful creations of the imagination. Instead, the paper proposes a reconceptualization of human-form invisible friends by drawing on diverse disciplines and cultures, which offer alternative understandings to those posed in developmental psychology. Finally, the implications of adopting different theoretical perspectives for more inclusive, challenging, learning opportunities are considered.

Crossing the chasm? On the possibility of philosophical contributions to the discourse of quantitative psychology

Crossing the chasm? On the possibility of philosophical contributions to the discourse of quantitative psychology

Mental Health vs Mutual Aid: Competing Visions of Care in Black-authored Films in the 1970s

This article considers two little-noted films from the early 1970s that took up a Black politics of "mental health." Both films intervened into racial-liberalist psychiatric and social scientific discourses of "Black pathologies" by drawing from Black radical and community-organizing models to envision how to care for people in distress outside of dominant psychiatric and psychological discourses and institutions. With shared production and institutional contexts yet differing articulations of what radical forms of care looked like both in practice, in narrative, and in mediation, these two films deepen our understanding of what form a Black disability politics of mental health took in this era. They also expand how disability studies as well as disability media studies frame the connections among anti-psychiatry and mad studies movements, Black radicalism and organizing, and cultural production.