Recent Trends in Theoretical Psychology: Proceedings of the Second Biannual Conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology, April 20–25, 1987, Banff, Alberta, Canada PDF
Preview Recent Trends in Theoretical Psychology: Proceedings of the Second Biannual Conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology, April 20–25, 1987, Banff, Alberta, Canada
Recent Research in Psychology Wrn J. Baker Leendert P. Mos Hans V. Rappard Henderikus J. Starn Editors Recent Trends in Theoretical Psychology Proceedings of the Second Biannual Conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology, April 20-25, 1987, Banff, Alberta, Canada With 14 Illustrations Springer-Verlag New York Berlin Heidelberg London Paris Tokyo WmJ. Baker Hans V. Rappard Leendert P. Mos Department of Psychology Center for Advanced Study in The Free University Theoretical Psychology 1007 MC Amsterdam University of Alberta The Netherlands Edmonton, Canada T6G 2E9 Henderikus J. Starn Department of Psychology University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta Canada T2N IN4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data International Society for Theoretical Psychology. Conference (2nd: 1987: Banff, Alta.) Recent trends in theoretical psychology / proceedings of the Second Biannual Conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology / editors, William J. Baker ... let al.]. p. cm. - (Recent research in psychology) Conference held in Banff, Alt!!., Canada, Apr. 20-25, 1987. Bibliography: p. 1. Psychology-Philosophy-Congresses. 2. Psychology -Methodology-Congresses. I. Baker, William J. II. Title. BF38.I545 1988 150'.I-dcI9 88-12164 © 1988 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer-Verlag, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc. in this publication, even if the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood by the Trade Marks and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used freely by anyone. Camera-ready text prepared by the editors. 9 8 7 6 5 432 1 ISBN -13: 978-0-387-96757-8 e-ISBN -13 :978-1-4612-3902-4 DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4612-3902-4 PREFACE This volume constitutes the proceedings of the second biannual conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology (see Epilogue) held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, April 20-25, 1987. Thirty-nine papers were presented during the four days of the conference including an invited address by Kenneth Gergen. Unfortunately, even after severely restricting the length of the written papers, the required limitation on printed space permitted only 34 of these to be included in these proceed ings. While most of the papers required editorial adjustment, the authors had final word on style and content. The classification of conference papers tends to be somewhat arbi trary' but we decided to structure the chapters under four headings: phi losophy, metatheory, methodology, and theory. By philosophy we refer primarily to issues in the philosophy of science as these pertain to the dis cipline of psychology. Metatheory refers to theory, drawing on the philo sophy of science and having implications for methodology, about psycho logical theories. Methodology refers to both theory of inquiry and specif ic methods of investigation as these derive from philosophical and meta theoretical considerations. By theory we refer to both analyses of the foundations of extant theory, including historical and sociological ana lyses, and the advancement of substantive theory. Eight papers have been included under philosophy. Rejecting any notion that theories progress towards greater fidelity with nature, Gergen envisions scientific progress in terms of alternating periods of meaning stabilization and transformation. The former leads to maximum social coordination and value expression and the latter, as social institutions be come progressively restrictive, to social change. Theories, on his view, are devices which increase the range of our intelligibility and serve to mold society anew time and again. Terwee in his critical review of Gergen's rhetorical conception of social psychology maintains that the latter's rejection of foundationalism is all but impossible. A revised in terpretative conception of psychology is sketched which leaves room not only for empirical-analytical, phenomenological, hermeneutical, and rhe torical methodologies, but adheres to truth founded in our practices and certainties of everyday life. Tolman recognizes a crisis of disunity in psy chology. In order to achieve theoretical unification, he makes a case for a materialist foundation of the discipline and a realist view of its evolu tionary and historical contexts. Vroon examines the incompatible 'root metaphors' which have permeated psychology's explanations and despairs of theoretical unity as, from a historical perspective, the discipline has a penchant for enriching either the mind or the world. Shames argues for the role of metaphor in scientific epistemology and, together with Royce, whose focus is on 'weak' theory, for an exploration of the 'context of discovery' in our appraisal of psychological theories. Salner reviews the role of epistemic beliefs in the world views held by psychologists. Also working within the context of discovery, she notes the structural similari ties between individuals and scientific communities in the process of com ing to understand social reality. Kirsch and Hyland complete this section with a discussion of complementarity and causal isomorphism with respect to mind-body philosophies. The authors draw out the implications of their monism for both theoretical and empirical questions of psychophy siological phenomena. While these diverse contributions adhere to a range of ontological and epistemological stances, they nearly all appear within a post-positivistic philosophy of psychology which eschews the strictures of ~~. ' Under the heading of metatheory we have included eight papers. Danziger points, by way of a historical case study, to the ontological and theoretical presuppositions .informing methods of inquiry. Whereas on the received view of science any method may be legitimately employed to test a theory, if theory and method are indeed interdependent it is incum bent upon the investigator to demonstrate that the presuppositions of method do not conflict with those of the theory being tested. But then, methods do not merely serve to test theories, but to demonstrate them in action. That methods are indeed theory-laden and serve to structure the domain of inquiry is exemplified by Ratner who, from a critical examina tion of biological explanations of psychological phenomena, argues for the relative autonomy of psychological theory. Hezewijk draws attention to the same point, that methods and theories are informed by ontological presuppositions, with reference to the. representationist and presentationist styles of theorizing by von Helmholtz and Mach, respectively. In his dis tinction between predicational and mediational theorizing, Rychlak ela borates not only on the asymmetry in the explanations offered by psycho logists of their own behavior and the pehavior of others, but also his te leological conception of psychology which demands a view of the 'predi cating organism ready to take a position in life experience'. Madsen, in a meta-analysis of Skinner's psychology, notes how his materialist monism and radical empiricism lead to mediational theorizing which, however, can well withstand the criterion of piecemeal testability . Maiers, in his iron ical critique of the claim that psychology follows a natural science model, argues against those who would demarcate the sciences from the humani ties. He, instead, rejects antiscientism by avoiding the bifurcation in fa vour of a historical-empirical study of 'real practices': a critical psychol ogy in the Marxist tradition. In concluding this section, Mos and Smythe inaependently address various issues in the foundations of contemporary cognitive psychology. Thus Mos, with reference to phenomenology, ar gues that the current focus on the concept of representation in cognitive vi theory fails as an account of the semantic relation of 'aboutness' and, hence, as an explanation of intentionality which is the mark of the men tal. Smythe distinguishes between propositional and skillful knowing in terms of propositional attitude theory and forcefully formulates the chal lenge that this distinction poses for any psychological theory of cognition. What is notable in these eight contributions is that they invoke not only issues in the philosophy of psychology but that their metatheoretical ana lyses have implications for both methodology and theory construction. Under the heading of methodology we have included eight papers. In a critique of the concepts of reliability and validity, Giorgi presents a phenomenological understanding of these concepts as achievements of in tentionality. Both logical empiricism and phenomenology share the com mon goal of determining the proper evidence for knowledge claims .. But phenomenology. in distinguishing between acts and objects, takes validity as an essential description of an intuited essence and reliability as such an essential description in use. Horley examines the assumptions, criteria, and implications for his proposed units of analysis in the description and explanation of human action. Similarly, Kuiken and Wild are concerned with the analysis of units but specifically from within and with regard to the development of a phenomenological methodology. Drawing on both the horizon analysis of meaning and paraphrase in discourse analysis, they propose a psychological analysis of language which is fully concordant with human subjectivity. Rappard, from a historical perspective, pro poses a systematization rather than a unification of psychology and illu strates how the 'founding definitions' of such a systematization affect empirical research in social psychology. Mishara. with reference to the theory of irreversible dynamics in physics, presents a model for conceptu alizing processes of behavioral change. Van Geert, too, is concerned with describing a model of change but with a model of developmental transi tions. He reviews the various properties of transition concepts in devel opmental theories with a view towards comparing and evaluating them. Rogers, in a social-historical analysis of the concept of construct validity, argues that its resilience derives from unwarranted metatheoretical as sumptions which continue to plague contemporary personality assessment. In the final paper of this section, Thorngate presents a social-psychologi cal analysis examining the implications of his proposed principles of 'at tentional economics' in an evaluation of information produced and con sumed in the marketplace of psychological research. Again, the contribu tors in this section cling to a range of philosophical presuppositions, but what they have in common is a sensitivity to how methods of inquiry are informed by metatheory and have implications for theory appraisal. Nine papers have been included under the final heading of theory. The ftrst paper presents an overview of the contributions of Ludwig von Ber talanffy. Weckowicz describes the late theoretician's influence, especially vii by way of his systems theory, on psychology and philosophy as well as biology and cybernetics. The remaining papers by Jorna, Lewicka, Kose and Heindel, Starn, Parrott, Yeudall, Hague, and Cartwright and Peckar address foundational issues pertaining to current theories or domains of inquiry in the discipline. Joma's paper examines the implicit assumptions of two contemporary cognitive theories, Anderson's and Tulving's, and finds their formulations wanting at both the descriptive and explanatory level. Lewicka compares theories of rational judgment in terms of her distinctions between subjective and objective anchoring, and sufficient and necessary conditions of cognitive acts. In the process, she mediates between constructivist and realist views of human cognition. The latter distinction is also addressed by Kose and Heindel in their critical e:l(amina tion of contemporary interpretations of Piagetian theory which have vari- 0usly misconstrued his genetic epistemology. Taking Piaget's central problem as the 'formation of cognitive structures', the authors focus on the 'activity of the subject' and its implications for psychological theory. Starn argues that the absence of theoretical foundations in the domains of health psychology and behavioral medicine is motivated to ensure that these psychological specialties do not clash with those of the health care professions. In a historical review, Parrott takes seriously the phenome nological experience of emotion and argues for a conceptual reintegration of affect and cognition in order to account for those cognitively complex emotions which have no unique physiological basis. Yeudall proposes a comprehensive three-dimensional model of brain functioning in relation to psychopathology. In doing so, he exemplifies the interdependence of theory, clinical practice and research. Hague argues for the intuitive basis of moral objectivity as rooted in Dabrowski's conception of authentic subjectivity. In concluding this section, Cartwright and Peckar argue, from a review of theories in the physical and biological sciences, for a layered -structure conceptualization of contemporary personality theories. These nine contributions to theoretical psychology address not merely is sues of substantive theory but also those of methodology, meta theory and, even, philosophy. Finally, Baker in his Epilogue presents a brief overview of the conference. In the preparation of this volume we gratefully acknowledge Evelyn Murison who entered the text and Casey Boodt who provided editorial as sistance and prepared the tables, figures, and author index. The Univer sity of Alberta financed the facilities and resources at the Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Psychology which made it all possible. The Editors February, 1988 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ... . . v Contributors . . xiii PHILOSOPHY The Concept of Progress in Psychological Theory K. J. Gergen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Need Rhetorical Analysis Lead to Relativism? An Examination of the Views of K. J. Gergen S. Terwee .......•.................. 15 Theoretical Unification in Psychology: A Materialist Perspective C. W. Tolman ........................ 29 Psychology Between Ecological Laws and the Scientific Revolution P. A. Vroon ...................... 37 Scientific Epistemology: A Psycholiterary Approach M. L. Shames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 The Implications of Differential Theory Appraisal and the Context of Discovery for Advancing Theory in Psychology J. R. Royce. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 59 Epistemic Beliefs and their Developmental Relationship to Post-Positivist Psychology M. Salner .. . . 65 Complementarity, Causal Isomorphism, and the Mind-Body Problem 1. Kirsch and M. E. Hyland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 METATHEORY On Theory and Method in Psychology K. Danziger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Psychology's Relation to Biology: Qualitatively Distinct Levels C. Ratner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Interpretation Styles of Psychologists and their Consequences for Psychology R. van Hezewijk .................. . . 107 Predicational Versus Mediational Theorizing In Psychology J. F. Rychlak ......................... 117 Skinner's Philosophy and Metatheory: A Metatheoretical Analysis K. B. Madsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Has Psychology Exaggerated Its "Natural Scientific Character"? W. Maiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Cognitive Representation: A Psychology in Search of Mentality L. P. Mos .......................... 145 The Conceptual Distinction Between Propositional and Skillful Knowing W. E. Smythe. . . ... 157 METHODOLOGY Validity and Reliability from a Phenomenological Perspective A. Giorgi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 167 The Units of Analysis Problem in Psychology: An Examination and Proposed Reconciliation J. Horley ........................... 177 Meaning Horizon, Paraphrase, and Phenomenological Investigations in Psychology D. Kuiken and T. C. Wild . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. 189 On History and System, and Social Psychology H. V. Rappard ................... . ... 199 Understanding the Complex Dynamics of Human Stability and Change B. L. Mishara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 x The Concept of Transition in Developmental Theories P. Van Geert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 225 The Introduction of Construct Validity to the Assessment Field: An Historical Analysis T. B. Rogers ......................... 237 On Paying Attention W. Thorngate .......... 247 THEORY Ludwig Von Bertalanffy's Contribution to Theoretical Psychology T. E. Weckowicz ................. . . 265 Category Mistakes in Act* and Gaps: Remarks on Anderson's Adaptive Control of Thought and Tulving's General Abstract Processing System R. J. Jorna . . . . . . . . '. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 On Objective and Subjective Anchoring of Cognitive Acts: How Behavioural Valence Modifies Reasoning Schemata M. Lewicka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Piagetian Theory Reconsidered: An Interpretive Reading of Piaget G. Kose and P. Heindel ., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 The Practice of Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine Whither Theory? H. J. Starn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 The Role of Cognition in Emotional Experience W. G. Parrott. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 A Three-Dimensional Model of the Brain and Psychopathology L. T. Yeudall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 Moral Objectivity: Toward a New Understanding of Intuition W. J. Hague ......................... 349 xi
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