Toward a Mindful Psychological Science: Theory and Application

It is argued that, toward mitigating the 'centrifugal forces' (Altman, 1987) currently splintering the field of psychology, Langer's (1989, 1997) theory of mindfulness has the potential to become a unifyingframework for the field of psychological science. Toward this end, this article demonstrates the ways in which Langer's work, usually associated with the subfield of social psychology, (a) constitutes a grand theory that advances contemporary developmental theory; (b) has relevance for other basic and applied subfields of psychology (e.g., cognitive, educational, organizational, clinical); and (c) offers practical directives for conceptualizing and treating such social issues as development and remediation of prejudice and discrimination; satisfaction and well-being of adoptive and foster families; and promotion of automobile safety across the lifespan (i.e., the translation of mindless experience into more mindful action).     

Power and Wisdom: Toward a History of Social Behavior

Cross-disciplinary studies carried out lately by Russian scholars discovered a causal relationship between the three variables: technological potential, cultural regulation quality, and social sustainability. The patterns called techno-humanitarian balance law, states that the higher production and war technologies' power, the more refined the behaviorregulation means (consolidated values and norms, etc.) that are required for self-preservation of the society. The article shows that the law has controlled social selection for all of human history and prehistory, discarding unbalanced social organisms, as far as they could not cope with ecological and (or) geopolitical crises, which had been caused by their own activities. It also shows how successive growth of instrumental opportunities in long-term retrospection has dramatically led to the consecutive perfection of cultural and psychological regulation mechanisms. Relevant calculations, comparative-anthropological evidence, and historical illustrations are provided. Regularities in mental processes are described that precede and accompany crisis-causing behavior, to certain extent regardless of population's historical and cultural peculiarities.     

Help, Not Harm: Psychological Foundation for a Nondieting Approach Toward Health

This article reviews the literature on the psychological consequences of dieting. In particular, the authors examine the impact of dieting on mood, self-esteem, cognition, and eating behavior. The famous Keys study of starvation is discussed in relations to impaired concentration, food preoccupation, negative affect, and binge eating behavior. Overall, the literature indicates that dieting has a negative impact on psychological well-being. As a result, alternative nondieting approaches toward eating are presented and recommended to promote psychological health.     

走向“活”的制度史——以宋代官僚政治制度史研究为例的点滴思考

本文以宋代官僚政治制度史研究为例 ,从“问题意识”、作为“过程”的制度史、作为“关系”的制度史、严格学术规范 ,加强学术交流四个层面阐释了什么是“活”的制度史 ,以及如何才能将制度史研究做“活”的问题     

Towards a Theory of Social Work Expertise

Correspondence to Prof. Jan Fook, School of Social Inquiry, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3217, Australia Summary This paper begins by summarizing the results of a qualitativeexploratory study of thirty experienced social workers whichwas undertaken in order to identify some characteristics ofsocial work expertise. Some of the features identified includea confidence with professional identity and an ability to dealwith complexities. Participants were also able quickly to prioritizerelevant factors and were aware of constraints and resources,but made conscious use of formal theory only minimally. Thefull results of this study are reported elsewhere (Fook et al.,in press). The main purpose of this paper is to explore theimplications of these results in developing a theory of socialwork expertise. The issues examined include the debates aroundthe relationship between theory and practice in social work,the generic versus the specialist nature of social work, therelevance of existing theories of expertise to social work,and the affirmation of artistic elements of social work practice.     

Toward a theory of myth

James Cresswell provides a thoughtful critique of my essay on a theory of myth (Mills) with a specific focus on the nature of theorizing that challenges the dogma of empirical frames of reference, concluding that scientific theories themselves are contemporary myths. Insofar as myth is an attempt to provide a narrative or discourse about phenomena, Cresswell's argument could apply to any theory. But he takes this point further: theory is synonymous with myth. In order to unpack this evocative claim, it may prove useful to revisit how theory and myth relate to the concepts of logos, truth, ontology and identity. In the end, I suggest theory is not myth because theory sets out to describe, interpret and explain phenomena and is scrutinized for its validity, generalizability and applied consequences, while the premises of myth are often historically and culturally presupposed or simply devolve into belief that may or may not be defensible.     

走向一种后现代心理学

现代思想最基本也是最严重的问题是由笛卡儿发轫的、康德肯定的心物、主客、事实及价值二元论,现代科学和现代大学基本接受了这种二元论。这种二元论是建立在视自然为无价值的死物质基础上的,当进化论显示人是自然的一部分时,唯一被大学容许的反应是我们人类也将像物质一样被客观地看待。这种认识反映在心理学上就是将一切主体性经验都看作是大脑内事件的副产品。然而当代脑科学和心理学的最新发现则从根本上颠覆了现代二元论,它们的发现表明,自然不是死物质,而是有主体性和价值的。这为后现代心理学的发展提供了科学支撑,后现代心理学将发展人们的共情情怀为自己的重要使命,而怀特海哲学则为这种后现代心理学提供了本体论的支持。     

Toward a Concept of a Migrant Personality

In this article we argue that individuals who want to emigrate possess a syndrome of personality characteristics that differentiates them from those who want to stay in their country of origin. Based on our own research, as well as other research findings, we show that those who want to resettle in another country tend to be more work-oriented and to have higher achievement and power motivation, but lower affiliation motivation and family centrality, than those who do not want to leave their country of origin. This migrant personality syndrome is seen as only one of the variety of factors that determine migratory behavior. We further discuss some of the possible implications of our findings for the receiving and the sending countries and possible psychological interventions that can ease the acculturation of immigrants.     

Toward a sociological theory of social pain

A serious consideration of pain has largely been absent in sociology, especially physical pain's close neurobiological relative, social pain. Social pain is the process by which rejection and exclusion recruits similar neural circuits as physical pain, generating an affectual response that mirrors the response one feels from physical trauma. Pain is essential to any sociological analysis of motivation and action because, like many affective responses, it is a necessary ingredient in cognition and behavior; and, in many cases, it preconsciously commands and even controls how we think and act. While exploring this concept, it becomes apparent that sociology has an entire set of distantly related concepts that can be classified as different processes of social pain that reveal the structural, cultural, and situational conditions shaping the distribution of social pain. The paper concludes by thinking through the implications social pain portends for neuroscience and sociology.     

Toward a Typology of Russian Political Consciousness

The most diverse methods of investigation can be used in analyzing the political preferences of the Russian population. For example, one can regularly measure the approval ratings of various politicians and trace shifting trends through variations in these ratings. This method is quite simple and reliable if one exercises the necessary caution in interpreting the results. However, the effectiveness of such methods is ultimately limited: they are useful in comparing short-term forecasts of voting behavior and can provide indirect indicators of people's reactions to certain events, but they do not reveal what lies behind people's stated preferences—that is, the content that determines the choice.     

Toward a General Sociological Theory of Emotions

Key ideas from expectation-states theory, symbolic interactionism, dramaturgical analysis, power-status theories, attribution theory, and psychoanalytic theories are combined in an effort to generate a more general theory of emotional arousal in face-to-face interaction. The level of emotional arousal in interaction is seen to reflect the degree of incongruity between expectations, including expectations for confirmation of self, and actual experiences. Such arousal involves the conversion of primary emotions into first and second-order combinations. The nature of emotional arousal is, however, further complicated by the activation of defense mechanisms and attribution processes. The composite theory is formalized into a series of propositions which can serve as hypotheses for empirical tests.     

Toward a Dialogical Perspective on Agency

The aim of this article is to motivate and outline a dialogical perspective on agency that accommodates centrifugal and centripetal tendencies in current cultural theories of agency. To complement approaches that assume a high degree of integration and clarity, we emphasise the diversity of agency as it is experienced in the open-ended dialogical relationship with a particular other. While these former approaches to agency provide us with the means to examine the influence of social processes such as division of labour and reproduction of community, they tend to underplay the importance of agency as it is embodied and experienced in the lives of particular people. To reflect on this aspect of agency, we will draw extensively on Bakhtin's work, which crosses boundaries between philosophy, psychology and literary criticism, and which is concerned to understand what is personal in activity. In terms of agency, his work draws our attention to the sense of responsibility and potentiality that imbues our dialogues with particular others, the aesthetics and ethics involved in dialoguing with the other, and the sense of dilemmatic choice and intonation that is involved in our dialogue with the other.