Volume 1, Number 1, Spring
Editorial Statement: Theory and Method and Their Basis in Psychological Investigation
Raymond C. Russ, University of Maryland, European Division, and Richard I Schenkman, Dartmouth School of Medicine
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 1-8, ISSN 0271-0137
[Note: This is not a formal abstract, yet the authors felt it important to include herein since it was the first article in the first issue of this journal.] It is ironic that after 100 years of existence the social sciences and particularly psychology are still muddled in an experimental and theoretical quagmire concerning what to study and how to study it. That psychologists are arguing over subject matter is evident in the existence of well over 1000 related publications, each with an editorial policy hypothetically distinct and separate from the other. Nevertheless, every manuscript submitted for publication must be substantiated by some form of methodological backing; methodological alternatives are cited to explain experiments gone awry as well as experiments not gone awry. Results can be easily attributed to inconsistencies in the testing procedures or artifacts in the experimental design. Yet at the bottom of all this wrangling lies the suspicion that these polemics are not mere superfluity, but that psychology’s difficulty in coming-of-age as a recognized science is inevitably in the nature of its subject matter. Regardless of the orthodoxy of one’s methodological approach, the existence of “mind has become psychology’s nemesis, and invariably makes its presence felt, if only to be dismissed as auxiliary to the investigation at hand…”
Requests for reprints should be sent to Raymond Russ, Ph.D., University of Maryland, European Division, Im Bosseldorn 30, 6900 Heidelberg, Germany.
Concepts of Free Will in Modern Psychological Science
Joseph F. Rychlak, Purdue University
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 9-32, ISSN 0271-0137
Psychology has conformed to the natural-science style of explanation, in which presumed underlying material- and efficient-cause determinations “account for” human behavior. As a result, the meaning of free will has been impossible to capture in psychology because it requires formal- and final-cause conceptualizations. There are three ways in which psychologists have tried to explain away the free-will alternatives and as guided natural selection. None of these explanations will suffice. In order to convey what is meant by free will it is necessary to view human mentation as capable of self-relexivity through dialectical transcendence. This latter conception permits us to say that free will is the capacity to alter the grounds for the sake of which we are determined.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Joseph F. Rychlak, Ph.D., Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907.
Self-determination Theory: When Mind Mediates Behavior
Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, University of Rochester
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 33-44, ISSN 0271-0137
In this paper we have discussed various elements of self-determination theory (Deci, Note 1) and cognitive evaluation theory (Deci and Ryan, 1980), particularly in relation to the person-environment and mechanistic-phenomenological debates. We have shown that behaviors can be seen as being a function of both person and environment variables and a function of both mechanistic (non-consciously mediated) and phenomenological (consciously mediated) variables.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Edward L. Deci, Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, River Station, Rochester, New York 14627.
How to Think About Thinking: A Preliminary Map
J. Michael Russell, California State University, Fullerton
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 45-62, ISSN 0271-0137
I discuss three orientations to what the word “thinks” might mean, the mentalist, the behavioral, and the avowal orientations, and explain some variations of each. I urge that mapping out thinking in this way allows us to examine some important issues that escape us with more familiar theories (e.g., mind-brain identity theory, the thesis of intentionality, etc.) and that these have important implications for theorists in the social sciences. I argue that psychological behaviorists often turn out to be philosophical mentalists in disguise, and that a position of philosophical behaviorism is profoundly different from the sort of behaviorism familiar to psychologists.
Requests for reprints should be sent to J. Michael Russell, Ph.D., Department of Philosophy, California State University, Fullerton, California 92634.
Days of Our Lives
Nancy Datan, West Virginia University
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 63-72, ISSN 0271-0137
[Note: First paragraph, no abstract available.] The day begins with coffee. Depending on which of her selves is dominant at the time, Datan is wakened by a cup of coffee and the friendly domestic murmurs of her mate, or, in the uncomfortable throes of the creative process, she wakens early and alone and drinks her morning coffee in the company of a yellow pad of paper and the coffeepot…
Requests for reprints should be sent to Nancy Datan, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506.
The Social Psychology of J.F. Brown: Radical Field Theory
William F. Stone, University of Maine, Orono, and Lorenz, J. Finison, Wellesley College
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 73-84, ISSN 0271-0137
Junius Flagg Brown, one of Lewin’s most brilliant students, extended field theory to social psychology even before Lewin. Brown’s Psychology and the Social Order (1936) provided a distinctive integration of field theory, psychoanalysis, and the Marxist view of society. The theory advocated a hypothetical-deductive scientific approach to social psychology, in the interest of finding solutions to persistent social problems. Influential in the 1930s and 1940s, Brown’s work is currently neglected. In view of recent critical attacks on experimental social psychology, it is suggested that Brown’s thought may provide an important bridge between the experimental tradition of American social psychology and the critical social psychology now emerging in Western Europe.
Requests for reprints should be sent to William F. Stone, Ph.D., Psychological Institute, Boks 1094, Blindern, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Developmental Value of Fear of Death
Salvatore R. Maddi, The University of Chicago
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 85-92, ISSN 0271-0137
Confrontation with death is defined to include not only literal physical death but also the small psychological “deaths” that occur when one fails in controlling events or has one’s values contradicted by events. The central problem considered is the conditions under which confrontations with death spur development of a positive philosophy of life that lends meaning and direction to activities, rather than dread and a negative philosophy of life. Courage is postulated as a major condition and its developmental course in parent/child interactions is proposed.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Salvatore R. Maddi, Ph.D., Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637.
Stress, Aging and Retirement
Hans Selye, International Institute of Stress
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 93-110, ISSN 0271-0137
In dealing with stress, aging, and retirement, I first describe the scientifically established facts constituting the basis of that now-vast field of medicine concerning stress . Since the relationship of aging to stress is less fully known, however, my treatment of it will necessarily be more speculative and tentative (with a digression on the phenomenon of “calciphylaxis”), ending with a consideration of how to retard the process of senescence and prolong life.
The topic or retirement is a behavioral issue, and I confine myself to the application of stress theory in coping with this great change of one’s lifestyle. The principles involved are actually not much different from those required for day-to-day challenges; in fact, it is argued that a moral code for handling stress becomes even more relevant for the aged.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Hans Selye, M.D., Ph.D., D. Sc., International Institute of Stress, University of Montreal, 2900 Boul. Edouard-Montpetit, Montreal, Canada H3C 3J7.
Psychiatry and the Dimished American Capacity for Justice
Thomas Szasz, M.D., Syracuse, New York
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 111-120, ISSN 0271-0137
[Note: First paragraph, no abstract available.] There is no question but that a travesty of justice occurred in the trial of Dan White. How could the killer of San Francisco Major George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk – who fired nine bullets into his victims and shot each one twice in the back of the head, execution-style – not be found guilty of murder?
The answer is: Easily.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, Upstate Medical Center, 750 East Adams Street, Syracuse, New York 13210.
Space Settlements: A Design Study
Editors: R.D. Johnson and C. Holbrow, Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1977
Reviewed by Dwight Hines, Ph.D., Bangor Mental Health Institute, Bangor, Maine
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 121-123, ISSN 0271-0137
[Note: First paragraph, no abstract available.] The progress that has occurred in solving problems concerned with outer-space exploration contrasts sharply with the limited progress we have made in solving problems and questions about inner-space.Space Settlements gives an excellent, but brief, review of problems that have been solved and an exposure to different approaches that may be used to solve other problems related to space exploration.
Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgement to Calculation
Book Author: Joseph Weizenbaum, San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1976
Reviewed by Dwight Hines, Ph.D., Bangor Mental Health Institute, Bangor, Maine
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Spring 1980, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 123-126, ISSN 0271-0137
[Note: First paragraph, no abstract available.] Weizenbaum’s book is difficult but rewarding to read. The book is a blend of the pathos of Query’s guilt (Graham Greene, Burnt Out Case , 1961) and the gallows humor of a man who has not only created a Frankenstein, but observed the damage his creation has, and possibly will, wreak in the future. The guilt underlying this creation coupled with the astute observations of the people who are responsible for the rapid evolution – and psychological revolution – of electronic calculating machines presently being developed is explored. Just as Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is only “nominally” concerned with motorcycles, Weizenbaum has, for good reasons, posed a number of subjective and intimately personal problems which he encountered while developing a computer program that “parodied” Rogerian Therapy (between a cathode ray tube and a human subject). What is more frightening is that Weizenbaum has seen the potential problems of computer programs developed in parts by a number of independent programmers. The mega-programs operating presently function as a large component of our national defense system. It is basic to the thesis of each of Weizenbaum’s arguments that man is more than the rational, contemporary, totally logical being used as a model by most, if not all, if the academic and business geniuses of computer technology.
Save