Culture & Psychology recent issues

Examining Evidence for Autonomy and Relatedness in Urban Inuit Parenting

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:58 PST

Inuit have experienced significant lifestyle changes in the past 50 years. Most recently, urbanization has resulted in greater numbers of Inuit living in urban centres in southern Canada. Little is known about Inuit parenting, and nothing has been published on Inuit parenting in an urban context. The present study sought to address this gap by describing the parenting of Inuit living in a large Canadian city and examining emergent themes for evidence of autonomy and relatedness. In partnership with the Tungasuvvingat Inuit Family Resource Centre, 39 Inuit parents completed an interview about their parenting experiences. Based on interviews, major parenting themes included: child characteristics; parenting behaviours and beliefs; affection and love; stressors; and responsive and respectful parenting. The majority of parenting themes linked to relatedness, although there was evidence of autonomy in both parenting behaviours and child characteristics. Results are interpreted in light of the autonomy—relatedness framework and theoretical implications of findings are discussed.

Commentary: Opening Up Perspectives on Autonomy and Relatedness in Parent--Children Dynamics: Anthropological Insights

Rasmussen, S. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:59 PST

Many studies have shown widely varying human child-rearing practices; no child is ever a tabula rasa in the eyes of the culture. The article by McShane et al. (2009) on parenting themes of autonomy and relatedness among Inuit migrants from the northern countryside to Ottawa, a medium-sized city and the capital of Canada, offers important findings on previously less-studied child-rearing among Inuit in that southern urban setting. More broadly, the article contributes insights into how child-rearing practices and beliefs reflect local conceptions of the person and the world, and how the child should be prepared to live in it. Issues raised here include the challenges of distinguishing among cultural, psychological, and political economic influences of migration, urbanization, and globalization, and delineating the ways in which intimate personal concepts interweave with wider forces in child-rearing. Also at issue are definitions of relatedness and autonomy, concepts which are widely deployed in cross-cultural studies of child-rearing, but which are based upon Western philosophical formulations, and which McShane et al. analyze in the Inuit urban case. These concepts are difficult to formulate in culture-’neutral’ or ‘etic’ terms. The article shows both the uses and the limitations of retaining analytical ‘odd-job’ concepts for heuristic purposes. The present commentary argues that it is necessary to deconstruct critically such concepts as relatedness and autonomy, and to approach them as tendencies contingent upon context, rather than as universal polarized basic needs.

Commentary: Autonomy and Relatedness Reconsidered: Learning from the Inuit

Luciano, M. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:59 PST

Psychology has long struggled with defining constructs while preserving their meaning within a cultural context. Autonomy and relatedness have been construed as a dichotomy, which does not contribute to the understanding of how humans can act autonomously while being attached to one another. It is more fruitful to discuss the constructs in the context of an inclusive relationship in which autonomy and relatedness are proposed to be compatible as they are located on different dimensions: agency and interpersonal distance, respectively. The nuances of the constructs and the dialogical process, which includes the middle ground between the two extremes, are crucial for a complete understanding. The presence of autonomy does not imply or negate the presence of relatedness. Autonomy and relatedness not only can but do synthesize in a variety of forms.

The Mediating Role of Objects in Recollections of Adult Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Reavey, P., Brown, S. D. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:59 PST

Recollection of child sexual abuse involves complex issues of agency—both in the past and in the present. Adult women survivors face the further obstacle of ingrained cultural tendencies to question women’s testimony. Ambiguity and ambivalence are found in adult women’s accounts of their past abuse and present particular dilemmas. Drawing on social remembering approaches developed in memory studies, it is argued that recollections have to negotiate issues of incidence and intentionality in the past as well as the potential contribution made by non-human participants (e.g. objects, spaces, bodies). Using examples from interviews with survivors of child sexual abuse, we illustrate how objects (largely domestic objects and spaces) emerge in the memories as a way of posing and subsequently disposing ambiguity. Objects, as well as humans, ‘modify the state of affairs’ (Latour, 2005) and serve as the means to punctualize recollected episodes. An analytic approach sensitive to the role of objects in recollection, which is grounded in material-semiotics, is offered.

Commentary: Recalling as a Holistic Experience: Objects, Emotions and Meanings United

del Rio, M. T., Molina, M. E. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:59 PST

Reavey and Brown (2009), in their article ‘The Mediating Role of Objects in Recollections of Adult Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse’, make an interesting review of recollections of child abuse episodes in four women. They intend to give an account, in terms of agency, responsibility and integrity, of reports of past traumatic experiences in which particular objects are considered. The mediation of objects in recollection of past memories is discussed as a relevant contribution, positioning objects as semiotic resources for the apprehension of idiosyncratic experiences and personal sense-making. It is stated that objects also allow exchange with an external interlocutor mediating assessment and psychological elaboration being carried out with survivors. Also, as parts of a holistic phenomenon of memory, objects attached to emotion and meaning contribute to the robust aspect of the way in which past experiences can be apprehended. This last issue helps to orient the discussion of accuracy and validity in traumatic memory. Agency and ambivalence as parts of human experiencing are considered relevant, highlighting two aspects: theoretical and clinical implications.

Commentary: Discrepancies Drive Remembering and Show the Particularity of an Individual: A Commentary on Reavey & Brown

Mori, N. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:59 PST

Remembering is driven by discrepancies (interdependencies) resulting from contradiction and develops toward resolution (stabilization) of them. Reavey and Brown (2009) depict female survivors of child sexual abuse who struggle to stabilize their recollections. By using a mediating network including physical objects, they reduce the indeterminacy of meanings of actions and events and attempt to properly construct identity and agency of participants of abuse including them. The present study of Reavey and Brown has the potential to explore the particularity of an individual. The author and colleagues have concerned themselves with particularity since they were interested in the veracity of an experience through the examination of confession and testimony in criminal cases. The particularity of a certain individual appears in his/her actions, embedded in socio-cultural situations. To explore the personal particularity irreducible to culture will lead us toward further development of cultural psychology. The present study can develop the same interests as the authors.

Agency and Power of Single Children in Multi-Generational Families in Urban Xiamen, China

Goh, E. C.L., Kuczynski, L. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:59 PST

This paper examines ethnographic data collected over six months from Xiamen, China, on children as active agents in their relationships with their parents and grandparents. It explicates the usefulness of the conceptual tools of ‘agency’ and ‘interdependent power’ derived from social relational theory in demonstrating the bilateral influences between children, grandparents and parents. Ways in which children’s agency is enhanced in their interactions with the adult caregivers are explicated. It provides a reinterpretation of the ‘little emperor’ syndrome in contemporary urban China.

Commentary: Forms of Relationship Construction and the Power of the Child

Rodriguez, L. P. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:59 PST

The work by Goh and Kuczynski (2009) is important beyond the specific context of China. Using social relational theory, the authors examine family dynamics in the contemporary nursing practices of five families in Xiamen, China. While they succeed in identifying relations and patterns of interaction, they do not explain the mechanism that enables the emergence of these patterns. In this article, I suggest a complementary way, which does not exclude theirs, to show how developments and concepts derived from general systems theory and from the general perspective of dynamic systems could contribute to understanding the relations that are built in these families.

Life Course Staging as Cultural and Subjective Practice: Review, Critique, and Theoretical Possibilities

Janssen, D. F. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:59 PST

This paper identifies and critically assesses various research approaches to subjective and cultural-historical notions of life stages through the lens of comparative-cultural, psychometric, discursive psychological and ethnographic perspectives. Included is an overview of 48 studies of subjective attributions of life stages (1984—2007) covering 14 national settings, with a discussion of their limitations. Possibilities for cross-fertilizing critical gender theory with life stage theory are briefly discussed. It is suggested that analytic notions of citationality and hegemony, both pioneered in the context of gender studies, may be productively appropriated in cultural psychology.

Commentary: About the Danger of Relying on Common Vocabulary

Watzlawik, M. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:59 PST

Janssen (2009) raises the criticism that life stages and related concepts are not clearly defined and that even within the same study or data pool different conceptualizations can be found. A lack of clear definitions and the resulting difficulties are, nevertheless, not exclusive to life stage research. The general need for unambiguous definitions of the terminology used, even if these limit broader concepts to a certain scope of meaning, is stressed in order to avoid misunderstandings and to foster— especially interdisciplinary— communication.

Review Essay: Rituals and Knowledge Construction: Ethical Dilemmas on Creating Oppositions

Silva Guimaraes, D. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:51:59 PST

What is knowledge construction for? Mesopotamian rituals were practiced in order to grasp the future and guide war strategies. Nowadays, scientific rules are developed to avoid mysticism—constructing more accurate laws to explain the reality. Both rituals and science were, and usually are, grounded in a conception that to know is to decipher the correct meaning behind the expressive relief of the world. Contemporary studies on anthropology have shown that the opposition between nature and culture is the basis of a number of problems in human sciences aiming to comprehend the intricate relation between body and violence and overcome ethical dilemmas.

Cultural Mechanics of Fundamentalism: Religion as Ideology, Divided Identities and Violence in Post-Gandhi India

Sen, R., Wagner, W. — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:50:29 PDT

This study analyses the history of Hindu fundamentalism up to the present time, as it developed since India’s independence. In the course of its rise, Hindutva destroyed the Gandhian symbolism of non-violence, reinterpreted cultural symbols to become political signs and prepared the ground for communal violence. Secularists and the religious out-group, Muslims, became targeted as enemies. During the resulting Hindu ethnic dominance, religion was converted from a faith into an ideology. The sequence of events in the development of this movement repeats the common scheme of a religious fundamentalist movement that serves the nationalist goals of political leaders. It is argued that such groups cannot reasonably be conceptualized in terms of an individual psychology or personality, that is, a trait, but as a cultural movement that unites people sharing membership of a social class, that is, a sociocultural state. Such movements, in contrast to Abrahamic religious fundamentalisms, do not form well-established stable groups over time, but are more like a waxing and waning political movement where membership is determined by social class and ethnic identity. Their politics trigger a heightened awareness of ethnic identity, prime a religiously ideological mindset and, as a consequence, release communal violence.

Commentary: Myths, Narratives, and Patterns of Rumors: The Construction of 'Jewish Subversion' and Retributive Violence in 1940--41 Romania

Ionescu, S. — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:50:29 PDT

Sen and Wagner (2009) advance the thesis of the centrality of fundamentalist belief systems in violence. I provide further explication of their thesis by looking at the Romanian case. The explosion of violence around 1940—41, the years when Romania joined the Axis and entered the Second World War cannot be understood without taking into account the historical, political, social, and cultural factors that created the radical atmosphere of xenophobia, mass psychosis, and mobilization against Others . Rumors emerge as the most powerful psychological means of spreading the official master narrative of ‘domestic Jewish treason’. Reinterpretation of various cultural symbols also played an important role in excluding the Jewish Other from the national community.

Commentary: Omniculturalism: Policy Solutions to Fundamentalism in the Era of Fractured Globalization

Moghaddam, F. M. — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:50:29 PDT

Cultural researchers need to pay more attention to religious fundamentalism, which has persisted and even increased, against expectations raised by modernization theories. This discussion represents a preliminary exploration of fractured globalization and global conditions associated with religious fundamentalism. Continuing intergroup conflicts, fundamentalism, and terrorism suggest a need to rethink traditional policies for managing diversity. The alternative policy of omniculturalism is put forward as a longer term solution to fundamentalism and intergroup conflict. Omniculturalism is based, first, on universals and a primary identity consisting of the superordinate category ‘human’, but also on distinctiveness and a secondary identity formed through affiliation with religious, ethnic, and other such groupings.

Review Essay: A Sociocultural Perspective on Genocide: A Review of The Psychology of Genocide: Perpetrators, Bystanders, and Rescuers by Steven Baum: Baum, Steven, The Psychology of Genocide: Perpetrators, Bystanders, and Rescuers. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 255 pp. ISBN 978--0--521--71392--4

Phillips DeZalia, R. — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:50:29 PDT

In The Psychology of Genocide, Steven Baum adds a new voice to the field of genocide studies. By connecting relevant psychological theories, Baum is able to effectively show that one’s level of emotional and moral development plays a part in determining whether one will become a bystander, perpetrator or rescuer during a genocide. However, his look into hate and genocide lacks a complete psychological perspective because his sole emphasis is on developmental theories. By adding a sociocultural perspective to this approach, specifically through the addition of social identity and representation research, one can get a fuller picture of what leads a society and its people to genocide and hate.

Continuing Commentary: Emotions of Guilt and Shame: Towards Historical and Intercultural Perspectives on Cultural Psychology

Shi-xu, — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:50:29 PDT

Cultural psychology, as one of the youngest, yet fastest growing social sciences, has been explored in most parts of the world and approached from a great diversity of angles. What must be continuously researched in the theory, method and critique of cultural psychology, however, are historical, intercultural and political perspectives. To take up this thesis seriously, the present commentary illustrates the fundamentally historical, intercultural and political nature of cultural affect, cognition and behaviour. It concludes with the suggestion of an inbetween cultural and cultural political stance that the critical-intellectual cultural psychologist takes.

Conscious and Non-Conscious Representation in Social Representations Theory: Social Representations from the Phenomenological Point of View

Daanen, P. — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:50:29 PDT

Verheggen and Baerveldt’s (2007) recent paper critiques the concept of ‘sharedness’ in Social Representations Theory (SRT). However, these arguments against sharedness are themselves founded upon an implicit argument against the role of ‘representation’ in SRT. This constitutes what I call the phenomenological critique of SRT. From a discussion of Heidegger’s phenomenology one can better understand Verheggen and Baerveldt’s argument. By concentrating on anchoring and objectification, the notion of ‘representation’ can be conceived as both a ‘conscious’ and a ‘non-conscious’ account of meaning. A Heideggerian phenomenological approach can unify the conscious and non-conscious elements of SRT into a common framework. Such phenomenological appreciation of SRT can contribute to a theory of meaning for cultural psychology.

Geocentric Dead Reckoning in Sanskrit- and Hindi-Medium School Children

Mishra, R. C., Singh, S., Dasen, P. R. — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:50:29 PDT

A linguistic and cognitive process that has received scant attention in mainstream developmental psychology is the use of a geocentric frame of spatial reference, which amounts to using a large-scale orientation system (such as cardinal directions) in describing and encoding the location of objects on table space, inside a room. As part of a larger cross-cultural study of the development of this process, in India, Indonesia and Nepal, we present here a study on the possible implications of using a geocentric frame of reference in developing an accurate dead-reckoning skill. Children aged 11 to 15 years in two types of schools in Varanasi, India, who were known from a pretest to use a geocentric frame in language and cognition, were blindfolded, spun around and led blindfolded to a second room. A majority of them were able to keep track of cardinal directions despite these disorienting procedures. They were interviewed about the processes and sources of their skill.

Women's Discourse on Beauty and Class in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Lee, N. — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:29:41 PDT

Group-based inequalities have been explored through traditional laboratory methods using student participants, but more attention is needed at the level of people's everyday lives in cultural context. The present study looks at how people create and uphold social order through discursive practices. This dimension of social reproduction is explored in Venezuela, where the Bolivarian Revolution makes `social class' a politically salient signifier. I use the notions of interpretative repertoires (Potter & Wetherell, 1987) and carriers (Moghaddam, 2002) to analyze how women negotiate `class' and moral positions in talk about an everyday, resource-dependent practice (beauty). The analyses show how certain repertoires reproduce class positions while making equivocal the moral significance of class. I discuss how the instability of class as a carrier of moral goodness becomes a terrain on which concerns for establishing moral equality take precedence over concerns for achieving economic equality.

Commentary: Beauty, Class and Discourse: Issues in Debate

Bustamante Smolka, A. L., dos Santos Braga, E. — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:29:41 PDT

In this text we proceed through a brief review of Naomi Lee's (2009) article, highlighting her significant contributions to social and cultural psychology. In our dialogue with her text we inquire about some arguments and methodological procedures she presents. We raise some specific questions related to how the issue of beauty is framed, and we ponder on how a broadening of the scope to include history—of ideas, of relations—would bring some important elements to her approach. As Lee relates beauty and class, we examine the nuanced meanings of lack and deficiency in her analytical work. We also discuss her assumptions and position concerning discourse and dialogue which mark her ways of proceeding through the analysis of the interviews. We speculate that the depersonalized answer appointed in the interviewees' discourse can be related to a way of considering beauty as disembodied.

Developing a Multi-Dimensional Model of Hispano Attachment to and Loss of Land

Zentella, Y. — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:29:41 PDT

One underpinning of ties between family and culture among the Hispanos of Northern New Mexico is land. Among Hispanos land has historically symbolized a protective environment fostering survival, the development of extended family systems, a land-based culture, and a variety of land practices including spiritual/religious rituals. This, however, began to change with the initial loss of Hispano land holdings, a consequence of the annexation of New Mexico into the American Union and the disregard by the American government of Hispano landholder rights upheld in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848. A grounded theory dissertation completed in 2005 addressed Northern New Mexican Hispano perspectives of attachment to and loss of land. The core concepts that emerged from the findings were, after a post-dissertation evaluation, found to parallel John Bowlby's still relevant, intertwining inner and outer rings of attachment and Setha Low's linkages between individual and place. Bowlby's ethologically based protective outer ring is a conceptual representation of the environment. The inner ring represents an organism's experience of safety and survival within the environment. Both rings intertwine as one's physiological state impacts one's view of the environment, with this view influencing one's physiological state. Setha Low pinpointed six specific types of linkages that form the basis of an interactional relationship between individuals and place. The grounded theory investigation narrative responses provided material that contributed to the development of a Multi-Dimensional Model of Hispano Attachment to and Loss of Land within the context of Northern New Mexico guided by the framework of Bowlby's and Low's models. While at this present time the model is applicable only to the respondents of the grounded theory investigation, it nevertheless contributes to a greater understanding of the process of psychological attachment and loss of land and its emotional consequences as perceived and conceived by Hispano residents in Northern New Mexico. Such psychologically based findings suggest applicability to mental health approaches for Hispanos in Northern New Mexico. Recommended are further studies with larger and more varied Hispano samples that could make this model generalizable to other Hispano or Latino populations residing in the area of the United States that was at one time a part of the Northern Mexican territories absorbed into the American Union as described in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The development of this model contributes to the growing work on place psychology, to the Chicano/Hispano psychology literature, and to literature on cultural trauma.

Commentary: Politicizing Attachment: A Sociological Glance at Zentella's Model

Kharlamov, N. A. — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:29:41 PDT

The Multi-Dimensional Model of Hispano Attachment to and Loss of Land developed by Yoly Zentella (2009) is viewed here from the standpoint of sociology. It is an important contribution to the study of ethnic populations in their relation to land, space and territory. Elements of sociological approaches to space are discussed. Three pathways for further research on the basis of Zentella's model are suggested: the study of possibilities of collective subjectivity, identity and social movement formation; the study of heterogeneous constitution of space by multiple populations; and the study of issues of justice and reconciliation. These pathways broadly reflect interest in the political and power outcomes of the emotional sphere. The commentary concludes with a consideration of process-event-oriented methodology for further research.

Commentary: Is Place Experience Culturally Specific? A Commentary on Yoly Zentella's Article

Minami, H. — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:29:41 PDT

A dialogical commentary on Yuly Zentella' s (2009) article dealing with the cultural experiences of the loss of ties with their land among the Hispanos of Northern New Mexico is attempted firstly by referring to the psychological literature on transitions which utilizes Bowbly's theory of attachment and loss in actual incidents of relocations and displacement, and secondly by critically questioning the validity of combining concepts emerging from a grounded theory approach with general notions borrowed from attachment and place attachment theories. Although there are similarities between Zentella's study and studies of psycho-social transition that reveal stage-like processes following loss and grieving reactions of individuals, the former study is characterized by the impact's longer time-frame, which extends over generations of the population, while the latter literature deal with the loss of immediate environment by individuals, who undergo critical changes in a relatively shorter period. The cultural specificity of the multi-dimensional model proposed by Zentella is questioned on the ground that the added dimensions did not originate from the specific population under study, but are borrowed from more general theoretical abstractions. While the abductive mode of reasoning is appreciated, a possible mis-match between local concepts emerging from the grounded theory approach and the notion of attachment is discussed. As an alternative direction to value cultural specificity and phenomenological traditions, some exploration on the concept of `imprisonment' found by Zentella is attempted by adopting a symbol formation approach which takes language at a metaphorical level, and thus several examples of place metaphors, such as attached, rooted and imprisoned, are considered, with the hope of accumulating culturally specific studies of place experiences.

Continuing Commentary: A Cyclical Model of Social Change

Jensen, E., Wagoner, B. — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:29:41 PDT

Castro and Batel's (2008) study points to some important strategies of resistance to social change in the transformation of transcendent to immanent representations. We contextualize this study within a broader cyclical model of social change, in which their focus is one of the four phases in the cycle. The expanded model is exemplified in the shifting representations of science communication in the UK from the `deficit model' of public understanding of science to the dialogic representation of `public engagement'. Within each of the four proposed phases, the dialectic of adoption/rejection is central, although it is modulated by strategies of resistance and the selective distribution of resources.

Perceived Intergenerational Differences in the Transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in Two Indigenous Groups from Colombia and Guatemala

Cristancho, S., Vining, J. — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:29:41 PDT

This study used the Developmental Niche (DN) framework to examine perceived intergenerational changes in the transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Under a cross-sectional and exploratory design, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample, stratified by gender and generation, of 30 Uitoto (Amazon, Colombia) and 26 Itza' Maya (Peten, Guatemala) adults about their perceptions of intergenerational variations in TEK transmission/acquisition practices. Interview data were analyzed using a grounded approach and resulting coding categories were assigned to text units. Grounded themes were then examined in light of the DN components. Both Uitoto and Itza' Maya participants perceived generational changes in the settings (from natural to school settings) and in the strategies (from experiential to conceptual learning) used for TEK transmission. These changes were attributed to various environmental (biodiversity loss, urbanization), socio-cultural (acculturation, changes in social norms) and individual factors (lack of motivation to teach and learn).

`Being Canadian' and `Being Indian': Subject Positions and Discourses Used in South Asian-Canadian Women's Talk about Ethnic Identity

Malhi, R. L., Boon, S. D., Rogers, T. B. — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:29:41 PDT

Ethnic identity descriptions can be viewed as `subject positions' (Davies and Harré, 1990) that are dynamically adopted and discarded for pragmatic purposes through the medium of socialinteraction.Inthe present paper, we use positioning theory to explore the multiple ways our participants—South Asian-Canadian women—positioned themselves and others in conversations about their ethnic identity. A discourse analysis of participants' talk revealed a tendency to privilege a `hybrid' Canadian/South Asian identity over a unicultural one. Moreover, in the rare instances when participants positioned themselves with a unicultural identity, subtle social pressure from conversational partners seemed to induce them to reposition themselves (or others) with a hybrid identity. We conclude by giving possible reasons for such a preference and by discussing the ways in which the current study corroborates and expands on the extant literature.

Commentary: The Role of Feeling in Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Ethnic Identities

Mahmoud, H. W. — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:29:41 PDT

The flexibility and shifting nature of ethnic identities that we witness in everyday life does not necessarily mean that identity is eternally fluid and contextual. Ethnic identity is better characterized by pragmatic flexibility that obscures an underlying self-identification that may or may not be consistent with this surface multiplicity. Studies such as Malhi, Boon, and Rogers' (2009) compel us to acknowledge that the shifting and hybridity we could witness interpersonally is not necessarily synonymous with what the individual may feel intrapersonally. Instead, there appears to be a deeper level of identification that cannot always be freely manifested due to various internal and external constraints. What mediates the process of internalization of ethnic identities and their altered externalization in the interpersonal world is feeling.

Review Essay: We Are all Unique but Never Alone: Billig, M., The Hidden Roots of Critical Psychology. London: Sage, 2008. 232 pp. ISBN--978--4129--4724--4 (pbk)

Neuman, Y. — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:29:41 PDT

Cultural Psychology Today: Innovations and Oversights

Valsiner, J. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:43:04 PST

Culture & Psychology has developed from a small start-up journal in 1995 into the key trend-setter in the field. This editorial analysis continues the tradition of inquiry started in previous efforts (Valsiner, 2001, 2004a) and extends it to the needs of psychology as a whole for the study of dynamic, meaning-making human beings. Cultural psychology—using the term culture as a generic term in various versions—continues to be an arena where innovations can occur. Separate research fields— such as the dialogical self, social representation processes, semiotic mediation, symbolic action, and actuation theories—have all been co-participants in this new advancement of ideas. Yet the central problem—an innovation of empirical research methodology which would appropriately capture human active meaning-making—has not been solved. Likewise, cultural psychology has only marginally touched upon the lessons from indigenous psychologies—the richness of folk psychological terms, and the cultural over-determination of objects used in human everyday living. Contemporary cultural psychology turns increasingly towards the study of objects as cultural constructs. Editing a journal is itself an act of construction of a cultural object, and the current state of contemporary scientific journals indicates a re-construction of the social nature of knowledge. Moving beyond its postmodernist and empiricist confines, psychology is set to return to the level of an abstracted generalization of its culture-inclusive theories. Culture—in terms of semiotic mediators and meaningful action patterns—is the inherent core of human psychological functions, rather than an external causal entity that has `effects' on human emotion, cognition, and behavior.

Cultural Norms Informing Other-Conscious Selfhood in Chinese Relational Worlds

Wang, M.-j., Dai, J.-j. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:43:04 PST

This research adopts methodological relationalism as its conceptual framework. The Collection of Sages' Maxims (CSM) is used as the basic data to derive the cultural norms. Based on these norms, eight parameters (prs) are derived with 24 metaperception components of filial piety and fraternal submission(FPFS)-based interpersonal loyalty. These FPFS loyalty (FPFSL) metaperception components as third-eye party are seen to be highly sensitive and vigilant with regard to transgressions of the cultural maxim-based norms. Then these metaperception components are supposed to help prompt the transgressor to generate emotions of guilt and shame in his/her reflection.

Commentary: Psychology of Selfhood in China: Where is the Collective?

Choi, B., Han, G. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:43:04 PST

The analysis of Chinese maxims shows strong Confucian norms of filial piety operating in the family (Wang & Dai, 2009). Admitting that the norm is also strong in Korea, we explore the difference in selfhood between Korea and China. Taking a sociolinguistic approach, we characterize Chinese collectivism as relational collectivism and pose the question of how the collective works in Chinese selfhood. For comparative purposes, we describe the working of the collective in Korean selfhood and invite efforts to examine linguistic practice.

Commentary: We Don't Share! The Social Representation Approach, Enactivism and the Fundamental Incompatibilities between the Two

Chryssides, A., Dashtipour, P., Keshet, S., Righi, C., Sammut, G., Sartawi, M. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:43:04 PST

Underlying all theories are philosophical presuppositions that lend themselves to different epistemological approaches, which need to be unfurled when comparing theories and offering alternative explanations. Contrary to Verheggen and Baerveldt's (2007) promulgation that `enactivism' may be an adequate alternative for Wagner's social representation approach, this commentary outlines how this may be a misguided position. Enactivism, following an outward trajectory from nervous systems, to minds, to `(inter)action', to social enactivism, is incompatible with the dialogical epistemology underpinning social representations theory. Social representations are not reducible to individual minds, and dialogical interaction is not reducible to operationally closed `systems' in (inter)action. The difference between the two approaches lies in the fundamental paradigmatic distinction between molar and molecular explanatory frameworks. Offering one as an alternative to the other overlooks the epistemological differences between the two and fails to appreciate the discrepancies between different levels of analysis, explanatory frameworks and the very phenomena that theories problematize.

Moving Experience: Dialogues between Personal Cultural Positions

Konig, J. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:43:04 PST

The main purpose of this article is to study the dialogical dynamics of people with multicultural experiences, a response to the call voiced by Hermans (2001a) to explore the self on the contact zones of culture. Using the theory of the dialogical self as a starting point, I explore in my empirical research the hypothesis that a dialogue between personal cultural positions allows new meanings to arise in the personal meaning system. Acculturation can thus be seen as a continuing process of self-innovation propelled by dialogues between personal cultural positions. Thirteen multicultural individuals (global nomads) were asked if they could identify personal cultural positions and conduct a dialogue between them. Each step in the dialogue was rated on a five-point scale measuring novelty, importance and authenticity. Results show that in the majority of cases novelty ratings increased, confirming the hypothesis. Stable novelty ratings occurred when initial statements were rated high on importance and/or authenticity, indicating that acculturation occurs within the field of tension created by the desire to maintain personal continuity, on the one hand, and self-innovation to facilitate integration into a new environment, on the other. This research is aimed at devising a suitable methodology for assessment and coaching of multicultural individuals.

Commentary: Accessing the Experience of a Dialogical Self: Some Needs and Concerns

Cunha, C., Goncalves, M. M. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:43:04 PST

This commentary focuses on König's (2009) work as an opportunity to elaborate on selfhood as a dynamic and dialogical phenomenon. We depart from Bakhtinian dialogism and dialogical self theory to focus on the dynamics of selfhood processes and draw a more explicit theoretical link between the dialogical self and phenomenological experience. The interconnected dimensions of discontinuity and continuity in a multiple, multipositioned self are also elaborated. We defend that the construction of similitude in the self is permitted by self-regulation and self-organization processes that create recurring patterns in a moving self. Finally, the role that the introduction of difference and alterity can play in the promotion of change and development is also discussed.

Review Essay: Beyond Bullets, Bombs, and Grassroots: Kuriansky, Judy (Ed.), Beyond Bullets and Bombs: Grassroots Peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. 382 pp. ISBN 0--275--99880--0 (hbk)

Twose, G. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:43:04 PST

This article addresses several of the most relevant ideas, implicit and explicit, in Judy Kuriansky's collection Beyond Bullets and Bombs. Identity development is highlighted as a key component of peacebuilding attempts; more detail is given on the psychosocial portion, which is elaborated as a dialectic between one's perception of others, one's view of how one is perceived by others, and the relationship between the two. A maturity development model, a dialogical interaction model, and the importance of power dynamics are also explored. The limitations of focusing only on the grassroots level in order to create a culture of peace are discussed, and other areas of investigation, such as tiers of leadership and structural-institutional conditions, are proposed.