Ethnopsychology


Book Description

This book presents an overview of Mexican ethnopsychology, an original theoretical and methodological approach that seeks to complement the mainstream psychological science – based on universal principles, processes and constructs – with scientific methods to study the idiosyncratic features and behaviors typical of specific cultural groups. It proposes a historic-bio-psycho-socio-cultural theoretical model to describe research findings of social, psychological, collective and individual phenomena. Psychology is at a crossroads of years of research with stress on internal validity and little attention to contextual and cultural variables. It becomes fundamental to continue on the internal validity track but at the same time incorporate external validity issues. The growth of indigenous movements and data allows for a profound evaluation of the extents to which apparent universal phenomena are truly universal, and to what extent they are idiosyncratic manifestations of the cultures where the mainstream research is conducted. Mexican ethnopsychologists have been following this path for decades, since the pioneer work of Rogelio Díaz-Guerrero, but until now little has been published in English about this innovative theoretical approach. Ethnopsychology – Pieces from the Mexican Research Gallery fills this gap by presenting the international community an overview of Mexican ethnopsychology and thus providing a useful tool to behavioral, social and health scientists interested in understanding how culture shapes both collective and individual behaviors.




New Directions in Psychological Anthropology


Book Description

The field of psychological anthropology has changed a great deal since the 1940s and 1950s, when it was often known as 'Culture and Personality Studies'. Rooted in psychoanalytic psychology, its early practitioners sought to extend that psychology through the study of cross-cultural variation in personality and child-rearing practices. Psychological anthropology has since developed in a number of new directions. Tensions between individual experience and collective meanings remain as central to the field as they were fifty years ago, but, alongside fresh versions of the psychoanalytic approach, other approaches to the study of cognition, emotion, the body, and the very nature of subjectivity have been introduced. And in the place of an earlier tendency to treat a 'culture' as an undifferentiated whole, psychological anthropology now recognizes the complex internal structure of cultures. The contributors to this state-of-the-art collection are all leading figures in contemporary psychological anthropology, and they write abour recent developments in the field. Sections of the book discuss cognition, developmental psychology, biology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis, areas that have always been integral to psychological anthropology but which are now being transformed by new perspectives on the body, meaning, agency and communicative practice.




Thinking Through Cultures


Book Description

Shweder calls for exploration of the human mind--and of one's own mind--by thinking through the ideas and practices of other peoples and their cultures. He examines evidence of cross-cultural similarities and differences in mind, self, emotion, and morality with special reference to the cultural psychology of a traditional Hindu temple town in India.




Person, Self, and Experience


Book Description




Handbook of Cultural Psychology, First Edition


Book Description

Bringing together leading authorities, this definitive handbook provides a comprehensive review of the field of cultural psychology. Major theoretical perspectives are explained, and methodological issues and challenges are discussed. The volume examines how topics fundamental to psychology—identity and social relations, the self, cognition, emotion and motivation, and development—are influenced by cultural meanings and practices. It also presents cutting-edge work on the psychological and evolutionary underpinnings of cultural stability and change. In all, more than 60 contributors have written over 30 chapters covering such diverse areas as food, love, religion, intelligence, language, attachment, narratives, and work.




Unnatural Emotions


Book Description

"An outstanding contribution to psychological anthropology. Its excellent ethnography and its provocative theory make it essential reading for all those concerned with the understanding of human emotions."—Karl G. Heider, American Anthropologist




The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MITECS)


Book Description

Since the 1970s the cognitive sciences have offered multidisciplinary ways of understanding the mind and cognition. The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MITECS) is a landmark, comprehensive reference work that represents the methodological and theoretical diversity of this changing field. At the core of the encyclopedia are 471 concise entries, from Acquisition and Adaptationism to Wundt and X-bar Theory. Each article, written by a leading researcher in the field, provides an accessible introduction to an important concept in the cognitive sciences, as well as references or further readings. Six extended essays, which collectively serve as a roadmap to the articles, provide overviews of each of six major areas of cognitive science: Philosophy; Psychology; Neurosciences; Computational Intelligence; Linguistics and Language; and Culture, Cognition, and Evolution. For both students and researchers, MITECS will be an indispensable guide to the current state of the cognitive sciences.




200 Years of Syntax


Book Description

This book argues convincingly against the widespread opinion that very few syntactic studies were carried out before the 1950s. Relying on the detailed analysis of a large amount of original sources, it shows that syntactic matters were in fact carefully investigated throughout both the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century. Moreover, it illustrates how the enormous development of syntactic research in the last fifty years has already condemned even several recent ideas and analyses to oblivion, and deeply influenced current research programs. The wealth of research undertaken over the last two centuries is presented here in a systematic way, taking as its starting point the relationship of syntax with psychology throughout this period. The critical ideas expressed in the text are based on a detailed illustration of the different syntactic models and analyses rather than on the polemics between the different schools.




The Routledge International Handbook of Global Therapeutic Cultures


Book Description

The Routledge International Handbook of Global Therapeutic Cultures explores central lines of enquiry and seminal scholarship on therapeutic cultures, popular psychology, and the happiness industry. Bringing together studies of therapeutic cultures from sociology, anthropology, psychology, education, politics, law, history, social work, cultural studies, development studies, and American Indian studies, it adopts a consciously global focus, combining studies of the psychologisation of social life from across the world. Thematically organised, it offers historical accounts of the growing prominence of therapeutic discourses and practices in everyday life, before moving to consider the construction of self-identity in the context of the diffusion of therapeutic discourses in connection with the global spread of capitalism. With attention to the ways in which emotional language has brought new problematisations of the dichotomy between the normal and the pathological, as well as significant transformations of key institutions, such as work, family, education, and religion, it examines emergent trends in therapeutic culture and explores the manner in which the advent of new therapeutic technologies, the political interest in happiness, and the radical privatisation and financialisation of social life converge to remake self-identities and modes of everyday experience. Finally, the volume features the work of scholars who have foregrounded the historical and contemporary implication of psychotherapeutic practices in processes of globalisation and colonial and postcolonial modes of social organisation. Presenting agenda-setting research to encourage interdisciplinary and international dialogue and foster the development of a distinctive new field of social research, The Routledge International Handbook of Global Therapeutic Cultures will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in the advance of therapeutic discourses and practices in an increasingly psychologised society.




Approaches to Language Typology


Book Description

Language typology is concerned with the construction of theoretical frameworks capable of delimiting the range of human languages and of capturing constraints on cross-linguistic variation. This text offers accounts of the theoretical foundations and findings of leading scholars in this field.