Experimental Psychology and Human Agency


Book Description

This book offers an analysis of experimental psychology that is embedded in a general understanding of human behavior. It provides methodological self-awareness for researchers who study and use the experimental method in psychology. The book critically reviews key research areas (e.g., rule-breaking, sense of agency, free choice, task switching, task sharing, and mind wandering), examining their scope, limits, ambiguities, and implicit theoretical commitments. Topics featured in this text include: Methods of critique in experimental research Goal hierarchies and organization of a task Rule-following and rule-breaking behavior Sense of agency Free-choice tasks Mind wandering Experimental Psychology and Human Agency will be of interest to researchers and undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of experimental psychology, cognitive psychology, theoretical psychology, and critical psychology, as well as various philosophical disciplines.




The Sense of Agency


Book Description

Agency has two meanings in psychology and neuroscience. It can refer to one's capacity to affect the world and act in line with one's goals and desires--this is the objective aspect of agency. But agency can also refer to the subjective experience of controlling one's actions, or how it feels to achieve one's goals or affect the world. This subjective aspect is known as the sense of agency, and it is an important part of what makes us human. Interest in the sense of agency has exploded since the early 2000s, largely because scientists have learned that it can be studied objectively through analyses of human judgment, behavior, and the brain. This book brings together some of the world's leading researchers to give structure to this nascent but rapidly growing field. The contributors address questions such as: What role does agency play in the sense of self? Is agency based on predicting outcomes of actions? And what are the links between agency and motivation? Recent work on the sense of agency has been markedly interdisciplinary. The chapters collected here combine ideas and methods from fields as diverse as engineering, psychology, neurology, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind, making the book a valuable resource for any student or researcher interested in action, volition, and exploring how mind and brain are organized.




Moral Psychology and Human Agency


Book Description

This volume examines the implications of developments in the science of ethics for philosophical theorizing about moral psychology and human agency. These ten new essays in empirically informed philosophy illuminate such topics as responsibility, the self, and the role in morality of mental states such as desire, emotion, and moral judgement.




Human Agency and Neural Causes


Book Description

Human Agency and Neural Causes provides an analysis of our everyday thought about our conduct, and the neuroscience research concerning voluntary agency. J.D. Runyan argues that our findings through neuroscience are consistent with what would be expected if we are, in fact, voluntary agents.




Future-Minded


Book Description

What drives us to make decisions? Future-Minded explores the psychological processes of agency and control. If you've ever wondered why we think of coincidences as matters of fate rather than the result of the laws of probability, this book provides the answer. From memory and reasoning to our experiences of causality and consciousness, it unpicks the mechanisms we use on a daily basis to help us predict, plan for and attempt to control the future. Future-Minded - Features a wealth of real world examples to help you engage with this fast-developing area. - Provides clear analysis of psychological experiments and their findings to explain the evidence behind the theory. Thought-provoking and highly topical, Future-Minded is fascinating reading for psychology students studying cognition or consciousness, and for anyone interested in understanding how we try to determine the future.




Exploring New Horizons in Career Counselling


Book Description

"This book brings together eminent global theorists and practitioners to share their views on the evolution of career counselling in recent decades. Multiple changes of a fundamental and complex nature, as well as related challenges in the world of work, have necessitated career counselling to undergo such an evolution. The authors examine the future nature and scope of new directions in the field of career counselling psychology and they critically reflect on, as well as promote the predominant theoretical and conceptual framework of the field of career counselling. The latest models and methods in and for the 21st century are explored and teased out, including Mark Savickas’ proposal to shift the focus in interventions from conceptualising the self as content to seeing the self as a process. This approach is in keeping with the notion of career as a story and consistent with leading theories such as Jean Guichard’s self-construction framework and the life design paradigm. The authors deliver an avant garde text that is easy to read and use without diluting the conceptual and terminological complexities of the field. The book is an invaluable resource for new, emerging and experienced researchers, academics, scholars, researchers, psychologists, social workers, teachers and clients: • It merges what is known about the field with emerging approaches.• It gives an overview of theoretical paradigms that can be applied to a changing world of work.• It makes a critical analysis of germane questions such as “What does the future hold for the field of career counselling and how can challenges be turned into opportunities?” and “How can different paradigms, approaches and strategies be harnessed to promote clients’ career-life wellbeing and resilience?”.• It facilitates an understanding of the skills necessary to deal with career-related transitions, challenges and barriers to help people acquire transferable career-life skills and career(-choice) readiness. • It examines the importance of career adaptability and how people can develop this vital 21st century (survival) competency.• It challenges career counsellors to grasp and acquire skills to promote and advocate social justice agendas.• It promotes and demonstrates the exciting and promising notion of dialogue writing to enhance the dialogical work of the career counsellor and client.Individually and collectively, the authors team up to blend retrospect and prospect, and they make a concerted effort to convert 21st century challenges and frontiers in career counselling into opportunities, hurt into hope, hopelessness into inspiration."







Experimental Psychology


Book Description

This work brings together different perspectives on psychological methods and particularly methods involving experimentation. To encourage a reflective use of research methods, the authors illuminate the historical, philosophical, and scientific dimensions of methodology, providing both defenses and criticisms of experimental psychology. The primary audience of the work are students and researchers in psychological and behavioral sciences, who have an interest in methodology




Experimental Psychology


Book Description

Citing over 100 cases drawn from professional literature and representing every major area of psychology, this book aims to teach students the basic princples of experimental design in psychology. It contains an expanded chapter on research processes to incorporate topics, such as electronic databases and the Internet for literature reviews, planning and reviewing research, funding your research, writing an abstract, presenting your research at conferences, writing a professional paper and publishing your manuscript. Also included are sections on theory and principles of experimenal design.




Three Philosophical Dialogues


Book Description

In these three dialogues, renowned for their dialectical structure and linguistic precision, Anselm sets out his classic account of the relationship between freedom and sin--its linchpin his definition of freedom of choice as the power to preserve rectitude of will for its own sake. In doing so, Anselm explores the fascinating implications for God, human beings, and angels (good and bad) of his conclusion that freedom of choice neither is nor entails the power to sin. In addition to an Introduction, notes, and a glossary, Thomas Williams brings to the translation of these important dialogues the same precision and clarity that distinguish his previous translation of Anselm's Proslogion and Monologion, which Professor Paul Spade of Indiana University called "scrupulously faithful and accurate without being slavishly literal, yet lively and graceful to both the eye and ear.