First published in 1982. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This fully updated fourth edition of Gergen's An Invitation to Social Construction introduces you to a key theoretical movement in contemporary social science through a wide range of multidisciplinary examples. The fourth edition includes: wider consideration of contemporary global challenges, increased coverage of media, digital culture, and relevant political issues, updated real-world examples of social constructionist theory in action, in research, education, therapy, organizations, and peace building. This book brings together complex theories that inform and critically build upon social constructionism, such as narratology, deconstruction, dialogism, positivism, and post-structuralism, in a way that is accessible for students and researchers alike. It is a vital resource for those studying social psychology and critical social psychology who are looking for a comprehensive guide to one of the core topics in the field. Kenneth J Gergen is Senior Research Professor in Psychology at Swarthmore College, and the President of the Taos Institute.

This book offers new insights into how English speakers talk about their own and others' emotions. Using statistical evidence and corpus-linguistic methods, but also qualitative text analyses, the author examines how expressions that describe emotions are employed in a large corpus of conversational, newspaper, fictional and academic English.

The Advances in Experimental Social Psychology series is the premier outlet for reviews of mature, high-impact research programs in social psychology. Contributions to the series provide defining pieces of established research programs, reviewing and integrating thematically related findings by individual scholars or research groups. Topics discussed in Volume 63 include Social Evaluation, Whole Traits, Paradoxical Thinking and Intractable Conflicts, Face Perception, and Social Perception.

Drawing upon qualitative material from parents and professionals, including ethnography, narrative inquiry, interviews and focus groups, this book brings together feminist and critical disability studies theories.

"Online Matchmaking "examines the joys, fears, and disappointments of hooking up with people in cyberspace. Unlike most other books that exist in this field, this collection includes studies by experts from a variety of disciplines, including Communications, Cultural studies, English, Health, Journalism, Psychology, Rhetoric, and Sociology. "Online Matchmaking" could be used as a primary or secondary resource for any subject that focuses on cyber-relationships.

When gay couples become parents, they face a host of questions and issues that their straight counterparts may never have to consider. How important is it for each partner to have a biological tie to their child? How will they become parents: will they pursue surrogacy, or will they adopt? Will both partners legally be able to adopt their child? Will they have to hide their relationship to speed up the adoption process? Will one partner be the primary breadwinner? And how will their lives change, now that the presence of a child has made their relationship visible to the rest of the world? In Gay Dads: Transitions to Adoptive Fatherhood, Abbie E. Goldberg examines the ways in which gay fathers approach and negotiate parenthood when they adopt. Drawing on empirical data from her in-depth interviews with 70 gay men, Goldberg analyzes how gay dads interact with competing ideals of fatherhood and masculinity, alternately pioneering and accommodating heteronormative "parenthood culture." The first study of gay men's transitions to fatherhood, this work will appeal to a wide range of readers, from those in the social sciences to social work to legal studies, as well as to gay-adoptive parent families themselves.

Social anthropologist Jean Lave and computer scientist Etienne Wenger’s seminal Situated Learning helped change the fields of cognitive science and pedagogy by approaching learning from a novel angle. Traditionally, theories of learning and education had focused on processes of cognition – the mental processes of knowledge formation that occur within an individual. Lave and Wenger chose to look at learning not as an individual process, but a social one.

As so often with the creative thinking process, a small, simple shift in emphasis was all that was required to show things in an entirely different light. What Situated Learning illustrated – and emphasized – was that learning is dependent on its social situation. Even though the most effective way to learn is through interaction with experts and peers in a community organized around a common interest, the traditional cognitive learning model failed to account for the way in which learners interact with their ‘community of practice.’ The new hypothesis that Lave and Wenger developed was that learning can be seen as a continuously evolving set of relationships situated within a social context. This allowed Lave and Wenger to place discussions of apprenticeship and workplace learning on a new footing – and led in turn to the book’s impressive impact in business and management scholarship.

Disaster vulnerability is rapidly increasing on a global scale, particularly for those populations which are the historical clients of the social work profession. These populations include the very young and very old, the poor, ethnic and racial minorities, and those with physical or mental disabilities. Social workers are increasingly providing services in disasters during response and recovery periods, and are using community interventions to reduce disaster vulnerability. There is a need for a cogent theory of vulnerability and research that addresses improved community disaster practice and community resilience. Community Disaster Vulnerability and Resilience provides a unifying theoretical framework backed by research which can be translated into knowledge for effective practice in disasters. "

The World Health Organization's concept of health as "the condition of psychophysical and social well-being" must be translated into opera tional terms. The objective is to place the human person within the social system, given that mental health, mental illness, and suffering are individual, despite the fact that their causes are to be sought in the society and environment that surround and interact with the indi vidual. One dimension that must be emphasized in this field is the contin uum that exists between social environment and cerebral development. This continuum consists of the physical and biological features of the two interacting systems: on one hand, the brain managed and con trolled by the genetic program, and, on the other hand, the environ ment, be it natural or social. A simple dichotomy of individual and environment is no longer a sufficient concept in understanding the etiology of mental health and illness. Needless to say, socioepidemiological research in psychiatry and transcultural psychiatry is useful in reaching these ends. However, at the root of mental illness, one can always find the same causal elements: informational chaos, inadequate dietary intake, substance abuse, trauma, conditioning, and so on, which make the interactive systems dysfunctional. Subsequent organic and psychotic disorders occur to the detriment of both the individual and society. Current biological psychiatry is inadequately equipped in treating mental illness."

Originally published in 1981, this volume presents papers by the leading British theorists and practitioners in family therapy from its beginnings up to the 1980s. It collected together for the first time a number of important previously published articles which had relevance and interest for family therapists of the day, and includes other chapters specially written for this book which reflected the most recent thinking on the topics covered at the time. The book is divided into three parts. The first, which includes papers by John Bowlby, R.D. Laing and A.C.R. Skynner, deals with the theory behind family therapy. In the second part we see the application of family therapy to specific clinical situations such as adolescent psychiatry, illness, death and mourning in the family, and marital therapy. The third part of the book covers various differential approaches within family therapy, including psychoanalysis, the experiential approach and family construct psychology. The papers in all three parts weld together ideas from the behavioural and the psychodynamic spheres of interest. Addressed as they are to theoretical issues and clinical applications, they linked together the past and future of family therapy at that time.

The family therapy movement had from its earliest days been marked by a surge of creativity and by the energy of the new ideas it generated. Originally published in 1979, the authors of the original essays collected together in this book felt that the time had come to take stock and to scrutinise more carefully the meaning and effectiveness of this new psychotherapeutic method within the particular conditions prevailing Britain at the time. The book focuses on issues relating to theory, research and practice and, while concentrating on three sub-specialities of family therapy - family group therapy, marital therapy and network therapy - the papers cover a wide variety of topics. In addition to papers by practitioners and teachers of family therapy, two contributions are included from the field of academic psychology. Before this, much of the family therapy literature had been presented in the form of an uncritical eulogy of the method. The special interest of this book lies in its attempt to bring a critical perspective to bear upon family therapy and its application. Moreover, in contrast with much that had been previously written, the authors sought to make a distinctive contribution to the development of family therapy through their effort to integrate, rather than to polarise, what is valuable within a variety of different theoretical and empirical approaches.

Much research has been directed at understanding how people share opinions, attitudes, norms and behaviour but, until recently, relatively little attention has focused on the processes by which groups change and innovate.

Written by leading social psychologists from Europe, the United States, and Australia, this text reviews the influence of minorities on attitude change, on individual and group decision making, and on organizational processes. The book also provides useful insights on how to work more effectively with groups in applied settings.

Timely and innovative, "Group Innovation "provides an important contribution to research in the developing area of consensus and innovation.

The aim of this volume is to provide an overview of research from different psychological domains with regards to intergroup helping, arguing for intergroup helping as a research area in and of itself. Historically, research on intergroup relations has largely overlooked helping between groups-which, combined with the fact that most of the research on altruism and helping has focused on individuals, meant that intergroup helping was primarily looked at as deriving from negative intergroup interactions, such as ingroup bias or discrimination. However, over the last decade, a small but growing group of researchers started to investigate intergroup helping as a positive social act occurring between and amongst groups. With contributions from these expert researchers, this volume makes the case that intergroup helping should be studied as a phenomenon in and of itself, not as a mere expression of negative intergroup behaviour. To advance this argument, the first section covers traditional research approaches in which the willingness to help other groups is construed as a form of discrimination. Then, the second section looks at the reasons why people may be motivated to help other groups. Finally, the last section explores intergroup helping in real world settings, looking at natural disaster responses and the role of morality, among other topics, demonstrating that intergroup relations can be truly positive. Thus, Intergroup Helping: The Positive Side of Intergroup Behavior informs researchers in positive and group relations psychology about the current state of affairs of research on intergroup cooperation and helping, and sets out an agenda for further exploration. Tapping into a current trend towards positive psychology, it moves away from the traditional view within intergroup relations research of the group as a 'source of trouble', and instead focuses on truly positive intergroup relations, with the ultimate goal of promoting real positive behaviour that breaches the intergroup divide.

It is now well over a hundred and fifty years since the first celebrated geographical explorations of Africa took place. However, it was many years before there began quests of a different kind - the investigation of behaviour, personality, attitude and ability among Africa's people. Originally published in 1975, this book is an account of that work: the first explorations in Africa of psychology. In an exhaustive and well-documented report the author, a psychologist who had himself done research in Nigeria, Uganda and who had lectured at Makerere University, drew together the main threads of the research carried out so far, putting the issues in an African perspective but anchoring them firmly within the framework of modern psychological thinking and technique of the time. Are there any common personality and intellectual characteristics among Africans? How does weaning affect African child development? How have Africans' feelings developed about city life and industrial work? The questions the author considers range from the broad-based to the specific. The challenges which lay ahead for African investigators then moving into the mainstream of the work are also discussed. But perhaps above all the book made a convincing case for psychology becoming a relevant and finely honed discipline in Black Africa, characterised by practical application to Black African society. Each chapter covers a defined area of modern psychology of the time and presents a comprehensive survey in a language no more technical that the subject warrants. At the time is was felt this book would be invaluable to students of Africa secondary education whose course included a psychology component and to African students beginning a degree course in psychology. It would also have provided an informative supplement to courses in medicine, development studies, political science, sociology and anthropology.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a growing interest in family therapy as a potent tool for helping to bring about change and growth in many families whose lives had become stagnant, joyless or self-destructive. As it became more popular as a method of social work intervention, demands for training opportunities for professional workers increased. Despite this, however, there was very little writing on the subject produced in Britain at the time. Originally published in 1976 this practical text was aimed at the growing number of social workers who were anxious to add family therapy to their skills, and would also have been of value to psychiatrists, general practitioners, psychologists, and all those involved in the psychotherapeutic treatment of married couples and families who came to them for help. Using case illustrations, Sue Walrond-Skinner describes the theory behind family therapy and some of the techniques of treatment which the method uses. By extensive use of verbatim transcripts of interviews, she shows the minute-by-minute flow of a family therapy session and gives a clear idea of what can be and is achieved using this method of therapeutic intervention. A major part of social work today, this book shows where it all began.

What Morality Means examines the scientific theory of morality, drawing on zoological and physiological literatures in addition to contemporary sociological research on status and exchange. The theory roots morality in the capacity for perceptual overlap, and describes how perceptual overlap has been constrained and enabled in human history.

Applying current theory and research, this book links the development of sex differences in cognition to biological foundations, multiple social processes, and contextual factors. Areas covered include evolutionary biology, neuroscience, social roles, and cultural contextualism and the issues of the onset, causes, developmental trajectories, and patterns in children's and adolescents' thinking, problem-solving, academic performance, and social conditions that are related to behaviors in each of these areas. An edited volume with chapters by leading scholars, this book is meant for use by graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of developmental cognitive and psychology, learning and socialization, biology, and education. Cognitive domains addressed include language and verbal abilities, mathematical and quantitative abilities, spatial abilities, and social cognition.

Brown and O'Rourke have compiled a collection of ten qualitative studies analyzing the narratives that surround the physical and ritualistic activities of sport. Among the topics examined to explore the storied relationship of sport and communication are baseball, the WNBA, and soccer hooliganism. Americans love sports. We play sports, watch sports, read about sports, listen to and talk about sports. Brown and O'Rourke provide an introduction to the study of the narratives that surround the physical and ritualistic activities of sport. Ten critical analyses explore a range of sports as diverse as baseball, whitewater rafting, and full-contact fighting. Among the topics examined are the differences in the broadcasts of NBA and WNBA games and the cultural roots of hooliganism in British soccer. This is the only book of its kind to offer a compilation of qualitative research in the area of sport and communication. Faculty will find this to be an invaluable resource for beginning (or continuing) their research in this area and students will understand communication concepts explained in a new way through the popular lens of sport.

Self-esteem is a concept which everybody experiences but there is conceptual confusion between self-feelings and self-conceptions. This book addresses the issue by replicating past studies with analysis of original data and proposing a three-factor theory of self-sentiments consisting of self-esteem, self-efficacy and self activation.

Cultural Psychology of Recursivity illustrates how recursivity, often neglected in the social sciences, can be an important concept for illuminating meaning-making processes. Recusrivity is a fascinating though abstract concept with a wide array of often incompatible definitions. Rooted in mathematics and linguistics, this book brings recursion and recursive processes to the foreground of psychological processes. One unifying claim among the diverse chapters in this book is that recursion and recursive processes are at the core of complex social and psychological processes. Recursion is bound up with the notion of re-turning, re-examining, reflecting and circling back, and these processes allow for human beings to simultaneously distance themselves from the here-and-now settings (by imaging the past and future) while being immersed in them. The objective of this book is not simply to celebrate the complexity of human living, but to extend the notion of recursion, recursivity and recursive processes into the realm of social and psychological processes beyond the arenas in which these ideas have currently thrived. Cultural Psychology of Recursivity shows that in spite of the difficulty in defining recursivity, self-referencing (looping), transformation (generativity), complexity, and holism constitute its core characteristics and provide the basis for which authors in this book explore and elaborate this concept. Still, each contribution has its own unique take on recursivity and how it is applied to their phenomenon of investigation. Chapters in this book examine how recursive processes are related to and basic aspects of play and ritual, imitation, identity exploration, managing stigma, and commemorative practices. This book is intended for psychologists, sociologists, and mathematicians. Use of the book in post-graduate and graduate level of university teaching is expected in seminar format teaching occasions.

First published in 1981, this title takes a 'sociobiological' approach to the exploration of sexual habits, looking at the fundamental biological nature of humans. The book covers the spectrum of human sexuality, considering love and marriage, variant sexuality and social influences. This is a valuable reissue for any student of sexual psychology or cultural and evolutionary anthropology with an interest in the fundamental influences on human sexuality.

Why is the Golden Rule so central in almost every culture and religion? What is it that drives human beings to do good to others? Are altruism, compassion, and forgiveness natural forms of human behavior, or do they have to be learned and practiced in the neural context of our primal instincts for survival and self-defense? These are some of the questions that lie behind the study of Compassionate Love amongst people of color. Davis explores the patterns and contours of "other-love," which he defines as a selfless regard for the well-being of others. He also examines the basis for distinctive modes of compassionate behavior enriched by "ebony grace"-a theological attribution for people of African descent. This text focuses especially on the historical, cultural, and religious heritage that inspires and empowers such attitudes, in spite of constant encounters with systemic negation, social alienation, and unrelenting racism. How is it that Black families in the home, school, and church still support, sustain, and succeed in the practice of unyielding love-in-compassion? That is the magic and mystery within contemporary Black cultural norms and moral values. This text is a powerful attempt to contribute to the debate on Christian altruism.

Based on a solid framework of theory and research, this book illustrates definitive ways in which we learn to recognize psychological boundaries-our unique inner territory-and to defend our rights in every relationship. In a study that interweaves poetry, drama, and psychological theory, the author describes patterns of family dynamics in the context of everyday lives and how they affect us from generation to generation until we break the destructive chain. Following the paths of ten remarkable women, from the narrative of a resourceful inner-city child to the survival of a Holocaust victim, this luminous book, filled with compelling voices, will touch the reader in unexpected ways.