This book utilizes cultural psychology as a cultural theory and psychological theory capable of explaining and improving social issues. In particular Vygotsky's cultural-historical psychology, and Ratner's macro-cultural psychology are invoked to explain racism and mitigate it. This explanation of, and solution to, racism are utilized as a framework for analyzing and refining contemporary movements for racial justice. Among the topics discussed: Macro cultural psychology and Vygotsky's Marxist cultural-historical psychology Differentiating psychological racism from economic racism Historical examples of racism during American slavery which reveal their cultural and psychological features Cultural-psychological analysis and refinement of Black Lives Matter, racial capitalism, intersectionism, and Ta-Nehishi Coates' work Cultural Psychology, Racism, and Social Justice will be of interest to the fields of social policy, social transformation, psychological theory, cultural theory, and history.

This book breathes new life into the study of liminal experiences of transition and transformation, or 'becoming'. It brings fresh insight into affect and emotion, dream and imagination, and fabulation and symbolism by tracing their relation to experiences of liminality. The author proposes a distinctive theory of the relationship between psychology and the social sciences with much to share with the arts. Its premise is that psychosocial existence is not made of 'stuff' like building blocks, but of happenings and events in which the many elements that compose our lives are temporarily drawn together. The social is not a thing but a flow of processes, and our personal subjectivity is part of that flow, 'selves' being tightly interwoven with 'others'. But there are breaks and ruptures in the flow, and during these liminal occasions our experience unravels and is rewoven. This book puts such moments at the core of the psychosocial research agenda. Of transdisciplinary scope, it will appeal beyond psychosocial studies and social psychology to all scholars interested in the interface between experience and social (dis)order.

'An important and contentious book... It could stimulate a cult!' - Anthony Cohen, Principal of Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh

Disciplinary psychology has failed to achieve a coherent conception of human agency. Instead, it oscillates between two differing conceptions of agency that are equally untenable: a scientistic, reductive approach to choice and action, and an instrumental approach that celebrates a romantic notion of free will. This book examines theoretical, philosophical psychology and argues for a historically and socioculturally situated human capacity for choosing and acting in ways not entirely determined by culture and/or biology. The authors present a detailed developmental theory of how agentic capability emerges from the pre-reflective activity of humans in a real physical and social world.

"If a child falls victim to a crime, or becomes witness to it, they may well be questioned by the police. Perhaps even tasked with selecting a suspect from a line-up. But how reliable can a child be under such strenuous circumstances? In this book, Dr. Ben Cotterill explores practices and influences that can increase or decrease the accuracy of children's testimonies. Memory mechanisms and general developmental factors behind the capability of child witnesses are outlined, demonstrating their ability to describe or identify. Factors that affect jurors' perception of said children are also looked into in detail.There have been many instances in which poor interviewing practices with children led to false imprisonments. Said occurrences demonstrate how both situational factors and individual differences can potentially compromise children's eyewitness performance. Based upon what we now understand, can recommendations be made, so that, in a court of law, innocence is the key to achieving justice?

This book analyzes non-democratic legitimacy during the Arab Spring. During this historic event, monarchs and presidents were forced to defend their rule, whether through Islam, the cultural image of paternalism or the cash flow of welfare. Can Arab leaders still justify apolitical reigns? Are monarchies more respected than republicans or are they too under threat? The author traces the history of apolitical rule in the Arab world, from Islamic roots to the role of Arab leaders in merging religion with socio-economic benefits and cosmetic liberalization. Finally, analysis of speeches given by leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain in response to the Arab Spring are considered. When protesters took to the streets with their slogans, the regimes talked back. This work discusses the weight of their words and why some leaders survived unrest while others were overthrown.

The quest to comprehend the essence of human nature is as old as the capacity for reflective thought. In this provocative book, Dr. Michael Robbins proposes a new approach that draws upon psychoanalysis but is shaped by awareness of the limits that the particular circumstances of historical epoch, Western culture, male gender, and modal population from which psychoanalysis was derived imposed on its modernist claims to being a universal theory. Dr. Robbins addresses these limitations from the perspective of philosophy of science, focusing on the paradigm shift from logical positivism to the postmodern emphasis on pluralism and on relativistic, contextual, evanescent knowledge. He examines the implications of this shift for neuroscience, psychoanalysis, gender studies, anthropology, and sociology. After considering whether typical personality has changed over time, he studies the cross-cultural diversity of human nature, the relationship of gender to personality, the spectrum of personality variability within Western culture, and the relationship of the contextual embeddedness of the conceiver to his or her theory. He then proposes a dialectical conception of personality based on systems and chaos theories that respects its multiple guises and circumstantial richness of content without abandoning the quest for universal principles.

This book focuses on the study-abroad experiences of pre-service and in-service language teachers and language teacher educators. The diverse contributions to this volume provide readers with a deep understanding of what this mobility means for individuals and the language teaching and learning communities they encounter and return to post-sojourn. Considering the broad variability of study-abroad programs and arrangements, as well as the multidimensional, complex nature of study-abroad social, geographical and digital environments, the chapters discuss the teachers' psychological experiences in cognitive, affective and social terms. Readers will discover the effect of mobility on identity, beliefs, practices, self-efficacy, agency, self-confidence, independence and personal growth, as well as how transitions across borders can result in feelings of self-doubt, anxiety and insecurity. This is essential reading for language teacher educators, mentors and supervisors, managers of study-abroad programs and researchers working in the fields of study abroad, international education and language teacher education.

This work combines interdisciplinary knowledge and experience from research fields of psychology, linguistics, audio-processing, machine learning, and computer science. The work systematically explores a novel research topic devoted to automated modeling of personality expression from speech. For this aim, it introduces a novel personality assessment questionnaire and presents the results of extensive labeling sessions to annotate the speech data with personality assessments. It provides estimates of the Big 5 personality traits, i.e. openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Based on a database built on the questionnaire, the book presents models to tell apart different personality types or classes from speech automatically.

David W. Krueger illustrates a novel synthesis of fundamental psychodynamic principles with evolving advances in developmental, self, neuropsychological, and attachment theories. Focusing on action symptoms, self object experiences, gender issues, embodiment, somatic symptoms, affect regulation, and ego states, the theoretical innovations are illustrated by vivid case material. Krueger introduces treatment inroads enabling clinicians to hear and articulate arcane messages spoken in metaphor, actualised in symptoms, and encrypted in the body. A fresh conceptualisation from an original thinker, Integrating Body Self and Psychological Self broadens our understanding of the mind and body interplay in the clinical exchange.

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The Many Faces of Polyamory: Longing and Belonging in Concurrent Relationships provides new perspectives on polyamory and the longing to belong in the relatively uncharted territory of nonnormative relationships. This volume offers a valuable and compelling account on how to approach polyamorous relationships from the clinical perspective. While there is no uniform answer, Dr. Fosse's compassionate and discerning approach that combines relative neutrality, an open-minded embrace of nontraditional lifestyle choices, and skilful attention to countertransference dynamics is likely to be inspiring. Dr. Fosse exposes the dynamics of love, sex, jealousy, and compersion as they play out in lives of those interested in polyamory, and more broadly, consensual nonmonogamy. Her focus is on relationships worth having. With its nuanced clinical focus, The Many Faces of Polyamory will be an essential resource for psychotherapists, educators, students, and anyone inside and outside of the mental health field drawn to the intricacies of sexuality, intimacy, and how they are intertwined with relational satisfaction

Anti-capitalist political struggle is a site of struggling psychologies. Conscious political action is never far from unconscious desire, and the fight for material justice is always also the fight for dignity and psychological well-being. Yet, how might community psychologists conceive of their discipline in a way that opposes the very capitalist political economy that, historically, most of the psy-disciplines have bolstered in return for disciplinary legitimacy? In its consideration of an anti-capitalist psychology of community, this book does not ignore or try to resolve the contradictory position of such a psychology. Instead, it draws on these contradictions to enliven psychology to the shifting demands - both creative and destructive - of a community-centred anti-capitalism. Using practical examples, the book deals with the psychological components of building community-centred social movements that challenge neoliberal capitalism as a political system, an ideology, and a mode of governing rationality. The book also offers several theoretical contributions that grapple with how an anti-capitalist psychology of community can remain attentive to the psychological elements of anti-capitalist struggle; what the psychological can tell us about anti-capitalist politics; and how these politics can shape the psychological.

This volume explores contemporary issues of ethnic, cultural, and national identities and their influence on the social construction of identity. These issues are analyzed from the perspective of seven nations: China, Israel, Japan, South Africa, Ukraine, Wales, and the United States. While different, these perspectives are not mutually exclusive lenses through which to review the discourse between ethnic and educational dynamics. The chapters in this book illustrate how these seven perspectives differ, as well as overlap.
*Part I explores ethnicity and race as important variables in explaining minority students' academic performance and schooling in the United States and China.
*Part II focuses on ethnic and racial identity issues in Israel, Japan, and South Africa.
*Part III addresses ethnic and racial identity as it affects racial integration at different levels of education in post-apartheid South Africa, and the effects on schooling of a rapidly changing ethnic map in the United States.
*Part IV focuses on issues of language and national identity in three countries: Ukraine and Wales, where a national language is central to nation-building, and China, where 61 languages are in use and bilingual education is essential in enhancing national literacy and communication.
The questions this book addresses are highly significant in today's global economy and culture. Scholars and professionals in the fields of comparative, international, and multicultural education and educational policy will find the volume particularly pertinent.

The contributors to this volume provide commentaries on Freud s work, explicating the multiple ways in which Freud s insights continue to illuminate the irrational dynamics to which all groups including psychoanalytic institutions, are prey. Serving as both an introduction to, and elegant expansion of, Freud s text, this volume demonstrates the role of psychoanalytic hypotheses in obtaining deeper insight into the tectonic shifts in group psychology underlying today s mass society."

This book defines engagement for the field of language learning and contextualizes it within existing work on the psychology of language learning and teaching. Chapters address broad substantive questions concerned with what engagement is or looks like, and how it can be theorized for the language classroom; methodological questions related to the design, measurement and analysis of engagement in language classrooms and beyond; as well as applied issues examining its antecedents, factors inhibiting and enhancing it, and conditions fostering the re-engagement of language learners who have become disengaged. Through a mix of conceptual and empirical chapters, the book explores similarities and differences between motivation and engagement and addresses questions of whether, how and why learners actually do exert effort, allocate attention, participate and become involved in tangible language learning and use. It will serve as an authoritative benchmark for future theoretical and empirical research into engagement within the classroom and beyond, and will be of interest to anyone wishing to understand the unique insights and contributions the topic of engagement can make to language learning and teaching.

Panic buying is a common response during crises; however, to date it has been a significantly under-researched area. Recent evidence suggests that an environmental stimulus, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, war, earthquakes, flooding, public health emergencies (SARS, MARS) can trigger this phenomenon. As an environmental crisis takes its toll, the understanding of panic buying becomes overlooked. Nevertheless, panic buying causes series of events separate from these primary events. Understanding the management of emergencies and disasters should be an integral part of dealing with panic buying since every major environmental crisis has the potential to initiate panic buying behaviour in the general public. This book will analyse episodes of panic buying and major environmental crisis focusing on specific prevention strategies. This book is the first of its kind of approach to join up the management of panic buying during a public health emergency.

This book is a survey of personal illness as described in various forms of early modern manuscript life-writing. How did people in the seventeenth century rationalise and record illness? Observing that medical explanations for illness were fewer than may be imagined, the author explores the social and religious frameworks by which illness was more commonly recorded and understood. The story that emerges is of illness written into personal manuscripts in prescriptive rather than original terms. This study uncovers the ways in which illness, so described, contributed to the self-patterning these texts were set up to perform.

Anxiety is perhaps the defining psychological malady of our age, whereas creativity is seen as an almost unassailable good, its importance heralded and promoted in a range of disciplines and domains. A number of diverse thinkers and researchers have tried to unpick the relationship between anxiety and creativity, and this short book explores and connects some of their ideas and findings. Drawing on psychoanalysis and neuroscience, existential psychology and mindfulness, literary studies and philosophy, this book places a range of different disciplines in dialogue. It explores how creativity and anxiety might impact one another, and argues for the importance of establishing a diverse and inclusive cultural space which everyone can draw from and contribute to.

What is "too fat?" "Too thin"? Interpretations of body weight vary widely across and within cultures. Meeting weight expectations is a major concern for many people because failing to do so may incur dire social consequences, such as difficulty in finding a romantic partner or even in locating adequate employment. Without these social and cultural pressures, body weight would be only a health issue. While socially constructed standards of body weight may seem immutable, they are continuously re-created through social interactions that perpetuate or transform expectations about fatness and thinness. Understanding social constructions of body weight requires insight regarding how people develop and use constructions in their daily lives. While structural conditions and cultural environments make important contributions to weight constructions, the chapters in this book focus on the "social processes" in which people engage while they interpret, negotiate, resist, and transform cultural definitions and expectations. As such, most of the chapters in this volume borrow from and contribute to a symbolic interactionist perspective. Written by sociologists, psychologists, and nutritionists, all of the chapters in "Interpreting Weight" focus on how people construct fatness and thinness. The contributors examine different strategies used to interpret body weight, such as negotiating weight identities, reinterpreting weight, and becoming involved in weight-related organizations. Together, these chapters emphasize the many ways that people actively define, construct, and enact their fatness and thinness in a variety of settings and situations.

Many people consider their weight to be a personal problem; when, then, does body weight become a social problem? Until recently, the major public concern was whether enough food was consistently available. As food systems began to provide ample and stable amounts of food, questions about food availability were replaced with concerns about "ideal" weights and appearance. These interests were aggregated into public concerns about defining people as "too fat" and "too thin." Social constructionist perspectives can contribute to the understanding of weight problems because they focus attention on how these problems are created, maintained, and promoted within various social environments. While there is much objectivist research concerning weight problems, few studies address the socially constructed aspects of fatness and thinness. This book however draws from and contributes to social constructionist perspectives. The chapters in this volume offer several perspectives that can be used to understand the way society deals with fatness and thinness. The contributors consider historical foundations, medical models, gendered dimensions, institutional components, and collective perspectives. These different perspectives illustrate the multifaceted nature of obesity and eating disorders, providing examples of how a variety of social groups construct weight as a social problem.