critical psychology Culture Descriptive Psychology Discourse General Psychology

Conversations & Positions

We shouldn’t think about conversations only as exchanges of information. Nor should we think about our positions in conversations only as givers and receivers of information. Too much emphasis on information overshadows the fact that our position in conversations are also tied with power, rights, and duties. For example, in a father-son conversation, we could recognize the father’s duty to tell the truth, just as we could recognize the son’s trust as part of his…

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critical psychology history of psychology philosophical psychology philosophy of science Theoretical Psychology

Jeff Sugarman on Psychologism

In his Chapter, An Historical Turn in Theoretical & Philosophical Psychology, Jeff Sugarman (2019) begins by distinguishing three different approach to historiography (borrowing from Nikolas Rose). Among the three approaches, he introduces and adopts ‘critical history’. One of the aims of critical history is to explicate styles of reasoning that are operating in the background of scientific activities. Styles of reasoning (Alistair C. Crombie; Ian Hacking) provide conditions of possibility for research questions, methods, and…

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Academia

Beginning 2020

Let us begin 2020 with attention to a tweet chain by angrybiomed. The tweets pick up an important theme, to which many of us pay lip service. The chain begins by saying that a decent paper has been viewed only twice: Then we get into some diagnostic work. Clarifying the problem further, I believe, clears the way for better forms of scholarly life. And, yes, at least in this case I do prefer using the…

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cognitive psychology Teaching

Cognitive Psychology, Final Lecture (Fall 2019)

Out of the 90 students, these 17 students came to the last lecture (which was an optional make-up session). I admire their choice to attend the lecture despite the absence of any extrinsic incentive, and feel happy to know that at least ~17 students enjoyed my lectures enough to come to this last session. What was unique about the course this semester: I look forward to seeing you in my other courses. Good luck!

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