scholarly journals Psychology in an Indeterminate World

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162095800
Author(s):  
Ludger van Dijk

By sharing their world, humans and other animals sustain each other. Their world gets determined over time as generations of animals act in it. Current approaches to psychological science, by contrast, start from the assumption that the world is already determined before an animal’s activity. These approaches seem more concerned with uncertainty about the world than with the practical indeterminacies of the world humans and nonhuman animals experience. As human activity is making life increasingly hard for other animals, this preoccupation becomes difficult to accept. This article introduces an ecological approach to psychology to develop a view that centralizes the indeterminacies of a shared world. Specifically, it develops an open-ended notion of “affordances,” the possibilities for action offered by the environment. Affordances are processes in which (a) the material world invites individual animals to participate, while (b) participation concurrently continues the material world in a particular way. From this point of view, species codetermine the world together. Several empirical and methodological implications of this view on affordances are explored. The article ends with an explanation of how an ecological perspective brings responsibility for the shared world to the heart of psychological science.

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Rob Kitchin

This chapter examines the nature of data from an etymological, philosophical, and technical point of view. Data is derived from the Latin dare, meaning 'to give'. In general use, however, data refers to those elements that are taken. Technically, what is understood to be data are actually capta (derived from the Latin capere, meaning 'to take'); those units of data that have been selected and harvested from the sum of all potential data. It is no coincidence that the use of the word 'data' emerged during the Renaissance. At this time, there was a flourishing of scientific innovation with respect to philosophy, equipment, and analysis that led to new discoveries and theories across the academy and new inventions in business, and transformed the world. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the use of the term 'data' extended from mathematics and natural philosophy to economics and administration. In the 20th century, data came to mean any information stored and used in the context of computing, and its uses multiplied beyond science and administration. The chapter then looks at four dominant scientific paradigms centred on epistemological approaches: experimental science, theoretical science, computational science, and exploratory science. What this discussion reveals is that not only is data manufactured, but the approach to and process of manufacturing has changed over time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana María Aguilar López ◽  
Marta Miguel Borge

Our model of the world that we perceive within ourselves, our conscience, in short, our psychological balance is influenced by our surroundings. Part of the input to which we are exposed in this immediate environment is related to texts, self-managed discourse, which can also influence our internal model of the world; hence they are deserving of our attention. In the same way as the models of the world that we construct throughout our lives, reality is not static and also changes as time goes by. From a social point of view, we can see that the roles of women in modern-day society and the ways that those roles can be perceived today are a consequence of changes initiated in the past within different areas and in a prolonged process over time up until our day. With the aim of evaluating whether female drama has contributed to that change, we present an analysis in this paper of the play La Cinta Dorada [The Golden Ribbon] by María Manuela Reina, written and set in the 1980s, a decade that for Spain implied a more obvious abandonment of the most traditional conceptions of the role of women. In the analysis of the play, we see how the models of the world of the older people are counterposed with those of the younger people, a generational divide that is enriched with the gender difference, as we also analyze how the psychological structures of the female and male characters confront the clichés pertaining to another era in reference to such topics as success, infidelity, matrimony, and gender. The results of our analysis demonstrate how Reina responds to archaic conceptions, thereby inciting the audiences of the day to question their respective models of the world, especially, with regard to the role of the woman in society. 


Author(s):  
Mikael Aktor

This article is a reflection on the specific character of religious assertations and religious arguments. The basic point of view is that these religious practices should not be investigated as isolated religious phenomena sui generis, but on the contrary, that they are conditioned by and derived from common linguistic and epistemological practices that relate to the concrete material world. Religious assertations join together finction and description of the world, whereas religious arguments refer todata which are either quasi-empiric (a holy scripture  for instance) or quasi-public (a mystical experience for instance). in four text examples these derivations are investigated in the light of a two-component definition of religion, which stresses the concept of an essential difference as well as the concept of a possibility of a passage to an fro between essentially differenct categories.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halide Gamze Ince Yakar

Ecological problems are some of the most important items on the agenda of humanity in the 21st century. Adding spiritual depth, ethical point of view and basic human traditions to the contribution that human beings provide to ecological problems through intellect will provide realistic and lasting results. In the Palaeolithic Age, where man is under the domination of nature, he owes gratitude to the divine power of nature and worships its elements. With the beginning of industrialization, myths were only old-time stories for humanity. Due to the holism rule of ecology the salvation of nature may be possible by all the living things in the ecosystem behaving in the same way and with the same interaction. Today, there is a need for nature education in which we can teach all mankind that protecting a tree is no different from protecting a forest. Myths in the world we live today remind us of the spiritual, inner richness that nature provides to man; is an effective educational material in the sense that their ancestors can repeat their life integrated with nature. Mythology should be included in nature education. For a qualified nature education, we need the magical atmosphere that mythological stories will create. In addition to this, Duha Kocaoglu Deli Dumrul Epic will examine the historical ecological perspective of the Turkish community and the messages they give to solve their present ecological problems.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Samkin ◽  
Annika Schneider ◽  
Dannielle Tappin

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the development of a biodiversity reporting and evaluation framework. The application of the framework to an exemplar organisation identifies biodiversity-related annual report disclosures and analyses changes in the nature and levels of these over time. Finally, the paper aims to establish whether the disclosures made by the exemplar are consistent with a deep ecological perspective, as exemplified by New Zealand conservation legislation. Design/methodology/approach – Viewing the framework developed by the paper through a deep ecological lens, the study involves a detailed content analysis of the biodiversity disclosures contained within the annual reports of a conservation organisation over a 23-year period. Using the framework developed in this paper, the biodiversity-related text units were identified and allocated to one of three major categories, 13 subcategories, and then into deep, intermediate and shallow ecology. Findings – Biodiversity disclosures enable stakeholders to determine the goals, assess their implementation, and evaluate the performance of an organisation. Applying the framework to the exemplar revealed the majority of annual report disclosures focused on presenting performance/implementation information. The study also found that the majority of disclosures reflect a deep ecological approach. A deep/shallow ecological tension was apparent in a number of disclosures, especially those relating to the exploitation of the conservation estate. Originality/value – This paper is the first to develop a framework that can be used as both a biodiversity reporting assessment tool and a reporting guide. The framework will be particularly useful for those studying reporting by conservation departments and stakeholders of organisations whose operations impact biodiversity.


1993 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 53-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Dyer ◽  
Pam Gunnell

Among the most significant, controversial and difficult concepts for environmental educators and students alike to come to terms with are those of the anthropocentric (or totally human centred) view of the environment compared with the biocentric (or totally non-human centred) attitude to the environment. The concepts are significant because they represent profoundly different philosophical positions and also because they may have far reaching implications and, therefore, consequences in practice. Eckersley (1992, p.26) says:… the most fundamental division from an ecophilosophical point of view is between those who adopt an anthropocentric ecological perspective and those who adopt a nonanthropocentric ecological (or ecocentric) perspective.They are controversial because both views have been said, by different authors, to be either totally disastrous or absolutely redeeming for the planet. For instance, in his recent authoritative and well received book Towards A Transpersonal Ecology, philosopher Warwick Fox writes (1990, p. 13)… anthropocentrism represents not only a deluded but a dangerous orientation toward the world.and adds (1990, pp. 18-19) that it is… empirically bankrupt and theoretically disastrous, practically disastrous, logically inconsistent, morally objectionable and incongruent with a genuinely open approach to experience.Yet Jeff Bennett, expressing the anthropocentric view in a volume entitled Reconciling Economics and the Environment, says that… a complete property rights system over ecosystems, and even individual species making up an ecosystem, can ensure their conservation.(Bennett & Block 1991, p.272)


Author(s):  
L. Lyuta

The article analyses the essence of the concept of "interest". It is analysed the way new social shifts and changes provoke new organizational forms. It is illustrated that merging into new organizational forms is happening on a new basis. Most often, interest appears in scientific research as emotion, intention, concernment, desire, and activity stimulus. In Soviet psychological science, the concept of interest was identified with the concept of cognitive need. Such needs are distinguished as saturated and unsaturated. This characteristic most clearly illustrates the difference between need and interest. Interest has an unsaturated basis; it is not aimed at producing a specific result. Interest can remain the same during the life, or the realization of one interest turns to the realization of the next one. Interests can transform over time, but it is not a transformation of interest itself – it is the transformation of the Self-Concept of the individual. It is presented that interest is always conscious and rational in its essence. The emergence of interest is irrational, it always appears spontaneously. It has been researched that interest is always the result of activity. Interest opens the field of possibilities in the implementation of ideas. Social changesare different in nature. If they bring a new idea, then such an idea corresponds tothe interests, not to the needs. If social changesare dictated by unmet basic needs, then we have a social uprising (revolution).There is no social activity without interest. The space where interests prevail is the space of social change. Supporting "otherness" in social terms gives impetus to development and social shifts. The emergence of scientific and creative communities illustrates how the transition from need to interest changes the world around us.


2011 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Caputo

In his commendatory poem from the First Folio, Ben Jonson asserted that Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time.” This has proved true, and Shakespeare has been able to speak to many succeeding generations of readers and theatregoers. This, however, is not because essential, unchangeable, and universal truths about human nature, the world, and experience lay hidden in his plays or his characters but (quite the opposite) because succeeding generations, over the centuries, have been able to appropriate, exploit, and reuse Shakespeare to make sense of their world and their lives. Shakespeare is for all time precisely because he has relentlessly changed over time. The author and his texts have been unceasingly reinvented, and a virtually infinite number of “alternative Shakespeares” has come to embody specific contemporary issues and conflicts. As Jean Marsden put it in 1991, Shakespeare is the object of “an ongoing process of literary and cultural appropriation in which each new generation attempts to redefine Shakespeare's genius in contemporary terms, projecting its desires and anxieties onto his work.” This is true for both the “dramatic” Shakespeare and the “theatrical” Shakespeare: Shakespeare's plays have been as tirelessly reinterpreted on the page by scholars (and others) as they have been reinvented on the stage by actors and directors. The fate of King Richard III, however, is peculiar from this point of view, insofar as an often-denigrated Restoration revision of Shakespeare's play totally replaced the “original” one in the theatre and held the stage for nearly 200 years. This peculiarity acquires interesting overtones when we look at the treatment the staged play received at the hands of the Romantics, who, in spite of the bardolatry prevailing at the time and their often-vented disesteem for the adapted version, apparently missed their opportunity to make Shakespeare's original play speak for their own time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (Extra-B) ◽  
pp. 422-427
Author(s):  
Nurmagomed Omarovich Ismailov

The article examines the social role of Islam as one of the world religions in the context of the concept of justice. The length of the article does not allow a detailed study of all the possible functions of Islam; it is limited to the study of some particular aspects of the functions performed by Islam. The article is aimed at analyzing the social role of Islam in the context of justice. The investigation of the functions performed by Islam in relation to public life and human activity requires its understanding from the point of view of justice. In this case, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between the functions of Islam as a specific religion and the functions of organizations representing Islam. Islam is capable of both strengthening relations in a particular society, helping a person overcome life difficulties, and distracting a person from his pressing problems, directing his energy into an illusory channel.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Heft ◽  
Kelsey Schwimmer ◽  
Trenton Edmunds

Route-learning, considered from an ecological approach to perception, is posited to involve the detection of information over time that specifies a path from one location to another. The study examines whether the use of a visual navigational system (e.g., GPS) may impede route-learning by drawing attention away from transitions along a path that serve as information for way-finding. Virtual reality (VR) technology used in conjunction with an extensive, detailed environmental simulation was employed to explore this possibility. One group of participants drove a simulated car in VR along a designated path while relying on visual GPS guidance. It was expected that use of the GPS display would draw attention away from temporally continuous path information. A second group initially drove the same route without GPS guidance. Both groups drove the path a second time without navigational assistance. Overall, the percentage of correct actions taken at intersections (transitions) during the second trial were significantly lower for the first group who initially drove the route with visual GPS guidance as compared to those who initially traveled the route without it. The results are consistent with the kind of trade-off that is commonplace when tools are used to mediate and assist skilled action.


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