The Constructive Mind is an integrative study of the psychologist Frederic Bartlett's (1886–1969) life, work and legacy. Bartlett is most famous for the idea that remembering is constructive and for the concept of schema; for him, 'constructive' meant that human beings are future-oriented and flexibly adaptive to new circumstances. This book shows how his notion of construction is also central to understanding social psychology and cultural dynamics, as well as other psychological processes such as perceiving, imagining and thinking. Wagoner contextualises the development of Bartlett's key ideas in relation to his predecessors and contemporaries. Furthermore, he applies Bartlett's constructive analysis of cultural transmission in order to chart how his ideas were appropriated and transformed by others that followed. As such this book can also be read as a case study in the continuous reconstruction of ideas in science.

The Constructive Mind: Bartlett's Psychology in Reconstruction

I present the exploration of two young Georgian females’ identity construction in turbulent times full of radical social, cultural, economic, and political changes. Episodic interviews were held with them, and the relevant secondary data analysis was conducted for the better understanding of research context. Study is based on the idea that the self is a dialogical and developmental phenomenon. Development is perceived as an irreversible process, which is rooted in the past and oriented on the future. Respondents’ selves develop in-between distinctive social representing processes of Georgianness, which is associated with conservatism, religiosity, and suppression of female sexuality and Westernness, which is related to the sexual freedom, secularism, and individualism. The latter opposition influences decisions on everyday life choices, like how often respondents are obliged to talk with friends and when and with whom are they allowed to have sex. Adaptation to diverse ideas develops through the process of proculturation. Meaning-making processes, which are related to the process of dealing with various contradicting ideas and social representations will be discussed and illustrated. Additionally, wider historical context of the respondents’ self’s development will be considered. Proculturation is contemplated as a self-centered subjective process of adaptive semiotic mediation of familiar and alien ideas. The latter process is visibly revealed during the subjective construction of the particular version of female respondents’ emancipation who reconcile and blend imaginary conservative representation of Georgianness and liberal values to each other. The exploration of respondents’ adaptive experiences reveals the power of human imagination and creativity. I argue that proculturation implies the curvilinearization of human development.

Making Identity, Proculturation In-between Georgianness and Westernness

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships among social entrepreneurship, social business (SB) and multiple functions of urban agriculture in Japan, by introducing the methodologies of SEM (structural equation modeling) and TEM (trajectory equifinality model). Following conclusions are obtained based on the analytical results. First, people who are thinking creatively (TC) with a high level of social capital pay attention to social business and prefer multiple functions of urban agriculture not only in megacities but also in designated cities. These people are assumed to have a high level of social entrepreneurship as well. Second, social business develops through the virtuous cycle of social institutions, social entrepreneurship and social business. Among the social institutions, social capitals are important both in the beginning of SB establishment and in the processes of business development. Policy implication drawn from the research suggests that the government should provide opportunities to create a virtuous cycle between social institutions, social entrepreneurship and social business, especially to improve the accumulation of social capital, in order to attract the TCs who have a high level of social entrepreneurship and solve the problems through social business such as agriculture-related businesses.

Social entrepreneurship and social business associated with multiple functions of urban agriculture in Japan

This Special Issue sets the stage for constructive integration of psychology with relevant phenomena it needs to study, and with its interdisciplinary collaboration possibilities. Based on a regular submission of an analysis of the conceptual network of psychology (Zagaria et al. 2020) an international constructive discussion ensued, with charting out three potential future pathways to psychology as science: (1) theoretical elaboration of the person-centered and idiographic approaches and move from “evidence-based” to experience-based research; (2) advancement of general developmental science perspective beyond the traditions of evolutionary psychology along the lines of the genetic logic of James Mark Baldwin, and (3) building interdisciplinary synthesis between psychology and semiotics in the domain of cultural psychology. The progress in contemporary biology (epigenetics) and qualitative mathematics can provide the epistemological support for this move.

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From Clay Feet to New Psychology: Starting the Move.

Zagaria et al. identified fundamental issues and inconsistencies in the understanding of the fundamentals of psychological science. This paper attempts to trace the roots of the inconsistency and incompleteness of definitions of basic psychological concepts in the historical development of psychological science that led to the fragmentation of psychology into the various reductionistic and monological “schools of thoughts”. A systematic approach is proposed as a way for a reconsideration of the understanding of mental processes in a holistic way that could serve as the starting point for the proper theoretical reflection of the catalytic interplay between subjective (intentionality), situational and cultural factors. It is argued that the anthropologisation of psychology and bringing back the focus on phenomenological aspects of experiencing which are characterised by intra-individual, cross-situational and inter-cultural variety is especially significant for the rebuilding of the integrity of psychology. The principle of “organic selection” is proposed as the basis for individual subjectivity and innovations throughout the irreversible ontogenetic developmental dynamics that allows individuals to jump beyond the phylogenetically prescribed schemata.

"Systematic Semiotic Organisation and Anthropologisation of the Science of Soul - Towards Cultural Psychology".

Making of the Future is the first English?language coverage of the new methodological perspective in cultural psychology-TEA (Trajectory Equifinality Approach) that was established in 2004 as a collaboration of Japanese and American cultural psychologists. In the decade that follows it has become a guiding approach for cultural psychology all over the World. Its central feature is the reliance on irreversible time as the basis for understanding of cultural phenomena and the consideration of real and imaginary options in human life course as relevant for the construction of personal futures. The book is expected to be of interest in researchers and practitioners in education, developmental and social psychology, developmental sociology and history. It has extensions for research methodology in the focus on different sampling strategies.

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Papers

Making of the future : the trajectory equifinality approach in cultural psychology

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Papers

Making of the future : the trajectory equifinality approach in cultural psychology

直久森