Psychology and the Question of Agency

Contents

Contents Preface ix ONE PSYCHOLOGY AND THE QUESTION OF AGENCY 1 Some Relevant Background for` What Follows 3 Psychology’s Disavowal of Agency 8 The Basic Error 10 Method over Substance 12 Aspirations 14 TWO REDUCTIONISM IN PSYCHOLOGY 17 A Historical Sketch 18 Identity versus Requirement 20 Omissions 21 Summary and Implications 24 Research Practices and the Construction of Pseudo-Psychological Kinds 25 Causal Woes 28 Variability and Its Statistical Treatment 29 Manufacturing and Generalizing Psychological Entities 31 The Role of Professional Psychology 33 The Example of Self-Concept 35 Another Kind of Reductionism in Psychology 39 An Antidote in Brief 44 vi Psychology and the Question of Agency THREE BETWEEN HARD DETERMINISM AND RADICAL FREEDOM 45 Definitions and Distinctions 46 A Critical Consideration of Some Notable Attempts at Soft Determinism 49 Philosophical Considerations 50 Psychological Considerations 58 Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory 59 Theory of Mind and Intentional Self-Development 63 Theoretical Psychology of Agency 67 Hermeneutics and Agency 73 FOUR THE UNDERDETERMINATION AND IRREDUCIBILITY OF AGENCY 81 An Argument for the Underdetermination of Agency 82 Structure of the Argument 83 Against Full Physical–Biological Determinism 84 Against Full Sociocultural Determinism 84 Against Randomness and Unconscious Processes Alone 86 Agency as the Surviving, Plausible Option 88 Contemporary Programs of Reductionism and the Irreducibility of Agency 90 Central State Materialism 91 Supervenience and Functionalism 93 Computational Models of Mind 96 What Is Missing in Reductive Functionalism and Computationalism? 98 Summary and Links 100 FIVE A THEORY OF SITUATED, EMERGENT, AND DELIBERATIVE AGENCY 103 Levels of Reality 104 Being-in-the-World 104 Tiered Reality 106 Psychology and the Question of Agency vii An Existential Starting Point and a Brief Conception of Personhood 110 The Developmental Emergence of Situated, Deliberative Agency and Psychological Kinds 112 Understanding and Care within Traditions of Living 117 Summarizing Our Theory of Agency and Psychological Kinds 123 Implications for Understanding Psychological Phenomena 126 A Final Word 129 SIX PUTTING AGENCY INTO PSYCHOLOGY 133 Re-envisioning Psychological Research: Reinforcement Theory and Beyond 135 Reinforcement Theory Revisited 135 Beyond Reinforcement Theory 139 Re-envisioning Psychological Practice 141 The Nature of Psychotherapy 143 The Practice of Psychotherapy 148 The Education of Psychotherapists 151 The Sociopolitical Consequences of Situated, Emergent, and Deliberative Agency 154 Liberalism and Communitarianism 155 The Political Disposition of a Situated, Emergent, and Deliberative Agency 159 A Concluding Comment 165 References 167 Index 175 ...