bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Simone Corleo: Psychophysiology Enters the Realm of Philosophy
Authors: Monads Lucia
Published: January 2023

At the beginning of the twentieth century Simone Corleo was described by G. Gentile as a philosopher who “remained closed within his insular culture” and, in contrast, by F. Orestano and A. Aliotta as a great statesman and man of science.

This paper aims to provide a picture of the Sicilian philosopher (1823-1891), who taught moral philosophy at the University of Palermo.

Philosophy was for him a science concerned with the study of the constant laws of thinking so as to reach that principle of identity which regulates the stream of knowledge. He wondered how objects are perceived by the senses, which inevitably provide subjective perception, and concluded that it was thanks to the human ability to associate perceptions according to the principles of similarity, time and space, cause and effect. This led him to investigate perception as organic electricity. Disproving Franklin’s theory of imponderable fluids, he affirmed that heat, light and electro-magnetism flowed through bodies. Therefore, philosophy was necessarily connected to physiology and psychology.
The Concept of Synaesthesia in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century
Authors: Ceglie Flavio
Published: January 2023

The current paper provides a historical reconstruction of the first studies on synaesthesia phenomena and aims to show how the concept of synaesthesia has changed in the different ages, although it has always represented the same perceptual phenomenon.

In the first part of the paper attention is focused on the importance of the investigations and applications of synaesthesia in the artistic field. To this end, the relationship between sound and colour is analysed within the Gesamtkunstwerk.

In the second part, the historical stages characterizing the first systematic descriptions of synaesthesia are examined in order to clarify the different explanations and definitions given by researchers in various fields.
Spencer’sPrinciples of Psychologyand the Decline of Utilitarian Premises in British psychology
Authors: Bissell Gavin
Published: January 2023

Despite the revival of interest in nineteenth century psychology and ethics in Britain during the 1980s, and the current debate around Utilitarian ethics in medicine (Buckle, 2005) and care (Offer, 2004), Utilitarian premises, understood as a psychological theory rather than as a moral philosophy, remain largely dormant in contemporary British Psychology. This is so despite their apparent survival in Behaviourism (Plaud & Vogeltanz, 1994).

This article examines aspects of their decline within Victorian psychology, by focussing upon the relatively neglected psychological writings of Herbert Spencer. In doing so, it seeks to make a modest contribution to unravelling the complex changes in the nature of nineteenth-century psychology. In particular it is argued that, whilst some explanations of the decline of Utilitarian premises in the Victorian development of psychology focus upon the later part of the century and cultural or institutional factors, an examination of Spencer’s works at the mid-century supports the view that changes were under way earlier. Whilst several explanations might be offered for this, changes in economic organisation and in the experience of individual agency are highlighted.

The relation between Utilitarian psychology and Utilitarian ethics will then be considered. Finally, at this stage it should be possible to comment upon the significance of the marginalization of Utilitarian premises within the development of Victorian psychology for the contemporary debate about health resource allocation.
War Office Selection Boards 1942–46
Authors: Murphy John
Published: January 2023

In 1942 the first War Office Selection Boards (WOSBs) were established to select potential officers. They employed psychometric tests, outdoor leaderless groups and other situational tests; interviews by a psychiatrist and the board president, usually of colonel rank, played an important part. Results of tests and interviews were brought together after three days at a case conference, and the candidates were graded. I was involved with the system from 1943 to 1946, first as a sergeant tester / psychological assistant, then as commissioned psychologist at HQ, at boards, and finally with a Regular Commission Board to assess emergency commission officers as regulars. This paper describes the reasons for the development of WOSBs, and the procedures they adopted, as well as providing vignettes of many of the psychological and psychiatric personnel involved, and an evaluation the success and impact of WOSBs.
The Metaphor of ‘Linguistic Relativity’
Authors: Zinken Jörg
Published: January 2023

‘Linguistic relativity’ has become a major keyword in debates on the psychological significance of language diversity. In this context, the term ‘relativity’ was originally taken on loan from Einstein’s then-recent theories by Edward Sapir (1924) and Benjamin L. Whorf (1940). The present paper assesses how far the idea of linguistic relativity does analogically build on relevant insights in modern physics, and fails to find any substantial analogies. The term was used rhetorically by Sapir and Whorf, and has since been incorporated into a cognitivist research programme that seeks to answer whether ‘language influences thought’. Contemporary research on ‘linguistic relativity’ has developed into a distinct way of studying language diversity, which shares a lot with the universalistic cognitivist framework it opposes, but little with relational approaches in science.
On Richard Thurnwald’s Ethno-Psychology
Authors: Jahoda Gustav
Published: January 2023

While the work of Rivers with the Cambridge expedition to Torres Straits is well known, few psychologists in Anglophone countries or even Germany have heard of Richard Thurnwald (1860–1954). He was an anthropologist keenly interested in psychology, which he regarded as an important tool. In 1906 he went on an expedition to what was then a German colony in present-day Papua New Guinea. Although his primary task was anthropological, he carried out some psychological studies. Unlike Rivers, who had confined himself to sensory functions, Thurnwald also wanted to study higher mental processes. He conducted experiments that included colour vision and colour naming, attention and memory, association, elementary arithmetic, and several aspects of drawing, a topic popular at the time. Particularly noteworthy are his experiments on what he called ‘transmission of reports’, which anticipated Bartlett’s method of ‘serial reproduction’. Thurnwald was not as skilled an experimenter as Rivers, and he himself modestly described his efforts as mere pilot studies. However, he did have innovative ideas and, like Bartlett after him, related his work to the problems of culture change. Later in life he frequently wrote about what used to be known as ‘primitive thought’, but that was based on his field observations and he no longer did any experimental work.
Embodiment, Abduction, and Difficulties of Orientation: On Coming to Feel ‘At Home’ in the World
Authors: Shotter John
Published: January 2023

Central to the account below is the fact that, as living bodies, we must live out our lives in a continuous, spontaneously responsive contact with our surroundings. As a result, I argue, we have a much more immediate and unreflective, bodily way of being related to our surroundings than the ways that become conspicuous to us in our more cognitive reflections. But this gives rise to a fundamental bodily need to be wellorientedin our surroundings, to know ‘where’ we are in order to know ‘what next’ we might do. Further, as we orient ourselves toward our surroundings, the unfolding ‘time contours’ of recurrent patterns of movement can become known to us, contours which we can come to embody inimage schema. A number of things follow from this: One is that we can ‘carry across’ such time contours to seemingly very different situations from those in which they originated, thus to do what C.S. Peirce calledabduction. Another is that theaction guiding anticipationsmade available in such image schemas, allow us to act ‘in the moment’ with an acquired skill, a skill that we can improve by further building up and refining our embodied image schemas. This all suggests the opening up of a new realm of inquiry in psychological research of a practical kind to do with exploring the activities relevant, not to solving intellectual problems, but to resolving difficulties of orientation.
“Every Meaning Will Have Its Homecoming Festival”: Providing New Possibilities for Meaning in Clients’ Dialogue
Authors: MacDonagh Joe
Published: January 2023

This paper seeks to explore how depression may be theoretically addressed in a novel fashion. Primarily using Bakhtin’s dialogical perspective, it will explore how those with depression can create new meanings in seeking to move away from depressive thoughts and behaviour – meanings in which they are not tied to utterances, words and phrases of a particular time, person and place and in which old meanings can be “recalled and invigorated in renewed form (in a new context)” (Bakhtin, 1986)

Bakhtin’s conception of dialogue as both polyphonic and heteroglossic will also be linked to Heidegger’s concept of Dasein: the manner in which the utterance can be infused with meaning from the individual’s past (“thrownness”; Heidegger, 1927), present (“fallenness”) and future (“projection”) as the person is making an utterance. Thus a therapist can be the means by which a person can re-negotiate new constructions of their experience of the past, present and future that are not solely tied to their previous experience.

The person can thus be afforded a means by which they can re-infuse past, present and future utterances with new meanings, ones that allow them to move away from maladaptive constructions that may have limited their dialogue with others. This involves understanding how meaning, in a Bakhtinian sense, is constructed momentarily, contextually and with different temporal elements, all of which will be discussed and exemplified in this paper.
A Short Reflection on Intimacy and Autonomy
Authors: Curk Polona
Published: January 2023

This paper proposes thatautonomyandintimacyare understood as processes linked and co-created through one another. Stressing the socio-historical embeddedness of both notions, recent perspectives from feminist philosophy and psychoanalysis insist that autonomy is thought of within the concept of the self as relational; that is, entrenched in close relationships with others, lest a seemingly irreconcilable split is created between autonomy and intimacy as related to desire.

Paying attention to the conditions of intimate relations and desire for the other, this paper looks at how autonomy is in actuality always entangled with intimacy, which influences a person’s identificatory and subjective states. Intimacy is discussed as a process of encounters with the other that begins with initial fantasy, and moves towards a continuous mutual negotiation of shared reality with the intimate partner. The importance of the feeling of ‘entitlement’ for both subjects in intimate relationship is highlighted.

The suggested model is informed by relational psychoanalysis and Judith Butler’s theory of subjectivity and uses psychoanalytic case studies and film storylines, adopting assumptions of a fantasising subject created and continuously formed through a medley of discourses as well as in excess of them. Intimacy is shown as a complex play of fantasy and reality, where the other is at the same time a support and fracture of one’s fantasy. Some ways of how this could be used to think about autonomy are proposed.
J.J.Waterston 1843: A neglected pioneer in physiological psychology – with some comments on recognition in science
Authors: Salzen Eric
Published: January 2023

Waterston’s 1843 book is a pioneering text on physiological psychology. It attempts a nerve fibre connectionist account of association with electrical activity passing through the equivalent of ‘nerve nets’. It describes a spatial co-ordination system of visual, tactile and muscle nerve fibres with cerebral endings spatially arranged so as to map their peripheral body endings, and it postulates re-afferent paths and muscle length detectors. It describes hearing and voice as another coordinated nerve fibre system, and discusses the nature of loudness, pitch, musical scale, and timbre, with composite auditory fibre activity for pitch detection possibly involving the cochlea. It analyses emotional expressions as facial, vocal and whole body actions, with internal and external re-afference of all three for sympathetic recognition of expressions of others. Finally it considers mental calculation and reviews phrenology’s ‘mental faculties’ as compound associations of lower level associations.

The book ends with two notes – one on a kinetic theory of gases and the other on the nature of heat and temperature. Unlike the psychology, these were truly fundamental to physics and chemistry but when expanded and submitted to the Royal Society in 1845 the paper was deemed ‘nonsense’ and rejected. Fifteen years later others, including Clerk-Maxwell, developed the same kinetic theory. The history of J.J. Waterston illustrates some of the factors that are involved in the acceptance of scientific ideas.
The Berlin Wisdom Paradigm: A Conceptual Analysis of a Psychological Approach to Wisdom
Authors: Banicki Konrad
Published: January 2023

The main purpose of this article is to undertake a conceptual investigation of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm: a psychological project initiated by Paul Baltes and intended to study the complex phenomenon of wisdom. Firstly, in order to provide a wider perspective for the subsequent analyses, a short historical sketch is given. Secondly, a meta-theoretical issue of the degree to which the subject matter of the Baltesian study can be identified with the traditional philosophical wisdom is addressed. The main result yielded by a careful conceptual analysis is that the philosophical and psychological concepts of wisdom, though not entirely the same, are at least parallel. Finally, one of the revealed aspects of the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm, i.e. its relative neglect of the non-cognitive and personal aspects of wisdom is brought to the fore. This deficiency, it is suggested, can be remedied by the application of the virtue ethics’ conceptual framework.
Why History Matters
Authors: Smith Roger
Published: January 2023

This paper engages with the debate in the British Psychological Society about the place of history of psychology in the curriculum. It tries to outline an argument for thinking historical knowledge a necessary part of scientific understanding and not just optional, if sometimes useful. There are two principal reasons: some kind of historical understanding is constitutive of meaning; and there is reflexive ‘looping’ between psychological knowledge and its subject matter. A discussion of ‘perspective’ provides an accessible route into these matters. The paper, for didactic purposes, then illustrates what is at stake by bringing in the history of psychological categories. It concludes by remarking on the relationship between sensitivity to ‘perspective’ and openness to different forms of knowledge.
The Distinctiveness of Applied Educational Psychology in Scotland and Early Pathways into the Profession
Authors: Boyle James , MacKay Tommy
Published: January 2023

Professional, applied educational psychology in Scotland has developed in a distinctive way, not only in relation to other parts of the UK but in international terms. Its distinctive features may be considered in five areas. First, the statutory foundations of Scottish educational psychology, as first set out in the Education (Scotland) Act 1946, do not have a parallel in any other country in the world. Second, this provided the context for the distinctive development of professional roles. Third, Scotland was distinctive in taking an international lead in the field of quality assurance. Fourth, it led the way in developing universal provision of post-school psychological services for young adults. Fifth, staffing ratios, which are among the best in the world. Qualifications and training in Scotland were shaped by the impact of scientific approaches to the theory and application of psychology on the practice of education in Europe. The EdB/BEd higher degrees in Scottish universities (eventually replaced by the MEd degree) became the first, and for some years the only, honours degrees in psychology in Scotland and accordingly one of the earliest pathways into psychology for students attending Scottish universities. Together with more broadly based professional remits defined by legislation, this led to the development of a ‘psychological’ approach to practice underpinning applied educational psychology and child guidance in Scotland.
Madness and Mysticism: Can a Mediaeval Narrative Inform Our Understanding of Psychosis?
Authors: Torn Alison
Published: January 2023

This article examines the boundaries between madness and mysticism by presenting a narrative analysis of a medieval first-hand account of madness. TheBook of Margery Kempedetails one woman’s spiritual visions and voices, and her struggle for a sense of belonging amongst different medieval communities. Part of its fame is that it is considered by some to be an early first-hand account of madness. This article argues that whilst Kempe’s book details a self-acknowledged episode of madness in its initial chapter, the remainder of the book describes a negotiation between the contested boundaries of madness and mysticism. The central argument is that this permeable boundary is not confined to the medieval era, but is reflected in recent research that attempts to distinguish between spiritual and psychotic experiences. The article concludes by arguing that the individual meaning of unusual experiences is embedded in the dialectical relationship between cultural values and subjectivity.
Russian and British Social Psychology in the First Third of the Twentieth Century: Interrelation or Misunderstanding?
Authors: Arinina Marina , Rawles Richard
Published: January 2023

The interrelation between British and Russian social psychology in the period from 1900 to the 1930s is examined. At the beginning of the century British psychological theories, though rationally criticised, were received rather positively in Russia. But in the 1930s foreign theories were subjected not only to an objective scientific criticism but also to an ideological one. Now they are being reviewed more objectively. The analysis shows that British and Russian social psychology in the early twentieth century had more in common than was previously supposed.
In Praise of the One Percent
Authors: Wetherick N.E.
Published: January 2023

From the earliest times, mankind has wondered at the gulf between members of its own (human) species and members of lower animal species. This has, in the past, been attributed to the human possession of an immaterial soul/mind, responsible for all our specifically human characteristics (including language), which could only be the gift of a supernatural agent, denied to all lower species. In the last two hundred years we have become less and less willing to resort to the supernatural and more and more aware of the degree of physical similarity between us and them.

Knowing, as we do, how much human beings are capable of that lower animals are not (mathematics, science, the arts) and believing, as many of us now do, that the difference must be attributed to one percent of our genetic endowment, the question ought to have been asked how such a small difference could have such extraordinarily large effects. The question has not been asked, though almost everyone assumes that there is and must be an answer in wholly material terms – without any resort to the supernatural.

This paper addresses the question and proposes an answer to it.
The Idiographic / Nomothetic Dichotomy: Tracing Historical Origins of Contemporary Confusions
Authors: Robinson Oliver C.
Published: January 2023

The relevance of idiographic and nomothetic forms of science has been the subject of fierce debates within psychology, and there has been a false tendency to see these two terms as antagonistic rather than complementary. The origins of contemporary confusions over the term ‘nomothetic’ stem from a long-held misconception that nomothetic research requires large samples and group-based statistics such as means and variances (i.e. the ‘Galtonian’ paradigm), when in fact nomothetic research has another paradigm at its disposal that can be termed the ‘Wundtian’ paradigm, which relies on smaller samples, and a case-by-case form of analysis (Lamiell, 2003). Meanwhile, the historical origins of confusion over the term ‘idiographic’ stem from an enduring but incorrect sense that it is opposed to nomothetic inquiry, combined with an increasing tendency to use the word in ways that bear no relation to its original meaning. The contemporary situation could be substantially improved if Psychology was to re-locate the Wundtian model back to its rightful central position in the discipline.
Humboldt’s Parrot and the Re-voicing of a Dead Language: A Metaphor for Family Histories of Depression
Authors: MacDonagh Joe
Published: January 2023

The 18th century explorer Alexander von Humboldt discovered the remnants of a dead language in a parrot he found in the South American rain forest. The Ature people had originated from the lands around the Orinoco river in Venezuela, but disappeared when the tribe was murdered by the rival group of Carib Indians in the last years of the 18th century. Von Humboldt discovered that the pet parrot of these dead people had survived with their language, albeit in a limited form, and he set about transcribing the language phonetically. Schützenberger tells a similar story of a parrot that retained the voice of a long dead family patriarch in France, who still had power over his family through his now disembodied voice being parroted by an old family pet. This paper will explore how depression can be perpetuated or kept alive in the words, phrases and voices, literal or metaphorical, which exist in families. Material from fictional and biographical family accounts will be presented in examining how families might learn to re-voice the language they use for each other and the world, to move away from maladaptive ways of interacting with the world.

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”Anna Karenina(Tolstoy, 1878/2003)
Designing a Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology module through Active Learning
Authors: Hall Gareth , Ivaldi Antonia , Tod David
Published: January 2023

In our experience, most colleagues understand the pedagogical value in teaching Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology (CHIP). However, few wish to be involved in teaching it, even in their sub-disciplines, because it is perceived as dry and dull, as well as void from everyday life. We present how we reinvigorated CHIP and its content within a new Psychology degree programme. We begin by outlining our experiences with CHIP and then describe several steps we took to redesign the module. Specifically, we outline how we utilised pedagogical literature that emphasises student-focussed Active Learning, and specifically Co-operative Learning, to inform our module redesign and delivery of content. We then outline how we engaged in a more considered approach to embedding employability strategies into our content, and then describe how we implement these approaches into a student-led module. Finally we summarise student feedback about the module and offer suggestions for embedding Active Learning into modules.

‘to my boss who approached me one day and asked how I felt about the teaching the history of psychology’

(dedication in Schultz & Schultz, 2011, p.2)
Using dialectic debates to enhance innovative teaching of Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology
Authors: Nyatanga Lovemore , Howard Chris
Published: January 2023

An enormous amount of research and debate on innovative teaching and learning strategies has gone on over the last three decades (e.g. The Higher Education Academy (HEA), 2013; Dearnley, McClelland & Irving, 2013; Hannan, English & Silver, 1999, 2000). HEA rightly champions excellence in innovative teaching and learning across the higher education sector. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) takes a monitoring role with the aim of ensuring that all higher education (HE) students benefit from a high-quality learning experience that fully meets their needs and the needs of society. The critical issue is not so much about governing bodies and frameworks, rather it is about the individual tutor’s enthusiasm and how such enthusiasm can inspire active learning. It is also worth recognising that some topics, such as Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology (CHIP) can be potentially boring. Such topics require enthusiastic tutors with innovative approaches to teaching and learning. The CHIP module delivered at the University of Derby uses dialectic debates to enhance students’ learning experience. No assumption is made here that dialectic debates are the only innovative approach as other papers in this volume show. We chose dialectic debate because of its potential for interactivity and critical thinking. The dialectic method (dialectics) has its roots in philosophy (e.g. Hegelian dialectic) where it encouraged critical analysis of propositions, counter-propositions and the synthesis of new insights. For dialectic debates to succeed the teaching and learning strategy has to be very different from traditional didactic approaches. For example, trying to be interactive by simply asking questions may end up with uncomfortable silence as students may not be actively engaging with the course material. To create the atmosphere and aura of the dialectic debate both authors undertake team teaching with the specific aim of giving students thesis and antithesis. Students on the CHIP module are very familiar with two tutors presenting a lecture based on its thesis and antithesis.This approach builds on to include at least one dialectic debate given by the whole module teaching team. This is used as an example which is then followed in subsequent weeks by student’s own dialectic debates. So far this has been the most successful and enjoyable learning experience as stated by students themselves. This paper will briefly look at the monitoring role of HEFCE in relation to innovative teaching and learning. Attention will then turn to the nature and use of dialectic debate as part of the innovative approach to teaching CHIP at the University of Derby. An example of the typical CHIP module as it is run at the University of Derby will be offered including some of the essential guides shared by students and teaching staff.
Some reflections on vitalism and indeterminism
Authors: Pilgrim David
Published: January 2023

This paper considers a series of unresolved matters from scientific debates in the 19th century about vitalism and indeterminism. Beginning with everyday experiences of being alive, which at times invoke agency in relation to both the human and the non-human world, alongside the cognitive bias of blaming others and excusing ourselves, the paper moves into an overview of those earlier debates, in a period when psychology was emerging as a discipline separated from philosophy. One common account is that vitalism was put into the dustbin of history by a form of scientific rationalism (which was avowedly reductionist about causes and completely deterministic in its logic). However, the paper considers the various ways in which vitalism and indeterminism have remained important in the academy, across the disciplines. A critical realist position is offered at the end in order to draw out implications of this lack of resolution of older debates for contemporary psychology.
The nervous and allergic child: Food allergy and behavioural problems in mid-20th century US
Authors: Smith Matthew
Published: January 2023

In the United States (US) during the middle of the 20th century, the chronic health problems of children – both physical and mental – could be explained in disparate ways. On the one hand, the emergence of psychosomatic theories of medicine meant that many symptoms thought to be allergic in nature, ranging from asthma to eczema, were instead blamed on psychological factors, often relating to the child’s relationship with his or her parents (usually the mother). On the other hand, many allergists believed that many of the psychological problems of children were actually rooted in allergy, usually to foods. By the 1980s, however, both approaches were on the wane. This article explores the development of these very different understandings of mental health and allergy, ultimately questioning why they had to be seen as incommensurable with one another.
The disappearance of ‘Medical Psychology’ and the controversy over the Medical Section during the early 1950s
Authors: Jones Kevin
Published: January 2023

In the 1950s the Medical Section of the British Psychological Society (BPS) was riven by a dispute which began with issues over the criteria for membership of the Section, and the editorial policy of the British Journal of Medical Psychology, but led to debates about the nature, and the future, of ‘medical psychology’ itself. These developments are documented in an archive of the BPS which is now held by the Wellcome Trust, an archive that has been hitherto overlooked by historians of psychology and psychiatry. This paper will provide some reasons why this debate occurred at this particular moment in history, concluding that this is a critical period of study for those interested in the recent histories of psychology and psychiatry within the United Kingdom, which was one of the major international centres for research in the mental sciences during the immediate post-war period. It will go on to suggest that the relationship between psychiatry and psychology in the UK can be used to make sense of the historical developments that have helped to shape psychology and psychiatry as distinct disciplines.
Paying the price of naïve realism: A critical realist reflection
Authors: Pilgrim David
Published: January 2023

Using critical realism, this note summarises the shortcomings of current psychology that arose from its disciplinary break from philosophy during the early 20th century. By seeking autonomy from the older discipline and its self-confident jurisdiction over the mind it paid a serious price. Methodologism, predicated on a naïve version of realism, drove the rationale of the new discipline, leaving psychologists unfamiliar with the metaphysical justification for their own theory and practice. The combined assumptions of empiricism and positivism, and their de-philosophised expression in psychological theory and practice, were to bring the discipline to a point of crisis in the second half of the 20th century. This crisis afforded the possibility of the ‘linguistic turn’ and ‘postmodern psychology’ (the unexplored end point to this note).
Review article: The History of Emotions
Authors: Watts Fraser
Published: January 2023

There has been much recent work on emotion by historians, and three recent books on the history of emotions are reviewed: What is the History of Emotions? by Barbara H. Rosenwein and Riccardo Christiani; The History of Emotions by Rob Boddice; and The History of Emotions: An Introduction by Jan Plamper. Key debates are how to handle the fact that different periods have used different vocabulary for apparently similar emotions, how to find a path between the extremes of universalism and social constructionism, and how to characterise the social structures that regulate the expression of emotions. The work on emotions by historians includes a critical assessment of the study of emotions by psychologists.
An emerging science of the mind in 1898
Authors: Hall John
Published: January 2023

This article is an extended review ofHeadhunters: The search for a science of the mind, by Ben Shephard. Shephard realised while preparing his 2002 bookA war of nervesthat, although the role of W.H.R. Rivers was ever present in his reading around the First World War, he was not the only psychologist to have treated war-shocked soldiers. This second book is both an account of an anthropological-psychological expedition and adventure, and the consequences of that expedition for the growth of psychology over the following years, including the impact of the First World War. The narrative is driven by the interplay between the key players in that project, here focusing on the roles of William McDougall, Charles Myers and William Rivers, and the intellectual questions and disputes of their day which underpin our present-day disciplines of anthropology, neurology, psychiatry and psychology.
An existential view of biography and history: Synchronic and diachronic narratives
Authors: Sullivan Daniel , Schmitt Harrison J.
Published: January 2023

Narrative psychologists have increasingly sought to understand how cultural, collective narratives relate to individual life narratives. Two promising approaches are the study of how cultural master narratives influence personal narratives, and the study of generativity. These developments need to be extended through analysis of the ‘politics of storytelling’ – the ways in which life and collective narratives are implicated in the sociopolitical milieu. We draw on Sartre’s late work on the interrelationship between biography and history. Sartre suggests an individual life can incarnate history either diachronically – when a person narrates their life with a focus on individual temporal development – or synchronically – when a person narrates their life with a focus on power relations between groups in society. We discuss the political implications of each form of narrative; how they relate the individual to history, im/mortality, and generativity; and how they involve forms of false or liberated consciousness.
In search of a moral compass across time and space: Notes from lunchtime ‘symposia’
Authors: Sullivan Paul , Ackroyd John , Intezar Hannah
Published: January 2023

This is a created dialogue inspired by the genre of Plato’s Symposium. The dialogue starts with a chance meeting between old friends (Maryam, Cormac, Otis) where one of the characters (Maryam) outlines a moral conundrum she is experiencing. The characters subsequently ‘chew over’ this conundrum in Cormac’s house, in a good humoured way. They enlist the help of two key thinkers, Mikhail Bakhtin (189–1975) and Johann Fichte (1762–1814) who, under creative license, are granted a living presence. Their key ideas on the self are outlined or ‘extemporated’. These ideas cover the aesthetics and ethics of the dialogical mind seeking a moral compass. The points of difference between this social soul-searching psychology and an instrumental understanding of the self that bedevils some of psychology is ‘played out’.
Critical moments of clients and coaches: A direct-comparison study
Authors: de Haan Erik , Bertie Colin , Day Andrew , Sills Charlotte
Published: January 2023

‘I don’t understand. I just don’t understand. (…)I don’t understand it at all. I just don’t understand.’‘What’s wrong? What don’t you understand?’‘I’ve never heard such a strange story.’‘Why don’t you tell me about it?’

Opening lines ofRashomon(1950), Akira Kurosawa.

Purpose:In this study descriptions of critical moments of coaching as experienced by both executive coaches and their clients are analysed and compared, to find out more about what works in coaching conversations.

Design/Methodology:This is a real-time direct-comparison study of coaches’ and clients’ critical-moment experiences with data collected straight after mutual coaching conversations. Eighty-six critical-moments descriptions were collected by independent researchers (not the authors) from measurements straight after independent coaching conversations (not with the authors). Exactly half of these descriptions were taken from clients and the other half from their coaches. They are analysed with reference to the full dataset of 352 critical-moment descriptions (102 by clients and 250 by executive coaches).

Results:Both coaches and clients report new realisations and insights as most critical in their direct experience of coaching, and they are also in substantial agreement about the specific moments that were critical in the sessions and why. Hence we find no evidence for the so-called ‘Rashomon experience’ in executive coaching. Differences with earlier coach data which showed a completely different picture could be explained by drawing attention to the fact that those earlier data were biased towards moments of exceptional tension experienced by the coach, verging on ‘ruptures’ within the coaching relationship.

Conclusions:This study has produced both a confirmation of earlier work when studying critical moments in executive coaching as well as a connection between the various diverging results hitherto found. The findings help us to understand better: (1) why clients’ and coaches’ descriptions in earlier studies were so different; and (2) how descriptions from clients and coaches coming out of coaching sessions can be extremely similar, as was the case here. The main conclusion is that coaches need to be prepared for quite different circumstances in ‘run-of-the-mill’ coaching and in the presence of exceptional tensions and ruptures.
Experiences of cognitive coaching: A qualitative study
Authors: Gyllensten Kristina , Palmer Stephen , Nilsson Eva-Karin , Regnér Agneta Meland , Frodi Ann
Published: January 2023

Objectives:Cognitive coaching and cognitive behavioural coaching are approaches practiced by many coaching psychologists (Palmer & Whybrow, 2007). However, there is a lack of qualitative studies evaluating these approaches. The main objective of/with the present study was to investigate a number of participants’ experiences of cognitive coaching.

Design:As the study aimed to explore individuals’ experiences of cognitive coaching, a qualitative design was used. In particular, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith & Osborn, 2003) was used to analyse the data.

Methods:The study took place in Sweden and 10 individuals, who had participated in cognitive coaching in the workplace, were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data.

Results:Four main themes emerged from the analysis, and one of these ‘new cognitive and emotional knowledge’ will be discussed in this article. This main theme had two sub-themes, ‘working with thoughts’ and ‘regulate emotions’.

Conclusions:The study found that cognitive coaching helped participants to change unhelpful thinking and regulate difficult emotions, and these findings support the continuing development of cognitive/cognitive behavioural coaching.
Utilising evidence-based leadership theories in coaching for leadership development: Towards a comprehensive integrating conceptual framework
Authors: Elliott Ray
Published: January 2023

Purpose:Examination of the coaching psychology literature shows that discussion about leadership coaching is disconnected from the scientific literature about leadership. Similarly, the latter has only recently begun to consider how leadership is developed. This lack of cross-engagement between two relevant evidence-based literatures is brought into sharp focus through leadership development coaching practice. This review from the perspective of external professional practice seeks to close the relevant knowledge gap through utilisation of a conceptual framework.

Methods:Lane and Corrie (2009) proposed three criteria which needed to be satisfied for effective coachee formation through coaching. Elliott (2007a) developed a framework from client case studies and naturalistic participant-observer reflections on coaching practice for leadership development intentionally informed by a range of evidence-based leadership theories. This framework satisfies the criteria proposed by Lane and Corrie. It is here applied and extended to provide an evaluation of current limiting assumptions in both the evidence-based coaching psychology and scholarly leadership literatures.

Results:The extended framework prompts systematic utilisation of salient knowledge domains, information inputs and processes for intentional coaching for leadership development. It demonstrates the necessary relevance of evidence-based leadership theories to coachee goal definition. It describes and contextualises coach-managed processes to establish, maintain and bound the coaching reflective space and demonstrates the relevance of other related literatures to inform coaching in organisations.

Conclusions:The required parameters in coaching for leadership development proposed by Elliott (2005) are further refined by proposing a more comprehensive model for leadership coaching to guide responsible professional practice and future research.
Reality TV gets positive: Psychological reflections on Making Australia Happy
Authors: Grant Anthony M.
Published: January 2023

The Australian ABC television seriesMaking Australia Happyfollowed eight individuals as they completed an intensive eight-week positive psychology coaching programme using scientifically-validated positive psychology interventions. The show generated the largest ever web-based response to an ABC programme with over 1,000,000 hits on the ABC website (initially crashing the ABC servers) and over 45,000 registered individuals taking online assessments and doing positive psychology exercises. Over the eight weeks participants’ levels of stress, anxiety and depression reduced remarkably, levels of subjective wellbeing and psychological well-being increased and there were significant improvements in a range of biochemical markers including blood pressure, cortisol and melatonin. Participants’ mean performance on a cold presser task (a measure of physical resilience) increased from 57 seconds to 131 seconds post-programme. In addition, pre-post Magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain scans showed significant positive changes in brain functioning. A 24-week follow-up indicated that the gains in positive psychological functioning were maintained. This reflective article, written by the psychologist presenter of the show outlines these findings and discusses some of the challenges for psychologists working at the intersection of science and commercialism, particularly in areas such as positive psychology.
1st International Congress of Coaching Psychology – Sweden
Authors: Hök Liv , Mosskin Jonas
Published: January 2023

1st International Congress of Coaching Psychology – an update byLiv Hök, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Organisational Analyst and Executive Committee Member of Coachande Psykologer (Coaching Psychologists, Sweden) andJonas Mosskin, Psychologist and Journalist.
The Managerial Gap and how coaching can help
Authors: Porter Christine , David Rees W.
Published: January 2023

This article considers two models that could potentially be useful to coaching psychologists as they seek to help clients identify their organisational roles and their willingness and ability to carry out such roles. The first model considered is that of the Managerial Escalator which seeks to help individual employees identify and cope with their likely accumulation of managerial responsibilities, particularly dealing with any Managerial Gap. The second, and linked, model is that of Role Set Analysis. This is a particularly effective technique to help clients identify their evolving role and priorities.
Coaching Psychology Coming of Age: The challenges we face in the messy world of complexity
Authors: Cavanagh Michael , Lane David
Published: January 2023

Coaching is a rapidly emerging discipline in a world in constant change. Many of the issues facing coaches and their clients fit within the rational linear models that have served psychology well in the past. However, coaches and clients are also called upon to deal with novel complex and even chaotic challenges for which linear frameworks offer little value. Between the linear and the chaotic, the space on the edge of chaos creates possibilities for emergent creativity. Each of these spaces, the simple, complex and chaotic, has implications for us as practitioners, researchers and as a profession. This paper explores each of these. If coaching psychology is to come of age we need to find a way to create a discipline that can build on our foundations yet work comfortably with cross disciplinary ideas and colleagues. It may be that coaching psychology will emerge as a new kind of discipline one that can embraces rigour and the chaotic in the service of its clients, science and the profession.
‘The assessment needs to go hand-in-hand with the debriefing’: The importance of a structured coaching debriefing in understanding and applying a positive psychology strengths assessment
Authors: Roche Brenda , Hefferon Kate
Published: January 2023

Objectives:

Despite extensive empirical evidence supporting the use of strengths, minimal research has been conducted on the practical application of strengths tools. The objective of this study was to test the impact of a structured debriefing following completion of Realise2, an online strengths assessment, in relation to strengths application (Linley, Willars & Biswas-Diener, 2010).

Design:

The study utilised a qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews were employed and thematic analysis was used to identify themes representing the participant’s experience (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

Method:

The 20 participants were a mixture of middle and senior managers from a global travel organisation. All participants completed the Realise2 strengths assessment and a structured debriefing with a qualified coach. Following the debriefing, each participant completed a semi-structured interview to determine how the debriefing impacted their understanding and utilisation of the assessment findings.

Results:

The results show that the debriefing was associated with engendering action, enhancing self-efficacy and stimulating psychological development.

Conclusions:

The study found that all 20 participants benefited from having a structured debriefing after completing a strengths assessment. The debriefing led to a greater understanding and utilisation of the strengths assessment. This pairing has practical implications for those involved in strengths-based coaching and development. In addition, limitations of the study are discussed and areas for future research suggested.
A framework for family life coaching
Authors: Allen Kimberly
Published: January 2023

Many family life educators utilise a coach approach to serving families, and many coaching psychologists serve families in their coaching profession, yet there is a deficit of theoretical or application literature on coaching families. This paper argues that it is time to begin a global discussion on the topic of family life coaching as a unique field of study. The author explains the similarities and differences of family life education and coaching psychology, and creates a framework for professionals to begin a global discussion about how to integrate the two fields in order to create a theory and evidence-based practice in family life coaching.
What is personality change coaching and why is it important? A response to Martin, Oades & Caputi
Authors: McCredie Hugh
Published: January 2023

This short paper is a response to Martin et al.’s (2012) assertion that Big Five factor scores are open to the influence of coaching interventions. It is based on an inspection of two key sources cited by the original authors. The first of these reports on the impact of life experiences on the long-term plasticity of Big 5 personality scores and the second on the impact of concentrated short-term coaching. Whilst there is support for long-term plasticity, the case for short-term coaching effects is unconvincing and coaches may be better served by focussing on the achievement of clients’ personal goals.