Within the discipline of psychology, the conventional history outlines the development of two fundamental approaches to the scientific study of emotion—“basic emotion” and “appraisal” traditions. In this article, we outline the development of a third approach to emotion that exists in the psychological literature—the “psychological constructionist” tradition. In the process, we discuss a number of works that have virtually disappeared from the citation trail in psychological discussions of emotion. We also correct some misconceptions about early sources, such as work by (...) Darwin and James. Taken together, these three contributions make for a fuller and more accurate account of ideas about emotion during the century stretching from 1855 to just before 1960. (shrink)

The claim is frequently made that, as cities become loaded up with information and communications technology and a resultant profusion of data, so they are becoming sentient. But what might this mean? This paper offers some insights into this claim by, first of all, reworking the notion of the social as a spatial complex of ‘outstincts’. That makes it possible, secondly, to reconsider what a city which is aware of itself might look like, both by examining what kinds of technological (...) practices are becoming commonplace and by considering the particular case of spatial awareness. In turn, this leads to a third rumination on how cities might become aware as different kinds of sprite, channelling outstincts in spatially variable ways. Whatever the case, it is clear that new technical-artistic interventions are required if these sprites are not to become simply servants of the security–entertainment complex. Some of these interventions are examined in the fourth part of the paper. (shrink)

Esse artigo busca oferecer um panorama de problemas relativos à existência da psicologia, a partir das questões de sua unidade, especificidade e objetividade. Para isso, analisam-se breves menções a figuras clássicas de sua história (como Wundt, Comte, Watson e Vygotsky), mostrando ambigüidades constitutivas do próprio “nascimento” da psicologia como disciplina “una” e “científica”. Ao perguntar sobre as razões da dispersão da psicologia, seu estatuto ambíguo e seu objeto “complexo”, abrimos no final o problema de que, mais do que resolver internamente (...) uma ambigüidade constituinte, é propriamente fora da ciência ou dos procedimentos ditos “tradicionais” de história da psicologia, que as condições de surgimento dessas ambigüidades – e da própria psicologia enquanto “ciência humana” – podem ser evidenciadas. Daí o apontamento conclusivo que sugere a importância de uma visita rigorosa às análises da modernidade empreendidas por Michel Foucault, para além dos portões das perspectivas históricas e epistemológicas. /////////////////// This article aims to provide a panorama of problems relating to the existence of psychology, based on issues of its unity, specificity and objectivity. To this objective, analysis is made of brief references to classic figures of its history (such as Wundt, Comte, Watson and Vygotsky), showing constituent ambiguities in the very “birth” of psychology as a “specific” and “scientific” discipline. Raising the question of why is psychology disperse, has ambiguous statutes, and is a “complex” matter, we suggest at the end (without reaching a conclusion) that, more than resolving internally a constituent ambiguity, it is really outside of science or the so-called “traditional” procedures of history of psychology, that the condition in which these ambiguities arose – and that of psychology itself as a "human science” – can be witnessed. Hence the conclusive indication that suggests the importance of a rigorous visit to the analyses of modernity undertaken by Michel Foucault, beyond the gates of the historical and epistemological perspectives. (shrink)

It is well established that intelligence testing in its modern form developed and was deployed slightly differently in several countries, most notably France, England and the United States. Less widely recognized is the fact that its originators were all part of a close network of scholars who liaised internationally, exchanged ideas and were thoroughly acquainted with each other’s work. Their exchanges resulted from the transnational drive to develop a new social science of psychology involving a determination to find empirical evidence (...) on which to base understandings of the human mind. This soon led to the development of a means of testing human performance, not least in the field of intelligence. In the process, close contacts between all those who were to be pioneers of intelligence testing around the globe developed, in touch with and feeding off each others’ ideas. This article is an account of the development of that network. (shrink)

Contemporary experimental research has emphasised the role of centrally generated signals arising from premotor areas in voluntary muscular force perception. It is therefore generally accepted that judgements of force are based on a central sense, known as the sense of effort, rather than on a sense of intra-muscular tension. Interestingly, the concept of effort is also present in the classical philosophy: to the French philosopher Maine de Biran [Maine de Biran . Mémoire sur la décomposition de la pensée , Vrin, (...) Paris ], the sense of effort is the fundamental component of self-experience, the landmark of the exercise of the will. In the present review, after a presentation of the nature and neurophysiological bases of effort sensation, we will examine its possible involvement in the neurocognitive process of agency. We will further focus on delusions of alien control in schizophrenic patients. Experimental data suggest that these patients have an abnormal awareness of effort caused by cerebral anomalies in the frontal and parietal lobes. (shrink)

ArgumentThe new English term “empathy” was translated from the GermanEinfühlungin the first decade of the twentieth century by the psychologists James Ward at the University of Cambridge and Edward B. Titchener at Cornell. At Titchener's American laboratory, “empathy” was not a matter of understanding other minds, but rather a projection of imagined bodily movements and accompanying feelings into an object, a meaning that drew from its rich nineteenth-century aesthetic heritage. This rendering of “empathy” borrowed kinaesthetic meanings from German sources, but (...) extended beyond a contemplation of the beautiful to include a variety of experimental stimuli and everyday objects in the laboratory. According to Titchener's structural psychology, all higher thought could be reduced to more elemental aspects of mind, and experimental introspection showed empathy to be constituted of kinaesthetic images. The existence of kinaesthetic images, Titchener argued, formed an incisive critique of the view that thought could take place without images, held by one of Titchener's major psychological rivals, the school of thought-psychologists in Würzburg, Germany. The new term “empathy” in early American academic psychology therefore delineated a kinaesthetic imaginative projection that took place on the basis of ontological difference between minds and things. (shrink)

The stance espoused in the target article confounds cultural symbolic achievements with individual cognitive competences. With no explicit role for learning, the core rationale for claiming a major functional discontinuity between humans and other species rests on a hybrid formal model LISA (Learning and Inference with Schemas and Analogies) now overtaken by new models of cognitive growth and new empirical studies within an embodied systems stance.

Our understanding of the behavioral and physiological mechanisms of monogamy largely comes from studies of behavioral interactions unique to pair-bonded individuals. By focusing on these highly marked behaviors, a remarkable conservation in the mechanisms underlying pair bonding has been revealed; however, we continue to know very little about the range of behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms that could explain the great diversity of pair-bonding phenotypes that exists both within and across species. In order to capture the dynamic nature of bonds over (...) time and across contexts, we need specific, operationally-defined behavioral variables relevant across such a diversity of scenarios. Additionally, we need to be able to situate these behavioral variables within broader frameworks that allow us to interpret and compare patterns seen across species. Here I review what is known about behavioral synchrony with respect to pair bonding and discuss using synchrony as such a variable as well as a framework to expand on our understanding of pair bonding across timescales, contexts and species. First, I discuss the importance of behavioral synchrony and parental coordination for reproductive success in monogamous biparental bird species. Second, I highlight research documenting the critical importance of interpersonal coordination for human social relationships. Finally, I present recent work that experimentally bridges these lines of research by quantifying moment-to-moment behavioral synchrony during brief social interactions in zebra finch dyads. All together, these distinct perspectives support the notion that synchrony (1) is a shared premise for sociality across species, (2) is deeply shaped by social experiences, and (3) exists across timescales, behaviors, and levels of physiology. Conceptualizing pair bonding through the framework of behavioral synchrony is likely to facilitate a deeper understanding of the nuances of how social experiences and interactions impact the brain and behavior. (shrink)

Among those living systems, which are cognizers? Among the behaviours of, and causes of behaviour in, living systems, which are cognitive? Such questions sit at the heart of a sophisticated, ongoing debate, of which the recent papers by Corcoran et al. ( 2020 ) and Sims and Kiverstein ( 2021 ) serve as excellent examples. I argue that despite their virtues, both papers suffer from flawed conceptions of the point of the debate. This leaves their proposals ill-motivated—good answers to the (...) wrong question. Additionally, their proposals are unfit to serve the legitimate roles for characterizations of cognition. (shrink)

Within the discipline of psychology, the conventional history outlines the development of two fundamental approaches to the scientific study of emotion—“basic emotion” and “appraisal” traditions. In this article, we outline the development of a third approach to emotion that exists in the psychological literature—the “psychological constructionist” tradition. In the process, we discuss a number of works that have virtually disappeared from the citation trail in psychological discussions of emotion. We also correct some misconceptions about early sources, such as work by (...) Darwin and James. Taken together, these three contributions make for a fuller and more accurate account of ideas about emotion during the century stretching from 1855 to just before 1960. (shrink)

"You are really getting under my skin!" This exclamation suggests a series of psychological, philosophical, and metaphysical questions: What is the nature and development of human emotion? How does emotion arise in social interaction? To what extent can interactive situations shape our embodied selves and intensify particular affective states? With these questions in mind, William James begins to investigate the character of emotions and to develop a model of what he terms the social self. James's studies of mimicry and his (...) interest in phenomena now often investigated using biofeedback begin to explain how affective states develop and how it might be possible for something to "get under one's skin." I situate these studies in the history of psychology between the psychological schools of structuralism and behaviorism. More important, I suggest continuity between James's Psychology and recent research on mirror neurons, reentrant mapping, and emotional mimicry in the fields of clinical psychology and cognitive neuroscience. This research supports and extends James's initial claims in regard to the creation of emotions and the life of the social self. I propose that James's work in the empirical sciences should be read as a prelude to his metaphysical works that speak of a coordination between embodied selves and wider environmental situations, and his psychological studies should be read as a prelude to his reflections on spiritual transcendence. (shrink)