Going with your gut: How William James' theory of emotions brings insights to risk perception and decision making research
Publication date: Available online 21 October 2015 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): Katherine Lacasse The basic premise of William James' theory of emotions – that bodily changes lead to emotional feelings – ignited debate about the relative importance of bodily processes and cognitive appraisals in determining emotions. Similarly, theories of risk perception have been expanding to include emotional and physiological processes along with cognitive processes. Taking a closer look at The Principles of Psychology, this article examines how James' propositions support and extend current research on risk perc...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - October 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Rethinking priming in social psychology: Insight from James' notions of habits and instincts
Publication date: Available online 20 October 2015 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): Lowell Friesen, James Cresswell Research on priming is commonly taken to establish that much of human behavior is automatic and caused by largely subconscious processes. This research has recently come under increased scrutiny as some classic studies have proved difficult to replicate. In this essay, we bring the views of William James to bear on priming. Though James leaves room for instinct and habit, he rejects the view that human psychology is ultimately mechanistic on the grounds that it is naïvely simplistic. James i...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - October 21, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
How does a word become a message? An illustration on a developmental time-scale
Publication date: Available online 14 October 2015 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi Recent changes in views on cognition underscore its embodied, situated and distributed character. These changes are compatible with the conceptual framework of ecological psychology. However for ecological psychology to propose explanations for a broad range of cognitive phenomena, including language, it needs an account of how to link the dynamics of coupling between the organism and the environment with the apparent symbolicity of informational structures. In this paper it is proposed that a theor...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - October 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
On agency in situated languaging: Participatory agency and competing approaches
Publication date: Available online 9 October 2015 Source:New Ideas in Psychology Author(s): Per Linell This theoretical paper discusses different linguistic theories that have dealt (or in some cases: not dealt) with how situated utterances are built in natural language: What is the role of abstract systems of linguistic norms or impersonal brain mechanisms? Can individual speakers make decisions about their own utterances? In this paper some traditional, structuralist, interactionist and dialogist theories are mutually contrasted. Starting out from a dialogist framework, a notion of participatory agency will be deve...
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - October 10, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
How to help: Can more active behavioral measures help transcend the infant false-belief debate?
In conclusion, the use of more active behavioral measures alone does not resolve the controversy that has played out with respect to infant looking procedures. Instead, any adequate methodological modifications must be accompanied by theoretical considerations as well. (Source: New Ideas in Psychology)
Source: New Ideas in Psychology - August 16, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
