Critical Realism for Psychologists

Description

This is the first dedicated text to explain and explore the utility of critical realism for psychologists, offering it as a helpful middle ground between positivism and postmodernism. By introducing its basic concepts, Pilgrim explains critical realism to psychologists and shows how the interface between the natural and social worlds, and the internal and external, can be used to examine human life. This both/and aspect of human life is important in another sense: we are both determined and determining beings, making choices but within the material constraints of both our bodies and the social context of our unique existence. The book offers an exploration of academic and applied psychology with that inward and outward curiosity in mind, beginning with the premise that both inner and outer reality are the legitimate interest of psychologists. In doing so, it shows how critical realism endorses the remaining advantages of positivism and postmodernism, while discarding their philosophical errors. A range of case studies are presented to show how psychologists can use critical realism when working with real life problems, as researchers or practitioners. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Glossary 1. The utility of critical realism Introduction Short reflective statement Guidelines about basic critical realism 1) The ‘holy trinity’ of critical realism 2) The transitive and intransitive dimensions to reality 3) The Empirical, The Actual and The Real 4) Ontology and emergence; closed and open systems 5) Generative mechanisms 6) Scientific inference: ‘DREIC’ and ‘RRREIC’ 7) Natural and social science 8) Epistemic and ontic fallacies Conclusion 2. The limits of naïve realism Introduction The amalgam of empiricism and positivism in orthodox psychology Empiricism is a flawed guide to science Naïve realism: not only empiricism but also positivism Human systems are open systems: inference about fluxingcomplexity Epistemic humility and the ubiquity of values in science Points of agreement between realists Naïve realism in psychology: concludinNaïve realism in psychology: concluding discussiong discussion 3. The limits of postmodernism Postmodernism as a version of idealism Starting with Nietzsche The limits of idealism Is postmodernism inherently politically radical? Postmodernism and psychology Responses to postmodern psychology Gaps and commonalities 4. Do we exist as individuals? Introduction Differential psychology Ordered and disordered personalities Transitive and intransitive questions about personality disorder Psychiatric positivism and personality disorder: a summary The important work of Jerome Kagan, Margaret Archer andChristian Smith Conclusion 5. Does the brain cause behaviour? Introduction The current legitimacy of neuroscience A non-reductionist account from critical realism Sceptical commentators Summarising the case for a non-reductionist neuroscience Conclusion 6. Does life flow on within you and without you? Introduction Behaviourism and putting inner reality off limits Naïve realism and inner life The hardy perennial of deep and complex subjectivity Conclusion 7. Is child sexual abuse a moral panic? Introduction An immanent critique of CSA as a moral panic An explanatory critique of CSA as a moral panic An omissive critique of CSA as a moral panic Discussion Conclusion 8. How do we know if a person has been tortured? Torture: a summary of the topic The prerequisite of dehumanisation The psychological assessment of individual reports of torture Discussion Conclusion 9. Why do we protest (sometimes)? Introduction Relevant concepts from critical realism Evolutionary origins Critical reflexivity about the evolutionary roots of protest The biopsychosocial complexity of protest and acquiescence Insights from the Frankfurt School about negativity in politics Structured and contingent power differentials And then came identity politics … Emancipation and axiology Implications for the psychological study of protest Reflecting on structure and agency in relation to protest Conclusion 10. How has psychiatric diagnosis both failed and survived? Background to the emergence of psychiatric diagnosis An immanent critique of the diagnosis of schizophrenia Discussion of the immanent critique of schizophrenia An explanatory critique of the diagnosis of schizophrenia An omissive critique of the diagnosis of schizophrenia 11. Why was psychoanalysis marginalised? Introduction A relevant outline of psychoanalysis Reflecting critically on the summary of the story of psychoanalysis Critical realism and the psychoanalytical defence of the ontology of our inner life Psychoanalysis versus behaviour therapy The legitimacy of psychoanalysis reconsidered in the light of the rise of behaviourism Discussion Conclusion 12. The possibility of a critical realist human science Introduction The disciplinary authority of contemporary psychology Transdisciplinary implications A re-look at the unobservable The utility of the concept of our four planar social being The possible role of psychologists in a transdisciplinary future Business as usual or a change in the curriculum? Conclusion Bibliography Index