Turning Psychology into a Social Science

Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of contents
Tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
A note on referencing
1 The opposite of rational is social, not irrational or crazy: How the ‘social’ got squeezed out of Western history
	Some background
		Why was the ‘social’ excluded?
	Labelling the ‘non-rational’
		Science
		Mental health
		Economics
		Law and legal systems
		Government and bureaucracy
		Ecology
		Religion and spirituality
		Logic
	References
2 How are our behaviours shaped by societal ‘systems’ and ‘structures’?
	How do we get from sociological to ‘individual’?
	Is there even an individual?
	Where do societal systems and structures come from?
	How do societal systems and structures impact on ‘individual’ behaviour?
	Examples of deconstructing some ‘psychological’ structures and systems
		Grammar
		‘Personality’
		Social structures
		Patriarchy
	How do we intervene?
	References
3 The societal ecologies of modern life are our ‘psychology’
	How can we link people’s actions, talking, and thinking to the large societal contexts?
	A little bit of quick historical context
	Some social properties of early forms of resource distribution and social relationships (economics)
	What happened next in human history? The rise of modernity
	What are our current life contexts that shape our actions, talking, and thinking?
		What are these systems that shape our behaviours now?
	From society to individual behaviour
		The first basic consequences
	The specific systems built in order to manage large populations of strangers: welcome to your jungle
	How are we affected by these systems?
		Social relationships
		Economics and resource distribution
		Bureaucratic neoliberalism
	The bigger picture
	References
4 Contextualizing beliefs as everyday language strategies
	Rethinking beliefs
		Contextualizing beliefs and their social properties or uses
			Exercise
		Contextualizing how beliefs are changed
	Why it is important to radically rethink beliefs: social and political changes and effects
		Examples of language use (stating beliefs) and how this  engenders resources
	References
5 Self, identity, consciousness, and meaning as social actions in context
	Contextualizing the ‘self’
		Special features of self in kin-based communities
		Special features of self in modernity
	Self-awareness and consciousness
		What does thinking about ‘self’ do, and especially thinking  about yourself?
		Summary: “why does it feel like ‘my thoughts control my behaviour’?”
	Reasons and meaning
		Reasons
		Meaning
	References
6 A new look at Marxism, psychology, and social contextual analysis
	Social relations of production = resource–social relationship pathways
	Dialectical = contextual?
		Conceptualizing contradictions and opposing forces in  material action and real life
		So, what is wrong with logic?
	Completing Marx’s removal of idealism and metaphysics
	Class structures in context
	Summary
	References
7 Contextualizing the arts
	Contextualizing the arts
	References
8 Contextualizing religion and religious behaviours
	The behaviours observed
	Some functions of religious behaviours
		Pathway 1: the ‘internal’ functions of religious behaviours
		Pathway 2: the social functions of religion
	Contextualizing strategies for the social control of groups
		Taboo
		Rituals
		Totems
		Mystification about the universe
		Personal crises and religious behaviour
		Ambiguity
		Witchcraft
	Religious and non-religious behaviours?
		Similar strategies in the secular world
	Conclusions
	References
9 Weaning yourself off social psychology
	Contextualizing social psychology and methodologies
	The main assumptions of social psychology that need rethinking
		1. Individualistic
		2. Verbal reports substituted for social behaviour
		3. Little context is taken into account
		4. Psychologists have been varying contexts and the consequences  of behaviour all along, but in hidden ways
		5. Abstract surrogates are used in lieu of proper observations
		6. Thoughts control behaviour
		7. Cognition is opposed to emotions
		8. The context has been assumed to be white, male, middle class,  and Western
		9. Rules govern our behaviour
		10. Methodology without context
			How to document context to understand human actions, talking,  and thinking?
			Research outcomes as talk or action?
			Research as social behaviours
	Contextualizing some examples of important ideas in  social psychology
		Cognitive biases
		Cognitive dissonance
		Beliefs and attitudes
		Attribution and attribution biases
		Social and personal identity
		Obedience and Milgram (1974)
		Bystander intervention, social loafing, social facilitation, deindividuation, and social competition
	References
Index