Political question of the day: who is more experienced?
Questioning the efficacy of experience begs the questions: “what is meant by experience; what are the relations of experience to capability; what–for you–are the optimal benefits of experience?”
My informal surveys reveal that most people have never thought in any sophisticated way about the nature and benefits of […]
Read Full Post »
A voter’s behavior at the polling place reduces to a decision. Hold that idea.
This is analogous to a shopper’s behavior. How much time does a shopper spend in deciding what tomato in a pile of tomatoes will provide the biggest payoff in return for their investment of “selection” time? Why is it that a given […]
Read Full Post »
The anti-evolution movie Expelled has garnered a lot of attention in the aftermath of its release to the nation’s cinemas. I haven’t seen it. The mainstream reviews all point out that it’s a deceptive piece of propaganda. I have no doubt that it is after reading about the various canards it rolls out gleefully.
Of more […]
Read Full Post »
Just as there is the term folk psychology, meaning the subjective psychological assumptions and models individuals deploy to navigate the interpersonal universe, there could be the term folk anthropology to designate the subjective assumptions each of us deploys to understand the human universe.
Mr. Obama got himself in a lot of hot water recently when he […]
Read Full Post »
It’s the political season and so I’m happy to indulge two obsessive interests, politics and the social psychology of the citizenry. Actually, I don’t need a political season to be gripped, it’s always the political season in my house.
Over at Colonel Pat Lang’s blog, Sic Semper Tyrannis 2008, one of the handful of blogs I […]
Read Full Post »
Another great thread unfolds on the Observation Deck:The First Mayoral Debate of the Lakewood Observer. (As always, the Lakewood Observer project in Lakewood, Ohio, is one of the truly innovative experiments in civic engagement, intelligence and journalism going on in the US today.)
Although it is obvious the US has become debate-crazy, as if debates […]
Read Full Post »
Lakewood Ohio’s Visionary Alignment often finds its grip on the Observation Deck of the Lakewood Observer, the city’s all volunteer community newspaper. A thread there, unfolding since May 12, Race, Courage and the Future of Lakewood exemplifies the spirit of deep inquiry that is one of the core facets of this project.
The Visionary Alignment is […]
Read Full Post »
(Baxter & Dindla; 1987, 1990)
1. changing the external environment
2. communication
3. metacommunication
4. suppress metacommunication*
5. antisocial strategies; coercion
6. prosocial strategies**
7. ceremonies
8. spontaneity
9. togetherness
10. seeking, allowing autonomy
11. seeking outside help
12. other.***
From a nifty chapter, Relational Maintenance, in Close Relationships, Noller, Feeny, et al. Psychology Press, 2006.
This list has been slightly edited by yours truly.
* joined two terms for […]
Read Full Post »
KW I’m interested in the way morphic fields might determine culture. For instance, repeating and idea with the intention of influencing overall human consciousness- if it’s thought about many times, will it have an effect?
RS You mean the more people think about something, the more it’s likely to happen? Yes. Basically, morphic fields are fields […]
Read Full Post »
Where The Sidewalk Ends
Behavioral psychology’s unexpected lesson for urban design
(Linda Baker)
[excerpts]
“The idea of this street is that it’s designed like a public square but it’s open to traffic,” said Ellen Vanderslice, a project manager for the Portland Department of Transportation. “We were very consciously trying to create a body language of the street that tells […]
Read Full Post »
From a perspective of what language can and cannot accomplish, and especially from the perspective concerned with the dynamics of cognitive relation to persuasive language over time, the effort of the Cheney Inc. to push “stay the course” back in the box is fascinating.
Maureen Dowd is pithy:
The Bushes don’t connect words with action. Action is […]
Read Full Post »
I had reason to recently provide a colleague with a primer on Social Constructionism. Diving into a stack of papers and rooting through the web, it brought back memories. Good ones too: I’m not a doctrinaire anything let alone a social constructionist, yet it is, viewed philosophically, a very respectable meta-methodology in my book, and, […]
Read Full Post »
I’m very curious about the process through which people really get to know each other. And, just as fascinated by the processes through which people fool themselves into believing they are getting to really know one other. There is overlap between the former and the latter kinds of processes. Some people are very good at […]
Read Full Post »
Another goldmine hiding out on the web. This time oriented around phenomenological-constructive psychology and coming out of The Virtual Faculty in New Zealand. The VF has a modest facade behind which lies enormous resources; for example: The Vysgotsky Project.
I haven’t read all the papers, (not hardly!) but could point to a thinker worth curling up […]
Read Full Post »
I’ve been thinking about online communities oriented around exploration, learning, and practice. Carol Higgison, editor of the Online Tutoring E-Book Tutorial hasn’t been thinking about those modalities, yet, her OTe at OTIS (Scotland) has lots of conceptual goods which translate to the more open-ended visions…that I keep having.
Read Full Post »
