Psychology and the Question of Agency

Jack Martin is the Burnaby Mountain Endowed Professor of Education at Simon Fraser University. He is the coeditor (with Lisa Tsoi Hoshmand) of Research as Praxis: Lessons From Programmatic Research in Therapeutic Psychology, and the author of several books including (with Jeff Sugarman) The Psychology of Human Possibility and Constraint, published by SUNY Press. Jeff Sugarman is Assistant Professor of Education and Janice Thompson is Associate Dean of Education at Simon Fraser University.

"Written with grace, cogency, and clarity, this book brings together a wide range of sources that are not generally accessible to psychologists. The authors' ability to synthesize these works and develop a well-articulated theory of agency is an extremely valuable contribution to the field." — Blaine J. Fowers, coauthor of Re-envisioning Psychology: Moral Dimensions of Theory and Practice

• Preface 1. PSYCHOLOGY AND THE QUESTION OF AGENCY Some Relevant Background for What Follows Psychology's Disavowal of Agency The Basic Error Method over Substance Aspirations 2. REDUCTIONISM IN PSYCHOLOGY A Historical Sketch Identity versus RequirementOmissionsSummary and Implications Research Practices and the Construction of Pseudo-Psychological Kinds Causal WoesVariability and Its Statistical Treatment Manufacturing and Generalizing Psychological Entities The Role of Professional Psychology The Example of Self-Concept Another Kind of Reductionism in Psychology An Antidote in Brief 3. BETWEEN HARD DETERMINISM AND RADICAL FREEDOM Definitions and Distinctions A Critical Consideration of Some Notable Attempts at Soft Determinism Philosophical ConsiderationsPsychological Considerations Bandura's Social Cognitive TheoryTheory of Mind and Intentional Self-DevelopmentTheoretical Psychology of Agency Hermeneutics and Agency 4. THE UNDERDETERMINATION AND IRREDUCIBILITYOF AGENCY An Argument for the Underdetermination of Agency Structure of the ArgumentAgainst Full Physical-BiologicalDeterminismAgainst Full Sociocultural DeterminismAgainst Randomness and Unconscious Processes AloneAgency as the Surviving, Plausible Option Contemporary Programs of Reductionism and the Irreducibility of Agency Central State MaterialismSupervenience and FunctionalismComputational Models of MindWhat Is Missing in Reductive Functionalism and Computationalism? Summary and Links 5. A THEORY OF SITUATED, EMERGENT, AND DELIBERATIVE AGENCY Levels of Reality Being-in-the-World Tiered Reality An Existential Starting Point and a Brief Conception of Personhood The Developmental Emergence of Situated, Deliberative Agency and Psychological Kinds Understanding and Care within Traditions of Living Summarizing Our Theory of Agency and Psychological Kinds Implications for Understanding Psychological Phenomena A Final Word 6. PUTTING AGENCY INTO PSYCHOLOGY Re-envisioning Psychological Research: Reinforcement Theory and Beyond Reinforcement Theory RevisitedBeyond Reinforcement Theory Re-envisioning Psychological Practice The Nature of PsychotherapyThe Practice of PsychotherapyThe Education of Psychotherapists The Sociopolitical Consequences of Situated, Emergent, and Deliberative Agency Liberalism and CommunitarianismThe Political Disposition of a Situated, Emergent, and Deliberative Agency A Concluding Comment References Index