The objectivist critique of Hermann Helmholtz's theory of perception: The case of Ramón Turró (1854-1926).

In this article, we look into the development of the Helmholtz theory of perception in the light of Spanish biologist Ramón Turró's objectivist critique of the theory. In the first part, we explain the decisive role that Helmholtz's theory of perception played in the evolution of his own general philosophical stance. Through the work of Helmholtz, we show how the dialectic between philosophical surmises and models of perception was an ongoing, fundamental part of the period that saw the formation of scientific psychology. In the second part of the article, we examine Turró's original, unique contribution to the discourse. Early on in his theoretical work, Turró defended a model of perception closely resembling Helmholtz's, but, because of his objectivist philosophical convictions, Turró eventually elaborated an original theory of perception based largely on the trophic experience. His proposal rested on his own research as a physiologist and featured the elimination of all mentalistic components, in contrast to the voluntaristic leanings he detected in Helmholtz's work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Clay of Evolution: Megalomania in (Evolutionary) Psychology.

This article is an attempt to reply to a number of theoretical and epistemological issues frequently addressed in contemporary evolutionary psychology. We adopt a critical approach to both the empiricist conceit so often underlying the discipline and its core premises around the relationship between mind and biological evolution. As an alternative we take a constructivist view from which we propose to broach that relationship through the so-called Baldwin effect. That phenomenon, widely known among evolutionary biologists today, enables us to elude simplistic approaches to the problem of the relationship between psychology and evolution. It also affords a perspective for re-focusing the issues on the activity of organisms and the classic inter-connections among phylogenesis, historiogenesis and ontogenesis. The study concludes with a warning about the limitations to explanation that should be assumed by any psychological postulate with universally comprehensive pretensions, an issue evocative of the inevitable and structural crisis in which psychology should agree to transpire.

Correction: Symbolic universes between present and future of Europe. First results of the map of European societies' cultural milieu.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189885.].

Symbolic universes between present and future of Europe. First results of the map of European societies' cultural milieu.

This paper reports the framework, method and main findings of an analysis of cultural milieus in 4 European countries (Estonia, Greece, Italy, and UK). The analysis is based on a questionnaire applied to a sample built through a two-step procedure of post-hoc random selection from a broader dataset based on an online survey. Responses to the questionnaire were subjected to multidimensional analysis-a combination of Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis. We identified 5 symbolic universes, that correspond to basic, embodied, affect-laden, generalized worldviews. People in this study see the world as either a) an ordered universe; b) a matter of interpersonal bond; c) a caring society; d) consisting of a niche of belongingness; e) a hostile place (others' world). These symbolic universes were also interpreted as semiotic capital: they reflect the capacity of a place to foster social and civic development. Moreover, the distribution of the symbolic universes, and therefore social and civic engagement, is demonstrated to be variable across the 4 countries in the analysis. Finally, we develop a retrospective reconstruction of the distribution of symbolic universes as well as the interplay between their current state and past, present and future socio-institutional scenarios.

Psychological keys in the study of African American religious folk songs in the early work of Howard W. Odum (1884-1954).

This study focuses on the analysis of the early work of Howard W. Odum (1884-1954) and the examination of the psychological aspects that marked his reflection on African American music. This analysis reveals many of the aspects that were generically shared by the psychological agenda of the period when analyzing aesthetic experience and activity. Outstanding among these are the relationship of the musical phenomenon with very basic or primary affective-emotional dimensions, the conception of the musical phenomenon as an indicator of the cognitive-affective development of human groups, its expression in the form of cultural and complex intersubjective products, or its possible participation in the technoscientific design of social reform and progress. The simultaneous treatment of all of these aspects in Odum's work brings to light the interdisciplinary framework in which early psychology moved, while revealing the theoretical and ideological contradictions and controversies that enveloped the discipline, above all, at the point where it attempted to place itself at the service of the constitution of self-governed individuals. All in all, Odum's work also reflects the crucial role that early psychology attributed to art as a privileged medium to give meaning to experience and the human being's vital purposes. (PsycINFO Database Record

Claves psicológicas fundacionales del autogobierno ciudadano: la "psicología del pueblo español" como estudio de caso (1902-1918) / Foundational Psychological Clues of Citizenry Self-Government: the "Psychology of the Spanish People" as a Case Study (1902-1918)

A finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX, la configuración psicológica del concepto liberal de autogobierno fue clave para diseñar el sujeto político de la modernidad y la propia idea de "ciudadanía". Nuestro trabajo estudia ese proceso sociohistórico a través de los primeros textos dedicados a la "psicología del pueblo español". Además de confirmar la estrecha relación entre psicología y autogobierno, el análisis revela el papel de la psicología en la transición histórica desde las tradicionales teorías y prácticas de la subjetividad hasta las modernas -particularmente en el dominio educativo y religioso-. Gracias a la psicología, el proyecto liberal también estableció los supuestos límites sociopolíticos para la potencial participación ciudadana de la población española.

At the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th, the psychological configuration of the liberal concept of self-government was basic to design the political subject of the modernity and the very idea of "citizenship". Our paper studies this socio-historical process throughout the first works devoted to the "Psychology of the Spanish People". The analysis not only confirm the close relation between psychology and citizenship, but the role played by the psychology in the transition from the traditional theories and practices of the subjectivity to the modern ones -particularly in the fields of religion and education. The socio-political limits imposed by the liberal program on the potential citizen participation of the Spanish population are also revealed.

"Psytizens": the co-construction of the professional identity of psychology students in the postmodern world.

This work aims to analyze the relations between psychology as social engineering and self-reflective citizenship from a historiogenetic point of view. Such a connection was founded during modernity; hence our proposal is to study its operative continuity in the postmodern world, taking into account the mismatches due to the new global, multicultural, and technological conditions. Based both on the theory of activity and the concept of semiosphere, the interaction and discussions of a group of Spanish students of psychology in a virtual forum were analyzed. They were asked to negotiate and co-construct their double condition of citizens and future psychologists in connection with the controversial exhibition of religious symbols in Spanish schools. Results show that students segregate both conditions. On one hand, they agree and consolidate the neutral image of a professional psychologist being respectful with the multicultural world. On the other hand, they argue about the citizen and religious topics from a personal or ideological point of view, establishing limits to multiculturalism. Neither the interchange of ideas nor the writing-reading features of the virtual artefacts improved the reflexivity on the close dependencies and contradictions of the two identity domains. This great resilience is due to a sociocultural context -the Western World- where psychology has been constituted as a neutral, objective Science World, one of whose socio-historical products - reflective citizenship- has evolved until proclaiming his/her autonomous agency, forgetting any root in the social engineering.

Citizen weeks or the psychologizing of citizenship.

Arland Deyett Weeks (1871-1936) was an American educator and social reformer who published The Psychology of Citizenship in 1917 with the intention of compiling the psychological, psychobiological, and psychosocial knowledge needed for governing modern democratic Western industrialized societies, as well as offering suggestions for intervention and social reform in the educational, legal, and occupational domains. His point of view can be placed within the progressive social and intellectual movement that characterized the policies of the United States in the first decade of the 20th century. His sociopolitical ideas were fed by transcendental and pragmatic sources, especially with respect to the way of dealing with tension between the individual and the collective. Modern psychological techniques (occupational, educational, legal psychology, etc.) nourished his reform program. In this article, we contextualize Weeks's book within these ideas and show its historical significance in the sociocultural and intellectual context that gave it meaning.