The Future of Cultural Psychology: An Interview With Jaan Valsiner.

Jaan Valsiner (JV) has been the foremost cultural psychologist in the world for the last 30 years. In 2021 professor Valsiner turned seventy, and he agreed to do an interview with colleagues and students on his understanding of cultural psychology, its potential for innovation and its connection to his many interesting experiences from around the world. The interview was conducted by the three directors of the Center for Cultural Psychology in Aalborg Denmark: Carolin Demuth (CD), Brady Wagoner (BW), and Bo Allesøe Christensen (BA). For an extensive discussion of the different sides of Valsiner work, readers can consult the recently published Festschrift (Wagoner, B., Christensen, B., & Demuth, C. [Eds.]. [2021]. Culture as process: A tribute to Jaan Valsiner. Springer.).

From Clay Feet to New Psychology: Starting the Move.

This Special Issue sets the stage for constructive integration of psychology with relevant phenomena it needs to study, and with its interdisciplinary collaboration possibilities. Based on a regular submission of an analysis of the conceptual network of psychology (Zagaria et al. 2020) an international constructive discussion ensued, with charting out three potential future pathways to psychology as science: (1) theoretical elaboration of the person-centered and idiographic approaches and move from "evidence-based" to experience-based research; (2) advancement of general developmental science perspective beyond the traditions of evolutionary psychology along the lines of the genetic logic of James Mark Baldwin, and (3) building interdisciplinary synthesis between psychology and semiotics in the domain of cultural psychology. The progress in contemporary biology (epigenetics) and qualitative mathematics can provide the epistemological support for this move.

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 Functions of Semiotic Borders in Sense-Making: Liminality of Narrative Processes.

In this paper we discuss the semiotic functions of the psychological borders that structure the flow of narrative processes. Each narration is always a contextual, situated and contingent process of sensemaking, made possible by the creation of borders, such as dynamic semiotic devices that are capable of connecting the past and the future, the inside and the outside, and the me with the non-me. Borders enable us to narratively construct one's own experiences using three inherent processes: contextualization, intersubjective positioning and setting of pertinence. The narrative process - as a subjective articulation of signs in a contingent social context - involves several functions of semiotic borders: separation, differentiation, distinction-making, connection, articulation and relation-enabling. The relevant psychological aspect highlighted here is that a border is a semiotic device which is required for both maintaining stability and inducing transformation at the same time. The peculiar dynamics and the semiotic structure of borders generate a liminal space, which is characterized by instability, by a blurred space-time distinction and by ambiguities in the semantic and syntactic processes of sensemaking. The psychological processes that occur in liminal space are strongly affectively loaded, yet it is exactly the setting and activation of liminality processes that lead to novelty and creativity and enable the creation of new narrative forms.

Beyond the Institutionalized Fetish of the "Neurosciences": Taking Brain Seriously.

In their book Kritik der Neuropsychologie (Giessen: Psychosozial Verlag, 2016, 123 pp. ISBN 978-3-8379-2563-0), Hans Werbik and Gerhard Benetka provide a thorough analysis of the modus operandi of our contemporary neurosciences and their success in promising the public and funding institutions great breakthroughs in understanding the human mind through the study of the brain. As the authors prove such promises are inadequate given the qualities of the human psyche that cannot be reduced to the complex mechanisms of the activation of brain circuits because there cannot be isomorphism between the brain and the ongoing dynamic relating of the mind with the flow of subjective experiencing. The authors provide a scenario for possible solutions coming from cultural psychology which need further advancement of psychology's methodology.

A qualitative analysis of Vietnamese adolescent identity exploration within and outside an ethnic enclave.

Focusing on identity development explorations enables a greater understanding of contexts that affect immigrant adolescents. Utilizing thematic and grounded narrative analysis of 46 journal writings, during a one-month period, from first and second generation Vietnamese adolescents ranging in age from 15 to 18 (26 residents of a culturally and politically active ethnic enclave in Southern California; 20 adolescents living outside the enclave), this study establishes ways in which a focus on social context and exploration processes illuminates the complexity of immigrant adolescents' identity formation. The two groups shared many similarities, including precipitants to exploration and steps undertaken to explore identity. However, two factors-social and cultural influences and emotional reactions-revealed interesting contrasts distinguishing enclave from non-enclave dwelling Vietnamese adolescents. Data also suggested that immigrant adolescents strive to integrate different domains of identity (ethnicity, gender, career) both with one another and with the historical, social, and cultural contexts they occupy.

Integrating psychology within the globalizing world: a requiem to the post-modernist experiment with Wissenschaft.

Since the new beginning in 2007 of Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science we have brought out to the open both the reasons why the ever-widening research enterprise in psychology has largely failed to produce general knowledge, and to point to promising new directions in the field. The post-modernist turn in psychology is now over, and it is an interesting task to return to creating a universal science of psychology that is context-sensitive, and culture-inclusive. The latter goal entails a renewed focus upon qualitative analyses of time-based processes, close attention to the phenomena under study, and systematic (single-system-based-usually labeled idiographic) focus in empirical investigations. Through these three pathways centrality of human experiencing of culturally constructed worlds is restored as the core of psychological science. Universal principles are evident in each and every single case. Transcending post-modernist deconstruction of science happens through active international participation and a renewed focus on creating general theories. Contemporary psychology is global in ways that no longer can any country's socio-political world view dominate the field. Such international equality of contributions grants innovation of the core of the discipline, and safeguards it against assuming any single cultural myth-story as the axiomatic basis for the discipline.

What is in a name? Understanding the implications of participant terminology.

The authors discuss the history of research terminology in American psychology with respect to the various labels given to those upon whom we conduct research ("observer"-"subject"-"participant"-"client"). This history is supplemented with an analysis of participant terminology in APA manuals from four historical eras, from the 1950s to the present. The general trend in participant terminology reflects the overall trends in American psychology, beginning with a complex lexicon that admitted both the passive and the active research participant, followed by a dominance of the passive term 'subject' and ending with the terminological ambiguity and multiplicity reflected in contemporary psychology. This selective history serves to contextualize a discussion of the meaning, functions, and implications of the transformations in, and debates over, participant terminology.

Consciousness as a process: from the loneliness of William James to the buzzing and booming voices of contemporary science.

This Special Issue of IPBS brings the old metaphor of William James--consciousness as a "stream of thought"--to a contemporary critical inspection. It is demonstrated--based on materials of language (Panksepp 2008; Shanahan 2008), perception (Engelmann 2008) and dialogical self (Bertau 2008) that the classic river metaphor is an inadequate depiction of the multi-level psychological processes that are regulated by the affective systems of the brain and hierarchically integrated through dialogical and semiotic mechanisms.

Gilbert Gottlieb's theory of probabilistic epigenesis: probabilities and realities in development.

Gilbert Gottlieb's theory of probabilistic epigenesis is a fertile ground for further theoretical construction in developmental science. It fills in the gap in the domineering empiricism and honoring of inductive generalization that dominates psychology in the beginning of the 21st century, by offering a basic deductive framework for guiding the efforts of developmental science. It was based on a program of careful experimental investigations of the early avian ontogenies -- later to be generalized to the developmental processes as a generic phenomenon. Further development of his theory takes the form of (a) explicating the different meanings of probabilism in his model, and (b) extending his multi-level system to include psychological and social levels of organization. Gottlieb's contribution allows for a new synthesis of contemporary epigenetics and developmental science, and sets up major challenges for the methodology of research on development.

Looking across cultural gender boundaries.

This Special Issue on gender brings the issues of feelings about gender role boundaries to the forefront of our inquiries. Boundaries are the domains where psychological processes act- they function as membranes (in the biological sense). The use of boundary notion in psychological theorizing may take the discipline beyond its current projection of essentialist causal agents into the human psyche.

The fate of the forgotten: Chamberlain's work reconsidered.

This article discusses the early psychological traditions developed at Clark University under the guidance of G. Stanley Hall. Anthropology and cultural psychology are both rooted in the notion that humans are social beings. That idea constituted a brief moment of theoretical unity between psychology and anthropology in the study of human language in its psychological functions. In that context, the work of Alexander Chamberlain is explored as a major contribution. Chamberlain--if viewed in the jargon of our contemporary social scientists--was deeply "interdisciplinary" in his work. Despite the positive meaning of the term "interdisciplinary" in contemporary discourse about the social sciences, the realities of social organization of any science entail separation rather than integration. Chamberlain's work took place in parallel in anthropology and in developmental psychology under the interdisciplinary emphasis of "child study" as set up by G. Stanley Hall. Hall made child study the distinctive feature of the "Clark tradition" of psychology. Chamberlain's work constituted both the beginning and the end of the (miniscule) "Clark tradition" in anthropology.

Entre a "democracia da literatura" e a paixao pela compreensao: entendendo a dinamica do desenvolvimento

Neste trabalho e mostrado que o discurso da Psicologia inclui a coexistencia das construcoes semioticas retoricas ('democracia da literatura') e substantivas (teoricas). As primeiras sao evidenciadas no estilo da referencia imprecisa e acumulativa em textos psicologicos, assim como na repeticao de rotulos genericos de perspectivas (p. ex.: Vygotskiana, Piagetiana, etc.). Em contraste, as construcoes substantivas (teoricas) das ideias entrelacam os lados empiricos abstratos e concretos do processo da pesquisa. Contribuicoes especificas dos artigos neste numero para a compreensao do contexto, desenvolvimento e sistemas dinamicos sao analisadas brevemente.

A construcao subjetiva da intersubjetividade

Atores sociais que estao envolvidos em interacoes dentro de contextos culturais sao, simultaneamente resultados de seu passado sociogeneticamente construido e construtores, em um presente pessoal e cultural, de seus futuros imediatos esperados. A maioria das perspectivas socioculturalmente orientadas tem enfatizado as origens sociais e culturais dos processos mentais e acoes das pessoas, deixando fora do foco teorico a questao da emergencia de novidade semiotica no dominio de processos psicologicos orientados para o futuro. O resultado desta visao parcial e o recorrente retorno a esforcos teoricamente improdutivos de eliminar 'dualismos' do discurso socio-cultural, e para conceitualizar a pessoa enquanto relacionando-se com o mundo social em termos de 'fusao' dos mundos psicologicos sociais e pessoais. Em contraste, a perspectiva teorica da personologia sociogenetica preserva o papel central da subjetividade socialmente constituida no processo de continua criacao de intersubjetividade, no tempo irreversivel do curso de vida da pessoa. Mediacao semiotica e uma pre-adaptacao subjetiva, tornada necessaria pela irreversibilidade do tempo. Intersubjetividade e pre-assumida subjetivamente como uma base para posterior construcao semiotica de novas formas de subjetividades e de mundos sociais.