These original essays, written by prominent scholars, pay tribute to the work of William Bevan. In the course of his distinguished career, Bevan has exhibited an almost unique capacity to focus a clear-eyed, critical gaze on operating assumptions and actions—his own and those of others—and to initiate consequential, constructive steps forward, both
The psychology classic—a detailed study of scientific theories of human nature and the possible ways in which human behavior can be predicted and controlled—from one of the most influential behaviorists of the twentieth century and the author of Walden Two. “This is an important book, exceptionally well written, and logically consistent with the basic premise of the unitary nature of science. Many students of society and culture would take violent issue with most of the things that Skinner has to say, but even those who disagree most will find this a stimulating book.” —Samuel M. Strong, The American Journal of Sociology “This is a remarkable book—remarkable in that it presents a strong, consistent, and all but exhaustive case for a natural science of human behavior…It ought to be…valuable for those whose preferences lie with, as well as those whose preferences stand against, a behavioristic approach to human activity.” —Harry Prosch, Ethics
Conflict is inherent in virtually every aspect of human relations, from sport to parliamentary democracy, from fashion in the arts to paradigmatic challenges in the sciences, and from economic activity to intimate relationships. Yet, it can become among the most serious social problems humans face when it loses its constructive features and becomes protracted over time with no obvious means of resolution. This book addresses the subject of intractable social conflict from a new vantage point. Here, these types of conflict represent self-organizing phenomena, emerging quite naturally from the ongoing dynamics in human interaction at any scale—from the interpersonal to the international. Using the universal language and computational framework of nonlinear dynamical systems theory in combination with recent insights from social psychology, intractable conflict is understood as a system locked in special attractor states that constrain the thoughts and actions of the parties to the conflict. The emergence and maintenance of attractors for conflict can be described by means of formal models that incorporate the results of computer simulations, experiments, field research, and archival analyses. Multi-disciplinary research reflecting these approaches provides encouraging support for the dynamical systems perspective. Importantly, this text presents new views on conflict resolution. In contrast to traditional approaches that tend to focus on basic, short-lived cause-effect relations, the dynamical perspective emphasizes the temporal patterns and potential for emergence in destructive relations. Attractor deconstruction entails restoring complexity to a conflict scenario by isolating elements or changing the feedback loops among them. The creation of a latent attractor trades on the tendency toward multi-stability in dynamical systems and entails the consolidation of incongruent (positive) elements into a coherent structure. In the bifurcation scenario, factors are identified that can change the number and types of attractors in a conflict scenario. The implementation of these strategies may hold the key to unlocking intractable conflict, creating the potential for constructive social relations.
Among the scientific advances over the last one hundred years, those in psychological science rank among the most prolific and revealing. The analyses of human intelligence and cognition, of human consciousness and self-awareness, of human memory and learning, and of human personality structure have opened up new avenues towards a deeper understanding of the human nature, the human mind, and its evolution. These new insights, whilst meeting high standards of research methodology, have also given rise to a conceptual grid which connects hitherto divergent lines of research in the human and behavioral sciences, leading up to present-day neuroscience. The Editors, both past presidents of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), bring together a distinguished panel of international experts in the attempt to unravel, in a comparative cross-cultural and historical approach, changing contents and functions of psychological key concepts (such as intelligence, cognition, mind and the self). Their findings help to guide psychological theorizing, psychological experimentation and field research, and in so doing they apply behavioral science insights to the improvement of human affairs. Prepared under the aegis of the International Union of Psychological Science, the book exemplifies a concept-driven international history of psychological science. With its team of distinguished researchers from four continents, Psychological Concepts: An International Historical Perspective outlines the history of psychology in a truly innovative way.
Whether talking about steering a wheelbarrow over rugged terrain or plotting the course of international relations, human performance systems involve change. Sometimes changes are subtle or evolutionary, sometimes they are catastrophic or revolutionary, and sometimes the changes are from periods of relative calm to periods of vibrant oscillations to periods of chaos. As a general rule, more complex systems are likely to produce more complex forms of change. Although social scientists have long acknowledged that change occurs and have considered ways to effect desirable change, the dynamical processes of change have been poorly understood in the past. This volume combines recent advances in mathematics and experimental design with the best available social science theories to produce a new, integrated, and compact theory of work, organizations, and social evolution. The domains of application extend from human decision-making processes to personnel selection and work motivation, work performance under conditions of stress, accident and health risk analysis, the development of social institutions and economic systems, creativity and innovation, organizational development and group dynamics, and political revolutions and war. Relative to other literature on nonlinear dynamical systems theory (NDS), this book is unique in that it integrates new developments in NDS with substantive psychological theory. It builds on many recent developments in organizational theory to show that nonlinear dynamics were often implicit in those works all along. The result is an entirely new way of viewing social events, understanding change processes, and asking questions about social systems. This book also contains much new empirical work and explains the newly developed methods for testing these new hypotheses.
"... of interest and value to all serious students of international politics, and indeed of human affairs generally."—The American Political Science Review Originally published in 1965. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
For courses in Adjustment, Interpersonal Behavior, and Human Relations A conceptual and skills-based overview of relationship building in today's world Human Relations: The Art and Science of Building Effective Relationships helps students learn how to communicate more effectively within all of their personal and professional relationships. Employing a three-tiered approach to human relations, author Vivian McCann helps students to understand the psychological concepts that underlie relationships, to build the skills needed to communicate effectively, and to consider the influence of cultural norms and backgrounds throughout the relationship-building process. Revised to reflect the latest data and research, the Second Edition also includes updated information about how new technologies have greatly impacted today's relationships. NOTE: This ISBN is for a Pearson Books a la Carte edition: a convenient, three-hole-punched, loose-leaf text. In addition to the flexibility offered by this format, Books a la Carte editions offer students great value, as they cost significantly less than a bound textbook. Human Relations: The Art and Science of Building Effective Relationships, Second Edition is also available via REVEL(tm), an interactive learning environment that enables students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience.
This volume synthesizes the theoretical and empirical work of leading scholars in the evolutionary sciences to produce an extensive and authoritative review of this literature.
The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers includes both academic and non-academic philosophers, anda large number of female and minority thinkers whose work has been neglected. It includes those intellectualsinvolved in the development of psychology, pedagogy, sociology, anthropology, education, theology, politicalscience, and several other fields, before these disciplines came to be considered distinct from philosophy in thelate nineteenth century.Each entry contains a short biography of the writer, an exposition and analysis of his or her doctrines and ideas, abibliography of writings, and suggestions for further reading. While all the major post-Civil War philosophers arepresent, the most valuable feature of this dictionary is its coverage of a huge range of less well-known writers,including hundreds of presently obscure thinkers. In many cases, the Dictionary of Modern AmericanPhilosophers offers the first scholarly treatment of the life and work of certain writers. This book will be anindispensable reference work for scholars working on almost any aspect of modern American thought.
