The Psychology of Personhood
Philosophical, Historical, Social-Developmental, and Narrative Perspectives

A new examination of the psychology of personhood, which views persons as irreducibly embodied and socially situated beings.

Jack Martin (Edited by), Mark H. Bickhard (Edited by)

9781107018082, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 November 2012

276 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.54 kg

'The Psychology of Personhood offers a unique collection of important contributions to an interdisciplinary, non-reductionist science of personhood. Martin and Bickhard succeed in bringing together different approaches and providing the basis for a new constructive debate on a contemporary key topic in both psychology and philosophy.' Michael Jungert, Philosophical Psychology

What is a person? Surprisingly little attention is given to this question in psychology. For much of the past century, psychology has tended to focus on the systematic study of processes rather than on the persons who enact and embody them. In contrast to the reductionist picture of much mainstream theorising, which construes persons as their mental lives, behaviours or neurophysiological particulars, The Psychology of Personhood presents persons as irreducibly embodied and socially situated beings. Placing the study of persons at the centre of psychology, this book presents novel insights on the typical, everyday actions and experiences of persons in relation to each other and to the broader society and culture. Leading scholars from diverse academic disciplines paint an integrative portrait of the psychological person within evolutionary, historical, cultural, developmental and everyday contexts.

1. Introducing persons and the psychology of personhood Jack Martin and Mark H. Bickhard
Part I. Philosophical, Conceptual Perspectives: 2. The person concept and the ontology of persons Michael A. Tissaw
3. Achieving personhood: the perspective of hermeneutic phenomenology Charles Guignon
Part II. Historical Perspectives: 4. Historical psychology of persons: categories and practice Kurt Danziger
5. Persons and historical ontology Jeff Sugarman
6. Critical personalism: on its tenets, its historical obscurity, and its future prospects James T. Lamiell
Part III. Social-Developmental Perspectives: 7. Conceiving of self and others as persons: evolution and development John Barresi, Chris Moore and Raymond Martin
8. Position exchange theory and personhood: moving between positions and perspectives within physical, socio-cultural and psychological space and time Jack Martin and Alex Gillespie
9. The emergent ontology of persons Mark H. Bickhard
10. Theorizing personhood for the world in transition and change: reflections from a transformative activist stance on human development Anna Stetsenko
Part IV. Narrative Perspectives: 11. Identity and narrative as root metaphors of personhood Amia Lieblich and Ruthellen Josselson
12. Storied persons: the double triad of narrative identity Mark Freeman.

Subject Areas: The self, ego, identity, personality [JMS], Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Cultural studies [JFC], Philosophy of mind [HPM]