Positive Psychology and Philosophy of Social Science
Authors:
- 1 October 2008
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Theory & Psychology
- Vol. 18 (5) , 605-627
Abstract
Many of the shortcomings of `positive psychology' seem to stem from its unreflectively perpetuating key assumptions of the very mainstream social science it censures for being too `negative.' Philosophical hermeneutics and related social theory perspectives allow us to identify and critically examine such assumptions, including a one-sided individualism and narrow instrumentalism. Hermeneutics allows us to make sense of the `disguised ideology' that imbues positive psychology and much modern social science, suggests that social inquiry is best seen as a kind of dialogic understanding, and may allow us to take the measure of deep human limitations without falling into cynicism or despair.Keywords
This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- Positive PsychologyTheory & Psychology, 2008
- Problematic Ontological Underpinnings of Positive PsychologyTheory & Psychology, 2008
- Positive Psychology, Ethnocentrism, and the Disguised Ideology of IndividualismTheory & Psychology, 2008
- Hermeneutics, authenticity and the aims of psychology.Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 2002
- "Positive psychology: An introduction": Reply.American Psychologist, 2001
- Interpretive Social ScienceAmerican Behavioral Scientist, 1998
- Selfhood at risk: Postmodern perils and the perils of postmodernism.American Psychologist, 1994
- Social theory as practice: Metatheoretical options for social inquiry.Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 1993
- Why the self is empty: Toward a historically situated psychology.American Psychologist, 1990
- The decentralization of identity: Toward a revised concept of personal and social order.American Psychologist, 1985