Research
Research Philosophy
My view of psychological research emphasizes scholarship as opposed to
method. That means I am interested in a variety of scholarly research
efforts, some of which fall under the category of traditionally empirical
while other do not. My view is that psychology is best understood as a
discipline at the nexus between the humanities and the sciences. It is
a bridge discipline in many respects. Rather than attempting to confine
psychology to the sciences, I believe that working both on empirical research
as well as in the scholarly critical thinking manner associated with the
humanities will produce the most conceptually rich understanding of human
experience.
Quantitative Research
Personality and Perception
I work in collaboration with Harold Greene, Ph.D. from the Psychology
Department here at UDM in the study of Personality and Cognition. Primarily
we are working on studying participants’ information processing
during Rorschach administration. The Rorschach is a widely used and researched
projective test for the study of personality and psychological functioning.
It can also be understand as a visual information processing task. The
use of studying eye movements during visual information processing tasks
has contributed a great deal to perception research in recent years.
A person taking the Rorschach actively scans the blots and attempts to
discern what the configurations could resemble. Study of the participants’
fixation locations, durations and visual scanpaths during Rorschach administration
can not only assist in better understanding the psychometric properties
of the task, but also be used to address various theories concerning visual
perception and information processing. We are collecting normative data
concerning the frequency of fixations and fixation patterns for each of
the cards. In addition we are studying a number of personality and cognitive
characteristics of participants, including measures of visual-spatial
organization, imaginative capacity, psychological absorption and perceptual
flexibility.
Psychoanalytic Process Research
I work in collaboration with John Porcerelli, Ph.D. from the Wayne State
University School of Medicine Family Medicine program. We are investigating
patient characteristics of change during psychoanalytic work. Very little
research to date has examined the influence of personality factors on
psychotherapeutic process. Using the SWAP-200 developed by Westen &
Shedler (see Westen, D., & Shedler, J. (2000). A prototype matching
approach to personality disorders: Toward DSM-V. Journal of Personality
Disorders, 14, 109-126) and the SCORS developed by Westen, we can study
a range of personality factors in order to understand changes that take
place during the course of psychoanalytic work. We will continue to explore
numerous aspects of psychoanalytic process that can eventually assist
therapists to provide themselves with further data concerning the therapeutic
process of their patients.
Qualitative Research
My book Tantalizing Times: Excitements,
Disconnects and Discontents in Contemporary American Society
will be published in 2006 by Peter Lang Press. My book explores various
psychological meanings to an ancient Greek myth, Tantalus, and uses this
analysis as a lens through which to view contemporary America. Tantalus
was a mythical earthly king who desired to possess even more than he had.
He wanted to become immortal and to essentially possess god-powers. He
was punished and suffered the fate of seeing objects of his desire that
remained just beyond his reach. We, of course, get the word, tantalize,
from this myth. I suggest that this is an apt myth for contemporary America
in many respects. We are a society that is extremely invested in youth
and remaining youthful. We swim in a marketplace that has practically
everything that one could want. Although much of this appears available,
we can’t have it all. More to the point, I propose that many aspects
of our society from merchandise, entertainment and medical miracles to
the booming economy, the self esteem movement and intellectual advancements
subtly promise us that we can have it all and live like Greek gods. Coping
with the inevitable disconnects between what we see and what we are can
lead to anxieties that even perpetuate this very process.
Psychoanalysis and Philosophy
I have written about the place of psychoanalysis among the disciplines.
Many scholars do not consider psychoanalysis to be a legitimate science.
The implication is that it is nonsense or a waste of time. This is a curious
way to treat pursuits of knowing other than science. In a paper entitled,
Psychoanalysis. Science? Humanity? Do We Want a Place or a Palace? (accepted
for publication in Psychoanalytic Review, volume 93, 2006), I explore
this question. Psychoanalysis is a vital discipline because it forces
us to think ever more carefully about what constitutes science and what
constitutes the humanities & arts.
Professional Issues
I have written about a number of issues facing the profession of psychology,
especially the drive for prescription privileges for psychologists, profession
education in the form of government mandates and the Empirically Based
Treatment movement.
Professional psychology has embarked on the acquisition of prescription
privileges with the aim of becoming mental health providers who can offer
it all. How will this affect psychology and the public? Although advocates
of prescribing privileges intend for this initiative to be a postdoctoral
option, I believe that it will have a significant impact on both graduate
and undergraduate education in psychology and will become a detriment
to what we traditionally consider psychology to be. I believe that this
is an issue psychologist must inform themselves about, no matter what
position one takes.
It is the responsibility of psychologists to engage in ongoing learning
and self education. This is even written into the APA code of Ethics.
Because a very small percentage of psychologists (and members of all other
professions for that matter) do not live up to this, many states have
implemented Mandatory Continuing Education (MCE) requirements. Although
Michigan is one of the few states without such requirements, the state
has been exploring the possibility of mandated Continuing Competency requirements
which will likely take the place of MCE in many states. There has been
little research on the effectiveness of such requirements and what has
been done so far suggests that mandated CEs are not especially helpful
in achieving their stated aims. There are important questions to consider
when governments become too intimately involved in the regulation of mental
health issues, beyond ensuring some basic standards for entry into the
profession and practice and enabling citizens to file complaints or grievances
that can be investigated in a fair and open manner.
Other interests
I have also studied the etymology of the word psychology in
order to further our understanding of the place of psychology among the
disciplines. Although we have generally understood psychology to involve
the straightforward joining of psyche (soul/mind) + logos (word/study),
recent archival research raises interesting questions about the origins
of the word. The late Joseph Brozek wrote a few papers that proved the
clearest outline of the origins of psychology (the word) from a 14th century
Christian humanist named Marko Marulic. Brozek suggests that the original
word, psichiologia, was more likely a Byzantine neologism that not only
included psyche but also phusis (the root for physics, meaning character
or nature). I also connect the development of psychology to the myth of
Psyche and Eros. I suggest that psychology has come to be understood as
involving many kinds of splits (between mind/body, between god/mortal;
even Marulic was from Split, Croatia!). I suggest that various kinds of
splits call for unions or reunions and address this in light of contemporary
issues in professional psychology today, especially the ambition to obtain
prescription privileges.
I also have begun to develop some research on the areas of dreams, daydreams
and various forms of imaginative thinking. This is a project still in
the works, i.e., still in the reading stages.
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