Leaving It All Behind to Travel: Venturing Uncertainty as a Means to Personal Growth and Authenticity
The potential for personal growth in cross-cultural travel has been posited by numerous psychologists; however, a "gaping hole" in empirical research has left these hypotheses unexplored. Meanwhile, rapidly increasing numbers of people are choosing to leave their careers to pursue a personal dream of extensive foreign travel. The aim of this study was to explore the motivations, psychological experiences, and outcomes from travel in this growing "career-break" demographic. Ten men and women who had exited their careers to pursue extensive culturally engaging travel participated in an individual semistructured interview tha...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - May 27, 2013 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Hirschorn, S., Hefferon, K. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Intersubjectivity and the Knowing of Inner Experience: Finding Space for a Psychoanalytic Phenomenology in Research
This article demonstrates the synthesis of phenomenological hermeneutics and psychoanalytic case study research and proposes such a methodology as well suited for a study exploring unconscious/representational processes and internal representations of self and other. This is considered in relation to the dialectic of the dual position of psychoanalytic psychotherapist and qualitative researcher. The article emphasizes what I suggest are evident and helpful parallels between the investigative/research process and the psychoanalytic disposition, in terms of the relationship between these two. The role of the body as intersub...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - May 27, 2013 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bradfield, B. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Zhi Mian and "Oistros" of Life
"Oistros," or oestrus, or estrus, is a concept with many meanings and implications. In ancient Greece oestrus was a gadfly that stung animals and drove them to react. Socrates was the first to use the image allegorically in describing himself as a gadfly that awakens people from their lethargy and laziness. It is connected with the passion for life, with creativity, and an awakening from the indolence of everyday living. It is also directly associated with the female reproductive cycle via the estrogens related to pregnancy and childbirth. It is thus related to the ideas of attraction, union, and creation in general, as we...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - April 8, 2013 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Dallas, E., Georganda, E. T., Harisiadis, A., Zymnis-Georgalos, K. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
A Person-Centered Approach to Multicultural Counseling Competence
This article examines current and historical trends in psychotherapy research and practice with racial/ethnic minority populations. Initially, research on Derald Sue’s multicultural counseling competencies is provided as a foundation to further examine the evidence regarding effective cultural adaptations to mainstream treatment approaches, such as cognitive-behavior therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy. Next, a brief outline of Carl Rogers’s psychotherapy research tradition is presented, with a focus on both past and present evidence suggesting that person-centered therapy may be effective across diagnoses,...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - April 8, 2013 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Quinn, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Unfolding the Phenomenological Research Process: Iterative Stages of "Seeing Afresh"
Phenomenological researchers generally agree that our central concern is to return to embodied, experiential meanings aiming for fresh, complex, rich description of phenomena as concretely lived. Yet when it comes to deciding how best to carry out this research in practice debates abound. Some approaches to phenomenology emphasize description; others interpretive layers. Some insist on a rigorous, scientific method; others seek more poetic, artistic flourish. In this article, the author offers preliminary thoughts about what unites seemingly divergent phenomenological research approaches. She suggests that the essence of t...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - April 8, 2013 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Finlay, L. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
The Intrinsic Foundations of Extrinsic Motivations and Goals: Toward a Unified Humanistic Theory of Well-Being and Change
A key contribution of both classical and contemporary humanistic theories is their distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and drives and their demonstration that psychological well-being is more strongly associated with the former than the latter. However, such a dimensionalization raises the question of how extrinsic motivations and goals emerge; and classic humanistic attempts to account for this tend to contradict some of the basic tenets of humanistic thinking: that human beings are integrated, meaning-seeking agencies consistently striving to maintain and enhance their being. An alternative framework ...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - April 8, 2013 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Cooper, M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Revisiting Ernest Becker's Psychology of Human Striving
Ernest Becker’s psychology of human striving is a unique blend of pragmatic, post-Freudian, and existential thought that explicates central features of the human condition and experience. It is both a psychological and philosophical anthropology. In consequence, despite being mostly ignored by psychologists, Becker’s work continues to be relevant, even instructive, to past and more recent attempts to formulate a psychology of personhood, especially one that focuses on the interactivity of persons within their biophysical and sociocultural contexts. What is offered here is an integrative explication of Becker&rs...
Source: Journal of Humanistic Psychology - April 8, 2013 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Martin, J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
