Inching Toward a Unified Metatheory for Psychology

Promoting Liberal Education through Introductory Psychology: The Perspective-Based Approach

Introductory psychology is typically presented to undergraduates as a set of loosely related topics reflecting the organization of most textbooks. The empirically based evidence presented in the topical format is likely to be limited by progressive knowledge obsolesce and replicability challenges impacting contemporary science. We suggest that psychology instructors consider an alternative course format organized by theories or perspectives. A perspective-centered introductory psychology provides a consistent and pluralistic view of the field and embeds research findings and methodology within psychology’s major explanatory theories. Current trends in undergraduate higher education emphasize career readiness. Development of critical thinking and applying psychological principles to real-world situations, including students’ own lives, may be better achieved through a perspective-based approach. Given that the typical introductory psychology student is a non-major taking the course to fulfil liberal arts requirements, a perspective approach offers several advantages. A focus on understanding human behavior from multiple vantage points is a skill valued by prospective employers of new bachelor’s degree recipients. With its emphasis on divergent and dialectical reasoning, a perspectivecenteredintroductory psychology course can become the centerpiece of the general education curriculum. In addition to promoting post-formal reasoning, a perspective-centered introductory psychology illustrates the diverse epistemologies that have shaped our field.

Quantum core affect. Color-emotion structure of semantic atom

Psychology suffers from the absence of mathematically-formalized primitives. As a result, conceptual and quantitative studies lack an ontological basis that would situate them in the company of natural sciences. The article addresses this problem by describing a minimal psychic structure, expressed in the algebra of quantum theory. The structure is demarcated into categories of emotion and color, renowned as elementary psychological phenomena. This is achieved by means of quantum-theoretic qubit state space, isomorphic to emotion and color experiences both in meaning and math. In particular, colors are mapped to the qubit states through geometric affinity between the HSL-RGB color solids and the Bloch sphere, widely used in physics. The resulting correspondence aligns with the recent model of subjective experience, producing a unified spherical map of emotions and colors. This structure is identified as a semantic atom of natural thinking-a unit of affectively-colored personal meaning, involved in elementary acts of a binary decision. The model contributes to finding a unified ontology of both inert and living Nature, bridging previously disconnected fields of research. In particular, it enables theory-based coordination of emotion, decision, and cybernetic sciences, needed to achieve new levels of practical impact.

Clinical Analysis on the Effects of Tandospirone Citrate Assisted by Drawing Therapy on Medication Compliance and Sleep Quality in Patients with Anxiety Disorders

Objective

To explore the clinical effects of tandospirone citrate assisted by drawing therapy (DT) on medication compliance and sleep quality in patients with anxiety disorders.

Methods

A total of 128 patients with anxiety disorders treated in the hospital were enrolled between January 2020 and January 2022. According to the random number table method, they were divided into the observation group (n = 64) and the control group (n = 64). The control group was treated with tandospirone citrate, while the observation group was additionally treated with DT. The clinical curative effect and medication compliance after treatment, scores of Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the World Health Organization's Quality of Life Questionnaire-Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) before and after treatment were compared between the two groups. The occurrence of adverse reactions during treatment was recorded.

Results

After treatment, the total response rate in the observation group was higher than that in the control group (96.88% vs 86.94%) (P < 0.05). After treatment, scores of HAMA and PSQI in both groups were decreased, which were lower in the observation group than in the control group (P < 0.05). After treatment, medication compliance in the observation group was higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). After treatment, scores of environmental factors, social relations, physiological function, and psychological status in both groups were increased, which were higher in the observation group than in the control group (P < 0.05). During treatment, there was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups (P > 0.05).

Conclusion

DT-assisted tandospirone citrate can effectively improve the clinical symptoms of patients with anxiety disorders, improve medication compliance, sleep quality, and quality of life, and have a certain degree of safety.

Toward a Cultural Evolutionary Psychology: Why the Evolutionary Approach does not Imply Reductionism or Determinism

Does evolutionary psychology (EP) properly account for the sociocultural context? Does it underestimate both the developmental and the relational aspects of the human psyche? Is it instantiated in a mechanistic epistemology? Does it imply determinism or reductionism? The commentaries on our previous target article raised similar questions and we try to tackle them in the current response. Our "epistemological assessment" of Psychology and our consequent unification claim under the banner of the evolutionary approach (Zagaria et al., Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 54(3), 521-562, 2020 ) was deeply examined and discussed. The objections to our target article can be grouped into four main categories. We sum them up and argue why: 1) the pre-paradigmatic status of psychology is a problem rather than a richness of perspectives; 2) EP's criticisms stem from common misconceptions-furthermore, developmental and relational aspects of human psyche might find their natural explanation in EP; 3) EP does not wipe out the emergence of the sociocultural context as something qualitatively different; 4) evolutionary meta-theory is not incompatible with subjectivity. Evolutionary psychology might be approached with caution and curiosity, rather than with prejudicial concepts. Incorporating some legitimate cultural criticisms, it may aspire to become a "cultural evolutionary psychology", hence an integrative psychological meta-theory that tries to connect the biological "plane of existence" (Henriques, Review of General Psychology, 7(2), 150-182, 2003) to the cultural "plane of existence". However, a basic philosophical concern has yet to be answered, i.e. what ultimately constitutes mind and thus the "psycho-logical" science. We argue that when trying to find the answer we know where to look at.