I hope, dear colleagues of the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, that you are well and that your summer has been what you wished it to be. In this article, I will describe this year’s presidential theme along with ideas for initiatives that flow from it.
I came to Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology late in my career (about a dozen years ago), and do not have the decades of experience in the Society or the numerous personal relationships that some, perhaps most, of our past Presidents have had. Therefore, I turned to the wisdom of my predecessors who have written about what our Society, at its best, might be like.
In their writings, former presidents Brent Slife (Slife & Williams, 1997; Slife, 2000), Jack Martin (Martin, 2004), Blaine Fowers (Fowers, 2015), and Joshua Clegg (Clegg, 2022) have asserted the value of theoretical and philosophical psychology, described the challenges our community faces, and presented ideas about how we may improve what we do. The most comprehensive vision appears in Blaine Fowers’ 2015 JTPP article and is the main influence on this year’s Presidential theme, “Fostering Progress Toward a Flourishing Theoretical Psychology.” While I strongly recommend that all Society members give the cited writings a careful reading, a brief summary of their key ideas follows:
Slife (2000, p. 100) writes that “...theoretical psychologists have two main purposes: The first is to formulate, and help others formulate, the theories that ultimately get tested empirically...The second is to examine, and help others examine, the nonempirical issues that currently facilitate or stymie the work of psychologists." Martin (2004) provides a similar analysis, emphasizing the moral and sociopolitical nature of many of the issues that psychologists confront. Clegg (2022) adds that the success of our efforts to properly fulfill our purposes requires that historically marginalized and “othered” groups have access to gatekeeping practices and disciplinary resources. All four of these past presidents concur that there is a critical need for the contributions that our community can make to both the field of psychology and the public.
It has been over 25 years since Slife and Williams (1997) called for the establishment of theoretical psychology as a formally recognized subdivision of psychology to facilitate this work. Regrettably, however, gaining this recognition and influencing those outside of our Society has remained an uphill battle.
Along with Slife (2000), Fowers (2015) takes an Aristotelian approach to flourishing but sets the number of the functions of theoretical psychologists at four, each paired with a “good” that represents the excellent expression of that function:
- The good of knowledge refers to both critiquing and offering genuine progressive alternatives to the work of our “mainstream” colleagues. Fowers emphasizes that performing this function with excellence involves “attending carefully and understanding charitably our colleagues aims and concerns” (Fowers, 2015, p. 149), and requires us to eschew straw person arguments, dichotomizing, and excessive generalizations.
- The good of professional identity is the clarification of what is worth pursuing and what counts as progress for our community. Fowers asserts that “one of the hallmarks of a flourishing organization is that it has clear and communally endorsed purposes” (2015, p. 151).
- The good of communion reflects our relational, social, and political nature as humans and calls for four types of actions. The first is paying attention to each other’s work through mutual citation, reaching across “silos,” and engaging in dialog. Secondly, we should seek communion with psychologists outside our community by becoming “resources to our colleagues in tackling the conceptual difficulties that hamstring their work” (2015, p. 155). The third and fourth are to describe others’ work fairly and to avoid overreliance on a hyperspecialized vocabulary.
- The good of meaningful contributions entails raising and exploring critical and neglected questions that address what matters most to psychologists and the public. Included in this effort should be the teaching of theoretical psychology to undergraduates, which is congruent with Clegg’s (2022) advocacy of including discussions of the work of theoretical and philosophical psychologists in textbooks and other instructional materials.
Our society already instantiates these goods to varying degrees of efficacy. The objective behind this year’s theme is to promote the acceleration of our advancement toward these visions of a flourishing theoretical and psychology.
In part, this is accomplished by simply bringing attention to these analyses and proposals of our past Presidents (which advances us toward the goods of professional identity and communion). Beyond this, there are some initiatives I would like to pursue for the coming year, some of which are extensions of projects and activities that are already in progress. Each of these constitutes an effort toward flourishing and is mutually reinforcing, as I will explain below.
- Developing a clear (maximally jargon-free) message that captures a consensus of how we would characterize the state of affairs in the field of psychology and what we have to offer the discipline and the public: I believe that a reading of the articles by our past presidents gives us a solid foundation for such a message. Further development of our message can proceed via dialogue on our division’s listserv.
- More partnerships with leaders of other APA divisions: This entails two types of collaborations. One is with leaders of other “foundational” divisions such as Division 1 (General Psychology), Division 5 (Psychological Methods), and Division 26 (History) to work toward the adoption of a common “foundational” message. The second, of course, is with the “mainstream” divisions to which we wish to deliver the message. At the APA convention in Washington, D.C. this past month I had conversations with several other division leaders about such collaborations, all of which evoked positive reactions. One possibility would be to apply for a CODAPAR grant either to fund an online conference or to cover the costs of attending each other’s conferences.
- Attracting and retaining younger members: Obviously, an organization cannot flourish if it does not replenish its membership. We plan to continue recent efforts to attract new members and to encourage our younger members to participate and identify with our division. For example, by giving them a greater role, as was done for our most recent Spring Meeting, in designing our conference programs and by creating opportunities for younger members to interact with our more established, senior members.
The effort to develop a clear message of our central ideas and potential contributions requires us to pay attention to each other’s work and to engage in dialogue with one another (communion). Furthermore, having such a message clarifies our identity, and it seems to me to be a necessity if our division is to engage with others more effectively (the goods of knowledge and meaningful contributions), including with those who produce textbooks and other materials.
More frequent interactions with leaders of other APA divisions can help refine our message, which can in turn influence the thinking of those outside our division and make our Society more visible and attractive to potential members both young and experienced.
I hope that the presidential theme and the proposals presented herein match how you feel and what you think our Society is and can become. Please consider contributing to the online conversations that will soon be initiated on our listserv. Please also assist our leadership in establishing connections with leaders of other divisions with whom you have professional or personal relationships and who are likely to be receptive to working with us. Finally, feel free to reach out to me with any feedback you may have about the activities of our society.