Contexts for Doing Psychology

Reviews the book "Varieties of Scientific Contextualism" edited by Steven C. Hayes, Linda J. Hayes, Hayne W. Reese, and Theodore R. Sarbin (covered in its original form in record 1993-99164-000). Varieties of an alternative worldview, contextualism, as well as its basic philosophical framework, are cogently presented and critically discussed in this text. Although the resulting text often raises more questions than it answers, this is also its purpose: to thoughtfully analyze and critique the usefulness of contextualism as a scientific worldview. This volume grew out of the 1992 Nevada Conference of the Varieties of Scientific Contextualism in Reno, which included papers written by contextualists as well as those critical of contextualism. For those unfamiliar with contextualism, the first section of the book (two chapters and the responses following each) provides a concise discussion of basics. In the second section, varieties of contextualism that range from behavior analysis to a dramaturgical approach are included, and the third section contains discussions of applications of contextualism. The success of this book lies in the quality of discussion of issues such as methodology, particularly in its middle and later sections. This volume would be most appreciated by graduate students and scholars in the social sciences who wish to evaluate how they reach their scientific conclusions and consider the usefulness of a contextualist approach. It is particularly helpful as both an introduction to contextualism and as a critique of ways in which contextualism can be applied to particular areas of research. It offers thoughtful and instructive discussions of contextualism's merits as well as its pitfalls. Also, the variety of contributions allows the reader to appreciate the range of views that constitute contextualist theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)