Enrique Lafuente

THE SOUL OF SPAIN: Spanish Scholastic Psychology and the Making of Modern Subjectivity (1875―1931)

The aim of this article is to provide an approach to the study of the relations between psychology and Roman Catholic Scholasticism in the making of Spain as a modern nation-state. The crucial period in this process-extending from the beginning of King Alfonso XIIs reign in 1875 to the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931-is considered. Attention is focused on Ethics textbooks published by Spanish Scholastic authors throughout the period. Through these school manuals, young students were trained in the ideas of citizenship and social coexistence held by the Catholic Church. An analysis of these didactic, programmatic works shows the central role played by the theory of faculties and modern psychological technologies (psychopedagogy, psychopathology, psychotechnics) in the Scholastic outlook. Thus, an attempt is made to show that psychology was used by Spanish Scholasticism as a way of legitimating a reactionary view of Spain, which eventually led to the emergence of National-Catholicism as the official ideology of the Franco regime (1939-1975).

“All You Need is Holt”—Is the Socio-cultural Phenomenon a Problem for a Neorealist Ecological Psychology?

The aim of this paper is to discuss Charles’s (2011) attempt to turn E.B. Holt’s theoretical approach into the only possible bridge to connect Gibsonian ecological psychology with social psychology. Criticism of Charles’s claims is carried out at four different conceptual levels: historiographical, logico-epistemological, methodological, and theoretical. From this critical perspective, Charles’s resort to Holt’s ideas is viewed as an effort to legitimate Charles’s own line of work. Moreover, far from being this the only possible approach to the subject, many other rich alternatives to the application of Gibsonian principles to the explanation of socio-cultural phenomena already exist. In fact, it is questionable whether Holt’s behavioral neorealism allows dealing with many of the most complex socio-cultural issues, particularly those related to purposive behavior and intersubjective contexts. In order to address these questions from a Holtian point of view, Charles is forced to make a number of argumentative leaps and epistemological transgressions. In the last analysis, his insistence on keeping to the Holtian stance leads him to lose sight of the Gibsonian framework and to modify the very nature of his object of study, the social phenomenon—which, along the lines of classic neorealist behaviorism, becomes reduced to a simple consideration of behavioral purposiveness.

La presencia de Piaget en la psicología española contemporánea

Resumen Se recogen y valoran datos cuantitativos de trabajos anteriores sobre el impacto de Piaget en la psicología española entre 1946 y 1995. De ellos se deduce que la visibilidad de su obra parece disminuir en los últimas diez años estudiados. Se plantea si esa disminución implica una pérdida de la vigencia intelectual de Piaget. Para averiguarlo se pasó un cuestionario a los autores que aparecen como sus máximos citadores en los trabajos cuantitativos mencionados. El análisis de las respuestas al cuestionario pone de manifiesto que la influencia de Piaget ya no aparece en los temas concretos de investigación, pero sí de una manera destacada en el marco teórico constructivista general, así como por la trascendencia educativa de sus implicaciones.

Citizens at work Evolutionism, functionalism, progressivism and industrial psychology in the writings of Arland D. Weeks

The work of the American educator and academic Arland D. Weeks (1871–1936) constitutes an interesting effort to contribute to the reform of society on the basis of an adequate knowledge of the human mind. He was a political progressivist, and his writings are representative of the prevailing pragmatist, functionalist ‘spirit of the times’. Deeply concerned with the making of good citizens, he approached the field of work with a critical eye, making specific recommendations and proposals for improving the efficiency and fostering the personal development of the individual worker. The aim of this article is to analyse such proposals in the light both of their psychological bases and of the ideological and social environment to which they were addressed.

La fundamentación psicológica de una estética musical: la obra de Carl E. Seashore

Resumen La figura del psicólogo sueco-norteamericano Carl Emil Seashore (1866–1949) no suele ser hoy demasiado recordada. Fue sin embargo un autor importante, de extensa y variada obra, que ejerció en vida una considerable influencia académica y social y cuyos puntos de vista resultan extraordinariamente representativos de una cierta manera de entender la psicología que no ha dejado de tener adeptos desde entonces. Sus propuestas estéticas, además, son todavía hoy dignas de conocerse y discutirse. El propósito de este trabajo es recuperar estas propuestas como una invitación a reflexionar sobre las relaciones entre la psicología y la estética, unas relaciones que Seashore se esforzó notablemente por dotar de claridad y precisión. Para ello se trazan primero algunas de las coordenadas históricas y biográficas que enmarcan su obra y desde las cuales ésta cobra sentido. Se pasa después a dibujar los grandes rasgos de su investigación psicológica sobre la música, para terminar analizando la concepción estética que su autor aspira a fundar en ella. Unas breves consideraciones críticas vienen a poner el punto final a este estudio.