Sam Kirschner

Perspectives on psychology and the media

This study explores the intertwining histories of media and psychology and offers the first-hand experience of media psychologists. It also presents research articles that look at the impact of the media on human behaviour.

Couples and Families

The family is a complex living organism with subsystems which include interpersonal relationships and individual emotions and cognitions all in dynamic exchange. Like Blake’s “world in a grain of sand” each subcomponent of the family dynamic provides a reflection of the others embedded within. These two primary subsystems, the interpersonal and the individual, system and psyche, can be viewed as independent entities for the purpose of analysis. Yet mounting research and clinical evidence suggest that the two entities are very interdependent and that they shape and influence each other throughout the life cycle.

The Two Faces of Change

How do people change? Is it a simple linear process, an easy evolution, from beginning state A, intervening variable or stimulus B, to resulting C? Or is the process more complex and nonlinear? Clinical theory and practice, supported by empirical evidence, indicate that the latter is true and that indeed human growth and evolution follow a complex rhythmic pattern. This chapter will examine a developmental model of the growth pattern and the implications of this paradigm for psychotherapy.