Richard N Williams
Biographic Data
| ID | 332693 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard N Williams |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard N |
| FAMILY NAME | Williams |
| SIGNATURE | WILLIAMS R N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brigham Young University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7520-5786 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Methodological Implications of the Phenomenon of Mispresence
Contemporary psychology has typically endorsed two approaches to understanding expressed experience as narrative data: representation and presence. We argue that neither representation nor presence fully captures the nature of experience, especially insofar as distinctly ethical phenomena such as self-deception are part of our human behavioral repertoire. Developing more sensitive methodological approaches to the study of such experiences require…
The Triumph of the Will
Recent decades have witnessed a profound increase in scholarly work and scientific research conducted under the banner of evolutionary psychology. Although evolutionary psychologists typically disavow any historical or conceptual link to the political or scientific project of eugenics, or at the very least downplay the current relevance of such linkages, a growing number of evolutionary thinkers have begun to embrace a biological science of cogni…
Methodological naturalism, saturation, and Psychology's failure to save the phenomena
Many scientists and philosophers of science have argued that metaphysical naturalism and methodological naturalism represent distinct and separable philosophical commitments. This claim is true in the sense that metaphysics and epistemology reflect different philosophical projects. The major question of interest to psychologists, however, is whether at the pragmatic level of research designed to discover the psychological sphere in which we live …
On Hijacking Science
The Generality of Theory and the Specificity of Social Behavior
Since its inception, experimental social psychology has arguably been of two minds about the nature and role of theory. Contemporary social psychology's experimental approach has been strongly informed by the “nomological‐deductive” approach of Carl Hempel in tandem with the “hypothetico‐deducive” approach of Karl Popper. Social psychology's commitment to this hybrid model of science has produced at least two serious obstacles to more fruitful th…
Life, death, and ontology
This article is a response to Fowers, Ainsley, and Lefevor, who offer a critique of a previously published article of ours that explored the problems of grounding aspiration and virtue in any ontology that does not allow for the possibility of an eternal soul. In this article, we argue that Fowers et al. have seriously misunderstood the nature and intent of our original argument and, therefore, fail to adequately respond to what we take to be a c…
Psychology and the death of aspiration
This paper argues that the prevailing theories, models, and explanations of contemporary psychology, in large part because they reflect the assumptions of reductive naturalism, provide an understanding of our human being such that aspiration—to the higher, the more noble, and the more meaningful—becomes not only unreasonable, but impossible. Indeed, such thinking in the discipline marks the death of aspiration. The paper further argues, following…
Personalism, Social Constructionism and the Foundation of the Ethical
This paper characterizes and contrasts personalism and social constructionism as ontologies—theories that makes claims about what fundamentally is—and as phenomenologies—theories that offer descriptions of lived experience. It is argued that as ontologies both perspectives face difficult problems. Personalism must assume a priori processes as a foundation for individual identity, but has difficulty accounting for genuine sociality. Social constru…
Profiling Religious Maturity
This study examined the relationships between religious orientation and components of religious attitudes. Religious orientation was measured using Batson, Schoenrade, and Ventis' (1993) Religious Life Inventory. Affective, cognitive, and conative components of attitudes toward religious beliefs and practices were measured using an instrument constructed for the study. Participants were undergraduate students from four educational institutions in…
The Relation of Spiritual Self-Identity to Religious Orientations and Attitudes
Spiritual self-identity, one of four factors in the centrality model of self-identity (D. Pedersen, 1994), is seemingly related to religious orientation (i.e., religion as a means, end, or quest) and religious attitude (i.e., affect, cognitions, and conation associated with religion or religious activity). The relationships among these variables were explored with the Who Am I? scale, the Religious Life Inventory, and the Religious Attitude Quest…
Intimacy and Heteronomy
The modern self, understood as individual consciousness, derives from Greek and more recent sources that have come to be called modernism. It is argued that genuine intimacy is an impossible achievement for this self, and that its ethical concern must take the form of rational moral principles. The work of Emmanuel Levinas offers an alternative perspective wherein the self derives from the presence of the face of the Other. The mode of being of t…
Theoretical psychology as a subdiscipline
Theoretical psychology as a subdiscipline
Toward a theoretical psychology
Toward a theoretical psychology
What's Behind the Research? Discovering Hidden Assumptions in the Behavioral Sciences
This book explores the main assumptions upon which behavioural science theories are based, offers alternatives and challenges the reader to serious critical thought
Religion and Mental Health
The human context of agency
The human context of agency
Belief‐bias and labor unions
This study compared three types of reasoning bias associated with strong belief: Judgement of plausibility, contrast effects, and social attribution. Respectively, these relate to bias in the perceived validity and extremity of statements and bias in causal interpretations of actions. Technical college students ( N = 153) in two highly unionized communities completed one scale for each form of bias and a section of the IRC Union Attitude Scale wh…
The Influence of Religious Orientation on Belief in Science, Religion, and the Paranormal
This study examines the relationships among belief in science and in religion and various paranormal beliefs. Tobacyk and Milford (1983) included religious beliefs in a multidimensional scale of belief in the paranormal, reasoning that religion and the paranormal constitute one end of a bipolar dimension, while belief in science defines the other pole. The present study employed the Tobacyk and Milford scales, the Allport and Ross (1967) Religiou…
The recognition and cognitive utilization of oppositionality
More on temporality in human action
More on temporality in human action
The Heuristic Properties of Dialectical Oppositionality in Predication
Two experiments tested the facilitative effect of dialectical oppositionality in a predication learning task. Subjects were college and high school students. Experiment 1 (N = 160) demonstrated that subjects more readily learned descriptive words that predicate a meaning in relation to a targeted item when such words were dialectical opposites than when they were not opposites (p < .001). Experiment 2 (two samples; N = 50, N = 50) compared the he…
Religion and Mental Health
The Generality of Theory and the Specificity of Social Behavior
Since its inception, experimental social psychology has arguably been of two minds about the nature and role of theory. Contemporary social psychology's experimental approach has been strongly informed by the “nomological‐deductive” approach of Carl Hempel in tandem with the “hypothetico‐deducive” approach of Karl Popper. Social psychology's commitment to this hybrid model of science has produced at least two serious obstacles to more fruitful th…
The recognition and cognitive utilization of oppositionality
The Heuristic Properties of Dialectical Oppositionality in Predication
Two experiments tested the facilitative effect of dialectical oppositionality in a predication learning task. Subjects were college and high school students. Experiment 1 (N = 160) demonstrated that subjects more readily learned descriptive words that predicate a meaning in relation to a targeted item when such words were dialectical opposites than when they were not opposites (p < .001). Experiment 2 (two samples; N = 50, N = 50) compared the he…
Methodological naturalism, saturation, and Psychology's failure to save the phenomena
Many scientists and philosophers of science have argued that metaphysical naturalism and methodological naturalism represent distinct and separable philosophical commitments. This claim is true in the sense that metaphysics and epistemology reflect different philosophical projects. The major question of interest to psychologists, however, is whether at the pragmatic level of research designed to discover the psychological sphere in which we live …
Profiling Religious Maturity
This study examined the relationships between religious orientation and components of religious attitudes. Religious orientation was measured using Batson, Schoenrade, and Ventis' (1993) Religious Life Inventory. Affective, cognitive, and conative components of attitudes toward religious beliefs and practices were measured using an instrument constructed for the study. Participants were undergraduate students from four educational institutions in…
Temporality in human action
Temporality in human action
The Heuristic Properties of Dialectical Oppositionality in Predication
Two experiments tested the facilitative effect of dialectical oppositionality in a predication learning task. Subjects were college and high school students. Experiment 1 (N = 160) demonstrated that subjects more readily learned descriptive words that predicate a meaning in relation to a targeted item when such words were dialectical opposites than when they were not opposites (p < .001). Experiment 2 (two samples; N = 50, N = 50) compared the he…
More on temporality in human action
More on temporality in human action
The Influence of Religious Orientation on Belief in Science, Religion, and the Paranormal
This study examines the relationships among belief in science and in religion and various paranormal beliefs. Tobacyk and Milford (1983) included religious beliefs in a multidimensional scale of belief in the paranormal, reasoning that religion and the paranormal constitute one end of a bipolar dimension, while belief in science defines the other pole. The present study employed the Tobacyk and Milford scales, the Allport and Ross (1967) Religiou…
The recognition and cognitive utilization of oppositionality
Belief‐bias and labor unions
This study compared three types of reasoning bias associated with strong belief: Judgement of plausibility, contrast effects, and social attribution. Respectively, these relate to bias in the perceived validity and extremity of statements and bias in causal interpretations of actions. Technical college students ( N = 153) in two highly unionized communities completed one scale for each form of bias and a section of the IRC Union Attitude Scale wh…
The human context of agency
The human context of agency
Religion and Mental Health
What's Behind the Research? Discovering Hidden Assumptions in the Behavioral Sciences
This book explores the main assumptions upon which behavioural science theories are based, offers alternatives and challenges the reader to serious critical thought
Toward a theoretical psychology
Toward a theoretical psychology
Intimacy and Heteronomy
The modern self, understood as individual consciousness, derives from Greek and more recent sources that have come to be called modernism. It is argued that genuine intimacy is an impossible achievement for this self, and that its ethical concern must take the form of rational moral principles. The work of Emmanuel Levinas offers an alternative perspective wherein the self derives from the presence of the face of the Other. The mode of being of t…
Theoretical psychology as a subdiscipline
Theoretical psychology as a subdiscipline
The Relation of Spiritual Self-Identity to Religious Orientations and Attitudes
Spiritual self-identity, one of four factors in the centrality model of self-identity (D. Pedersen, 1994), is seemingly related to religious orientation (i.e., religion as a means, end, or quest) and religious attitude (i.e., affect, cognitions, and conation associated with religion or religious activity). The relationships among these variables were explored with the Who Am I? scale, the Religious Life Inventory, and the Religious Attitude Quest…
Personalism, Social Constructionism and the Foundation of the Ethical
This paper characterizes and contrasts personalism and social constructionism as ontologies—theories that makes claims about what fundamentally is—and as phenomenologies—theories that offer descriptions of lived experience. It is argued that as ontologies both perspectives face difficult problems. Personalism must assume a priori processes as a foundation for individual identity, but has difficulty accounting for genuine sociality. Social constru…
Profiling Religious Maturity
This study examined the relationships between religious orientation and components of religious attitudes. Religious orientation was measured using Batson, Schoenrade, and Ventis' (1993) Religious Life Inventory. Affective, cognitive, and conative components of attitudes toward religious beliefs and practices were measured using an instrument constructed for the study. Participants were undergraduate students from four educational institutions in…
Psychology and the death of aspiration
This paper argues that the prevailing theories, models, and explanations of contemporary psychology, in large part because they reflect the assumptions of reductive naturalism, provide an understanding of our human being such that aspiration—to the higher, the more noble, and the more meaningful—becomes not only unreasonable, but impossible. Indeed, such thinking in the discipline marks the death of aspiration. The paper further argues, following…
Life, death, and ontology
This article is a response to Fowers, Ainsley, and Lefevor, who offer a critique of a previously published article of ours that explored the problems of grounding aspiration and virtue in any ontology that does not allow for the possibility of an eternal soul. In this article, we argue that Fowers et al. have seriously misunderstood the nature and intent of our original argument and, therefore, fail to adequately respond to what we take to be a c…
The Generality of Theory and the Specificity of Social Behavior
Since its inception, experimental social psychology has arguably been of two minds about the nature and role of theory. Contemporary social psychology's experimental approach has been strongly informed by the “nomological‐deductive” approach of Carl Hempel in tandem with the “hypothetico‐deducive” approach of Karl Popper. Social psychology's commitment to this hybrid model of science has produced at least two serious obstacles to more fruitful th…
On Hijacking Science
Methodological naturalism, saturation, and Psychology's failure to save the phenomena
Many scientists and philosophers of science have argued that metaphysical naturalism and methodological naturalism represent distinct and separable philosophical commitments. This claim is true in the sense that metaphysics and epistemology reflect different philosophical projects. The major question of interest to psychologists, however, is whether at the pragmatic level of research designed to discover the psychological sphere in which we live …
Psychology (24 works) · Epistemology (21 works) · Philosophy (20 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology (8 works) · Social Representations and Identity (8 works) · Psychoanalysis (7 works) · Social science (6 works) · Philosophy (5 works)