John Chambers Christopher
Biographic Data
| ID | 653951 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Chambers Christopher |
| GIVEN NAMES | John Chambers |
| FAMILY NAME | Christopher |
| SIGNATURE | CHRISTOPHER J C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Montana State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 152 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Putting “Positive” and “Psychology” In Perspective
Critical cultural awareness
The number of psychologists whose work crosses cultural boundaries is increasing. Without a critical awareness of their own cultural grounding, they risk imposing the assumptions, concepts, practices, and values of U.S.-centered psychology on societies where they do not fit, as a brief example from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami shows. Hermeneutic thinkers offer theoretical resources for gaining cultural awareness. Culture, in the hermeneutic view…
Perceptions of the Long-Term Influence of Mindfulness Training on Counselors and Psychotherapists
Although self-care is often touted as being important to counselors and psychotherapists, historically little has been done within graduate school to provide future therapists with self-care strategies. This article proposes that mindfulness training offers a promising approach to therapist self-care and introduces qualitative research on the long-term impact of mindfulness training to substantiate this claim. Sixteen former students who are now …
Thinking through Positive Psychology
Positive psychology offers a needed corrective to deficiencies in mainstream psychology. However, there have been relatively few attempts to systematically analyze and assess this movement. This special issue examines the conceptual underpinnings and guiding ideals of positive psychology. Generally, these articles conclude that positive psychologists have not dealt adequately with the challenge of rendering credible and illuminating accounts of h…
An Interactivist-Hermeneutic Metatheory for Positive Psychology
Drawing on Bickhard's interactivism along with philosophical hermeneutics, we outline a plausible ontology of human action and development that might serve as a metatheory for positive psychology. Our nondualistic metatheory rests on a distributed notion of agency. The kinds of morally imbued social practices that are identified by hermeneutic theorists constitute one level of agency. At the first level of agency, persons are already committed, a…
Qigong as a Mindfulness Practice for Counseling Students
This qualitative study explores the effects of qigong, an ancient Chinese mindfulness practice involving movement, on master's-level counseling students. Students responded in writing both after an initial experience of qigong and after practicing the movements for 15 weeks during a mindfulness-based course in self-care. Themes of physical, emotional, and mental changes were present in both sets of responses. Additional themes of familiarity with…
Positive Psychology, Ethnocentrism, and the Disguised Ideology of Individualism
This article aims to examine critically the attempts by positive psychologists to develop a science of happiness and positive human functioning that transcends temporal and cultural boundaries. Current efforts in positive psychology are deconstructed to reveal an adherence to the dominant Western conception of self and its accompanying vision of the good life as personal fulfillment. It is argued that in failing to recognize the tacit cultural an…
Culture, Self and Identity
A complete and thorough grasp of culture eludes psychology because of the pervasive dualism that pervades psychology and Western thought more broadly. Drawing on interactivism, a process model for human phenomena, we make two main points: first, culture cannot be reified, seen as distinct from the self, nor can it be treated as something objective or subjective; and, second, agency and culture are intertwined and distributed across levels of know…
What Defines the Good Person? Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Experts' Models With Lay Prototypes
Good" is a fundamental concept present in all cultures, and experts in values and positive psychology have mapped good's many aspects in human beings. Which aspects do laypersons typically access and consider as they make everyday judgments of goodness? Does the answer vary with culture? To address these questions, the authors compiled prototypes of the good person from laypersons' free-listings in seven cultures and used experts' classifications…
Teaching Self-Care Through Mindfulness Practices
Faculty in counseling training programs often give voice to the importance of self-care for students during the training period and into practice after training is completed. However, few programs specifically address this issue in their curricula. To address this perceived need, a course was developed to provide students with (a) personal growth opportunities through self-care practices and (b) professional growth through mindfulness practices i…
Self and Values
The standard research programs in moral development have been criticized for adopting a narrow and restrictive view of the moral domain. There has been a dearth of alternative theories that account for the diversity of mature moral viewpoints both within and outside Western culture. We present an interactivist framework that takes into account the plurality of moral perspectives. It does so by addressing fundamental issues of psychological ontolo…
Otto Kernberg's Object Relations Theory
A conceptual and empirical critique of Kernberg's influential object relations theory is presented as a case study of the limitations of structural ontological presuppositions in accounting for psychological processes. A summary overview is provided of Kernberg's systems model, the process of internalization, his developmental stages, and his conception of the borderline personality organization. Then a detailed critique considers: (1) the founda…
Culture's Impact on Health Risk Appraisal Psychological Well-Being Questions
Situating Psychological Well-Being
Psychological well-being is a seminal concept in counseling and yet it is seldom discussed, researched, or critiqued; this article examines the cultural values and assumptions underlying its theory and research. Contemporary understandings of psychological and subjective well-being are placed in cultural and historical context to illuminate their Euro-American cultural roots. Approaches to psychological well-being are shown to presuppose ontologi…
Beyond Formalism and Altruism
Moral Development Theory
Situating Psychological Well-Being
Psychological well-being is a seminal concept in counseling and yet it is seldom discussed, researched, or critiqued; this article examines the cultural values and assumptions underlying its theory and research. Contemporary understandings of psychological and subjective well-being are placed in cultural and historical context to illuminate their Euro-American cultural roots. Approaches to psychological well-being are shown to presuppose ontologi…
Positive Psychology, Ethnocentrism, and the Disguised Ideology of Individualism
This article aims to examine critically the attempts by positive psychologists to develop a science of happiness and positive human functioning that transcends temporal and cultural boundaries. Current efforts in positive psychology are deconstructed to reveal an adherence to the dominant Western conception of self and its accompanying vision of the good life as personal fulfillment. It is argued that in failing to recognize the tacit cultural an…
Critical cultural awareness
The number of psychologists whose work crosses cultural boundaries is increasing. Without a critical awareness of their own cultural grounding, they risk imposing the assumptions, concepts, practices, and values of U.S.-centered psychology on societies where they do not fit, as a brief example from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami shows. Hermeneutic thinkers offer theoretical resources for gaining cultural awareness. Culture, in the hermeneutic view…
Teaching Self-Care Through Mindfulness Practices
Faculty in counseling training programs often give voice to the importance of self-care for students during the training period and into practice after training is completed. However, few programs specifically address this issue in their curricula. To address this perceived need, a course was developed to provide students with (a) personal growth opportunities through self-care practices and (b) professional growth through mindfulness practices i…
Perceptions of the Long-Term Influence of Mindfulness Training on Counselors and Psychotherapists
Although self-care is often touted as being important to counselors and psychotherapists, historically little has been done within graduate school to provide future therapists with self-care strategies. This article proposes that mindfulness training offers a promising approach to therapist self-care and introduces qualitative research on the long-term impact of mindfulness training to substantiate this claim. Sixteen former students who are now …
What Defines the Good Person? Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Experts' Models With Lay Prototypes
Good" is a fundamental concept present in all cultures, and experts in values and positive psychology have mapped good's many aspects in human beings. Which aspects do laypersons typically access and consider as they make everyday judgments of goodness? Does the answer vary with culture? To address these questions, the authors compiled prototypes of the good person from laypersons' free-listings in seven cultures and used experts' classifications…
Qigong as a Mindfulness Practice for Counseling Students
This qualitative study explores the effects of qigong, an ancient Chinese mindfulness practice involving movement, on master's-level counseling students. Students responded in writing both after an initial experience of qigong and after practicing the movements for 15 weeks during a mindfulness-based course in self-care. Themes of physical, emotional, and mental changes were present in both sets of responses. Additional themes of familiarity with…
Beyond Formalism and Altruism
Moral Development Theory
Situating Psychological Well-Being
Psychological well-being is a seminal concept in counseling and yet it is seldom discussed, researched, or critiqued; this article examines the cultural values and assumptions underlying its theory and research. Contemporary understandings of psychological and subjective well-being are placed in cultural and historical context to illuminate their Euro-American cultural roots. Approaches to psychological well-being are shown to presuppose ontologi…
Culture's Impact on Health Risk Appraisal Psychological Well-Being Questions
Otto Kernberg's Object Relations Theory
A conceptual and empirical critique of Kernberg's influential object relations theory is presented as a case study of the limitations of structural ontological presuppositions in accounting for psychological processes. A summary overview is provided of Kernberg's systems model, the process of internalization, his developmental stages, and his conception of the borderline personality organization. Then a detailed critique considers: (1) the founda…
Self and Values
The standard research programs in moral development have been criticized for adopting a narrow and restrictive view of the moral domain. There has been a dearth of alternative theories that account for the diversity of mature moral viewpoints both within and outside Western culture. We present an interactivist framework that takes into account the plurality of moral perspectives. It does so by addressing fundamental issues of psychological ontolo…
Teaching Self-Care Through Mindfulness Practices
Faculty in counseling training programs often give voice to the importance of self-care for students during the training period and into practice after training is completed. However, few programs specifically address this issue in their curricula. To address this perceived need, a course was developed to provide students with (a) personal growth opportunities through self-care practices and (b) professional growth through mindfulness practices i…
Culture, Self and Identity
A complete and thorough grasp of culture eludes psychology because of the pervasive dualism that pervades psychology and Western thought more broadly. Drawing on interactivism, a process model for human phenomena, we make two main points: first, culture cannot be reified, seen as distinct from the self, nor can it be treated as something objective or subjective; and, second, agency and culture are intertwined and distributed across levels of know…
What Defines the Good Person? Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Experts' Models With Lay Prototypes
Good" is a fundamental concept present in all cultures, and experts in values and positive psychology have mapped good's many aspects in human beings. Which aspects do laypersons typically access and consider as they make everyday judgments of goodness? Does the answer vary with culture? To address these questions, the authors compiled prototypes of the good person from laypersons' free-listings in seven cultures and used experts' classifications…
Thinking through Positive Psychology
Positive psychology offers a needed corrective to deficiencies in mainstream psychology. However, there have been relatively few attempts to systematically analyze and assess this movement. This special issue examines the conceptual underpinnings and guiding ideals of positive psychology. Generally, these articles conclude that positive psychologists have not dealt adequately with the challenge of rendering credible and illuminating accounts of h…
An Interactivist-Hermeneutic Metatheory for Positive Psychology
Drawing on Bickhard's interactivism along with philosophical hermeneutics, we outline a plausible ontology of human action and development that might serve as a metatheory for positive psychology. Our nondualistic metatheory rests on a distributed notion of agency. The kinds of morally imbued social practices that are identified by hermeneutic theorists constitute one level of agency. At the first level of agency, persons are already committed, a…
Qigong as a Mindfulness Practice for Counseling Students
This qualitative study explores the effects of qigong, an ancient Chinese mindfulness practice involving movement, on master's-level counseling students. Students responded in writing both after an initial experience of qigong and after practicing the movements for 15 weeks during a mindfulness-based course in self-care. Themes of physical, emotional, and mental changes were present in both sets of responses. Additional themes of familiarity with…
Positive Psychology, Ethnocentrism, and the Disguised Ideology of Individualism
This article aims to examine critically the attempts by positive psychologists to develop a science of happiness and positive human functioning that transcends temporal and cultural boundaries. Current efforts in positive psychology are deconstructed to reveal an adherence to the dominant Western conception of self and its accompanying vision of the good life as personal fulfillment. It is argued that in failing to recognize the tacit cultural an…
Perceptions of the Long-Term Influence of Mindfulness Training on Counselors and Psychotherapists
Although self-care is often touted as being important to counselors and psychotherapists, historically little has been done within graduate school to provide future therapists with self-care strategies. This article proposes that mindfulness training offers a promising approach to therapist self-care and introduces qualitative research on the long-term impact of mindfulness training to substantiate this claim. Sixteen former students who are now …
Putting “Positive” and “Psychology” In Perspective
Critical cultural awareness
The number of psychologists whose work crosses cultural boundaries is increasing. Without a critical awareness of their own cultural grounding, they risk imposing the assumptions, concepts, practices, and values of U.S.-centered psychology on societies where they do not fit, as a brief example from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami shows. Hermeneutic thinkers offer theoretical resources for gaining cultural awareness. Culture, in the hermeneutic view…
Psychology (13 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (6 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions (4 works) · Psychotherapist (4 works) · Social Representations and Identity (4 works) · Sociology (4 works)