The Catalyzing Mind

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Theoretical Considerations of Causality and Catalysis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Systematic Systemics: Causality, Catalysis, and Developmental Cybernetics

      • Kenneth R. Cabell, Jaan Valsiner

      Pages 3-13

3. Historical and Conceptual Considerations of Causality and Catalysis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

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   2. Breaking the Arrows of Causality: The Idea of Catalysis in its Making

      • Jaan Valsiner

      Pages 17-32

   3. Cause and Catalyst: A Differentiation

      • Alaric Kohler

      Pages 33-70

   4. Catalysis, Functional Explanations and Functionalism in Psychology

      • Sven Hroar Klempe

      Pages 71-92

4. Biosemiotic Considerations of Cause and Catalysis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 93-93

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   2. Semiotic Scaffolding: A Biosemiotic Link Between Sema and Soma

      • Jesper Hoffmeyer

      Pages 95-110

   3. Catalysis and Scaffolding in Semiosis

      • Kalevi Kull

      Pages 111-121

5. Systemic and Contextual Considerations of Catalysis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 123-123

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   2. A Systemic Approach to Cultural Diffusion and Reconstruction

      • Brady Wagoner

      Pages 125-147

   3. Catalysis and Morphogenesis: The Contextual Semiotic Configuration of Form, Function, and Fields of Experience

      • Raffaele De Luca Picione, Maria Francesca Freda

      Pages 149-163

6. Developmental Considerations of Catalysis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-165

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   2. Exploring the Role of Catalyzing Agents in the Transition to Adulthood: A Longitudinal Case Study with Brazilian Youth

      • Elsa de Mattos, Antônio Marcos Chaves

      Pages 167-189

   3. Catalysts and Regulators of Psychological Change in the Context of Immigration Ruptures

      • Irini Kadianaki, Tania Zittoun

      Pages 191-207

7. Applying the Concept of Catalysis to Everyday Life

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 209-209

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   2. Fostering National Identity, Hindering Historical Understanding

      • Cesar Lopez, Mario Carretero, Maria Rodriguez-Moneo

      Pages 211-221

   3. Beyond the Self and the Environment: The Psychological Horizon

      • Luca Tateo

      Pages 223-237

   4. Man’s Search for Extra-Ordinary Answers in Life: Silence as a Catalyst for Crisis-Solving

      • Olga V. Lehmann

      Pages 239-250

How do we understand and explain phenomena in psychology? What does the concept of “causality” mean when we discuss higher psychological functions and behavior? Is it possible to generate “laws” in a psychological and behavioral science—laws that go beyond statistical regularities, frequencies, and probabilities? An international group of authors compare and contrast the use of a causal model in psychology with a newer model—the catalytic model. The Catalyzing Mind: Beyond Models of Causality proposes an approach to the qualitative nature of psychological phenomena that focuses on the psychological significance and meaning of conditions, contexts, and situations as well as their sign-mediating processes. Contributors develop, apply, and criticize the notion of a catalyzing mind in hopes of achieving conceptual clarity and rigor. Disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, semiotics and biosemiotics are used for an interdisciplinary approach to the book. Research topics such as history and national identity, immigration, and transitions to adulthood are all brought into a dialogue with the concept of the catalyzing mind. With a variety of disciplines, theoretical concepts, and research topics this book is a collective effort at an approach to move beyond models of causality for explaining and understanding psychological phenomena.

• Catalysis and psychology
• Catalytic conditions and behavior
• Catalytic conditions and environment
• Psychological functioning
• Semiotic catalysis
• Semiotic cultural psychology

• Clark University Department of Psychology, Worcester, USA

  Kenneth R. Cabell

• Niels Bohr Professorship Centre of Cultural Psychology, Aalborg Universitet, Aalborg, Denmark

  Jaan Valsiner

Kenneth R. Cabell is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow working within the sub-discipline of semiotic cultural psychology. Generally, his research interests focus on the cultural organization of human psychological functioning and experience. Specifically, his theoretical and methodological interests focus on developing a framework to better identify the mechanisms by which individuals make their experiences meaningful. His empirical interests focus on experiences of entrapment and other trapping phenomena. He is the Editorial Director of Culture & Psychology (Sage) and he is an editor of Psychology & Society. In addition to editing the book The Catalyzing Mind: Beyond Models of Causality (Springer) he is also an editor of the book series Annals of Cultural Psychology (Information Age Publishing). While at Clark University, he has been able to work closely with international researchers and scholars in the Kitchen Seminar Network (www.kitchenseminar.com) as well as with the Niels Bohr Professorship Center of Cultural Psychology at Aalborg University, Denmark.

Jaan Valsiner is the Niels Bohr Professor of Cultural Psychology at Aalborg University in Denmark, and Professor of Psychology and English at Clark University, USA. He is the founding editor (1995) of the Sage journal, Culture & Psychology and Editor-in-Chief of Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Sciences (Springer, from 2007). In 1995 he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for his interdisciplinary work on human development.

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