Abstract
American social psychologist Roy Baumeister covers the myth of high self-esteem as a panacea for most social problems, the illusion of authentic self, self-actualization and self-esteem as a primary human motivation with Witkowski. They then discuss the problems concerned with research on big psychological questions: free will, willpower, consciousness and more. Next, they analyze the methodological shift from behavior observation to introspection, the causes of the crisis in psychology and the problems with replications of research results on ego depletion. Baumeister explains his current research interests in this chapter. The interview also covers Baumeister’s views on the great questions of psychology, unifying theory, the role of artificial intelligence in the development of science. The chapter includes Baumeister’s biography and his advice for young psychologists.
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Selected Readings
Baumeister, R. F. (1986). Identity: Cultural change and the struggle for self. New York: Oxford University Press.
Baumeister, R. F. (1989). Masochism and the self. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Baumeister, R. F. (1991a). Meanings of life. New York: Guilford Press.
Baumeister, R. F. (1991b). Escaping the self: Alcoholism, spirituality, masochism, and other flights from the burden of selfhood. New York: Basic Books.
Baumeister, R. F. (Ed.). (1993). Self-esteem: The puzzle of low self-regard. New York: Plenum.
Baumeister, R. F. (1997). Evil: Inside human violence and cruelty. New York: W.H. Freeman.
Baumeister, R. F. (2005). The cultural animal: Human nature, meaning, and social life. New York: Oxford University Press.
Baumeister, R.F. (2010). Is there anything good about men? New York: Oxford University Press.
Baumeister, R. F. (2018). Self-regulation and self-control: Selected works of Roy F. Baumeister. New York: Routledge Psychology Press.
Baumeister, R. F., Heatherton, T., & Tice, D. (1994). Losing control: How and why people fail at self-regulation. New York: Academic Press.
Baumeister, R.F., & Tierney, J. (2011). Willpower: Rediscovering the greatest human strength. New York: Penguin Press.
Baumeister, R. F., & Wotman, S. R. (1992). Breaking hearts: The two sides of unrequited love. New York: Guilford Press.
Berglas, S. C., & Baumeister, R. F. (1993). Your own worst enemy: Understanding the paradox of self-defeating behavior. New York: Basic Books.
Seligman, M., Railton, P., Baumeister, R., & Sripada, C. (2016). Homo prospectus. New York: Oxford University Press.
Tierney, J., & Baumeister, R.F. (2019). The power of bad: How the negativity effect rules us—And how we can rule it. New York: Penguin.
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Witkowski, T. (2020). Roy F. Baumeister: Self-Esteem, Self-Control and the Power of Will. In: Shaping Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50003-0_11
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