Bücher von Carl Ratner

This book utilizes cultural psychology as a cultural theory and psychological theory capable of explaining and improving social issues. In particular Vygotsky's cultural-historical psychology, and Ratner's macro-cultural psychology are invoked to explain racism and mitigate it. This explanation of, and solution to, racism are utilized as a framework for analyzing and refining contemporary movements for racial justice.  Among the topics discussed:Macro cultural psychology and Vygotsky's Marxist cultural-historical psychologyDifferentiating psychological racism from economic racismHistorical examples of racism during American slavery which reveal their cultural and psychological featuresCultural-psychological analysis and refinement of Black Lives Matter, racial capitalism, intersectionism, and Ta-Nehishi Coates' work Cultural Psychology, Racism, and Social Justice will be of interest to the fields of social policy, social transformation, psychological theory, cultural theory, and history. 

This book articulates how psychologists can use their theory, research, and intervention to generate insights into emancipatory social change that is necessary to solve social and psychological problems.

Offering organizations a workable model for promoting real cooperation between their constituent members, this guide shows how ethics, psychology, and politics can combine to reform behavioral norms in institutions wedded to the imperatives of competition.

The social nature of psychological phenomena consists in the fact that they are constructed by individuals in the process of social interaction, they depend upon properties of social interaction, one of their primary purposes is facili tating social interaction, and they embody the specific character of his torically bound social relations.

This book seeks to deepen our understanding of the cultural aspects of human psychology. These are aspects of psychology that originate in, are formed by, reflect, perpetuate, and modify social processes and factors outside the individual mind. My motivation in pursuing cultural psychol­ ogy is both scientific and political. I believe that construing psychology as a cultural phenomenon is the scientifically correct way to understand psychology; a cultural analysis of psychology can also provide crucial insights for political action to improve human life. The scientific and political aspects of cultural psychology are inter­ dependent and reciprocally reinforcing. The scientific identification and explanation of cultural aspects of psychology can identify societal changes that will enhance human psychology-to help people become more intel­ ligent, far-sighted, logical, harmonious, helpful, moral, and secure, and less stressful, disturbed, prejudiced, competitive, aggressive, lonely, insecure, depressed, mystified, and irrational. Conversely, the political orientation of cultural psychology to enhance psychological functioning through comprehending and improving the social fabric advances the scientific understanding of psychology as a cultural phenomenon. Social goals direct cultural psychology to devise special theories and methods that investigate cultural origins, formation, characteristics, and functions of psychology. Traditional theories and methods are not necessarily appli­ cable because they are informed by a vision of psychology as individual, biological, or universal. The scientific study of cultural psychology is a check on political analyses.

Qualitative methodologies in cultural psychology often lack the objective and verifiable character of quantitative analysis. Ratner argues that "complex psychological phenomena are expressed through extended responses" and hence are best studied by new, more regularized qualitative methods that go beyond measuring simple, overt responses.

The social nature of psychological phenomena consists in the fact that they are constructed by individuals in the process of social interaction, they depend upon properties of social interaction, one of their primary purposes is facili tating social interaction, and they embody the specific character of his torically bound social relations.

Qualitative methodologies in cultural psychology often lack the objective and verifiable character of quantitative analysis. Ratner argues that "complex psychological phenomena are expressed through extended responses" and hence are best studied by new, more regularized qualitative methods that go beyond measuring simple, overt responses.