Persons: Understanding Psychological Selfhood and Agency

• A Theory of Persons and Selves for Psychology.- Introduction: The Problem of Selves and Persons in Psychology.- A Theory of Self and Personhood for Psychology.- The Political Disposition of Self as a Kind of Understanding.- Human Agency and the Irreducibility of Persons.- Persons and Moral Agency.- Emergent Persons.- John Macmurray’s Philosophy of the Personal and the Irreducibility of Persons.- Perspectives, Selves, and Persons.- Real Perspectival Selves.- Perspectival Selves in Interaction with Others: Re-reading G.H. Mead’s Social Psychology.- Perspectives and Persons: Ontological, Constitutive Possibilities.- The Psychology of Persons: An Idea Whose Time Has Come (Again).

From the reviews: "This book focuses on what personhood is -- a balance between biological phenomena and sociocultural influences. The ability to make changes in one's life and impact the lives of others is what the authors set out to conceptualize. ... Their intended audience includes 'researchers in developmental, social, and clinical psychology as well as social science philosophers.' ... it does answer the question of selfhood and agency, i.e. making choices and decisions through emergentist theories and the perspectival self." (Gary B. Kaniuk, Doody's Review Service, May, 2010) "Persons: Understanding Psychological Selfhood and Agency is a work of philosophical psychology ... . authors do a fine job of reintroducing this work to the contemporary psychological audience. ... The authors have made a valuable contribution to our understanding of persons, and their cogent exposition merits a reading. ... One might expect greater coverage of related psychological theorizing (e.g., Bandura, 2001) and cognitive-developmental research ... than they afford. ... a testament to the presence of a philosophical psychology quite separate from mainstream psychology." (David Patton Barone, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 55 (30), July, 2010)