Recent Trends in Theoretical Psychology

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the second biannual conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology (see Epilogue) held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, April 20-25, 1987. Thirty-nine papers were presented during the four days of the conference including an invited address by Kenneth Gergen. Unfortunately, even after severely restricting the length of the written papers, the required limitation on printed space permitted only 34 of these to be included in these proceed­ ings. While most of the papers required editorial adjustment, the authors had final word on style and content. The classification of conference papers tends to be somewhat arbi­ trary' but we decided to structure the chapters under four headings: phi­ losophy, metatheory, methodology, and theory. By philosophy we refer primarily to issues in the philosophy of science as these pertain to the dis­ cipline of psychology. Metatheory refers to theory, drawing on the philo­ sophy of science and having implications for methodology, about psycho­ logical theories. Methodology refers to both theory of inquiry and specif­ ic methods of investigation as these derive from philosophical and meta­ theoretical considerations. By theory we refer to both analyses of the foundations of extant theory, including historical and sociological ana­ lyses, and the advancement of substantive theory.