Basic Dimensions in Conscious Thought: The Self and Socialization of Human Concerns, Volume 1(Psychocultural Research with the Thematic Apperception Test)

Basic Dimensions in Conscious Thought represents a major contribution, describing an empirically-validated method for analyzing the thematic content of narratives as a tool for comparative research in Anthropology, Cultural Psychology and Ethnopsychiatry. This first volume in the two volume series presents the Interpersonal Concerns Scoring System (ICSS), which is a comprehensive system of dimensions and categories for classifying thematic content found in narratives. The ICSS categories are discussed from both developmental-psychological and psychocultural perspectives. This is designed to facilitate the cross-cultural researcher or clinician's understanding of how normative or non-normative patterns of thematic concerns might be inferentially related to socialization processes (whether adaptive or pathogenic) that are found in particular sociocultural settings.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction: The Thematic Apperception Test in Social Sciences Research: Historical and Methodological Considerations Chapter 2 The Self in Society: Theoretical Perspectives on Social Construction and Conscious Experience Chapter 3 Basic Dimensions in Conscious Thought: Categories Studied in the Present Volume Chapter 4 The Many Faces of Pain and Pleasure: The Emotive Self Chapter 5 Motives to Give, Succor, and Protect: The Fulfillment of Insufficiency and Dependency Chapter 6 Resonance, Closeness, and Communication: Affiliative Concerns in Human Relationships Chapter 7 Esteem: Evaluative Concerns with Social Acceptability Chapter 8 Harmony versus Discord: Humans as Socially Accommodative Animals Chapter 9 Achievement as a Will to Accomplish: A Sense of Purpose in Human Life Chapter 10 Competence and Mastery Chapter 11 Status Inequality and Patterns of Social Control Chapter 12 Responsibility: Human Potentials for Guilt Chapter 13 Mutual Purpose: Patterns of Competition and Cooperation Chapter 14 Human Concerns with Impersonal Forces and Inanimate Objects Chapter 15 The Existential Self: Scoring Themes Pertaining to the Supernatural or Thoughts of Suicide

About the Author :
Dr. George Alphonse De Vos, is both a psychologist and anthropologist, trained at The University of Chicago. An Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley, he is author of twenty books and 180 articles documenting his over 50 years of cross cultural research in the North and South America, Asia and Europe. Dr. Eric Steven De Vos received his doctorate from the Committee on Human Development at The University of Chicago. He is presently professor of Psychology at Saginaw Valley State University, in Michigan.

Review :
George DeVos is the premier anthropological expert on projective testing. This two volume study, which includes his new coding system for scoring the TAT, is indispensable for any anthropologist or psychologist interested in the relevance of the TAT for understanding the interaction between personality dynamics and social and cultural systems.