Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

SAGE Journal User Guide

Article 1: Windholz, G. (1999). Soviet psychiatrist under Stalinist duress: the design for a “new Soviet psychiatry” and its demise. History of Psychiatry, (10),39. 329-347.

[This article describes how ideology and realities of Soviet Union psychiatry evolved under Stalinist rule.  The article exemplifies how psychological knowledge can be subjugated to political ideology. ]

Questions to Consider:

1. Identify issues with a “New Soviet Psychiatry” that were solely based on the Pavlovian theory of higher nervous activity.  Discuss various challenges that Soviet psychiatrists encountered. 
2. Discuss how social, ideological, and political values influenced psychological knowledge as it was described in the article. Name some societal consequences of such influence?
3. Do you think that psychiatric theories, diagnoses, and treatment in some cases served as a way to maintain power over certain groups of people? Base your arguments on information from the article.

Article 2: Lillard, A. S. (1997). Other folks’ theories of mind and behavior. Psychological Science, (8), 4.  268-274.

[The importance of including global perspectives in psychology is emphasized in the article. This article examines whether or not Western theories of mind are universal.]

Questions to Consider:

1. Identify several ways of how theories in psychology can be evaluated from a global perspective. What are various methods of explaining behaviors as they are described in the article?
2. Why it is important to examine non-Western theories of mind, explanations of behavior, and human development?
3. What is “folk psychology” according to this article? How does it relate to the mainstream body of knowledge in psychology?