It has been argued that belief in free will is socially consequential and psychologically universal. In this paper we look at the folk concept of free will and its critical assessment in the context of recent psychological research. Is there a widespread consensus about the conceptual content of free will? We compared English “free will” with its lexical equivalents in Lithuanian, Hindi, Chinese and Mongolian languages and found that unlike Lithuanian, Chinese, Hindi and Mongolian lexical expressions of “free will” do (...) not refer to the same concept free will. What kind people have been studied so far? A review of papers indicate that, overall, 91% of participants in studies on belief in free will were WEIRD. Thus, given that free will has no cross-culturally universal conceptual content and that most of the reviewed studies were based on WEIRD samples, belief in free will is not a psychological universal. (shrink)

People across cultures consider everyday choices in the context of perceived various external life-determining forces: such as fate and gods (two teleological forces) and such notions as luck and chance (two non-teleological forces). There is little cross-cultural evidence (except for a belief in gods) showing how people relate these salient notions of life-determining forces to prosociality and a sense of well-being. The current paper provides preliminary cross-cultural data to address this gap. Results indicate that choice is the most important life-determining (...) factor. Regression analyses indicate that choice and belief in gods and fate emerged as significant predictors of prosociality towards strangers. Moreover, luck was a significant predictor of decreased prosociality. A relation between life-determining forces and life satisfaction followed the same pattern: choice, gods, and fate emerged as significant predictors of greater life satisfaction, whereas luck was associated with decreased life satisfaction. The overall pattern of results indicates that participants across different cultures might sense being bounded to share or not to care depending on the perceived intentional agency and meaning in the external forces. (shrink)

Šiame straipsnyje aptariamas laiko (kāla) suvokimas brahmaniškose, budistų ir džainų mokyklose remiantis pirminiais sanskrito šaltiniais ir kritinėmis studijomis. Tyrimui pasitelkiama kompleksinė – tekstologinė semantinė, hermeneutinė ir lyginamoji – metodologija. Daromos išvados, jog filosofinių mokyklų požiūriai išsiskiria labiausiai šiais klausimais: ar įmanomas dabarties suvokimas? Ar jutiminė dabartis yra momentinė, ar ji turi trukmę? Ar laikas yra objektyvus ir realus, ar tik subjektyvi konstrukcija? Atskleidžiama, jog indų filosofiniuose požiūriuose nėra vienos vyraujančios perspektyvos, principinė polemika vyko tarp budistinės nyāyos bei vaiśeṣikos mokyklų. Tyrimas (...) grindžia išvadą, kad indų filosofijoje laikas suprantamas ne psichologiškai, o epistemologiškai, siejant su patikimo pažinimo ir žinių pagrįstumo klausimais. (shrink)

This article deals with some earlier applications of psychology for the analysis of the colonial condition offered by three thinkers—Octave Mannoni, Frantz Fanon and recent applications of Freudian psychoanalytical theory in the poststructuralist approach of Homi K. Bhaba. An attempt is made to compare their standpoints and reflect more broadly on what their implications mean for the future of psychoanalysis’ place in postcolonial critique. Also to answer a vital question in the theoretical project of postcolonial studies: Is psychoanalysis a universally (...) applicable theory for psychic disruption in the colonial context? What are differences in the application of psychological theory for studies of colonial discourse? The conclusion of the paper is: Despite the problematic inheritance of racializing thinking psychoanalysis has proved to be an important and reoccurring methodology in colonial critique and postcolonial theory. Nevertheless, it is necessary to recognize that psychoanalysis itself is a colonial discipline and must become an object of colonial discourse analysis. (shrink)