Director
Genji Sugamura, Ph.D.
Position
Professor of Psychology, Kansai University, Osaka, JAPAN
What is “Constructive Praxeology”?
“Constructive praxeology” is a term coined by combining “Constructive/Constructivist Psychotherapy Laboratory” (Michael J. Mahoney) and “Behaviorology Laboratory” (Yutaka Haruki), to which I belonged as a graduate student.
Constructivism is a group of theories that emphasize the influence of factors other than the characteristics of the object of perception on how we perceive and know our environment.
The environmental phenomena that have been taken up as research themes include social environment (others, community, language, culture, religion, etc.), natural environment (ecosystem, atmosphere, temperature, gravity, etc.), artificial environment (chair, cushion, desk, food, beverage, hot/cold pad, e-book, VR device, etc.), and self-environment (body, cognitive system emotions, physiological responses, etc.).
The process of perceiving and recognizing these environments is influenced by interpersonal interactions using verbal and nonverbal language, and is based on physicality with an evolutionary biological background, while relying on social, cultural, and historical characteristics.
Behaviorology, on the other hand, is the former name for the “Embodied Psychology” that was developed and systematized originally in Japan on the basis of behaviorism in psychology, animal and human ethology), Jamesian theory of emotion, and Buddhist psychology. Embodied Psychology is a system that pursues the functional aspects of behavior, especially its biological adaptive value, from a pragmatic perspective. Specifically, it is a field that experimentally clarifies how physical actions such as posture, facial expression, breathing, and touch, as well as the accompanying bodily sensations, affect the emotions and cognition of the active agency.
However, it is also possible to think that Embodied Psychology is included in constructivism in a broad sense, and the addition of constructivism and body psychology does not necessarily mean that it is a new and immediate academic field. Rather, it includes many contents corresponding to conventional psychological fields such as affective, cognitive, evolutionary, learning, clinical, educational, and environmental psychology.
Nevertheless, the reason I chose the name “Constructive Praxeology” is because I wanted to include a value system. First, I wanted to emphasize the “productive” connotation of the word “constructivism. In addition, I chose the word “praxeology” instead of “study of behavior” or “behaviorology” as an English translation of the term “koudougaku”(behaviorology) to emphasize that this is a field that emphasizes practice. Second, I wanted to stress that the use of the word “praxeology” instead of “study of behavior” or “behaviorology” as the English translation of “koudougaku” (behaviorology) is a field that focuses on the practice.
Therefore, the field of Constructive Praxeology is based on the constructivist position and asks how we create reality from the perspectives of both the individual dimension (organism and body) and the social dimension (language and culture), and also pursues “constructive action” to see what kind of practices we can use to change reality.
Brief Bio
Dr. Genji Sugamura is full professor of psychology with tenure at Kansai University. He teaches psychology of embodiment, psychology of reality, and embodied peach education in both undergraduate and graduate levels.
He was a student and coworker of the late Dr. Michael J. Mahoney at University of North Texas and Saybrook Graduate School & Research Center.
He is interested in philosophical and meta-theoretical issues in psychology, especially in educational application of constructivism, social constructionism, and Eastern religious/philosophical traditions.
Also, he has been conducting experimental research to examine Jamesian theory of emotion and embodied cognition, based on an idea of Yutaka Haruki’s “Embodied Psychology.”
We have developed a chair that makes it easier to naturally assume an upright posture, and have received a government research grant to examine its psychological effects on elementary school through university students.
Keywords
Autonomic Activities, Affects, Attachment Theory, Behaviors, Bodyfulness, Bodyhood, Bodywork, Body Movements, Body Sensation, Breathing, Buddhist Psychology, Chairs, Complex Systems, Constructivism, Constructionism, Cushions, Darwinian Theory of Emotion, Dynamical Systems, Facial Expressions, Embodiment, Embodied Mind, Enactment, Environments, Evolutionary Epistemology, Fictionalism (Philosophy of As-If), Functionalism, James-Lange Theory, Japanese Culture, Kyoto School of Philosophy, Meaning-Making, Meditation, Mindfulness, Moral Education, Narrative, Non-Dualism, Non-Self, Nothingness, Peace Education, Peripheral Feedback Hypothesis, Personal Constructs, Physical Postures, Pragmatism, Psychotherapy, Sense, Shintoist Psychology, Social Constructions, Systems Theory, Tacit Knowledge, Touch, Viability, Vocal Behaviors, Zen, etc.