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In order to find a basis for certain formerly described phenomenal changes upon picture reversal, especially those related to the experience of picture space, of object qualities and of relationships between objects and the self an analysis of visual experience of real objects in space was made and compared it with that of surface patterns. Through variation of objects and of looking behavior we have arrived at new phenomenological distinctions. The main distinctions are those of exterior and interior experience and their basic qualities as determined by the spatial configuration of object surfaces and as influenced by our looking behavior. Relationships between the objects and the self (which may appear as such or acadherent or inherent, relative object qualities or as related to the self) as well as the phenomenal dominance of exterior or interior experience depend primarily upon the relative location in depth of fixation plane and object. Such dependencies have implications not only for perception but also for the fields of personality and psychopathology.

This essay attempts to identify some underlying commitments of ethnomethodology. The commitments explored are the idea of reflexivity, science, normal practice and the radical empirical stance—all of which are essential to ethnomethodology. Finally, it is argued that as an upshot of these commitments, ethnomethodology harbors a political implication which allows for its use as an instrument for de-objectification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hoping has not always been evaluated as positively as it is by most contemporary Christianized and humanistic westerners. Indeed, Greek and Roman attitudes towards hope were by and large negative, skeptical or cynical. Historically, it seems beyond question that man's common sense thought patterns about hope, at least in the Western hemisphere, owe a debt to Christian beginnings. Ever since its origins, Christianity as a movement has forced theological and philosophical thinkers to become explicit about hope, to inculcate hope, to assume hope, to extol hope, to help people towards hope. Not that it invented hope or suddenly discovered its existence, but cognitively and dynamically it called man's attention to the fact that he is a hoping being. It recognized hope explicitly, evaluated it positively and made hope a theological and philosophical category. Some element of uncertainty is always present in hoping. It is not a listless waiting, but that it is a psychic activity. Its affinity is not so much with desire and wishing as with willing

A return to "experiential data" or to "the subjective frame of reference" refers to the relevance of the way in which the subject of psychological study perceives, experiences or understands himself or the world. In the psychology of perception, in personality study and more recently in social psychology, it has been called "the phenomenological approach." Interference refers both to the unconscious distortion of the scientist's own perceptions of the reality being studied and to the interpretations which he unconsciously or consciously applies to phenomenological data supplied to him by other subjects. The most adequate understanding of human behavior and experience is based on constructs utilizing data from both ends of the subjective-objective continuum, aided by wide knowledge and creative inventiveness on the part of the investigator. Phenomenology deals with conscious experience only, hence it omits from consideration the tremendously significant and sometimes decisive factors of personality not available to the subject's awareness. Worship and the religious sentiments of gratitude, of adoration, of being forgiven, are unitive. Theological statements, historical records, interpretations of scripture are in some sense reflections upon unitive knowing after its occurrence.

The article focuses on existential study which is a 200-item inventory designed to measure existential status defined as the individual success-failure ratio reflecting the momentary status of self-actualization achieved at any point in life. Clinical experience since World War II indicates heightened incidences of presenting complaints and integrative disorders that are related to existential issues with subjective concerns over one's own personal worth and the meanings of life. Empiric evidence indicates that increasing numbers of clients are becoming incapacitated by progressive doubts about their own worth and their confidence about being able to cope with life.

The article aims to carry further the quantification of the existential concept of "purpose" or "meaning in life," in particular to measure the condition of existential frustration described by V.E. Frankl, with a view to determining whether his "noogenic" neurosis exists apart from the usual neuroses as dynamically conceived. The concept of "purpose in life" was operationally defined as what the instrument measures; thus the problem became the threefold one of showing that its scores represent (a) what Frankl is describing, (b) something different from the usual neuroses, and (c) a characteristic of psychopathological as distinguished from "normal" groups.

Phenomenological personality theory is based upon the importance of determining how an individual views his world and how he reacts to these perceptions. The study has indicated the importance of applying this frame of reference to the study of interpersonal behavior in the family setting and has described a conceptual framework for research into family influences upon the personal and social development of children. One of the variables he cited was control of behavior. By control of behavior, reference is made to the physical and psychological guides and restrictions which the child perceives as being placed upon him by his parents and other family members.

The article focuses on experimental clinical psychology. Clinicians are not unaware of the need for sound theoretical and experimental foundations for clinical practices. But study and research aimed at establishing such foundations tend, in large measure, to be concerned with attempts at objectifying, refining existing methodological and conceptual tools of clinical psychology. There is a tendency to continue down beaten pathways rather than to seek new approaches. As a step in this direction, this report describes an orientation to clinical psychology, which is rooted in phenomenology and experimental psychology and which utilizes some of the principles of field-theory and some of the techniques of action research. At the present time clinical psychology suffers from a decided gap between the problems confronting it, on the one hand, and available methods and concepts, on the other. This gap may be partially accounted for by the tendency of certain clinical theories and practices to become ends in themselves, procrustean beds to which clinical phenomena are fitted, thus minimizing the possible value of the phenomena in suggesting major modifications in existing methodological and conceptual tools or in suggesting new and possibly more adequate tools.