Much contemporary psychology is characterized by a natural science epistemology that overlooks the richness of human experience. This book offers a timely and necessary critique and emphasizes a conception of human beings as persons embedded in relationships, cultural groups, and historical contexts. Eva Magnusson and Jeanne Marecek provide strategies for critical reflective scrutiny of contemporary psychological theories and practices. Using 'styles of thinking' as one of their conceptual tools, they investigate whether, and how, theories, research methods, and debates across subfields such as cognition, language, and psychopathology take people's situatedness into account. The book gives readers practical guidance for conceptual analysis, and a set of questions for scrutinizing other subfields and practices. It also describes research methods and projects based on a view of humans as situated persons. The book offers both a philosophical foundation and a hands-on guide to a psychology with persons at its center.

‘This book is an excellent guide to scientific thinking. The content is relevant for several scientific disciplines where human thoughts, feelings, experience, and behavior are focused. One such example could be nursing research. The last chapter contains very useful end questions, especially for doctoral students in development of scientific thinking.’

Marianne Carlsson - Professor Emeritus of Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden

‘Eva Magnusson and Jeanne Marecek have long been in the vanguard of psychologists who advance the study of human beings as socially and culturally situated persons. In this remarkably clear and accessible book, they bring together the work of philosophers, anthropologists, and critical psychologists to take this project to the next level. With an emphasis on language and meaning, they explain why a truly contextualized psychology does not only entail using interpretative, discursive, or sociocultural methods. It also involves thinking critically about the assumptions, contradictions, and limitations of every psychological theory and practice one encounters.’

Suzanne R. Kirschner - Professor Emerita of Psychology, College of the Holy Cross, USA

‘With dazzling breadth and intriguing ideas, this book upends many of the taken-for-granted ways of understanding the subject matter and research practices of Western psychology. By persuasively arguing for placing socially and culturally situated persons at the heart of psychological theorizing and research, the authors show how we can think differently about the discipline of psychology. A must-read, particularly for course instructors and senior students.’

Linda McMullen - Professor Emerita of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Canada