Bruce Jennings, MA, is an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University.
James Cresswell, PhD, is a full professor at Ambrose University in Calgary, Canada.
Tell us a bit about your background: What is your area of research? What is your most recent journal-editing experience?
Bruce Jennings: My training is in political science and philosophy, and my career has focused on public policy analysis in bioethics, public health ethics, and environmental ethics. I am adjunct associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University. I am also senior fellow at the Center for Humans and Nature and senior advisor at the Hastings Center, where I worked for 26 years and served for 8 years as executive director. I was editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Bioethics (4th ed.), a six-volume work published by Macmillan Reference USA in 2014. I have worked on ethical and legal issues in end-of-life and palliative care, and I have also worked on the application of normative political theory in the domains of public health and environmental policy. Overall, I would describe my work and interests as interdisciplinary knowledge in the social sciences and the humanities, with a special emphasis on politics and ethics.
James Cresswell: I am a full professor at Ambrose University in Calgary, Canada. A large portion of my work involves theoretical psychology focused on Bakhtin and dialogicality. I also do community-based research to support community organizations. Other areas of interest include poverty, cognitive science of religion, and immigration. I have a deep commitment to education and enhancing the student experience. I have served as the deputy editor for Dialogic Pedagogy and as associate editor for Theory and Psychology. I have been very active in the International Society for Theoretical Psychology and have edited three volumes on the current status of theoretical psychology.
Briefly, what are your main priorities? For example, how will you grow readership, what type of scholarship would you like to see in the journal, and what kind of content are you hoping to attract?
The Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (JTPP) is defined by its interdisciplinary commitment to bringing together psychology, philosophy, and metatheory. The points of contact and overlap between specialized scholarship and research have been the source of most of the intellectual creativity and resilience that we have witnessed throughout our careers—from political theory (philosophy, social science, and history) to bioethics (philosophy, medicine, and law). The journal is a forum for new languages of thinking, as a dynamic space of exchange for assertion and warrant, conjecture and defense, question and answer.
We intend to focus on intercultural interconnectivity and the importance of diversity (e.g., decolonizing psychology). Humility about ways of knowing is needed, even as the journal engages in big-picture interdisciplinary discussions. We seek to continue the interdisciplinary commitment of JTPP that brings together psychology, philosophy, and metatheory. The journal is a vehicle for bringing the best thinking in society into contact with civic affairs and practical conduct. Our society needs civic learning, and fundamental aspects of it can be found in theoretical and philosophical psychology.
Why is this journal important for the field? What is its relevance to society/public health? What are the hot issues in your area right now?
One way to respond to crisis is to attend to immediate problems, but another way is to critically reexamine fundamental assumptions and structural patterns of decision and action so that past mistakes are not repeated. What does successful social transition require and what are the social determinants of healthy psychological adaptation? These are both conceptual and practical questions. We are looking for articles that bring together a wide range of research and theory through rigorous sifting and weighing of complex conceptualizations of human psychological phenomena. JTPP works both constructively and critically within psychology at a point of crisis as it comes to grips with challenges to taken-for-granted epistemological practices (e.g., the replication crisis) and the importance of including those from marginalized communities.
While the analysis of theoretical and philosophical knowledge has distinct methods and approaches, we do not see JTPP as isolated from the broader discipline of psychology. The purpose of theoretical work is to engage in penetrating conceptual analysis that is in dialogue with empirical work. JTPP seeks to publish deep conceptual analysis that produces unique innovative engagement rather than reviews of the existing literature. A central purpose of theoretical psychology is to engage and speak to the meaning of empirical work and practical problems. Realizing such purposes means evaluating empirical and theoretical work with an eye to the implications and context of a given endeavor. Theoretical and philosophically oriented psychologists need to read widely to grasp multiple paradigms in a way that is not required of psychologists who work in a particular empirical domain. Reading widely is what enables theoretical psychologists to move from the vain attempt to have no presuppositions to efficacious critique. JTPP should continue to include a wide range of paradigms.
What challenges, if any, lie ahead for the field?
The most significant challenge is how can JTPP best respond to the global pandemic and wider sociocultural discussions, such as Black Lives Matter and widespread economic hardship. These sorts of issues represent significant global challenges that require collaborative interdisciplinary work that is rigorous and sophisticated in its analytic depth. The industry of psychology has produced silos in which psychologists focus on specific areas. Big-picture work that requires people to cross disciplines and paradigms is needed. The role of theoretical and philosophical psychology is to specialize in developing rigorous work at such a meta-level, but this demand is challenging. It is often more comfortable (and less risky) to stay within a sphere of professional connections. The challenge that psychologists face is the same that is faced in theoretical and philosophical psychology: engaging in efficacious dialogue with others and our respective communities.
The confluence of injustice, pandemic, and climate change is quite a wake-up call. Does the emergence of structural and systemic factors as key to flourishing in society and resilience in the environment force us to rethink and reorient social scientific knowledge and disciplines across the board? Most disciplines have taken the individual human being as the object of study; most have taken for granted the stability of the ecological and geophysical systems as a mere backdrop for human activity. What will be the distinctive voice and contribution of the discipline of psychology in that new configuration? How readily will the past conceptual and methodological paradigms of the discipline be able to adjust to new understandings of symbiotic life? As our understanding of humans in nature shifts, how will our understanding of nature in humans also be altered?
Do you have plans for a special issue or changes to the editorial process? Are you making any changes?
We are excited to announce the following new associate editors for JTTP:
These associate editors expand the global reach of JTPP, and we look forward to cultivating more relationships with organizations outside North America.
We are proud of the journal’s section on Contemporary Issues in Psychological Research. Along with provocative articles that focus on challenges in research, we publish commentaries and seek submissions to comment on the paper. This initiative creates generative conversation about research in psychology, and we are excited about its potential. Special issues in development include a focus on theory in South America and others speaking to innovative topics in global psychology.
Editor Spotlight features interviews with the newly-appointed editors of APA Journals.
APA Journals produces an array of scholarly journals that cover the spectrum of modern psychology and feature the latest research in the field.
Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology is devoted to fostering discussion at the interface of psychology, philosophy and metatheory.