Keynote and symposium presentations at the 20th Conference for the ISTP

The biannual conference organized by the International Society for Theoretical Psychology (ISTP) gathers researchers from all over the world to present, discuss and connect with other researchers interested in theoretical psychology. This year’s theme was “Theory as engagement”, which the ISTP organizers described as: “Theorizing is an essential activity for engaging in and with the world, enabling individuals and communities to navigate complex environments and possible futures.” 

Keynote speech about pragmatism

Alex Gillespie, professor at London School of Economics and professor II at Oslo New University College, held a well-received keynote speech on Day 1 of the conference, sparking many engaged debates in the days that followed. Gillespie’s keynote was described in the conference abstracts as follows: “Psychology’s dominant positivist epistemology has resulted in the replication crisis, fractured findings that are artefacts of the methods used, and irrelevance in the face of contemporary challenges. Pragmatism, an epistemology created by psychologists but largely ignored by psychologists, offers an alternative. Pragmatism puts human activity, and especially the experience of uncertainty, at the centre of knowledge. It replaces the idea of theory as a mirror of nature with the idea of humans navigating the vagaries of the future equipped only with their experience of the past. It leans into uncertainty and tasks psychologists with empowering people to make their own futures. Yet, with such a world-making focus comes inescapable ethical responsibilities for what we choose to research.” 

Symposium presentation about perspectives in everyday life.

Joshua Phelps, associate professor at Oslo New University College, organized an ONUC-symposium about dialogical approaches to perspectives, argumentation and openness, where Brady Wagoner, Ella Marie Sandbakken and Natalie Rolandsgard from ONUC also held presentations. The symposium had the following description:
 
“Engaged theorising means grounding our approaches in the messiness and ever-changing complexity of everyday life. Those of us intent on researching people’s interconnected worlds are confronted with the need to describe and explain how multiple perspectives are present and negotiated across different life domains. This symposium focuses on four applied contexts of research which have developed theoretical approaches to account for how people orient to or engage in activities in which multiple perspectives and/or voices may coincide, compete, or be integrated. These include police-trainees who engage with legal, societal, and interpersonal perspectives to resolve conflictual multiparty interactions; citizens confronted with multiple perspectives in trying to make informed choices to vaccinate or form an opinion on restrictive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic; and how today’s youth living in liberal democracies may experience different facets of openness when discussing mental health. Each research strand presented in the symposium takes on an overarching dialogical approach to theory development on multiple perspectives and shows how it can be applied in real-world contexts. Our joint discussion will focus on how we can better theorise complexity involving multiple perspectives in everyday life in light of potentially competing societal tendencies to simplify and see the world in binaries.”