James Good

Biography	A fundamental problem in social psychology is that of relating the characteristics of persons to the social situations, small or large, in which they find themselves. Much of my research has been concerned with exploring aspects of the mutuality of person-person and person-environment relations. In developing this mutualist approach, I have been drawing upon ideas from social psychology, ecological psychology, cultural psychology and pragmatist philosophy. As a result of this work, I am ever more convinced that the discipline of psychology needs to reach out to other human science disciplines in developing its concepts, theories and methods. Together with my former colleague Arthur Still I have for many years been involved in exploring the relevance of this mutualist approach to the human sciences more generally (Still & Good, 1986, 1992, 1998). I have used it in a study of the disciplinary status of social psychology exploring not only the discipline's historical development but also its mutual relations with other human sciences, especially its boundary relations with its parent disciplines, sociology and psychology (Good, 2000, 2022). This approach also has been used in attempts to extend James Gibson’s affordance notion to the perception of human social behaviour (Valenti & Good, 1991; Good, 2007) and in the exploration of social and musical co-ordination between chamber music players (Davidson and Good, 2002). This mutualist view has also underpinned my research on the history, theory and practice of Q methodology (Good, 2003, 2010, 2021; Good & Gauzente, 2020; Good & Wolf, 2022). I am currently working on a monograph on the life and work of William Stephenson, the founder of Q methodology.
Research Interests	History of the human sciences Theory and practice of Q methodology Ecological approaches to cognition and distributed cognition Psychology of music, especially social aspects of performance Ecological social psychology, especially social affordances

Biography

A fundamental problem in social psychology is that of relating the characteristics of persons to the social situations, small or large, in which they find themselves. Much of my research has been concerned with exploring aspects of the mutuality of person-person and person-environment relations. In developing this mutualist approach, I have been drawing upon ideas from social psychology, ecological psychology, cultural psychology and pragmatist philosophy. As a result of this work, I am ever more convinced that the discipline of psychology needs to reach out to other human science disciplines in developing its concepts, theories and methods.

Together with my former colleague Arthur Still I have for many years been involved in exploring the relevance of this mutualist approach to the human sciences more generally (Still & Good, 1986, 1992, 1998). I have used it in a study of the disciplinary status of social psychology exploring not only the discipline's historical development but also its mutual relations with other human sciences, especially its boundary relations with its parent disciplines, sociology and psychology (Good, 2000, 2022). This approach also has been used in attempts to extend James Gibson’s affordance notion to the perception of human social behaviour (Valenti & Good, 1991; Good, 2007) and in the exploration of social and musical co-ordination between chamber music players (Davidson and Good, 2002). This mutualist view has also underpinned my research on the history, theory and practice of Q methodology (Good, 2003, 2010, 2021; Good & Gauzente, 2020; Good & Wolf, 2022). I am currently working on a monograph on the life and work of William Stephenson, the founder of Q methodology.

Research Interests

History of the human sciences
Theory and practice of Q methodology
Ecological approaches to cognition and distributed cognition
Psychology of music, especially social aspects of performance
Ecological social psychology, especially social affordances