Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

“I don’t ever want to lose the legend and lore surrounding these great athletes because they were shunned by baseball,” Kendrick said in a phone interview. “The oral accounts of what these players did is still important to me. You can never tell the true story of the Negro Leagues with numbers. You just won’t.” --Bob Kendrick, President, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum In the WP story ( Jan 5, 2021 ), Kendrick explains his concerns about the plan of the MLB to recognize the Negro Leagues as Major Leagues. Kendrick's concern can help us recognize the dilemma of maintaining an important part of our identity while linking our identity to a new relationship that has the potential to either overshadow our primary identity or enhance our primary identity. These "social mergers" are dynamic. Relationships and associations change identities. Fortunately for Kendrick, he has a museum full of stories to support a distinct identity. We would do well to establish and continue to direct...

What I call the SCOPES model is an organization of and an elaboration on the way many psychologists conduct comprehensive assessments for patients. I find the approach helpful because it guides us in thinking about ourselves and others in terms of multiple dimensions rather than just one or two labels that can lead to misunderstanding or worse. SCOPES is an acrostic for five dimensions of human nature within a social context.  SCOPES is also a metaphor for looking with an intent to carefully observe people in a richer and more diverse way than we do with a cursory glance. Once I name the six dimensions you will see how they reflect the common ways we speak about ourselves and others. What makes this aapproach uncommon is that it takes effort to look beyond that which is immediately evident and consider multiple dimensions before making “snap” judgments. A camera metaphor may help. People are like cameras operating on default settings. Modern cameras have multi...

Why Do We Seem to Care More for the French than Others? Several stories have pointed to mass killings around the world in recent years. Why does the world seems so much more concerned about the Paris attacks? Seven  likely reasons why so many care about the people of Paris. 1. Identity. It’s seems personal. Many people identify with the people of Paris. Many people have been to Paris or wish to go there. Regardless of reality, Paris- and therefore its people- represents love, romance, and culture. Not a lot of world cities have the same attraction as does Paris. When  Identification is active, threats seem more personal. 2. Family. Under threat conditions people look for allies and enemies. The French look like many other Europeans who have settled large parts of the  world occupied by Western powers (e.g., British, Spanish, Dutch, German, Portuguese). Humans don’t spend a lot of time analyzing situations when they are under attack. Percep...