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Toward a Psychology of Resistance

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Abstract

Resistance is all around us in contemporary life. It is an everyday phenomenon of personal and cultural life, as the Chaudhary et al. (2017) volume establishes with theoretical analyses and empirical examples from diverse cultural contexts. Resistance functions in the dynamics of person-by-culture encounters when one party takes an opposing position. With the purpose of working towards a unified approach to resistance, the authors in this volume lay down the foundations for a psychology of resistance as an everyday phenomenon. As a basis for analyzing the role of resistance in the dialectical processes of change, the volume presents resistance as: personal and social, oppositional, intentional and future-oriented, transformational and developmental. We see different positions opening up a debate about whether resistance is a particular, intentional and oppositional phenomenon, or is the basic process of all dialectical transformational change. Further resistance to either position is consistent with moving forward in the development of a psychology of resistance.

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Acknowledgements

Preparation of this paper was supported by the University of Melbourne Schools of Psychology and Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Jeanette A. Lawrence

  2. Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Agnes E. Dodds

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  1. Jeanette A. Lawrence
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  2. Agnes E. Dodds
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Correspondence to Jeanette A. Lawrence.

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No procedures involving human or animal participants were used in the preparation of this paper. The paper complies with the standards of the Australian National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2015).

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Lawrence, J.A., Dodds, A.E. Toward a Psychology of Resistance. Integr. psych. behav. 52, 67–76 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-017-9411-9

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