Glossary
Design Psychology
As envisioned in the book ‘Introduction to Design Psychology’ it is intentional and neither a science nor a discipline but more of a critical synthesis of elements from various disciplinary fields, responsive to present local and global circumstances. It is a proposed ideological framework, open to subjectivities and designs currently sitting outside the disciplines of psychology and design, questioning the current models (e.g. natural-scientific) producing ‘hard truths’ as well as the binary between subject and object, expert and subject, human and nature. It explores the histories of both disciplines to unveil the construction of existing social constructs and individual identities; re-positions itself outside of disciplinary silos and on a spectrum of knowledge where design and psychology interact with each other and other fields of activity; and invites the creation of a common vocabulary, methods, and practices. To that end, the following glossary provides the conceptual foundation for our shared inquiry.
Accountability mapping
A process of understanding how our psychology has been shaped and where everyday life designs come from, how they are connected to economic and political conditions, what they allow and prevent us to do, and their impact on other people, societies and the environment. Accountability mapping makes visible how systems work, how behaviours are connected to designs and where individuals, communities, public governance and industry are positioned within the system, their responsibility and agency.
Adaptation
The ability of communities to sustain their livelihoods and their constant effort to optimise their circumstances, physically by up-using resources in the most efficient manner regarding the needs of their locality; psychologically, by experiencing the present with cognitive and emotional attentiveness; and socially, by being part of a collective striving for the same purpose. (See also Affirmative adaptation)
Affirmative destruction
The creative destruction of individual perceptions, societal constructs and material practices (including but not limited to systemic racism, exclusion by design and ‘happiness’ by consumption) that have a negative social and environmental impact.
Commoning/Commons:
Refers to the concept and practice of self-organised governance in the form of collectives being in charge of maintaining, repairing and distributing their resources, internally delegate tasks and responsibilities and address emergencies through their own frameworks of management.
Community-led behavioural change
Behavioural shifts that are motivated by effective responses to local problems when communities come together and activate place-based capabilities and resources. Communal agency happens in the form of self-organised communities, neighbourhood initiatives, commons and collectives holding lived experience of their topical needs and strengths.
Constantly changing configuration of subjectivities
Fluid community configurations not necessarily attached to place, ethnicity and race but to what brings people together in terms of commonality, need or circumstances. The configurations that arise get constantly redefined depending on emerging negative and positive phenomena, such as war, gentrification or the recognition of rights.
(One) Design
Commonly known as arts and crafts practice turned into science through becoming a discipline to generate principles, processes and products. This benign perception removes responsibility from design regarding its implication in contemporary problems such as climate change and over-consumption as well as conditions such as colonialism and social inequality. These have been brought into existence by design, meaning blueprints of systems, material practices and objects prescribed by an ideology (e.g. colonial design of cities led by imperialism) or an economic strategy (e.g. built-in obsolescence). Design is defined here as singular due to its uniform application brought by globalisation/capitalism and to separate it from designs (plural).
Designs (plural)
Decolonial, feminist, indigenous, place-based, community-led and non-identified (by the design canon) designs, attributed to the challenges of a given context, and the lived experiences of the people affected by them.
Design psychology of (un)happiness
The vicious circle of consuming to be happy, not feeling happy, and then consuming to beat unhappiness, which gets pathologised and treated as a mental health condition.
Impermanence
The state of being alive in a world that is constantly changing, from a cellular to a universal level.
Impromptu Design Psychology
‘Humanising’ design by borrowing psychological theories and methods to meet user needs, as prescribed and identified by the designer. The applications of impromptu design psychology range from customer satisfaction to sustainable behaviour. However, they all draw from the same knowledge framework originating from psychology: objectively describing and evaluating behaviours, experiences and uses, through standardised processes.
Interdependence
The biological, social and psychological mechanism of surviving and adapting, opposite to the artificial notion of individualism.
Intentional Design Psychology
It is neither a science nor a discipline but endeavours to synthesise elements from various disciplinary fields in a critical manner, responsive to present local and global circumstances. It is a proposed ideological framework, open to subjectivities and designs currently sitting outside the disciplines of psychology and design, questioning the current models (e.g. natural-scientific) producing ‘hard truths’ as well as the binary between subject and object, expert and subject, human and nature. It explores the histories of both disciplines to unveil the construction of existing social constructs and individual identities; repositions itself outside of disciplinary silos and on a spectrum of knowledge where design and psychology interact with each other and other fields of activity; and invites the creation of a common vocabulary, methods and practices.
Intentional Design Psychology as a discursive practice
It invites diversity, experimentation, and methodologies that are not yet present to develop theories and processes supported by its loose ideological framework, together with the social and political developments on the ground. It is not limited to generating ‘discourse’ but expands to practices of everyday life.
Disassembling
Affirmatively disassembling a problem/challenge (for example, climate change) involves understanding how it has been shaped throughout time and identifying the pieces of its puzzle that need to be preserved, replaced or destroyed. Through this process, the individuals within a community should comprehend the pieces of the systems they support and how, what these systems do to social and natural ecosystems, and why, in return, this impacts the continuation of life. Disassembling the impromptu design psychology behind the existing social ecologies does not only reveal their problematic aspects but also skills that go unnoticed in privileged and non-privileged settings, maintenance work to be extrapolated, and everyday exchanges to be turned into relationships of interdependence.
Discomforting
Discomfort is a condition that is ever present and has been seised by design to accelerate consumption, by making comfort a synonym of middle-class and upper-class satisfaction. When extreme, discomfort has been pathologised by psychology as anxiety, panic attacks and phobias. From the lens of intentional design psychology, discomfort is embraced as a source of activating agency. De-conditioning comfort necessitates recognising fear as an instinctive reaction to threat. The difficult feelings developed by the possibility of changing lifestyles, no matter how compromising they are for the self, the community, and the planet, could only be addressed by the liberating acceptance of impermanence.
Detaching
Cultures and religions practised outside the modern paradigm acknowledge impermanence because of their embeddedness in their localities. They address the human body and mind as part of the inevitable change that transforms them and opens opportunities for new emerging forms. It is a psychological state that enables a responsive instead of a reactive approach toward unpredictability and crisis. Avoiding this reality creates an unconscious pursuit of immortality by living a self-centred present without recognising what is projected into the future. Detachment/non-attachment does not designate dissociation; it reveals how the freedom of thinking and acting otherwise has been designed out of everyday life.
Destroying
When destruction gets de-tangled from imaginary loss representing a value positioned there by a socioeconomic system (for example, upgrading equals success) it becomes a positive element of change. It converts into a process of consciously selecting what needs to be destroyed to restore a human-nature balance, as much as possible. (See also Affirmative destruction)
Discomfort
Flipping the already experienced discomfort caused by contemporary circumstances on its head can become a catalyst for change, a constant reminder of the state of the world, as an affirmative position of being alive and present.
Disrupting Normality
Not accepting ‘normality’ for what it is – a social construct representing values (for example, happiness, success, intelligence) that have never worked for most people.
Happiness
A social construct based on external gratification by trying to fulfill impossible societal standards of prosperity (commonly translated into financial wealth).
Lived experience
Behaviours, perceptions, feelings and attitudes shaped by having first-hand experience of a phenomenon, condition, event or locality.
Normal
Perceiving the world according to an imposition of values and beliefs, designed to serve a given ideological paradigm such as neoliberalism (also known as conditioning).
One Psychology
The prescribed way of perceiving ourselves and others, our lives’ expectations and respective feelings as designed by an ideology, economy strategy or an era such as Modernity. (See also One Design)
Participatory governance
The scaling up of existing examples of communities deciding what is best for their circumstances in each locality such as low-tech, efficient, and agile energy infrastructure; local food production; and adaptive use of existing structures.
Place-based
Knowledge deriving from local, lived experience.
Psychologies (Plural)
Including place-based and indigenous psychologies, as well as subjectivities that have not been categorised under the banner of ‘identity’, arising from diverse human experiences that should be explored further.
Redefined adaptation
Moving through instead of bouncing back, by accepting impermanence. Also, the constant effort of individuals and communities to optimise their circumstances, physically by up-using resources in the most efficient manner regarding the needs of their locality; psychologically, by experiencing the present with cognitive and emotional attentiveness; and socially, by being part of a collective striving for the same purpose.
Relational accountability
A detachment from individuality and a shift to collective interdependence and respective accountability.
Repair
A state of being in the world by constantly restoring the self, the community, and physical and natural environments. Repair is a cognitive, social, and physical process of instigating place-based subjectivities to enact resilience via adaptation. It relies on skills and local knowledge, inter-generationally exchanged and employed to create livelihoods.
Social resilience
Communities effectively coping with constantly changing living conditions involving physical and social re-configurations.
Success
A culturally imposed construct of individuals being rewarded for their ‘hard work’ with financial prosperity and acquisition of goods, despite these working against their profound psychological needs.
Trans-local
An exchange of place-based knowledge between localities.