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Rating: 
Summary: Valid points in the form of concieted verbiage
Review: Bruner raises some interesting points and rather validly questions some of the developments in psychology and the search for meaning. However, his points, which are delightfully simple, are somehow lost in a sea of convoluted sentences and meaningless words. His examples makes this book only accessable to the trained gurus. It could have been a great commentary, but I ended up so frustrated sometimes that I would lose track of what Bruner was arguing.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the great reflections on psychology's project
Review: Someday, I suspect, ACTS OF MEANING will be regarded as one of the more important psychology texts at the end of the 20th century. In it, Jerome Bruner, a founder of the "Cognitive Revolution" and witness to psychology for more than 60 years, surveys what went wrong with the revolution he helped start and where psychology ought to be in the generation ahead. The error, he argues, came when psychology adopted the metaphor of the computer as an information processing device to describe the mind. In doing so, psychology severed itself from ordinary human experience and its own 19th century roots. He proposes that humans are concerned centrally with questions of "meaning" and that the computer metaphor will never allow psychology to answer meaning questions with any conviction. Rather, a narrative metaphor -- of humans as storytellers -- is essential to reach the level of meaning. He further details the deficits of a decontextualized psychology which fails to take culture seriously. Bruner's language and style are both rich and deceptively straightforward. There is a magisterial sense that he has seen psychology in all its variations and has a vision of how it can fashion an integration which does justice to that variety. His chapter notes contain a particularly wonderful set of references should a reader wish to pursue his ideas more fully. Be prepared: this is terrific stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Just What Are The Proper Causes Of Human Action?
Review: The juggernaut of Cognitive Psychology has created enough havoc, decries Bruner, and it is now time to re-structure the revolution back to its original goals: "meaning-making." The computer model of intelligence advocated by behavioralists has reduced human intelligence to a mere system of processing information, and rarely is there any allowance in this empiricism for an individual's construction of meaning. Further, Bruner stresses the influence of culture on the individual, stating, "human beings do not terminate at their own skins; they are expressions of their culture." There is a constant dialogue between the individual and culture, with the individual searching and constructing meaning, and hence, building culture. One way in which we find meaning is in the construction and interpretation of narratives. Bruner demonstrates that narratives are a construct of meaning and should be respected. He writes, "culture and the quest for meaning within culture are the proper causes of human meaning." Yes, buy and read this book, often; Bruner communicates stimulating ideas that have helped me in constructing my own meanings. I endorse it enthusiastically.
Rating:
Summary: Just What Are The Proper Causes Of Human Action?
Review: The juggernaut of Cognitive Psychology has created enough havoc, decries Bruner, and it is now time to re-structure the revolution back to its original goals: "meaning-making." The computer model of intelligence advocated by behavioralists has reduced human intelligence to a mere system of processing information, and rarely is there any allowance in this empiricism for an individual's construction of meaning. Further, Bruner stresses the influence of culture on the individual, stating, "human beings do not terminate at their own skins; they are expressions of their culture." There is a constant dialogue between the individual and culture, with the individual searching and constructing meaning, and hence, building culture. One way in which we find meaning is in the construction and interpretation of narratives. Bruner demonstrates that narratives are a construct of meaning and should be respected. He writes, "culture and the quest for meaning within culture are the proper causes of human meaning." Yes, buy and read this book, often; Bruner communicates stimulating ideas that have helped me in constructing my own meanings. I endorse it enthusiastically.
Rating:
Summary: A well written and enjoyable book
Review: The measure of this book is the fact that I underscored something on almost every page. Bruner shows with earnestness the strengths of cognitive psychology, while keeping a level and fair estimate of traditional positivist psychology. The fact of the matter is that a cognitive psychology (or pedagogy) is a dynamic, empirically sound theory. It could provide inspiration for anyone, regardless if he is working in a classroom or in any other workplace. The cognitive model and its ideas about understanding would, I believe, be especially useful in management.
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