are far from genetically ? xing what behavioral preferences they may possess. Instead, learning mechanisms offer a ? exible way of attaining locally important cultural knowledge within temporal windows of opportunity as has been convi- ingly shown by research in language and culture attainment. Similar mechanisms are likely to exist for other social capacities, such as mate preferences, for example. It is this role of our biological inheritance that social science must appreciate in order to furnish a more complete understanding of human behavior. Within the natural range of variation of capacities and armed with biologically conditioned learning mechanisms we live out lives of meaning ¿ in which we hold some things to be real, rational, valuable or morally right, and others not. It is this world of meaning in which we ? nd love and hate, struggles for justice, power, and money, and the dramas that lend to life both its depth and passion.

The Social Turn in the Science of Human ActionT. Sugiman, K.J. Gergen, W. Wagner, and Y. Yamada Part I: The Power of Meaning 1 Refl ections on the Diversity of Knowledge: Power and Dialogue in Representational FieldsS. Jovchelovitch 2 Discourse and Representation in the Construction of WitchcraftW. Wagner, A. Mecha, and M. do R. Carvalho 3 Culture, Psychotherapy, and the Diasporic Self as Transitoric Identity: A Reply to Social Constructionist and Postmodern Concepts of Narrative PsychotherapyB. Zielke and J. Straub 4 Generative Inquiry in Therapy: From Problems to CreativityD.F. Schnitman 5 Constructing Trauma and Its Treatment: Knowledge, Power and ResistanceC. Quosh and K.J. Gergen Part II: Constructing Meaning in Everyday Life 6 Moralities We Live by: Moral Focusing in the Context of Technological ChangeN. Kronberger 7 A Theory of Construction of Norm and Meaning:Osawäs Theory of BodyT. Sugiman 8 The Transcendental Nature of Norms: Infants in Residential Nurseries and Child AdoptionA. Rakugi 9 Using Social Knowledge: A Case Study of a Diarist¿s Meaning Making During World War IIT. Zittoun, A. Gillespie, F. Cornish, and E.L. Aveling Part III: Narrative and Dialogue 10 Twice-Told-Tales: Small Story Analysis and the Process of Identity FormationM. Bamberg 11 Human/Nature Narratives and Popular Films: Big, Bad, Bold, Benefi cent, Bountiful, Beautiful and BereftM. Gergen 12 Opposite and Coexistent Dialogues: Repeated Voices and the Side-by-Side Position of Self and OtherY. Yamada 13 Narrative Mode of Thought in Disaster Damage Reduction: A Crossroad for Narrative and Gaming ApproachesK. Yamori 14 A Dialogical Perspective of Social Representations of ResponsibilityI. Marková Part IV:Action 15 The Social and the Cultural: Where do They Meet?J. Valsiner 16 Moral Responsibility and Social FictionT. Kozakai 17 Social Psychology and Literature: Toward Possible CorrespondenceA. Contarello18 Historical Confl ict and Resolution between Japan and China:Developing and Applying a Narrative Theory of History and IdentityJ.H. Liu and T. Atsumi Subject Index