Confronting Theory: The Psychology of Cultural Studies

Confronting Theory presents a methodological (philosophical) and educational critique of what has come to be known as Theory ('with a capital-T') in cross-disciplinary humanities. Rather than merely dismissing Theory writing as risibly pretentious and abstract, Confronting Theory examines its principal concepts from the perspective of academic psychology and shows that, although 'Theory that only dogs can hear' claims to offer revolutionary psychological analysis it is frequently incoherent and/or has few, if any, empirical implications that students can evaluate.

In addition to several books on Australian television and media culture, Philip Bell has published more than sixty research monographs, journal articles or book chapters on the representation of social issues in the media, Americanization/globalization, and genres of film and television. He has also written on methodological and conceptual problems in psychological and interdisciplinary education.