学龄前儿童关于图画作者意图的认知发展

通过两可形状图、两可动作图和局限视野图三个实验,考察了3-6岁儿童对图画作者意图与其作品问关系的认知发展.结果表明:3-6岁儿童对图画作者意图的理解能力随年龄增长逐渐提高;儿童的知觉经验、社会经验以及图画作品的知觉信息完整性均影响儿童对图画作者意图的认知.     

早期儿童关于图画与其所指物间关系的理解--利用两可图进行的考察

先前的研究表明,在3岁或更早儿童的观念中,二维图画与其所指物之间的关系是严格的一一对应的。本实验采用两可图对这一推断进行了检验,结果进一步证实了这一推断。实验还表明,儿童对二维图画的多重解释能力并不意味着一般意义上的心理理论的获得。数据显示,总体而言儿童对两可图的多重解释能力的形成时间稍早于完成错误信念任务能力的形成时间,但是尚不能确定两者之问是否有承继关系。     

学前儿童基于物体重量归纳推理的发展:中美跨文化比较

关于物体重量认知的研究是探讨儿童整个认知发展的重要途径之一。本文通过两个实验考察了美国和中国儿童利用语言标签基于重量进行归纳推理的发展特点及跨文化一致性。实验人员利用语言标签提示三个外部知觉特征完全相似物体中的一个物体,随后要求儿童从剩余两个物体中选择一个他们认为和目标物体共享语言标签的物体。研究考察儿童是否能够基于物体的内在属性重量进行类别判断。结果显示:(1) 4岁和5岁儿童以重量进行归纳推理显著高于3岁儿童, 4岁和5岁儿童之间的差异不显著;(2)美国和中国4岁和5岁儿童的表现均显著高于随机水平, 3岁儿童与随机水平没有显著差异;(3)美国2岁儿童的表现边缘低于随机水平, 6岁儿童显著高于随机水平。总之,儿童利用语言标签进行基于重量的归纳推理随年龄增长而发展;美国和中国儿童在发展特点及年龄转折上具有跨文化一致性, 4岁儿童具备了利用语言标签进行基于物体内在属性归纳推理的能力。     

儿童、青年与老年人在知觉和高阶元认知监控上的年龄差异

元认知是以监测和控制为核心的动态调节活动。本研究以9岁儿童、年轻人和老年人为研究对象，分别采用选点任务和词对学习任务，在知觉元认知和高阶元认知层次考察元认知监测和控制及其关系随年龄变化的特点。结果显示：(1)儿童的知觉元认知和高阶元认知监控能力大都低于年轻人；(2)老年人的知觉元认知能力与年轻人相似，但高阶元认知能力则低于年轻人；(3)老年人和年轻人一样能够在记忆监测中利用控制线索，而9岁儿童尚未表现出这种能力。本研究从发展的角度，支持了知觉元认知与高阶元认知能力具有领域特殊性的理论假设，并对监测和控制的关系发展进行了讨论。     

4—8岁儿童对部分—整体图形知觉发展的实验研究

本实验使用9张部分和整体各有不同意义的图形研究了98名4—8岁儿童知觉的发展水平和特点。结果表明:1)儿童既知觉部分又知觉整体的能力随年龄而增长,2)儿童知觉部分图形的年龄比知觉整体图形的年龄早,3)8岁儿童大部分可以做到知觉部分又知觉整体;教育条件优越时可以提前到6岁,由此可见儿童部分—整体图形知觉能力的发展水平与教育条件有密切关系。     

汉语学龄前儿童主、宾关系从句认知特点及语义因素效应的研究

关系从句是人类语言领域句法结构较为复杂的句式,汉语3~5岁儿童是否具有加工关系从句的认知能力,以及该能力是否受句法结构和语义因素的影响,成为该领域当前研究的热点。本研究选取120名3~6岁学龄前儿童,以汉语主、宾关系从句为研究材料,通过操纵从句中核心名词的生命性格局对上述问题进行了考察。结果显示:(1)汉语领域内,3~4岁儿童基本上具备了理解句式较为简单的关系从句的能力;(2)5~6岁左右的儿童基本上具备了利用语义因素辅助关系从句加工的能力。总之,汉语学龄前儿童具备了加工关系从句的认知能力,且高年级儿童可以利用语义因素辅助从句加工。     

6—12岁儿童识图能力的发展

本实验通过让儿童将不同抽象程度及不同角度(0°或180°)的图与模型相匹配,来了解6—12岁儿童在识图能力方面的发展变化。重点考察图的抽象性及图的旋转(180°)对二维和三维匹配过程的影响。通过对儿童正确和错误反应的分析,我们可以看到:(1)儿童的识图能力有一个从开始的自我中心性反应到利用标记来反应,最后依靠心理旋转进行反应的发展过程;(2)图的抽象性对识图能力的影响只在识国能力水平较低时起作用;(3)图的旋转对儿童的识图有明显的影响,6岁时儿童已能认识无旋转的图,但直到8岁以后,儿童认识旋转180°的图的能力才有较好的发展。     

从知觉分心任务看儿童类比推理能力的发展

采用四类图片类比映射任务,考察了知觉分心对90名4岁、5岁、6岁儿童类比推理能力发展的影响,并进一步阐释影响儿童类比推理能力发展的可能机制。四类图片类比映射任务分别为一种关系无分心任务、一种关系有分心任务、两种关系无分心任务和两种关系有分心任务。结果表明：（1）在具备相应知识经验的前提下,知觉分心对儿童类比推理成绩有显著影响,儿童在无分心任务中的表现明显好于知觉分心任务的表现。在无分心条件下,4岁儿童已经开始能够选择关系匹配来正确完成类比推理。错误分析发现知觉分心任务中儿童所犯错误主要是分心错误,而且分心错误随年龄增长呈下降趋势。这表明对知觉分心的抑制控制可能是儿童类比推理能力发展的一个重要影响因素。（2）随着年龄增长,儿童类比推理能力逐渐提高。总体表现为6岁组的成绩显著优于4岁、5岁组的成绩,而4岁组的成绩与5岁组的成绩没有显著差异。5岁可能是儿童能够抑制知觉分心进行类比推理的快速发展期     

4—9岁儿童空间图形认知发展研究

本研究通过儿童辨认空间图形、将空间图形转译成立体结构的能力的发展,探讨儿童对形体转换关系认知的发展过程。研究对象是4-9岁儿童。实验材料是4张空间结构不同的三维体图形。要求被试计数出空间图形实际所含的小立方体数,并将构成空间图形的小立方体分别涂成不同的颜色。结果表明儿童对立体空间图形的认知是从二维图形认知通过一定过渡形式转化来的。从年龄阶段看,空间图形认知发展进程,要经过三个不同层次的水平方能达到正确认知。     

3—5岁儿童对中外通俗故事情节的理解——自我认知及他人认知的研究

本研究探讨了北京地区3—5岁学龄前儿童对中外通俗故事情节的自我认知能力及对他人认知能力的发展比较。每个年龄组儿童为44人,男女各半,共计132人。实验材料为两套图画故事集,其中一套名为《白雪公主》(外国故事),另一套为《孙悟空》(中国故事)。实验是通过看图讲故事提问方式以探讨不同年龄的学前儿童对故事情节的自我认知及他人认知的能力。结果表明:3—5岁儿童对白雪公主故事情节及孙悟空故事情节的理解,回答问题的正确率都随年龄增长而提高。4岁与5岁儿童已能很好地理解这两个通俗故事的情节及正确回答有关问题。但3岁儿童存在一定困难,对自我认知水平及对他人认知水平都较低;在各个不同年龄组中,对他人认知及自我认知的问题回答的成绩,两者没表现出明显的差异,对他人认知及自我认知是处于同步发展的水平;男女性别的结果比较只在3岁儿童中存在一定差异,4岁及5岁儿童中不存在差异。     

Together – apart: in touch in a time of separation

This paper explores the experience of working as a Jungian analyst through the various phases of the global COVID-19 pandemic, examining the importance of the physical containing space alongside the analyst’s internal mind and how technology can both help and hinder understanding. A number of clinical vignettes illustrate the challenge of communicating over a distance, paying particular attention to the way countertransference phenomena can become re-attuned. Reference is made to mythology and symbols of hope, and consideration given to the meaning and purpose of the pandemic.     

Language,politics and dreams: the challenges of building resilience in refugees

This paper describes a case study of a 60-year-old Peruvian refugee in some detail, focusing on the importance of building emotional resilience in a patient in Spanish in order to create a space for learning the English language – the patient did not speak English after 20 years of living in Britain. The work was carried out with an interpreter and some of the literature on working with interpreters is referred to. The paper also briefly outlines the refugee journey in broad terms, which is a journey from the culturally known to the culturally unknown. The question of how well the literature on resilience, which sits firmly within a Western developmental perspective, can be applied to refugees, most of whom come from group and family-based cultures dominated by ideas of honour and shame, is discussed. The paper also touches on the importance of the receiving country enabling or not, as the case may be, a transitional space for refugees who have lost their home and are seeking to find a safe haven in a strange culture.     

Phenotypic plasticity and archetype: a response to common objections to the biological theory of archetype and instinct

Since Jung’s death in 1961, scholars have attempted to integrate growing biological science data into Jungian concepts such as the collective unconscious, instincts and the archetypes. This enterprise has been challenging due to persistent false dichotomies of gene and environment occasionally arising. Recent works by Roesler (2022a, 2022b) for example, have raised objections to the biological theory of archetypes, but the objections are plagued by such dichotomies. The concept of phenotypic plasticity, however, helps to both avoid this problem as well as bridge the gap between competing theories into a more integrated model with solid biological foundations.     

The Possibility of Meaning in Human Evolution

Science undermines the certitude of non-naturalistic answers to the question of whether human life has meaning. I explore whether evolution can provide a naturalistic basis for existential meaning. Using the work of philosopher Daniel Dennett and scientist Ursula Goodenough, I argue that evolution is the locus of the possibility of meaning because it has produced intentionality, the matrix of consciousness. I conclude that the question of the meaning of human life is an existentialist one: existential meaning is a product of the individual and collective tasks human beings undertake.     

When is it time to stop? When good enough becomes bad enough

This article draws on Winnicott’s concept of the good enough mother to discuss how to know whether a therapeutic situation is good enough to continue or bad enough to end. This dilemma is explored in terms of clinical syndromes, such as anorexia and pathological gambling, but focuses mainly on analyst-initiated endings, which are termed the ‘Casablanca dilemma’, based on an amplification of the ending of the film Casablanca. The author goes on to discuss such one-sided endings, drawing on interviews with 40 analysts and therapists about their clinical experience. A typology of bad enough endings is presented. The psychological differences between a good enough analysis as opposed to a bad enough one are explored through the ideas of Winnicott and Neumann.     

Seeing in the Dark: A View into Dissociation and Healing

In this paper, I will explore the role of art-making, the experience of trauma and dissociation, and the process of working with self-states from an analytic and creative frame. Relevant literature on dissociation, trauma, and the use of art will be discussed. A case involving my work with an adolescent girl who had experienced sexual abuse from a family member will be shared, with an emphasis on the meaningful role images played during the therapeutic process. Both Jungian and psychoanalytic models of conceptualizing and working with dissociation are included, following Donald Kalsched’s (2013) recommendation for a “binocular stance” to treatment, including both a focus on the inner, intrapsychic world and the interpersonal, relational realm, and how art images both illuminated and expressed these realms. Within the therapeutic process, art images allowed the therapist a view into the client’s unconscious process, and created a meeting ground for dissociative barriers to be gradually seen, felt and known, by both therapist and client. The experience of dissociation, in images and in session, provided a reference point for myself and my client, Taylor, to develop a shared understanding and a framework for growth.     

The transcendent function in Spitteler’s Prometheus and Epimetheus

In August 2020, John Beebe and Steve Myers met via Zoom to discuss their differing interpretations of psychological typology and the different sources within Jung’s writings that influenced their books: Integrity in Depth: Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type (Beebe), and Myers-Briggs Typology vs Jungian Individuation (Myers). The discussion centred on Spitteler’s epic poem Prometheus und Epimetheus, which forms the basis of chapter V of Psychological Types. This is both the largest chapter and one of two chapters that Jung highlighted in the Argentine foreword as containing the essence of the book. Jung’s book is primarily about the transformation of personality rather than the categorization of people. Although it contains a critical psychology that deconstructs the nature of consciousness, that is only one half of the book and a stepping-stone to the other half, which is the reconciliation of opposites with particular emphasis on the relation of consciousness and the unconscious. Jung assumed that readers were already familiar with Prometheus und Epimetheus, an understanding of which sheds light on the nature of the transformation that Jung described – the development of a new attitude towards attitude itself.     

Kann Es Ein Argument Für Den Skeptizismus Geben? Das Epistemische Problem Der Irrtumsmöglichkeit

Summary  Is there any argument for scepticism? The epistemic problem of the possibility of error. Arguments for scepticism rest on the assumption that knowledge claims are fallible. For this reason the concept of knowledge appears to be questionable. Since it is necessary to distinguish doubts from possible doubts, the arguments for scepticism appear to be unconvincing. If we take it into account that we know something that is immune to doubt, we should draw the conclusion that, contrary to scepticism, knowledge claims have to be compatible with being fallible. Thus any knowledge claim is capable of being doubted.     

Chapter 6: Biblical Foundations for a Practical Theology of Aging

SUMMARY

This article reviews Biblical sources pertaining to the elderly, particularly the frail elderly. Founded on these sources, implications for elderly with Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia are addressed through a personal perspective informed by writings of Christian mystics.