Similarities and differences in dream content at the cross-cultural, gender, and individual levels

The similarities and differences in dream content at the cross-cultural, gender, and individual levels provide one starting point for carrying out studies that attempt to discover correspondences between dream content and various types of waking cognition. Hobson and Kahn’s (Hobson, J. A., & Kahn, D. (2007). Dream content: Individual and generic aspects. Consciousness and Cognition, 16, 850–858.) conclusion that dream content may be more generic than most researchers realize, and that individual differences are less salient than usually thought, provides the occasion for a review of findings based on the Hall and Van de Castle (Hall, C., & Van de Castle, R. (1966). The content analysis of dreams. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.) coding system for the study of dream content. Then new findings based on a computationally intensive randomization strategy are presented to show the minimum sample sizes needed to detect gender and individual differences in dream content. Generally speaking, sample sizes of 100–125 dream reports are needed because most dream elements appear in less than 50% of dream reports and the magnitude of the differences usually is not large.     

Word associations contribute to machine learning in automatic scoring of degree of emotional tones in dream reports

Scientific study of dreams requires the most objective methods to reliably analyze dream content. In this context, artificial intelligence should prove useful for an automatic and non subjective scoring technique. Past research has utilized word search and emotional affiliation methods, to model and automatically match human judges’ scoring of dream report’s negative emotional tone. The current study added word associations to improve the model’s accuracy. Word associations were established using words’ frequency of co-occurrence with their defining words as found in a dictionary and an encyclopedia. It was hypothesized that this addition would facilitate the machine learning model and improve its predictability beyond those of previous models. With a sample of 458 dreams, this model demonstrated an improvement in accuracy from 59% to 63% (kappa = .485) on the negative emotional tone scale, and for the first time reached an accuracy of 77% (kappa = .520) on the positive scale.     

Style follows content: on the microgenesis of art perception

Despite fruitful research in experimental aesthetics, the dynamics of aesthetics, i.e., the processes involved in art perception, have received little attention. Concerning representational art, two aspects seem most important in this respect: style and content. In two experiments, we examined the dynamics of processing of style and content by means of the microgenetic approach. This approach systematically varies perceptual conditions to find out about the stages involved in the formation of percepts – their microgenesis. Participants gave similarity ratings for pairs of pictures that were fully crossed in style (artist) and content (motif). Presentation times were systematically varied between 10, 50, 202 and 3000 ms (Experiment 1) plus unlimited presentation time (Experiment 2). While effects of content were present at all presentation times, effects of style were traceable from 50 ms onwards. The results show clear differences in the microgenesis of style and content, suggesting that in art perception style follows content.     

Portrayal of body weight on children's television sitcoms: a content analysis

Television programs portray characters with idealized body types that for most viewers are unattainable. These body types have become a common source of comparison for many young viewers who evaluate their own self-worth and bodies based on the models they see on television. This study examines body weight, both in terms of frequency and portrayals, focusing on how preadolescent and adolescent characters’ bodies are presented on the sitcoms from three children's television networks. The results indicate that while children's situation comedies have relatively few overweight characters, this small percentage closely parallels national figures. Male and female characters do not differ in their distribution across weight categories. However, when character ethnicity is factored, significant shifts occur. Surprisingly, no differences were observed in the portrayal of physical and mental attributes among weight categories except in social popularity where overweight characters were not as embedded in social networks. Compared to other relevant studies, this research provides some evidence that the treatment and portrayal of overweight characters in children-targeted sitcoms is more positive, equitable, and less stereotypical than in other programming venues and that children are experiencing body type diversity in these fictional portrayals. Nonetheless, above average weight characters still suffer some social marginality and ethnic misrepresentation.     

The effects of problem content and scientific background on information search and the assessment and valuation of correlations

The effects of problem contents and one's scientific background on the detection of correlations and the assessment of their strength were studied using a task that required active data search, assessment of the strength of a correlation, and monetary valuation of the correlation's predictive utility. Participants (N = 72) who were trained either in the natural sciences or in the social sciences and humanities explored data sets differing in contents and actual strength of correlation. Data search was consistent across all variables: Participants drew relatively small samples whose relative sizes would favor the detection of a correlation, if one existed. In contrast, the assessment of the correlation strength and the valuation of its predictive utility were strongly related not only to its objective strength, but also to the correspondence between problem contents and one's scientific background: When the two matched, correlations were judged to be stronger and more valuable than when they did not.     

Winnicott's dream: some reflections on D. W. Winnicott and C. G. Jung

The author discusses D. W. Winnicott's 1964 review of C. G. Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, emphasizing the psychological effect the reviewing process had on Winnicott himself. Writing the review constellated Winnicott's unconscious, and he reported having a healing dream 'for Jung and for some of my patients, as well as for myself'. Winnicott's 'countertransference' to Jung helped him personally, and the review was Winnicott's first written formulation of his theory on 'The use of an object'.     

Waking and dreaming: related but structurally independent. Dream reports of congenitally paraplegic and deaf-mute persons

Models of dream analysis either assume a continuum of waking and dreaming or the existence of two dissociated realities. Both approaches rely on different methodology. Whereas continuity models are based on content analysis, discontinuity models use a structural approach. In our study, we applied both methods to test specific hypotheses about continuity or discontinuity. We contrasted dream reports of congenitally deaf-mute and congenitally paraplegic individuals with those of non-handicapped controls. Continuity theory would predict that either the deficit itself or compensatory experiences would surface in the dream narrative. We found that dream form and content of sensorially limited persons was indifferent from those of non-handicapped controls. Surprisingly, perceptual representations, even of modalities not experienced during waking, were quite common in the dream reports of our handicapped subjects. Results are discussed with respect to feedforward mechanisms and protoconsciousness theory of dreaming.     

The effects of funny and serious task content and expectations of fun versus importance on children's cognitive performance

This study investigated how children's performance on a cognitive task was influenced by funny and serious task content, and by fun or important instructions. Eighty‐four children in Grades 1 and 5 performed two versions of a paired‐associates word‐learning task, which paired nonsense words with novel definitions and illustrations. All children completed a version in which the definitions and illustrations were funny, and a version in which they were not, with either fun or important instructions. Results revealed significantly better performance on the funny than on the serious version, but only when the funny version was presented first. There were no significant effects of task instructions. The findings confirm that making children's cognitive tasks funnier can enhance task performance. Although there were no effects of expectations as created by task instructions, the enhancing effect of funny content was influenced by children's expectations as created by their prior experience with the task.     

Behavior analysis and the search for the origins of hypertension.

Hypertension is a disorder of sodium regulation that develops over time in a context of the interactions of the individual with the environment. Experimental hypertension can be induced in laboratory animals and normotensive humans via increases in sodium intake under conditions of aversive behavioral control. Readiness for avoidance contingencies includes a breathing pattern characterized by subnormal rate and normal tidal volume. Studies with humans have shown that this inhibitory breathing pattern is associated with increased plasma acidity, increased renal sodium reabsorption, increased secretion of digitalis-like hormones that inhibit sodium-pump activity, and increased vasoconstriction and blood pressure. Behavioral research is needed that defines the necessary and sufficient conditions for inhibitory breathing and its role in the development of hypertension.     

从心理学杂志相关文献看我国心理咨询与治疗方法的现状

对我国近年来已在实践中应用,并在心理学学术刊物上发表的心理咨询与治疗的方法进行了梳理,目的是探寻我国心理咨询与治疗方法的现状及存在问题.结果表明:我国心理咨询与治疗从业者所采用的方法绝大多数来源于国外;也有极少数本土化和本土的方法,但其研究及推广有限;从业者所采用的折衷方法多于单一方法,多数折衷方法是认知疗法和行为疗法的结合,或是将这二种方法结合其他疗法使用.     

典型自立者人格特征初探

用包含 2个问题的开放式问卷对 2 1 5名被试进行了调查 ,结果如下 :①共获得 1 0 6位自立者 ,被试最认同的典型自立者是郝思嘉、简·爱、孙少平和保尔·柯察金 4人 ;②被试更喜欢选择与自己同性别的自立者 ;③坚韧性、独立性、成熟性、主动性、道德性和开放性是被试最看重的自立者人格特征。最后 ,还对自立与自强的关系以及自立者人格特征等问题进行了讨论 ,认为 :①独立性、主动性、责任性、开放性与灵活性大致是自立者的 5种基本人格特征 ;②从自立到自强是一个连续体 ,但他们有不同的人格特征 ;③自立可以区分为特质自立和情境自立。     

The effect of orthographic structure on the word search performance of good and poor readers.

Good and poor third-grade readers searched for target words through fields consisting of words, pseudowords, and nonwords. Both groups searched faster through nonword fields than pseudoword fields and faster through pseudoword fields than word fields. The better readers did not show larger orthographic structure effects. In fact, both speed and accuracy performance measures tended to indicate a greater sensitivity to orthographic structure on the part of the poorer readers. It is argued that the results are better accounted for by compensatory rather than serial stage models of the organization of the component subskills of reading.     

Rapid resumption of interrupted visual search. New insights on the interaction between vision and memory

A modified visual search task demonstrates that humans are very good at resuming a search after it has been momentarily interrupted. This is shown by exceptionally rapid response time to a display that reappears after a brief interruption, even when an entirely different visual display is seen during the interruption and two different visual searches are performed simultaneously. This rapid resumption depends on the stability of the visual scene and is not due to display or response anticipations. These results are consistent with the existence of an iterative hypothesis-testing mechanism that compares information stored in short-term memory (the perceptual hypothesis) with information about the display (the sensory pattern). In this view, rapid resumption occurs because a hypothesis based on a previous glance of the scene can be tested very rapidly in a subsequent glance, given that the initial hypothesis-generation step has already been performed.     

Fighting and Flying: Archival Analysis of Threat, Authoritarianism, and the North American Comic Book

In this archival study, themes of authoritarianism ( Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950 ) were content coded in American comic books. Comic books produced during years of relatively high social and economic threat (1978–82 and 1991–92) contained more aggressive imagery, more conventional themes, less intraception, and fewer spoken lines by women characters relative to comic books produced during years of relatively low threat (1983–90). Unexpectedly, speaking roles for characters of color did not differ due to the influence of threat. Discussion focused on the theoretical relationship between threat and manifestations of authoritarianism at the societal and individual levels.     

TheOperational Code of John F. Kennedy During the Cuban Missile Crisis: A Comparison of Public and Private Rhetoric

This study examines the manner in which the Cuban missile crisis affected the belief system of President John F. Kennedy. The analysis uses data derived from primary source materials that have become available only in the last 2 years, in addition to well-known public statements by the president. The Verbs in Context System (VICS) was used to generate insights into how Kennedy's operational code differed across sources and changed during the period of the crisis. The results provide evidence of Kennedy's initial private belligerence and provisional support for the 'Gettysburg thesis' while calling into question some other potential interpretations of the effects of the crisis on the president's beliefs.     

Multivariate modelling and personality organization: A comparative study of the Defense Mechanism Test and linguistic expressions

The main aim of the study is to establish an empirical connection between perceptual defences as measured by the Defense Mechanism Test (DMT)–a projective percept-genetic method–and manifest linguistic expressions based on word pattern analyses. The subjects were 25 psychiatric patients with the diagnoses neurotic personality organization (NPO), borderline personality organization (BPO) and psychotic personality organization (PPO) in accordance with Kernberg's theory. A set of 130 DMT variables and 40 linguistic variables were analyzed by means of partial least squares (PLS) discriminant analysis separately and then pooled together. The overall hypothesis was that it would be possible to define the personality organization of the patients in terms of an amalgam of perceptual defences and word patterns, and that these two kinds of data would confirm each other. The result of the combined PLS analysis revealed a very good separation between the diagnostic groups as measured by the pooled variable sets. Among other things, it was shown that NPO patients are principally characterized by linguistic variables, whereas BPO and PPO patients are better defined by perceptual defences as measured by the DMT method.     

Teens on the Internet—commercial application of a deconstructive analysis of ‘teen zine’ features

This paper presents the authors' approach to understanding drivers of interest for teen e‐zines (Internet magazines). The paper shows how a deconstruction of the current set of e‐zines provides the raw material for a conjoint measurement study, whereby the elements are mixed and matched in order to create new test concepts. From reactions to those test concepts one can identify four newly emerging segments: the ‘indifferents’, the ‘adults in training’, the ‘media and me’ and the ‘talk and celebrate being a teen’. Deconstruction applied to the competitive frame provides both a deeper understanding of the e‐zine landscape and input for newer and better e‐zines that are targeted to specific mindsets. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.     

A cautionary note on using internal cross validation to select the number of clusters

A highly popular method for examining the stability of a data clustering is to split the data into two parts, cluster the observations in Part A, assign the objects in Part B to their nearest centroid in Part A, and then independently cluster the Part B objects. One then examines how close the two partitions are (say, by the Rand measure). Another proposal is to split the data into k parts, and see how their centroids cluster. By means of synthetic data analyses, we demonstrate that these approaches fail to identify the appropriate number of clusters, particularly as sample size becomes large and the variables exhibit higher correlations.The authors express their thanks to the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Center, Wharton School, for support of this project.