Negativity bias in defeasible reasoning

In defeasible reasoning, initially drawn conclusions can be withdrawn in light of new information. In this paper, we examine how the conclusions drawn from conditionals describing positive or negative situations can be defeated by subsequent negative or positive information, respectively. Participants were confronted with conditionals of the form “If [situation], then I am happy/sad” which were either followed by no additional information or by additional information describing situations of the same or the opposite valence. The participant's task was to decide on a question asking for a possible conclusion (“Am I happy?” vs. “Am I sad?”). We found a negativity bias in defeasible reasoning: negative information defeated positively charged conclusions more strongly than positive information defeated negatively charged conclusions. We discuss our results in relation to the new psychology of reasoning.     

The interpretation of dreams a classic revisited

In this centenary of Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams it is important to revisit this classic, to discuss why it is a classic, to consider what has been learned since its publication, and to discuss what changes in our understanding of dreams and dreaming are called for. To this end, we briefly discuss some of the main themes of the book. Then we review both changes in psychoanalytic thinking and theory and the results of many studies made possible by the discovery of the electro‐encephalographic changes that occur during sleep and their relevance for understanding dreams and their function. We suspect that Freud would have been delighted to know about this explosion of information about the physiology of dreaming. With this in mind, we consider the need for modification of some of Freud's theories while noting that his basic contribution, that dreams are meaningful and understandable, has been amply confirmed. We then discuss these observations in relation to how we approach working with dreams.     

Introducing systems change in the schools: the case of school luncheons and vending machines

A major public health crisis facing America’s society is the increase in child and youth obesity, which has seen a fourfold increase in the last four decades. Major concerns include what children eat for school lunch and what other foods are available in schools. This paper illustrates efforts towards systems change in the luncheon program and food vending machines in the Chicago Public Schools. We discuss the different factors that lead to such changes using the framework of the social ecological model and the soft systems methodology, and we analyze how the resulting innovation was implemented and evaluated. First, we present a theoretical perspective to explain factors that influence children’s eating patterns from a systems approach. Second, we discuss the antecedent factors that lead to systems change. Finally, we examine challenges to systems change, such as resistance to change, different stakeholder priorities, lack of resources, institutional bureaucracy, and unrealistic funder expectations.     

The Impact and Status of Carol Fowler's Supramodal Theory of Multisensory Speech Perception

ABSTRACT

One important contribution of Carol Fowler's direct approach to speech perception is its account of multisensory perception. This supramodal account proposes a speech function that detects supramodal information available across audition, vision, and touch. This detection allows for the recovery of articulatory primitives that provide the basis of a common currency shared between modalities as well as between perception and production. Common currency allows for perceptual experience to be shared between modalities and supports perceptually guided speaking as well as production-guided perception. In this report, we discuss the contribution and status of the supramodal approach relative to recent research in multisensory speech perception. We argue that the approach has helped motivate a multisensory revolution in perceptual psychology. We then review the new behavioral and neurophysiological research on (a) supramodal information, (b) cross-sensory sharing of experience, and (c) perceptually guided speaking as well as production guided speech perception. We conclude that Fowler's supramodal theory has fared quite well in light of this research.     

A dynamic view of cultural influence: A review

Static models of culture's influence have given way to a dynamic view, which identifies not only differences across cultures in people's judgments and decisions, but also the situations and conditions in which these differences do or do not appear. Theory and evidence developed from a cognitive psychological perspective underlie this dynamic approach, including research emerging from the “dynamic constructivist” and “situated cognition” models. In the present review, we focus on findings that confirm the utility of this cognitively oriented approach, and briefly discuss the advantages and complementary nature of the “social collective” and neuroscience approaches to understanding culture.     

Skill Level,Self‐Views and Self‐Theories as Sources of Error in Self‐Assessment

People's impressions of the quality of their performances are often surprisingly inaccurate. In this paper, I discuss three specific factors that contribute to error in self‐assessment. First, at a most basic level, individuals must possess a certain level of knowledge to simply distinguish weak from strong performances. Thus, a lack of skill can contribute to erroneous self‐assessments. Second, even those who possess skill might rely on the wrong information to evaluate their performances. I discuss how relying on preexisting self‐views can lead estimates of one's performance astray. Third, I discuss how motivational forces can play an indirect role in overconfidence. In particular, theories of intelligence that inspire people to think well of themselves also inspire behaviors that contribute to overconfident impressions of how well one has performed on a task. Finally, I discuss how we can draw on this research to improve accuracy in self‐assessments.     

Statistical models for the induction and use of selectional preferences

Selectional preferences have a long history in both generative and computational linguistics. However, since the publication of Resnik's dissertation in 1993, a new approach has surfaced in the computational linguistics community. This new line of research combines knowledge represented in a pre‐defined semantic class hierarchy with statistical tools including information theory, statistical modeling, and Bayesian inference. These tools are used to learn selectional preferences from examples in a corpus. Instead of simple sets of semantic classes, selectional preferences are viewed as probability distributions over various entities. We survey research that extends Resnik's initial work, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and show how they together form a cohesive line of research.     

The Western Cape Government's new Integrated Provincial Violence Prevention Policy Framework: Successes and challenges

In August 2013, the Western Cape Government adopted an Integrated Provincial Violence Prevention Policy Framework initiated by the provincial Department of Health in response to the unusually high incidence of, and health burden arising from, interpersonal violence. The policy framework encompasses a more comprehensive intersectoral approach to the prevention of violence than the traditional criminal justice and security-centred approach typically promoted in South Africa as the conventional wisdom. It aims to bring coherence and clarity to the government's objectives in the field of violence prevention by way of a whole-of-government approach encompassing all sectors. The Policy Framework attempts to balance short-term evidence-based interventions, such as reducing the availability and harmful use of alcohol, with longer term interventions that require the state and all citizens to take active responsibility in addressing more holistically the complex social norms that support violence. It is consonant with a “whole-of-society” approach current in the South African polity to policy formulation and implementation, and is underpinned by the public health-centred guidelines set out by the international Global Campaign for the Prevention of Violence. The policy framework supports evidence-based approaches for violence prevention and a review and consultation process aimed at aligning existing performance priorities and deliverables across departments. One year after its adoption we review the uptake of this policy and reflect on some of its early successes as well as barriers to its implementation. We identify early resistance arising from its conflict with intra-departmental priorities, the impact of competing policies and directives, and we propose a research agenda to support its uptake.     

Enactive Fields: An Approach to Interaction in the Kleinian-Bionian Model: Commentary on Paper by Lawrence J. Brown

In taking up the matter of intersubjectivity in Kleinian-Bionian theories Brown creatively reimagines the clinical situation, transcending demarcations of analytic schools to arrive (though never fully arrive) at new understandings of interaction. I discuss Brown's engaging paper from my own emerging concept of enactivity, drawing distinctions between this approach and Bion's approach and extending the enactive to a consideration of enactive fields that, like Brown's paper, draws on the seminal reinterpretation of Kleinian theory by the Barangers. In writing of the field as an emergent process of becoming I rely on Merleau-Ponty's notion of “singing the world” to illustrate my developing understanding of the possibilities for interaction in the Kleinian-Bionian tradition. My comments on Brown's clinical case material focus on what appears to me to be the intersubjective aspects of his approach.     

Decay theory of immediate memory: From Brown (1958) to today (2014)

This work takes a historical approach to discussing Brown's (1958) paper, “Some Tests of the Decay Theory of Immediate Memory”. This work was and continues to be extremely influential in the field of forgetting over the short term. Its primary importance is in establishing a theoretical basis to consider a process of fundamental importance: memory decay. Brown (1958) established that time-based explanations of forgetting can account for both memory capacity and forgetting of information over short periods of time. We discuss this view both in the context of the intellectual climate at the time of the paper's publication and in the context of the modern intellectual climate. The overarching theme we observe is that decay is as controversial now as it was in the 1950s and 1960s.     

Social Change: Toward an Informed and Critical Understanding of Social Justice and the Capabilities Approach in Community Psychology

Community psychology has long been concerned with social justice. However, deployments of this term are often vague and undertheorized. To address this weakness in the field's knowledge body we explored John Rawls's theory of social justice and Amartya Sen's economic theory of the capabilities approach and evaluated each for its applicability to community psychology theory, research, and action. Our unpacking of the philosophical and political underpinnings of Rawlsian theory of social justice resulted in identifying characteristics that limit the theory's utility in community psychology, particularly in its implications for action. Our analysis of the capability approach proposed by Amartya Sen revealed a framework that operationalizes social justice in both research and action, and we elaborate on this point. Going beyond benefits to community psychology in adopting the capabilities approach, we posit a bi‐directional relationship and discuss how community psychology might also contribute to the capabilities approach. We conclude by suggesting that community psychology could benefit from a manifesto or proclamation that provides a historical background of social justice and critiques the focus on the economic, sociological, and philosophical theories that inform present‐day conceptualizations (and lack thereof) of social justice for community psychology.     

Guilford's Structure of Intellect Model and Model of Creativity: Contributions and Limitations

J. P. Guilford has had an enormous influence on the psychology of creativity. In many ways, he is the father of modern creativity research. Yet his conception of creativity was, we suggest, flawed in certain respects. In this article, we discuss both the strengths and limitations of Guilford's approach to creativity.     

Critical notice of Aaron James,Fairness in Practice: A Social Contract for a Global Economy

Nobody has offered such a comprehensive philosophical approach to trade. Nonetheless, James's approach does not succeed. First, we explore James's constructivist method, which does less work than he suggests. The second topic is James's take on the different ‘grounds’ of justice. We explore the shortcomings of approaches that focus exclusively on trade. Our third topic is why James thinks trade is such a ground. The fourth topic is how James argues for his proposed ‘structural equity.’ This proposal remains under-argued. Our fifth topic is to explore why structural equity would generate several specific principles. Finally, we discuss James's notion of autarky. Autarky sets the benchmark for James's ideas about how to divide gains of trade. We doubt that it can do so.     

Abstract Planning and Perceptual Chunks: Elements of Expertise in Geometry

We present a new model of skilled performance in geometry proof problem solving called the Diagram Configuration model (DC). While previous models plan proofs in a step-by-step fashion, we observed that experts plan at a more abstract level: They focus on the key steps and skip the less important ones. DC models this abstract planning behavior by parsing geometry problem diagrams into perceptual chunks, called diagram configurations, which cue relevant schematic knowledge. We provide verbal protocol evidence that DC's schemas correspond with the step-skipping inferences experts make in their initial planning. We compare DC with other models of geometry expertise and then, in the final section, we discuss more general implications of our research. DC's reasoning has important similarities with Larkin's (1988) display-based reasoning approach and Johnson-Laird's (1983) mental model approach. DC's perceptually based schemas are a step towards a unified explanation of (1) experts' superior problem-solving effectiveness, (2) experts' superior problem-state memory, and (3) experts' ability, in certain domains, to solve relatively simple problems by pure forward inferencing. We also argue that the particular and efficient knowledge organization of DC challenges current theories of skill acquisition as it presents an end-state of learning that is difficult to explain within such theories. Finally, we discuss the implications of DC for geometry instruction.     

The dramaturgic perspective: Implications for the study of person perception

The major theoretical contributions to the study of attribution, those of Heider (1958), Kelley (1967) and Jones and Davis (1965) have worked from the assumption that person perception is analogous to object perception and scientific investigation. Goffman's dramaturgic analysis of the social self provides an alternative framework for addressing the problem of how we perceive and understand the behaviour of others. In this paper, I explore the implications of the dramaturgic perspective for the study of person perception and discuss the ways in which it diverges from the traditional approach to attribution. In addition, I present an alternative account of the Fundamental Attributional Error that arises in light of Goffman's dramaturgic analysis.     

Inclusion of psychosocial conditions in clinical practice and the problem of medicalization

It is generally accepted today that the biomedical model's exclusive focus on the patient's somatic condition is too narrow. The biomedical model, however, has additional shortcomings. In the first place, resources are left out of the diagnostic perspective. Secondly, the automatic interpretation of symptoms and deviations from normal as present or potential threats to the individual's health. In this paper it is claimed that these characteristics of the biomedical model can lead to medicalization. To elucidate these claims, an alternative approach to antenatal care, is presented in which the psychosocial conditions of pregnant women are integrated. Some practical problems that follow from this approach are discussed.     

A Psycho-Phenomenological Approach to Sport Psychology: The Presence of the Opponents in Hurdle Races

The purpose of this article was to discuss a psycho-phenomenological approach in applied sport psychology research. The main aim was to report data detailing the practitioner's own experience in a lived situation and produce some valuable information that could only be obtained in this unique way. So, we present an example of an investigation of the hurdler's experience, to understand how the felt presence of the co-competitors influence the actions. The methods involve explicitation interviews. The basic tenet is to ask the athletes to recall their experience about where their attentional focus was and what they were aware of during the race. We can notice that the opponents are located by the hurdlers in a particular position in their consciousness. This position is used to get maximum speed and to conduct the race.     

A psychotherapeutic technique for mother-child intervention: A case study of a japanese down syndrome child

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate our approach to the activation of mother-child interaction, by presenting a case study. We describe a Japanese mother's adaptation process (consisting of five stages) to her child's handicap through 6 years of continuous therapeutic support for both the mother and her child. In this particular case, the mother suffers from a mild form of cerebral palsy; therefore, the problem involves two generations, because both the mother and her child are handicapped. By analyzing the processes of this case, we also describe our method of intervention for problems in the development of multidimensional relationships. We discuss the mother's psychological maturation and the role of the therapist within the Japanese social and cultural context, under the following headings: (1) Sharing in the Mother's Ambivalence; (2) Natural Melting of the Mother's Frozen Emotional Availability; (3) Sharing in the Mother's Illusion and Disillusion; (4) Transformation of Relationships Between Family Members and Their Relationship to Society.     

Exploring the Effects of Creativity Training on Creative Performance and Creative Self‐Efficacy: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study

In organizations and educational institutions, creativity trainings are the preferred approach to enhancing individual creative abilities. However, three issues regarding these trainings still remain largely unsolved. First, the question of how long‐lasting creativity training effects are has not been sufficiently answered so far. Second, the question arises whether all participants benefit from such trainings equally in terms of their creative performance (CP). Third, an increasing number of studies have shown that creativity trainings may also be able to increase participants' creative self‐efficacy (CSE), that is, the confidence in one's own creativity. Other studies, however, did not find evidence for this effect. Therefore, this article aims to address these issues by analyzing data from three measurement waves. Results reveal that participants' CP increased during the training and decreased only slightly 4 weeks after the training. Additionally, we found an effect of diminishing training returns in that the higher a participant's CP before the training the lower the training effect was. In contrast to most prior literature, we found no support for an effect of creativity training on participants' CSE. We discuss these findings and offer implications for both theory and practice. Finally, we state this study's limitations and derive avenues for further research.