ORGANISMIC PROCESSES FOR NEO-PIAGETIAN THEORIES: A DIALECTICAL CAUSAL ACCOUNT OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

The paper criticizes some epistemological presuppositions of Piaget's and of neo-Piagetian's work, in particular, the psycho-Logical principle. This principle is contrasted with a more valid psycho-dialectical one. It is suggested that a dialectical-constructivist (i.e., causal-dynamic) perspective offers a causal theoretical framework for cognitive development that is superior to that of Piaget and many neo-Piagetians. I outline criteria for evaluating causal developmental theories, and point out deficiencies in Piaget's and neo-Piagetian's stage theories vis-à-vis the criteria. An organismic theory of constructive operators - a dialectical/causal theory - is introduced as a remedy for these deficiencies. I focus on a modular model of mental attention that is constituted by four dynamically interacting functional systems. These systems together explain the ‘beam’ of mental attention and its phenomenological/behavioural effects. I claim that the stages of cognitive development are caused by growth of mental attention. The validity of this model is supported by data on a motor performance task (Rho task). The Rho data show: (a) the existence of stage-wise plateaus in children's performance at ages congruent with the redefined Piagetian stages; (b) the psychological structures which, driven by mental attention (M-capacity), are responsible for performance on the task, appear to be located in the left hemisphere of the brain. These findings, predicted by the dialectical theory of mental attention, highlight its causal-predictive power.     

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as an Emergent System: A Dynamic Systems Theory Perspective

This paper sets out to present a novel construal of one of the notions of Vygotskian cultural-historical theory viz., zone of proximal development (ZPD) drawing upon dynamic systems theory. The principal thesis maintains that ZDP is an emergent and dynamic system which is engendered by a dialectical concatenation of psychogenesic and sociogenesic facets of human development over time. It is reasoned that Vygotskian cultural-historical theory of human development, by invoking dialectical logic, has transcended Cartesian substance dualism and in turn has proffered a monistic and process-anchored ontology for emerging becoming of human consciousness. Likewise, it is contended that dynamic systems theory, having assumed fluent flux of reality with a capital R as its ontological axiom, entails a consilience of cognitive and contextual conceptual schemes to describe, explain, and optimize human development. The paper concludes by drawing some interpretive conclusions in regard to ZPD from dynamic systems theory perspective.     

The Edge of Chaos: Enactment,Disruption, and Emergence in Group Psychotherapy

The author outlines his approach to the theory and practice of group psychotherapy. The emphasis is on therapy by the group rather than therapy in the group. The therapist's task is to help the group itself become the agent of change. The group is conceived as being composed of many multiple selves. The process of group psychotherapy unfolds through enactments that involve the whole group and the group therapist entering into the grip of repetitive and unmentalized self-states. These enactments are resolved when the group members, with the therapist's help and containment, can access alternative self-states that allow for new and unformulated experience to emerge. This dialectical movement between the rigid “familiar chaos” of enactment and the reflective and related working through is compared to the dynamic systems theory articulation of the tension between rigidity and chaos captured by Kauffman's notion that “life exists at the edge of chaos.” A group session is described that involves a painful enactment. It illustrates how the therapist allows the enactment to unfold by holding and containing intense affect and how the group members are helped to find their own meaning and new experience in interaction with each other.     

基于鼠标追踪技术的个体建构过程实时测量

个体建构研究探讨分类的低水平知觉过程及其机制, 涉及诸多自动化加工。基于手的运动可以实时地反映大脑内的信息加工过程这一原理, 鼠标追踪技术通过对被试移动电脑鼠标反应时鼠标运动轨迹的跟踪记录与分析, 对心理加工过程进行实时测量, 是实时测量心理加工过程的新技术。基于鼠标追踪技术的最新操作软件—— MouseTracker的个体建构过程实时测量研究发现, 社会类别和刻板印象遵循动态连续激活原则; 动态激活过程中, 基于面孔肤色的分类加工优先于基于面部轮廓的分类加工; 不同通道间的社会类别遵循动态整合激活原则; 个体建构过程是一个对他人的动态知觉系统, 该系统中社会类别、刻板印象、高水平认知状态以及对面孔、声音等的低水平加工之间可连续、动态地相互作用。     

In the mood to get over yourself: mood affects theory-of-mind use

Understanding others' behavior often involves attributing mental states to them by using one's "theory of mind." We argue that using theory of mind to recognize differences between one's own perspective and another's perspective is a deliberate process of inference that may be influenced by incidental mood. Because sadness is associated with more systematic and deliberate processing whereas happiness is associated with more heuristic processing, we predicted that theory-of-mind use would be facilitated by sadness compared with happiness. Two experiments supported this prediction, demonstrating that participants were more likely to utilize knowledge about others to make inferences about their mental states when they were induced to feel sad than when they were induced to feel happy. These results provide both theoretical insight into the psychological mechanisms that govern theory of mind as well as practical insight into a common source of variability in its use.     

精神的结构：阴阳与弗洛伊德人格理论

随着临床实践的深入,弗洛伊德在后期对人格结构进行了调整,提出了精神的动力结构,但他在其精神结构中过分强调个体的生物性本能,忽略了矛盾既相互对立又相成相济。事实上,处于“自然-道德”中间状态的人的精神结构,可以用中国哲学中的“阴阳”来理解,即在结构上注重阴阳的对立与平等,在发展上强调阴阳在不同时期的发展和变化。阴阳太极图与弗洛伊德后期的人格理论的中西互补,能够加深对徘徊在自然-道德之间的人的认识,从而为重新审视中国传统思想之于现代和当代精神结构的建设有着重要的启示和价值。     

The origins and uses of self-awarenesss or the mental representation of me

This paper explores the meaning and the development of consciousness in the human child. The idea of a self is made up of at least two major aspects. These can be referred to as the machinery of the self and the mental state of the idea of "me". The machinery of the self involves all unconscious, unreferenced action of the body, including its physiology and its processing of information that in turn includes cognitions and emotional states, which are unavailable to consciousness. The mental state or the idea of "me" is that part of the self that makes reference to itself. This mental state develops over the first 2 years of life and is a function of both brain maturation processes as well as socialization.     

意义疗法的理论、方法与技术:基于存在积极心理学的视角

意义疗法是以存在积极心理学为理论基础,以构建个体生命意义为目的,实现生活正负两极性的动态平衡,从而解决其心理困扰获得心理治愈与成长的一种整合性心理咨询与治疗方法。起源于Frankl意义学说的意义疗法是通往人类美好生活的路径,它源于对苦难生活所隐含意义的本质认识。在理论上,意义疗法以意义定向看世界为中心,以意义管理理论和双系统模型为支架; 在方法上,为保障意义获得,应遵循8个基本问题和12条原则,充分发挥意义源的作用,实现意义获得的双路径统一; 在技术上,灵活采用趋向性(PURE)策略、回避性(ABCDE)策略、以及双视角双通道策略或其它策略的整合。意义疗法因包含了精神成分而超越了心理动力学和个体心理学等传统心理治疗方式。未来研究还需明确意义疗法整合了哪些流派的具体方法和技术,细化意义疗法主要的技术与策略的操作步骤,考察成熟幸福感量表在中国文化下的适用性,以及充分整合质性与量化研究方法检验意义疗法在中国的适用性     

Restructuring revisited

The central concept of the information processing theory of problem solving is search. In contrast, the central concept of the Gestalt theory of problem solving is restructuring. Both concepts express important aspects of human thinking. A theory is presented which interprets restructuring and the related concept of insight in information processing terms. It is hypothesised that restructuring is a change in mental representation which affects the applicability of problem solving operators. Insight is hypothesized to occur when restructuring of the search space brings the goal state within the horizon of mental look-ahead.     

Introspection, consciousness, and human information processing

The paper tries, on rational and empirical grounds, to sketch a theory of introspective awareness, considered as an essential aspect of what is usually talked about in terms of "consciousness". The main thesis is that introspective awareness has an important role of play in human information processing. An attempt is made to clarify the connections between introspective awareness, selective attention, and short-term memory. A lot of human information processing goes on pre-attentively, "automatically", without the involvement of introspective awareness. What is introspectively attended to enters short-term memory, where it remains available for various kinds of mental operations; certain kinds of such operations are themselves introspectively accessible, and may become contents of short-term memory, where they in turn can be operated upon, and hence be modified voluntarily by the subject. Finally, various kinds of limitations to introspective awareness are discussed.     

The colourless canvas: representation, therapeutic action and the creation of mind

Freud's initial formulations viewed psychoanalysis as working towards the rediscovery of psychic elements - thoughts, feelings, memories, wishes, etc. - that were once known - represented in the mind, articulatable, thinkable - but then disguised and/or barred from consciousness. His subsequent revisions implicated a second, more extensive category of inchoate forces that either lost or never attained psychic representation and, although motivationally active, were not fixed in meaning, symbolically embodied, attached to associational chains, etc. Following Freud's theory of representation, the author conceptualizes these latter forces as "unrepresented" or "weakly represented" mental states that make a demand upon the mind for work and require transformation into something that is represented in the psyche, if they are to be thought about or used to think with. This paper describes, discusses and presents illustrations of this transformational process (figurability),that moves intersubjectively from unrepresented or weakly represented mental states to represented mental states, from force to meaning, from the inchoate to mental order.     

知性思维的合理性问题

本文认为,知性思维尽管是一种“呆板”的、“教条”的思维范式,可它在人的认识过程中还是有一定的合理性存在的范围和根据的。它同辩证思维一样都是人的生存方式和需要的产物,都是人的创造性思维的表现,都是人的认识过程的环节。因此,不能简单地把知性思维与形而上学的思维方式划上等号。我们既要防止知性思维的不合理越界,即用它来反对、否定,甚至取代辩证思维的意义,也要防止辩证思维的不合理越界,即用它来贬低、消解,甚至取代知性思维的作用。     

Lexicons, contexts, events, and images: commentary on Elman (2009) from the perspective of dual coding theory

Elman (2009) proposed that the traditional role of the mental lexicon in language processing can largely be replaced by a theoretical model of schematic event knowledge founded on dynamic context-dependent variables. We evaluate Elman's approach and propose an alternative view, based on dual coding theory and evidence that modality-specific cognitive representations contribute strongly to word meaning and language performance across diverse contexts which also have effects predictable from dual coding theory.     

Models of central capacity and concurrency

According to single channel theory, the ability of humans to perform concurrent mental operations is limited by the capacity of a central mechanism. The theory was developed by analogy with early computers which had a single central processing unit and required sequential processing. These limitations are not likely to be properties of the mind. But now computers have begun to employ extensive concurrent processing, because of the decreasing cost of the necessary hardware. In this review we will try to bring the computer analogy up to date. Theoretical issues important for concurrent systems may be of interest to psychologists and have applications to such problems as the speed-accuracy trade-off. Several hypotheses about the way signals gain access to the central mechanism are reviewed. Recent variations of the single channel theory are discussed, including the hypotheses that more than one process can use the central mechanism at a time, and that some processes do not use the central mechanism and can be executed concurrently with those that do. In addition, relevant concepts from scheduling theory and operating systems theory are introduced and difficulties encountered by concurrent systems, namely complexity, deadlocks, and thrashing, are discussed.     

THE ROLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS AS MEANING MAKER IN SCIENCE, CULTURE, AND RELIGION

Two hundred years ago, Friedrich Schleiermacher took critical issue with Immanuel Kant's intellectual notion of intuition as applied to human nature (Wellmon 2006). He found it necessary to modify—"hermeneutically," as he said—Kant's notion of anthropology by enabling it to include as human the new and strange human tribes Captain Cook found in the Pacific South Seas. A similar hermeneutic move is necessary if physics is to include the local contextual empirical syntheses of relativity and quantum physics. In this hermeneutical revision the synthesis is formed around the notion of a Hilbert Vector Space as the universal grammar of physics, adding to it the dynamic of the Schrödinger equation, and representing empirical "observables" by projection operators that map the subspaces of definite measurable values. Among the set of observable projection operators, some pairs share the same subspace, commute with one another, and share a common laboratory setting. Other pairs do not share this property and are described as being mutually complementary. Complementary symmetries introduce into the discursive language of physics the commonsense notion of contextuality. The new synthesis, proposed by Eugene Wigner, John von Neumann, and (in his own way) Paul Dirac, brought physics into the community of common language and established it as a work of general human achievement. ¹     

Group cohesiveness reexamined

The paradigm through which group cohesiveness is conceptualized and researched is examined. It is found that cohesiveness is typically seen as a positive state necessary for effective therapy. This notion is critiqued at a meta-theoretical level using a dynamic model of process reminiscent of Sartrian and Riegelian dialectics. Cohesiveness, seen in this way, becomes a complex process initially necessary and subsequently defensive in groups. Recommendations for theory, practice and research are made which are based on a concept of cohesiveness as a changing, dialectical process.The author wishes to thank Ronald Janoff and Bernard Katz, both of New York University, for support and criticism essential to the development of this article.     

LE POINT DE VUE DE PIAGET

Summarizing a summary is impossible if we want to avoid unacceptable schematizing. So let us merely state the theses very briefly developped in this article. (I) Knowledge deals with the transformations from a state into another one, each one being, at the same time, the point of arrival and the starting point of actual transformations. (II) Therefore knowledge is contínously being built up, and this progress does not come down to recordings of external informations, but includes an internal mechanism that (III) can be reduced or compared to self-regulations in the biological meaning. (IV) So the fundamental mode of relation could not correspond to the classical notion of association : it consists in processes of “ assimilation ” of the object to the subject's structures or schemes, with “ accommodation ” of these structures to the properties of the object. (V) The mental development includes stages that occur in a necessary sequential order, but without any fixed chronological date; on an other hand, the possible hastenings or delays of these stages include an optimum speed. (VI) Even learning depends on these laws of development. (VII) Experience has a bipolar role with abstraction from objects in physical experience and from the subject's actions on the object in logico-mathematical experience. (VIII) The general actions of the subject are internalized into operations that are not derived from language, but determine the stages of its acquisition. (IX) Therefore, in addition to the classical factors of development, it is necessary to add a factor of equilibration based on self-regulation, the importance of which in explanation is due to systems of sequential probabilities and to the fact that self-regulation, at first semi-reversible, tends to result in complete reversibility. (X) At last, the elements of this construction are taken from structures of inferior level by a process of “ reflecting abstraction ” in the double meaning of a quasi-physical reflection on a new plane of organization and of a mental reflection that enriches the structure with new operations carried out on the previous operations or actions.     

Reading Against the Lines: Resisting Foreclosure in Therapy Discourse

In this article, it is noted that poststructural ideas can be useful tools in fostering reflexivity and creativity for clinicians. By examining the process of meaning construction, clinicians can detach from repetitive interpretations of therapy discourse that lead to conversational closure. Four strategies for guiding a reading of family therapy interaction are presented: incitement to discourse, deconstruction, normativity, and the cultural grid of intelligibility. These strategies are used to describe examples of marital therapy discourse. By learning to read therapy as discourse, clinicians may critically examine how meaning is constructed and use that awareness to foster therapeutic conversations.     

生命意义感获取的心理机制及其影响因素

生命意义感体验对个体身心健康有重要的影响,其相关研究也已开始受到心理学各个领域的广泛关注。生命意义感获得与维持的理论研究主要是包括意义感层次模型、意义感构建模型及意义感维持与流动模型。大五人格、心理模拟、积极/消极情绪和亲社会行为是影响个体生命意义感体验的主要因素。未来研究要进一步探讨生命意义感产生的影响因素,完善相关的理论模型,并要从时间序列的角度探讨意义感的产生过程,并对生命意义感获得及维持的跨文化差异进行探讨。