Once Again,What Counts as Art?

Philosophia - The question of what art is and why certain objects and events are considered art is examined. In the light of John Searle’s Social Philosophy, a hybrid...     

Long as You Love Me,It's Alright?

Philosophical Studies -     

Do others judge us as harshly as we think? Overestimating the impact of our failures, shortcomings, and mishaps

When people suffer an embarrassing blunder, social mishap, or public failure, they often feel that their image has been severely tarnished in the eyes of others. Four studies demonstrate that these fears are commonly exaggerated. Actors who imagined committing one of several social blunders (Study 1), who experienced a public intellectual failure (Studies 2 and 3), or who were described in an embarrassing way (Study 4) anticipated being judged more harshly by others than they actually were. These exaggerated fears were produced, in part, by the actors' tendency to be inordinately focused on their misfortunes and by their resulting failure to consider the wider range of situational factors that tend to moderate onlookers' impressions. Discussion focuses on additional mechanisms that may contribute to overly pessimistic expectations as well as the role of such expectations in producing unnecessary social anxiety.     

Latino/as, Asian Americans, and the Black–White Binary

This paper aims to contribute toward coalitionbuilding by showing that, even if we try tobuild coalition around what might look like ourmost obvious common concern – reducing racism –the dominant discourse of racial politics inthe United States inhibits an understanding ofhow racism operates vis-à-vis Latino/as andAsian Americans, and thus proves more of anobstacle to coalition building than an aid. Theblack/white paradigm, which operates to governracial classifications and racial politics inthe U.S., takes race in the U.S. to consist ofonly two racial groups, Black and White,with others understood in relation to one ofthese categories.I summarize and discuss the strongestcriticisms of the paradigm and then develop twofurther arguments. Together these argumentsshow that continuing to theorize race in theU.S. as operating exclusively through theblack/white paradigm is actuallydisadvantageous for all people of color in theU.S., and in many respects for whites as well(or at least for white union households and thewhite poor).     

Presentation as indirection,indirection as schooling: The two aspects of Benjamin’s scholastic method

Why does Walter Benjamin claim “indirection” (Umweg) to be the proper method for philosophical contemplation and writing? Why is this method—embodied, according to Benjamin, in the convoluted form of scholastic treatises and in their use of citations—fundamental for understanding his Origin of German Trauerspiel as suggesting an alternative to most strands of modern philosophy? The explicit and well-studied function of this method is for the presentation of what cannot be represented in language, of what cannot be intended or approached in thinking. Namely, of what Benjamin understands as “truth.” Indeed, as Adorno implied, providing a method for presenting an intentionless reality, rather than for re-presenting the world as corresponding to the mind, is revolutionary. However, I claim that beyond its presentational function, the method of indirection has a further, pedagogical function. Benjamin’s concept of truth requires thinking in a manner that does not impose any exterior form, any conceptual or intuitive intention on truth and the materials in which it might be exhibited. The methodological adoption of digressive and intermittent writing is supposed to transform the way we think, or more accurately, the position (Haltung) from which thinking occurs. By examining Benjamin’s use of pedagogical terms against the backdrop of scholastic history and the Urfigure of modern method, that of Descartes, I show that writing and reading in the form of the tractatus serves as exercise in receding from the subject-position—a position of a subject intending an object—and thus conditions the presentation of intentionless truth.     

Women physicians as teachers,administrators, and researchers in medical and surgical specialties: Kanter versus “Avis” as competing hypotheses

According to Kanter and others, when women represent a very small proportion of a profession their performance will be affected—tokens often are afraid of achieving outstanding performance. On the other hand, rather than small proportions lowering role performance, perhaps the Avis syndrome operates; perhaps women who enter male professions try harder as they perceive that they are on trial. The present study tests the relation between percentage of women in 17 medical and surgical specialities and percentage of women within each specialty who select the nontraditional roles of teacher, administrator, and researcher [as contrasted to practitioner]. Neither the Kanter hypothesis of direct relationship, nor the Avis hypothesis of inverse relationship was supported. Results indicated that women physicians tend most likely to be overrepresented as teachers and underrepresented as administrators, regardless of their proportion in the specialty. The most powerful position of administrator is primarily occupied by male physicians; perhaps even in medicine, teaching remains a traditional role for women.     

The Rank–Ferenczi Relationship,as Seen from France

Seen from France, where Rank's “American” work is not well known, the Rank–Ferenczi relationship does not allow to state that the two learned colleagues were the best friends. Rank met Ferenczi in 1908, but their most valuable and fruitful working relationship is limited to the 1922–1924 time period. Their working relationship must be read in light of the unique transference links of each to Freud, and in light of the tormented history of the analytic movement, especially after the First World War. The sensible reader will not forget that after the fast extinction of their short collaboration they continued their own works in their own ways, Otto Rank in Paris and in America and Sándor Ferenczi in Budapest. No more friends, nor enemies, but both, in a different style, brave and creative analysts.     

The Mind as Neural Software? Understanding Functionalism,Computationalism, and Computational Functionalism

Defending or attacking either functionalism or computationalism requires clarity on what they amount to and what evidence counts for or against them. My goal here is not to evaluate their plausibility. My goal is to formulate them and their relationship clearly enough that we can determine which type of evidence is relevant to them. I aim to dispel some sources of confusion that surround functionalism and computationalism, recruit recent philosophical work on mechanisms and computation to shed light on them, and clarify how functionalism and computationalism may or may not legitimately come together.     

Religiosity and Spirituality as Resiliency Resources: Moderation,Mediation, or Moderated Mediation?

A growing body of literature indicates a modestly positive association between religiosity and spirituality as predictors of psychological health (anxiety and depression), suggesting they serve as personal resiliency factors. The purpose of this study was to expand our understanding of the relationships among these constructs. Using Lazarus's Transactional Model of Stress as a theoretical framework, we examined: (a) the extent to which spirituality and religiosity mediated and/or moderated the association between perceived stress and psychological health and (b) whether there was a moderated (religiosity) mediation (spirituality) between stress and health. The Perceived Stress Scale, Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, Religious Commitment Inventory, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were administered to measure the following constructs: stress, spirituality, religiosity, and psychological health. This study utilized a nonexperimental, quantitative, correlational, cross‐sectional, moderated‐mediation design, and included a convenience sample of 331 research participants. Both spirituality and religiosity moderated stress and health. However, only spirituality partially mediated the relationship. In addition, religiosity did not moderate the mediating effects of spirituality. Overall, this study confirmed the role of both religiosity and spirituality as effective resiliency resources.     

Is writing as difficult as it seems?

Experiment 1 assessed the time and effort allocated to writing subprocesses while generating written and verbal protocols over 10 weekly writing sessions. Within a 40-min session, planning time consumed about 45% in the first 5 min, but stabilized at near 30% thereafter. Generating text initially consumed 40% of the writers’ time, peaked at 50% midway, and then declined to its original level. The time spent revising and reviewing was negligible early in writing sessions, but increased substantially late in the sessions. The highest and lowest quality documents could be differentiated on the basis of the amount of time the writers devoted to revising and to the magnitude of their RTs in a secondary interference task. Writers showed consistent, distinctive patterns of transitional probabilities between writing subprocesses both within and across sessions, yielding quantitative representations of their writing styles. In Experiment 2, writers overestimated the amount of time they devote to revising and overestimated the amount of effort they allocate to planning and text generation. Their estimations did not improve after 10 weeks of composing. A time-and-effort-based analysis of writing is proposed to account for these data.     

Knock,knock, anybody home? Psychological availability as link between work and relationship

This research investigated how negative and positive residuals of the workday spill over into the partner relationship. To unravel the mechanism of this spillover, this study introduces the concept of “psychological availability,” which refers to the individual's ability and motivation to direct psychological resources at the partner. A survey was conducted among 313 Dutch dual‐earner couples with children, using dyadic data analysis to analyze both partners simultaneously in 1 model. Psychological availability mediated the link between negative and positive work‐related residuals (i.e., work‐related negative mood, exhaustion, rumination and work‐related positive mood and vigor, respectively) and marital behavior. The findings suggest that partners' workday residuals spill over into the marital relationship through being more or less psychologically available for each other.     

Journal Reprints as Dissemination of Psychological Research: Courtesy,Obligation, or Obsolescence?

The proliferation of journals and the escalation of journal prices have made it difficult for psychologists, especially those in rural areas without access to comprehensive libraries, to obtain journal articles. A traditional source of otherwise unavailable papers is to request a reprint directly from the author. Although previous researchers found this method to be 60%-80% successful, there have been major changes in journal operations and alternative media since this research was conducted. In the present study, reprints were requested from 473 corresponding authors from 10 American Psychological Association journals. The compliance rate was 84% and reprints took, on average, 32 days to arrive. There was no difference in the rate or in the speed of response due to the requestor's status as an academic or applied psychologist. Although functional, the traditional reprint request method was slow, uncertain, and costly. It is suggested that a demand still exists for reprints, but that electronic reprints should replace the traditional paper format.     

Peers,Social Control,or Guilt? Self-Conscious Emotions as Explanation for Antisocial Behavior

Criminologists rarely include self-conscious emotions like guilt or shame to explain delinquency. Instead, factors external to the individual are often used, such as social institutions, the family, or peers. This study uses a longitudinal sample of 526 youth from two waves of survey data to assess the effects of peer influences, social control, and the self-conscious emotion of guilt on youth problem behaviors. Problem behavior is measured using teacher assessments at Time2. All other variables are baseline youth self-report measures that were collected at Time1. The results show that guilt statistically predicted teacher-assessed problem behaviors. Further work is needed to develop this measure in criminology.     

Journal reprints as dissemination of psychological research: courtesy, obligation, or obsolescence?

The proliferation of journals and the escalation of journal prices have made it difficult for psychologists, especially those in rural areas without access to comprehensive libraries, to obtain journal articles. A traditional source of otherwise unavailable papers is to request a reprint directly from the author. Although previous researchers found this method to be 60%-80% successful, there have been major changes in journal operations and alternative media since this research was conducted. In the present study, reprints were requested from 473 corresponding authors from 10 American Psychological Association journals. The compliance rate was 84% and reprints took, on average, 32 days to arrive. There was no difference in the rate or in the speed of response due to the requestor's status as an academic or applied psychologist. Although functional, the traditional reprint request method was slow, uncertain, and costly. It is suggested that a demand still exists for reprints, but that electronic reprints should replace the traditional paper format. Key words: reprints, scientific communication     

Students as Research Participants or as Learners?

This paper reports an instructor and her students’ experiences with ethics in conducting action research in a university teacher-training class. The nature of educational action research suggests the dual roles of the instructor and students, the former as both a researcher and a practitioner, and the latter as both research participants and learners. However, in following an ethics procedure to allow students to opt out of the research project anonymously but, at the same time, not to deny their access to learning opportunities, both the instructor and students experienced tensions as they tried to separate and switch roles for research and teaching/learning. Instead of benefiting from the research to explore and reflect on learning, many students complained about their sense of being used as research participants. The article suggests new ethics review procedures to support and help action research to generate valuable results in teaching and learning.     

Mental health of caregiving spouses: coping as mediator, moderator, or main effect?

Coping strategies used by 315 persons providing care to a spouse diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease were characterized as either emotion-focused (wishfulness, acceptance, intrapsychic) or problem-focused (instrumental). Models in which coping strategies were postulated as having mediator, moderator, and independent main effects were tested using multiple indexes of mental health. Wishfulness and intrapsychic strategies mediated the relationship between degree of stress and CES-D, Anxiety, and Depression. Wishfulness had a direct effect on Obsessive-Compulsive, Somatization, and Interpersonal Sensitivity; intrapsychic strategies had a direct effect on Obsessive-Compulsive, Somatization, and Interpersonal Sensitivity; and instrumental strategies had a direct effect on Positive Affect. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that stressors and coping strategies explained between 12% and 40% of the variance on mental health indexes.     

Childhood Healthcare Experience,Healthcare Attitudes,and Optimism as Predictors of Adolescents’ Healthcare Behavior

Late adolescence and early adulthood is a time when people establish many of their life-style behaviors. Thus, in order to promote optimal health, it is important to identify factors predictive of young adults’ healthcare behavior. This study evaluated the relationship between measures of childhood healthcare experience, healthcare attitudes, and optimism with young adults’ healthcare behavior in a sample of college students (n = 100). Results suggested that prior healthcare experience, attitudes about healthcare, and optimism are associated with current healthcare behavior. In addition, the relation between childhood healthcare experience and current healthcare behavior was moderated by optimism, such that those who reported both more negative childhood healthcare experiences and low levels of optimism reported the least adaptive healthcare behaviors and those who reported the most positive childhood healthcare experience and the highest levels of optimism reported the most adaptive healthcare behavior.