Synesthesia and creativity in fine arts students: An Empirical Look

Abstract:

A survey of 358 fine arts students at three large universities indicated that 23% (84) experienced synesthesia in a spontaneous and consistent manner, and 49% (175) reported no such experience. From this subject pool, 61 synesthetes and 61 controls, equated on gender, major, year in school, and verbal intelligence, received a battery of four creativity measures. The synesthetes scored significantly higher than controls on all four creativity measures; and their self‐rated frequency and vividness of synesthesia though significantly intercorrelated, correlated marginally with the measures of creativity. The results are consistent with anecdotal reports that synesthetes are often involved in musical and artistic fields, and possessive of a high degree of creativity.     

Projecting perfection by hiding effort: supplementing the perfectionistic self-presentation scale with a brief self-presentation measure

Extensive research has illustrated the relevance of individual differences in perfectionistic self-presentation, but there has been little work on how perfectionistic self-presentation is expressed. The current research addressed this issue by examining the tendency to project a perfectionistic image by hiding effort. This research develops and evaluates a brief unifactorial measure as an extension of perfectionistic self-presentation. It is shown that the Perfectionistic Self-Presentation Hiding Effort Scale is reliable and valid in terms of its links with multidimensional perfectionism dimensions. Further, individual differences in seeming perfect while hiding effort accounted for unique variance in depression and social anxiety. Factors and processes that contribute to attempting to seem perfect while hiding effort are discussed.     

Vocational guidance during the depression: Phrenology versus applied psychology

The paper describes the design and use of a machine, the “Psychograph,” which automatically measured the size and shape of the skull and provided evaluations of mental traits according to phrenological principles. Developed in 1930, the psychograph was billed as a diagnostic tool capable of providing suitable vocational guidance to the thousands of unemployed as a result of the Depression. Its appearance prompted a vigorous opposition from the Psychology Department at the University of Minnesota, especially in the person of Donald L. Paterson. Subsequently, the psychograph was merely exploited for its entertainment value and disappeared after the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago.     

A factor analysis of new and standardized instruments to measure the creative potential and high-energy action preference of performing arts students. A preliminary investigation

Two standardized creativity instruments and three original instruments to measure a preference for high-energy activity and to provide a creative product were given to 86 dance, music and drama students. A factor analysis of eight scales of the five instruments showed correlation between the new and standardized instruments, produced three groupings—visual, verbal and action—and an ANOVA demonstrated that some of these scales could differentiate among the specialist groups. The new instruments were devised to clarify if performing arts students, whose major activity is often interpretive, are creative and if their choice to be performers is related to a preference for high-energy physical activities.     

The role of the arts and humanities in human flourishing: A conceptual model

There is much debate on the value of the arts and humanities in our society. Each side provides strong arguments, but there has been little empirical research to draw on. A key reason for the lack of scientific evidence is the absence of a conceptual model on which to base investigations of the ways the arts and the humanities might contribute to human flourishing. To address this, we present a model to demarcate the domain of the arts and humanities by means of an extensional definition (e.g. majors, disciplines, and occupations) integrated with a functional analysis (i.e. modes of engagement and activities of involvement). We suggest immersion, embeddedness, socialisation, and reflectiveness as mechanisms by which the arts and humanities may enhance various forms of human flourishing. We conclude with implications of the model and ideas for future research to investigate the effects of the arts and humanities on human flourishing.     

Medicine and the arts

Three years' experience in teaching a course in Literature and Medicine is reviewed. Examples of the ‘Laboratory’ or ‘in vitro’ functions of art are given, as they relate to and benefit both medical students and practitioners. The usefulness of literature (especially) in the medical setting is underscored, together with the need for medical personnel to be more aware of their heritage in this area. Examples of well-known physicians who have excelled in the arts (literature, music, painting/sculpture) are given and their major contributions discussed. There are some surprises.     

Computers and the liberal arts: Challenge to psychology

Three years ago Drew University began a campus-wide effort to integrate microcomputers into courses across the entire liberal arts curriculum. This paper summarizes the results of 14 studies that have assessed student and faculty responses to this effort, and concludes by suggesting some implications of these studies for psychologists involved in the design and evaluation of similar programs.     

Sociology and psychoanalysis in the liberal arts

Abstract

This paper posits that an infusion of psychoanalytic concepts into the teaching of sociology in undergraduate liberal arts curricula offers a route to expanding students’ understanding of how self and society are entwined in a condition of mutual crisis in contemporary society. We argue that the liberatory project at the core of the liberal arts is served well by linking the critical perspectives found in these two disciplines. We provide as specific examples from our own teaching: (1) a demonstration of how Freud’s concept of neurosis has an affinity with Marx’s concept of alienation; and (2) a discussion of how the torture sequence in Orwell’s 1984 presents an inversion of a psychoanalytic treatment through which the power of propaganda is illuminated. We conclude that teaching the two disciplines in tandem helps students grasp how the self is a socially constructed entity and how the orthodoxies of neurosis and social control are available for critique and change.     

占星术,或者,面相学与头盖骨相学——阿多诺与《精神现象学》的一种批判传统

该文试图从黑格尔《精神现象学》中的一个小问题入手,来探讨这部著作在思想传承上对于阿多诺所具有的意义。首先,我们考察了这个时代所普遍存在着的对理性的误解。接着,我们通过黑格尔《精神现象学》中对面相学和头盖骨相学的论述,分析了一种反理性的倾向。最后,我们在阿多诺的研究中发现,这种反理性的倾向在当代通过占星术的形式更为貌似合理地深潜在我们的社会生活之中,对此,阿多诺是一个洞悉者和批判者。这种洞悉和批判是黑格尔《精神现象学》的理性传统的承继。