The Self’s Symbolic Role in Implicit Approach/Avoidance: Movement Time Evidence

Theories of self-regulation emphasize the special role that the symbolic self may play in approach and avoidance movements, but experimental evidence is lacking. In two experiments (total N = 157), participants moved either a self-relevant (e.g., “me”) or non-self (e.g., “not me”) agent to one of two locations, one occupied by a positive word and the other occupied by a negative word. In both experiments, the movement agent interacted with the destination valence such that it was only the symbolic self that moved more quickly to positive rather than negative locations. These results established a role for the symbolic self in approach/avoidance that had been questioned, thereby supporting both classic and contemporary self-related theories of approach and avoidance.     

‘It’s about having exposure to this’: investigating the training needs of therapists in relation to the issue of anomalous experiences

Two focus groups, consisting of six participants each, were conducted to explore the training needs of therapists when working with clients reporting anomalous experiences (AEs). AEs are those that ‘depart from our own familiar personal experiences or from the more usual, ordinary, and expected experiences of a given culture and time’ [Braud, W. (2012). Health and well-being benefits of exceptional human experiences. In C. Murray (Ed.), Mental health and anomalous experience (pp. 107–124). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.]. A thematic analysis revealed four themes: ‘Quite often we get taken by surprise because it’s a subject we don’t talk about’, ‘It’s just having this in our vocabulary’, ‘Demystifying and valuing AEs as normal human experiences’ and ‘To ask or not to ask?’. Most of the participants felt that they were unequipped to work with clients reporting AEs and suggestions were made for overcoming this.     

It’s All in your Head: a Solution to the Problem of Object Coincidence

Philosophia - It is uncontroversial that artifacts like statues and tables are mind-dependent. What is controversial is whether and how this mind-dependence has implications for the ontology of...     

“Strength and Safety in Numbers”: A Theoretical Perspective on Group Influences on Approach and Avoidance Motivation

This paper presents a theoretical framework that advances current understanding of motivational and affective causes and consequences of small group processes and behaviors. Theories on the approach and avoidance systems of motivation state that these systems are active in the presence of potential positive or negative outcomes, respectively. In many instances, groups are associated with rewards and are perceived to facilitate positive outcomes (“strength in numbers”), and are a source of security and thought to reduce the occurrence of negative outcomes (“safety in numbers”). Accordingly, group membership and interaction should impact activation of group members’ approach and avoidance motivation systems. Thus, systematic group influences on mood, information processing, perceptions, attention, and behavior should be expected. The integration of approach and avoidance theories with small group research can potentially broaden our knowledge of the group experience, and lead to a theoretical framework for investigations of goal-directed behaviors in group settings.     

Radicalizing the Role of the Emancipatory Teacher in the Crisis of Democracy: Erich Fromm’s Psychoanalytic Approach to Deweyan Democratic Education

Studies in Philosophy and Education - This paper explores Erich Fromm’s contribution to Deweyan democratic education by referring to his psychoanalytic interpretation of John Dewey’s...     

Clearing Up Obstructions: An Image Schema Approach to the Concept of ‘Datong’ 大通 in Chapter 6 of the Zhuangzi

In much of modern scholarship, the notion of datong 大通 in Zhuangzi’s famous zuowang 坐忘 (sitting in disregard) passage is often interpreted as either Dao or a mental/spiritual state of an ideal person, a person who has obtained Dao. In either case, however, the association between datong and such interpretation lacks detailed justification resulting from an insufficiently understood relation between datong and its immediately preceding statements. Different from the more common readings, I propose a cognitive approach based on an image schema related to non-obstruction. In order to demonstrate the philosophical importance of this schema, I will first briefly point out the problems of previous scholarship regarding the zuowang passage. Second, I will introduce the image schema related to non-obstruction based on a number of examples taken from the Zhuangzi. Finally, I will apply this methodology and introduce a cognitive experience-based interpretation of the zuowang passage.     

An Ecological Approach to Explaining Women’s Adjustment in the Initial Stage of Marriage

In this study, we focused on marital adjustment among a sample of 101 Israeli women who had been married up to 3 years and did not have children. We examined the contribution of variables from three ecological systems to marital adjustment: the ontogenic system (attachment dimensions, and women’s perceptions of differentiation in the family of origin); the microsystem (strategies for resolving marital conflicts); and the exosystem (characteristics of the husband’s employment). The findings revealed that the higher the women’s levels in the two dimensions of attachment, the lower their levels of marital adjustment. By contrast, the more the women used conflict resolution strategies of integration, concession, and compromise, the higher their levels of marital adjustment. Conflict resolution strategies mediated the effects of attachment avoidance and family differentiation on marital adjustment. To conclude, we offer practical recommendations for identifying couples at risk in the first stage of marital life, and for professional interventions to improve marital adjustment at that stage.     

Correction to: From Teachers’ Work Engagement to Pupils’ Positive Affect: a Weekly Diary Study on the Role of Pupils’ Autonomous Motivation

Applied Research in Quality of Life - A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-021-09935-5     

Examining the Growth Trajectories of Physical Education Students’ Motivation,Enjoyment, and Physical Activity: A Person-Oriented Approach

The study examined the growth trajectories in 757 (M age = 12.71) Finnish middle school students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation along with their enjoyment and physical activity. In addition, the study aimed to examine the role of intrinsic and extrinsic physical education motivation in the development in adolescents’ enjoyment and physical activity by identifying adolescents’ subgroups. Adolescents’ enjoyment and physical activity declined, intrinsic motivation was stable, and extrinsic motivation increased across middle school. Adolescents with highest levels of intrinsic motivation and moderate to high levels of extrinsic regulation had the highest levels of enjoyment and physical activity.     

Survey of Confucius’s Approach to Expediency

Confucius held that expediency means adjusting to changing circumstances, not necessarily going along with or against anything, having a sense of propriety about times and measures, and doing things in their proper time and manner. However, expediency does not mean doing whatever one likes without any principle; instead, it means taking benevolence and righteousness as criteria and acting accordingly. In Confucius’s opinion, one should cultivate benevolence internally and act with righteousness externally, weigh importance and unimportance, measure advantages and disadvantages, and not “set the mind either for anything, or against anything,” pursuing “what the heart desires, without transgressing what is right.” In this way, he would keep to benevolence without deviating from it, act expediently without despising any principles, and attain a dialectical unification of expediency and principles.     

Youth’s Responses to Peer Provocation: Links to Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression

Youth experiencing anxiety and depression are more likely to be targeted aggressively by peers, making it critical that we understand how they respond to these challenging interpersonal situations. We addressed this issue by recruiting a school-based sample of lower-income youth (N?=?327) in grades 6, 7, and 8 (M age =13.10, SD =0.99) to complete a multiple-choice measure asking them to select responses to 11 scenarios describing physical, relational, and verbal provocation by a peer. We found that increasing anxiety was negatively associated with endorsement of aggressive behaviors, whereas greater levels of depressive symptoms were linked to higher rates of aggressive responding, and, for girls, decreased endorsement of assertive strategies. Implications for understanding and intervening on social competence and psychopathology are discussed.     

‘I’ll Make It Up to You:’ Examining the effect of apologies on forgiveness

Receiving an apology is a key component to the management of conflict and the likelihood that forgiveness will occur. However, not all apologies are effective at alleviating interpersonal conflict. The current research focused on the content of an apology (e.g. ‘I’ll make it up to you; I was wrong; I feel bad that I did this …’) and the differential impact this content may have on self-reported and behavioral forgiveness among young adults. Seven different apologies were designed and tested for effectiveness within an experimentally created transgression. Undergraduate students (N = 199) completed a distribution of resources task in which the researchers simulated a transgression experience without the students’ knowledge. Following the transgression, students received one of the seven apologies. Results indicate that receiving an apology that expressed a desire to compensate for wrongdoing appeared to be the most effective apology in terms of promoting both self-reported and behavioral forgiveness.     

Situating Maimonides’s Approach to the Oral Torah in Its Andalusian Context

Maimonides’s readers have long recognized that his presentation of the Oral Torah differed markedly from that of the Baghdadi geonim, particularly Sa‘adya Gaon. Maimonides did not cite any precedent for his disagreements with the geonim. Recent studies, however, have called attention to Andalusian sources that prefigure and parallel Maimonidean claims, suggesting that his views, at least in part, drew on earlier Andalusian thought. This article argues that a uniquely Andalusian understanding of the talmudic adage “A sage is superior to a prophet,” first found in the writings of Isaac Ibn Ghiyāth, demonstrates that Andalusian Rabbanite culture had long approached the Oral Torah differently than did the geonim of Baghdad. After identifying a number of Andalusian antecedents for Maimonides’s approach to the Oral Torah, this article explores possible motives for the divergent pictures of revelation put forward by Rabbanites in Baghdad and Andalusia. It is suggested that the impact of Andalusian Maliki jurists helps explain the divergent positions of Baghdadi and Andalusian Rabbanites.     

Approaching Success or Avoiding Failure? Approach and Avoidance Motives in the Work Domain

In our set of studies, we extended research on approach and avoidance motivations by investigating (i) motives in a work setting, (ii) interactions among approach and avoidance motives, and (iii) motives at implicit levels. Results of Studies 1 through 3 provided support for the construct validity of our work motives measure by demonstrating that approach and avoidance work motives are markers of more general approach and avoidance temperaments, they are distinct from other individual difference variables commonly studied by organisational psychologists (e.g. conscientiousness, regulatory focus and cognitive ability) and they are stable over time. In Studies 4 through 7, we confirmed our predictions that approach and avoidance motives predict employees' goal orientations, job appraisals and attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction and perceived support) and supervisor‐rated job behaviours (e.g. task performance and citizenship behaviour). Importantly, we provide the first empirical evidence that approach and avoidance motives interact to predict task performance and that the motives operate at implicit levels. Copyright © 2012 European Association of Personality Psychology     

It’s All About the Relationship: The Role of Attachment in Child-Parent Psychotherapy

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology -     

Adolescents’ Change in Motivation as a Result of Buddhist Education: How Does It Make a Difference in Their Learning Outcomes?

Motivation significantly influences students’ learning outcomes. Changing their learning motivation improves their performance. This study used an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach, with the participation of 140 adolescents attending retreats at three Zen monasteries belonging to the Truc Lam (Bamboo Forest) Zen sect, to examine how they changed their motivation, what made them change, and how the change improved their learning outcomes. The study also evaluated the effect of gender and age on changes in motivation. The results indicated that many teenagers had changed from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation thanks to Dharma lessons, teacher support, and leisure activities. Compared to students who maintained their extrinsic motivation unchanged, they had better learning outcomes. Age, but not gender, had a considerable effect on changes in teenagers’ motivation. These findings provide more evidence for extending Buddhist education and conducting further research on young Buddhist learners’ motivation in various contexts.     

Hedwig Conrad-Martius’ Phenomenological Approach to Life Sciences and the Question of Vitalism

The philosophy of Hedwig Conrad-Martius represents a very important intersection point between phenomenological research and the natural sciences in the twentieth century. She tried to open a common pattern from the ontology of the physical being up to anthropology, passing from the biological sciences. An intersection point that, for the particular features of her thought, is rather a perspective point from which to observe, in an interesting and original way, both natural sciences and phenomenology. The 1923 essay entitled Real Ontology (Conrad-Martius 1923) is the starting point for her reflections about science, but it is also the point that marks a separation from Husserl (for a detailed discussion, see: Ales Bello 2003, pp. 184–195), even if not from phenomenology. A fundamental question is faced: “why something instead of nothing?” or: “what is the reality?,” shifting the focus from essence to existence. Whichever the answer, a deeply realistic position must be assumed, based on the assumption of a clear distinction between the subject and the world, and the possibility of knowledge, intended as adaequatio of the subject’s intellectus to the external reality.     

From Teachers’ Work Engagement to Pupils’ Positive Affect: a Weekly Diary Study on the Role of Pupils’ Autonomous Motivation

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether there is a crossover effect from teacher’s general (trait-level) work engagement to...     

Defining ‘Dead’ in Terms of ‘Lives’ and ‘Dies’

What is it for a thing to be dead? Fred Feldman holds, correctly in my view, that a definition of ‘dead’ should leave open both (1) the possibility of things that go directly from being dead to being alive, and (2) the possibility of things that go directly from being alive to being neither alive nor dead, but merely in suspended animation. But if this is right, then surely such a definition should also leave open the possibility of things that go directly from being dead to being neither alive nor dead, but merely in suspended animation. I show that Feldman’s own definition of ‘dead’ (in terms of ‘lives’ and ‘dies’) does not leave this possibility open. I propose a new definition that does.