Mirror neurons and embodied simulation in the development of archetypes and self-agency

Abstract :  In this paper I explore the role of mirror neurons and motor intentionality in the development of self-agency. I suggest that this will also give us a firmer basis for an emergent view of archetypes, as key components in the development trajectory of self-agency, from its foundation in bodily action to its mature expression in mentalization and a conscious awareness of intentionality. I offer some ideas about the implications of these issues of self-agency for our clinical work with patients whose developmental trajectory of self-agency has been partially inhibited, so that their communications have a coercive effect. I discuss the possibility that this kind of clinical phenomenon may relate to Gallese and Lakoff's hypothesis that abstract thought and imagination are forms of simulated action, and that the same sensory-motor circuits that control action also control imagination, concept formation and understanding, but with a crucial development, that of an inhibition of the connections between secondary pre-motor cortical areas and the primary motor cortex. I shall speculate that in the earlier developmental stages of self-agency, the separation of secondary from primary motor areas is not complete, so that imagination and thought are not entirely independent of physical action.     

犯罪行为决策的理论与研究方法

犯罪行为是犯罪人决策的结果。犯罪行为决策研究旨在通过运用认知心理学的有关原理,说明犯罪行为实施之前的行为决策过程及影响因素,其成果能为国家制定刑事政策与犯罪预防政策等提供理论依据。犯罪行为决策的理论模型主要可分为犯罪理性模型、犯罪期望效用模型和犯罪前景理论模型。犯罪行为决策的研究方法主要采用心理物理法、过程追踪法、访谈法、投射测验法和犯罪统计法等。展望未来,应进一步探讨犯罪行为决策的理性与非理性问题,并加强对犯罪行为决策的验证性研究。     

Memories, fantasies, archetypes: an exploration of some connections between cognitive science and analytical psychology

The value of cognitive science as a means of investigating psychodynamic theory and practice is discussed and the limitations of this approach are described. Research findings from cognitive science are drawn on to clarify the nature of memory, which is seen to be a mixture of reproduction and reconstruction and the concepts of true and false memory are explored in this light. The part played by implicit memory and internal working models in producing transference is also examined. New ways of conceptualizing fantasy, which describes it as another facet of internal working models, and the role of transgenerational transmission of attachment patterns in creating internal working models are explored. The nature of archetypes is considered in the light of cognitive science research and a minimalist model is proposed, in which they can be likened to image schemas, that is, primitive conceptual structures that exist in a form which can never be experienced directly or indirectly.     

Archetypes and Spirits: A Jungian Analysis of Puerto Rican Espiritismo

In this paper a comparison is made between Jung's approach to healing with a traditional healing system practised in Puerto Rico, called ‘Espiritismo’. Jungian psychology and ‘Espiritismo’ have several strong similarities in their conception of the therapeutic process, similarities which suggest that the healing process itself has generic properties which can be found in several therapeutic systems. In addition, by analysing Jung's development as a healer, it is possible to draw parallels between his development as a psychotherapist and the process of becoming a spiritist healer. In both healing systems, a transpersonal dimension is recognized as an integral element in the healing process. In ‘Espiritismo’, the suffering individual has to confront the spirit world; in analytical psychotherapy the patient has to confront the collective unconscious. This parallel was explicitly recognized by Jung in his autobiography when he compared the collective unconscious with the land of the dead. For Jung, knowledge of the figures of the unconscious enormously facilitates the individuation process; in ‘Espiritismo’ it is necessary to know the spirit world and to establish a relationship with the spirits. In Jungian psychology, healing is a process of ‘exorcizing’ some types of complexes or integrating others to consciousness. On the other hand, spiritist healers ‘exorcize’ ignorant spirits in order to heal a client or help him/her to identify spirit guides. In both systems, healing is essentially a process of establishing a dialogue with a transpersonal dimension (archetypes or spirits). Healing in ‘Espiritismo’ and Jungian psychology is a process of transcending the limited perspective of the ego (the ‘material world’) in order to experience a much broader reality (spiritual world or collective unconscious). Both systems emphasize the need to work with resources beyond the boundaries of the ego and to connect with forces that belong to a different reality.     

物体受力分析正误样例组合的学习效果

分别采用正误样例组合、有无错误标记的正误样例组合和有标记的正误样例配对组合设计方法,以物体受力分析正误样例为实验材料,以初中三年级学生为被试进行3项实验,考察了被试物体受力分析图正误样例组合的学习效果。结果表明,正误样例组合的学习成绩显著优于正确样例组合的学习成绩;有标记的正误样例组合的学习成绩显著优于无标记样例组合的学习成绩;有标记正误样例配对组合的学习成绩明显优于正确样例组合的学习成绩。     

Intentional Objects,Pretence, and the Quasi-Relational Nature of Mental Phenomena: A New Look at Brentano on Intentionality

Abstract

Brentano famously changed his mind about intentionality between the 1874 and 1911 editions of Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (PES). The 1911 edition repudiates the 1874 view that to think about something is to stand in a relation to something that is within in the mind, and holds instead that intentionality is only like a relation (it is ‘quasi-relational’). Despite this, Brentano still insists that mental activity involves ‘the reference to something as an object’, much as he did in the 1874 edition of PES. The question is what Brentano might have meant by this, given that he rejects a relational account of intentionality. The present paper suggests an answer. It draws on recent work on pretence theory to provide a model of Brentano’s notion of the quasi-relational nature of mental phenomena, as well as of the notion of mental reference to an object, and argues that the model helps to explain why Brentano might have been able discern a clear continuity between the views of the 1874 and 1911 editions of PES, despite the differences.     

The Development of Symbolic Uses of Objects in Infants in a Triadic Context: A Pragmatic and Semiotic Perspective

In this study, we address the construction of the first symbolic uses of objects in contexts of triadic interaction (adult–child–object). We assume that symbolic productions are based on public rules of the use of objects previously agreed by the community. The first symbols are not rooted in any literal, evident reality, but in shared rules of uses about the material world. We observed six dyads communicating and interacting together with 10 objects in a semi‐structured situation longitudinally from 9 to 15 months of age. We found that the infants gradually constructed symbolic meanings, and we identified five symbolic levels and sublevels. At 9 months, the infants attended and engaged in the symbolic uses produced by an adult even though they themselves were not yet able to produce them. At 12 months, infants began to use objects symbolically to communicate with adults. The highest percentage of these first symbolic uses was of level 1, that is, with a close relation to the conventional use of the object used to perform the symbol. At 15 months, children increased their symbolic uses and performed symbolic uses at all levels, whereas adults reduced such practices. Adult semiotic mediation and the social meanings of objects can be considered important factors in children's symbolic productions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

2010-2014年心理学核心期刊载文的文献计量分析

采用文献计量学方法,以2010－2014年《心理学报》、《心理科学》、《心理科学进展》、《中国临床心理学杂志》、《心理与行为研究》、《心理发展与教育》、《心理学探新》刊载的5878篇文献为研究对象,对作者人数、研究机构、合作情况、研究内容、研究领域,研究对象、研究方法进行了分析,旨在对过去国内心理学的研究发展状况进行系统回顾与总结,并对将来研究提供参考。     

Development and Validation of the Xhosa Translations of the Beck Inventories: 2. Item Analysis,Internal Consistency and Factor Analysis

The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) were translated into Xhosa, a language widely spoken in South Africa to yield translated scales referred to as the XBDI-I (Xhosa BDI-II), the XBAI (Xhosa BAI) and the XBHS (Xhosa BHS). These scales were administered to a sample of 122 Xhosa respondents which included students and patients. The psychometric properties of the translated scales were comparable to those of the original English versions. Measures of internal consistency were as high as those for the validation studies in the USA and good item-scale correlations were obtained. This suggests that the translation yielded clinically useful scales which tap symptoms that are largely culturally universal.     

Self-Determination and Empowerment: A Feminist Standpoint Analysis of Talk about Disability

In this paper we offer a feminist analysis of talk about self-determination and empowerment in the context of disability, focusing on the case of developmental disabilities. We find strains of the same patterns feminist epistemologists have argued shape the organization of formal knowledge from the standpoint of the privileged. At the extreme, people with developmental disabilities appear as objects without selves, outside of the context of interpersonal and social structural relationships that constrain who they can be by defining them as other, often in multiple and interacting ways. Empowerment, from the dominant standpoint, becomes an abstract attribute or condition; something a person has or does not have. Taking the standpoint of women and other marginalized people offers a view of self-determination as a person's development of his or her self. Empowerment becomes a potential characteristic of a social relationship, one that facilitates the development of someone's self. The most empowering relationships are mutual, recognizing and building on the diverse contributions and needs of participants in ways that seek to minimize inequalities over time. The reason some of us are self-determining is that we are in interpersonal and social structural relationships that empower us. To construct interpersonal and social structural relationships that empower people with developmental disabilities requires challenging the way dominant conceptualizations of independence and productivity also express the standpoint of the privileged. The standpoint of women allows all of us to talk more of how we connect with and facilitate one another's developing selves within communities.     

Natural Numbers and Natural Cardinals as Abstract Objects: A Partial Reconstruction of Frege" s="" grundgesetze="" in="" object="" theory"="

In this paper, the author derives the Dedekind–Peano axioms for number theory from a consistent and general metaphysical theory of abstract objects. The derivation makes no appeal to primitive mathematical notions, implicit definitions, or a principle of infinity. The theorems proved constitute an important subset of the numbered propositions found in Frege"s Grundgesetze. The proofs of the theorems reconstruct Frege"s derivations, with the exception of the claim that every number has a successor, which is derived from a modal axiom that (philosophical) logicians implicitly accept. In the final section of the paper, there is a brief philosophical discussion of how the present theory relates to the work of other philosophers attempting to reconstruct Frege"s conception of numbers and logical objects.     

中国区域跨文化心理学理论探索与实证研究

中国区域跨文化心理学是以文化学、社会学、人类学、人文地理学、社会心理学、跨文化心理学等学科理论为基础, 比较研究中国城乡区域、地理区域、历史区域、行政区域、生态区域等文化区域居民的个体心理和群体心理共同性和差异性的学科。采用系列问卷, 在2004年和2009年先后三次对甘肃省河西、河东汉族为主的地级市属各个县市区城乡居民以及蒙拢、湘拢的跨省域居民进行抽样调查。结果表明, 区域文化同一性和差异性以及具体的生态环境、生活方式、经济发展、政治体制、社会结构、教育水平、风俗习惯、风土人情等差异, 是影响区域居民心理健康、性格特质、社会态度、刻板印象等心理机能的重要变量。今后研究将着力进行学科理论完善和省际、县际比较研究, 更好地运用田野工作等方法, 揭示区域文化与心理行为之间的相互关系和作用机制, 形成理论模型, 为建设和谐社会提供理论依据。     

Self- and cross-citations in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior: 1983-1992

We examined self- and cross-citation practices in JABA and JEAB from 1983 through 1992. Mean levels of self-citation for JABA and for JEAB were 22.6% and 36.1%, respectively. Overall, 2.4% of JABA citations were JEAB articles, and 0.6% of JEAB citations were JABA articles, which suggests limited integration of basic and applied research.     

Self- and cross-citations in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior: 1993-2003

Self- and cross-citations in JABA and JEAB from 1993 through 2003 were examined. Yearly mean levels of self-citation for JABA and JEAB were 34.9% and 33.2%, respectively. Overall, 7.8% of JABA citations were JEAB articles, and 0.6% of JEAB citations were JABA articles. The former value, but not the latter, is substantially higher than the cross-citation level reported for earlier years. The two JEAB articles most often cited in JABA were published over 20 years ago and are concerned with establishing operations and the matching law.     

Still People of the Book A History of the Church in 100 Objects,Mike Aquilina and Grace Aquilina,Ave Maria, 2017 (ISBN 978‐1‐59471‐750‐5), 448 pp., pb $24.95

The recent turn to ‘material religion’ in the academic study of religion offers a new opportunity for scholars and practitioners to take the embodied, devotional lives of adherents seriously. In their new book, A History of the Church in 100 Objects, Mike and Grace Aquilina might be productively read as responding to this new openness on the part of scholars by presenting Roman Catholic history as told through those objects that have guided the practices of the faithful. Despite their protestations to the contrary, however, the story that they tell is still mostly determined by the authoritative interpretation of sacred texts instead of ordinary interactions with sacred objects.     

童年中晚期孤独感的发展轨迹：一项潜变量增长模型分析

使用问卷法和同伴提名法对884名小学二年级学生进行历时三年的四次追踪测试, 采用潜变量增长模型建模, 检验小学2~5年级学生孤独感的变化趋势, 并考察不同性别儿童孤独感变化的差异性以及同伴接纳对孤独感变化的影响。结果发现：(1) 2~5年级小学生孤独感呈曲线递减趋势, 递减速度逐渐减缓, 起始水平及发展速度均存在显著的个体差异; (2)女孩起始的孤独感水平显著低于男孩, 而发展速度、加速度则不存在显著的性别差异; (3)较高的同伴接纳对当时儿童孤独感的降低具有显著的促进作用。研究采用孤独感发展的情境观, 并结合儿童认知、自我发展的特点对结果进行了分析。     

A Proposal for the Demarcation of Theory and Knowledge

Research communication in interdisciplinary research projects requires a way of demarcation of theory and knowledge that is easy to communicate, is inconsequential for the framework of concepts, results, and procedures within existing scientific disciplines, and abstains from trying to resolve the dispute between (neo)positivists and constructivists. A simple way of demarcation starts from the notion of language-independent and language-dependent reality. Currently, what passes for knowledge (“news”) and myth (“fake news”) depends, besides on sheer volume and frequency of the messages, increasingly on the internal consistency of (computer) language-dependent reality and decreasingly on language-independent reality. All language is instruction, and knowledge is to know which instructions (that is, theory) are predictive of a result, state, or situation in language-independent reality. Any theory that doesn’t reduce outcome space, or contains one or more empirically/physically impossible instructions, or produces wrong predictions, or falls short of demonstration is not knowledge.     

A proposed universal model of problem solving for design,science and cognate fields

A modestly generic, innovative, problem solving process with roots in the study of design and scientific research problem solving is presented and motivated. It is argued to be the shared core process of all problem solving. At its heart is a recognition of five foci or nodes of change vital to the process (changes in problem and solution formulation, method, constraints, and partial solution proposals) together with a bootstrap marked by the formation of higher order knowledge about problem solving in the domain in tandem with the solving of specific problems, the essential feature of all learned improvement. None of these elements is entirely original, but the way they are made explicit and developed (rather than folded into fewer, more abstract, boxes) is argued to provide fresh understanding of the organisation and power of the process to deal with complex practical problems.     

Cultural Authority in Comparative Context: A Multilevel Analysis of Trust in Science and Religion

Science and religion are among the most influential forces for organizing social life around the world, yet we know little about how national context shapes perceptions of them. Using data from the 2008 International Social Survey Program, we begin to fill this gap by investigating cross‐national differences in public attitudes about science, religion, and society. We find that exposure to science is associated with more trust in science relative to religion whereas religiosity is associated with less trust in science relative to religion. Moreover, these relationships are amplified in secular societies and in those where science is prioritized. We argue that secular and scientific societies provide a context in which personal characteristics are more influential in the formation of social attitudes. These results highlight the importance of macro‐level factors for shaping trust in science and religion and for understanding the sources of their influence in society more broadly.     

Choice Environment, Market Complexity, and Consumer Behavior: A Theoretical and Empirical Approach for Incorporating Decision Complexity into Models of Consumer Choice

Most empirical models of choice in economics and consumer research assume that the decision maker assesses all alternatives and information in a perfect information-processing sense. The complexity of the choice environment, the ability of the individual to make complex decisions, and the effect of choice context on the decision strategy are generally not considered in statistical model development. One of the reasons for this omission is that theoretical literature on choice complexity and imperfect ability to choose that has developed in psychology and behavioral decision theory (BDT) literatures has not been translated into empirical econometric analysis. Second, the data used in economics and consumer research studies tend to be somewhat different from the data structures used in psychology and BDT literatures. In this paper we outline a theoretical model that simultaneously considers task complexity, effort applied by the consumer, ability to choose, and choice. We then construct a measure of task complexity and incorporate this in an analysis of a number of data series based on the random utility framework. We also examine the performance of our measure of task complexity in a composite data set that allows for increased variability in factors affecting decision context. Our approach provides a mechanism to link research in BDT and econometric modeling of consumer choice. Our findings suggest that task complexity does affect inferences about choice model parameters and that context effects, such as complexity, have a systematic impact on the parameters of econometric models of choice. The modeling approach provides a mechanism for inclusion of results from psychology and BDT in traditional economic models of consumer choice.