Montague Ullman's Dream Appreciation

American psychiatrist Montague Ullman viewed dreams as spontaneous creative expressions of one's current life situation and developed a method of working with them the outcome of which he felt to be superior to interpretation. He called this outcome dream appreciation. It (a) was arrived at by the dreamer, not some professional; (b) didn't attempt to understand the dream in terms of any established body of theory, but tried to make sense of it in terms of the dreamer's life; and (c) reunited the dreamer with what was felt to be deepest and most true in herself and brought this out into her life. Examples exist in the literature of the first two aspects. Although the third aspect characterizes every well-run Ullman group, the literature contains not a single convincing example of it. This article provides one.     

The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature

Books reviewed:
Malcolm Budd, The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature , Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002, 158 pp. No price. Reviewed by Colin Lyas, University of Lancaster Furness College Bailrigg Lancaster LA1 4YG     

神联欣赏

编者按: 　　在所有的文艺形式中,对联可说是最有中国特色的了.言简意赅,平仄对称.好的对联,既有深刻的思想内含,又给人以美的享受.所以它的用途,也非常广泛.喜庆事,借它来表示贺意;悲悼事,用它来寄托情思.权势贵富之家,用它来装饰门面;卑贱贫困之家,逢年过节,也要贴上一副两副,希望给自己那凄凉而悲惨的生活增添一点活力和生气.……     

城市绿化景观观赏性的心理学研究

抽取上海地区具有代表性的公共绿地绿化景观样本,编制测评量表对其观赏性进行评价.通过探索性因素分析鉴别该量表的测评维度并基于理论推断和经验归纳确定评价指标,包括整体美感、正性情绪、色彩知觉、形态知觉、负性感受.120名大学生和研究生对景观样本的评价结果表明.高观赏性组的景观与低观赏性组的景观相比,前者的整体美感、正性情绪、形态知觉、色彩知觉维度评价指标及其所含测项的评分均高于后者,彼此差异达到极显著或非常显著的水平,而负性感受维度评价指标评分则是后者极显著地高于前者,而且其测项评分也显著高于前者.本研究编制的量表能够对城市绿化景观观赏性进行有效测评.     

The Appreciation of Humor in Captioned Cartoons

Humor appreciation for captioned cartoons was studied as a function of cartoon category and eight predictor variables: complexity, difficulty, fit, depth, visual humor, artwork, vulgarity, and originality. Preference and funniness proved to be virtually identical as criterion variables and were combined as appreciation for further analysis. A nonmetric factor analysis of appreciation ratings yielded four dimensions: (a) Sexual, (b) Incongruity, (c) Social Issues, and (d) Marriage-Family. Sexual and Marriage-Family were the most appreciated categories, Social Issues the least appreciated. Fit and originality were the only predictor variables with significant relationships to appreciation independent of the category effect. Cartoons judged to have the most originality and the best fit between drawing and caption were most appreciated. The results suggest that the kinds of cognitive processes involved in cartoon-humor appreciation are very similar to those involved in environmental preference.