Maslow's Puzzle: A Reconfiguration

Abstract

A.H. Maslow (1963, 1993) characterized the “creative attitude” in ways such as giving up the past and future, loss of ego or self-forgetfulness, Taoistic receptivity, and innocence. He suggested that underlying these and related characteristics may be “certain prerequisites,” which he offered to us as a “puzzle.”

“Maslow's puzzle” may be considered in relation to what he regarded as a sine qua non of creativeness: “fusion of person and world.” The greater intimacy of such a relationship means that the individual has more fully extended self into that which lies beyond self, that is, into transpersonal realms or fields. A study of such fields, based on representations of fields in general, may provide a different insight into “Maslow's puzzle” and the enhanced creativity with which it is associated.     

What Makes a Lengthy Article Brief?

ABSTRACT

Evidence continues to accumulate supporting an innate basis of human sexual identity as male or female. Selective mustering of these particles of data can congeal into a compelling argument.

Plyers of the law trade present one side of an argument in their legal brief. The reader is overwhelmed by its forceful logic and inevitable conclusions. The reader is dumbfounded that there is an opposition. Until reading the opponent's brief.

That is law. This is science. A peer-reviewed journal is a vehicle for balanced presentation of data with conclusions not outstripping the evidence.

This lengthy article on gender identity is a brief cross-dressed as science. It set out to “pass” but it was “read.”     

Fetal Homicide

Summary

Under common law, a crime resulting in the death of a fetus that was viable but not “born alive” was viewed as a transgression less serious than murder. Accordingly, courts did not allow parents to bring wrongful death suits for the death of a fetus. In the past decade, however, several states have amended their criminal or civil statutes to include the specific crime of “feticide” or “fetal homicide,” and the Federal government is considering similar legislation. This paper examines the history and current status of criminal and civil law regarding the third-party killing of a fetus.     

Under what conditions do lay people and health professionals accept a breach of doctor-patient confidentiality regarding a patient with signs of terrorist radicalization?

IntroductionConfidentiality is crucial to the establishment of a strong patient-physician relationship. However, certain situations create a dilemma for the physician who is faced with the choice of either respecting medical confidentiality or protecting others from a serious risk of violence.ObjectiveThis study aimed to observe how lay people and health professionals assessed the acceptability of breaching confidentiality when a physician is confronted to a patient showing signs of terrorist radicalization.MethodA total of 228 participants (174 from the general population and 54 health professionals) judged the acceptability of 54 scenarios which were constructed through the orthogonal combination of 4 factors frequently mentioned in the literature: presence of a “Psychiatric disorder”; “Signs of radicalization”; “Projects of violence”; “Collegiality”. Variance and cluster analyses were performed on all the raw data.ResultsResults showed that all factors influenced the judgment of participants but that “Psychiatric disorders” had a weaker impact. Five clusters were identified: “Favorable if collegiality” (n = 23); “Favorable to breach confidentiality” (n = 77); “Unfavorable to breach confidentiality” (n = 26); “Sensitive to all factors” (n = 71); “Favorable if violence” (n = 31), respectively with mean ratings of 5.87, 8.42, 3.64, 6.30 and 7.16, on an acceptability scale of 0–10.ConclusionThe importance that the great majority of participants attribute to these factors indicates that they influence their judgments in this specific context.     

In Defence of an Autocentric Account of Ubuntu

Abstract

This response to Thaddeus Metz’s “Toward an African Moral Theory” engages with his discussion of an autocentric, or “self-development” account of ubuntu as a morally normative theory. It is argued that an autocentric ubuntu, sharing certain strategies available to eudaimonist ethics, is both more plausible and more attractive than Metz suggests, particularly in that it engages directly with the immoralist (amoralist).     

Conceptualizing Personal Selling for International Business: A Continuum of Exchange Perspective

Abstract

The last twenty years has seen an extensive broadening of the terms “marketing” and “selling”. It is currently fashionable to consider marketing as exchange behavior, and selling to be personal “exchange facilitation” within any context. Justification for such all-encompassing definitions includes the fact that all cultures face certain prerequisites in order to survive: “marketing” and “selling” are means of satisfying them. Such paradigms increase the likelihood that we embrace ethnocentric perspectives and covertly equate various exchange situations which in reality are very different. When discussing selling and marketing, especially in the international arena, we must carefully guard against ethnocentrism and the distortion caused by such homogenizing tendencies.     

Queer(ing) Moves: Beyond Anthropocene,Toward Convivial,Sustainable Futures

Abstract

The essay will outline possibilities for be(com)ing other-Wise convivial, interbetween. To this end, relational possibilities for embodied enlivening are described as queering practice for moving from Anthropocene toward sustainable futures. Based on exploring certain qualities of be(com)ing queer some perspectives on queer futures are discussed. Related to Merleau-Ponty’s eco-phenomenology the paper then opens up possibilities for an embodied, convivial relation with nature (“con-naturality”) and social life (“con-sociability”). Finally, queering the type of the Anthropos, provides pathways for “anthropo-decentric” transformations toward a convivial future as an “ecocene.”     

When soothing succeeds: Simulating a risk for repeated shaking in abusive head trauma in infants

PurposeTo investigate the observation that perpetrators of abusive head trauma engage in repeated shakings because shaking “works” to quiet the infant.MethodsSixty first-time parent couples individually cared for a programmable model infant in two consecutive 7-min trials. After six minutes of consolable followed by inconsolable crying, parents selected one of three soothing techniques. For trial one, parents were randomized to a “Successful” or “Failed” Soothing Condition. Whether the soothing technique was repeated after trial two was determined by the study investigators. Parents rated their frustration after each trial.ResultsAs hypothesized, parents were more likely to repeat a soothing technique that “worked” in trial one. Compared to fathers, mothers reported more frustration when soothing failed.ConclusionsThat caregivers were more likely to repeat a successful soothing technique converges with perpetrator confessions that crying cessation after shaking may be a reason why shaking is used repeatedly in response to crying.     

Youth sports and physical activity: The relationship between perceptions of childhood sport experience and adult exercise behavior

ObjectiveParticipation in organized youth sports has been shown to positively correlate with increased levels of exercise in adulthood. However, there is limited research to suggest why youth sports participation is related to increased physical activity as an adult. One possible explanation is that positive youth sport experiences lead youth to be more positively inclined to engage in physical activity as adults. Research into the positive youth development aspect of organized sports provides the framework for the current investigation.MethodsAdult participants (N = 234, M_age = 35.35) were asked to retrospectively assess their youth sports experiences using the “Four C's” (i.e., competence, confidence, connectedness, character) framework of positive youth development in sport. These assessments were then compared to current physical activity levels and related variables found in the Health Action Process Approach model (HAPA; Schwarzer, 2008).ResultsBivariate correlations revealed statistically significant and moderate correlations among competence, confidence, and connectedness and all of the HAPA variables including physical activity levels. Further, a MANCOVA analysis revealed that when participants were sub-divided into “non-intenders,” “intenders,” and “actors” using a validated staging algorithm, a general linear trend emerged for competence, confidence, and connectedness such that “non-intenders” rated these constructs the lowest and “actors” rated them the highest.ConclusionThese findings provide preliminary evidence that the relationship between participation in organized youth sports and adulthood levels of exercise could be contingent on how positively that experience is perceived.     

An explication of rational suicide: Its definitions,implications, and complications

Abstract

Logical analysis of arguments in favor of “rational suicide” reveals eleven commonly encountered premises. Most of the premises are unclear on close scrutiny, and six are ethical propositions that although acceptable to some will not be acceptable to others. The “rational suicide” literature appears to be an effort to legitimize certain kinds of suicide, largely by appeal to a consensus of experts. This kind of argument is criticized on historical grounds; it has led to moral and social disasters in the past.     

1966 and All That: James Gibson and Bottom-Down Theory

ABSTRACT

The “later” James Gibson is widely misrepresented as an extreme stimulus–response theorist. In fact, Gibson's 1966 book presents a radical alternative to stimulus–response theory. “Perceptual systems” are not passive and receptive but “organs of active attention” (1966/1968, p. 58). Perceivers “reach out” into the world. This commentary examines some of the implications of Gibson's systems-cum-functionalist-cum-ecological approach, including the relations between the senses; the concept of “sensationless” perception; and most fundamentally, the nature of perceptual systems as extending beyond the body. I conclude that an adequate understanding of perception cannot be limited to the already severely limited domain of psychology. If Gibson is right, “ecological psychology” is a contradiction in terms.     

Physical Attractiveness Biases in Ratings of Employment Suitability: Tracking Down the “Beauty is Beastly” Effect

ABSTRACT

The “what is beautiful is good” heuristic suggests that physically attractive persons benefit from their attractiveness in a large range of situations, including perceptions of employment suitability. Conversely, the “beauty is beastly” effect suggests that attractiveness can be detrimental to women in certain employment contexts, although these findings have been less consistent than those for the “what is beautiful is good” effect. The current research seeks to uncover situations in which beauty might be detrimental for female applicants. In two studies, we found that attractiveness can be detrimental for women applying for masculine sex-typed jobs for which physical appearance is perceived as unimportant.     

Temporality and the Lyotardian Sublime: Kant between Husserl and Freud

ABSTRACT

While Lyotard's first book was an introduction to phenomenology, most of the work that follows can be said to openly challenge the limits of phenomenological analysis. This is particularly evident in the well-known writings on the Kantian sublime, which Lyotard reads as a “temporal crisis” that undoes the conscious knowing subject and escapes “experience” in the phenomenological sense. Nonetheless, if this allows him to relate the sublime to Freud's “unconscious affect,” this “crisis” only becomes visible in contrast to a figure of subjective temporalization the model of which, I argue, is broadly Husserlian. Approaching the sublime as a temporal crisis thus allows not only for a clearer view of the import of Lyotard's late work on the affect with regard to subjectivity, knowledge, and experience; it also reveals what that work continues to owe to a certain phenomenological analysis.     

From pastoral to georgic: the Dutch Jewish country house as a rhizome

ABSTRACT

Scholars often analyze houses’ “Jewishness” vis-à-vis Jewish law and rituals. For Dutch Sephardic Jews during the long eighteenth century, however, identity is better understood using a model of rhizome in which “Jewishness” consists of the deliberate interbraiding of multiple traditions. Jewish identity was inextricable from the cultures in which Jews lived. Jewish homes along the Vecht River near Amsterdam exemplify the rhizome model. They embody the same braided pastoral ideal found in eighteenth-century Dutch Sephardic literature and material culture. As Sephardic Jews relocated to Netherlands Antilles, the rhizome present in country houses shifted, taking into account Jews’ new role as slave owners. Thus while buitenplaatsen along the Vecht embraced the Jewish pastoral ideal of a retreat from mercantile life, landhuizen in Curaçao evoked a georgic ideal that channelled the residents’ gaze not on rivers, gardens, and grottos, but on guard stations, slave huts, and enslaved workers. Leisure became redefined as an ability to watch rather than retreat from labour. Taken together, Dutch Jewish country houses along the Vecht and in Curaçao challenge the notion that Jewish material culture has a “single root system.”     

Perceived lack of training moderates relationship between healthcare providers’ personality and sense of efficacy in trauma-informed care

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Medical patients often have trauma histories that are not routinely assessed, which can adversely affect health outcomes. Despite growing awareness of this issue, there is limited understanding of factors that influence provider competency in trauma-informed care (TIC). The study examined healthcare providers’ personality traits in relation to their sense of TIC efficacy, taking into account perceived barriers to TIC and professional quality of life.

Study Design: The study used cross-sectional survey methods to examine our central hypothesis that provider personality traits and perceived barriers to TIC would be associated with TIC-efficacy, and to explore interactions among study variables.

Methods: Survey data were collected from 172 healthcare providers examining TIC knowledge, TIC-efficacy, perceived barriers to TIC, personality traits, and professional quality of life.

Results: TIC-efficacy was positively correlated with “intellectence/openness” and inversely correlated with “neuroticism” and perceived lack of training as a barrier. “Intellectence/openness” interacted with perceived lack of training to predict TIC-efficacy, suggesting that providers with lower “intellectence/openness” report greater TIC-efficacy when lack of training is not perceived as a barrier.

Conclusions: Provider personality traits and perceived barriers to TIC appear related to providers’ TIC-efficacy. Implications for overcoming barriers to TIC through training and implementation are discussed.     

The seriousness of crime: A study of popular morality

This article reports the findings from a study that explored how lay people determine the seriousness of criminal offenses. While previous research on this topic has assumed that the perceived seriousness of crimes was primarily determined by differences in physical injury and economic loss, the results of this study indicate that offense seriousness is also affected by judgments subjects make about intent, motive, purpose, “fair play”, and “real harm”.     

Return to Sepharad: Is it possible to heal an ancient wound? A reflection on the construction of large-group identity

Abstract

Spanish parliament recently issued a new law offering Spanish nationality to Sephardic Jews who so desired and could demonstrate a basic knowledge of the Spanish language and culture. This law attempted to redress a five-centuries-old injustice and was expected to unleash both criticism and praise. Surprisingly, reactions in the public or the press were minimal or absent. Reasons for this are explored through a qualitative study with focus groups, which showed ideas that can be grouped into four main categories: ignorance, justice, distrust, and fear. It is hypothesized that the predominantly silent response to the new law might be due to the fact that it touches on an extremely sensible issue: the historically fragmented Spanish identity. A position of negation is constructed, to avoid deep anxieties related to the fragile core of a collective identity built from many “others” forced to the refuge of an introspection that protects them from the conviction of not fulfiling the ideal identity status, known by all but reached by none. All those “others” have mixed their bloods with the Old Christians along the centuries, possibly transmitting a profound insecurity about their personal and collective identity that might contribute to understanding current social reactions.