Revisiting the “Art Bias” in Lay Conceptions of Creativity

This article explores the art bias—the pervasive association between creativity and art in implicit theories of creativity. It also attempts to connect creativity research in this area with literature on the theory of social representations. The data comes from an online survey completed by 195 participants mainly from the United States and the United Kingdom. The survey included two main tasks: The first asked respondents to generate as many questions as they can to determine whether an object is creative; the second invited them to rate whether creativity is a key requirement for a list of 16 professions from 4 different domains and recorded the creativity score as well as reaction time. In the end, findings offer partial support for the existence of an art bias. Although artistic professions were scored both the highest and fastest in terms of creativity, participants rarely formulated art-related questions and focused more on aspect, utility, and audience features. This discrepancy is discussed in the end in relation to the polyphasic nature of social knowledge.     

What is a “schedule of reinforcement”?

Several ambiguities in the present terminology of behavior theory obscure some important theoretical assumptions and experimental details in current research. Left unclarified, such ambiguities impede the accurate analysis of laboratory procedures, and prevent reliable communication among researchers. This paper focuses on the term “schedule of reinforcement.” It points out that two distinguishable operational rules are implicated in the term: in the case where reinforcement is of the so-called response contingent type, the “schedule” is really a rule to identify the response to be reinforced; in the case of non-contingent reinforcement, the “schedule” is truly a rule for delivery of reinforcement. Other terminological ambiguities that are encountered in a discussion of this term include “reinforcement” and “intermittency.” A resolution of these problems will necessarily involve the procedures of non-contingent reinforcement, and the parameter of reinforcement probability.     

“Coming Out” to Parents in a Christian Context: A Consensual Qualitative Analysis of LGB Student Experiences

Disclosures of same-sex attraction are some of the most difficult experiences for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. For LGB individuals of faith, disclosure to parents is often complicated by the intersection of religion/spirituality and sexuality. This study presents a grounded theory about a particular subgroup to address gaps in the literature concerning how LGB students on Christian college campuses describe and experience their parental disclosures. Consensual qualitative research analysis (Hill, Knox, Thompson, Williams, & Hess, 2005; Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997) revealed themes related to predisclosure influencing factors, the disclosure event experience, and longer term impacts of the disclosure. Implications for parents, counselors, and college faculty/staff are provided.     

Towards a synthesis of Art,Science and Spirituality—Notes on transdisciplinarity

This article, originally meant for an Auroville publication, consists mainly, besides the quotations, of a wide range of suggestions related to a transcultural approach to various questions raised by transdisciplinary research. All these suggestions converge on a central focus; the virtual reality of a subject/object interaction that eludes narrow disciplinary restrictions as well as rigid cultural definitions. Here, significantly, etymology seems to lead towards mythical cultural watersheds, just as philology has been offering clues to some fundamental philosophical discoveries, from Nietsche to G. Colli. The recent impact of Orientalist studies leads further into the same initiatic dimension, wherein metaphysics, ontology, aesthetics, linguistics, cosmology and psychology, all blend in a continuum of psychic experience, while variations of conscious awareness could only be described, and not sharply differentiated.

All this would point, not only to the emergence of new cognitive methods, but also to correspondingly adequate means of expression. A transcultural approach could, moreover, provide vital links between today's originality and the spiritual traditions of the past, adding thus a sense of cultural continuity to our endeavours in understanding evolution.     

Discussion of “Taking the Sting Out: Manifesting Aggression and Containing Difficult States in a Relational Group Psychotherapy”

Ravit Raufman’s paper contributes to the bridging gap between relational approaches and group therapy. It is also important in its recognizing the (group) therapist’s aggression and suggesting how to use it in the service of the group development. In this review I focus on the dynamics of a group of women led by a woman to explain some of the phenomena that Raufman describes in her article, and I add some social unconscious ideas to enrich our understanding of that group.     

“Should I Also Make a Garden Out of the Desert?”: Camus' Story of Janine

This article explores Albert Camus’ short story “The Adulterous Woman” as a nature-based initiation into deeper complexity. Rich with archetypal and alchemical imagery, we are taken through a day in the life of Janine, where we can see, reflected in her experience, those places that beckon to greater authenticity within ourselves. The image of the desert invites us to consider, for Janine, the same kinds of questions that Jung asked in The Red Book: “Why is my self a desert? Have I lived too much outside of myself in men and events? Why did I avoid my self? Was I not dear to myself? But I have avoided the place of my soul” (2009, par. 72).     

EEG Biofeedback for Addictive Disorders—The State of the Art in 2004

This paper reviews studies of brainwave biofeedback as a therapeutic technique for substance use disorder. This modality is attractive as a medication free, neurophysiologic, and self actualizing treatment for a substance based, brain impaired and self-defeating disorder. Three approaches are described and the literature for each reviewed. Alpha–theta occipital feedback was originally employed to facilitate autosuggestion in hypnagogic states to augment standard therapy approaches in substance abuse treatment programs and appears most suited for chronic treatment resistant alcoholics. Beta augmentation feedback in conjunction with alpha/theta feedback has been employed in mixed substance abuse and stimulant abuse with good results. Individualized brainwave biofeedback based on correcting EEG abnormalities, or based on addressing comorbid conditions is a third approach that has been described, and may be most appropriate where confounding comorbid conditions are present. Although effectiveness in certain hard to treat populations (conventional treatment resistant alcoholics, crack cocaine addicts, cognitively impaired substance abusers) is promising, better-designed controlled studies are needed.     

What do we see in a tilted square? A validation of the figure independence scale.

The Figure Independence Scale (FIS) assesses people's preference for abstract figures that represent uniqueness. As psychological manifestations of cultural values cohere among each other within a cultural system, the authors argue that preference for uniqueness, as a psychological manifestation of the value for independence, can be used as an indirect measure of this value. Four studies examine the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the FIS. The results indicate that liking for abstract, unique figures coheres with other specific manifestations of the value for independence (i.e., responses to explicit independence scale, need for personal control, liking for independence themes in advertisements, and use of social coping) and thus can be used as a measure of individuals' more global endorsement of this individualistic value.     

“What is a class?”

Conclusion The argument of this paper suggests that for the last hundred years or so fundamental premisses of logic have been incorrect. From these premisses a vast superstructure has been developed which, it would seem, is no more meaningful than a game such as chess.The basic errors in current class theory, it seems to me, have impeded progress in the fields of mathematics and logic. I am certain that on the theory proposed, the correct definition of a natural number can be provided. I can, in fact, provide this. What benefits it will bring to logic only time will tell.Of the greatest importance is the fact that if the theory is true, at last, there will be a firm link between the Humanities and the Sciences.     

What is the “front” of a simple geometric form?

A total of 670 undergraduate Ss were tested in three studies conducted in an attempt to define a set of cues that minimally specify perceived “frontness” and “backness” of objects. In Experiment I, Ss were instructed to identify the “front” and “back” of printed squares to which no, one, or two circles were attached. In Experiment II, different Ss made the same kind of judgment to a wider range of geometric forms. In Experiment III, different Ss judged the direction of “imagined” movement of forms from Experiment I. The results indicated that the “front” and “back” are asymmetric opposite sides, with “front” the side most different from the rest and the side toward which the form is imagined to be moving.     

Dignity in Context,and Out: Discussion of Lynne Jacobs’ “On Dignity,a Sense of Dignity,and Inspirational Shame”

ABSTRACT

Dr. Lynne Jacobs’ “On Dignity, a Sense of Dignity, and Inspirational Shame” is an interdisciplinary integration of a priori ethics and a phenomenology of dignity. She contends that the human person’s engagement with other people—writ large in the therapeutic encounter—is inherently ethically situated. Moreover, she avers an inherent content to this ethics, namely, mutual respect for distinctively human value—dignity—between and among people. Her ethics of dignity informs her psychoanalytic exploration of experiences of dignity, indignity, and her notion of inspirational shame, among others. I join in Jacobs’ advocacy for therapeutic facilitation of a person’s sense of inherent worth, as well as her opposition to relational contexts of devaluation and degradation. However, the primordiality Jacobs grants to her ethics of dignity often obscures the constitutively cultural, familial, and personal contextuality of, first, her—and in my view, any—ethical conviction; second, what she describes as the experience of being human; third, the alleged indignity of human vulnerability; and finally, the claim that shame is the natural reaction to one’s failure to live up to personal ideals. In the end, and subject to certain clinical concerns, Jacobs’ article integrates into psychoanalysis primordial ethical duties that she and others claim inhere in us as human beings.     

The Role of Identity Integration in Hedonic Adaptation to a Beneficial Life Change: The Example of “Coming Out” for Lesbians and Gay Men

After apparently beneficial life changes, people are expected to experience elevated well-being. However, research suggests that some individuals adapt quickly to change, so their well-being increases little in the long-term. We propose this phenomenon is explained by the integration of the changes into identity, in interaction with perceived valence of the changes. We hypothesized that higher integration would be associated with smaller increases in well-being for changes perceived as positive. For changes perceived as negative, higher integration would be associated with larger increases in well-being. Lesbians and gay men (N = 80) completed a questionnaire on well-being, perceived valence of coming out and its integration into identity. Moderated regressions supported the hypotheses, revealing the importance of considering identity integration and perceived valence in research on adaptation to changes. The results question the merits of interventions promoting identity integration.     

“The Ravens Paradox” is a misnomer

I argue that the standard Bayesian solution to the ravens paradox— generally accepted as the most successful solution to the paradox—is insufficiently general. I give an instance of the paradox which is not solved by the standard Bayesian solution. I defend a new, more general solution, which is compatible with the Bayesian account of confirmation. As a solution to the paradox, I argue that the ravens hypothesis ought not to be held equivalent to its contrapositive; more interestingly, I argue that how we formally represent hypotheses ought to vary with the context of inquiry. This explains why the paradox is compelling, while dealing with standard objections to holding hypotheses inequivalent to their contrapositives.     

Visual adaptation of the perception of “life”: Animacy is a basic perceptual dimension of faces

One critical component of understanding another’s mind is the perception of “life” in a face. However, little is known about the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying this perception of animacy. Here, using a visual adaptation paradigm, we ask whether face animacy is (1) a basic dimension of face perception and (2) supported by a common neural mechanism across distinct face categories defined by age and species. Observers rated the perceived animacy of adult human faces before and after adaptation to (1) adult faces, (2) child faces, and (3) dog faces. When testing the perception of animacy in human faces, we found significant adaptation to both adult and child faces, but not dog faces. We did, however, find significant adaptation when morphed dog images and dog adaptors were used. Thus, animacy perception in faces appears to be a basic dimension of face perception that is species specific but not constrained by age categories.