A PSYCHOPHYSICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF PERSONALITY TRAITS

A total of 366 school children were rated by 12 teachers in respect of 11 personality traits. In a laboratory experiment, a group of 10 teachers estimated the degree of perceived similarity between the same traits. In a second laboratory experiment, estimates were obtained of the frequency with which the traits occur together. It was found that similarity of traits was proportional to the squared coefficient of inter-trait ccmelation. A similar relation was demonstrated for estimated co-frequency and inter-trait corre- lation. Furthermore, factor analyses of the three sets of data revealed essentially the same three factors of Intelligence, Sociability and Dependability. The results are discussed within a psychophysical framework regarding the subjects rated and traits estimated as stimuli in a person-perception experiment.     

TOWARD A MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF SELF-DISCLOSURE

In an effort to develop a multidimensional theory of self-disclosure, the present research considered two dimensions of disclosure content—degree of personalness (intimacy) and valence (positiveness or negativeness)—as well as gender of the discloser, timing of disclosure in relationship development, and the recipient of disclosure. In Study I, the variables of personalness and valence were manipulated through the use of prototypical disclosure statements with subjects blocked by sex. Subjects were asked to use a scale indicating phases of relationship development to rate when they would likely disclose statements. The analysis revealed significant main effects for all three factors: personal-ness, valence, and gender, as well as a significant interaction between personalness and valence. In Study II, personalness and valence were again manipulated, along with blocking for sex. The variable of disclosure recipient (target) was manipulated by asking subjects to separately indicate whether or not they would disclose each statement to five targets: stranger, acquaintance, parent, friend, and spouse. The analysis revealed significant main effects for three factors: personalness, valence, and target. All possible interactions of these variables were also significant. Due to the many consistencies between the findings of these two studies and the many highly significant interactions, it was concluded that a multidimensional approach to the study of self-disclosure is both justified and required.     

SLCA III: A METATHEORETIC APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE

Discourse analysis is a fundamental concern for the study of human communication, accessible through an analysis of language behavior. A theoretic basis is provided for eight variable classes identified by Syntactic Language Computer Analysis (SLCA-III). Numerous empirical studies support its utility as an indicator of perception and cognition. Issues are raised regarding the role of language research in communication. Emphasis is placed on treatment of language as a behavioral indicator of experience, fluctuating as a barometer of social roles, psychological states, communication disorders, and communication mode.     

AN IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF WOMEN'S ACHIEVEMENT STRIVING

Biographical interviews with 80 women ranging in age from the late teens to the 80s (Mean Age = 46.8 years; SD = 7.8 years) elicited information concerning personality characteristics that predispose women toward achievement-striving behavior, taking into account the effects of family, friends, and role models. When asked if they had ever been in a situation where they were about to succeed and feared the success, the majority of women (91 %) replied "no". A large percentage of women (96%) did report that they wonder if their achievements are worth it and asked "success at what cost?" In addition, compared to older women, younger women were more concerned with interpersonal relationships and less concerned with competitive achievement. The reality status of the fear of success construct as well as methodological advances in its measurement are discussed.     

拓扑性质知觉的大脑半球功能不对称性研究

本文以视觉的拓扑知觉理论为指导进行大脑半球功能不对称性的研究。全文共有三个实验,考察了辨别扭扑性质差异和其它几何性质差异时大脑半球的功能不对称性．拓扑性质差异包括洞（封闭性）的差异和内外关系的差异．实验结果显示：对于右利手被试,辨别拓扑性质差异时,左半球有优势。辨别距离和朝向等几何性质差异时,右半球有优势或没有统计显著的大脑半球功能不对称性。     

A BIOSEMIOTIC APPROACH TO THE QUESTION OF MEANING

A sign is something that refers to something else. Signs, whether of natural or cultural origin, act by provoking a receptive system, human or nonhuman, to form an interpretant (a movement or a brain activity) that somehow relates the system to this “something else.” Semiotics sees meaning as connected to the formation of interpretants. In a biosemiotic understanding living systems are basically engaged in semiotic interactions, that is, interpretative processes, and organic evolution exhibits an inherent tendency toward an increase in semiotic freedom. Mammals generally are equipped with more semiotic freedom than are their reptilian ancestor species, and fishes are more semiotically sophisticated than are invertebrates. The evolutionary trend toward the production of life forms with an increasing interpretative capacity or semiotic freedom implies that the production of meaning has become an essential survival parameter in later stages of evolution.     

ON THE MEANING AND VALIDITY OF TELEVISION VIEWING

The construct validity of “television viewing” is developed and explicated. It is suggested that while this concept is usually used as a strict behavioral variable, many different constructs are implied by it. The construct validity of television viewing can be derived from a conceptualization of what it is in television which, when viewed, or exposed to, interacts with human behavior and attributes. Four such conceptualizations are illustrated, each leading to a different construct of “viewing”: (1) television as a social-situational factor involving choice behavior between activities; (2) television as a transmission of a content repertoire, implying decision-making regarding messages; (3) television as a source of content-messages dealing with recall, comprehension, and attitude change; and (4) television as a “language” pertaining to the processes of encoding messages in the service of extracting knowledge.     

IMPLICATIONS OF A NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL APPROACH FOR THE STUDY OF A NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

This article reviews the neurophysiological literature as it pertains to nonverbal communication. It provides an overview of research on the function of the cerebral hemispheres as related to communication, with particular emphasis on the right hemisphere where most nonverbal communication is processed. Limitations of the neurophysiological approach are discussed. Finally, implications of the neurophysiological approach are discussed for: (1) defining nonverbal communication, (2) the phylogenetic development of communication in humans, and (3) communication research and theory.     

呼吸阻力感觉评量的模糊集途径

在本工作中,呼吸阻力感觉被看作是一种模糊量。采用模糊集的途径揭示了这一模糊量的可能性分布。在此基础上,建立了用来估定呼吸阻力负荷的感觉量公式 F~k(u_i)=(1/t)(sum from j=1 to m (V_jy_(ij)~kw_j/sum from j=1 to m (y_(ij)~kw_j)。通过对37名被试在不同负荷时相下各种外加阻力负荷所致的感觉进行测试,揭示了如下一些基本事实:呼吸阻力负荷与其感觉间的心理物理函数遵循幂定律;三种呼吸阻力时相下的呼吸阻力感觉体验有显著差异,但是统计检验表明它们的感觉增长速度差异不显著;本实验还找出了与各感觉类别等级相应的阻力负荷值,可供制订防护装置阻力标准参考;最后还比较与讨论了有关的方法学问题。     

THE EFFECT OF TELEVISION AND RADIO ON CHILDREN'S CREATIVITY

The literature on creativity posits that creative abilities are stable and relatively impervious to short-term interventions. Several studies have, however, reported differential effects of media on children's imaginative play and thinking. The results of these studies are difficult to interpret owing to their reliance on nonstandardized measures of creativity. The present study examines the relative effects of television versus radio on children's creativity. Third and sixth graders were presented a story on television or radio and were then given an adapted version of the “Just Suppose” test of divergent thinking developed by Torrance (1974). Responses were scored in terms of ideational fluency, flexibility, and originality. The results indicated that the two media did not have a differential effect on children's creativity.     

DIGITAL THEOLOGY AND A POTENTIAL THEOLOGICAL APPROACH TO A METAPHYSICS OF INFORMATION

In this article, I offer a background to digital theology and its methodology, exploring especially aspects of transhumanism and metaphysical enquiry. The article moves on to engage with several articles given at the Science and Religion Forum at Birmingham in 2022, especially the Gowland Lecture given by Professor Niels Gregersen and the Peacocke Lecture by Andrew Jackson. Both offer a metaphysical approach to information linked closely to the concept of Logos drawn from the Prologue of John—Jackson focusing on Maximus the Confessor's exploration of phylogenetic logoi; Gregersen on a further development of “Deep Incarnation” through the title “God with Clay” drawn from Bonaventure. The article extends this engagement with John by querying the model of incarnation in “deep incarnation” but building on the Logos/logoi to set out some initial building blocks for an alternative metaphysics of information.     

WARRANTED ASSERTABILITY MANEUVERS AND THE RULES OF ASSERTION

Abstract: In responding to the cases that motivate epistemic contextualism, invariantists sometimes use a warranted assertability maneuver (WAM), according to which we mistakenly judge an assertion to be true because we confuse conversational propriety with truth. I argue that no invariantist WAM against Stewart Cohen's Airport Case can succeed. The problem is that such a WAM is inconsistent with the known ways of accounting for the evidence that motivates the knowledge account of assertion.     

EDUCATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY

Various systemic aspects of animal and human minds are explored. Formulation of a replicative evolutionary model of the mind is presented which is based upon the recognition of this entity as a component system. It can be demonstrated that interactions of neurons have replicative organization. It was concluded that intelligent activity of the animal brain manifest itself in producing and maintaining a kind of environmental model. The environmental model is a higher organization above the level of neurons, its basic functional units are called concepts. Each single concept consists of three parts: (1( cue; (2) referential‐structure; and (3) behavioral‐instructions. Interactions among the various concepts of the brain create a concept‐superstructure which behaves as a dynamic replicative component system in controlling animal and human actions. It is assumed that selection operating in the replicative process of concept making which acts as the main factor in creating ontogenetic variability of behavior. The essential process of learning is selection of concepts generated by the brain and in that way the construction of the evolutionary dynamic concept‐superstructures of the brain's environmental model.