Perceiving images and telling tales: A visual and verbal analysis of the meaning of the internet

This paper uses visual and verbal analysis to delve into the multi-faceted ways in which individuals construct their own meanings and shape their own experiences with the Internet. We build on the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, and the principles of visual rhetoric to show how perceptual processes affect picture choices, and how these choices contribute to the narrative imagination. Numerous perceptual principles [abstraction, concept formation, perceptual problem solving, constancy, closure, symmetry and balance]are identified in the choice and organization of visual images. The argument we make is that images and words (visual and textual processes) provide deeper insights into our understanding of consumer online experiences.     

Countering Cultural Metaphors of Aging

SUMMARY

This article examines three clusters of metaphors or cultural images of aging which function to marginalize older adults: metaphors which focus on aging as physical decline, on aging as aesthetic distance from youth, and on aging as failure of productivity. It then sketches out two ways to counter the marginalizing power of these cultural images of aging, to shape new metaphors or images of aging within a community of meaning, and to help make new sense of growing old, namely the formation of face-to-face groups of older adults and the creation of rituals in worship which name publicly the realities and experiences of aging.     

"In the storminess": multi-disciplinary approaches to scriptural images representing ethical challenges in the pastor-congregant relationship

In this qualitative study the authors examine the Scriptural images that 10 Lutheran pastors employed in describing the ethical challenges in the pastor-congregant relationship. The analysis of Scriptural images is part of a larger study on pastors' experiences of a mandatory workshop, "Crossing the Boundaries (CTB),"which is required of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) seminarians. The pastors' images were analyzed from the four perspectives of depth psychology, theology, social ethics, and sociology. In commenting on tensions in the pastors' Scriptural images the authors note commonalities among the four theoretical perspectives and discuss implications for practice and future research.     

Emotional experience and facial expression in Alzheimer's disease

Emotional experiences and facial muscle activity of individuals with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) (n = 13) and healthy elderly control subjects (n = 21) were measured while viewing emotion-eliciting images. Alzheimer's disease and control groups rated their emotional experiences similarly and in the expected directions on dimensions of valence and arousal. Change in corrugator activity while viewing images, compared to baseline, was comparable across groups and was greatest while viewing negative images. Change in zygomatic activity, however, was significantly different between AD and control groups, with AD subjects demonstrating an inverted pattern of activity compared to controls. These findings are discussed as possible consequences of frontal cortical system involvement accompanying the disease process.     

Developing the Cyber Victimization Experiences and Cyberbullying Behaviors Scales

The reported prevalence rates of cyber victimization experiences and cyberbullying behaviors vary. Part of this variation is likely due to the diverse definitions and operationalizations of the constructs adopted in previous research and the lack of psychometrically robust measures. Through 2 studies, the authors developed (Study 1) and evaluated (Study 2) the cyber victimization experiences and cyberbullying behaviors scales. Participants in Study 1 were 393 (122 boys, 171 girls) and in Study 2 were 345 (153 boys, 192 girls) 11–15-year-olds who completed measures of cyber victimization experiences, cyberbullying behaviors, face-to-face victimization experiences, face-to-face bullying behaviors, and social desirability. The 3-factor cyber victimization experiences scale comprised threat, shared images, and personal attack. The 3-factor cyberbullying behaviors scale comprised sharing images, gossip, and personal attack. Both scales demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and convergent validity.     

How Self‐Image and Compassionate Goals Shape Intrapsychic Experiences

Self‐image goals focus on constructing, maintaining, and defending desired public and private images of the self, whereas compassionate goals focus on being supportive and not harming others. We suggest that these goals shape construals of others in relation to the self, which in turn, shape affective experiences. We review research showing that when people have self‐image goals, they construe others as competitors, which leads to feeling uneasy with others (i.e., conflicted, confused, and fearful), and that when they have compassionate goals, they construe others as collaborators and have more constructive approaches to interpersonal problems, which leads to feeling at ease with others (i.e., peaceful, clear, and loving) and less upset with them. Thus, interpersonal goals shape construals of others, which in turn shape intrapsychic experiences of the world and of the self.     

Emotional Experience and Facial Expression in Alzheimer's Disease

ABSTRACT

Emotional experiences and facial muscle activity of individuals with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) (n = 13) and healthy elderly control subjects (n = 21) were measured while viewing emotion-eliciting images. Alzheimer's disease and control groups rated their emotional experiences similarly and in the expected directions on dimensions of valence and arousal. Change in corrugator activity while viewing images, compared to baseline, was comparable across groups and was greatest while viewing negative images. Change in zygomatic activity, however, was significantly different between AD and control groups, with AD subjects demonstrating an inverted pattern of activity compared to controls. These findings are discussed as possible consequences of frontal cortical system involvement accompanying the disease process.     

Is It Me or My Brain? Depression and Neuroscientific Facts

This article considers the roles played by brain images (e.g., from PET scans) in mass media as experienced by people suffering from mental illness, and as used by scientists and activist groups in demonstrating a biological basis for mental illness. Examining the rhetorical presentation of images in magazines and books, the article describes the persuasive power that brain images have in altering the understanding people have of their own body—their “objective self.” Analyzing first-person accounts of encounters with brain images, it argues that people come to understand themselves as having neurotransmitter imbalances that are the cause of their illnesses via received facts and images of the brain, but that this understanding is incomplete and in tension with the sense that they are their brain. The article concludes by querying the emergence of a “pharmaceutical self,” in which one experiences one's brain as if on drugs, as a new form of objective self-fashioning.     

Imagery encoding and false recognition errors: Examining the role of imagery process and imagery content on source misattributions

Imagery encoding effects on source-monitoring errors were explored using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm in two experiments. While viewing thematically related lists embedded in mixed picture/word presentations, participants were asked to generate images of objects or words (Experiment 1) or to simply name the items (Experiment 2). An encoding task intended to induce spontaneous images served as a control for the explicit imagery instruction conditions (Experiment 1). On the picture/word source-monitoring tests, participants were much more likely to report "seeing" a picture of an item presented as a word than the converse particularly when images were induced spontaneously. However, this picture misattribution error was reversed after generating images of words (Experiment 1) and was eliminated after simply labelling the items (Experiment 2). Thus source misattributions were sensitive to the processes giving rise to imagery experiences (spontaneous vs deliberate), the kinds of images generated (object vs word images), and the ways in which materials were presented (as pictures vs words).     

Using an AI creativity system to explore how aesthetic experiences are processed along the brain’s perceptual neural pathways

With the increased sophistication of AI techniques, the application of these systems has been expanding to ever newer fields. Increasingly, these systems are being used in modeling of human aesthetics and creativity, e.g. how humans create artworks and design products. Our lab has developed one such AI creativity deep learning system that can be used to create artworks in the form of images and videos. In this paper, we describe this system and its use in studying the human visual system and the formation of aesthetic experiences. Specifically, we show how time-based AI created media can be used to explore the nature of the dual-pathway neuro-architecture of the human visual system and how this relates to higher cognitive judgments such as aesthetic experiences that rely on these divergent information streams. We propose a theoretical framework for how the movement within percepts such as video clips, causes the engagement of reflexive attention and a subsequent focus on visual information that are primarily processed via the dorsal stream, thereby modulating aesthetic experiences that rely on information relayed via the ventral stream. We outline our recent study in support of our proposed framework, which serves as the first study that investigates the relationship between the two visual streams and aesthetic experiences.     

Recurrent images and early memories in social phobia

A recent model [Clark, D. M. & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. Heimberg, M. Liebowitz, D. A. Hope & F. R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp. 69-93). New York: Guildford Press] suggests that a distorted image of one's public self lies at the heart of social phobia. A previous study of spontaneous imagery [Hackmann, A., Surawy, C. & Clark, D. M. (1998) Seeing yourself through others' eyes: a study of spontaneously occurring images in social phobia. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 26, 3-12] confirmed that patients with social phobia frequently report experiencing negative, distorted, observer-perspective images when in anxiety provoking social situations. In the present study, 22 patients with social phobia were given a semistructured interview which aimed to further explore the nature of social phobic imagery. All participants were able to identify negative spontaneous images that were recurrent in the sense that their content appeared to be relatively stable over time and across different feared social situations. Most recurrent images involved several sensory modalities. Most recurrent images were linked to memories of adverse social events that clustered in time around the onset of the disorder. Taken together, the results suggest that in patients with social phobia, early unpleasant experiences may lead to the development of excessively negative images of their social selves that are repeatedly activated in subsequent social situations and fail to update in the light of subsequent, more favourable experiences. Implications of the findings for the understanding and treatment of social phobia are discussed.     

Archetypal images emerging in the therapy of Lithuanian cancer patients

The goal of this paper is to show through clinical examples how archetypal images connected with nature emerged in Lithuanian cancer patients, to analyze how these images helped them to get in touch with their emotions and meaningful personal experiences, and to discuss how these archetypal images are related to the Lithuanian cultural unconscious, and may also assist the psychological treatment of cancer. The analyzed examples permit the preliminary conclusion that when ill with cancer, a person's psyche generates universal archetypal images that constitute an important part of the process of coping psychologically with the disease.     

Images and goals

We propose that mental images are derived from goals. Goals are represented in a complex hierarchy and form a major part of the "working self". Images reflect the existence of specific goals and also act to maintain goals by facilitating the derivation of beliefs from the content of an image. Images in psychopathology may reflect the operation of dysfunctional goals: goals that are unconstrained and which increase discrepancy (experienced as anxiety) within the goal system. Another feature of the goal system is that it is conservative and avoids change. By this view some aspects of distortions in intrusive images of traumatic experiences might be viewed as a defence against goal change. Conversely generating new images might lead to the formation of new goals. These ideas are applied to the findings of the papers in this special issue of Memory and to several new case studies.     

Images and goals

We propose that mental images are derived from goals. Goals are represented in a complex hierarchy and form a major part of the “working self”. Images reflect the existence of specific goals and also act to maintain goals by facilitating the derivation of beliefs from the content of an image. Images in psychopathology may reflect the operation of dysfunctional goals: goals that are unconstrained and which increase discrepancy (experienced as anxiety) within the goal system. Another feature of the goal system is that it is conservative and avoids change. By this view some aspects of distortions in intrusive images of traumatic experiences might be viewed as a defence against goal change. Conversely generating new images might lead to the formation of new goals. These ideas are applied to the findings of the papers in this special issue of Memory and to several new case studies.     

Children in genocide: Extreme traumatization and the ‘affect propeller’1

The author bases this paper on extensive research concerning children in genocide with a starting point in the Holocaust and in the genocide in Rwanda 1994. She demonstrates indicators for psychological phenomena concerning the child survivors' affect regulating that appeared in life histories presented in videotaped in‐depth interviews. The psychological phenomena concern experiences of persecution and ways of coming to terms with recurring memory images and affects. The interviews that have been analysed in detail form a basis for an emerging conceptual model about trauma‐ and generational‐linking processes within each individual‐the ‘affect propeller’. An overall conclusion from this study is that past traumatic experiences are recovered not as memories in the usual sense of the word, but as affects invading the present. Accordingly, affects seem to tell the story of the past traumatic experiences.     

Not just for special occasions: supporting the professional learning of teachers through critical reflection with audio-visual information

Despite increased use of professional learning communities in the teacher education field, they do not necessarily guarantee change in teachers’ daily practice. This study is a multiple case study of three school leaders in Vietnam to connect their teachers’ learning and practice by utilising visual records. In the cases studied, we see a progression of models of joint reflection based on visual information, from only occasional reflection to daily critical reflection, the latter of which the authors call ‘vide-flection’ referring to a process for people to consider their actions, thoughts, or experiences by utilising video-recorded images. For joint vide-flection, school leaders visit every classroom for several minutes every day to observe the wellbeing and learning of pupils and video-record struggles or breakthroughs in children’s learning; they share those images with teachers to jointly reflect on the situations. Through this vide-flection, teachers develop more detailed awareness of pupils needs.     

The Sixteen Strivings for God

Abstract. A psychological theory of religious experiences, sensitivity theory, is proposed. Whereas other theories maintain that religious motivation is about a few overarching desires, sensitivity theory provides a multifaceted analysis consistent with the diversity, richness, and individuality of religious experiences. Sixteen basic desires show the psychological foundations of meaningful experience. Each basic desire is embraced by every person, but to different extents. How we prioritize the basic desires expresses our individuality and influences our attraction to various religious images and activities. Each basic desire is associated with a basic goal and a unique joy, such as love, self‐worth, relaxation, or strength. We do not seek to experience joys infinitely; we regulate joys, in accordance with our core values, to sixteen balance points (sensitivities) that vary based on individuality. Religions help persons of faith regulate the sixteen basic joys by providing some images that strengthen joyful experiences and others that weaken them. We can strengthen our experience of self‐ worth, for example, by contemplating God in the image of savior; we can weaken our experience of self‐worth by contemplating original sin. The theory of sixteen basic desires is testable scientifically and suggests such philosophical concepts as value‐based happiness.     

From horror to ethical responsibility: Carl Gustav Jung and Stephen King encounter the dark half within us,between us and in the world

This paper explores the experience of horror. The term is usually understood collectively to refer to experiences of terrorism, racism and other conflicts; however, the paper explores the equal horror for the individual of facing deep and painful psychic contents and traumatic experiences. The paper explores the way that both C.G. Jung, through analysis of the psyche, and the author Stephen King, through his horror novels, have accepted and explored the experience of encountering ‘the dark half’ or ‘It’ that is the other within themselves, forming images and symbols capable of linking their personal experience to that of the collective. This encounter is transformed, as far as Jung is concerned by analytical psychology and for King by fiction, through an attitude of active imagination. This led both men to developing an ethical responsibility towards the images of the unconscious, as well as the personal and collective contents of human life. The paper depicts how encountering the ‘dark half’, through Jung and King can provide a Jungian analyst with a special attitude with which to deeply explore and ethically process the experience of horror in different fields, including therapeutic practice, analytical training and in the traumatic and conflictual facing of the other, with which, today as always, the world presents us.     

Becoming a Telepathic Tuning Fork: Anomalous Experience and the Relational Mind

Although we tend to regard telepathic communication as anomalous or uncanny, outside the range of scientific explanation, many paranormal experiences can be understood scientifically as the type of unconscious affective communication about which there is a growing body of scientific research and evidence. An information-processing model illuminates how a patient’s dissociated attempts to communicate through sensory experiences may be converted to the verbal symbolic via the analyst’s use of evoked images in the dissociative process. Understanding projective identification as a dissociative process of communication by which the patient projected his own unacceptable emotions into the analyst, who could then know experientially what the patient was feeling, can be understood scientifically as telepathic communication. When a patient experiences the effects of severe trauma and is very dissociative, as in the case presented, it is difficult to track and reflect upon these processes as they occur, making it virtually impossible to become and remain empathically attuned to his many self states. In the dissociative attunement deconstructed here, the therapist–patient dyad resonated increasingly in a telepathic attunement, despite much discord and confusion.