Value Crisis: Affective Organization of Personal Meanings

The focus of this article is on the specific affective organization of the self in a value crisis. Whereas the self is conceptualized as an organized system of personal meanings, a value crisis is defined as a disorganization of this system. Personal meanings were investigated using a self-confrontation method that is sensitive to the affective properties of personal meanings and their organization into a composite whole. Three groups of students were compared, one high, one medium, and one low in value crisis. Results indicate that the high crisis group had a lower level of intensity of affect referring to self-enhancement, a lower intensity level of affect referring to contact and union with the other, and a lower level of positive affect in comparison with the other groups. In addition, negative meanings were more generalizing in the self of subjects in crisis, whereas positive meanings were more generalizing in the self system of those not in crisis. Moreover, people in crisis showed more discontinuity between their past and future than those not in crisis. Special emphasis was placed on the specific affective organization of subjects in crisis. Two idiographic case studies were presented to illustrate meaningful exceptions to the rule. It was concluded that value crisis is an “in-between state” involving the risk of disorganization of the self, but at the same time including opportunities for innovative self-development.     

The Affective Experience of Aesthetic Properties

It is widely agreed upon that aesthetic properties, such as grace, balance, and elegance, are perceived. I argue that aesthetic properties are experientially attributed to some non‐perceptible objects. For example, a mathematical proof can be experienced as elegant. In order to give a unified explanation of the experiential attribution of aesthetic properties to both perceptible and non‐perceptible objects, one has to reject the idea that aesthetic properties are perceived. I propose an alternative view: the affective account. I argue that the standard case of experiential aesthetic property attribution is affective experience.     

儒家为学体验新论

为学体验是儒学的首要哲学方法。儒家为己之学的取向决定为学贵在自得于心 ,以返回内心、回归本性为自然 ,注重通过有限的方式独立地、自主地体验无限的道体。为学体验强调在刻苦学习的基础上通过心性修养保持心灵的澄静莹洁 ,以达到与道为一的最高顿悟境界 ,即动静相生、知情欲融而为一的不动心境界。为学体验作为知行合一的工夫 ,是既包含感性、知性、理性的认识要素又超越于它们的哲学思维方式。为学体验达到与道为一意味着“通” ,即人类的心灵把自身融化于外在的客体之中 ,超越了主体和客体的对立。主客体融而为一的最高境界标志着生生不已的高度创造性的主体自由。     

A Family Experience of Personal Genomics

This article presents a personal journey of a close-knit family from Málaga, Spain who engaged with direct-to-consumer (DTC) genomic testing. Whilst the testing was initiated by one member of the family who works as a genome bioinformatician, none of the remaining family had any prior experience with DTC genetic testing. A thoughtful account, written in the first person, is offered on the experience of genome testing across the various members of the family together with a reflection on how it felt to be a custodian of the ‘family genome’. The way the family processed their genome information is explored and the difficulties and challenges that resulted are discussed. Whilst there is a wealth of literature that describes how families communicate information surrounding single genes, there is very little which explores the experience of communication about whole, shared genomes. The experiences described in this paper provide an insight into this new territory.     

Paintings as Solid Affective Scaffolds

We humans continuously reshape the environment to alter, enhance, and sustain our affective lives. This two‐way modification has been discussed in recent philosophy of mind as affective scaffolding, wherein scaffolding quite literally means that our affective states are enabled and supported by environmental resources such as material objects, other people, and physical spaces. In this article, I argue that under certain conditions, paintings function as noteworthy affective scaffolds to their creators. I begin with a theoretical overview of affective niche construction and affective scaffolding. Then, based on the criteria of robustness, concreteness, and dependability, I specify a more restricted, solid type of affective scaffolding and propound paintings as a cogent case of such. In support of my argument, I highlight two feelings typical to painterly creativity: the feeling of aesthetic resonance and the feeling of fusion. To conclude, I discuss the overall contributions and limitations of my account.     

Immigration as a Dynamic Experience: Personal Narratives and Clinical Implications for Family Therapists

This is a reflective account of the experiences of the authors who immigrated to the United States from India at different developmental, historical, political, and social stages. Although their culture-of-origin was the same, the meaning and experience of immigration was different for each author. The narratives show a natural continuum of experiences based on their developmental stage during immigration, reasons for immigration, and the historical context of both India and the US at the time of immigration. A common theme is the ambivalence experienced by them in their process of creating a physical and psychological home in a different culture.     

科技时代的替代经验与道德的个人亲证问题

人对自己生活于其中的科技时代的批判,是与人的自我意识一同发生的。当今世界,科技已越来越被当作自主的、异在于人的并沿着非人性化的惯性而展开的过程。如何对这一过程重新进行人化?如何使现代人具有科技进步时代的人的内容的清醒意识?这是每一个人文学者必须给予严肃关注的问题。从道德本性的角度视之,科技社会所制造的大量的替代经验对道德实践基础的蚕食和颠覆,具有根本的决定性的作用。因此,在科技社会中如何确立实践智慧、个人亲证在道德领域里的独立性,对于避免当代人的“道德孤儿”的命运,便具有头等重要的意义。     

作为个人品德的自我认同

自我认同涉及的是个体如何对待自我以及自我与"他人"的关系问题,其内核是自我人格的同一性,这种人格同一性反映了个体的自我完善和道德精神境界。自我人格同一性的本质是自我真实性,其要旨在于,使个体"成为一个人并尊敬他人为人"。自我认同中的自我反思及其持续展开,使个体成为一个具有道德反思能力的主体。自我真实性与道德反思能力,是个人品德的重要构成因子。     

Affective Arousal as Information: How Affective Arousal Influences Judgments,Learning, and Memory

The affect‐as‐information framework posits that affect is embodied information about value and importance. The valence dimension of affect provides evaluative information about stimulus objects, which plays a role in judgment and decision‐making. Affect can also provide evaluative information about one's own cognitions and response inclinations, information that guides thinking and reasoning. In particular, positive affect often promotes, and negative affect inhibits, accessible responses or dominant modes of thinking. Affect thus moderates many of the textbook phenomena in cognitive psychology. In the current review, we suggest additionally that the arousal dimension of affect amplifies reactions, leading to intensified evaluations, increased reliance on particular styles of learning, and enhanced long‐term memory for events. We conclude that whereas valenced affective cues serve as information about value, the arousal dimension provides information about urgency or importance.     

Personal Adjustment to Acculturative Transitions: The Turkish Experience

This research examines personal adjustment to acculturative transitions. Internal adjustment, or well-being, and external adjustment, or effectiveness, are analyzed in two acculturation contexts: migration from rural to urban settings in Turkey, and international migration from Turkey to Belgium. Comparisons are made between low-SES (socioeconomic status) and high-SES youth in Istanbul, as well as between these youngsters and Turkish youth in Belgium. Adjustment is explained by collectivism and achievement values among acculturating persons, and by social inequality and cultural distance between acculturating and dominant cultural groups. Full causal models are used to test individual-level and group-level explanations of acculturative adjustment. It is found that Turkish youngsters with a collectivistic value orientation have fewer adjustment problems. Second, social inequality increases internal adjustment problems of low-SES youth in Turkey, and cultural distance adds to external adjustment problems of Turkish immigrant youth in Belgium. Third, social inequality reinforces collectivism of low-SES youth in Turkey, whereas in Belgium, collectivism is reinforced by cultural distance. Simultaneously, cultural distance in Belgium lowers achievement values of Turkish immigrant youth.     

Island detention: Affective eruption as trauma's disruption

This article examines how remote detention facilities on islands function as transnational landscapes of sedimentation. Where trauma lies buried, affective eruptions move through seemingly fixed sites from hidden depths to surface. Detention facilities take many material forms in built landscapes: open and closed facilities, motels and military bases that have been repurposed, or state prisons. Much spatio-temporal logic surrounding island detentions assumes the possibility of enclosure and isolation of detainee bodies, subjectivities, and emotions. Research findings on island detentions debunk the assumption that people and emotions can be contained in the 'total institution.' On the contrary, detention facilities are transnationally embedded in families, communities, and material flows, and digitally wired in ways that connect detainees to others in their cohort who are either detained or free elsewhere. Trauma flows affectively and transcarcerally through encounters between people imprisoned and otherwise moving in and out of facilities. Often hidden and sedimented, trauma erupts into the present, making its presence known and haunting through affective eruptions. These eruptions connect colonial past and present, transmitting trauma between people inside and out. Data discussed in this article were collected from research on island detention carried out by Australia, Italy, and the United States.