Harry Potter and the Haunted Prophet

This article explores the prominent Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling in relation to the psychology and work of C. G. Jung. ¹ 1. Haunted prophet refers to C. G. Jung and is based on the title of a book (see Stern). Also, special thanks to Alan P. Molitor and Elisabeth Y. Talamo for their assistance with various aspects of this piece. View all notes The Jungian approach elicits significant meaning from the archetypal material that comes alive through the life and adventures of the boy wizard Harry and his contemporaries. It is the proper lens with which to observe this material, as it helps to provide the appropriate symbolic connections between the human space–time bound world in which we live on a daily basis and the divine, nonspace–time bound archetypal realm that patterns our lives. By gleaning and implementing the key insights that emerge from this Potter–Jung exploration, we are better able to understand the bidirectional transformative effects of the powerful images arising from the collective unconscious.     

The Age of Imagination

Galileo once said that one cannot understand the universe without comprehending its language: mathematics. Unfortunately, most individuals will approach physical sciences with dread, due in part to the difficulty with speaking the language of the universe, and for this reason may fail to perceive its breathtaking beauty. When we look deeper than the letter of reason, we encounter a flow of imagination that appears to be integral to the cosmos. The Enlightenment of the 18th century was an Age of Reason that deeply shaped our modern society. By following the movement of ideas from classical physics to quantum mechanics, passing by chaos theory and Einstein’s special and general relativity, it is argued that a new Enlightenment might be in sight, an Age of Imagination, wherein the creatures that we are will consciously re-enter the flow of imagination. This exploration concerns classical physics and its repression of imagination; the difficult emergence of deterministic chaos is viewed as a return of what was left behind, so to speak: the shadow of reason.

The one-after-another is a bearable prelude to the deeper knowledge of the side-by-side, for this is an incomparably more difficult problem.—C. G. Jung (1970 Jung, C.G. (1970). The collected works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 14: Mysterium coniunctionis (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.; H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, &; W. McGuire, eds.). Bollingen Series XX. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar], par. 206)     

Patient Personality and Relational Patterns in Psychotherapy: Factor Structure,Reliability, and Validity of the Psychotherapy Relationship Questionnaire

The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure and the psychometric properties of the Psychotherapy Relationship Questionnaire (PRQ; Bradley, Heim, &; Westen, 2005 Bradley, R., Heim, A. K., &; Westen, D. (2005). Transference patterns in the psychotherapy of personality disorders: Empirical investigation. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 186, 342–349. doi:10.1192/bjp.186.4.342[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), a clinician report instrument that measures a wide spectrum of thoughts, feelings, motives, conflicts, and behaviors expressed by patients toward their therapists in psychotherapy. A national sample of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (N = 314) of different theoretical orientations completed the PRQ, as well as the Shedler–Westen Assessment Procedure–200 (SWAP–200; Westen &; Shedler, 1999a Westen, D., &; Shedler, J. (1999a). Revising and assessing Axis II, Part I: Developing a clinically and empirically valid assessment method. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 258–272.[PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1999b Westen, D., &; Shedler, J. (1999a). Revising and assessing Axis II, Part I: Developing a clinically and empirically valid assessment method. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 258–272.[PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to assess the personality of a patient in their care. Factor-analytic procedures identified 6 transference dimensions that showed excellent internal consistencies: (a) hostile, (b) positive/working alliance, (c) special/entitled, (d) anxious/preoccupied, (e) avoidant/dismissing attachment, and (f) sexualized. Factor scores were significantly related to patients’ personality characteristics and psychological functioning, regardless of the clinicians’ orientations. The findings support that the PRQ is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating the patients’ relational patterns emerging in clinical practice in a clinically coherent and psychometrically robust way. Clinicians’ careful understanding of these patterns can be very useful for making accurate diagnostic formulations, as well as for providing a roadmap for effective therapeutic intervention.     

Images and Symbols in Ancient and Modern Sport

Several aspects of human life are pervaded with images and symbols that often belong to what Jung (1981 Jung, G. Carl. 1981. Archetypes and the collective unconscious, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.  [Google Scholar]) called archetypes, characteristics of the mind with a profound influence on most aspects of culture and sport. The rationality introduced into our society, as the fruit of both the positivist concept of progress and the rapid development of technology, has, albeit while driving out excessiveness due to irrational explanations and often knavery, also disregarded the importance of images and symbols in everyday life. Yet a number of these inevitably still exist, since they are archetypal. With this observation as a starting point, the present work has been designed to analyse whether it is still possible to find ancient images and symbols in modern sport activities. The a priori reason for such a question arises from the acceptance that modern and ancient sports are profoundly different. This has been historically proved in terms of organisation and quantification, among other characteristics (Guttmann 1978 Guttmann, Allen. 1978. From ritual to record, New York: Columbia University Press.  [Google Scholar]).

The present analysis refers to a limited number of images and symbols concerning ancient and modern sport, which include a primordial Ur-symbol, that of bodily action or of body in movement. Others concern various aspects of the athlete's life, such as expression of religious beliefs, immortality, eternal return and the front. It suggests that many of these images and symbols may still be found in contemporary sports, in open contrast with some of the Olympic principles suggested by De Coubertin and chiefly prevalent in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.     

Kafka's Experiencing in Text: A Person-Centered Reading of Letters to Felice

Franz Kafka's (1967/1999 Kafka , F. ( 1999 ). Letters to Felice (J. Stern & E. Duckworth, Trans.) London , England : Vintage . (Original work published 1967)  [Google Scholar]) Letters to Felice is instructive for the therapist/reader because it provides a first-person narrative of Kafka's immersion in a fundamentally relational-experiential process. It is argued that the underlying We of Kafka's letters implies that their correspondence expressed and constituted their relationship. Significant aspects of his experiencing are discussed from a person-centered perspective. It is argued that his experiences were initially subceived prior to awareness, in the moment, bodily felt, and process-like. The parallels that exist between the experience of reading Letters to Felice and being in a person-centered therapeutic relationship are discussed. Both endeavors are experiential and phenomenological, and from a contemporary person-centered perspective, are based upon a refinement of Carl Rogers’ original formulation.     

Mapping the MMPI–2/MMPI–2–RF Restructured Clinical Scales Onto Mood Markers in an Israeli Sample

This study cross-culturally evaluated the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2/MMPI–2 Restructured Form (MMPI–2/MMPI–2–RF) emotion-focused Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales to examine whether their patterns of associations with positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) are as expected based on Tellegen, Watson, and Clark's (1999a Tellegen, A., Watson, D., &; Clark, L. A. (1999a). Further support for a hierarchical model of affect. Psychological Science, 10, 307–309.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1999b Tellegen, A., Watson, D., &; Clark, L. A. (1999b). On the dimensional and hierarchical structure of affect. Psychological Science, 10, 297–303.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) mood model. The sample was composed of 100 men and 133 women from psychiatric settings in Israel who completed the MMPI–2 and the Mood Check List (MCL; Zevon &; Tellegen, 1982 Zevon, M. A., &; Tellegen, A. (1982). The structure of mood change: An idiographic/nomothetic analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 111–122.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Results indicated that RCd was substantially correlated with both PA and NA in opposite directions, and that RC2 and RC7 were more highly correlated with PA and NA, respectively. Further, when compared with their Clinical Scale counterparts, RC2 and RC7 exhibited comparable convergent validities and improved discriminant properties. Findings provide support for Tellegen et al.'s (2003 Tellegen, A., Ben-Porath, Y. S., McNulty, J. L., Arbisi, P. A., Graham, J. R., &; Kaemmer, B. (2003). MMPI–2 Restructured Clinical (RC) scales: Development, validation, and interpretation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. [Google Scholar]) goal to link the RC scales to contemporary conceptualizations of mood.     

Considering too few alternatives: The mental model theory of extensional reasoning

When solving a simple probabilistic problem, people tend to build an incomplete mental representation. We observe this pattern in responses to probabilistic problems over a set of premises using the conjunction, disjunction, and conditional propositional connectives. The mental model theory of extensional reasoning explains this bias towards underestimating the number of possibilities: In reckoning with different interpretations of the premises (logical rules, mental model theoretical, and, specific to conditional premises, conjunction and biconditional interpretation) the mental model theory accounts for the majority of observations. Different interpretations of a premise result in a build-up of mental models that are often incomplete. These mental models are processed using either an extensional strategy relying on proportions amongst models, or a conflict monitoring strategy. The consequence of considering too few possibilities is an erroneous probability estimate akin to that faced by decision makers who fail to generate and consider all alternatives, a characteristic of bounded rationality. We compare our results to the results published by Johnson-Laird, Legrenzi, Girotto, Legrenzi, and Caverni [Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999 Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106 Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 62 Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]–88 Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. doi:10 Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar].1037 Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]/0033 Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]-295X Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar].106 Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar].1 Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar].62 Johnson-Laird, P., Legrenzi, P., Girotto, V., Legrenzi, M., &; Caverni, J. (1999). Naive probability: A mental model theory of extensional reasoning. Psychological Review, 106, 62–88. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.1.62[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]], and we observe lower performance levels than those in the original article.     

Ending With Options

No matter what has come before, if the ending of the analytic relationship is not managed sensitively, much good may be undone. Analytic endings are emotionally challenging for analysts as well as patients. What was missing from the classical approach, at least as interpreted by Freud's American disciples, was appreciation of the personal relationship (Flank, 2006 Frank, K. A. 2006. Toward conceptualizing the personal relationship in therapeutic action: Beyond the “real” relationship.. Psychoanal. Perspectives, 3: 6–43.  [Google Scholar]). In a relational view, the ending must be considered uniquely and mutually negotiated as part of a relationship that is both technical and personal. Accordingly, both permanent separation and separation with possible return are seen as just two of many possibilities for ending that the pair may co-create. Other options must also be considered.     

Leverage Points,Paradigms, and Grounded Action: Intervening in Educational Systems

This article discusses connections between grounded action, leverage points, and paradigm transformation and transcendence. Part one provides background on Meadows' (1999) Meadows, D. H. 1999. Leverage points: Places to intervene in a system, The Sustainability Institute. www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/pubs/Leverage_Points.pdf (Accessed 22 June, 2006) [Google Scholar] approach to leverage points as well as the concept of paradigms. Part two argues that grounded action is inherently suited for leverage points analysis and paradigm-based interventions. Part three offers an example of individual paradigm transformation in the educational context vis-à-vis Olson's (2006) Olson, M. M. 2006. Driven Succeeding—The serpentine path of adult learning: A grounded action study in adult education, Ed.D. dissertation Fielding Graduate University.  [Google Scholar] grounded theory of driven succeeding. The article concludes with considerations of how the application of grounded action in one classroom might leverage system-wide paradigm transformation.     

Perceptions of stress and stress interventions in finance organizations: Overcoming resistance towards counselling

This paper presents the findings from a qualitative study conducted to gain further insight into the attitudes of finance organizations towards workplace stress and stress interventions. Semi-structured interviews were used and seven individuals, each representing their organization, participated in the study. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith, J., Jaraman, M., & Osborn, M. 1999 Smith J Jaraman M Osborn M 1999 Doing interpretative phenomenological analysis In M. Murray & K. Chamberlain (Eds) Qualitative Health Psychology London Sage [Crossref] [Google Scholar] was used to analyse the data. In M. Murray & K. Chamberlain (Eds), Qualitative Health Psychology. London: Sage.) was used to analyse the data. One main theme that emerged was “resistance towards counselling for stress”. This theme and several related sub-themes are discussed, and suggestions to reduce resistance to counselling for stress are presented in a model.     

“You Just Know It’s the Only Thing You Can Think”: A Conversation with Chodorow

ABSTRACT

Nancy Julia Chodorow (1944–) is a pioneer feminist theorist who brought together academic fields of sociology, anthropology, and psychoanalysis in her work related to feminist theories and psychoanalysis. Her first book, The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender (1978 Chodorow, N. J. (1978; second ed. 1999). The reproduction of mothering: Psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender. Berkeley: University of California Press. [Google Scholar]), gave primacy to a more generalized account of the developmental and familial origins of prevalent psychological differences between femininity and masculinity from a psychoanalytic sociological viewpoint. Her later books, Femininities, Masculinities, Sexualities: Freud and Beyond (1994 Chodorow, N. J. (1994). Femininities, masculinities, sexualities: Freud and beyond. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. [Google Scholar]), The Power of Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Culture (1999 Chodorow, N. J. (1999). The power of feelings: Personal meaning in psychoanalysis, gender, and culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. [Google Scholar]), and Individualizing Gender and Sexuality: Theory and Practice (2012 Chodorow, N. J. (2012). Individualizing gender and sexuality: Theory and practice. New York and London: Routledge.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), bring in a rich interplay among socio-structural influences (i.e., culture) as well as intra- and inter-psychic dynamic processes, emphasizing more the importance of individuality and subjectivity. Based on an interview I had with Chodorow on the development of her thought, this paper gives Chodorow’s account of her personal history and academic background, current manifestations in feminist social science research and feminist psychoanalysis based on her contribution and legacy, and reflective narratives on the unfolding of feminist and psychoanalytic theories from the 1970s onward. Chodorow’s note to the next generation of feminist psychotherapists is also included.     

The Factor Structure of the CVLT-C in Pediatric Epilepsy

The current study used archival data to evaluate the fit of six latent variable models, originally generated by Donders (1999) Donders. 1999. Structural analysis of the California Verbal Learning Test—Children's Version in the standardization sample. Developmental Neuropsychology, 15(3): 395–406. [CSA][Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], for the California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version (CVLT-C; Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, &; Ober, 1994 Delis, D. C., Kramer, J. H., Kaplan, E. and Ober, B. A. 1994. California Verbal Learning Test—Children's Version, San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.  [Google Scholar]) in a large (N = 289) sample of pediatric epilepsy cases presenting at three tertiary treatment centers. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we found that a model including factors of Attention Span, Learning Efficiency, Free Delayed Recall, Cued Delayed Recall, and Inaccurate Recall demonstrated the best relative fit for our data. These findings are consistent with those reported by Donders (1999) Donders. 1999. Structural analysis of the California Verbal Learning Test—Children's Version in the standardization sample. Developmental Neuropsychology, 15(3): 395–406. [CSA][Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] in his reanalysis of the CVLT-C standardization sample data, supporting the validity of this factorial model in pediatric epilepsy populations.     

Do Korean Fraction Names Promote Part-Whole Reasoning?

We investigated the effects of transparent fraction names on children's reasoning about fractions. U.S. and Korean first and second graders were tested using verbal and nonverbal measures. On a verbal task, Korean students were worse at interpreting their own conventional fraction names than interpreting modified terms with a more familiar word for parts. This indicates that Korean fraction names may not be as transparent as previously claimed (e.g., Miura et al., 1999 Miura , I. T. , Okamoto , Y. , Vlahovic-Stetic , V. , Kim , C. C. , & Han , J. H. ( 1999 ). Language supports for children's understanding of numerical fractions: Cross-national comparisons . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , 74 , 356 – 365 . [Google Scholar]). On nonverbal tasks, such as matching equivalent pictures of fractions and solving mixed-number problems using objects, students from both nations performed above chance and about equally well. However, U.S. students were more likely than Korean students to misinterpret a sharing task in terms of whole numbers, leading to significantly below-chance performance in the former group.     

Something from nothing: exploring dimensions of children's knowing through the repeated reading of favourite books

Witte‐Townsend and DiGiulio explore some of the dimensions of knowing that children, teachers and parents may engage together during story‐time. They reflect on some of their own long‐term relationships with children and children's books, especially Phoebe Gilman's Gilman P 1992 Something from nothing (New York, NY, Scholastic Inc)  [Google Scholar] Something from nothing (published in 1992) and Simms Taback's Taback S 1999 Joseph had a little overcoat (New York, NY, Viking‐Penguin)  [Google Scholar] Joseph had a little overcoat, published in 1999. The authors probe issues such as why children ask to hear a favourite story over and over and why they suddenly abandon all interest and move on to a new book. They explore the meaning of the silences that sometimes arise during story‐time, pooling around the young listeners as the last words of the book are read. Witte‐Townsend and DiGiulio remind us of the value of literature in the lives of children and they affirm that the reading and re‐reading of favourite stories enables the understanding of complex human issues and contributes significantly to social, emotional and spiritual growth.     

The General Factor of Personality and Character: A Reanalysis

Using data from the Texas Twin Project, it was recently reported that 7 measures of character covaried to the extent that they formed a general factor of character (Tucker-Drob, Briley, Engelhardt, Mann, &; Harden, 2016 Tucker-Drob, E. M., Briley, D. A., Engelhardt, L. E., Mann, F. D., &; Harden, K. P. (2016). Genetically-mediated associations between measures of childhood character and academic achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 790–815. doi:10.1037/pspp0000098.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). In turn the relationship between the general factor of character and the Big Five personality traits were examined. It was found that personality was associated with the general factor of character primarily through the traits of conscientiousness and openness. For several reasons we propose that a more accurate interpretation of the data is that a Big Five personality traits form a general factor of personality, and that the relationship between the general character factor and personality is primarily through the general factor of personality. The results lend some support to this contention and are discussed in relation to the growing interest in covariation among multiple personality traits.     

Time and again: Intermittent Brief Dynamic Therapy

Abstract

The author notes that in many of the settings in which Brief Therapy takes place that a client may return after the ending for a further series of sessions. Time-limited therapy has placed an emphasis upon the termination phase of the therapy and linked this to the process of individuation and separation. Such an approach, as articulated by Mann (1973 Mann, J. 1973. Time-limited psychotherapy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.  [Google Scholar]), which draws conceptually from the work of Winnicott (1965 Winnicott, D. W. 1965. The maturational processes and the facilitating environment, London: Hogarth Press.  [Google Scholar]) and the notion that the infant achieves unit status from the original undifferentiated merger with the mother, is not easily compatible with Intermittent Brief Dynamic Therapy. The work of attachment theorists and Stern (1985 Stern, D. N. 1985. The interpersonal world of the infant, New York: Basic Books.  [Google Scholar]) provide an alternative basis upon which to conceive of the development of the infant. While emphasizing the importance of attending to affects at points of separation and ending, as is evidenced in the work of Della Selva (2004 Della, Selva P. C. 2004. Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy, London: Karnac.  [Google Scholar]), such a framework is more readily compatible with the development of Intermittent Therapy, and with the realities of the settings in which much brief work takes place. The author also comments upon the flexibility inherent in Winnicott's own practice of brief consultations, and the implications of this for the development of Intermittent Brief Dynamic Therapy. The paper includes a case study that illustrates this debate and which provides evidence for the therapeutic potency of a form of Brief Dynamic Intermittent Therapy where a dynamic focus maintains a structuring pattern to the narrative over a sequence of several periods of Brief Therapy, spread over a number of years.     

Binocular coordination of the eyes during reading: Word frequency and case alternation affect fixation duration but not fixation disparity

This experiment investigated whether properties of the text being read affect binocular coordination of the eyes during reading. Readers' binocular eye movements were recorded while they read sentences that contained high- and low-frequency words. In addition, half of the sentences were presented in normal case, and half were presented in alternating case (i.e., AlTeRnAtInG cAsE). Past research has suggested that the visual system tolerates less binocular fixation disparity with alternating than with normal case (Heller & Radach, 1999 Heller, D. and Radach, R. 1999. “Eye movements in reading: Are two eyes better than one?”. In Current oculomotor research. Physiological and psychological aspects, Edited by: Becker, W., Deubel, H. and Mergner, T. 341–348. New York: Kluwer Academic, Plenum.  [Google Scholar]). While both word frequency and alternating case produced large effects on fixation durations on the target word, neither manipulation affected the magnitude of fixation disparity. It is concluded that linguistic and visual properties of the text being read do not influence binocular coordination of the eyes during reading. Additional analyses also showed no difference in fixation disparity between reading and a nonlinguistic task. Implications of these results for split-fovea models of reading are discussed.     

Interactive insight problem solving

Insight problem solving was investigated with the matchstick algebra problems developed by Knoblich, Ohlsson, Haider, and Rhenius (1999 Knoblich, G., Ohlsson, S., Haider, H. and Rhenius, D. 1999. Constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition in insight problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 25: 1534–1555. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). These problems are false equations expressed with Roman numerals that can be made true bymoving one matchstick. In a first group participants examined a static two-dimensional representation of the false algebraic expression and told the experimenter which matchstick should be moved. In a second group, participants interacted with a three-dimensional representation of the false equation. Success rates in the static group for different problem types replicated the pattern of data reported in Knoblich et al. (1999 Knoblich, G., Ohlsson, S., Haider, H. and Rhenius, D. 1999. Constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition in insight problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 25: 1534–1555. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, participants in the interactive group were significantly more likely to achieve insight. Problem-solving success in the static group was best predicted by performance on a test of numeracy, whereas in the interactive group it was best predicted by performance on a test of visuo-spatial reasoning. Implications for process models of problem solving are discussed.     

The Moral Hazards Of Christian Obligations In Brazil's Rural Zona Da Mata

From 1999 through 2003, applied research in Brazil's Zona da Mata was undertaken to identify the reasons why some households choose, either actively or by default, not to participate in rural assistance efforts. Class-based guiding hypotheses held that participation would correlate positively with economic, demographic and health measures of household need, but found only limited support. These hypotheses found their greatest support within the community's small but rapidly growing Pentecostal congregation, but were generally contradicted within the community's much larger Catholic congregation, and totally contradicted by full participation, regardless of need or religious affiliation, within one of the research community's 14 hamlets. The hamlet's contradiction resulted from a pooling of an extended family's labour and resources to achieve full participation. The larger community's contradiction of the guiding hypotheses resulted from the wealthiest Catholic households' self-described ‘Christian obligations’ to provide garden produce upon request to the poorest Catholic households.

The earth does not yield its fruits without a particular human response to God's gift, that is to say, without work. (John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, cited in Neuhaus 1999 Neuhaus, Fr. Richard John. 1999. Appointment in Rome, New York: The Crossroads Publishing Company.  [Google Scholar])     

Moral imperatives,professional interventions and resilience,and educational action in chaotic situations: the souls of children amidst the horror of war

Drawing from the research on children of war in Bogota, Beirut and Bosnia, this paper serves as a framework for dialogue about the criminalization of children by armed conflict and other forms of violence. Furthermore, it addresses the aching question of how best to care for these children so that they have every chance to become illuminated and not carbonized (Restrepo, 1999 Restrepo, L. 1999. La novia oscura [The dark bride], New York: HarperCollins.  [Google Scholar], p. 209) by the tragic circumstances of their environments. The author posits that educators everywhere bear a moral imperative to provide opportunities for children to reclaim hope, reintegrate socially, learn well, reflect deeply, and act justly. Specifically, this essay reflects on varied approaches aimed at fostering resilience, as well as cognitive and moral growth and development in children who are witness and/or victims of social, political, and violent struggles.