Binocular single vision achieved by fusion and suppression

The occurrences of fusion and suppression were determined from stereograms which produced two retinal images located at equal distances but in opposite directions from the fovea. Subjects reported whether the dichoptic stimulus appeared single or not, and if single whether it appeared in the center of the visual field. The report of centrality is predicted by the fusion theory of single vision and that of noncentrality by the suppression theory. Experiment 1, with eight subjects, showed that for small disparities perceived singleness was the percept predicted by the fusion theory; for larger disparities, the percepts could sometimes be predicted by the fusion theory and other times by the suppression theory. Experiment 2, with 16 subjects, showed that with larger stimuli the percept predicted by the fusion theory is more likely to occur. Experiment 3, with four subjects, showed that the centrality was reported when the stimuli were presented for 100 msec. This result provided support for our interpretation that the centrality reports in Experiments 1 and 2 were not due to fixation error and suppression.     

A Repertory Grid analysis of perceptions of vocational counseling roles

A Repertory Grid was constructed to determine the perceptions held by 143 secondary school students of people who gave them vocational counseling. Responses on the 22 × 22 grid were averaged over the whole group and for subgroupings of the sample, using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering analysis to examine the pattern of relationships and the composition of clusters of elements and constructs. As predicted, it was found that the subjects made their discriminations between people on two major construct dimensions, an intimacy and a potency factor, and that people filling vocational counseling roles appeared in two of the generalized figure clusters, each having different characteristics attributed to them. Eighteen subjects were unable to complete their grids. When school achievement was assessed there was no evidence that a relationship existed between academic achievement and the capacity of subjects to complete grid protocols.     

Longitudinally foretelling drug use in the late twenties: adolescent personality and social-environmental antecedents

This research focuses on the interrelation of the parent-child attachment, unconventionality, friends' drug use, and the young adult's use of drugs. Data were collected from participants at 4 points in time: early adolescence, late adolescence, early 20s, and late 20s. Data were collected from mothers at the 3 points in time that corresponded with the first 3 collections of data from their children. Both the youths and their mothers were individually interviewed. The findings indicated that the effect of parent-child mutual attachment was mediated through early adolescent personality attributes of greater responsibility, less rebelliousness, and intolerance of deviance. These non-drug-prone personality and behavioral attitudes, in turn, insulated the young adult from affiliating with drug-using peers, and these attitudes were related to less drug use in the early 20s and ultimately in the late 20s. The results suggest that interventions focused on enhancing parent-child mutual attachment should result in a reduction of the risk factors conducive to drug use during the late 20s. The fact that these findings cover a decade and a half, from early adolescence to the late 20s, underscores the significance of placing drug use in a perspective that includes familial and behavioral aspects.     

Childhood aggression, adolescent delinquency, and drug use: a longitudinal study.

The interrelation of childhood aggression, early and late adolescent delinquency, and drug use was explored. Data were obtained for the subjects when they were 5-10 years old. Follow-up interviews were conducted when the subjects were between 13-18 years old and again when they were 15-20 years old. A LISREL analysis of the three waves of data indicated that childhood aggression is a precursor of adolescent drug use and delinquency, and that early adolescent drug use is correlated with contemporaneous delinquency as well as with later drug use and delinquency.     

Examining the implications of perceiving one’s future health as a goal or a standard for affect,motivation, and health behaviour

Motivation and Emotion - Based on an integrative self-regulatory framework, we examined the implications of viewing one’s anticipated future health as a goal (desired for the future) or a...     

The Use of Prospective Versus Retrospective Pretests with Child-Welfare Involved Families

The purpose of the current study is to examine the use of both a prospective and a retrospective pretest in evaluating the impact of the Strengthening Families Program on foster care involved families affected by parental substance abuse. Debate has existed in the literature for over 60 years regarding the use of retrospective pretests in assessing self-reported program impact, with key stakeholders often arguing strongly that, due to response-shift bias, sensitization, and the nature of many human service settings, retrospective pretesting may be more appropriate. However, program evaluators must also incorporate into the evaluation design funding mandates to collect data at specific points in time. In order to mitigate potential pretest-only biases and enhance the evaluation’s rigor, this study sought to address the pretest debate through the use of both a traditional, prospective pretest and a retrospective pretest. Using data provided by 411 caregivers, program effectiveness was measured in the areas of family, child and parent functioning. Statistical significance tests and effect sizes were analyzed to compare traditional prospective pretest to posttest scores and retrospective pretests to posttest scores. Findings indicate that overall, the Strengthening Families Program positively impacted family, child and parent functioning and that there were few differences between testing approaches when testing for statistical significance; however, relative differences between prospective pretests and retrospective pretests appeared more prominent in effect size computations. This research informs the longstanding debate, and suggests that program evaluators consider the advantages and disadvantages of using a retrospective pretest in design planning.     

Queer(ing) notions of Islamic authority: a methodological disposition in the work of Khaled Abou El Fadl

ABSTRACT

Queer approaches to Islam take a multitude of forms, and reflect queer lived experiences in a variety of ways. This article focuses on one particular form of queer approach to an aspect of the Islamic tradition, examining Khaled Abou El Fadl’s approach to the Shari’ah, focusing on his particular methodology of de-legitimization, re-presentation, and judgment according to the ethical standard of beauty. In doing so, its retrieval of internally queer aspects of the tradition come to light, including the focus on the nature of certainty within the Shari’ah as problematic, a strong emphasis on procedural non-finality, and the importance of the contextual nature of legal outcomes. Each of these aspects of the methodology have an impact on the lived experiences of Muslims within a community in which the law holds significant legal and social authority. In queering approaches to the Shari’ah, Abou El Fadl’s methodology simultaneously opens up space for a queering of contemporary norms of Muslim identity, society, and performance.     

Linkage of Oedipal Dangers and Mastery to Theodor Herzl's Zionism

This paper demonstrates that Herzl's development of political Zionism was largely a reflection of his improved mastery of Oedipal dangers. Before his Zionism, he had been a total assimilationist. This was manifested in the nature of his disdainful attitude towards the Jewish masses and in idealization of selected non-Jews, as well as in his conflicted Jewish identity. In his thirties, various external events undermined the assimilationist approach; other events, plus ego maturation, allowed a more effective mastery of Oedipal dangers. Thus, he was able to react more appropriately and creatively to intensifying anti-Semitism by developing Zionism that reflected increased honor, manliness, and reconciliation.     

A metaphor analysis in treatments of depression: Metaphor as a marker of change

This paper examines the use of ‘burden' metaphors relating to the experience of depression in one good and one poor outcome process-experiential short-term psychotherapy dyad. Burden-metaphors are meaningful as they appear to characterize the way these clients experience the course of their depressions (e.g. Korman & Angus, 1995). Understanding how these experiences are dealt with in productive therapies, as compared to less-productive treatments, can aid in therapist training and in developing therapeutic programmes for depressed clients. The Experiencing Scale (Klein et al., 1970) and the Narrative Process Coding System (Angus et al., 1996) are used to examine the processes at play when burden-metaphors are used in the good and the poor therapy. Results indicate that, in the good outcome dyad, metaphors of ‘being burdened' were transformed into metaphors of ‘unloading the burden' over the course of the therapy, while there was no transformation evident in the poor-outcome dyad. The good outcome therapy tended to have a higher level of experiencing when discussing burden-metaphors, in comparison with the poor-outcome therapy. Furthermore, the successful dyad tended to more often use internal narrative sequences (as identified by the NPCS) in the exploraiton of metaphoric expression.