Inherent Self,Invented Self,Empty Self: Constructivism,Buddhism, and Psychotherapy

Constructivist and Buddhist approaches to counseling and psychotherapy share increasing popularity as well as similar epistemological assumptions and understanding of human dysfunction and its amelioration. These approaches can be seen as consistent with postmodern psychology, which is distinguished from a realist or foundationalist view. This article provides an overview of these 2 models and describes some of their implications for psychopathology and psychotherapy, including examples of specific therapeutic approaches drawn from each perspective that might mutually inform practitioners who wish to apply this perspective to a higher view of the human situation.     

The effect of stress on the linguistic generalization of bilingual individuals

Spanish-English coordinate bilinguals were subjects in a GSR linguistic conditioning experiment using strong and mild buzzer conditions and spoken stimuli. Each subject was randomly assigned to one of two lists of words and one of two levels of buzzer sounds. A Spanish word from the Spanish list and an English word from the English list functioned as a conditioned word (CS). The lists were Spanish and English words related semantically and phonemically and unrelated to the CS. Generalization was studied under conscious and unconscious conditions. We found that both buzzer conditions resulted in significantly greater GSR responses to semantic and phonemic words than to words unrelated to the CS. Generalization to semantic words was not significantly greater than to phonemic words. There was a tendency toward greater phonemic than semantic generalization in the strong buzzer condition. The opposite was observed regarding the mild buzzer. The results were the same in both lists and languages. Under a conscious and unstressful condition, generalization to semantic words was found to be more prominent than to phonemic words. This suggests that under normal condition semantic generalization is mediated by conscious cognition. We concluded that strong emotion produces an increase in phonemic, as compared to semantic, generalization in both languages. Hence, primitivization of the subjects' cognitive and linguistic functioning is assumed to have occurred. These results are important in understanding the deleterious effect that stressful situations may have on linguistic functioning and cognition in bilinguals.     

A comparison of generalization functions and frame of reference effects in different training paradigms

Six experiments were carried out to compare go/no-go and choice paradigms for studying the effects of intradimensional discrimination training on subsequent measures of stimulus generalization in human subjects. Specifically, the purpose was to compare the two paradigms as means of investigating generalization gradient forms and frame of reference effects. In Experiment 1, the stimulus dimension was visual intensity (brightness); in Experiment 2, it was line orientation (line-angle stimuli). After learning to respond (or to respond “right”) to stimulus value (SV) 4 and not to respond (or to respond “left”) to SV2 (in Experiment 1) or SV1 (in Experiment 2), the subjects were tested for generalization (recognition) with an asymmetrical set of values ranging from SV1 to SV11. Go/no-go training produced peaked gradients, whereas choice training produced sigmoid gradients. The asymmetrical testing resulted in a gradual shift of the peak of responding (go/no-go group) or in the point of subjective indifference (PSI; choice group) toward. the central value of the test series; thus, both paradigms revealed a frame of reference effect. The results were comparable for the quantitative (intensity) and the qualitative (line-angle) stimulus dimensions. Experiment 3 compared the go/no-go procedure with a yes/no procedure in which subjects responded “right” to SV4 and “left” to all other intensities and found no differences between these procedures. Thus the difference in gradient forms in go/no as opposed to (traditional) choice paradigms depends on whether one or two target stimuli are used in training. In Experiment 4, in which visual intensity was used, the shift in the PSI following choice training varied positively with the range of asymmetrical test stimuli employed. In Experiment 5, also with visual intensity, the magnitude of the peak shift following go/no-go training varied as a function of over representing a high or a low stimulus value during generalization testing. Experiment 6, with line angles, showed that the PSI following choice training varies in a similar way. The frame of reference effects obtained in these experiments are consistent with an adaptation-level model.     

Speed analyses of stimulus equivalence.

The functional substitutability of stimuli in equivalence classes was examined through analyses of the speed of college students'' accurate responding. After training subjects to respond to 18 conditional relations, subjects'' accuracy and speed of accurate responding were compared across trial types (baseline, symmetry, transitivity, and combined transitivity and symmetry) and nodal distance (one- through five-node transitive and combined transitive and symmetric relations). Differences in accuracy across nodal distance and trial type were significant only on the first tests of equivalence, whereas differences in speed were significant even after extended testing. Response speed was inversely related to the number of nodes on which the tested relations were based. Significant differences in response speed were also found across trial types, except between transitivity and combined trials. To determine the generality of these comparisons, three groups of subjects were included: An instructed group was given an instruction that specified the interchangeability of stimuli related through training; a queried group was queried about the basis for test-trial responding: and a standard group was neither instructed nor queried. There were no significant differences among groups. These results suggest the use of response speed and response accuracy to measure the strength of matching relations.