Is Self‐Determined Functioning a Universal Prerequisite for Motive–Goal Congruence? Examining the Domain of Achievement in Three Cultures

ABSTRACT Research has shown that capacity for accessing implicit motives promotes congruence between the implicit and the explicit motivational system: Individuals able to test a conscious goal for its fit with their implicit motivation commit themselves more fully to self‐congruent goals. However, it has not yet been shown whether this is a universal phenomenon or limited to Euro‐American cultures in which individual needs are less strictly constrained by the social environment than in other cultural contexts. Thus, the present study examined whether self‐determination interacts with the implicit achievement motive to predict how much importance individuals from Cameroon, Germany, and Hong Kong ascribe to achievement goals. Moreover, the importance ascribed to goals should indirectly predict life satisfaction via success in goal realization. Results showed that the associations described above are valid in all three cultural groups and are discussed in terms of their implications for the universal processes characterizing motivation.     

Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale-Computer

Alexithymia is an important concept in both psychosomatic medicine and emotion research. A valid instrument for the assessment of alexithymia is the Levels Of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; English version by R. Lane, German version by C. Subic-Wrana). Subjects are asked to evaluate in their own words the emotional content of briefly depicted interpersonal situations. Wide use of the LEAS has so far been hampered by a relatively complex evaluation procedure of answers that could not easily be automated. This was the motivation to create a digital version of the LEAS that allows subjects to give their answers directly to the computer and evaluates them automatically (LEAS-C). A custom-made algorithm for text analysis assesses the level of emotional awareness of each answer based on a valid glossary of emotionally relevant words. First data of the application of the LEAS-C in a sample of 187 healthy subjects are reported here. With its high interrater reliability (r=0.86–0.90) compared with human raters, the LEAS-C can be considered a reliable means of assessing alexithymia.     

Foster Care Chronicles: Use of the Arts for Teens Aging Out of the Foster Care System

This article describes the use of narrative and drama therapies as creative therapeutic interventions to engage and assist vulnerable youth. Foster Care Chronicles was a collaboration between a state university social work program and a local department of social services in a child welfare unit. This 2-year exploratory project employed an innovative approach to work with foster care youth, all of whom were within 2 years of “aging out” of care. The project utilized narrative therapy and drama therapy in a group setting by building on youths’ individual and collective strengths in writing, speaking, and acting. As these youth assessed their participation in this program, their reflections addressed developing aspects of self-image, self-healing, self-efficacy, and lessons learned.     

Newton,Goethe and the Alleged Underdetermination of Ray Optics

Did Goethe devise an empirically viable theory of classical ray optics? Or can we at least make use of his ideas to propose one? And if so, does this confront us with an intriguing case of theory underdetermination? In this paper, which is mainly a comment on the recent work of Olaf Müller, I shall address these three questions and argue for ‘no, yes, no’. This is in contrast to Müller, who has recently launched a vivid defense of Goethe-style ray optics (Müller in “Mehr Licht. Goethe mit Newton im Streit um die Farben.” Fischer, Frankfurt a.M., 2015a; Z Philos Forsch 69(4):569–573, 2015b; Z Philos Forsch 69(4):588–598, 2015c; Br J Hist Philos 24(2):322–346, 2016). Müller aims to give an almost positive answer to all three questions: ‘perhaps, yes, yes’. My overall line of argument will be that the rather restricted regime of classical geometrical optics of spectral colors (or ray optics, for short) allows at best for a weak form of transient theory underdetermination that, in turn and more straightforwardly, also allows for a structuralist reading in terms of two structurally equivalent formulations of one and the same theory. However, extending any of the rivaling models of ray optics other than Newton’s beyond the mentioned regime and embedding them into physics in total—especially in view of thermodynamics—leads to a contradiction. Hence, Newton’s theory is confirmed as the only consistent theoretical interpretation of ray optics.     

SUPERVISION: A CONTAINERÆCONTAINED APPROACH

The authors illustrate an approach to the supervisory process as a learning experience for both supervisee and supervisor built on the containment of unconscious anxieties. It is argued that a core function of psychoanalytic supervision is to help contain the emotional turbulence and the unconscious anxieties arising and evolving in the two interacting domains of the analytic and the supervisory sessions. From this perspective, the analyst-patient interaction and that of the supervisee and supervisor can be understood as twin, tiered transformational arenas, the supervisory one being at the service of holding and grasping the roles the supervisee/analyst goes through as part of the analytic process. On the basis of detailed clinical material from a disturbed 7-year-old girl, the authors explore the interrelated issues and difficulties in containing anxieties and turbulence in both the analytic and the supervisory situation. When emotional containment is adequately handled, the supervision helps the understanding and development of the supervisee's use of his/her own personality as a treatment instrument, as advocated by Fleming and Benedek decades ago. The supervisory session thus furthers the resolution of clinical issues through symbol-formation, clinical sessions and supervision being twin domains for recording and understanding emotional evolution.     

Dissociation of acquisition and expression of fear conditioned responses under working memory load

Previously, it has been suggested that high working memory load (WML) prevents associative learning and, thus, conditioned responses (CRs) during differential-delay fear conditioning. However, previous studies did not distinguish between the effects of WML on the acquisition versus the expression of the CRs. In the present study, we reinvestigated this issue by manipulating WML during either acquisition or postconditioning and showed that the absence of a differential CR under high WML does not indicate the absence of the acquisition of this CR. Thus, a significant CR was observed during a task-free postconditioning phase, and there was no CR during the preceding acquisition phase with high WML. Conversely, a normally acquired CR was impaired by high WML during the postconditioning phase. The results suggest that high WML affects the expression of the CR. If they are not experimentally separated, the effects of WML on the acquisition and expression of the CR may occur together, and the findings may be erroneously interpreted as indicating a lack of associative learning.     

The structure of semantic person memory: evidence from semantic priming in person recognition

This paper reviews research on the structure of semantic person memory as examined with semantic priming. In this experimental paradigm, a familiarity decision on a target face or written name is usually faster when it is preceded by a related as compared to an unrelated prime. This effect has been shown to be relatively short lived and susceptible to interfering items. Moreover, semantic priming can cross stimulus domains, such that a written name can prime a target face and vice versa. However, it remains controversial whether representations of people are stored in associative networks based on co-occurrence, or in more abstract semantic categories. In line with prominent cognitive models of face recognition, which explain semantic priming by shared semantic information between prime and target, recent research demonstrated that priming could be obtained from purely categorically related, non-associated prime/target pairs. Although strategic processes, such as expectancy and retrospective matching likely contribute, there is also evidence for a non-strategic contribution to priming, presumably related to spreading activation. Finally, a semantic priming effect has been demonstrated in the N400 event-related potential (ERP) component, which may reflect facilitated access to semantic information. It is concluded that categorical relatedness is one organizing principle of semantic person memory.