Correlates of MMPI–A Scales in Acute Psychiatric and Forensic Samples

The purpose of this study was to expand the empirical basis for interpretation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent (MMPI–A; Butcher et al., 1992). Participants were 157 boys from a forensic setting and 197 girls from an acute psychiatric inpatient setting. Criterion variables were identified from sources such as psychiatrist report, parent report, and psychosocial history. Results generally support the construct validity of MMPI–A scales. Scales measuring internalizing problems were more highly correlated with criterion measures of internalizing behaviors than measures of externalizing behaviors, whereas scales measuring externalizing problems were more highly correlated with externalizing variables than with internalizing criteria. Implications of this study include an expanded empirical foundation for interpretation of the MMPI–A, greater understanding of the constructs it measures, and evidence supporting the generalizability of these constructs across settings.     

white supremacist behavior: toward an integrated social psychological model

The literature conceptually exploring the deviant behavior of white supremacists is somewhat limited. Those contributions that do exist tend to be more disciplinary specific, anchored in sociological, psychological, or criminological research. One approach to organizing the extant literature comes from social psychology. This domain allows for considerably more disciplinary cross-fertilization. The present study examines the behavior of white supremacists utilizing a social psychological model. The model emphasizes the intrapsychic, the interpersonal, and the situational dynamics at work in the daily practices of white supremacists. In order to assess how these prisms operate, four thematic categories, essential to the organization of white supremacists, are systematically investigated. These categories include the role of power, identity, sexuality, and the de nition of the situation. We contend that our social psychological approach represents something of an integrated model for understanding the deviant attitudes, thought processes, and ritualized activities of white supremacists. We conclude by suggesting that the proposed interpretive schema may have utility in other, similar areas of social scientific inquiry.     

theorizing non-linear communities: on social deviance and housing the homeless

Theories of deviance abound; however, little attention has been given to the construction and meaning of deviance in postmodern society. According to some theorists, one conceptual variant of postmodernism is chaology or non-linear dynamical systems theory. In this article, the relevance of chaos theory for advancing our understanding of social deviance is examined. In particular, such notions as non-linearity, fractal space, attractors, self-similarity, bifurcations, and dissipative structures are described as constitutive of the postmodern agenda. These insights are then applied to the difficult and complex issue of housing the homeless, especially shelter strategies designed to create personhood and place for the poor and disenfranchised.     

High cost helping scenario: The role of empathy,prosocial reasoning and moral disengagement on helping behavior

This study aimed to investigate the process that leads people to offer or omit help in response to an explicit request for assistance, taking into account both emotional and cognitive factors. Specifically, a hypothetical scenario methodology was used in a sample of 174 Italian youths (50% males) to examine whether and how factors such as empathy, prosocial moral reasoning and moral disengagement influence the propensity to help when providing assistance is not in the individual’s personal interest. While a few previous studies have included moral disengagement as an antecedent of prosocial decision making, we highlight the significance of this factor in the avoidance of moral responsibility towards others in need. The results highlight two ways in which differences in emotional tendencies and moral-cognitive processes may operate in prosocial decision making in high personal cost situations. First, high empathy levels could promote an altruistic response which in turn fosters mature prosocial moral reasoning. Second, personal distress may enhance moral disengagement mechanisms that may facilitate self-centred behaviors.     

The return of the Sophists

The author argues against a foundational epistemology and thus sides with the Greek Sophists. He shows that the search for foundations of knowledge and truth is the outcome of a referential theory of language. He finds that Nietzsche and Saussure pioneered attacks on and substitutions for this theory. Wittgenstein, Derrida and Rorty, inter alia, continued this trend. The author discusses the criticisms and theories of these philosophers and finds that he agrees with their criticisms and many of their positive moves but that he cannot accept their social relativism because it cannot account for inter- and transcultural understanding and the regulative role of truth. He looks for a theory of language and truth which will also comply with these requirements.     

Trauma and the symbolic function of the mind

The relationship between trauma and the symbolic function of the mind is discussed in three parts. First, a short outline is given of the long‐lasting split within the field of trauma: it consists in a dichotomy between the symbolic and anti‐symbolic reading of the traumatic experience – as I have called it in a previous paper. In the second part, it is maintained that the work of Ferenczi represents an attempt at overcoming this split. In the third and last part, the notion of symbolic adaptation is introduced. The process of adaptation has to ensure the survival of the individual along lines capable to foster the hope that the lost equilibrium between the individual and his environment will one day be restored. This function is performed by symbols: by linking together the lost satisfaction and the hoped‐for wish‐fulfillment, by creating bridges between past and future, symbols enable us to adjust to the new environment without renouncing hope. Symbols are mediators between the pleasure principle and the reality principle. When a person is struck by trauma it is precisely this unifying function which is broken. A typical consequence of this situation is described by Ferenczi as a rupture between feeling and intelligence.     

Between Symbol and Antisymbol - The Meaning of Trauma Reconsidered

Within psychoanalysis, it has usually been assumed that what makes an external event traumatic is the personal meaning of the event for that individual, i.e. how it resonates within his/her internal world and in relation to the infantile conflict. Such an assumption, which implies that a trauma operates as a symbol, is compared with the contrasting view that a trauma rather destroys the capacity of symbolization, and discussed in relation to the psyche-soma issue. It is finally maintained that psychic trauma forces upon the victim a vast and difficult transformation, in relation to which the body can be used as an antisymbolic device to resist mental change.     

“sexuality and death” in freud's discovery of sexual aetiology

Abstract

The present study focuses on Freud's discovery of sexual aetiology in the period from his studies in Paris and Berlin (1885–86) to self-analysis (1897). The study gives a reassessment of both the link and the break between Freud's early works and the contemporary medical views and splits concerning sexual aetiology, which is relevant for the understanding of Freud's later developments. Freud's initial aversion toward sexual aetiology is investigated, and a significant connection between sexuality and death is found in the medical practice of female circumcision and castration in the treatment of hysteria. Finally, the relevance of the tabooed surgical operations is discussed in relation to a series of important moments for the birth of psychoanalysis (the collaboration with Fliess and the operation on Emma Eckstein, the Irma dream, the seduction theory and its abandonment, and the emergence in Freud of the memory of the death of little Julius as the “germ of guilt”).     

Fostering Creativity Through Educational Video Game Development Projects: A Study of Contextual and Task Characteristics

The increasing demand for creative individuals in the labor market requires well-prepared professionals, capable of enhancing competitiveness through new ideas and innovative actions. Educational programs should, therefore, rely on approaches and learning environments that foster creativity. In this study, video game development projects were used as an approach to foster creativity in educational contexts. Conceptual frameworks focused on contextual creativity enablers indicate that specific environment and task characteristics can facilitate the development and expression of creativity. This study explored the extent to which students perceived that educational game development projects mimicking real-world dynamics recreated contextual conditions appropriate to foster creativity, and whether they associated these conditions with their self-perceived creativity improvement. Questionnaires were administered to 38 students enrolled in 2 educational game development programs. Findings suggest that video game development creates a remarkable setting to promote and facilitate the expression and development of students' creativity, due to characteristics of the task and of the work environment generated by this activity.