Playing and working through: a neglected analogy

The author proposes an analogy between certain features of playing and aspects of working through. Conceptualizing psychoanalysis as the process whereby unconscious fantasy is uncovered and then subjected to rigorous scrutiny, and building on Freud's (1908) insight that play is the same as fantasy--with the essential difference that fantasy links itself to real objects in play, such as toys and playthings--the author proposes that play can be thought of as not merely symbolic, as a fantasy bearer, so to speak, but as a fantasy tester as well. In the process of working through, some analysands attach their unconscious fantasies not only to a transference object, a primary libidinal object, or a significant loved one, but also to actual props within the analytic setting (a Kleenex box, for example), making the analogy with play even more obvious and palpable.     

Distinct capacity limits for attention and working memory: Evidence from attentive tracking and visual working memory paradigms

A hallmark of both visual attention and working memory is their severe capacity limit: People can attentively track only about four objects in a multiple object tracking (MOT) task and can hold only up to four objects in visual working memory (VWM). It has been proposed that attention underlies the capacity limit of VWM. We tested this hypothesis by determining the effect of varying the load of a MOT task performed during the retention interval of a VWM task and comparing the resulting dual-task costs with those observed when a VWM task was performed concurrently with another VWM task or with a verbal working memory task. Instead of supporting the view that the capacity limit of VWM is solely attention based, the results indicate that VWM capacity is set by the interaction of visuospatial attentional, central amodal, and local task-specific sources of processing.     

Long-term inhibition of return for spatial locations: evidence for a memory retrieval account

It has generally been accepted that attention is inhibited from returning to previously attended locations, and that this inhibition of return (IOR) lasts just two or three seconds. Recently, Tipper, Grison, and Kessler (2003) showed that IOR can occur over much longer periods of time provided the inhibition is encoded with a context-rich event. Here we examine standard (i.e., typical time range) and long-term IOR within the same experimental paradigm as a means to compare their properties. Experiment 1 used the simple displays typical of cueing paradigms and revealed that both standard and long-term IOR can be obtained under such conditions. Experiment 2 showed that both standard and long-term IOR occurred when there was incongruence between the required response on the current trial and that stored in memory. Furthermore, IOR was not produced when there was incongruence between a target feature (colour) of the current trial and that stored in memory. These results are consistent with a memory retrieval account of IOR and suggest that the same inhibitory mechanism may underlie both standard and long-term IOR.     

Social support,self-esteem,and positive health practices of early adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of social support and self-esteem to positive health practices in early adolescents. A sample of 148 early adolescents (70 boys and 78 girls), aged 12 to 14 years, attending an urban middle school, responded to The Revised Personal Lifestyle Questionnaire, the Personal Resource Questionnaire 85-Part II, and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale in classrooms. A correlation of .59 (p<.05) was found between scores on social support and scores for positive health practices, and a correlation of .44 (p<.05) between scores on the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale and scores for positive health practices.     

Future time perspective and positive health practices among young adolescents: a further extension

A sample of 139 young adolescents attending a middle school responded to the Future Time Perspective Inventory and the Personal Lifestyle Questionnaire in classrooms. A statistically significant correlation of .46 was found between their scores on future time perspective and ratings for the practice of positive health behaviors. This correlation was larger than those previously reported for middle and late adolescents but smaller than that found for young adults.     

Continuities and Consequences of Interactional Styles Across the Life Course

Behavior patterns can be sustained across the life course by two kinds of person-environment interaction. Cumulative continuity arises when an individual's interactional style channels him or her into environments that themselves reinforce that style, thereby sustaining the behavior pattern across the life course through the progressive accumulation of its own consequences. Interactional continuity arises when an individual's style evokes reciprocal, sustaining responses from others in ongoing social interaction, thereby reinstating the behavior pattern across the individual's life course whenever the relevant interactive situation is replicated. Using archival data from the Berkeley Guidance Study (Macfarlane, Allen, & Honzik, 1954), we present evidence for the operation of these two continuity-promoting processes by identifying individuals who were ill-tempered, shy, or dependent in late childhood and then tracing the continuities and consequences of these interactional styles across the subsequent 30 years of their lives in the domains of work and family. The importance of the sociocultural context in mediating these continuities and consequences is stressed.     

Critical individualism: Whitehead's metaphysics and critique of liberalism

Conclusion Whitehead's metaphysics contains an accurate portrayal of concrete human existence - one which can serve as a ground for criticizing the abstractions into which liberalism has fallen. His critical individualism, his insistence both on the individual as the seat of all value and on our essential connectedness to one another in modern society, is a call for liberalism to restore concrete meaning to its fundamental notions of individuality and freedom. However, his suggestions that the core values of liberalism can be actualized if we but reaffirm Plato's ancient equation of knowledge with virtue rests on an optimism that is difficult to sustain apart from a compensatory metaphysical dogma. We can appropriate Whitehead's criticism of liberalism, but if we can no longer convince ourselves of a metaphysical vision that supports faith in Plato's equation, we must look elsewhere for suggestions as to how liberalism can be revitalized.