Absence, ambiguity, and the representation of creativity in Vermeer's The Art of Painting

This paper examines The Art of Painting, by Johannes Vermeer, to demonstrate how a great artist portrays the realm of imagination and creativity. The crucial points of entry for psychoanalysis reside in two sets of details in the painting that have generally been neglected by art historians: first, the contrast between the realistic rendering of certain parts of the work and the fuzzy, ambiguous nature of other elements; and second, the pervasiveness of the theme of absence in the manifest content. The author refers to some of Winnicott's and Lacan's concepts, particularly the connection between absence and desire as a spur to creativity.     

Fitting the ratcliff diffusion model to experimental data

Many experiments in psychology yield both reaction time and accuracy data. However, no off-the-shelf methods yet exist for the statistical analysis of such data. One particularly successful model has been the diffusion process, but using it is difficult in practice because of numerical, statistical, and software problems. We present a general method for performing diffusion model analyses on experimental data. By implementing design matrices, a wide range of across-condition restrictions can be imposed on model parameters, in a flexible way. It becomes possible to fit models with parameters regressed onto predictors. Moreover, data analytical tools are discussed that can be used to handle various types of outliers and contaminants. We briefly present an easy-touse software tool that helps perform diffusion model analyses.     

Biothics, the Christian Citizen, and the Pluralist Game

The ascendancy of Christian activism in bioethical policy debateshas elicited a number of responses by critics of this activism.These critics typically argue that the public square ought toembrace Secular Liberalism (SL), a perspective that its proponentsmaintain is the most just arrangement in a pluralist society,even though SL places restraints on Christian activists thatare not placed on similarly situated citizens who hold moreliberal views on bioethical questions. The author critiquesthree arguments that are offered to defend SL: (1) the goldenrule contract argument, (2) the secular reason argument, and(3) the err-on-the-side-of-liberty argument. The author concludesthat each of these arguments fail to support SL.     

Protective Role of Spirituality from the Perspective of Indian College Students with Suicidal Ideation: “I am here Because God Exists”

Spiritual beliefs are found to be having a significant effect during times of struggles and trials in peoples’ lives. India being a multi-religious society, it is imperative to establish the relevance of spirituality in the lives of the college students with suicidal ideation. The current study therefore utilized focus group methodology to explore the Indian female college students’ perceptions on the protective role of spirituality as a factor contributing to their positive adaptation in times of adversity. Twenty students participated in the discussion. The results interestingly surfaced themes supporting the significance of them on how individuals rely on spiritual beliefs and the possible implications of the need to address it for positive adaptation. Most of the participants analogically stated the themes emerged as “something to stay afloat in the rough sea of life’s realities.”     

New Concepts in the 2014 ACA Code of Ethics

The 2014 revision of the ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014 ) substantially raises the bar for the ethical practice of professional counselors. This article provides interviews with members of the ACA Ethics Revision Task Force that explore and clarify new imperatives in the areas of ethical decision making, professional values, managing and maintaining boundaries, technology (including social media), the nonimposition of counselor personal values, counselor education, legal issues, sliding scales, and fee splitting.     

Authenticity: a mediator in the relationship between attachment style and affective functioning

Attachment has been show to exhibit a strong effect on emotional well-being throughout an individual’s lifetime. This study examined individuals’ authenticity as a potential mediating variable in the relationship between insecure attachment and affective functioning. Authenticity was examined from multiple perspectives to better define its role as a mediating variable. Results showed that avoidant attachment is a predictor of affective functioning, and that authenticity acts as a mediating variable in this relationship. Anxious attachment showed no direct relationship with affective functioning, yet evidence was found for an indirect pathway from anxious attachment through authenticity on affective functioning. The differing results by attachment style support Mikulincer, Shaver, and Pereg’s theory suggesting a two-part model of emotional response style, wherein individuals with avoidant attachment deactivate emotion and individuals with anxious attachment show hyper-activation when coping with emotion. The study examines the construct of authenticity and its importance in affective functioning. Implications for therapists working with clients are made that highlight the importance of authentic relationships in therapy and life.     

Conceptualising and testing the Narnian Character Virtue Scales: a study among 12- to 13-year-old students

ABSTRACT

This paper sets out to examine and to operationalise 12 key character virtues identified within C. S. Lewis’ Narnian texts: courage, curiosity, forgiveness, fortitude, gratitude, hard work, humility, integrity, justice, love, self-control, and wisdom. A pilot study among 56 year eight students (12–13 years of age) generated nine five-item instruments displaying adequate internal consistency reliability, and suggested ways in which the other three measures (curiosity, integrity, and love) could be enhanced in future work. Construct validity was explored by examining the correlations between these 12 character virtues and sex, self-concept, and empathy, and by locating these 12 character virtues within the three-dimensional psychological space proposed by Eysenck’s model of personality.     

Toward a taxonomic model of attention in effortful listening

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in studying listening effort. Research on listening effort intersects with the development of active theories of speech perception and contributes to the broader endeavor of understanding speech perception within the context of neuroscientific theories of perception, attention, and effort. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the problem, researchers vary widely in their precise conceptualization of the catch-all term listening effort. Very recent consensus work stresses the relationship between listening effort and the allocation of cognitive resources, providing a conceptual link to current cognitive neuropsychological theories associating effort with the allocation of selective attention. By linking listening effort to attentional effort, we enable the application of a taxonomy of external and internal attention to the characterization of effortful listening. More specifically, we use a vectorial model to decompose the demand causing listening effort into its mutually orthogonal external and internal components and map the relationship between demanded and exerted effort by means of a resource-limiting term that can represent the influence of motivation as well as vigilance and arousal. Due to its quantitative nature and easy graphical interpretation, this model can be applied to a broad range of problems dealing with listening effort. As such, we conclude that the model provides a good starting point for further research on effortful listening within a more differentiated neuropsychological framework.