The Confucian Self and Experiential Spirituality

Since the publication of his book on Zhongyong (Tu 1976), Tu Weiming has worked for more than 30 years on an anthropocosmic reconstruction of the Confucian universe, in which self-transformation is defined both as the starting point and as the necessary vehicle for one’s spiritual journey. This article is primarily intended to examine Tu’s attempts to reconstruct Confucian spirituality but further to take a step forward to argue that in the spiritual world as construed by Confucius and Mencius, the experiential functions as transcendental by which the self initiates and empowers the transformative process. Through exploring the spiritual significance of Confucian experiences, this essay will conclude that although “transcendental experience” is only one of many dimensions in other religious or intellectual traditions, it is the most important path for Confucians by which the self is enabled to become fully integrated with ultimate reality.     

Analysis of social interaction gestures in infants with autism.

This study analyzes the emergent use of gestures used among 9-12-month-old infants with autism and typical development using retrospective video analysis. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the frequency, initiation, prompting, and diversity of types of gestures used for social interaction purposes. It was hypothesized that a restricted variety in type(s) of gestures as well as fewer child-initiated gestures and more prompted gestures would be associated with later diagnosis of autism. Logistic regression analysis found that decreased variety in type of gestures used was significantly associated with autism status. Neither number of total gestures nor initiation of gestures (child-initiated vs. prompted) was significantly associated with autism status.     

Internet access and use among homeless and indigent drug users in Long Beach, California.

There has been a growing interest in using the Internet to access a variety of populations for prevention education and health care. It is not clear that this is viable for homeless and other marginalized populations. The purpose of this study was to describe Internet access and use among a sample of homeless and indigent drug users. A brief questionnaire was developed to assess computer ownership, use, email, and Internet access and use. Participants were recruited through a community-based human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention program. 265 participants completed the questionnaire. While 55% had ever used a computer in their lifetime, only 25% had ever owned a computer, 24% had ever had their own email account, 33% had access to a working computer in the last 30 days, 10% had sent or received email in the last 30 days, and 19% had surfed or accessed information on the Internet in the last 30 days. Logistic regression predicting lifetime use of a computer showed predictive factors of having completed high school (Odds Ratio [OR] = 4.5; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 2.41, 8.38) and number of days used amphetamines in the last 30 days, per 5 days of use (OR = 1.64; 95% CI = 1.18, 2.27). Inversely related were age, per 5 years of age (OR = 0.78; 95% CI = 0.65, 0.93) and number of days used marijuana in the last 30 days, per 5 days of use (OR = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.76, 0.99). Very low access and usage suggest that Internet-based public health education models be reexamined for this population. The association with amphetamine use may indicate a facilitating effect of amphetamine by heightening awareness and increasing wakefulness.     

4岁幼儿线条偏好实验研究

本研究采用对偶比较法,对4岁幼儿进行6类常见线条的偏好调查研究,得出以下结果:4岁幼儿线条偏好的顺序依次是:漩涡线、曲线、弧形线、波浪线、折线、直线;男生和女生对线条的偏好没有明显差异;4岁幼儿对不同方向的漩涡线的偏好有明显差异,对不同方向的直线、波浪线、折线、曲线和弧形线的偏好没有明显差异。     

Processing Evidence for the Grammatical Encoding of the Mass/Count Distinction in Mandarin Chinese

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - Using the Visual World Paradigm, the current study aimed to explore whether the mass/count distinction is determined by syntax in Mandarin Chinese, focusing...     

Parsing the relations between SES and stress reactivity: examining individual differences in neonatal stress response

In an effort to further delineate the reported relations between socioeconomic status (SES) and stress reactivity in children, associations between three domains of perinatal risk: socio-demographic, obstetrical complications, and maternal psychological factors during the perinatal period, and cortisol and behavioral reactivity were examined in 100 healthy African American neonates whose families resided in low-income environments. Behavioral and cortisol response to a heel stick and the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) was measured within the first 2 days of life. Significant associations were found between socio-demographic risk, obstetrical complications, and maternal psychological factors and neonatal behavior and cortisol in the context of the NBAS; few significant associations were found in the context of the heel stick. Greater magnitude of perinatal risk was associated with both higher and lower than average neonatal stress reactivity. The results provide preliminary data on the types of perinatal experiences that may have significant effects on stress reactivity in humans, especially in the context of families living in poverty. Application of these data to the hypothesis that prenatal stress results in programming of the fetal/neonatal stress response system is discussed.     

Deconstructing executive deficits among persons with autism: implications for cognitive neuroscience

Individuals with autism demonstrate impairments on measures of executive function (EF) relative to typically developing comparison participants. EF is comprised of several processes including inhibition, working memory and set shifting that develop throughout the lifespan. Impairments in EF may appear early in development and persist, or may represent a more transient delay which resolves with time. Given the unevenness of the cognitive profile of persons with autism, understanding the development of EF poses methodological challenges. These issues include those related to matching measures and the choice of comparison participants to which the performance of persons with autism will be compared. In the current review, we attempt to break down the processes of inhibition, working memory and set shifting among persons with autism. We propose to do this within a developmental perspective that highlights how matching measures and comparison participants can affect the interpretation of research findings.     

What gene-environment interactions can tell us about social competence in typical and atypical populations

Social competence is a complex human behaviour that is likely to involve a system of genes that interacts with a myriad of environmental risk and protective factors. The search for its genetic and environmental origins and influences is equally complex and will require a multidimensional conceptualization and multiple methods and levels of analysis. Behavioural genetic research can begin to address the fundamental yet complex question of how children develop social competence by uncovering the various influences on social development and disentangling variance due to multiple genes, environments and experiences. In this paper, we review the current status of research on sociability, face recognition, emotion recognition, and theory of mind (TOM)--well defined and measured constructs that are likely to be useful indices for detecting genetic and environmental influences on social competence. We also propose specific milestones as indices of further progress in the field: the development of an operational definition of the construct of social competence, the identification of social endophenotypes-psychological processes that are validly and reliably measured components of social competence, and improving specificity and homogeneity with regard to social endophenotypes within a population of study by employing 'extreme social phenotypes'. These efforts will lead to a better understanding of the specific contributions to the normal variation of social competence in the general population as well as to atypical social development.     

鲍德里亚对马克思劳动概念的误读及其方法论根源

鲍德里亚与历史唯物论彻底决裂,由西方马克思主义转向后马克思主义思潮,是从对“劳动”范畴的全面批判和解构入手的。但他对马克思劳动范畴的批判和解构,是建立在其对这一范畴的误读和曲解基础上的。鲍德里亚对劳动范畴的误读和曲解,不仅有着直接的理论和现实原因,而且有其深层的方法论根源。正是这种错误的方法论,导致了他在理论上对唯物史观解构的非法性,并在实际上从对资本主义的绝望反抗走向对资本主义反抗的绝望。