Psychoanalytic psychotherapy and its supervision via videoconference: experience,questions and dilemmas*

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis - The patient lives in Berlin, the therapist in Lisbon and the supervisor in Budapest. Not long ago, continuous psychotherapy and supervision would have been...     

The Need for a Theology of Resilience,Coexistence, and Hope

In many countries of the world, people are drinking a dangerous cocktail of poisonous ingredients all starting with the letter P: polarization, populism, protectionism, post‐truth, and patriarchy. As Christians, we cannot do other than work against this. In order to do so, we need to make use of the resources we have in spirituality and theology. This article reflects on these resources in the Lutheran tradition, asking how we, together, are church in this world.     

Effect of Concurrent Visual Feedback Frequency on Postural Control Learning in Adolescents

The purpose was to find better augmented visual feedback frequency (100% or 67%) for learning a balance task in adolescents. Thirty subjects were divided randomly into a control group, and 100% and 67% feedback groups. The three groups performed pretest (3 trials), practice (12 trials), posttest (3 trials) and retention (3 trials, 24 hours later). The reduced feedback group showed lower RMS in the posttest than in the pretest (p = 0.04). The control and reduced feedback groups showed significant lower median frequency in the posttest than in the pretest (p < 0.05). Both feedback groups showed lower values in retention than in the pretest (p < 0.05). Even when the effect of feedback frequency could not be detected in motor learning, 67% of the feedback was recommended for motor adaptation.     

Erik H. Erikson’s Young Man Luther: A Classic Revisited,Again

Pastoral Psychology - Using Erik H. Erikson’s book Young Man Luther and Donald Capps’s “Young Man Luther: A Classic Revisited,” the author reflects on his relationships with...     

The Linguistic Determination of Conscious Thought Contents

In this paper we address the question of what determines the content of our conscious episodes of thinking, considering recent claims that phenomenal character individuates thought contents. We present one prominent way for defenders of phenomenal intentionality to develop that view and then examine ‘sensory inner speech views’, which provide an alternative way of accounting for thought‐content determinacy. We argue that such views fare well with inner speech thinking but have problems accounting for unsymbolized thinking. Within this dialectic, we present an account of the nature of unsymbolized thinking that accords with and can be seen as a continuation of the activity of inner speech, while offering a way of explaining thought‐content determinacy in terms of linguistic structures and representations.     

Semi-sparse PCA

It is well known that the classical exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of data with more observations than variables has several types of indeterminacy. We study the factor indeterminacy and show some new aspects of this problem by considering EFA as a specific data matrix decomposition. We adopt a new approach to the EFA estimation and achieve a new characterization of the factor indeterminacy problem. A new alternative model is proposed, which gives determinate factors and can be seen as a semi-sparse principal component analysis (PCA). An alternating algorithm is developed, where in each step a Procrustes problem is solved. It is demonstrated that the new model/algorithm can act as a specific sparse PCA and as a low-rank-plus-sparse matrix decomposition. Numerical examples with several large data sets illustrate the versatility of the new model, and the performance and behaviour of its algorithmic implementation.

     

The Use of an Identifiability-Based Strategy for the Interpretation of Parameters in the 1PL-G and Rasch Models

Psychometrika - Using the well-known strategy in which parameters are linked to the sampling distribution via an identification analysis, we offer an interpretation of the item parameters in the...     

Animalizing the disadvantaged,mechanizing the wealthy: The convergence of socio‐economic status and attribution of humanity

Differences between groups in socio‐economic status (SES) are becoming more salient nowadays. In this context, we examined the animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization that both low and high‐SES groups may experience respectively by conducting three studies. In study 1, we manipulated the SES of two fictitious groups (low vs. high‐SES) and measured the humanity ascribed to them. Results showed that the low‐SES group was animalized in comparison with the high‐SES group, which was mechanized. In study 2, we manipulated the humanity of two fictitious groups by describing them as animals or machines and measured the perceived SES of the groups. Participants tended to attribute lower SES to the group described as animals and higher SES to the group described as machines. Finally, in study 3, we used an Implicit Association Test to replicate the results of studies 1 and 2. Taken together, these studies show that low‐SES groups are considered as animal‐like whereas high‐SES groups are seen as robot‐like. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to the justification of income inequality within our society.     

Beyond the big five as predictors of dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at: The HEXACO model and the dark triad

We aimed to extend research on dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at by testing the localization of the fear of (gelotophobia) and the joy in (gelotophilia) being laughed at, and the joy in laughing at others (katagelasticism) in the HEXACO model and the Dark Triad traits (both have not been examined so far). Study 1 (HEXACO model: N = 216) showed that gelotophobia was related to low extraversion, high emotionality, and low honesty‐humility; gelotophilia to high extraversion and high openness to experience; and katagelasticism to low agreeableness and low honesty‐humility. These results were similar to prior findings based on the Five‐Factor model, and supported the notion that the honesty‐humility trait contributes to the prediction of individual differences in gelotophobia and katagelasticism. Study 2 (Dark Triad: N = 204) showed that gelotophobia was related to high Machiavellianism and low narcissism; gelotophilia to high narcissism; and katagelasticism to high psychopathy and high Machiavellianism. These data helped to clarify our findings on the honesty‐humility trait, showing that gelotophobes and katagelasticists differ in their socially aversive characteristics. Overall, this research provides empirical evidence that dark (but subclinical) traits can be seen as relevant personality predictors of how people deal with laughter and ridicule.     

On Principal Congruences in Distributive Lattices with a Commutative Monoidal Operation and an Implication

Studia Logica - In this paper we introduce and study a variety of algebras that properly includes integral distributive commutative residuated lattices and weak Heyting algebras. Our main goal is...