Exploring the Creation of Picasso's Guernica: Composition Studies,Chance, Metaphors,and Expertise

Simonton (2007 Simonton , D. K. ( 2007 ). The creative process in Picasso's Guernica sketches: Monotonic improvements versus nonmonotonic variants . Creativity Research Journal , 19 , 329 – 344 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) offered evidence for his Darwinian theory of creativity—blind nonmonotonic variation and selection—based on ratings of Picasso's preliminary sketches of the components for Guernica. This comment reexamines the sketches, adding two major sources of information: (a) consideration of the changing conceptions of the composition, as well as the components, and (b) inclusion of sketches from Picasso's first vision for his mural, the Studio sketches. Such analysis supports the notion of nonmonotonic variation including backtracking. It also suggests that the final mural, although radically different in its components from the Studio sketches, drew on the composition and theme of that initial vision for the mural, but in a completely reimagined form when a chance event pulled Picasso's thinking in a new direction. This comment also describes how Picasso drew on his expertise throughout his explorations, that lack of knowledge of outcome does not diminish the role of expertise in the artist at work. The terms Darwinian and blind mask this and other features of the creative process, and an alternate vocabulary is suggested.     

Positive work experiences and life satisfaction: the moderating role of gender

This study investigated the effects of work engagement and psychological meaningfulness on life satisfaction taking into account the moderating effect of gender. A cross-sectional research design was used to capture data on satisfaction with life, work engagement and psychological meaningfulness. The sample consisted of 796 employees from various companies in South Africa (women?=?65.9%; aged between 18 and 67). The results showed work engagement and psychological meaningfulness to significantly predict life satisfaction. A significant interaction effect for gender was found on the relationships between work engagement on life satisfaction and psychological meaningfulness on work engagement respectively. The results indicated that men showed a higher level of life satisfaction when work engagement was high. Women showed lower levels of life satisfaction the more they engage in their work. Women further experienced a higher level of work engagement compared to men; however, the relationship between psychological meaningfulness and work engagement was stronger for men. The more psychological meaningfulness men experience, the more they will engage-unlike women, who tend to experience work engagement irrespective of psychological meaningfulness.     

Stigma consciousness modulates cortisol reactivity to social stress in women

The aim of the current study was to examine whether stigma consciousness shapes cortisol responses to social stress among women in the laboratory. Undergraduate women (N = 45) completed background measures and then participated in a public speaking task, with assessments of cortisol prior to the stressor as well as 20 and 40 minutes post stressor onset. Results from multilevel models revealed that women higher in stigma consciousness evidenced blunted cortisol reactivity following social stress across the study session compared to women lower in stigma consciousness. This interaction was robust to adjustment for a number of covariates, including demographic (e.g., age), physiological (e.g., menstrual cycle), and psychological (e.g., depressive symptomatology) factors. Potential explanations for observed cortisol patterns are discussed, including hyporeactivity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and elevated anticipatory stress. In conclusion, implications for health disparities research are considered.     

Recognising facial surfaces.

The extent to which faces depicted as surfaces devoid of pigmentation and with minimal texture cues ('head models') could be matched with photographs (when unfamiliar) and identified (when familiar) was examined in three experiments. The head models were obtained by scanning the three-dimensional surface of the face with a laser, and by displaying the surface measured in this way by using standard computer-aided design techniques. Performance in all tasks was above chance but far from ceiling. Experiment 1 showed that matching of unfamiliar head models with photographs was affected by the resolution with which the surface was displayed, suggesting that subjects based their decisions, at least in part, on three-dimensional surface structure. Matching accuracy was also affected by other factors to do with the view-points shown in the head models and test photographs, and the type of lighting used to portray the head model. In experiment 2 further evidence for the importance of the nature of the illumination used was obtained, and it was found that the addition of a hairstyle (not that of the target face) did not facilitate matching. In experiment 3 identification of the head models by colleagues of the people shown was compared with identification of photographs where the hair was concealed and eyes were closed. Head models were identified less well than these photographs, suggesting that the difficulties in their recognition are not solely due to the lack of hair. Women's heads were disproportionately difficult to recognise from the head models. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the use of such three-dimensional head models in forensic and surgical applications.     

Criminal Victimization,Depressive Symptoms,and Behavioral Avoidance Coping in Late Adulthood: The Conditioning Role of Strong Familial Ties

This study examined the association criminal victimization has with two mental health outcomes (i.e., depressive symptoms and behavioral avoidance coping) among older adults. This study also tested whether strong familial ties condition the harmful results of victimization. This study used cross-sectional survey data from interviews conducted in Arizona and Florida with individuals 60 years and older (N?=?2000). Linear regression was used to test the hypotheses. Victims reported higher depressive symptoms and greater behavioral avoidance coping. The link between victimization and depression was weaker among participants with strong attachments to their spouse and to their children. Strong spousal ties also diminished the link between criminal victimization and behavioral avoidance coping. These findings are consistent with research conducted at earlier stages of the life course. Practitioners should work with older crime victims to identify interventions that provide the types of support found in strong familial relationships.     

Picturing the Clima(c)tic: Greenpeace and the Representational Politics of Climate Change Communication

Abstract

The concepts and methods used by regulatory agencies worldwide to assess the safety of flavouring additives were designed by and for the flavouring industry. They embody and embed, in routine regulatory practice, the industry's commercial interests in minimising regulatory costs and the risk that the market for its products might be restricted. First sketched out by US flavouring company scientists in the early 1960s, this approach required almost no experimental data, and was highly permissive, relative to both our knowledge (and lack of it) about chemical toxicity and the ways other kinds of food additives are regulated. A ‘realist constructivist’ analysis illustrates how the industry's approach was also anti-scientific and unscientific because it served to discourage scientific investigation of important aspects of the phenomena it purported to evaluate, and because it relied on assumptions and hypotheses that lacked any evidential basis. The industry approach was first used to assess flavourings in the USA, where the industry was allowed to design and run its own regulatory regime. In all other regulatory jurisdictions, the industry's approach was rejected; expert advisors argued that it was incompatible with mandates to protect consumer health. Yet, the approach eventually prevailed everywhere. It did so in large part because of the collective refusal of the flavouring industry over three decades to provide the experimental data that had been requested by the regulatory authorities. This has been a form of regulatory capture, which was triggered by a remarkably effective tactic of non-cooperation with demands for data.