Darwin Puzzled? A Computer-assisted Analysis of Language in the Origin of Species

The aesthetically optimistic view of life in the last paragraph of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species contrasts with the evidence in his autobiography of a supposed perceptive colour blindness to the magnificence of nature. Accepting the theory of evolution as one of the scientific theories that has contributed to disenchantment, my aim is to delve into the Darwinian perception of natural beauty and solve this contrast of perceptions within the framework of the Weberian concept of “disenchantment of the world.” To do this, I have carried out a computer-assisted study of Darwin’s language focusing on the frequency of aesthetic-emotional and religious adjectives and adverbs in the six editions of the Origin. A semantic analysis of the lexicon shows that, although disenchanted, Darwin perceives nature as aesthetically enhanced. I arrive at the conclusion that Darwin’s alleged colour blindness does not come from a loss of his capacity to aesthetically perceive nature, but from his loss of religious belief.

     

With Ferenczi,The Contemporary Psychoanalyst is <Emphasis Type="Italic">Other</Emphasis>

Ferenczi's main interests centered on the clinical situation, and through them he felt the need to reformulate, discard and expand many aspects of existing theory to the extent that, in my opinion, he succeeded in constructing a specifically Ferenczian metapsychological conception. After briefly outlining the essentials of Ferenczi's theoretical concepts-highlighting above all the importance given to the interaction with others in psychic configuration and functioning-I go the opposite way, in a "mutatis mutandis" game, "deducing", as though they did not already exist and had to be invented, the technical and clinical approaches implied by this said metapsychology once it is constructed. One conclusion is that a psychoanalysis in tune with Ferenczi's conceptions is different from the one that ruled in the last century and in which a preferably solipsistic reading of Freud was dominant. Moreover, due to reasons that I will attempt to explain, today's psychoanalyst must stop thinking of himself as an absence (this is how I see the so-called "cure type" and others similar to it), and operate as a true other in a vivid relation with the patient.     

Parental knowledge and adolescent adjustment: substance use and health-related quality of life

This study analyses two models (maternal and paternal) in which parental care and sources of parental knowledge moderated the relationship between parents' knowledge about their adolescents' lives and adolescents' substance use and health-related quality of life. The sample was made up of 15942 Spanish adolescents who participated in the 2006 edition of Health Behavior in School-aged Children Study. Results showed that increased parents' knowledge about their adolescents' lives reduced adolescents' substance use and increased their quality of life. With respect to the moderation relationship, a limited effect was found. However, parental care and sources of parental knowledge used by both parents generally had main effects on adolescents' substance use and health-related quality of life, with care being the most relevant variable in the health-related quality of life, while knowledge was the most relevant one for substance use.     

The roles of planning,learning, and mental models in repeated dynamic decision making

Repeated search and decision making is a common consumer activity that should benefit from advanced planning. In three simulated shopping experiments, we find that people often fail to plan spontaneously or, when they do plan, do not use an appropriate mental model of the search problem. We also manipulate the mental models used by subjects and find that while our manipulation successfully encourages the development of appropriate mental models and improves performance when search costs are low, it does not result in the type of sophisticated mental model required to change strategies based on increased search costs. Finally, we show that the benefits of planning generalize to real world shopping behavior in a field experiment.     

A three-dimensional model for the octagonal phase

Abstract

A three-dimensional model for the octagonal phase based on a cut-projection from the eight-dimensional hypercubic lattice is presented here. The phason-phonon coupling which leads the octagonal phase into 45° twinned cubic ones is also studied. Conclusions of this realistic model do not modify the previously stated conclusions from the standard but incomplete two-dimensional treatment.     

Condicionamiento con estímulos enmascarados: Desarrollo de Efectos de Priming como Evidencia de Aprendizaje Asociativo no Consciente

Resumen

Los argumentos tradicionales de la discusión sobre el papel del procesamiento consciente en el condicionamiento clásico humano se revisan a la luz de los resultados de aprendizaje no consciente obtenidos recientemente en el campo del aprendizaje implícito. Tomando en cuenta las limitaciones de los argumentos teóricos y experimentales que sustentan la «necessary-gate hypothesis» (Dawson y Furedy, 1976), se proponen dos explicaciones alternativas que incluyen la posibilidad de obtener efectos de aprendizaje no consciente. Estas explicaciones se ponen a prueba a través de un estudio experimental de condicionamiento semántico en el que se emplean técnicas de enmascaramiento retroactivo para evitar la percepción consciente del Estímulo Condicionado (EC), del Estímulo Incondicionado (EI) o de ambos, obteniendo claros efectos de aprendizaje asociativo no consciente en los grupos en los que sólo uno de los dos estímulos puede ser procesado conscientemente, cuando este efecto se mide a través de índices indirectos de «priming» automático entre el EC y el El.

Los resultados se discuten en el marco de los papeles que la atención y el procesamiento no consciente pueden jugar en el desarrollo de asociaciones a largo plazo.     

Social dominance theory and the dynamics of intergroup relations: Taking stock and looking forward

This chapter reviews the last 15 years of research inspired by social dominance theory, a general theory of societal group-based inequality. In doing so, we sketch the broad outlines of the theory and discuss some of the controversies surrounding it, such as the “invariance hypothesis” regarding gender differences in social dominance orientation (SDO) and the effect of social context on the expression of SDO. We also discuss the central role of gender in the construction and maintenance of group-based inequality, and review some of the new research inspired by the social dominance perspective. Finally, we identify and discuss some of the most important theoretical questions posed by social dominance theory that are yet to be researched.