Enlightenment and individuation: syncretism,synchronicity and beyond

This paper opens with a personal introduction to the topic of syncretism within the context of a comparison of enlightenment associated with Eastern religious traditions and individuation as experienced through Jungian analysis. A brief exploration of the recent scholarly revival of interest in syncretism follows. Some close parallels with Jungian theory are highlighted, especially in the work of Timothy Light. Applications to the syncretic trends in Tang culture along the Silk Road(s) suggest deeper patterns of interconnectedness lie at the heart of these trends. A complex systems view highlights similarities between syncretic connections and non‐local aspects of synchronistic field events. The final section attempts to extend this approach to innovation in general terms through the recently articulated concept of the ‘adjacent possible’ from the writing of Stuart Kauffman. From this, the notion of a collective pre‐conscious dimension to the psyche is extrapolated. The unifying thread of acausal emergent forms provides a potential synthetic network for these phenomena.     

What's wrong with cross-cultural comparisons of subjective Likert scales?: The reference-group effect

Social comparison theory maintains that people think about themselves compared with similar others. Those in one culture, then, compare themselves with different others and standards than do those in another culture, thus potentially confounding cross-cultural comparisons. A pilot study and Study 1 demonstrated the problematic nature of this reference-group effect: Whereas cultural experts agreed that East Asians are more collectivistic than North Americans, cross-cultural comparisons of trait and attitude measures failed to reveal such a pattern. Study 2 found that manipulating reference groups enhanced the expected cultural differences, and Study 3 revealed that people from different cultural backgrounds within the same country exhibited larger differences than did people from different countries. Cross-cultural comparisons using subjective Likert scales are compromised because of different reference groups. Possible solutions are discussed.     

Empirical Investigation of the Relationships Between Irrationality,Self-Acceptance,and Dispositional Forgiveness

Milburn (J Ration Emot Cogn Behav Ther 33:325–340, 2015) recently suggested a theoretical link between REBT and forgiving, proposing that irrational beliefs, particularly demandingness and global evaluations of human worth, play a role in lack of forgiveness. The present study investigated a quantitative link between the concepts of irrationality, self-acceptance, and dispositional forgiveness. Four-hundred and thirty-three participants (70% female) participated in a 69-item online survey combining four previously validated scales: Shortened General Attitude and Belief Scale; Heartland Forgiveness Scale; Unconditional Self-Acceptance Questionnaire; and the Transgression Narrative Test of Forgivingness—(with revised response-options). Results indicated moderate and strong negative correlations between irrationality and dispositional forgiveness. Conversely, unconditional self-acceptance was significantly positively correlated with dispositional forgiveness. Regression analyses indicated that subtypes of irrationality and self-acceptance could predict dispositional forgiveness of self, other, and situation. No significant differences were found between sexes. These findings add empirical support to the hypotheses made by Milburn, suggesting that holding irrational beliefs impedes the process of forgiving, and one’s level of self-acceptance predicts one’s disposition to forgive.     

Differences in brain morphology and working memory capacity across childhood

Working memory (WM) skills are closely associated with learning progress in key areas such as reading and mathematics across childhood. As yet, however, little is known about how the brain systems underpinning WM develop over this critical developmental period. The current study investigated whether and how structural brain correlates of components of the working memory system change over development. Verbal and visuospatial short‐term and working memory were assessed in 153 children between 5.58 and 15.92 years, and latent components of the working memory system were derived. Fractional anisotropy and cortical thickness maps were derived from T1‐weighted and diffusion‐weighted MRI and processed using eigenanatomy decomposition. There was a greater involvement of the corpus callosum and posterior temporal white matter in younger children for performance associated with the executive part of the working memory system. For older children, this was more closely linked with the thickness of the occipitotemporal cortex. These findings suggest that increasing specialization leads to shifts in the contribution of neural substrates over childhood, moving from an early dependence on a distributed system supported by long‐range connections to later reliance on specialized local circuitry. Our findings demonstrate that despite the component factor structure being stable across childhood, the underlying brain systems supporting working memory change. Taking the age of the child into account, and not just their overall score, is likely to be critical for understanding the nature of the limitations on their working memory capacity.     

Conversation level syntax similarity metric

The syntax and semantics of human language can illuminate many individual psychological differences and important dimensions of social interaction. Accordingly, psychological and psycholinguistic research has begun incorporating sophisticated representations of semantic content to better understand the connection between word choice and psychological processes. In this work we introduce ConversAtion level Syntax SImilarity Metric (CASSIM), a novel method for calculating conversation-level syntax similarity. CASSIM estimates the syntax similarity between conversations by automatically generating syntactical representations of the sentences in conversation, estimating the structural differences between them, and calculating an optimized estimate of the conversation-level syntax similarity. After introducing and explaining this method, we report results from two method validation experiments (Study 1) and conduct a series of analyses with CASSIM to investigate syntax accommodation in social media discourse (Study 2). We run the same experiments using two well-known existing syntactic metrics, LSM and Coh-Metrix, and compare their results to CASSIM. Overall, our results indicate that CASSIM is able to reliably measure syntax similarity and to provide robust evidence of syntax accommodation within social media discourse.     

The contributions of religious practice,existential certainty,and raising grandchildren to well-being in older adults

ABSTRACT

Religious beliefs and practices are believed to foster well-being across the life course. This study examines whether religious practice, spiritual development, and existential certainty are positively linked to well-being in grandparents (N = 2,503) and whether these factors buffer grandparents from risks associated with raising grandchildren and adjusting to changing roles. Data were collected from individuals attending Protestant churches. Spiritual development and existential certainty were positively associated with well-being. We found no evidence for buffering effects of religious practice on grandparent well-being. Grandparents raising grandchildren reported more challenges in adjusting to changes in roles compared to their peers.     

An Evaluation of the Relative Effectiveness of Function-Based Consequent and Antecedent Interventions in a Preschool Setting

Although there is substantial functional behavioral assessment (FBA) literature suggesting that function-based interventions are effective for improving problem behavior, only a limited number of studies have examined the effectiveness of function-based antecedent versus consequent interventions. Additionally, although there has been a recent increase in the number of studies conducted in the K–12 school setting, only a limited number of studies have included children in the preschool setting. The present study extends existing literature by examining the effectiveness of function-based antecedent versus consequent interventions for reducing problem behavior and increasing appropriately engaged behavior for preschool children without cognitive disabilities. Following an FBA of 4 children, the effectiveness of a function-based antecedent (i.e., noncontingent reinforcement [NCR]) was compared with a function-based consequent (i.e., differential reinforcement of alternative behavior [DRA]) intervention using an alternating treatments design. Results indicated that both function-based NCR and DRA were effective for decreasing problem behavior and increasing appropriately engaged behavior, with function-based NCR being more effective than DRA for 2 of 4 participants.     

The relationship between conformity to gender norms,sexual orientation,and gender identity for sexual minorities

The current study examined how dimensions of masculinity and femininity were expressed for sexual minorities. Cluster analysis was used to determine the number of latent classes for conformity to masculine and feminine norms for sexual minorities. A four-class solution was the best fit to the data. Cluster 1 (labeled Relating to others through equality and caring, n = 41) was characterized by low dominance and power over women and high involvement with kids and have nice relationships norms. Cluster 2 (labeled Relating to others through avoidance and misogyny, n = 38) was characterized by low risk-taking and have nice relationships and high power over women and disdain for homosexuality. Cluster 3 (labeled Relating to others through power, n = 34) was characterized by high winning, pursuit of status, and appearance and low modesty. Cluster 4 (labeled Relating to others through sex, n = 27) was characterized by low involvement in romantic relationships and sexual fidelity while endorsing high playboy attitudes. Results indicate that conforming to gender norms tends to follow categories of interpersonal beliefs and behaviors rather than being based in gender identity or sexual orientation. Implications of the results for future research and clinical practice are examined.     

From ultrafast to slow: Heating rate dependence of the glass transition temperature in metallic systems

When a solid crosses the glass transition, viscous flow sets in and the glass transforms into a supercooled liquid. The glass transition temperature exhibits a heating rate dependence which was previously observed to follow a Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann (VFT) equation. Here we report on a change in the heating rate dependence of the glass transition, determined by the distinct increase in the specific heat capacity, of a metallic glass. We combine standard techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry with recently developed ohmic heating techniques in order to cover seven orders of magnitude in heating rate. Contrary to previous reports, our results show that the change of the glass transition temperature cannot be described by a single VFT equation. Instead we find two distinct regimes which independently follow a VFT expression.