Learning beyond the known

In this paper issues related to adult learning, such as self-directed and experiential learning are shown to hold a trace of the unknown, which has implications for psychotherapy training and practice. The unknown is traced through the problematic of individualistic approaches that restrict the emergence of unknowns by limiting possibility of the other, hindering recognition of our own cultural position and seeking to avoid anxiety. Learning is also shown to have links with experiences of change and loss, having in common the generation of anxiety, seen as both the driving force to know and the need to close down unknowing. Subsequently, learning is viewed as involving the potential to repeat the already known as well as opening up the possibility for something new. Psychoanalysis and continental philosophy are shown, in different ways, to help our understanding of the reasons for the anxiety occurring in times of transition, also showing the way fragmentary experiences act as a reminder of death. It is proposed that the relational aspects of learning are an important factor in learning to tolerate the anxiety and adult learning is thus seen as requiring possibility of the other, in relationship, in order to permit the unknown.     

Mindfulness reduces habitual responding based on implicit knowledge: Evidence from artificial grammar learning

Participants were unknowingly exposed to complex regularities in a working memory task. The existence of implicit knowledge was subsequently inferred from a preference for stimuli with similar grammatical regularities. Several affective traits have been shown to influence AGL performance positively, many of which are related to a tendency for automatic responding. We therefore tested whether the mindfulness trait predicted a reduction of grammatically congruent preferences, and used emotional primes to explore the influence of affect. Mindfulness was shown to correlate negatively with grammatically congruent responses. Negative primes were shown to result in faster and more negative evaluations. We conclude that grammatically congruent preference ratings rely on habitual responses, and that our findings provide empirical evidence for the non-reactive disposition of the mindfulness trait.     

“Bearing my fruit into the grave”: experiences of anticipatory grieving and bereavement among Zimbabwean HIV positive women with loss of their only child

This study aimed to explore the bereavement experiences of HIV positive women who had lost their only child. Participants were 10 women living with HIV (age range?=?24–35 years) and with loss of their only child. Data on experiences of anticipatory grief and bereavement among HIV positive women were collected over a period of six months. The data were analysed thematically. Findings suggest the women to have traumatic memories of their deceased children and also from the marital disharmony which followed the loss. The participants reported to have questioned their womanhood since they did not have any surviving child and dreaded the fact that they would die childless. Women also reported a sense of persona worthlessness following the death of the child and lived in fear and uncertainty of the future concerning their own mortality.     

Asanha Bucha Day: Boring,Subversive, or Subversively Boring?

The first sermon given by the Buddha after his enlightenment is commemorated each year in Thailand with a celebration known as Asanha Bucha Day (Asalha Pūjā in Pali). Monasteries are often full on the day, but many people find the sermon unmemorable, even boring. To better understand the meaning of the sermon within the context of its reception this article presents one sermon in full given at one monastery on Asanha Bucha Day in Chiang Mai, and then through attention to the content of the spoken words and their impression on their audience offers three quite different readings of it: a conventional read, a subversive read, and a particular form of communication that emerges from the tension in between. I argue that it is through rather than antagonistic to its boring reputation that the sermon serves as a special mode of activism in Thailand, one that leverages tradition and conventionality to push for social change in a manner not yet fully appreciated in Buddhist scholarship.     

Cross-Cultural Diagnostic Applicability of the Pictogram Test

The aim of this study was to determine whether the Pictogram Test (PT; Vygostsky, 1960) a test of logical memory that was developed in Russia, is applicable for diagnosing and understanding thought disturbances in schizophrenia within an English-speaking population. Participants included 62 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders and 80 community nonpatients from Russia and the United States. We used correlational analysis to organize PT variables into Concrete (CI), Attribute (AI), and Geometric (GI) indexes. Discriminant function analysis revealed that only AI and GI had significant discriminatory power. These indexes correctly classified 91% of English-speaking and 86% of Russian-speaking participants as either patients or nonpatients. Controlling for age and education, multivariate analysis revealed that patients had significantly lower AI and significantly higher GI scores relative to nonpatients, and those differences were similar across languages. These results indicate that the PT can discriminate between patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders and nonpatients, which suggests that characteristics of the PT could be used to understand the mechanism of logical thinking in patients and nonpatients.     

Tracking the Psychosocial Predictors of Older Individuals' Television Uses

The elderly spend considerable amounts of time with mass media, but little is known about the psychology of their viewing habits. This study compared the relative impact of social, structural, and psychosocial variables on the television uses of elderly viewers. The results of a survey of 113 older respondents indicated that psychosocial factors accounted for variance above and beyond that of demographic and situational factors in viewing of television entertainment programs, para-social programs (e.g., soap operas), as well as in watching of television for companionship purposes. Emotional loneliness and locus of control proved particularly significant predictors of television behavior.     

How basic need satisfaction and dispositional motives interact in predicting flow experience in sport

We have integrated the basic psychological needs approach from self‐determination theory with motive disposition theory in order to enhance the prediction of flow experience in sports. We hypothesize that an environment that enables people to fulfill their basic psychological needs for competence and social relatedness results in flow. Additionally, we assume that the effect of competence need satisfaction is moderated by the achievement motive and that the effect of need‐for‐relatedness satisfaction is moderated by the affiliation motive. Four studies show the expected positive effects of need satisfaction on flow and further confirm that high achievement and affiliation‐motivated individuals benefit more from competence and relatedness sports environments, respectively, than individuals low in these motives.     

Do implicit motives and basic psychological needs interact to predict well-being and flow? Testing a universal hypothesis and a matching hypothesis

Self-Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan in Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Plenum Press, New York, 1985) suggests that certain experiences, such as competence, are equally beneficial to everyone’s well-being (universal hypothesis), whereas Motive Disposition Theory (McClelland in Human motivation. Scott, Foresman, Glenview, IL, 1985) predicts that some people, such as those with a high achievement motive, should benefit particularly from such experiences (matching hypothesis). Existing research on motives as moderators of the relationship between basic need satisfaction and positive outcomes supports both these seemingly inconsistent views. Focusing on the achievement motive, we sought to resolve this inconsistency by considering the specificity of the outcome variables. When predicting domain-specific well-being and flow, the achievement motive should interact with felt competence. However, when it comes to predicting general well-being and flow, felt competence should unfold its effects without being moderated by the achievement motive. Two studies confirmed these assumptions indicating that the universal and matching hypotheses are complementary rather than mutually exclusive.