Joseph Heller's Jewish War Novel Catch-22

Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (1961) is considered one of the most important American novels of the twentieth century. It was a massive bestseller that sold over 10 million copies, and it introduced a new phrase into the English language for an unsolvable conundrum or paradox. Catch-22 was groundbreaking because it was the first broadly successful American novel that offered a post-modern, satirical take on the Second World War. Ostensibly the novel had nothing whatsoever Jewish about it beyond the ethnicity of its author. Instead it was about the Assyrian/Armenian protagonist, Yossarian, a USAAF bombardier in the European theatre. As I will argue, while outwardly the novel aims to represent the war and the protagonist, Yossarian, as American rather than Jewish, the work is, in fact, packed with signs that it is about a Jewish airman confronting the Holocaust. Heller's attempt to hide this was part of a tradition established by Jewish authors in the post-war years who sought to distance themselves from their ethnicity in order to speak to “universal” themes of rebellion. However, to overlook the “Jewish” semiotics of Catch-22 is to miss many of its major themes. I am thus offering a reading of the novel that will delineate what it tells us about the post-war Jewish life in America.     

An Evaluation of the Rorschach Method for the Study of Brain Injury

Hospitalized psychiatric patients (n = 115) completed either Form A or Form B of the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking, along with the Beck Depression Inventory, State Anxiety Inventory, and the MMPI. Only error scores on the WIST were calculated in an effort to assess validity of the WIST for use in group testing situations where individual timing and administration is cumbersome. Results supported the convergent and discriminant validity of Form A where significant correlations were found with measures of thought disorder (M M PI F, Pt, Sc and Pa) but not with indices of other symptomatology, such as depression and anxiety. Form B did now show such validity, with only one significant correlation with other measures (MMPI Pd). Both WIST Forms correctly identified nonschizophrenics (76% for Form A and 73% for Form B) more often than schizophrenics (57% for each form). Also, Form A was found to be negatively related to years of education. Suggestions for further research on the influence of intelligence and social class variables on WIST scores were made. Overall, Form A emerged as the most valid WIST form, with suggestions for its clinical use being offered.     

Validity of Two Language Versions of the Auckland Individualism and Collectivism Scale with Filipino-English Bilinguals

The Auckland Individualism and Collectivism Scale (AICS) was translated into Filipino; and the factorial structure of the Filipino and English versions were validated with two samples of Filipino-English bilinguals. Most of the fit indexes in the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the data from the Filipino translation and the original English version both fit the hypothesized internal structure of the scale. The results provide further support for the structural aspects of the AICS’ construct validity; however, some minor issues were noted at the level of individual items and subscales.     

Attentional control in early and later bilingual children

We examined differences in attentional control among school-age children who were monolingual English speakers, early Spanish-English bilinguals (who began speaking both languages by age 3), and later Spanish-English bilingual children (who began speaking English after age 3). Children's attentional control was tested using the Attention Network Test (ANT). All language groups performed equally on ANT networks; however, when controlling for age and verbal ability, groups differed significantly on reaction time. Early bilingual children responded faster on the ANT compared to both monolingual and later bilingual children, suggesting an attentional monitoring advantage for early bilinguals. These results add to evidence of advantaged cognitive functioning among bilinguals and are consistent with the possibility that children who begin speaking a second language earlier in childhood have greater advantages, due either to effects of acquiring a second language earlier or to longer duration of bilingual experience.     

Failure to capitalize on sharing good news with romantic partners: Exploring positivity deficits of socially anxious people with self-reports,partner-reports,and behavioral observations

Extending prior work on social anxiety and positivity deficits, we examined whether individual differences in social anxiety alter the ability to share and respond to the good news of romantic partners (i.e., capitalization support) and how this influences romantic relationship satisfaction and commitment. In this study of 174 heterosexual couples (average age of 21.5 with 58.3% identifying as Caucasian), greater social anxiety was associated with the provision and receipt of less supportive responses to shared positive events as measured by trait questionnaires, partner reports, and behavioral observations in the laboratory. In longitudinal analyses, individuals in romantic relationships with socially anxious partners who experienced inadequate capitalization support were more likely to terminate their relationship and report a decline in relationship quality six months later. As evidence of construct specificity, social anxiety effects were independent of depressive symptoms. Taken together, social anxiety influenced a person's ability to receive and provide support for shared positive events; these deficits had adverse romantic consequences. Researchers and clinicians may better understand social anxiety by exploring a wider range of interpersonal contexts and positive constructs. The addition of capitalization support to the social anxiety literature offers new insights into interpersonal approaches and treatments.     

Transformative Learning: A Case for Using Grounded Theory as an Assessment Analytic

Transformative Learning Theory and pedagogies leverage disruptive experiences as catalysts for learning and teaching. By facilitating processes of critical analysis and reflection that challenge assumptions, transformative learning reframes what counts as knowledge and the sources and processes for gaining and producing it. Students develop a broader range of perspectives on and entry points for learning and behavior change engaging cognition, embodiment, aesthetics, emotions, and ethics (see Mezirow 1991 and Figures 1 and 2). The open‐inquiry, multi‐modal nature of transformative learning defies most traditional assessment strategies. This article demonstrates that grounded theory offers the rigorous qualitative analysis needed to document and track transformative learning outcomes in practice. By applying a grounded theory approach to data from over eighty student portfolios across several iterations of a Religion and Ecology course at Emory University, this article demonstrates a successful and replicable assessment of transformative learning pedagogies.     

Adolescent-specific patterns of behavior and neural activity during social reinforcement learning

Humans are sophisticated social beings. Social cues from others are exceptionally salient, particularly during adolescence. Understanding how adolescents interpret and learn from variable social signals can provide insight into the observed shift in social sensitivity during this period. The present study tested 120 participants between the ages of 8 and 25 years on a social reinforcement learning task where the probability of receiving positive social feedback was parametrically manipulated. Seventy-eight of these participants completed the task during fMRI scanning. Modeling trial-by-trial learning, children and adults showed higher positive learning rates than did adolescents, suggesting that adolescents demonstrated less differentiation in their reaction times for peers who provided more positive feedback. Forming expectations about receiving positive social reinforcement correlated with neural activity within the medial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum across age. Adolescents, unlike children and adults, showed greater insular activity during positive prediction error learning and increased activity in the supplementary motor cortex and the putamen when receiving positive social feedback regardless of the expected outcome, suggesting that peer approval may motivate adolescents toward action. While different amounts of positive social reinforcement enhanced learning in children and adults, all positive social reinforcement equally motivated adolescents. Together, these findings indicate that sensitivity to peer approval during adolescence goes beyond simple reinforcement theory accounts and suggest possible explanations for how peers may motivate adolescent behavior.     

Footwear and locomotor skill performance in preschoolers

The effect of footwear on locomotor skill performance was examined. 12 children (4 boys, 8 girls; M age = 56.3 mo., SD = 3.3) served as participants. Participants were randomly assigned to perform the locomotor subscale of Ulrich's Test of Gross Motor Development in two shoe conditions (Condition 1: Stride Rite athletic shoes, and Condition 2: flip flop sandals). Children scored significantly higher when wearing athletic shoes than flip-flop sandals. This finding is relevant for motor performance and safety in physical education and movement programs.     

Buddhism and bell hooks: Liberatory Aesthetics and the Radical Subjectivity of No‐Self

This article engages bell hooks's concept of “radical black subjectivity” through the lens of the Buddhist doctrine of no‐self. Relying on the Zen theorist Dōgen and on resources from Japanese aesthetics, I argue that non‐attachment to the self clarifies hooks's claim that radical subjectivity unites our capacity for critical resistance with our capacity to appreciate beauty. I frame this argument in terms of hooks's concern that postmodernist identity critiques dismiss the identity claims of disempowered peoples. On the one hand, identity critique has an emotional component, as it involves questioning the self and possibly letting go of aspects of that self in which a person has inevitably made emotional investments. On the other hand, it has an aesthetic component, as it opens a space for the creative crafting and recrafting of identity. Japanese aesthetics emphasizes that all aesthetic appreciation is accompanied by feelings of mournfulness, for the object of aesthetic appreciation is transient. Linking hooks's liberatory aesthetics with the resources of the Japanese tradition suggests that mournfulness in the face of self‐loss necessarily accompanies all instances of critical resistance. Thus non‐attachment becomes a useful framework in which to understand both the emotional and aesthetic components of empowered identity critique.