The equivocal meanings of time: Exploratory and structural analyses

This study addresses itself to the question of how people conceive of time. On the basis of philosophical, scientific, and cultural positions, we identified those beliefs which contribute to the basic meanings of time and generate the specific themes by which time is conceptualized. A questionnaire of beliefs about time was completed by 392 students. An exploratory factor analysis yielded seven factors, which qualified time as destructive, constructive, fluid, elusive, cyclical, eternal, and mysterious. The factor scales significantly related to gender, origin, faculty association, and death anxiety. A structural equation modeling approach was employed to test a model of second-order factors which presumably tapped evaluative aspects and perhaps thus related to the affective basis of the attitude toward time. The model assumed three general factors: Assuring Time, Disquieting Time, and Dynamic-Ambivalent Time. The results showed that the model provided an acceptable fit. Our results validate the time conception questionnaire developed in this study.     

Exploring goal taxonomies using the goal-based outcome tool in children and young people's mental health settings

Formulating goals in therapy may facilitate young people and parents/carers' engagement in mental health support settings. A number of goal taxonomies have been developed, which involve organising goals set at the outset of therapy into themes. Goal taxonomies are considered useful for service planning and outcome purposes. In order to build on the knowledge about what young people choose as goals, and to best support good practice, it is important to explore the links and differences between the existing goal taxonomies. A systematic review was conducted to identify goal taxonomies based on goals set using the goal-based outcome (GBO) tool. Framework analysis was conducted to investigate the extracted goal taxonomies. Overall, four core concepts were identified: “Goals targeting specific issues, symptoms, emotions, and behaviours,” “Return and engage in activities,” “Personal growth goals” and “Interpersonal goals.” Goals regarding specific issues, personal growth and interpersonal relationships were present in most studies. Using these overarching core concepts could be useful for practitioner-level, or service-level organisation of goal data, for activities such as service planning and delivery.     

Legitimized aggression and sexual coercion: Individual differences in cultural spillover

Correlations between aggressive attitudes and sexual coercion have consistently been found in numerous empirical studies across social science disciplines. Extrapolating from sociological research linking indices of legitimate aggression by state to statewide frequencies of rape, we have extended the investigation of legitimate aggression and coercive sexuality to the individual level. The specific purposes of this research were to index the breadth and level of endorsement of legitimized aggression at the individual level and to measure the association between such an index and coercive sexual behavior. These purposes were achieved across the course of three studies in which we created a new dispositional measure, the Proclivity for Legitimized Aggression Questionnaire (PLAQ), and replicated a sociocultural level correlation with coercive sexual behavior (Study 1); assessed the individual differences level construct validity of the PLAQ (Study 2); and tested whether endorsement of items on the PLAQ were related to content‐relevant behaviors (Study 3). The PLAQ was internally consistent, modestly but significantly correlated with a measure of self‐reported coercive sexual behavior, and characterized by promising construct validity. Aggr. Behav. 27:26–43, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The Place of the Visual in Psychoanalytic Practice: Image in the Countertransference,by Faye Carey,Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2018, 133 pp.

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Determination of visual figure and ground in dynamically deforming shapes

Figure/ground assignment - determining which part of the visual image is foreground and which background - is a critical step in early visual analysis, upon which much later processing depends. Previous research on the assignment of figure and ground to opposing sides of a contour has almost exclusively involved static geometric factors - such as convexity, symmetry, and size - in non-moving images. Here, we introduce a new class of cue to figural assignment based on the motion of dynamically deforming contours. Subjects viewing an animated, deforming shape tended to assign figure and ground so that articulating curvature extrema - i.e., "hinging" vertices - had negative (concave) contour curvature. This articulating-concavity bias is present when all known static cues to figure/ground are absent or neutral in each of the individual frames of the animation, and even seems to override a number of well-known static cues when they are in opposition to the motion cue. We propose that the phenomenon reflects the visual system's inbuilt expectations about the way shapes will deform - specifically, that deformations tend to involve rigid parts articulating at concavities.     

The motor theory of social cognition: a critique

Recent advances in the cognitive neuroscience of action have considerably enlarged our understanding of human motor cognition. In particular, the activity of the mirror system, first discovered in the brain of non-human primates, provides an observer with the understanding of a perceived action by means of the motor simulation of the agent's observed movements. This discovery has raised the prospects of a motor theory of social cognition. In humans, social cognition includes the ability to mindread, and many motor theorists of social cognition try to bridge the gap between motor cognition and mindreading by endorsing a simulation account of mindreading. Here, we question the motor theory of social cognition and give reasons for our skepticism.