Making sense: The work of Eugene Gendlin

This and the following papers were presented at a symposium organized by David M. Levin honoring the work of Eugene Gendlin at meetings of the Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences, Boston, October, 1992.     

Challenges confronting cross-sex friendships: “Much ado about nothing?”

This research was an investigation into four challenges purported to confront cross-sex friends. One hundred and thirty eight individuals (females = 86, males = 52) completed two surveys designed to explore the extent to which the sexual, emotional bond, audience, and equality challenges were present in their cross-sex friendships. Over 98% of the participants were heterosexual, 99% were Caucasian, and approximately 5% were Hispanic. Data gathered from the first survey were analyzed using a three-way analysis of variance, with gender, type of friendship, and romantic status as the independent variables, and three of the four challenges as the dependent variables. The first survey also included open-ended questions designed to explore the nature and existence of the challenges. The second survey was in a diary format. Respondents kept a frequency count for three weeks of discussions they had with their cross-sex friend concerning the challenges, and thoughts that they had as individuals concerning those challenges. Results from both surveys indicate that though the challenges exist and have powerful effects on a small percentage of individuals in cross-sex friendships, for the majority of participants the challenges are not perceived as salient.     

Interpersonal Correlates of Narcissism in Adolescents

Researchers investigated the relationship between measures of interpersonal behavior and narcissism. Eight octant measures of interpersonal behavior were constructed, and validity and reliability estimates were obtained. High school and junior high school students (N = 333) completed five measures of narcissistic vulnerability, eight octant measures of interpersonal behavior, and a measure of social desirability. Canonical correlational analysis indicated a specific pattern of interpersonal behaviors for individuals with differing levels and types of narcissistic vulnerability. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that scores on several of the scales were found to differ significantly by sex and by treatment for emotional, behavioral, or educational difficulties. Implications for counseling are considered.     

Research utilization: The state of the art

As a field of study, “research utilization” is at a turning point. Despite an accumulation of replicable findings, robust constructs, even a “soft technology” for bridging the gap between theory and practice, we are still largely in the situation of the distance between social problems of, let us say, conflict or inequality and the ability of social science to provide credible, reliable and usable solutions. At the same time, the initial paradigms, suffering from hyperrationalism, have given way to more transactional ones, and have been shaken by the tenets of postmodernism. Shaken, but not undone, as “middle-level” constructs emerge, ones that appear to link the research community with a variety of professional communities in more meaningful and durable ways. Michael Huberman has been Visiting Professor of Education at Harvard University since 1991, where he teaches research methodologies and conducts research on knowledge dissemination. He is also Senior Research Associate at the Network, Inc.     

The perceptual organization of dot lattices

Bravais (1850/1949) demonstrated that there are five types of periodic dot patterns (or lattices): oblique, rectangular, centered rectangular, square, and hexagonal. Gestalt psychologists studied grouping by proximity in rectangular and square dot patterns. In the first part of the present paper, I (1) describe the geometry of the five types of lattices, and (2) explain why, for the study of perception, centered rectangular lattices must be divided into two classes (centered rectangular andrhombic). I also show how all lattices can be located in a two-dimensional space. In the second part of the paper, I show how the geometry of these lattices determines their grouping and their multistability. I introduce the notion ofdegree of instability and explain how to order lattices from most stable to least stable (hexagonal). In the third part of the paper, I explore the effect of replacing the dots in a lattice with less symmetric motifs, thus creating wallpaper patterns. When a dot pattern is turned into a wallpaper pattern, its perceptual organization can be altered radically, overcoming grouping by proximity. I conclude the paper with an introduction to the implications of motif selection and placement for the perception of the ensuing patterns.     

Formulation of a behavior system for sexual conditioning

Empirical and conceptual developments that led to the formulation of a behavior system for the sexual conditioning of male Japanese quail are described. Initial efforts concentrated on conditioning with localized conditioned stimuli and on identifying behavioral indices of conditioning. Later, learning about species-typical cues and about contextual cues was also explored, and it became evident that different types of cues control different aspects of sexual behavior. The results were used to formulate a behavior system containing both response and stimulus dimensions. In this system, contextual cues and local cues are assumed to elicit only general search behavior unconditionally. In contrast, unconditioned responses to species-typical cues of a female quail include general search, focal search, and copulatory behavior. General search, focal search, and copulatory behavior can become conditioned to local cues. Conditioning can also modify focal search behavior elicited by species-typical cues and can result in various modulatory influences between different types of stimuli. The behavior system approach provides a framework for organizing the diverse sexual conditioning effects and suggests future directions for investigation.     

Neurobehavioral deficits,adolescent traumatic brain injury,and transition to college

Outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been frequently evaluated for adults, although there has been minimal research on adolescents with TBI. It has been argued that TBI sequelae may be more difficult for adolescents to adjust to given developmental changes in physical (puberty), interpersonal (self-concept), and environmental domains (transition to college). In addition, it is commonly acknowledged that moderator variables such as psychiatric history, family functioning, substance use, and sexuality impact functional outcome following TBI, although it is often difficult to objectively evaluate these variables. The current study examined relationships among TBI-related deficits, moderator variables, and academic outcomes for six adolescents transitioning to college. The findings suggest that it may not be appropriate to predict functional outcome based solely on objective neuropsychological results. However, moderator variables appear to have a more direct relationship with outcome, depending on the moderator variable and the individual.     

Simulation of complex survival distributions

This paper describes a method for generating sample survival distributions from a hypothetical population, as would be required for running Monte Carlo simulations. The method is based on the concept of a quincunx. Cases are entered into a life table and allowed to drop out or die during each interval with probabilities that mirror the hypothetical population. By repeating this process many times and tracking the results, the researcher is able to study the sampling distribution of effect size indices and test statistics, and can generate empirical estimates of power and precision for planned studies. Unlike other methods that are commonly used for this purpose, the model proposed here allows the researcher to define a population in which the hazard rates and/or attrition rates vary substantially from one time point to the next, as may be the case in clinical trials or studies of processing times. The method requires less than 100 lines of code and runs some 10,000 simulations per hour on a microcomputer.     

Local and global factors of similarity in visual search

Effects of the similarity between target and distractors in a visual search task were investigated in several experiments. Both familiar (numerals and letters) and unfamiliar (connected figures in a 5 × 5 matrix) stimuli were used. The observer had to report on the presence or absence of a target among a variable number of homogeneous distractors as fast and as accurately as possible. It was found that physical difference had the same clear effect on processing time far familiar and for unfamiliar stimuli: processing time decreased monotonically with increasing physical difference. Distractors unrelated to the target and those related to the target by a simple transformation (180° rotation, horizontal or vertical reflection) were also compared, while the physical difference was kept constant. For familiar stimuli, transformational relatedness increased processing time in comparison with that fort unrelated stimulus pairs. It was further shown in a scaling experiment that this effect could be accounted for by the amount of perceived similarity of the target-distractor pairs. For unfamiliar stimuli, transformational relatedness did have a smaller and less pronounced effect. Various comparable unrelated distractors resulted in a full range of processing times. Results from a similarity scaling experiment correlated well with the outcome of the experiments with unfamiliar stimuli. These results are interpreted in terms of an underlying continuum of perceived similarity as the basis of the speed of visual search, rather than a dichotomy of parallel versus serial processing.     

Visual slow brain potentials in children with attention deficit disorder

Using a two-stimulus reaction time paradigm, with two separate reward conditions (contingent and noncontingent), we compared slow wave brain potentials (ERPs) in 144 children with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and 30 normal control children. This article reviews the findings during the 900 msec visual warning stimulus. As we had expected, based on ERP work of Forth and Hare (1989) and Raine, Venables and Williams (1990), and on previous work from our own laboratory, the group differences were found in the negative slow wave portions of the ERP complex during the contingent reward condition but not during the noncontingent condition. Aggressive hyperactive subjects with attention deficit disorder (ADDHA) were discriminated from nonaggressive subjects (including control subjects) during the contingent reward condition in the following ways: (1) greater fronto-central negativity (640–900 msec slow wave) and (2) greater right parietal than left parietal negativity (430–750 msec slow wave). All ADD subgroups, when compared to control (CONTR) subjects, showed greater slow wave negativity (700–900 msec) at the midline occipital electrode site during the contingent reward condition. This could be explained in part as an IQ effect on ERPs reflecting the IQ difference between the ADD subgroups and the controls. These slow wave findings seem to relate to attentional problems of these children. They are discussed in terms of a psychobiological model of inhibition/disinhibition and appetitive activation.