Relative Effects of Three Knowledge of Results Treatments on Coincidence-Anticipation Performance

The relative effects of three knowledge of results (KR) treatments on performance of a complex coincidence-anticipation task requiring speed and accuracy were studied. Male volunteers (n=75) were assigned to one of three treatments: no KR, quantitative KR, or qualitative KR. No significant differences in the performance of treatment groups were found. It was suggested that the task itself may have provided enough information for fairly accurate performance.     

consulting the oracle

Abstract

Is it possible that even logic is not logical? Is it possible that our current belief in a rational and material world is no less a subjective point of view than any other mystical faith? Kurt Gödel in mathematics and Carl Jung in psychology independently established the limits of rationalism half a century ago. Yet the profound implications of their work for our own currently changing world view are not well understood. In this essay, Robertson introduces us to some of the basic themes that underlie the life works of both Gödel and Jung. These themes lead us to a new and startling comprehension of the paradox of self-reference and the limits of rationalism that are inherent in the way we construct our conceptions of reality.     

My Home Is Over Jordan

The great African American tenor Roland Hayes, as well known in his day as Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson, both of whom he mentored, introduced the beauty and joy of spirituals to concert audiences in Europe and America. Sadly, he's been forgotten.

This article remembers his story and his charisma. Roland Hayes touched the author's life when she was a very young child, when her parents were faculty at Black Mountain College and her father invited Hayes to sing there. In the mid 1940s, in North Carolina, an integrated audience heard this son of freed slaves sing both the European repertoire of Schubert and Bach and the African-American folk tradition of spirituals.

Spirituals offer a religious attitude that intertwines African, Jewish, and Christian roots with the practical function of conveying secret messages about the way to freedom—a peculiarly American blend of soul that has much in it to sustain us in difficult times.

Roland Hayes made a profound impression on the author. She invokes his spirit in this article and learns much about herself and about him.     

What we look for in poetry

A chain of events was triggered on the nights of April 23 and 24, 1915, in Constantinople, Turkey, that would end, approximately six years later, with death or forced deportation of more than two and a half million Armenians from their historical homeland in Central and Eastern Turkey. During those two nights over two hundred Armenian writers, historians, translators, poets, journalists, editors, and political leaders were arrested in their homes, taken to the central police station, and never seen again.

The shock of the genocide not only nearly destroyed a nation, together with its articulate literary, political, and cultural leaders, but also paralyzed the creative abilities of its survivors. With their writers, poets, and political leaders lost, their symbolic vocabulary shattered, the Armenians have been unable to distill from the genocide a transcendent wisdom and to present to all cultures the fruits of that distillation via new poetry, art, theater, film, literature, and philosophy, hi the words of V. Oshagan, a modern writer on Armenian and American themes

Seventy years after the event, the Genocide has still not been tackled by any author of note. The Armenians have not recovered from the trauma and with nothing forgotten and nothing forgiven, the Genocide is still continuing. As long as the Turk is identified with the principle of evil in the Armenian imagination, and as long as the Turkish government refuses to admit its guilt and make amends to the victims, the Genocide will continue and will prevent the Armenians from producing any work of art from the theme.

Slowly, over the past two decades, powerful works have emerged that convey to the world, through poetry and myth, the true stupefaction of that horrendous time period. Among these works is the 1980 short story, “Uncle Toros,” by the Armenian writer Mooshegh Galshoyan. With insight and intuition, he portrayed the life of one eighty-year-old victim of the genocide. Old Uncle Toros's recurring nightmare of that event, as vividly told by Galshoyan, allows one to enter the Armenian trauma, to step into the unconscious life of a genocide victim. –A. Chutjian     

An Assessment of the Psychometric Properties of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Children

Sensation seeking is a trait that predicts a wide range of real-life risk behavior, such as substance abuse and gambling problems. Sensation seeking is often assessed with the Sensation Seeking Scale. Several adaptations of this questionnaire have been made, for example, to abbreviate it and to make it suitable for children. However, studies on sensation seeking in children are scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate sensation seeking in children (N = 158, M age = 11.4 years). The Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Children (BSSS–C) was translated into Dutch and psychometric properties were examined. Internal consistency was high, and the factor structure showed close resemblance with previous research. Test–retest and split-half reliabilities were acceptable, as was convergent validity with self-reported symptoms of psychopathology (attention problems and aggressive behavior). Construct validity was adequate, with more sensation seeking in boys than in girls. No effects of age were found. To sum up, sensation seeking can be measured in children in a valid and reliable way. The correlation of sensation seeking with high-risk behaviors emphasizes the importance of assessment early in development.     

The Relationship Between Creative Potential,Aesthetic Response to Music,and Musical Preferences

Previous studies have shown that creative individuals tend to prefer complex stimuli. This study examined the relationship between creative potential, aesthetic response to music, and musical preferences. Seventy-four participants completed two creative potential tests. They listened to three repertoire pieces of different complexity, and rated them on perceived complexity, liking, and interest. Finally, they completed a musical preference questionnaire. Results suggest the relationship between complexity, on the one hand, and liking and interest, on the other, differs between the pieces. Creative potential was found to be related to preference for the more complex musical pieces. Moreover, musical preferences were found to be related both to creative potential and to ratings of the three musical pieces.     

Predictors of Diabetes Self‐care,Metabolic Control,and Mental Health in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes

The purpose of this study was to explore the psychosocial predictors of diabetes self‐care (adherence to care regimes), metabolic control (glycated haemoglobin), and mental health among rural‐ and urban‐dwelling youth with type 1 diabetes. One hundred and twenty three adolescents/young adults (aged 13?25 years, mean = 16 years, standard deviation = 3.8 years) with type 1 diabetes, 50 males and 73 females, completed questionnaires reporting on diabetes self‐care, metabolic control, mental health (negative affect, quality of life), risk‐taking behaviours and attitudes, diabetes self‐efficacy, community engagement, and perceived social support. No rural/urban differences were detected on key predictors or outcome variables. Structural equation modelling revealed that high diabetes self‐efficacy, lower risk behaviour, and more conservative attitudes to risk taking predicted better diabetes self‐care, which in turn predicted better metabolic control and mental health. Social support and engagement in community activities did not influence diabetes self‐care. The study has significance because both diabetes self‐efficacy and propensity towards risk behaviour are potential targets for educational and counselling interventions designed to improve diabetes self‐care regimes and resultant metabolic and mental health outcomes.     

Transparent emotions? A critical analysis of Moran's transparency claim

I critically analyze Richard Moran's account of knowing one's own emotions, which depends on the Transparency Claim (TC) for self-knowledge. Applied to knowing one's own beliefs, TC states that when one is asked “Do you believe P?”, one can answer by referencing reasons for believing P. TC works for belief because one is justified in believing that one believes P if one can give reasons for why P is true. Emotions, however, are also conceptually related to concerns; they involve a response to something one cares about. As a consequence, acquiring self-knowledge of one's emotions requires knowledge of other mental attitudes, which falls outside the scope of TC. Hence, TC cannot be applied to emotions.     

Ingroup and outgroup support for upward mobility: Divergent responses to ingroup identification in low status groups

Members of groups with low societal status can pursue individual upward mobility to improve their status. We examine the conditions under which ingroup and outgroup members are most inclined to support such upward mobility attempts. Whereas both ingroup and outgroup supports are important, there may be tension: dissociation from the low status group may lower ingroup support, whereas association with the low status group may lower outgroup support. Ingroup association can be expressed by communicating one's affective involvement or by behaving in line with typical ingroup practices. As predicted, studies 1 and 2 show that support from the low status ingroup depends more on affective involvement than on behavioral identity expression (BIE). In contrast, studies 3–5 show that support from the high status group is more driven by the upwardly mobile individual's BIE. Mediational analyses show that these opposite patterns are driven by differential processes, prompted by the group's respective positions in the social hierarchy. The findings provide insight into how members of low status groups negotiate the competing demands of the high and low status groups as they pursue upward mobility. Moreover, they show how affective involvement and BIE differentially affect ingroup support and outgroup opposition. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Three Characters: Narcissist,Borderline and Manic Depressive,by Christopher Bollas,with Sacha Bollas,Phoenix Publishing House Ltd,Bicester, Oxfordshire, 2021, 76 pp

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -