Universal fantasy in latency: Separation, attachment and sexuality in Julio Cortázar's Bestiary

This paper joins recent efforts to build a conceptual bridge between psychoanalysis and attachment theory. A psychoanalytic reading of Julio Cortázar's Bestiary, a story about a young girl sent away for a summer vacation, is used to conceptualize the relationship between attachment and sexuality during latency. Middle childhood is seen as a pivotal period when cognitive maturation, internalization of parental figures, increasing independence and importance of those outside the family make fantasy the central adaptive mode of functioning. As such, the literature on attachment, which focuses on observed events, has to be supplemented with investigations of the actively created fantasies of that age period.     

A dialogue among various cultures and its manifestation in stuttering therapy

This paper presents a historical retrospective of the evolution of the clinical aspects of stuttering, and refers to social, cultural, political, and economic variables that might have exerted an influence on this evolution, particularly in relation to the authors’ experience in Israel. The retrospective commences in the early decades of the 20th century, when speech and language pathology did not exist as a profession, and presents the major approaches to therapy in children and adults employed by clinicians throughout the century. We focused on the impact of the change that occurred in religious society vis-à-vis stuttering on the various aspects of stuttering therapy and research. The Israeli Stuttering Organization - AMBI - is discussed in order to explore the possible influence of social, cultural, and political variables. In addition, we devoted special attention to the changes that occurred in the therapist-client relationship since they are indicative of the change in the nature of the treatment. We elaborated on the need for dialogue as a major component in the therapy and as an important contributor to a successful outcome. The dialogue is also discussed in terms of Eastern philosophy. Future developments in the understanding of stuttering and its implications for therapy are presented and discussed.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) summarize the history of the clinical development of stuttering and explore the possible influence of social, cultural, political, and economic variables particularly in relation to Israel; (2) provide a new definition of stuttering; and (3) contrast the model of a dialogue as opposed to a monologue and explain its use in the therapist-client relationship.     

Humor as aggression: effects of motivation on hostility expressed in humor appreciation

In 4 studies, the authors examined the hypothesis that relative to primed autonomy motivation, primed control would increase enjoyment of hostile (compared with nonhostile) humor as assessed by self-reported enjoyment and aversiveness and by nonverbal behavior. Results confirmed the hypothesis. Furthermore, initial state hostility moderated the effect such that high-hostility participants who were primed with control motivation especially enjoyed hostile humor. The 2 final studies showed that the effect was mediated by implicit aggression such that the combination of high initial state hostility and control priming led to implicit aggression, which in turn resulted in hostile humor enjoyment. Results are interpreted in terms of the effects of autonomy versus control motivation on intrapersonal self-regulatory processes, which influence interpersonal functioning.     

The ideal self at play: the appeal of video games that let you be all you can be

Video games constitute a popular form of entertainment that allows millions of people to adopt virtual identities. In our research, we explored the idea that the appeal of games is due in part to their ability to provide players with novel experiences that let them "try on" ideal aspects of their selves that might not find expression in everyday life. We found that video games were most intrinsically motivating and had the greatest influence on emotions when players' experiences of themselves during play were congruent with players' conceptions of their ideal selves. Additionally, we found that high levels of immersion in gaming environments, as well as large discrepancies between players' actual-self and ideal-self characteristics, magnified the link between intrinsic motivation and the experience of ideal-self characteristics during play.     

Classroom context,teacher expectations,and cognitive level: Predicting children's math ability judgments

Classroom practices that make ability differences salient communicate differential teacher expectations for students. This study reports on a new observational tool for measuring Classroom Ability-based Practices (CAP) and explores how young children's self-perceptions of ability in mathematics are related to their teachers' expectations for them and to their cognitive reasoning skills in classrooms that vary in usage of such ability-differentiated practices. The sample consisted of 193 children and their teachers in 15 first grade classrooms. The CAP was a reliable measure of ability-based differential teacher treatment and showed criterion validity as a moderator variable in predicting children's ability perceptions. In highly ability-differentiating classrooms, children's self-ratings were more congruent with teachers' expectations of students' mathematics ability. Also in highly ability-differentiating classrooms, higher cognitive levels predicted lower self-ability ratings in math. These findings extend our understanding of the social and cognitive factors that shape young children's self-judgments of math competence.