Notes toward “a user's guide to the quantum connection”

Nick Herbert is an experimental physicist living in California whose recent book, Quantum Reality: Beyoad the New Pbysics, has been highly regarded as a lucid introduction to the many alternative interpretations of quantum mechanics that are currently being debated among professional physicists. In this playful article, he treads the fine line between science, fact, and fantasy to give us a metaphorical glimpse into some future possibilities about quantum dynamics in everyday life.

Dr. Herbert will be a speaker and panelist at our upcoming Fall 1988 conference on “Cod, Consciousness, and the New Quantum Psychologies” where he will present his most recent views on the reconstruction of a physics that includes consciousness and observer-created realities on many levels.     

Hijab,visibility and the performance of identity

Theories concerning the relationship between social identification and behaviour are increasingly attentive to how group members emphasise or de‐emphasise identity‐related attributes before particular audiences. Most research on this issue is experimental and explores the expression of identity‐related attitudes as a function of participants' beliefs concerning their visibility to different audiences. We extend and complement such research with an analysis of group members' accounts of their identity performances. Specifically, we consider British Muslim women's (n = 22) accounts of wearing hijab (a scarf covering the hair) and how this visible declaration of religious identity is implicated in the performance of their religious, national and gender identities. Our analysis extends social psychological thinking on identity performance in three ways. First, it extends our understandings of the motivations for making an identity visible to others. Second, it sheds light on the complex relationship between the performance of one (e.g. Muslim) identity and the performance of other (e.g. gender/national) identities. Third, it suggests the experience of making an identity visible can facilitate the subsequent performance of that identity. The implications of these points for social identity research on identity performance are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Innovating With the Model of Human Occupation in Mental Health

This article describes a new approach in a group of National Health Service trusts in the United Kingdom. The assessment and intervention were focused on using the Model of Human Occupation in Mental Health services. An occupation focused assessment and intervention protocol were developed based on the Model of Human Occupation Screening Tool Single-Observation Form (MOHOST-SOF). The aim was to develop a guide to treatment and monitoring to support efficient practice while maintaining an occupation and client-centered focus. Implementation has been successful to date.     

The effect of motion at encoding and retrieval for same- and other-race face recognition

In an experimental study, we assessed the role of motion when encoding and recognizing unfamiliar faces, using an old/new recognition memory paradigm. Our findings revealed a clear advantage for learning unfamiliar faces moving non-rigidly, compared with static faces. This advantage for motion was found with both same- and other-race faces. Furthermore, results indicate that it is more important that the face is learnt in motion than recognized from a moving clip. Interestingly, despite a reliable other-race effect being revealed, participants were able to utilize motion information exhibited by other-race faces in a manner akin to the motion advantage found for same-race faces. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the nature of the stored face representations, considering whether the facilitative role found here can be explained by factors other than motion per se.     

Identity,Culture and Contestation: Social Identity as Cross-Cultural Theory

In this paper we explore the logic and implications of the social identity approach to group processes. The theory argues that the consequences of social identification for behaviour are not simple givens. Rather than making generalisations about the behaviour that flows from social identification, the theory makes the point that behaviour depends upon the way in which identities are defined. This emphasis upon the contents of social identities draws our attention to their construction and we pay particular attention to how group identities are made and remade in and through argument and social practice. We argue that attention to the dynamics of identity construction means that this perspective is respectful of culture and cultural difference and that the social identity approach therefore has considerable value in exploring the politics and practice of identity wherever group behaviour may be found. Moreover, we argue that the ubiquity of identity-related argument across cultures and contexts reflects the fact that group identity is a basis for social power.