The ‘puzzle of imaginative use’ (Kind and Kung in Knowledge through imagination, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2016) asks: given that imagination is arbitrary escape from reality, how can it have any epistemic value? In particular, imagination seems to be logically anarchic, like a runabout inference ticket: one who imagines A may also imagine whatever B pops to one’s mind by free mental association. This paper argues that at least a certain kind of imaginative exercise—reality-oriented mental simulation—is not logically anarchic. Showing this is part of the task of solving the puzzle. Six plausible features of imagination, so understood, are listed. Then a formal semantics is provided, whose patterns of logical validity and invalidity model the six features.
Parents and teachers of children with special needs face unique social-emotional challenges in carrying out their caregiving roles. Stress associated with these roles impacts parents' and special educators' health and well-being, as well as the quality of their parenting and teaching. No rigorous studies have assessed whether mindfulness training (MT) might be an effective strategy to reduce stress and cultivate well-being and positive caregiving in these adults. This randomized controlled study assessed the efficacy of a 5-week MT program for parents and educators of children with special needs. Participants receiving MT showed significant reductions in stress and anxiety and increased mindfulness, self-compassion, and personal growth at program completion and at 2 months follow-up in contrast to waiting-list controls. Relational competence also showed significant positive changes, with medium-to-large effect sizes noted on measures of empathic concern and forgiveness. MT significantly influenced caregiving competence specific to teaching. Mindfulness changes at program completion mediated outcomes at follow-up, suggesting its importance in maintaining emotional balance and facilitating well-being in parents and teachers of children with developmental challenges. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved). 相似文献
In this study we assess for the first time the driving skills of young adults with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). We use a virtual city and a driving simulator to examine steering control, speed regulation and the responses to pedestrians on the road. Participants were adolescents and young adults who had been diagnosed with the disorder as children. For most participants the symptoms were maintained (DCD group) but for others they had largely dissipated (AD group). We also invited typically developing (control) participants matched in age, gender, and driving experience to the DCD and AD participants. Compared to their matched controls, the DCD group showed difficulties in steering when turning bends but not when driving along straight roads. Although the average speed of the DCD group was similar to their controls this may have been too fast for them to steer effectively around the bends. The DCD group also took 50% more time to react to pedestrians who walked towards their path. We found no such differences between the AD and their matched controls. We discuss the results in terms of visual information processing and suggest further applied and fundamental research on this topic. 相似文献
This research examined preferences for national- and campus-level assimilative and pluralistic policies among Black and White students under different contexts, as majority- and minority-group members. We targeted attitudes at two universities, one where 85% of the student body is White, and another where 76% of students are Black. The results revealed that when a group constituted the majority, its members generally preferred assimilationist policies, and when a group constituted the minority, its members generally preferred pluralistic policies. The results support a functional perspective: Both majority and minority groups seek to protect and enhance their collective identities. 相似文献
Butler et al. (Cognitive Therapy and Research 31:357?C370, 2007) developed the Personality Beliefs Questionnaire-Short Form (PBQ-SF), from an earlier longer version (Beck and Beck 1991), to assess the types of schemata associated with different personality disorders. This study explored the structure of PBQ-SF using Guttman??s Smallest Space Analysis. Participants were 228 students who volunteered for the study. The two facets (each with two subsets) suggested by the analysis to characterize the structure of the personality disorder subscales were Ego Concerns (self-enhancement versus self-protection) and Control Concerns (feelings lack of control versus need for control). Clinical implications of the findings include targeting major dysfunctional thinking, as suggested by the aforementioned two facets and their subsets, in the treatment of personality disorders. 相似文献
The focus of the present study lies on optimism and its relationships to the components of subjective well-being, i.e. global
life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect. We investigated the direct and indirect (via affectivity) effects
of optimism on global life satisfaction in the Swedish middleaged women at two time points (age 43 and 49), and in the Lithuanian
middle-aged women. For this purpose, structural equation modelling was used and the fit indices were compared between two
cognitive-affective models. The best fitting model suggests that the direct effect of optimism on global life satisfaction
is stronger than that via affectivity. The result was found both in the Swedish sample at two time points and in the Lithuanian
sample where the indirect effect was very low and insignificant. The indirect effect via negative affectivity was significant
in the Swedish samples at both time points while the indirect effect via positive affectivity was low but significant only
in the Swedish sample at age 43. In further analyses we studied the stability of optimism and the components of general SWB
in the Swedish sample over a six-year period and a mean difference in optimism in two samples of women, Swedish and Lithuanian.
Data analyses showed varying stability of the studied concepts with the highest stability coefficient being for negative affect
and the lowest being for global life satisfaction. Cross-cultural analysis of mean difference in optimism showed that the
Swedish women at age 43 reported significantly higher optimism as compared to their Lithuanian counterparts. 相似文献
Electrocortical activity, typically used to track the effects of cognitive reappraisal on the processing of emotional stimuli, has not been used to index the prefrontal-cortex-mediated regulatory mechanisms responsible for these effects. In the present study, we examined the novel possibility that induced frontal alpha (i.e., 8?C13?Hz), shown to reflect the inhibition and disengagement of task-relevant cortical regions, may be quantified to explore cortical activation that is specifically enhanced during cognitive reappraisal. For this purpose, 44 participants viewed unpleasant and neutral pictures followed by auditory instructions to either continue viewing the picture or reduce their emotional response to the picture by making the picture seem less emotional (i.e., cognitive reappraisal). In line with previous work, unpleasant pictures elicited a larger late positive potential (LPP) than did neutral pictures. Also corroborating previous work, the mid-latency LPP was reduced when pictures were cognitively reappraised. However, the present study showed for the first time that whereas unpleasant pictures elicited higher frontal alpha power bilaterally than did the neutral pictures, frontal alpha power was reduced (indicative of more activation and cognitive control) during cognitive reappraisal of both picture types over the left hemisphere. Taken together, the LPP and event-related induced frontal-alpha findings contribute unique information about the distinct neural substrates and cognitive processes underlying reappraisal. 相似文献
The purpose of this study is to compare traditional and non-traditional instructional practices used in a counsellor education programme to determine their effect on pre-service school counsellors' learning and sense of community, thus leading to enhanced professional identity. Traditional and non-traditional assignments were examined: (a) a collaborative, multimedia wiki writing assignment; (b) textbook reading and corresponding quizzes; and (c) article critiques. Findings indicate that students experience a greater sense of community and learning when participating in the non-traditional, collaborative, multimedia wiki writing assignment using web-based technology. Findings also indicate that students had low computer anxiety after completing the wiki assignment. 相似文献
Although different forms of parental influences on adolescents’ body image and eating disturbances have been studied, this relationship is nearly uninvestigated within the population of aesthetic athletes, a risk group for the development of eating disorders. The present study examined the role of specific family variables on the body image dissatisfaction (BID) and disordered eating (DE) of elite aesthetic athletes (n = 85) and controls (n = 142). Adolescents (M = 14.87 years, SD = 2.22) completed measures of direct influences (concern with thinness and weight teasing by parents), perceived quality of relationship with each parent and the overall family environment, BID and DE. Participants’ parents (223 mothers and 198 fathers) also completed measures of BID and DE. In general, parents of athletes do not present higher levels of BID or DE than do controls’ parents. Interesting differences were found between athletes’ and controls’ BID and DE predictors. Among athletes, direct parental influences are the only significant predictive family variable, which can reinforce the pressure to be thin found within elite-aesthetic contexts. The study’s findings highlight not only the importance of critical parental comments in athletes’ expression of BID and DE, but also of maternal modeling among adolescents in the general population. Such parental behavior may be an appropriate target in different prevention efforts. 相似文献
The need for professionals to volunteer their time in crisis situations and to reach across time and culture in the service of humanitarian interventions will likely not abate in the near future. This article provides readers with multiple venues for considering the ethical dimensions present in crisis and humanitarian interventions. Core ethical concerns common to helping situations are magnified in crisis work. In addition, issues unique to the nature of volunteer and crisis work must also be considered. Using hypothetical case examples, bioethical principles, and ethical decision-making models, helping professionals are encouraged to go beyond their particular ethical codes in contemplating ethically and clinically sensitive volunteering. 相似文献