The Human Relation With Nature and Technological Nature

ABSTRACT— Two world trends are powerfully reshaping human existence: the degradation, if not destruction, of large parts of the natural world, and unprecedented technological development. At the nexus of these two trends lies technological nature—technologies that in various ways mediate, augment, or simulate the natural world. Current examples of technological nature include videos and live webcams of nature, robot animals, and immersive virtual environments. Does it matter for the physical and psychological well-being of the human species that actual nature is being replaced with technological nature? As the basis for our provisional answer (it is "yes"), we draw on evolutionary and cross-cultural developmental accounts of the human relation with nature and some recent psychological research on the effects of technological nature. Finally, we discuss the issue—and area for future research—of "environmental generational amnesia." The concern is that, by adapting gradually to the loss of actual nature and to the increase of technological nature, humans will lower the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing.     

Memory: Between traumatic shock and psychic historicization

‘I want to erase him from my memory,’ she said, ‘his eyes, his eyes staring at me … they are there every night, his hand … every night it hits me again and again …’. On the basis of these few words taken from the therapeutic work with Keltoum, the author reflects theoretically and clinically on the place of memory in a traumatism: a fixed memory, a ‘frozen image’, the signs of a traumatic compulsion to repeat, are the expressions of a process of psychic disorganization but also of a ‘symbolized and symbolizing’ memory anticipating a possible historicization of this memory, of a path, therefore, towards a resolution of the trauma resulting from a process of psychic integration and reorganization.     

CHANGES IN STUDENTS' EXPLANATIONS FOR GENDER DIFFERENCES AFTER TAKING A PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN CLASS: MORE CONSTRUCTIONIST AND LESS ESSENTIALIST

We explored how students' endorsements of essential (biological and personality) and constructed (socialization and contextual) explanations for gender differences changed from the start to the end of Psychology of Women (POW) classes along with their feminist attitudes. Results from surveys of 120 POW students from three universities indicated that these students began class with more feminist awareness, immersion, and constructionist thinking than 228 general students, and that constructionist thinking was associated with perceptions that gender differences can be eliminated. Students' essentialism declined across their POW class, whereas their constructionist thinking increased and their feminist attitudes strengthened. End-of-semester feminist identification was associated with stronger endorsement of contextual explanations for gender differences above and beyond initial identification. We discuss implications for researchers, instructors, and activists.     

A Realistic Argument for Scientific Realism: How to be a Realist Without Really Knowing It

Philosophia - In this paper I provide a novel argument for scientific realism (SR). In contrast to most recent defenses of SR, my defense of SR does not rely on the no-miracles argument (NMA)....     

Acutely induced anxiety increases negative interpretations of events in a closed-circuit television monitoring task

In two experiments we measured the effects of 7.5% CO₂ inhalation on the interpretation of video footage recorded on closed circuit television (CCTV). As predicted, inhalation of 7.5% CO₂ was associated with increases in physiological and subjective correlates of anxiety compared with inhalation of medical air (placebo). Importantly, when in the 7.5% CO₂ condition, participants reported the increased presence of suspicious activity compared with placebo (Experiment 1), a finding that was replicated and extended (Experiment 2) with no concomitant increase in the reporting of the presence of positive activity. These findings support previous work on interpretative bias in anxiety but are novel in terms of how the anxiety was elicited, the nature of the interpretative bias, and the ecological validity of the task.     

To Hook Up or Date: Which Gender Benefits?

Hooking up on college campuses has become more frequent than dating in heterosexual sexual interaction. Analysis of the relative benefits and costs associated with dating and hooking up suggest that women benefit more from dating while men benefit more from hooking up. U.S students (150 women, 71 men) at a midsized southeastern university indicated preferences for dating and hooking up across a number of situations and indicated the perceived benefits and risks associated with each. As hypothesized, in most situations women more than men preferred dating and men more than women preferred hooking up. Both genders perceived similar benefits and risks to dating and hooking up; differences provided insight into the sexual motives of college women and men.     

A multi‐component approach to the treatment of chronic rumination

A multi‐component intervention was used to treat chronic rumination exhibited by an adult female diagnosed with a developmental disability. The intervention consisted of: (a) interruption of precursor behavior, (b) the alternation of 10‐min periods of continued instruction that involved walking and working with (c) 10‐min periods in which instructions were not delivered but a variable time 5‐s schedule of noncontingent attention was programmed, and (d) a 1‐min differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) schedule. During the intervention, rumination decreased by 82% relative to baseline. Next, components of the multi‐component intervention were systematically removed to evaluate their individual contribution. Results suggested that each individual component contributed to the overall treatment effects. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intraindividual relations between the intensity and disclosure of daily emotional events: The moderating role of depressive symptoms

Individuals with high levels of depressive symptoms tend to engage in lower levels of emotional disclosure than individuals who are lower in depressive symptoms. However, little is known about how depressive symptoms relate to the intraindividual relation between daily disclosure and the intensity of the daily events. The authors addressed these relations using a daily diary methodology. College students (N = 239) completed a measure of depression symptoms. They then completed measures of the intensity of the day's most unpleasant event and their disclosure of that event each day for 7 days. Results indicated that depression moderated the intensity-disclosure relation such that depression symptoms were associated with diminished emotional disclosure for high-intensity events but not for low-intensity events. Individuals with relatively higher levels of depressive symptoms also experienced unpleasant daily events at a higher intensity level than did individuals with relatively fewer symptoms. Sex differences emerged such that men were less likely than women to disclose high-intensity negative events. These findings extend the use of the diary methodology to the study of emotional disclosure and also suggest possible interventions for counseling psychology practitioners.