Life Design Counseling: A study on client's operations for meaning construction

This study evaluated the adequacy of the micro-theory of client operations to explain meaning construction during Life Design Counseling. Four adolescents were interviewed about their second counseling session. Their recollections were stimulated through the replay of counseling videotapes. The resulting transcribed interviews were qualitatively analyzed. Results confirmed a sequence of client operations evolving from the symbolic representation of experience and reflexive self-examination towards making new realizations and revisioning self. Moreover, clients reported negative and positive session moments evidencing that clients' attention and activity during the session was not restricted to meaning construction operations. Practical implications for life design counseling are derived from the results and discussed.     

The multiple-stimulus-without-replacement preference assessment tool and its predictive validity

This study demonstrates the use of two web-based programs, one to identify video preferences and the other to assess their reinforcing effects. We used the Multiple-Stimulus-Without-Replacement Preference Assessment Tool (MSWO PAT) to identify the video preference hierarchies of seven participants, ages 4–11 years old. We then used a customized reinforcer assessment program that arranged a concurrent-chains preparation with programmed conjugate schedules of reinforcement. Button presses emitted by participants modulated the quality (volume and opacity) of selected videos on a moment-to-moment basis, allowing us to identify the reinforcing effects of the videos in little time. The results showed that the preference assessment had predictive value for five of seven participants. We discuss the MSWO PAT, parameters that may affect the identification of preferences and the use of conjugate schedules to identify reinforcers.     

Treinta y cinco años del pensamiento divergente: teoría de la creatividad de Guilford

Resumen

Se analiza cómo ha evolucionado el concepto de pensamiento divergente en la teoría de Guilford. Las primeras definiciones en el año 50 dentro del marco del «Proyecto de Investigación de Aptitudes» postulan una serie de rasgos distintivos para el pensamiento divergente que luego serían objeto de confirmación o refutación a partir de los estudios factoriales.

Dentro del modelo de la «Estructura del Intelecto» de Guilford, se ha ido delimitando la importancia de tales rasgos modificando la definición inicial de algunos, como la sensibilidad a los problemas que, aunque fue concebida como un factor de evaluación, finalmente su definición factorial es de una aptitud de conocimiento; rechazando la importancia de otros para la creatividad, como los factores de análisis y síntesis o, finalmente potenciando otros que inicialmente tuvieron menor consideración, como las aptitudes para las transformaciones que, son consideradas por Guilford como una contribución tan importante para la creatividad como la producción divergente.     

Quest for optimum human population per nation

The world is being saturated with population to a point where its life‐support systems may be in danger of losing their ability to maintain environmental stability. Thus, there is an urgent need for scientists and decision makers to develop working models in which information about the population, resource exhaustion, and pollution of each nation is contained. The criteria for determining optimum human population are reviewed, and a bionomic model that incorporates the complex web of economic and political systems within an ecological framework is presented to solve the problem of how large a population each nation should have.     

Young Tennis Players’ Competitive Task Involvement and Performance: The Role of Goal Orientations,Contextual Motivational Climate,And Coach-Initiated Motivational Climate

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of situational and dispositional factors in contributing to competitive task involvement and performance in young tennis players. One hundred fifty-one adolescent tennis players and their coaches participated in the study. Participants responded to instruments measuring pre-game dispositional goal orientations and perceptions of the motivational climate and post-game task involvement in the competition by assessing concentration, loss of self-consciousness, and autotelic experience, perceptions of coach-initiated motivational climate in competition, and self-evaluation of game performance. In addition, coaches evaluated the players’ performance. Results showed that task involvement was predicted by players’ perceptions of a coach-initiated learning motivational climate in competition. Loss of self-consciousness was predicted by the players’ perceptions of a coach-initiated performance climate in competition. Finally, coaches’ and players’ assessment of performance were predicted by autotelic experience, concentration, and by perception of coach-initiated learning and performance orientation in competition.     

Personality functioning in people living with HIV

This investigation adopted a multiple case study approach to determine the personality functioning in people living with HIV/ AIDS (PLWHA). Participants comprised a convenience sample of four PLWHA (male?=?3, female?=?1). The majority of the participants were white (n?=?3) and one was black African. Only one participant was married at the time of participation. Data on aspects such as their suicidal ideation, affect, problem solving styles, ego functioning, self-perception, and interpersonal functioning were collected using the Rorschach inkblot test and clinical interview. The data were actuarially analysed and organised under themes, namely; dominant personality style, capacity for control and stress, situational related stress, affect, interpersonal relations and self-perception. Findings revealed that participants had high levels of potential mood disorders and interpersonal difficulties for which targeted psychological services may be needed.     

Wisdom in a complex world: A situated account of wise reasoning and its development

Social issues (e.g., partisan politics, economic decisions, and interpersonal conflicts) often involve trade‐offs, necessitating the consideration of multiple interests. Such issues do not have simple answers and benefit from wise reasoning—a set of metacognitive strategies that guide people toward managing complexity and balancing different interests. We review recent advances in research on wise reasoning, including evidence pertinent to the question of wisdom's trait‐like and state‐specific features, how it varies across situations, and how one can develop it. Overall, empirical studies suggest that researchers can understand wisdom better by paying attention to its situated nature across time and contexts.     

Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Combined With Virtual Reality Training on Balance in Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Randomized,Controlled, Double-Blind,Clinical Trial

The authors' aim was to investigate the effects of continuous transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) combined with virtual reality training on static and functional balance in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Twenty children with CP (6 girls and 14 boys; M age = 7 years 6 months ± 2 years) were randomly allocated to two groups. The experimental group received active tDCS and the control group received sham stimulation during the 10 sessions of virtual reality mobility training protocols. The children were evaluated on 3 occasions (preintervention, postintervention, and 1-month follow-up). Static balance was evaluated using a force plate under 4 conditions: feet on force plate with (a) eyes open and (b) with eyes closed, and feet on foam mat with (c) eyes open and (d) with eyes closed. Functional balance was evaluated using the Pediatric Balance Scale and the Timed Up and Go Test. The analyses demonstrated statistically significant postintervention and follow-up effects favoring the experimental group over the control group with regard to the Pediatric Balance Scale, Timed Up and Go Test, and area of oscillation of the center of pressure when standing on the force plate with eyes open. The present findings suggest that tDCS can potentiate the effects of virtual reality training on static and functional balance among children with CP.