Fractal Structure of Event Segmentation: Lessons From Reel and Real Events

We investigated fractality in the segmentation of cinematic and live events. Four movies from distinct genres were first analyzed and found to be fractal, albeit in different regions of the fractal range. In Experiment 1, viewers parsed the films' events, attending to short or long timescales, using a button box to indicate break points. The temporal structure of film viewing was found to be fractal regardless of the scale of attention and to reflect the differing fractal editing structure of the films. Experiment 2 found event segmentation to be fractal in a natural setting, a basketball game, as well. An additional parallel between reel and real events was uncovered: fractal indices were at the higher end of the range for both the film genre intended to be anxiogenic and the more suspenseful portion of the basketball game. We argue that the fractal structure of perception reflects the fractal structure of events whether the events are in film or in nature. We speculate that fractal structure has implications for understanding subjective experience and, ultimately, the correspondence between films and the world.     

Exercising Research Skills: An Information Literacy Boot Camp for Religious Studies Graduate Assistants

Instructional librarians at the University of Dayton collaborated with a religious studies graduate program to offer a three-day information literacy workshop, or “boot camp,” to the program's graduate research assistants. The graduate program had found that the assistants' research skills did not meet the expectations of their faculty mentors, and the workshop sought to address these deficiencies. With input from the religious studies faculty, the workshop focused on catalog and database searching, Boolean logic, primary sources, and the Chicago citation style. The librarians incorporated active learning exercises into each workshop session. Assessment of the workshop suggested that the assistants gained confidence in these information literacy skills. Feedback from faculty also indicated that the assistants' research skills had improved.     

On the Edge: Exploring the End of the Analytic Hour

The final moments of the analytic hour are a repetitive reenactment whose symbolic meaning can be both a challenge and an opportunity. Each member of the analytic dyad is vulnerable to the revival of deprivation and loss that is introduced by the end of the hour, and each will handle the experience in a unique way. When this cocreated moment occurs in the absence of awareness, there can be avoidance and enactment. When it occurs in the context of shared understanding, the analytic pair is free to intensify, play with, and confront the limitations and inevitabilities of life that are revived again and again when we approach and reach the end. Integrating theoretical perspectives on mourning, attachment, and self-states, along with clinical vignettes, the paper will show how existential questions are present in many of our analytic encounters. As we help our clients negotiate this moment, we too may acknowledge aspects of ourselves that can intensify our awareness, and facilitate our therapeutic effectiveness. Our capacity to explore this important edge of analytic space with our patients can help them to live and to love and can enrich our work if we can be open to its multifaceted meaning.     

Factor Structure of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale in Hong Kong Adolescents

E. A. Southwell &; M. Merbaum (Eds.). Personality: Readings in Theory and Research. (2nd ed.) Belmont, Calif.: Brooks/Cole, 1971, 422 pages. Reviewed by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi     

Is Locker Room Talk Really Just Talk? An Analysis of Normative Sexual Talk and Behavior

ABSTRACT

Current sexual violence prevention initiatives have focused on addressing and changing societal norms that are supportive of sexual assault. One area of focus has been the way in which people describe women and sexual acts as it has been suggested that people perceive sex differently. The present study investigated what people consider normative sexual language and behavior and what people consider language and behavior indicative of sexual assault. Participants were given a questionnaire to gather their opinions about sexually assaultive language, their feelings about sex talk, and their experiences with sexual assault. Results indicated that women were more likely than men to rate nonconsensual language as more normal, and that normative ratings of assault language was not related to perpetration of sexual assault. These findings will be discussed as they pertain to sexual violence prevention initiatives.     

Latent self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism: Tests of factorial,convergent, and discriminant validity using self- and informant reports

Using latent variables for self-oriented perfectionism (i.e., demanding perfection of oneself) and socially prescribed perfectionism (i.e., perceiving others are demanding perfection of oneself) has advantages. However, few studies have specifically examined the psychometric properties of these latent variables. The present study addresses this shortcoming by testing the factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables using self- and informant reports. It was hypothesized that (a) the factor structure of the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables would be supported, (b) self- and informant reports would moderately converge, and (c) the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables would be discriminable. A sample of 242 undergraduate women and 378 informants (218 mothers, 160 fathers) was recruited. Undergraduate women completed self-reports, and mothers and fathers completed informant reports. Results were consistent with hypotheses, thereby supporting (a) the factorial validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed latent variables using self- and informant reports, (b) the convergent validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed latent variables via moderately to strongly correlated self- and informant reports, and (c) the discriminant validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables. Findings suggest research using these latent variables is warranted.     

Judgements of others’ emotional appropriateness are multidimensional

This study investigated the multidimensional structure of judgements of emotional appropriateness, the degree to which an observer judges a target's emotion to conform to observer-valued expectations for emotion in that context. Participants (N=169) were shown one of two brief video clips of an actor either showing anger or neutral expressions in an anger-evoking situation of either low, medium, or high severity. Participants rated the target's emotion on the Perception of Emotion Appropriateness Rating Scale (PEARS), which taps observers’ perceptions of a target's emotional appropriateness for a specific situation. We found that appropriateness ratings are comprised of three factors, assessment of Type Present (type of emotion in expression); Type Absent (missing key emotions); and Intensity (intensity with which the emotion is felt or expressed). Results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of a multidimensional conceptualisation of emotional appropriateness.