Whatever happened to Kony2012? Understanding a global Internet phenomenon as an emergent social identity

Kony2012 was a viral Internet video that attracted unprecedented online interest in promoting a campaign to arrest the leader of an African militant group. The current research considers the social psychological bases of social media‐based collective action. In three cross‐sectional surveys (N = 304) collected before, on, and after the key action date of 20 April 2012, we consider the nature (opinion based or global) and function (emergent or transforming) of social identity in modern forms of social action. Multigroup structural equation modelling showed that Kony2012 action was best captured by an emergent opinion‐based social identity. Moreover, the same factors that predicted Kony2012 action generally also predicted engagement in new repertoires of protest (involving the use of social media) and an observable traditional socio‐political action (signing a letter to a government minister). The results suggest that there is no sharp dividing line between traditional and new forms of collective action and that both may be understood as valid expressions of collective selfhood. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An examination of learning processes during critical incident training: implications for the development of adaptable trainees

Three experiments are reported that examined the process by which trainees learn decision-making skills during a critical incident training program. Formal theories of category learning were used to identify two processes that may be responsible for the acquisition of decision-making skills: rule learning and exemplar learning. Experiments 1 and 2 used the process dissociation procedure (L. L. Jacoby, 1998) to evaluate the contribution of these processes to performance. The results suggest that trainees used a mixture of rule and exemplar learning. Furthermore, these learning processes were influenced by different aspects of training structure and design. The goal of Experiment 3 was to develop training techniques that enable trainees to use a rule adaptively. Trainees were tested on cases that represented exceptions to the rule. Unexpectedly, the results suggest that providing general instruction regarding the kinds of conditions in which a decision rule does not apply caused them to fixate on the specific conditions mentioned and impaired their ability to identify other conditions in which the rule might not apply. The theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

The generalized optic acceleration cancellation theory of catching

The generalized optic acceleration cancellation (GOAC) theory of catching proposes that the path of a fielder running to catch a ball is determined by the attempt to satisfy 2 independent constraints. The 1st is to keep the angle of elevation of gaze to the ball increasing at a decreasing rate. The 2nd is to control the rate of horizontal rotation necessary to maintain fixation on the ball. Depending on the lateral velocity of the ball relative to the fielder, this rate may be zero or constant at a negative or positive value. The authors show that a simulated fielder implementing the GOAC strategy follows a path indistinguishable from that of real fielders running to catch balls thrown on the same trajectories.     

Children's printed word database: Continuities and changes over time in children's early reading vocabulary

In this paper we introduce a comprehensive database of the vocabulary in reading materials used by 5 – 9 year old children in the UK. The database is available on‐line http:www.essex.ac.ukpsychologycpwd and allows researchers into early reading development the possibility of rigorous control over critical characteristics of experimental stimuli such as word frequency, regularity and length, frequency of grapheme‐phoneme correspondences, orthographic and phonological neighbourhoods etc. The on‐line database is also a resource that can be used by practitioners with interests in literacy development and literacy instruction. It can be used to obtain characteristics for a user‐generated list of words, or else to generate a list of words according to constraints specified by the user. Here we present an overview of the construction of the database, the materials entered into it, the survey of schools by which we obtained information about the books that were most likely to be used by children in each age group, and the search features available on the database website. We also discuss certain characteristics of the Vocabulary itself and compare these with those reported in an earlier non‐representative database reported in Stuart, Dixon, Masterson and Gray (2003). We then present a detailed analysis of the characteristics of Vocabulary in books used in the Reception year, against the background of recent recommendations for change in the early teaching of reading. Finally, we present data showing that the database is indeed already proving a useful resource for both practitioners and researchers.     

Applied sport psychology: A view from britain

Abstract

Based on the findings of a field study with youth sport coaches, contextual factors in youth sport arc considered. Youth sport is discussed as a “developmental intervention” (Birkel, Lerner, &; Smyer, 1989). Although past research has examined a variety of issues in youth sport (e.g., coaching behavior, participation motivation), the dynamics of the context have been largely ignored. It is argued that situational factors may have important implications for the quality of children's youth sport experiences. Data arc presented to show the significance of contextual factors in coaches' experiences. Examples of previous interventions aimed at manipulating contexts arc offered and suggestions for future interventions, based on the present study, arc discussed. The roles of parents. spectator location. rules, and time are discussed in detail.     

Inside Out: The State of the Analyst and the State of the Patient

This paper presents my work with a man before and after my undergoing an emergency, life-threatening surgical episode, and subsequent experience of living with a temporary colostomy, that shifted me to a more ungrounded, bodily aware, vulnerable, nonlinear, spontaneous and risk-taking, and affectively intensified “right brain” state. My story represents one instance of how the contingent nature of the analyst's life and existential exposure, and the various chancy life circumstances governing the analyst's self-state, may constitute an impingement on clinical process with potential for inadvertent positive or negative impact on the therapeutic relationship and work. Much has been written about the causes and consequences of shifts in the analyst's self-state induced within the relational dynamics of the transference-countertransference matrix. Here I specifically consider that side of the intersubjective therapeutic equation generated by the effects of the analyst's own state on the patient and the dyad's interactive process.     

Applications,Implications, Complications: Reply to Reviews by Elkind,Gerson, and Levine

The author appreciates the careful reading and thoughtful reviews by Sue Elkind, Sam Gerson, and Howard Levine. Elkind's review particularly captures and articulates many of the key ideas in the book Building Bridges: The Negotiation of Paradox in Psychoanalysis and creatively applies concepts of negotiation, paradox, an inherently multiple “distributed self,” and metaphor in her own work consulting on treatment impasses. Gerson incisively focuses on the core idea of recognizing, accepting, and bridging differences and contradictions in personal, and national, perspectives; he also articulates an understanding of the attempt of relational analytic writers to bridge the intrapsychic and the interpersonal with due recognition of each. The author replies extensively to Levine's comparison of Pizer's work with that of Semrad and other “classical” analysts and challenges Levine's premise that a relational perspective, grounded as it is in a two-person contextual psychology, ignores or devalues interpretation, insight, free association, and autonomous mental functioning. Quoting from clinical material in his book, Pizer presents the outcome of a “relational” analysis in terms of the patient's increased access to internal “potential space,” unconscious experience, curiosity, and reflectiveness about the mental life of self and other, and an increased ability to value personal experience in relationship and in solitude.     

Is Memory for Head Orientation Based on a Left-Looking Schema?

Research has shown that people misremember right-looking heads on coins as facing to the left, suggesting a general memory schema that favors left-lookers. This hypothesis was investigated in a study of 241 subjects in three experiments who were shown photographs of faces looking to the left, to the right, or at the observer and were later asked to identify whether each one had subsequently been left-right reversed. Also, in Experiments 2 and 3, respectively, initial judgments of liking and of orientation were obtained. Unexpectedly, orientation memory accuracy was lower after a 5-s exposure than after a 1-s exposure, and after initial judgments of lateral orientation than after judgments of liking. Although the difference between left- and right-lookers was significant in only 2 of 14 comparisons, aggregated data showed that identification accuracy was generally higher for left-lookers, with a mean effect size of 0.16. Although small, this difference is consistent with the hypothesis of a left-looking schema for heads.