Motivated level of construal: How temperature affects the construal level of state-relevant stimuli

Motivation and Emotion - Motivation affects perception, for example when people overestimate the psychological proximity of goal-relevant objects. Additionally, proximity maps onto more concrete...     

Real-time manipulation of visual displacement during manual aiming

This study examined the spatial and temporal limitations of the visual corrective process in the control of upper limb movements. Real-time calculation of kinematic data was used to trigger a prismatic displacement of the movement environment during manual aiming. Using an OptoTrak motion tracking system, a data acquisition unit, and a custom-made program, perturbations were triggered at peak acceleration, peak velocity, and the estimated time of peak deceleration. Movement outcome was significantly influenced only when the visual displacement occurred at peak acceleration. The results support models of visual control that posit that early visual information is required for accurate limb control.     

Defensiveness and attempted thought suppression of negative material

High and low defensive individuals engaged in attempted thought suppression and non‐suppression after viewing an emotionally stressful piece of film. As a function of suppression and non‐suppression instructions, high and low defensive individuals differed from each other in the number of reported film‐related thoughts. Suppression instructions had greatest effects on low defensive individuals in reducing the number of reported film‐related thoughts. The effects of suppression instructions were not significant in reducing the number of film‐related thoughts for high defensive individuals. High defensive individuals also reported more neutral thoughts under the suppression condition compared with the non‐suppression condition. Low defensive individuals reported similar numbers of neutral thoughts under the two conditions. Effects of suppression instructions were investigated in a subsequent cognitive task that measured the level of interference produced by attempted suppression. Suppression instructions did not significantly effect the cognitive processing of participants. Theoretical and methodological implications for understanding the possible cognitive structures underlying attempted suppression are discussed in terms of the effects of defensiveness. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Problems and results for logics about imperatives

Deviating from standard possible-worlds semantics, authors belonging to what might be called the ‘imperative tradition’ of deontic logic have proposed a semantics that directly represents norms (or imperatives). The paper examines possible definitions of (monadic) deontic operators in such a semantics and some properties of the resulting logical systems.     

Postmodern Implications for Theoretical Integration of Counseling Approaches

Theoretical integration refers to the conceptual unification of diverse counseling approaches. Past attempts at theoretical integration have not yielded a broad conceptual framework that seamlessly integrates counseling approaches with varied foundational assumptions. The author contends that the failure of these integrative attempts is a by‐product of the modernistic epistemic context in which the systems were considered and proposes an examination of common narrative features of counseling approaches in a postmodern epistemic context to achieve integration. These features are specified, elaborated, and conclusions are drawn.     

The Wakonse Conference on College Teaching

A Wakonse Conference on College Teaching is a week-long retreat that provides renewal and support for college teaching. Offered in a secluded environment away from campus, it engages faculty from various colleges in demonstration and discussion of what makes teaching effective and rewarding. Wakonse is a grassroots movement within the academy to bring teaching to the forefront and make it central to the mission of higher education. Support for what makes Wakonse effective can be found in much of the student development literature.     

Gender Role of Male Therapists in Both Professional and Personal Life

This study's purpose was to extend the distantresearch on gender roles. The specific objective was tobetter understand the gender role of male psychologists.It was hypothesized that male psychologists would exhibit an androgynous gender role.Gender role styles in professional work and in thepersonal realm were assessed. Questionnaire packets weremailed to 300 male clinical psychologists affiliated with the American Psychological Associationacross six regions within the United States. Sixty ofthe 61 participants reported being Caucasian and 1reported being Native American. Being that the sample was that of practicing psychologists, all withdoctorate degrees, the social class is presumed to be atleast upper middle class. The packets contained ademographics questionnaire and two Personal Attributes Questionnaires. Results suggest that malepsychologists do exhibit an androgynous gender role inboth professional and personal realms. A great deal ofthe prior literature indicates that androgynoustherapists have more adaptive communication skills and arebetter at assessing and treating their clients. Thisresult is therefore advantageous to therapeuticoutcomes.