Response to Barbara Stephens's 'the Martin Buber-Carl Jung disputations: protecting the sacred in the battle for the boundaries of analytical psychology' (journal of analytical psychology, 2001, 46, 3, 455-91)

John Dourley, Response to Barbara Stephens's 'The Martin Buber–Carl Jung disputations: protecting the sacred in the battle for the boundaries of analytical psychology' ( Journal of Analytical Psychology , 2001, 46, 3, 455–91), p.479
Warren Colman, A response to Barbara Stephens , p.492
David Tresan, Response to Barbara Stephens's paper in JAP, 46, 3 , p.494
Barbara D. Stephens, Patterns at play: my response to respondents , p.498     

Amount of newspaper coverage of high school athletics for boys and girls on sports page and newspaper circulation

This study analyzed the amount of coverage for high school athletics in 43 newspapers with small circulation by devoting 40% of their interscholastic athletics coverage to girls in athletics, printed significantly more articles about girls' athletics than did the newspapers with medium (33%) or large (32%) circulation. Therefore, the smaller the newspaper circulation, the more equitable the coverage of athletics for girls and boys. This finding was consistent with some prior work but not all.     

Delayed auditory feedback and rhythmic tapping: evidence for a critical interval shift

Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) impairs performance in speech, music, and tapping, with maximal impairment in speech occurring at a delay of about 200 msec. This critical interval has played a central role in many explanations of the DAF effect, including both closed-loop feedback explanations and alternative proposals. We investigated the nature of the critical interval in rhythmic tapping--in particular, whether the critical interval has a constant value or is dependent on performance rate. Three experiments in which a synchronization-continuation paradigm was used consistently showed that the critical interval shifted with different tapping rates, with maximal impairment occurring when the delay approximately equaled the tapping rate. We address the implications of these results for theories of DAF.     

Paying Attention to Time as One Gets Older

Age-related changes in attention and interval timing as a function of time of day were examined using a temporal bisection task with single and compound auditory and visual stimuli. Half of the participants in each age group were tested in the morning, and half were tested in the afternoon. Duration judgments were found to be shorter for visual signals than for auditory signals. This discrepancy was greater in the morning than in the afternoon and larger for the older than for the younger adults. Young adults showed equal sensitivity to signal duration for single and compound trials and higher sensitivity in the afternoon than in the morning for both signal modalities. In contrast, older adults showed impaired sensitivity on compound trials and the greatest sensitivity overall to single visual trials in the morning. These results suggest that age-related reductions in attentional resources may cause older adults to focus on signals that require controlled attention during specific phases of the circadian cycle.     

An Integral Psychology Response to Helminiak's (2001) “Treating Spiritual Issues in Secular Psychotherapy”

This article is a response to D. A. Helminiak's (2001) “Treating Spiritual Issues in Secular Psychotherapy” from the perspective of K. Wilber's integral psychology. The article consists of 3 sections: (a) a selective summary of integral psychology, including the perennial philosophy, 10 levels of development, lines of development, temporary states, types of orientations, the self, and the 4 quadrants; (b) various conceptual issues; and (c) usefulness to mental health practitioners (MHPs). Although D. A. Helminiak's endeavor to formulate a clear and functional definition of spirituality is commended, his claim of novelty is shown to be unwarranted. It is argued that K. Wilber's integral model is more comprehensive, clear, coherent, and helpful to MHPs.     

Career Research Interests and Training of Genetic Counseling Students

Research is important to validate clinical services, provide information on the effectiveness of practice techniques, and develop the knowledge base of a clinical profession. Genetic counseling students from American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC) accredited training programs were surveyed to determine their career research interests and interest in pursuing a hypothetical doctoral degree in genetic counseling. Genetic counseling program directors were surveyed to assess the emphasis on research training within their programs. A substantial number (46%, n = 92) of genetic counseling students are interested in performing research in their careers and many (40%, n = 80) would pursue a doctoral degree in genetic counseling if it was available. Students and directors from programs with a thesis requirement reported a significantly higher emphasis on career research preparation than those from programs without a thesis requirement. The results of this study indicate that future genetic counselors are interested in contributing to the research base that will advance the field. This study suggests a need to strengthen research training within ABGC accredited graduate programs and explore the development of a doctoral degree option in genetic counseling.     

The pop out of scene-relative object movement against retinal motion due to self-movement

An object that moves is spotted almost effortlessly; it "pops out". When the observer is stationary, a moving object is uniquely identified by retinal motion. This is not so when the observer is also moving; as the eye travels through space all scene objects change position relative to the eye producing a complicated field of retinal motion. Without the unique identifier of retinal motion an object moving relative to the scene should be difficult to locate. Using a search task, we investigated this proposition. Computer-rendered objects were moved and transformed in a manner consistent with movement of the observer. Despite the complex pattern of retinal motion, objects moving relative to the scene were found to pop out. We suggest the brain uses its sensitivity to optic flow to "stabilise" the scene, allowing the scene-relative movement of an object to be identified.     

Symbolic conceptions: the idea of the third

The idea of the third which appears in Jung's concepts of the transcendent function and the coniunctio also occurs in several psychoanalytic theories concerning the emergence of reflective and symbolic thought in childhood development (defined here as the development of 'imaginal capacity'). Noting the way this process is often conceived in terms of the metaphor of sexual intercourse leading to 'conception', this paper suggests that such images need to be understood as symbolic conceptions of the meaning-making functions of the human mind. This leads to a different view of psychoanalytic theories that attempt to account for the development of imaginal capacity in terms of the Oedipus complex. It is suggested that a) these functions must be operative in the mind before the Oedipal situation can become meaningful and b) that psychoanalytic theories are themselves symbolic conceptions which, like mythological narratives, seek to communicate and comprehend psychic reality through imaginal forms.     

Retrieval from semantic memory during a night without sleep

It has been demonstrated that retrieval performance from semantic memory varies during the day. Specifically, the retrieval of low- relative to high-dominance category members is slower in the morning compared to later in the day. It has been suggested that the effect is related to a circadian arousal rhythm, which steadily rises during the day and rapidly declines at night. This study examines retrieval from semantic memory during the night. Sixteen subjects performed a semantic classification task once every hour throughout one night without sleep. Classification latencies became progressively slower, and the time taken to retrieve low- relative to high-dominance category members increased from midnight to 4 a.m. The trend reversed between 4 and 7 a.m. The pattern of results closely parallels the hypothesised circadian arousal rhythm. It is suggested that the variation in retrieval performance as a function of time of day may be related to fluctuations in a circadian arousal rhythm.