A Wandering Mind is Not Always a Creative Mind: How Thought Dynamics Explain the Relationship between Mind Wandering and Creativity

A wandering mind is not always a creative mind. Anecdotes about ideas spontaneously entering awareness during walks, showers, and other off-task activities are plenty. The science behind it, however, is still inconclusive. Creativity might result from how thought context—whether thoughts are on-task or off-task—relates to thought dynamics—how thoughts unfold. To explore this, study 1 (n = 85) surveyed creative professionals about a single idea they had earlier in the day. The spontaneity of thoughts positively correlated with self-reported creativity, whereas off-task thoughts or doing something else did not. Study 2 (n = 180) replicated these findings in a student sample during an idea generation task and added that free movement of thoughts also correlates with self-reported originality during idea generation. As indicated by expert ratings, no relationship of thought dynamics and thought context was found with population-level creativity. Herewith, this study suggests that thought dynamics, rather than thought context, explain the often suggested relationship between mind wandering and creativity.     

The Development of Discrimination of form and Area

The Time Competence Scale from the Personal Orientation Inventory was administered to 28 male and 47 female college students who then described their real and ideal self-concepts using the Interpersonal Check List. Self-actualizing individuals manifested greater congruence between their real and ideal self-concepts than did nonactualizing persons. Dominance was seen as a significantly more desirable integrative mechanism by the nonactualizing subjects. There was a nonsignificant trend in the desirability of an increase in acceptance as a function of the degree of self-actualization. Findings are discussed in terms of individuals' perceptions of congruence with their environment.     

Core beliefs,automatic thoughts and response expectancies in predicting public speaking anxiety

The present study examined the relationships between broad core cognitions, situation-specific automatic thoughts, and response expectancies in regard to their relative contributions to public speaking anxiety. Ninety-nine socially anxious participants (mean age = 20.25) completed measures of irrational beliefs and automatic thoughts specific to public speaking. Participants were then announced the task – giving a speech in front of a virtual reality audience – and response expectancies were measured. Subjective anxiety was measured just before the speech. As predicted, response expectancies and negative automatic thoughts specific to public speaking were each found to mediate the relationship between irrational beliefs and public speaking anxiety. Multiple mediation analysis indicated that the core irrational beliefs generated specific beliefs (i.e., response expectancies that primed automatic thoughts) that acted on speech-related anxiety.     

Does instrumental motivation help students with low intrinsic motivation? Comparison between Western and Confucian students

The research examines possible differences in the mutual reinforcement (i.e. multiplicative) effect between intrinsic and instrumental motivation on academic performance across different cultures. Eight representative countries and economies from two large-scale databases—the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012—were used, respectively. Results showed that among the Confucian economies, instrumental motivation was more helpful in improving the mathematics performance of students with low intrinsic motivation than for those with high intrinsic motivation. This was shown by the multiplicative effect between intrinsic and instrumental motivation. Despite the difference, students in both Confucian and Western cultures with high intrinsic motivation had better mathematics performance than students with low intrinsic motivation.     

儒佛政治伦理的冲突与融合——以沙门拜俗问题为中心

中国佛教徒曾经长期以"高尚其迹"相标榜,坚持出家不拜俗的印度传统.一些固守儒家传统的人士攻击佛教"无父无君",损害了封建纲常名教.从东晋至唐朝,朝廷举行了多次关于沙门拜俗的争论,其中以东晋成康、元兴、唐高宗龙朔二年的争论最为激烈.中国佛教僧人在元代彻底地改变了出家人不拜俗的戒条,接受了儒家忠孝至上的政治伦理原则.中国佛教与王权的关系体现了中国佛教以出世的精神服务于现实政治的伦理关怀,体现了中国传统政治的民主精神和对外来宗教文化的宽容态度,体现了儒家的忠孝伦理在中国传统社会的主导价值,体现了佛教"契机契理"的圆融精神.     

Confucian Ethics and Impartiality: On the Confucian View about Brotherhood

This essay reviews Confucian ethics with regard to impartiality and Confucian notion of brotherhood. It focuses on the comments by Song Neo- Confucians, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, about a famous case involving brotherhood. In this case Diwu Lun of the Han dynasty treated his diseased son and his diseased nephew in different ways. The author argues that Confucianism, starting from a naturalist standpoint, affirms the partiality in the relations between brothers, and judges deliberate impartiality negatively. On this point, one cannot simply view Confucianism as analogous to the Kantian ethics which promises impartiality or the virtue ethics which opposes impartiality.     

儿童心理虐待与抑郁：自动思维的中介作用

目的：运用结构方程模型验证儿童心理虐待、自动思维与抑郁的关系。方法：采用儿童心理虐待量表、自动思维问卷（ATQ）及自评抑郁量表（SDS）,对黑龙江省838名初中生进行调查。结果：儿童心理虐待对自动思维及抑郁有直接影响（β=0.245,β=0.674,均P＜0.001）;自动思维在儿童心理虐待对抑郁的影响中起部分中介作用(Z=51.2,P＜0.01)。结论：自动思维在儿童心理虐待和抑郁之间起中介作用,表明可以从认知方面改善心理虐待初中生的抑郁状态。     

论中国古代儒家哲学的价值取向

儒家哲学是中国古代哲学的重要门派 ,其内容博大精深 ,影响广泛而久远 ,其基本精神和价值取向可归纳为“内圣外王之道”。对儒家“内圣外王”思想的阐释在古代和近代有所不同 ,涉及内修与外用、中学与西学等关系。“内圣外王”作为价值观 ,其本体论依据为天人关系论中的“天道”或“人道”本体论 ,其认识论依据为内在超越思路和“知行合一”观念。     

邓小平伦理思想的独特地位——纪念邓小平诞辰100周年

邓小平伦理思想是继毛泽东伦理思想之后我们党和人民又一重大的伦理学成果和宝贵财富 ,它以改革开放的道德价值视野、“三个有利于”的道德价值取向和在“三个面向”中培养“四有新人”的理想关怀 ,贡献给了 2 0世纪马克思主义伦理思想宝库许多新的内容。邓小平伦理思想体现了解放思想 ,实事求是和与时俱进的理论特质 ,全面回答了在中国这样一个经济文化还比较落后的社会主义大国如何建设先进的现代化的伦理文化的问题 ,并以立足本国而又面向世界和未来的开放胆识昭示于世界伦理学之林     

儒家伦理与政治文明

我们遵循取其精华,去其糟粕,古为今用的原则,对于儒家政治伦理及其治国思想进行新的开发,转化,创新和利用,可以为建设当代中国政治明提供服务。