Wall,Gate and Self-Other Dynamics: A Confucian Ethics of Separation and Interconnection

This paper starts with the social and moral implications of wall in history and in the contemporary world, to usher in the early Confucian discourse on wall and gate. The Confucian discourse implies that walls—either actual, virtual or symbolic—are there to defend and/or to separate, while gates enable the managed access to and opening-up the self-imposed insularity or moderate the self-centred exclusiveness that walls imply. By way of reinterpretation and reconstruction, we will extract from a variety of Confucian discussions the ethical awareness that however strongly built, walls must be associated with gates, and that the wall and the gate are therefore locked in mutuality to make possible the reality of interconnectedness between the inside and the outside and between the self and the other. It will be argued that by using ethical virtues as tools to moderate separation and exclusiveness, Confucian discourses highlight the dynamics of the self-other relationship, and establishes an ethics that may well be still applicable to contemporary situations and can be drawn upon to help dissolve the tension between the values of populist self-centrism and those of globalist interconnectedness.     

Anisotropic tracking: evidence for automatic synergy formation in a bimanual task

Investigation of interlimb synergy has become synonymous with the study of coordination dynamics and is largely confined to periodic movement. Based on a computational approach this paper demonstrates a method of investigating the formation of a novel synergy in the context of stochastic, spatially asymmetric movements. Nine right-handed participants performed a two degrees of freedom (2D) "etch-a-sketch" tracking task where the right hand controlled the horizontal position of the response cursor on the display while the left hand controlled the vertical position. In a pre-practice 2D tracking task, measures of phase lag between the irregularly moving target and the response showed that participants controlled left and right hands independently, performance of the right hand being slightly superior to the left. Participants then undertook 4 h 16 min distributed practice of a one degree of freedom etch-a-sketch task where the target was constrained to move irregularly in only the 45 degrees direction on the display. To track such a target accurately participants had to make in-phase coupled stochastic movements of the hands. In a post-practice 2D task, measures of phase lag showed anisotropic improvement in performance, the amount of improvement depending on the direction of motion on the display. Improvement was greatest in the practised 45 degrees and least in the orthogonal 135 degrees direction. Best and worst performances were no longer in the directions associated with right and left hands independently, but in directions requiring coupled movements of the two hands. These data support the proposal that the nervous system can establish a model of novel coupling between the hands and thereby form a task-dependent bimanual synergy for controlling the stochastic coupled movements as an entity.     

The acquisition of bimanual coordination is mediated by anisotropic coupling between the hands

The present study was designed to test two predictions from the coupled oscillator model of multifrequency coordination. First, it was predicted that multifrequency tasks that match the inherent manual asymmetry (i.e., the preferred hand assigned to the faster tempo) would be easier to learn than tasks that do not match the inherent dynamics (i.e., the non-preferred hand assigned to the faster tempo). Second, in the latter case acquisition of the multifrequency coordination would involve a reorganisation of the coupling dynamics such that the faster hand would exert a greater influence on the slower hand than vice versa. Sixteen right-handed volunteers received extensive training on a 2:1 coordination pattern involving a bimanual forearm pronation-supination task. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1L:2R in which the preferred right hand performed the higher frequency, or 2L:1R in which the non-preferred left hand performed the higher frequency. The dynamic stability of the patterns was assessed by the ability of participants to maintain the coordination pattern as movement frequency was increased. Changes in the directional coupling between the hands was assessed by transition pathways and lead-lag relationship evident in a 1:1 anti-phase frequency-scaled coordination task performed prior to and following three practice sessions of the 2:1 task. The predicted differential stability between the multifrequency patterns was evident in the initial acquisition sessions but by the end of training the two patterns evidenced equivalent stability. Unexpectedly, for both groups the fast hand displayed greater variability in amplitude and movement frequency than the slow hand perhaps reflecting anchoring afforded to the slow hand by synchronising movement endpoints with the auditory pacing metronome. Analysis of pre- to post-training changes to the coupling dynamics in the 1:1 anti-phase task support the hypothesis that acquisition of the 2L:1R pattern involved reorganisation of the inherent dynamics.     

Substantive unconscious and adjective unconscious: the contribution of Wilfred Bion

The author first provides her readers with a brief summary of some of Freud's ideas, as found throughout his work, on the notion of 'unconscious'. The notion of unconscious as noun is contrasted to the idea of unconscious as adjective, this latter being proposed as a quality, or a state, ever temporary, dynamic, and subject to the constant changes going on in the individual's internal psychic world, as well as to external conditions. After presenting some considerations, the author then contrasts the Kleinian model of the mind to the Freudian, and Wilfred Bion's contribution is discussed at some length. Within Bion's conception of psychic functioning, the model of 'dream' is highlighted and, in this regard, clarifications are sought regarding Bion's view of the unconscious. To conclude, a brief and superficial approximation to the work of Carl Jung is touched upon, although the author admits to knowing little of Jung's positions.     

Dynamical concurrent schedules

Previous work on the matching law has predominantly focused on the molar effects of the contingency by examining only one reinforcer ratio for extended periods. Responses are distributed as a function of reinforcer ratios under these static conditions. But the outcome under a dynamic condition in which reinforcer ratios change continuously has not been determined. The present study implemented concurrent variable-interval schedules that changed continuously across a fixed 5-min trial. The schedules were reciprocally interlocked. The variable interval for one key changed continuously from a variable-interval 15-s to a variable-interval 480-s, while the schedule for the other key changed from a variable-interval 480-s to a variable-interval 15-s. This dynamical concurrent schedule shifted behavior in the direction of matching response ratios to reinforcer ratios. Sensitivities derived from the generalized matching law were approximately 0.62, the mean absolute bias was approximately 0.11, and r2s were approximately 0.86. It was concluded that choice behavior can come to adapt to reinforcer ratios that change continuously over a relatively short time and that this change does not require extensive experience with a fixed reinforcer ratio. The results were seen as supportive of the view that all behavior constitutes choice.     

Culture Is More than a Static Residual: Introduction to the Special Section on Culture and Foreign Policy

The literature on international relations frequently refers to culture in broad, macro-level ways to explain what cannot be explained by economic or military power. The assumptions that culture is simple, uniform and the opposite of power are, in the view of the authors, erroneous. Also, the authors note that there is a lack of scholarly interaction among psychologists interested in cross-cultural phenomena and international relations specialists interested in questions of identity and foreign policy. As an introduction to a special section on culture and foreign policy, this article calls for more communication among these scholarly communities; provides a set of observations about foreign policy and culture understood as a complex, dynamic concept; and calls for specific kinds of studies to better understand foreign policy in the context of cultural complexity and richness.     

Anxiety Symptomatology in Mexican-American Adolescents

Mexican-American adults and adolescents in general have been reported to have high levels of anxiety symptomatology. In our study of a tri-ethnic sample of 2528 junior and senior high school students, the Youth Self Report (YSR) version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and a sociodemographic questionnaire was used to assess the anxiety symptoms of Hispanic youth. We compared the ratings on anxiety symptoms, using Achenbach's anxiety subscale on the YSR, between two populations. The anxiety levels of youth in coastal southeast Texas (Galveston County) were compared to the anxiety levels of youth in the lower Rio Grande Valley. We found that Mexican-Americans of the Lower Rio Grande Valley scored higher on anxiety symptoms than the tri-ethnic population of Galveston County. Other factors associated with higher anxiety scores for Mexican-American youths included being born outside the US, linguistic fluency, father absent from the home, mother's education, and household size. Multiple regression analyses showed that socio-economic status (SES), family composition, and linguistic fluency had a greater relative impact on anxiety symptomatology than all other factors, both for the total sample as well as for the Mexican-American sample. These results parallel previous findings, with Mexican-American adults, which suggest either higher risk for anxiety symptomatology or a culturally related bias in the reporting of such symptoms.     

Minority representation,tokenism, and well-being in army units

Racial and ethnic diversity is increasing in the US Army and women are moving into more combat roles. This puts minority soldiers at risk for being underrepresented in their work units. Tokenism theory predicts that when a work group has less than 15% representation in a social group, the numerically underrepresented minority (i.e., token) members are subject to three disadvantages: higher visibility, informal isolation, and role encapsulation. In the Army, where many companies contain small numbers of women and racial minorities, some soldiers may face additional stressors and constraints. We explored psychosocial, organizational, and health outcomes of all identifiable token women (N = 4,425) and Black soldiers (N = 5,040). Tokens were remarkably similar to non-tokens and majority soldiers on outcomes such as coping skills, adaptability, organizational trust, sleep, substance use, and pain. The intersection of token status in terms of race and gender was not related to any appreciable differences. One potential explanation is the shared Army culture that emphasizes group unity and the importance of the mission above individual characteristics and goals. The Army depends on cohesion, organizational identification, and commitment to the group in order to reduce stress and anxiety, and to maximize combat performance. For soldiers who have internalized this culture, it could be easier to see past individual differences such as gender and race and identify others in the unit as fellow soldiers primarily.     

La dynamique du système capacitaire Identité, action et projet

This study aims at illustrating the interest of a methodology of exploration of identity dynamics, the IMIS(Zavalloni & Louis-Guerin, 1984), for the elaboration of the professional project. Psychosocial identity is a system of representations of oneself and the world animated by the paradox of being identical and distinct at the same time. This system justifies ways of thought and action, that are retrieved in identity strategies. Action is presented as a medium-term project, endowed with a function of regulation of identity and capability representations that it conveys and validates(Costalat-Founeau, 2008). The project therefore leans upon the cognitive substrate of experience. Action doesn’t follow the project, both are interwoven in a common perspective defined by intentional objectives(Young & Valach, 2006).     

Keeping the Peace—Police Behaviour at a Mass Event

This study examined the collective behaviour of the police during a football match at the 2006 Football World Cup. What peacekeeping and aggravating processes could be identified and what were their consequences? Data were collected using observation and field interviews. Some critical situations could have escalated into riots; however, the police showed trust in the majority of the supporters' intentions to be peaceful. Distrust was reserved for selected individuals who were under surveillance. This, together with tactics involving using different forces for different tasks and an overall organisational strategy focusing on the festivity of the event, was the main reason for the peaceful outcome. A friendly but firm approach was successful in keeping the peace. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.