A strange hand: On self-recognition and recognition of another

This article provides a phenomenological analysis of the difference between self-recognition and recognition of another, while referring to some contemporary neuroscientific studies on the rubber hand illusion. It examines the difference between these two forms of recognition on the basis of Husserl’s and Merleau-Ponty’s work. It argues that both phenomenologies, despite their different views on inter-subjectivity, allow for the specificity of recognition of another. In explaining self-recognition, however, Husserl’s account seems less convincing. Research concerning the rubber hand illusion has confirmed that self-recognition involves more than an immediate experience of oneself. Merleau-Ponty’s later work, describing self-recognition as the result of assimilative identification, will be used to explain the possibility of illusion between one’s “hereness” and “thereness”. The possibility of this illusion is inherent to self-recognition, while it is lacking in recognition of another.

Attention and attribute overlap in preferential choice

Attributes that are common, or overlapping, across alternatives in two-alternative forced preferential choice tasks are often non-diagnostic. In many settings, attending to and evaluating these attributes does not help the decision maker determine which of the available alternatives is the most desirable. For this reason, many existing behavioural theories propose that decision makers ignore common attributes while deliberating. Across six experiments, we find that decision makers do direct their attention selectively and ignore attributes that are not present in or associated with either of the available alternatives. However, they are as likely to attend to common attributes as they are to attend to attributes that are unique to a single alternative. These results suggest the need for novel theories of attention in preferential choice.     

Coach identity leadership behaviours are positively associated with athlete resource appraisals: The mediating roles of relational and group identification

BackgroundThere is growing evidence identifying the positive effects of sport and exercise leaders engaging in identity leadership. Yet we have limited knowledge of how identity leadership is associated with athletes’ resource appraisals (e.g., self-efficacy) and performance, the underpinning mechanisms that explain such relationships, and changes in relationships across a sporting season.MethodsIn Study 1, 412 amateur and professional athletes completed seven questionnaires directly prior to athletic competition in a cross-sectional design. In Study 2, 136 athletes completed seven questionnaires directly before competition, and one questionnaire directly after competition both at the start and the end of the athletic season.ResultsIn Study 1, relational identification and group identification mediated the positive relationship between identity leadership and self-efficacy, control, approach goals and social support. In Study 2, identity leadership at the start of the season predicted self-efficacy at the end of the season through relational identification. Group identification did not significantly mediate the identity leadership-resource appraisal relationship. Perceived social support at the start of the season predicted greater performance satisfaction at the end of the competitive season.ConclusionsFindings provide evidence that sport coaches’ engagement in identity leadership is key to forming a shared social identity, which in turn, is broadly adaptive for stress appraisals and performance satisfaction both cross sectionally and longitudinally.     

Self-determined work motivation predicts job outcomes,but what predicts self-determined work motivation?

Self-determined work motivation predicts important job outcomes, such as job satisfaction [Richer, S. F., Blanchard, C., & Vallerand, R. J. (2002). A motivational model of work turnover. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 2089–2113], but what predicts self-determined work motivation is less fully understood. We tested general causality orientation—specifically autonomy and control orientation—as a predictor of self-determined work motivation, which in turn was expected to predict job satisfaction and identification commitment as job outcomes. Regression analyses confirmed our hypotheses such that autonomy orientation predicted job outcomes via increased self-determined work motivation. Control orientation predicted self-determined work motivation but did not affect either of the two job outcomes. Findings are discussed with respect to the importance of individual differences in understanding job outcomes.     

Breathing life into family processes: introduction to the special issue on families and asthma

This introduction to the special issue dedicated to families and asthma proposes that the study of asthma highlights general systems topics such as integration of individual needs into the group, developmental trajectories of risk and resilience, supportive and destructive patterns of interaction, and the cultural adaptation of family therapy. It briefly introduces papers in the special issue and concludes that asthma can serve as an exemplar in the study of family health due to its comorbidity with mental health problems, potential to affect multiple members of the family, disproportionate influence on low-income and minority families, and multiple avenues for intervention.     

Dissociable aspects of imitation: a study in autism

What does it mean for a child to imitate someone else? We tested matched groups of children with and without autism (n=16 for each group, with a mean chronological age of 11 years and a mean verbal mental age of 6 years) to investigate two potentially dissociable aspects of imitation: copying goal-directed actions, on the one hand, and imitating the "style" with which a person demonstrates those actions, on the other. Our hypothesis was that the latter, but not necessarily the former, kind of imitation reflects a special quality of interpersonal engagement in which one person identifies with another, and that the propensity to identify with others is specifically weak in autism. As predicted, participants with and without autism were similar in their ability to copy six relatively complex goal-directed actions but were significantly different in imitating the style with which six simpler goal-directed actions were executed, especially when style was incidental to accomplishing a goal. We interpret the findings in terms of a link among children's capacities for intersubjective engagement, imitation, and learning new ways to relate to objects.     

Synchrnoic consciousness from a neurological point of view: the philosophical foundations for neuroethics

Daniel Kolak’s theory of synchronic consciousness according to which the entire range of dissociative phenomena, from pathologies such as MPD and schizophrenia to normal dream states, are best explained in terms of consciousness becoming simultaneously identified as many selves, has revolutionary therapeutic implications for neurology and psychiatry. All these selves, according to Kolak—even the purely imaginary ones that exist as such only in our dreams—are not just conscious but also self-conscious, with beliefs, intentions, living lives informed by memories (confabulatory, in the case of the fictional ones) and personal histories. Kolak’s derivation of psychiatrically relevant aspects of his theory—a neurological rendition of a Kantian transcendental argument—can be given a straightforward neurological, and therefore open to scientific scrutiny, interpretation that would then more easily lend itself to the clinical setting in which these perplexing phenomena, along with their purveyors, must live and cope. This will be the main focus of this paper.     

Meeting the challenges in the delivery of child and adolescent mental health services in the next millennium: The continuous quality improvement approach

Managed care and concerns about the effectiveness of services are major pressures on mental health services. An approach to dealing with the challenges of providing high-quality, cost-effective services is continuous quality improvement or CQI. This article describes four major themes that motivate the CQI approach. However, we also describe the major obstacles in using an approach originally designed for manufacturing for human services. The need to accurately measure both treatment processes and outcomes is emphasized.     

The Mother-child Relationship as an Archetype for the Relationship between the Virgin Mary and Humanity in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation

Following the work of Stevens Rogers (2002), this article starts with the premise that humanity can be seen as a child growing in changing relationship with his or her mother. With Jesus representing humanity, the relationship between a mother and a child can be an archetype for understanding the changing relationship between the Virgin Mary and humanity as narrated in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation. With the Annunciation by the Angel, the Boy Jesus in the Temple, the wedding at Cana, and Mary at the foot of the cross as developmental stages, this article shows the changing relationship between humanity and the Virgin Mary. Pierre M. Balthazar is a student in the PsyD program in Clinical Psychology at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology.