Exploring athletes' perceptions of the relationship between mental toughness and dispositional flow in sport

ObjectivesDespite considerable scholarly attention over the last two decades, little is known about the influence of dispositional attributes on flow in sport. In achievement settings, mental toughness (MT) is a personal capacity supporting the process of high performance. Based on common overlaps with peak performance, confidence, control, concentration, and thriving in demanding situations, the present research aimed to explore the relationship between MT and dispositional flow and elucidate the psychological variables underlying dispositional flow.DesignA mixed method explanatory participant-selection design was adopted, whereby a quantitative approach was used to identify individuals for a qualitative follow-up phase to explore the relationship between MT and dispositional flow.MethodAn intensity sampling strategy was used to identify individuals with higher/lower MT and dispositional flow. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 athletes (M age = 25, SD = 3.24; female n = 10; male n = 6). An inductive content analysis was undertaken to interpret data.ResultsSeven general dimensions describing the psychological attributes related to dispositional flow in athletes with higher and lower MT emerged. Specifically, differences in confidence, perfectionism, goal orientation, coping mechanism selection, locus of control, optimism and concentration were apparent and could account for differences in dispositional flow.ConclusionWhile all athletes experienced flow, there were differences in dispositional flow and the processes involved in entering, maintaining and restoring flow between higher and lower MT subgroups. Findings are discussed in relation to the existing literature, and recommendations for future research into the MT-flow relationship are outlined.     

Don’t tell me I’m normal: inpatient psychotherapy of a severely abused patient at the Cassel Hospital

This paper is a case study of a patient with severe personality disorder undergoing treatment at the Cassel Hospital. It looks at a phase of her individual psychoanalytic psychotherapy and how that sits within an institutional model of treatment that can be understood as applied psychoanalysis, in which Tom Main’s concept of a ‘culture of enquiry’ aims to observe and bring together splitting and projective processes operating at all levels of the organisation. The patient, who had been sexually abused and then suffered a prolonged suicidal breakdown, exerted intense pressure on the institution through her experience of herself as both a victim of abuse and a participant in it. A working through is described, in which different parts of the patient that had been projected into different parts of the institution are brought together, and her primitive demand for a two-person world gives way to an acceptance of triangulation. Themes from her individual sessions are enacted in the milieu-based treatment, and conversely struggles in the patient community appear in her sessions. It is from drawing these parts of the patient together as a whole institution that the treatment derives its power and effectiveness.     

Evil and moral detachment: further reflections on The Mirror Thesis

A commonly accepted claim by philosophers investigating the nature of evil is that the evil person is, in some way, the mirror image of the moral saint. In this paper I will defend a new version of this thesis. I will argue that both the moral saint and the morally evil person are characterized by a lack of conflict between moral and non-moral concerns. However, while the saint achieves this unity through a reconciliation of the two, the evil person does so by eliminating moral concerns from her character.     

The Enlightenment That Won't Go Away: Modernity's Crux

The Critical Process unleashed by the Enlightenment and endlessly resharpening itself to this day has mortally wounded the God of Deism, maybe also of theism, even of Christianity. A temptation of Christian theology is to retreat in denial into an updated version of Deism, seemingly granting full license to modern science but only so long as it does not impugn God's love. The alternative here proposed is to ride out The Critical Process, in fact to encourage it, all the way into modernity's crux: How can a design that is not benign still be divine? The Christian reply is: through a real death of God and of ourselves as well, and through resurrections beginning now, thus freeing The Critical Process from the illusion of insuring our survival and, instead, for the honest Enlightenment task of merely telling the truth.     

论爱因斯坦的伦理思想和道德实践

爱因斯坦不仅是20世纪最伟大的科学家和思想家,而且也是一位伟大的人。他的伦理思想丰富而深邃,他的道德实践切实而感人。这位知行合一的伟人不愧是世人做人的楷模。     

Hebb learning, verbal short-term memory, and the acquisition of phonological forms in children

Recent work using the Hebb effect as a marker for implicit long-term acquisition of serial order has demonstrated a functional equivalence across verbal and visuospatial short-term memory. The current study extends this observation to a sample of five- to six-year-olds using verbal and spatial immediate serial recall and also correlates the magnitude of Hebb learning with explicit measures of word and nonword paired-associate learning. Comparable Hebb effects were observed in both domains, but only nonword learning was significantly related to the magnitude of Hebb learning. Nonword learning was also independently related to individuals' general level of verbal serial recall. This suggests that vocabulary acquisition depends on both a domain-specific short-term memory system and a domain-general process of learning through repetition.     

康德道德研究中道德规律与道德史的内在矛盾

康德从抽象的个人建立道德规律,与他所谓的人类的道德史相矛盾。解决的办法:是团体、社会性与集体思想作为个人先在的规定性与责任与道德的源泉。     

Empathy or Intersubjectivity? Understanding the Origins of Morality in Young Children’

This article is about young children’s morality and their concern for others’ wellbeing. Questions of what the value of others’ wellbeing can signify, how this value becomes visible to children and how it is expressed in their interaction will be posed. In this analysis, children’s commitment to others’ wellbeing is discussed in terms of two theories, namely the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s (1962, 1964) theory of intersubjectivity and the psychologist Martin Hoffman’s (1984, 1987, 2000) theory of empathy. The interaction between children and adults in pre-school, drawn from different studies of morality (Johansson, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003), constitutes the empirical basis. In the discussion, it is claimed that children’s care for others’ wellbeing can be understood in a fruitful way as experiences of, approaches to and ways of being involved in the other’s life-world rather than as expressions of empathy.

Designing Urban Experiences. The Case of Zuidas,Amsterdam

Zuidas is a new city centre, which is emerging in the outskirts of Amsterdam. The ambitious project of developing a new international city centre has been carefully planned as the Netherlands has a strong and meticulous tradition for urban planning. The planning has however not only encompassed traditional urban planning aspects such as infrastructure, environmental factors and aesthetics, but has also dealt with the design of urban experiences. Through an introduction of the framework of the structure of experiences, this article examines how urban experiences can be understood and analysed, and deals with how urban experiences can be designed through careful consideration of how experiences are constituted. Taking the psychological structure of experiences into account when designing urbanity is not only interesting, but also highly relevant as Zuidas is competing with other international venues such as La Défense, the Docklands and Potsdamer Platz.     

内隐学习的意识性研究述评

在内隐学习的研究中,尽管目前已经默认了内隐学习的存在,但是,内隐学习与意识的关系,一直有着不断的争论.文章从内隐学习足否是无意识的、次级任务对内隐学习的影响和内隐学习的关系等三个方面对内隐学习的意识性研究主要的矛盾焦点进行了述评.