Action research,emancipation and design thinking

This article evaluates the notion and practice of action research, as defined by contributors to the recent special issue ‘Action Research and Emancipation’ in this journal. The author argues that, although action research implicitly has a design orientation, it largely draws on the humanities and sciences as its main role models. As a result, action researchers nowadays do not see themselves as design professionals. Idealized design methods serve to illustrate how design research can help realize the emancipatory intentions of action researchers. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Aha!” is stronger when preceded by a “huh?”: presentation of a solution affects ratings of aha experience conditional on accuracy

Insight has been investigated under the assumption that participants solve insight problems with insight processes and/or experiences. A recent trend has involved presenting participants with the solution and analysing the resultant experience as if insight has taken place. We examined self-reports of the aha experience, a defining aspect of insight, before and after feedback, along with additional affective components of insight (e.g., pleasure, surprise, impasse). Classic insight problems, compound remote associates, and non-insight problems were randomly interleaved and presented to participants. Solution feedback increased ratings of aha experience in both insight and non-insight problems, with this result being driven by responses to solutions that were initially incorrectly generated. Ratings of aha for correctly generated solutions decreased after the correct solution was presented. These findings have implications for insight research paradigms as well as informing teaching methods.     

A Kinetic Sculpture Intervention for Individuals Grieving the Deaths of Family Members

This article presents a creative intervention called kinetic sculpture for loss adaptation in grief counseling. This intervention is supported by professional literature regarding Bowenian family systems and creativity in counseling. The deaths of family members may generate much uncertainty for clients regarding functioning of their family systems. Kinetic sculpture allows clients to create visual examples of family equilibrium before, in the midst of, and after the deaths of family members. Insight gained from engaging in this intervention can aid clients in making aspirational plans for their own adaptations to loss. In this article, we present step-by-step instructions for creating the kinetic sculpture, make recommendations for process questions to accompany the intervention, and apply the kinetic sculpture in a case example.     

Bluffing and betting behavior in a simplified poker game

A pure‐strategy, simplified poker (PSP) game is proposed, where two players draw from a small and discrete number of hands. Equilibrium strategies of the game are described and an experiment is conducted where 120 subjects played the PSP against a computer, which was programmed to play either the equilibrium solution or a fictitious play (FP) learning algorithm designed to take advantage of poor play. The results show that players did not adopt the cutoff‐type strategies predicted by the equilibrium solution; rather they made considerable “errors” by: Betting when they should have checked, checking when they should have bet, and calling when they should have folded. There is no evidence that aggregate performance improved over time in either condition although considerable individual differences were observed among subjects. Behavioral learning theory (BLT) cannot easily explain these individual differences and cognitive learning theory (CLT) is introduced to explain the apparent anomalies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Management of Risk in the Global Service Economy 1

The effects of the transformation to a service economy on the management of vulnerability and uncertainty are discussed. After discussing the notion and role of risks in different kinds of cultural and economic environments, he closes with a plea for closer cooperation between entrepreneurs, engineers and economists: together they can transform the risks and vulnerabilities of the modern service economy into a challenge for progress.     

Systems evolution,structures of long‐waves,and systems management

By classifying the evolution of systems into inter‐level evolution and intra‐level evolution and dividing the intra‐level evolution into four stages which are interrelated but quite different from each other, we discuss structures of several typical systems long‐waves, and strategies of systems management.     

Solution‐Focused Therapy as a Culturally Acknowledging Approach With American Indians

Limited literature is available applying specific theoretical orientations with American Indians. Solution‐focused therapy may be appropriate, given the client‐identified solutions, the egalitarian counselor/client relationship, the use of relationships, and the view that change is inevitable. However, adaption of scaling questions and the miracle question may be necessary. Hay una limitada cantidad de literatura disponible que aplique orientaciones teóricas específicas con indios americanos. La terapia centrada en soluciones puede ser apropiada, dadas las soluciones identificadas por los clientes, la relación igualitaria entre consejero y cliente, el uso de relaciones y la visión de que el cambio es inevitable. Sin embargo, puede que sea necesario adaptar las preguntas de escala y la pregunta del milagro.     

Critical Notices

Abstract

I argue that a practice can only be taken to be one of apparent rule following if it contains a practice of policing moves within the practice. So the existence of an apparently rule‐governed practice entails the existence of, what I call, a policing practice. I then argue that this entailment cannot be reconciled with a non‐factualist construal of the policing practice. Thus non‐factualism about the policing practice is false. Factualism about the policing practice entails realism about rules. So I conclude that we ought to be realists about rules. Finally I distinguish a position which I call ultra‐realism about rules and note that this too is a casualty of the view developed here.     

生命伦理学中原则主义的局限、批判与反思

原则主义是生命伦理学领域最具影响力的理论,但它不是一个通用的工具,而是需要因文化而异。它的核心设计是共同道德和反思平衡,前者旨在保证原则的普遍适用性,后者则旨在保证各个原则在具体应用时不至于冲突,两个方面共同保证了原则主义作为一种中间原理的实用性特点。然而,原则主义并没有澄清共同道德在描述性和规范性方面的普遍性依据,也没有解释清楚如何在原则发生冲突时形成反思平衡。批判原则主义并不是对它的彻底否定,而是旨在通过考察其局限性与优点,在结合有益的批判观点及德性伦理学的反思基础上,发展一种特定文化版本的原则主义。