Chinese working in groups: Effort dispensability versus normative influence

Chinese participants were found less likely to social loaf when working in groups than did North Americans. This result was attributed mainly to the collectivism and individualism characterizing Chinese and North Americans, respectively. However, this explanation does not address how Chinese people's social loafing tendency may vary across situations. If Chinese participants are concerned about their relations with coworkers, they should be more likely to conform to the performance level of their coworkers. This prediction is in opposition to effort dispensability, which is usually found among North Americans, whereby individuals adjust their effort in reverse to that of their coworkers. Consistent with our prediction, findings from three studies revealed that Chinese participants tended to conform to the performance level of their coworkers when their performance is made public ( vs kept anonymous) and when they have high ( vs low) relational concerns. These findings have implications for unpacking nuanced cultural influences on behaviours.     

Awakening to Dreams

The author recounts how shamanic dream incubation and lucid dreaming aided both his psychic healing in therapy and his physical healing of cancer through dream journeying in the imaginal. The imaginal is the realm of spirit and soul to the shaman, the unconscious to Freud, the archetypes of the collective unconscious to Jung, and transitional space between the “me” and “not-me” to Winnicott.Louis Hagood, M.A., in Psychoanalytic Studies from The New School, is a member of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysts, The Association for the Study of Dreams and the Friends of the Institute for Noetic Sciences and practices psychoanalysis in New York City. Correspondence to Louis Hagood, lhagood@oxbridge.com.     

Earth, Dream, and Healing: The Integration of Materia and Psyche in the Ancient World

Influenced by the methods and practices of Hippocrates, the Asclepius cult used herbal formulae and medicinal applications intricately connected with Asclepius cult rituals and worship. An understanding of the types of herb and medical applications surrounding their use by the cult aids understanding of the inner world and symbolism of ancient dreams.Jeffrey B. Pettis teaches in the field of New Testament Studies at Fordham University, New York City. His focus is the interpretation and use of ancient dreams in early Christianity and the Greco-Roman world. He has lived and traveled in Greece, Egypt and Turkey, studying the design and culture of ancient temples and the sanctuaries of Asclepius, the deity of the ancient dream cult. He received his Ph.D. from Union Seminary in 2004.     

Group Cancellation and Resolution

We establish a connection between the geometric methods developed in the combinatorial theory of small cancellation and the propositional resolution calculus. We define a precise correspondence between resolution proofs in logic and diagrams in small cancellation theory, and as a consequence, we derive that a resolution proof is a 2-dimensional process. The isoperimetric function defined on diagrams corresponds to the length of resolution proofs.     

SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION,HEALING, AND ALTRUISM: INTRODUCTION TO THE SYMPOSIUM

This essay introduces the five articles that follow, whose aim is to show how altruism emerges out of spiritual transformation and is integral to healing process in four kinds of ritual healing systems—popular, folk, an indigenous religious healing tradition, and complementary and alternative medicine represented by consciousness transformation movements. In this introduction I situate these largely marginalized religious and spiritual practices within the context of the religion‐science discourse, which has focused for the most part on the relationship between the established, mainstream religions and the dominant biomedical system. Antecedents of two of these types of religious practices, Spiritism and consciousness transformation movements, were part of the development of the psychological sciences in the nineteenth century but lost ground in the twentieth. Despite discrimination and persistent negative attitudes on the part of the established religions and biomedicine, these healing traditions have not only survived through the twentieth century but appear to have gained both followers and interest in the twenty‐first. In future decades, at least for complementary and alternative medical practices and perhaps also for spirit healing centers, there may be a reversal in status through greater acceptance of their unique combination of scientific and religious perspectives.     

DISCUSSION: ALTRUISM,SPIRITUALLY MERGING WITH A FELLOW HUMAN BEING'S SUFFERING

This discussion focuses on the details of the wellsprings of altruism. The preceding articles in this section portray how spirit figures in various cultural guises appear in human lives with the gift of altruism, in a kind of seeding of the willing healer with the spirit's presence and its accompanying power of love, altruism, and healing. The word altruism is related to the French autre and autrui, “other,” with a special meaning here implying a relationship of identification.     

谈《周易》爻题的形成时间及相关诸问题

从《左传》有关记载、《周易》有关传文和以往出土的有关战国竹书综合考究,推断《周易》爻题的形成是在公元前 500年后的孔子晚年或再稍晚一点的时间;《周易》与其前筮书的最大区别是有爻辞;爻题的从无到有,是由开始多用或沿用其他种类的筮书、筮占方法而走向独尊《周易》的发展特点决定的;爻题体现着蓍与爻、卦的联系,表示爻的时位与方位,提示如何积爻成卦,具有多种含义与作用。     

Productivity is not enough: A comparison of interactive and nominal brainstorming groups on idea generation and selection

The conclusion that nominal brainstorming groups outperform interactive brainstorming groups has been exclusively based on studies of idea generation. This study tested whether the productivity advantage of nominal groups would also result in better idea selection. Nominal and interactive groups performed a task that involved idea generation and selection. Idea generation and selection were strictly separated for half the groups, but were combined for the other half. Nominal groups generated more ideas than interactive groups, and the ideas generated by nominal groups were more original and less feasible than the ideas generated by interactive groups. However, there were no differences among conditions in quality of the selected ideas. Further, idea selection was not significantly better than chance. This suggests that high productivity in brainstorming is not sufficient to lead to better solutions.     

Prepackaged Tour Versus Personal Journey: The Meaning of Informed Consent in the Context of the Teacher-study Group

This article discusses the specific ethical dilemma of obtaining informed consent and ensuring confidentiality and participant well-being while conducting a qualitative research study with novice ESL teachers in a Teacher Study Group. The discussion outlines their process of resolution of the ambiguities inherent in the research process – in essence the researchers’ personal journey of discovery. The article concludes with the broader implications for making the research process more transparent for other academic researchers working in the field of language-teacher cognition.