婴儿问题解决行为的特点与发展

采用标准化的实验室测验法 ,考察了 8～ 11个月婴儿问题解决过程中的行为表现与策略特点、注意力集中水平及其与问题解决成效的关系。结果表明 :(1)在问题解决过程中 ,婴儿的尝试行为及方法的有效性水平都呈逐步上升的趋势。在初次面临问题情境时 ,所有 8个月组婴儿不能有效解决问题 ,但到 11个月时 ,6 1 5 %的婴儿已能正确解决问题 ;(2 )在问题解决过程中 ,婴儿的注意力集中水平在 8～ 11个月间显著提高 ;(3)婴儿注意集中水平与其解决问题的成效显著相关。     

“啊哈！”和“哈哈！”：顿悟与幽默的脑认知成分比较

作为人类智能的高级表现形式, 顿悟和幽默存在诸多共同之处。从认知和情感组成上看, 顿悟的非连续性、突发性、重构和惊讶, 对应于幽默的失谐、失谐探测、失谐消解和愉悦, 两者存在表征机制的重叠。神经机制的研究发现, 顿悟和幽默的心理事件都伴随着400 ms左右的额中央区负波(N400)以及前扣带回、顶颞叶联合区和前额叶等脑区的活动; 同时顿悟和幽默在P300成分以及海马、右侧前部颞上回等脑区活动上存在差异。未来可借鉴幽默的认知和情感成份的脑成像研究范式, 进一步探明顿悟过程的认知和情感组成。     

Productive and Re‐productive Thinking in Solving Insight Problems

Many innovations in organizations result when people discover insightful solutions to problems. Insightful problem‐solving was considered by Gestalt psychologists to be associated with productive, as opposed to re‐productive, thinking. Productive thinking is characterized by shifts in perspective which allow the problem solver to consider new, sometimes transformational, approaches. Re‐productive thinking, on the other hand, involves the application of familiar, routine, procedures. This article reports a study which investigated how self‐reported productive and re‐productive thinking are related to an individual's ability to solve insight problems. Our measures were tested against the Kirton Adaption‐Innovation Inventory (KAI), and a battery of spatial insight problems. The results indicated that productive and re‐productive thinking and the KAI were successful in predicting performance on spatial insight problems. Furthermore, the measures of productive and re‐productive thinking accounted for spatial insight performance independently of scores on the KAI. In addition, the results suggested that re‐productive thinking consists of two different components—one based on group conventions and the other on personal experience. Each contributed differently to solving insight problems.     

Salespeople as knowledge brokers: a review and critique of the challenger sales model

Over the last several years, there has been increasing interest in a new sales training approach – referred to as the Challenger Sales model – to engage customers. This approach, focusing on purposefully generating tension with customers to spark new ways of thinking, has gained traction among leading sales organizations. Although generating tension with customers has received a great deal of interest, researchers have yet to complete a systematic, in-depth examination of the Challenger model. The purpose of this article is to provide a much needed comprehensive review and critique of the approach. By conducting both an empirical and conceptual review of the framework, we offer insight into its novelty, merits and weaknesses.     

‘Knowing all this just makes it harder’: Psychodynamic Ideas on the Frontline

This paper was given as the fifth Annual Ellen Noonan Counselling Lecture on 12 July 2011 and retains some of the spoken style of the lecture. The theme pursues an aspect of Ellen Noonan’s thinking, in that she always valued equipping students with learning they could take back into the workplace rather than purely training clinicians. The paper addresses both the usefulness and potential difficulties of providing front-line workers with psychodynamic insight. It might appear self-evidently worthwhile to offer staff in the caring and educational professions greater understanding of the roots and meaning of the difficulties faced by their clients and of the dynamics involved in working with them. This paper, while stressing the immense value of such awareness, looks at what can be problematic about it, both for staff and their employing agencies. It also describes ways of addressing such issues, both at an individual and organisational level.     

Staff support in medical oncology: A problem-solving approach

Abstract

At a time of low morale the multidisciplinary staff working on a medical oncology rated the severity and frequency of problems arising in their working environment and their personal levels of stress and job satisfaction. An anonymous paper and pencil exercise was used to identify problems at work and possible solutions which staff then discussed as a group. Within four months some changes were implemented resulting in a significant reduction in problems on the unit and a commensurate improvement in morale. Interdisciplinary communication particularly benefited. This problem solving approach was useful in overcoming initial resistance to seeking a cooperative solution to shared problems at work.     

AGNOSTIC MEDITATIONS ON BUDDHIST MEDITATION

I first attempt a taxonomy of meditation in traditional Indian Buddhism. Based on the main psychological or somatic function at which the meditative effort is directed, the following classes can be distinguished: (1) emotion‐centered meditation (coinciding with the traditional samatha approach); (2) consciousness‐centered meditation (with two subclasses: consciousness reduction/elimination and ideation obliteration); (3) reflection‐centered meditation (with two subtypes: morality‐directed reflection and reality‐directed observation, the latter corresponding to the vipassanā method); (4) visualization‐centered meditation; and (5) physiology‐centered meditation. In the second part of the essay I tackle the problem of the epistemic validity and happiness‐engendering value of Buddhist meditation. In my highly conjectural view, the claim that meditation represents an infallible tool for realizing the (Supreme) Truth as well as a universally valid method for attaining the highest forms of happiness is largely based on the crēdō effect, that is, a placebolike process. I do not deny that meditation may have some positive effects on mental and physical health or that its practice may bring changes to the mind. Meditation may be a valuable alternative approach in life and clinical treatment, but it is far from being a must or a panacea.     

Personality Differences Between Stuttering and Non-Stuttering Children as Indicated by the Rorschach Test

Item analyses of the 30-item F Scale in a sample of 355 Ss, and proportionate selection from the nine inferential item clusters first specified for this measure, permitted development of a 15-item version that correlated .95 with the original scale. Application of the shortened version to 194 American and 311 Italian subjects produced nearly equivalent means, but greater variance in the Italian sample. Reliability coefficients were .83 for the American sample and .90 for the Italian. Five items revealed significant differences, interpretable in accordance with known cultural emphases and historical experiences. Testing time for the 15-item scale was approximately five minutes. Complaints about item content were less insistent than typically encountered with the 30-item scale.     

MOURNING,DREAMING, AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX

The author argues that the structure of mourning and the structure of the Oedipus complex are triadic, the latter being obvious and easy to conceptualize, while the former is quite subtle. When it is the father who is mourned, the son must repeatedly invoke the dead object so that libidinal cathexis can be reinvested in living objects. Such was the situation in which Freud found himself in 1896 when his father died—the triadic nature of the Oedipus complex ironically not yet discovered by him. In the author's belief, Freud's mourning and his attendant rich dream life occurring between 1896 and 1897 gave him access to the unconscious raw material that would eventually help him conceptualize the triadic structure at the instinctual core of the Oedipus complex.     

The Life Skills Development Program

In 1974the Occupational Therapy Section at Dwight Eisenhower Army Medical Center established a Life Skills Development Program for the treatment of the hospitalized acutely ill psychiatric patient. The program used a process which moved the patient through specifically prescribed tasks designed to initiate the development of adaptive behavior. Three basic group areas were formulated. These were values clarification, competency training, and information class. Values clarification was designed as an introductory phase of treatment and was important in building initial rapport and implementing patient involvement. Through carefully selected tasks, the patient was relieved of the burden of initiating the group process and was quickly involved in the discussion of life-related topics leading to the establishment of his own priorities. Competency training included a wide range of material allowing the therapist to teach and the patient to practice skills related to work, socialization, use of free time, and self-maintenace. These groups were experiential in nature, encouraging the patient to practice adaptive behaviors in role play settings in the hospital as well as in the surrounding community. Information class was scheduled whenever facts were needed to increase clarity and to facilitate selection of alternative and adaptive behavior. Guest lecturing, "experts" were invited to speak to the group. Also, information based on authoritative sources was prepared and presented by the therapist. The program concept and specifically prepared life skills development material was shared with Army Occupational Therapists. The Life Skills Development Program was presented as an evolving treatment approach in Army Occupational Therapy at the 1975 AOTA Conference in Milwaukee, WI. This treatment approach has continued in Army Occupational Therapy since its introduction. Until recently no collective information was available about programs. A survey of questionnaire was conducted in June 1981 of all Army Occupational Clinics. The results of this survey indicated that not only was the Life Skills Development Program still in use in Army Hospitals, but its application and target population has expanded to become broader than initially proposed. The intent of this paper is to retrace the thought and steps leading to the introduction of the Life Skills Development Program, to describe the structure and rationale of its organization and to report on its current use in Army Occupational Therapy.