Humanising forces: Phenomenology in science; Psychotherapy in technological culture

One of the concerns of the existential‐phenomenological tradition has been to examine the human implications of living in a world of proliferating technology. The pressure to become more specialised and efficient has become a powerful value and quest. Both contemporary culture and science enable us to have a view of human identity that focuses on our ‘parts’ and the compartmentalisation of our lives into specialised ‘bits’. This is a kind of abstraction, which psychology has also, at times, taken in its concern to mimic the natural sciences. As such, it may unconsciously collude with a cultural trend to view humans as objects, like other objects, and thus fit ‘normatively’ into the emerging world of specialised and efficient systems. This paper examines how the findings of a phenomenological study of psychotherapy reflect a movement by people in psychotherapy to recover their sense of human identity in ways that always transcend any form of objectification. Their human complexity is somewhat restored as they move back towards the concrete details of their lives where the human order has its life. In addition to considering the implications of these findings for restoring the uniquely human dimensions of human identity, the paper also considers the methodological role that an existential‐phenomenological approach can play in supporting a broader view of science. In wishing to be faithful to the human order, it champions the value of the human individual as a starting point in human science. This includes a return to concrete experiences, the balance between unique variations and the ground that we share, and the movement from the particular to the general. As such, a phenomenologically oriented psychology may have an important role to play in helping the broader sciences remember the ‘human scale’ of things.     

Piercing the Veil: Ethical Issues in Ethnographic Research

It is not unusual for researchers in ethnography (and sometimes Institutional Review Boards) to assume that research of “public” behavior is morally unproblematic. I examine an historical case of ethnographic research and the sustained moral outrage to the research expressed by the subjects of that research. I suggest that the moral outrage was legitimate and articulate some of the ethical issues underlying that outrage. I argue that morally problematic Ethnographic research of public behavior can derive from research practice that includes a tendency to collapse the distinction between harm and moral wrong, a failure to take account of recent work on ethical issues in privacy; failure to appreciate the deception involved in ethnographers’ failure to reveal their role as researchers to subjects and finally a failure to appropriately weigh the moral significance of issues of invasion of privacy and inflicted insight in both the research process and subsequent publication of research.

高中生正念与学习倦怠：基于自我调节学习模型的视角

基于自我调节学习模型的视角,探究正念对高中生学习倦怠的影响,采用正念注意觉知量表、生命意义感量表、津巴多时间洞察力问卷和青少年学习倦怠量表调查863名高中生。结果表明：（1）正念对高中生学习倦怠具有负向预测作用;（2）正念通过未来时间洞察力与生命意义感的独立中介作用及未来时间洞察力与生命意义感的链式中介作用间接影响学习倦怠。因此,正念可以负向预测高中生学习倦怠,提升未来时间洞察力与生命意义感可以缓解高中生学习倦怠,促进高中生身心健康。     

Construct validity of a personality assessment game in a simulated selection situation and the moderating roles of the ability to identify criteria and dispositional insight

There is scant research on the validity of personality assessment games in selection situations. Therefore, in two experimental simulated selection studies, the construct validity of an assessment game developed to assess honesty-humility was tested. Both studies found no differences between a control condition and a simulated selection condition on honesty-humility game scores. Moreover, convergent and discriminant validity with self-reported personality were not affected by the manipulation. We obtained mixed evidence that individual differences in dispositional insight and the ability to identify criteria influenced the validity of the game. As the validity of the personality assessment game was not significantly affected in the simulated selection context, our findings may imply that well-designed personality assessment games can be used for high-stakes selection assessments.     

Removal of an obstacle: Problem-solving behavior in pigeons

The importance of a subject's personal history in the solution of an obstruction problem was demonstrated with pigeons. Four birds were trained to peck a key located outside the chamber by poking their heads through an opening in a screen. During tests, a white block was placed in front of the opening, so that it was not possible to peck the key without removing the block. All birds failed to remove the block. However, all birds that were subsequently trained to push the white block around the chamber in the absence of the key and a few of the birds trained similarly but with a black block solved the problem by pushing the block aside and pecking the key. One bird showed the abrupt descent in the learning curve that has been considered a characteristic of “insightful” problem solving. All birds maintained their successful performance after a 1-month interval with no intervening tests.     

Moment of Truth: Why Aha! Experiences are Correct

Having a sudden insight is often associated with inherent confidence, enough for Archimedes to run naked through the streets shouting “Eureka!”. Recent evidence demonstrates that public displays of enthusiasm, such as the ancient polymath's, are actually supported by a higher likelihood of being correct.     

创造性研究的有效工具——远距离联想测验（RAT）

介绍了一个测量创造力的方法——远距离联想测验（remoteassociatestest,RAT）,并将它与其他创造性测验方法进行比较。文章还介绍了应用RAT进行的一些创造性科学研究的成果。作者认为RAT是适合创造性科学研究,尤其是神经科学研究的重要工具     

“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.