Between Imposing One’s Will and Protecting Oneself. Narcissism and the Meaning of Life among Dutch Pastors

In contemporary culture, narcissism is an important and common personality trait. This trait is very significant for the meaning people experience in their lives. This article deals with an inquiry into the relationship between narcissism and the meaning of life among pastors. Narcissism is further specified into several dimensions (centripetal narcissism, centrifugal narcissism, isolation and self-satisfaction) and the significance of these dimensions is examined for two central dimensions of the attribution of meaning (frame of reference and fulfilment). The article discusses the significance of the relationship between narcissism and meaning for the professional performance of pastors. Hessel J. Zondag is lecturer in the psychology of religion at the Theologische Faculteit Tilburg in the Netherlands. His teachings and research interests are psychology of religion, cultural psychology, and pastoral psychology. Currently he conducts research to the functions of narcissism in contemporary culture, especially the effects of narcissism on functioning of pastors. Recent publications have appeared in Pastoral Psychology, Journal of Psychology & Theology, and Review of Religious Research.     

Preserving integrity against colonization

Genuine reconciliation between first- and third-person methodologies and knowledge requires respect for both phenomenological and scientific epistemologies. Recent pragmatic, theoretical, and verbal attempts at reconciliation by cognitive scientists compromise phenomenological method and knowledge. The basic question is thus: how do we begin reconciling first- and third-person epistemologies? Because life is the unifying concept across phenomenological and cognitive disciplines, a concept consistently if differentially exemplified in and by the phenomenon of movement, conceptual complementarities anchored in the animate properly provide the foundation for reconciliation. Research by people in neuroscience and in dynamic systems theory substantiate this thesis, providing fundamental examples of conceptual complementarity between phenomenology and science.     

NARRATIVE AND MEANING IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Differences of understanding in science and in religion can be explored via the distinction between paradigmatic and narrative modes of explanation. Although science is inclusive of the paradigmatic, I propose that in explaining the behavior of complex adaptive systems, and in the human sciences in particular, narratives may well constitute the best scientific explanations. Causal relationships may be embedded within, and expressions of higher-order constraints provided by, complex system dynamics, best understood via the temporal organization of intentionalities that constitute narrative. Complex adaptive systems, out of which intentions emerge, have behavioral trajectories that are in principle unique, contingent, and nondeterministic even in stable states and unpredictable across phase transitions. Given such unpredictability, the only explanation can be an interpretive story that retrospectively retraces the actual changes in dynamics. Without narrative, personality traits and human actions are incomprehensible. Such phenomena do not permit a reduction of purposive acts to nonpurposive elements or of reasons to the causes they constrain. Causality does not exhaust meaning. Given the role of narratives in human lives, religion and mythology provide larger stories within which individual stories make sense. Differences between narrative and historical truth suggest how we can be constituted by what we imagine ourselves to be.     

‘Not in our front garden’: Land use conflict,spatial meaning and the politics of naming place

Strategies aimed at reducing land use conflict often stress the need to make planning decisions more democratic. However, this goal is obstructed by overly‐narrow conceptual perspectives that neglect the symbolic significance of place. We illustrate this by examining place names, which function as repositories of socio‐political meaning. Drawing on elements of discursive and rhetorical psychology and subject positioning theory, we investigated the variety of meanings associated with place names in the context of a proposed housing development in Swindon, in the South of England. Thirty interviews with different stakeholders were conducted to gauge their opinions towards the proposal. Noting differences in the way the proposed site was named, we analysed the range of meanings associated with each name in relation to participants' stances towards development. Our results show how, in naming place, spatial meanings are negotiated and contested in ways that support contrasting political objectives. We conclude that planning professionals should exercise greater sensitivity towards existing spatial meanings, especially place names. In addition, socio‐political understandings of subjective spatial relationships can serve as a basis for achieving more productive dialogue and improving development designs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大学新生的人生意义与抑郁:交互效应与中介效应

基于Frankl(1963)的意义疗法理论观点和Steger等(2006)提出的人生意义双维构念, 考察人生意义对大学新生抑郁的影响机制, 分析其中可能存在的交互效应和中介效应。采用问卷法调查了某东部省会城市1所理工科大学、1所综合性大学的435名新生, 结果表明:(1)大学新生的意义体验与无聊倾向、抑郁负相关, 与希望正相关;意义寻求与意义体验、抑郁的相关均不显著;(2)意义体验和意义寻求对抑郁具有交互效应, 对意义寻求较低的个体, 意义体验的保护作用更强;(3)意义体验通过无聊倾向和希望的并行多重中介效应影响抑郁, 且无聊倾向的中介效应显著强于希望。     

Structure and conventions

Wayne Davis’s Meaning, Expression and Thought argues that linguistic meaning is conventional use to express ideas. An obvious problem with this proposal is that complex expressions that have never been used are nonetheless meaningful. In response to this concern, Davis associates conventions of use not only with linguistic expressions but also with the modes in which such expressions can combine into larger expressions. I argue that such constructive conventions are in conflict with the principle of compositionality (as it is usually understood) and that (at least in the cases Davis considers) they are unnecessary for semantic explanations.

循证医学证据的哲学蕴义

循证医学的核心理念是开发利用最佳证据用以指导临床医疗实践。从认识论的角度看,其证据的本质仍然是通过以病人为研究对象的临床医学研究所获得的知识信息,但却是经过分层滤过、系统综合和翻译转化的知识信息,是可以用于提高临床诊断、治疗水平和服务质量的,即可以直接转化为“现实生产力”的可运用的知识信息。     

Embodiment、认知科学以及传统意义理论的发展

智能是一个有"意义"的活动;认知科学与意义理论之间存在有效的互动。概念/命题的传统意义理论是传统认知科学研究的重要理论基础。Embodiment支配的涉身认知科学研究是对基于规则演算的传统认知科学的现实修正。涉身认知科学与相应的哲学思想产生了一种更为全面的涉身意义理论。涉身意义理论提供了全面揭示和了解智能的一条可能路径。     

名人广告效果的制约因素研究述评

系统回顾了影响名人广告效果的因素,指出名人广告的效果受名人可信度的影响,名人可信度包括吸引力、专业性与可靠性3个要素,专业性与可靠性对名人广告的效果具有积极的影响,吸引力对广告效果的影响受名人与商品的一致性以及消费者的精细加工水平的制约,精细加工可能性模型与意义迁移模型进一步说明了名人广告对消费者产生影响的具体过程,在名人广告中名人形象与商品形象的一致性是影响广告效果的决定性因素。     

人际关系和自我概念对生命意义的影响：一项追踪研究

对1087名大学生进行为期1年的追踪研究,考察人际关系和自我概念对生命意义的影响,以及自我概念在人际关系与生命意义间的中介效应。结果显示：(1)人际关系、自我概念和生命意义之间存在同时性和继时性正相关;(2)在时间点1和时间点2,人际关系、自我概念和生命意义均两两相互预测;(3)人际关系和自我影响均影响生命意义,以及在人际关系与生命意义的关系中,自我概念起部分中介作用。即人际关系通过自我概念进而影响生命意义体验。结果表明,可以通过改善人际关系和提高自我概念来提升个体的生命意义感。即带着一颗自我肯定之心,积极参与到社会互动中去。