Evaluating children's use of symbol in some recent research

This paper explores a number of examples of what appeared to be recurring symbolic expressions of spirituality found in my recent research into the spiritual experiences of children in Victorian State primary schools. These expressions appeared in drawings and in conversation. In this paper I use hermeneutic phenomenology and a multidisciplinary approach to the literature, to explore the nature of symbol, in particular, the symbols of island, snake and mountain. I examine the children's use of these symbols, with their multiple meanings and function, to gain a greater understanding of their individual and collective spirituality and well‐being. This study can have applications in religious education. Through their symbolic expressions children may be enabled to explore meaning in their lives, and advance in their spiritual development. Moreover, examination by children of their own symbols may provide a bridge to understanding and exploring core ideas of religious faith, which are mainly expressed in metaphoric language. Exploring symbols can provide a way for children to exercise the imagination, grounded in bodily experience, to achieve open and enriching spiritual outcomes.     

When thinking is beneficial and when it is not: The effects of thin and round advertising models

This study addresses the advertising effectiveness of round and thin models. Integrating previous findings and theories, the authors predict and find that impulsive and reflective product evaluations as responses to thin and round advertisement models diverge. Specifically, four experiments indicate that impulsive product evaluations follow a priming logic, such that the beauty of the model spills over directly onto product evaluations; thin models thus produce more favorable implicit responses than do round models. For reflective product evaluations however, this pattern appears reversed. Moreover, these explicit product evaluations are mediated by campaign liking.     

SOSA ON EPISTEMIC CIRCULARITY AND REFLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE

Abstract: Ernest Sosa has done important work on epistemic circularity, epistemic virtue, and reflective knowledge. He holds that epistemic circularity need not be vicious and need not prevent us from knowing that our ways of forming beliefs are reliable. In this article, I briefly explore Sosa's defense of this view and raise some questions about what is required for reflective knowledge.     

具身知觉符号理论视角下的情绪启动效应

从知觉符号理论出发对情绪启动效应进行解读,启动刺激与目标刺激涉及的知觉符号相似性、框架相似性及模态激活延续性是情绪启动效应产生的可能机制和影响因素。在此基础上总结归纳出情绪启动的知觉符号匹配假说,并建构情绪启动效应认知加工模型,对现有情绪启动理论进行整合和拓展,以促进情绪启动刺激材料的拓展、提高研究生态效度; 促进情绪启动效应操作的有效性,进而提高其应用价值。情绪启动研究亦能反哺于知觉符号理论,促进其发展。     

The Possibility of Meaning in Human Evolution

Science undermines the certitude of non-naturalistic answers to the question of whether human life has meaning. I explore whether evolution can provide a naturalistic basis for existential meaning. Using the work of philosopher Daniel Dennett and scientist Ursula Goodenough, I argue that evolution is the locus of the possibility of meaning because it has produced intentionality, the matrix of consciousness. I conclude that the question of the meaning of human life is an existentialist one: existential meaning is a product of the individual and collective tasks human beings undertake.     

Reviews

Books reviewed:
Explaining Consciousness—The "Hard Problem" by Michael L. Spezio.
Science and Theology: The New Consonance by James E. Huchingson.
Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature by Vaughan Mcternan.     

Postfoundationalism and Interdisciplinarity: A Response to Jerome Stone

Abstract. In my recent work I argued that the religion and sciencedialogue is most successful when done locally and contextually. However, I also argued against theology's epistemic isolation in a pluralist, postmodern world, and for a postfoundationalist notion of human rationality that reveals the interdisciplinary, public nature of all theological reflection. I now want to explore the possibility that, when we look at what the prehistory of thehuman mind reveals about the biological roots of all human rationality, some forms of contemporary evolutionary epistemology may actually hold the key to understanding the kind of cognitive fluidity that enables true interdisciplinary reflection. Philosophically the religion and science dialogue benefits from this move when a postfoundationalist notion of rationality redescribes the dynamic interaction of our various disciplinary dialogues with one another as aform of transversal reasoning. Transversality in this sense justifies and urges an acknowledgment of multiple patterns of interpretation as one moves across the borders and boundaries of different disciplines.     

Mindful Parenting: a group approach to enhancing reflective capacity in parents and infants

In this paper, the process of ending therapy is likened to the ordinary developmental task of ‘letting go’ that parents have to undertake, to help their child to grow up. ‘Letting go’ is contrasted with the process of ‘holding’ the child in mind that is so central to the therapeutic and parental task Following thoughts about some of the external issues that play a part in the decision to end a child's treatment, this developmental perspective of psychoanalytic psychotherapy is discussed through a clinical illustration of the ending of a 5-year-old boy's treatment. Different strands of the therapeutic relationship as highlighted during the ending phase of therapy are distinguished and attention is drawn to the role of the ‘new relationship’ between therapist and child and how this differs from the transference relationship. Countertransference issues in their broadest form are also considered.     

Cutting the silence: initial,impulsive self-cutting in adolescence

The paper explores initial, impulsive self-cutting in adolescence and conceives of early cutting as having the most potential for a communicative function, as the adolescents themselves and those around them may be most shocked at their self-harm. The author also conceives of the symptom of early, initial cutting as an effort to ‘cut through’ an emotional and familial circumstance that has been silent, suggesting that cutting generally implies a failure in containment and symbolisation. Using Green’s (1975) discussion of the original word symbol as ‘an object cut in two, constituting a sign of recognition when those who carry it can assemble the two pieces’ (Dictionnaires Le Robert), the author demonstrates that cutting has the potential to elicit intense feelings in the analyst who can have (in Green’s terms) a homologous experience to that of the patient. This elaboration within the analyst’s feelings returns a part to the patient. The meeting of the two communications (the patient’s cutting and the elaboration in the analyst’s mind) can create a potential space between them. The paper uses clinical vignettes and extended clinical material from a 16-year-old girl to elucidate the relationship between cutting – an emotionally inarticulate state – and the development of communication, containment and symbolisation through homologous experiences in the analyst.     

New Beginnings–an experience-based programme addressing the attachment relationship between mothers and their babies in prisons

Data about the quality of attachment between infants and parents in high-risk populations suggests that early intervention may be advantageous for positive developmental outcomes for the child. Mothers in prison represent a high-risk parenting population in terms of both attachment histories and economic and social risk factors. New Beginnings was constructed as a short term, experience-based programme for mothers and infants in the Mother and Baby Units of two UK women's prisons. It is based on the early intervention model developed at the Anna Freud Centre. The programme was piloted in 2004–5, with 27 participating dyads. This paper presents an overview of the pilot stage. Our aim is to introduce the thinking that went into the programme and to present initial observations concerning the effect of the programme. We describe the development of a framework for the programme and its preliminary evaluation using pre- and post-interview protocols concerning the mothers' thoughts and feelings about their babies. We used the Parent Development Interview, for both a qualitative analysis of the major themes in connection to child rearing and quantitative measures of reflective capacity in relation to the child on the part of mother-participants.