How do counsellors make client assessments?

This paper reports on a consultation exercise undertaken with 18 experienced counsellors on how they make client assessments. These practitioners expressed a high degree of consensus on the purposes of assessment making (to reach a shared understanding with the client about their willingness and ability to undertake a shared therapeutic journey) but the way in which they approached the task varied according to the theoretical orientation they acquired during training. Although most had developed their counselling skills and techniques considerably since initial training, not all had integrated the assessment implications of later experience into their formulation making. The implications of combining single model assessment with eclectic practice are discussed, particularly in relation to making a decision to continue working with a client or to refer a client to a colleague. The authors call for further debate on how counsellors find meaning in what their clients say, why they ask the questions they do at the assessment stage, and how they achieve coherence in relation to ideas and skills accrued through ongoing training and practice. The implications of such a debate for training and supervision are discussed.     

不同年龄广告名人效应的心理加工机制研究

本研究从自动化加工和控制性加工这个视角研究了名人效应的心理加工机制。实验运用加工分离程序,探讨了不同年龄阶段的受众对名人广告的信息加工模式。结果发现：(1)名人效应是一个普遍存在的现象,与用一般消费者做代言人相比,青少年、成年人(大学生)以及老年人对名人广告均明显存在更多的自动化加工,且加工水平没有年龄差异。但是,老年人的控制性加工明显低于其他两组;(2)在非注意条件下,代言人的专业化程度明显地影响了大学生组的控制性加工,但与各组被试的自动化加工都关系不大。这些研究发现为广告策略的制定带来了一些新的启示。     

Self-deception as affective coping. An empirical perspective on philosophical issues

In the philosophical literature, self-deception is mainly approached through the analysis of paradoxes. Yet, it is agreed that self-deception is motivated by protection from distress. In this paper, we argue, with the help of findings from cognitive neuroscience and psychology, that self-deception is a type of affective coping.First, we criticize the main solutions to the paradoxes of self-deception. We then present a new approach to self-deception. Self-deception, we argue, involves three appraisals of the distressing evidence: (a) appraisal of the strength of evidence as uncertain, (b) low coping potential and (c) negative anticipation along the lines of Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis. At the same time, desire impacts the treatment of flattering evidence via dopamine. Our main proposal is that self-deception involves emotional mechanisms provoking a preference for immediate reward despite possible long-term negative repercussions. In the last part, we use this emotional model to revisit the philosophical paradoxes.     

Eighteenth-century French materialism clockwise and anticlockwise

ABSTRACT

Because of their reliance on mechanistic metaphors and analogies referring to machines, the eighteenth-century materialists La Mettrie and Diderot have sometimes been described as ‘mechanistic materialists’. However, if one pays close attention to the ways in which mechanical analogies and metaphors were used in eighteenth-century French materialism, one sees that the recourse to these metaphors and comparisons in no way implies mechanism in the sense of physicalist reductionism. Instead, early instances of these comparisons appear in arguments pointing out that technological artefacts have functional properties which are not reducible to their physical properties. When La Mettrie compares man to a machine in his L'homme machine, he insists at the same time on the fact that, just like a machine, man is a cultural artefact. According to La Mettrie, man's very existence depends on language and culture, and it is precisely this dependence on culture which distinguishes him from other animals. However, La Mettrie's sceptical stance renders his position towards physicalistic reductionism ambiguous. Diderot, who by contrast was interested in the distinction between the living and non-living, distances himself from the ambiguous use of mechanistic metaphors and insists on the irreducibility of physiological and biological phenomena to the physical.     

Varieties of early modern materialism

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses how early modern materialism can be defined and delineated, before turning to a brief survey of the main philosophical resources early modern materialist theories draw on. Subsequently, I discuss competing overall narratives concerning early modern materialism, and conclude with a defence of the controversial view that material soul theories belong to materialism proper.     

Theology, Science, and Postmodernism: Responding to Stanley Grenz

This article responds to Stanley J. Grenz's Templeton Lecture, “Why Do Theologians Need to Be Scientists?” published in the June 2000 issue of Zygon (Grenz 2000). In the first part I outline my reasons for finding the kind of theological reflections in which Grenz engages worthy of attention by noting my disagreement with the view that a sufficient response to theological issues can be formulated on the basis of an examination of our biological nature. I assert, in that connection, the autonomy of reason as a way of investigating and understanding the world. In the second part I respond directly to Grenz by explaining my disagreement with the postmodern critique of science upon which he relies and his adherence to Christian eschatology as an answer to the conundrums into which, he posits, we are drawn as a result of that critique. I note that I agree with Grenz, however, that the activity of valuing is necessarily a forward‐looking Godlike endeavor that is not derivable from science. In the third part I suggest that we must be open to the investigation of the possible existence of an objective realm of value and that, in any case, rejection of the postmodern critique of science in many cases pro‐vides a sound basis for the disciplined resolution of factual questions that frequently lie at the base of disagreements about values.     

言语想象的神经机制

言语想象不仅在大脑预处理机制方面起到重要的作用,还是目前脑机接口领域研究的热点。与正常言语产生过程相比,言语想象的理论模型、激活脑区、神经传导路径等均与其有较多相似之处。而言语障碍群体的言语想象、想象有意义的词语和句子时的脑神经机制与正常言语产生存在差异。鉴于人类言语系统的复杂性,言语想象的神经机制研究还面临一系列挑战,未来研究可在言语想象质量评价工具及神经解码范式、脑控制回路、激活通路、言语障碍群体的言语想象机制、词语和句子想象的脑神经信号等方面进一步探索,为有效提高脑机接口的识别率提供依据,为言语障碍群体的沟通提供便利。     

内隐记忆和内隐学习的整合研究趋向

内隐记忆和内隐学习代表了人类学习与记忆的无意识机制,它们打开了理解人类无意识奥妙的大门。从内隐记忆和内隐学习的诞生与实验室发展来看,二者似乎长期以来处在相对独立的位置。然而,随着研究的不断深入,走向整合已经成为不可抑制的趋向。该文旨在结合内隐记忆和内隐学习的定义、经验类似性、理论框架和实验研究等方面的证据,论述它们的整合必要以及已有的整合途径,促进研究对学习和记忆的无意识过程的全面把握     

疼痛恐惧对疼痛的影响及其认知机制

疼痛恐惧是把将要出现的疼痛刺激视为主要威胁而产生的一种恐惧,它会影响与疼痛相关的感知觉、注意、回避行为以及安慰剂止痛的效果.疼痛恐惧的认知模型主要有活动回避模型、恐惧-回避模型以及内感受性恐惧条件模型.未来的研究要进一步探究疼痛恐惧的认知机制,完善疼痛恐惧的认知模型并扩展疼痛恐惧的研究方法.