Creativity and Impulsivity in the Lab: A Microgenetic Approach

In the Creative Functioning Test, a participant is exposed to a series of briefly presented pictures leading to veridical perception (the straight series). This series is then reversed, allowing the participant to relinquish veridical perception and to reconsider his or her interpretation of the input. While this reversed series enables an assessment of creativity, the straight series enables an assessment of impulsivity. The goal of this article was to present the potential of using such a microgenetic technique to investigate both creativity and impulsivity.     

Links Between Stress, Positive and Negative Affect, and Life Satisfaction Among Teachers in Special Education Schools

This study focused on links between stress, positive and negative affect, and life satisfaction among teachers in special education schools. Teaching is a highly stressful profession, characterized by high rate of stress, burnout, and dropout. The study investigated: (a) whether teachers can maintain their positive affect and life satisfaction despite the stress they experience, and (b) the resources that may elicit positive affect and life satisfaction, including self-control as a personal skill and perceived organizational support (by peers, therapeutic staff, and manager) as an environmental resource. Participants were 125 teachers from 12 different special education schools. As expected, a positive link emerged between high stress levels and negative affect. Both self-control and organizational social support contributed to the explanation of positive affect and life satisfaction. Organizational support was found to moderate the link between stress and negative affect as well as the link between stress and positive affect and life satisfaction among teachers. The outcomes contributed both to the theoretical explanation about the role of resources in eliciting subjective well-being, happiness, and life satisfaction and also to the way teachers can be helped in daily coping with their difficulties.     

Tactile Enumeration and Embodied Numerosity Among the Deaf

Representations of the fingers are embodied in our cognition and influence performance in enumeration tasks. Among deaf signers, the fingers also serve as a tool for communication in sign language. Previous studies in normal hearing (NH) participants showed effects of embodiment (i.e., embodied numerosity) on tactile enumeration using the fingers of one hand. In this research, we examined the influence of extensive visuo-manual use on tactile enumeration among the deaf. We carried out four enumeration task experiments, using 1–5 stimuli, on a profoundly deaf group (n = 16) and a matching NH group (n = 15): (a) tactile enumeration using one hand, (b) tactile enumeration using two hands, (c) visual enumeration of finger signs, and (d) visual enumeration of dots. In the tactile tasks, we found salient embodied effects in the deaf group compared to the NH group. In the visual enumeration of finger signs task, we controlled the meanings of the stimuli presentation type (e.g., finger-counting habit, fingerspelled letters, both or neither). Interestingly, when comparing fingerspelled letters to neutrals (i.e., not letters or numerical finger-counting signs), an inhibition pattern was observed among the deaf. The findings uncover the influence of rich visuo-manual experiences and language on embodied representations. In addition, we propose that these influences can partially account for the lag in mathematical competencies in the deaf compared to NH peers. Lastly, we further discuss how our findings support a contemporary model for mental numerical representations and finger-counting habits.     

“EYDELE,THE REBBE”

This article examines the categories of “secular” and “religious” and the way they are employed in Israeli literature by analyzing some of the recent debates about this issue. These debates attempted to respond to the new phenomenon of Shira emunit – “faith” or “religious” poetry – that has emerged in Israel in the last two decades. The debate, like some of the new developments it addressed, is indicative of a larger shift in Hebrew literature and Israeli culture. The secularity of Hebrew literature, a foundation of Israel’s dominant national‐secular high culture and virtually unquestioned for decades, is now being challenged. The article also traces the conflicting characteristics of Shira emunit by investigating the anthology Shira hadasha (1997) and Admiel Kosman’s poetry.     

His and her marital satisfaction: The double standard

Despite the wealth of research on marital satisfaction, little is known about the cross-effects of husband and wife variables on the satisfaction of the self, on the one hand, and the spouse, on the other. The study presents a model that simultaneously examines the direct and indirect effects of several sociocultural factors on the satisfaction of each spouse. In a sample of 206 Israeli couples, linear structural relationships path analysis revealed two dominant effects: the husband's liberalism and his desire to marry. The more liberal his attitudes and the stronger that desire, the greater the marital satisfaction of both spouses. Men were more satisfied when they themselves held liberal views and when their wives held conservative ones. Premarital cohabitation and the pattern of spouse selection had little effect on marital satisfaction, implying that arranged marriages and autonomous choice constitute symmetric options.In part, the study reported here is based on a doctoral dissertation (1988) prepared for the Department of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. This research was supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation received through the Israel Foundations Trustees. The author is grateful to Prof. Dafna Izraeli, Prof. Fern Kramer-Azima, Dr. Ruth Katz, and Dr. Yoav Lavee for their insightful comments, and to Helen Hogri for her editorial assistance.     

A semiautomated Wisconsin General Test Apparatus

A modification of the WGTA is described. It retains those features of the original apparatus which make it efficient. In addition, it provides (1) precise and largely automatic control of trial pacing and stimulus presentation, (2) simultaneous acquisition of data on problem-solving and locomotor activity of the S, (3) rapid change to any one of a wide variety of behavioral situations, and (4) thorough but quick cleaning and disinfection of the monkey cage.     

Behind the (Virtual) Mirror: Online Live Supervision in Couple and Family Therapy

Online therapy and supervision, a rapidly rising practice in couple and family therapy, has been the subject of a growing body of literature. From its early days, family therapy training has included live supervision, which has typically been conducted by a supervisor and a team of trainees situated on the other side of a one-way mirror. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic, we—the staff of supervisors at the Barcai Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel—were compelled to find solutions to continue meeting with clients and to provide supervision for family therapy trainees. To this end, we have shifted our live supervision courses (“practicums”) to the virtual arena, adapting the popular application “Zoom” into what we call “PractiZoom.” Based on over 100 PractiZoom sessions conducted between March and May 2020, involving 14 supervisors and 28 therapists-in-training and their clients, the article reflects on this pioneering online practicum for the online live supervision of therapists with geographically distributed participants. In this article, we outline our operational methods and adaptations for conducting live behind-the-mirror supervision online. Following a short theoretical background, we outline the process of online live supervision, discuss our reflections and those of our trainees on the challenges and possibilities it poses, and offer a number of preliminary conclusions and recommendations.     

Exploitation in Older Adults: Personal Competence Correlates of Social Vulnerability

ABSTRACT

Clinical assessment of older people at heightened risk of financial exploitation (also termed social vulnerability) is a difficult task. There are a number of previously untested domains of personal competence which could influence social vulnerability in later life. In this study, intellectual, cognitive, and social-cognitive functioning was assessed in a combined sample of dementia patients (n = 31) and neurologically healthy individuals (n = 68) aged 50 years or over. Informants provided assessments of participants' social functioning, personality, and social vulnerability. In the combined sample, multiple regression analyses revealed significant relationships between each personal competence domain and (lower) social vulnerability, apart from personality which was non-significant. General cognitive functioning and, in particular, executive functioning showed significant overlap with social vulnerability after controlling for memory and age. Social measures were also important correlates of vulnerability, indicating that both neurocognitive and social cognitive deficits may contribute to financial exploitation in later life.