The Influence of Different Pictorial Representations During Idea Generation

During creative problem‐solving, designers frequently come across a variety of rich visual displays. While browsing for different sources of information, pictorial representations of existing concepts take prominence. However, once designers start generating new solution ideas to design problems, they often become too attached to some of the examples they encounter. Inadequate and excessive repetition of key attributes (e.g. object features, principles) from existing solutions has been termed design fixation. The study presented here investigates the influence that different pictorial representations of a particular solution had upon industrial design students during an ideation exercise. The findings demonstrate high levels of repetition of particular key attributes in the outcome generated by the treatment groups, when compared to a control condition. The results also show that such attribute repetition led to the occurrence of design fixation, with a visible detrimental impact for particular aspects of the ideas generated. Reasons for the occurrence of design fixation are discussed in light of its implications to design quality; and ultimately, to the use of different types of pictorial stimuli in design practice.     

Realism and Human Kinds

It is often noted that institutional objects and artifacts depend on human beliefs and intentions and so fail to meet the realist paradigm of mind-independent objects. In this paper I draw out exactly in what ways the thesis of mind-independence fails, and show that it has some surprising consequences. For the specific forms of mind-dependence involved entail that we have certain forms of epistemic privilege with regard to our own institutional and artifactual kinds, protecting us from certain possibilities of ignorance and error; they also demonstrate that not all cases of reference to these kinds can proceed along a purely causal model. As a result, realist views in ontology, epistemology, and semantics that were developed with natural scientific kinds in mind cannot fully apply to the kinds of the social and human sciences. In closing I consider some wider consequences of these results for social science and philosophy.     

Social anxiety and related social impairment are linked to self‐efficacy and dysfunctional coping

Thomasson, P. & Psouni, E. (2010). Social anxiety and related social impairment are linked to self‐efficacy and dysfunctional coping. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 171–178. This study investigated relationships between severity of social anxiety as well as related experiences of social impairment and self‐efficacy, social control and coping strategies. Social anxiety was regarded as a continuum ranging from mild social discomfort to totally inhibiting anxiety. Participants (N = 113, ages 19–60 years), recruited from a forum for individuals with social phobia and among university students, responded to a self‐administered questionnaire. Besides the expected association between a low sense of social control and more severe social anxiety and related social impairment, we found severity of social anxiety and related impairment to be associated with low self‐efficacy. This relationship was partly mediated by dysfunctional coping strategies. We suggest that low self‐efficacy may increase an individual’s tendency to rely on dysfunctional coping strategies for dealing with anxiety experienced in social situations. In turn, using dysfunctional coping strategies appears to exacerbate the experience of impairment from social anxiety.