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Theory and Philosophy

2009

Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Ciis Today, Fall 2009 Issue, Ciis Oct 2009

Ciis Today, Fall 2009 Issue, Ciis

CIIS Today

This volume is the Fall 2009 issue of CIIS Today, the Magazine of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

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Fear And Projection As Root Causes Of War, And The Archetypal Energies "Trust" And "Peace" As Antidotes, Carroy U. Ferguson Sep 2009

Fear And Projection As Root Causes Of War, And The Archetypal Energies "Trust" And "Peace" As Antidotes, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

I want to use this opportunity to discuss a phenomenon that continues to plague the human experience. It is called the game of war. War is perhaps the deadliest game that humanity has created. The conflict itself represents what appears to be opposing views about the way things should be. Each side believes that it is right and that its actions are justified. Each side therefore seeks to impose its views on the other or to defend its views against the other. Each side fears the other as an enemy and each side projects its fears onto its perceived “enemy.”

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The Mirror Effect, The Law Of Attraction, And "Points Of Attraction" That Can Nurture The Evolution Of Human Consciousness, Carroy U. Ferguson Jul 2009

The Mirror Effect, The Law Of Attraction, And "Points Of Attraction" That Can Nurture The Evolution Of Human Consciousness, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

This message has several purposes. First, I want to express my immense joy that Chip Baggett and I are serving as Co-Presidents of AHP since August 16, 2009. In my view, Chip and I are long-time friends, who have a transcendent connection and synergistic energies. My desire and intent is for our co-presidency to mirror the effect(s) of synergistic collaboration as a “point of attraction” that can assist in the evolution of human consciousness across often “perceived personal and societal boundaries” (e.g., race, culture, ethnicity, class, individual and collective belief systems, and dogma). More generally, however, this message is intended …

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Foreseeability And Copyright Incentives, Shyamkrishna Balganesh Apr 2009

Foreseeability And Copyright Incentives, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

All Faculty Scholarship

Copyright law’s principal justification today is the economic theory of creator incentives. Central to this theory is the recognition that while copyright’s exclusive rights framework provides creators with an economic incentive to create, it also entails large social costs, and that creators therefore need to be given just enough incentive to create in order to balance the system’s benefits against its costs. Yet, none of copyright’s current doctrines enable courts to circumscribe a creator’s entitlement by reference to limitations inherent in the very idea of incentives. While the common law too relies on providing actors with incentives to behave in …

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"Invisible Ink" -- A Psychoanalytic Study Of School Memory, Lisa Farley Mar 2009

"Invisible Ink" -- A Psychoanalytic Study Of School Memory, Lisa Farley

Occasional Paper Series

This paper argues that when teachers can create narratives that symbolize the unresolved conflicts of their schooling past, they are then in a position to use that history as a source of insight that illuminates the ways the past structures the present, and how the present shapes what we remember of the past.

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Archetypal Energies, The Emergence Of Obama As A Practical Idealist, And Global Transformation, Carroy U. Ferguson Feb 2009

Archetypal Energies, The Emergence Of Obama As A Practical Idealist, And Global Transformation, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

During this time of change, AHP and kindred spirits on the edge have important roles to play. We are the keepers and nurturers of a transformative and evolutionary Vision for Consciousness and a more humane world. At issue is what I will call the “psychic politics” for global transformation, nurtured by practical idealism and the Archetypal Energies. In other writings, I have described Archetypal Energies as Higher Vibrational Energies, operating deep within our individual and collective psyches, which have their own transcendent value, purpose, quality, and “voice”, unique to the individual. We experience them as “creative urges” to move us …

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Social Influence When Males Gamble: Perceptions And Behavior, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Brittany Bushaw, Ellen Meier Jan 2009

Social Influence When Males Gamble: Perceptions And Behavior, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Brittany Bushaw, Ellen Meier

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Experiment 1 tested whether the gambling behavior of 12 non-pathological male participants would be altered by the presence and/or gender of a confederate who also gambled and whether participants’ self reports would match their actual behavior. Results showed that although actual gambling behavior did not vary as a function of the presence or gender of a confederate, participants reported that it did. Experiment 2 tested whether the gambling behavior of nine non-pathological males would be altered by the presence of a confederate and/or whether the confederate won or lost. Results showed that the presence of the confederate increased gambling, but …

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The Relationship Between Reported Frequency Of Gambling And Rate Of Discounting Different Commodities Using A Fill-In-The-Blank Procedure, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Heather K. Terrell, Adam Derenne Jan 2009

The Relationship Between Reported Frequency Of Gambling And Rate Of Discounting Different Commodities Using A Fill-In-The-Blank Procedure, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Heather K. Terrell, Adam Derenne

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The present study had 302 participants complete temporal-discounting tasks pertaining to five different commodities using the “fill-in-the-blank” method. These data were analyzed using two different equations, and the resulting rates of discounting were correlated with participants’ self-reported frequency of gambling. The discounting data were not entirely consistent with other published data. Statistically significant correlations between discounting and gambling frequency were observed, but varied depending on the type of discounting analysis that was employed and were not always in the same direction as past research

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Visions And Values: Ethical Reflections In A Jamesian Key, David E. Leary Jan 2009

Visions And Values: Ethical Reflections In A Jamesian Key, David E. Leary

Psychology Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to provide a quick survey of William James's views on the plurality of visions that humans have regarding reality, as a background for more extensive discussions of his views on the plurality of values that orient human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as well as his views on the enactment of those values through active resistance to the ways things are and the risk-taking involved in striving to improve the human condition. Consonant with pluralism itself, I intend this discussion to open up rather than close off further considerations of James's views on ethics.

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A Comparison Of The Prevalence Of And Maintaining Cause For Pathological Gambling In Fraternity And Non-Fraternity Members, Mark R. Dixon, Tiffany N. Newman, Becky L. Nastally Jan 2009

A Comparison Of The Prevalence Of And Maintaining Cause For Pathological Gambling In Fraternity And Non-Fraternity Members, Mark R. Dixon, Tiffany N. Newman, Becky L. Nastally

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The present study investigated the prevalence rates and functions of probable pathological and problem gambling behaviors between Greek (fraternity) affiliated and non-Greek men on a Midwestern university campus. The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS: Lesieur & Blume, 1987) and Gambling Functional Assessment (GFA: Dixon & Johnson, 2007) were given to a total of 200 volunteers which comprised 100 from each group, respectively. A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups, with Greek men reporting higher probable gambling problems than non-Greek men.

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Do Cognitive Fallacies Predict Behavior When Nonpathological Gamblers Play Slot Machines And Video Poker?, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, K. A. Flannery Jan 2009

Do Cognitive Fallacies Predict Behavior When Nonpathological Gamblers Play Slot Machines And Video Poker?, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, K. A. Flannery

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

A popular notion found in the research literature is that gambling, and gambling problems, are associated with illogical beliefs. The present study investigated whether peoples’ subscription to cognitive fallacies related to gambling would be significant predictors of their actual gambling behavior. Twenty participants completed several questionnaires designed to assess cognitive fallacies related to gambling and then had the opportunity to gamble money on video poker and a slot machine. Results showed that faulty beliefs were seldom significant predictors of actual gambling behavior. In the lone instance in which such beliefs predicted gambling, the predictive relationship was in the opposite direction …

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Testing Alcohol As A Discriminative Stimulus For Gambling Behavior, Ellen Meier, Cody Link, Jeffrey N. Weatherly Ph. D. Jan 2009

Testing Alcohol As A Discriminative Stimulus For Gambling Behavior, Ellen Meier, Cody Link, Jeffrey N. Weatherly Ph. D.

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

In two training sessions, participants consumed alcohol or a control beverage and then played a pair of slot-machine simulations programmed to pay off differentially as a function of the beverage that had been consumed. During test sessions, participants again consumed either alcohol or a control beverage and were given concurrent access to the two slot-machine simulations (which were now programmed to pay off equally). Results did not indicate that alcohol (or the control beverage) controlled participants’ choice behavior between the two slot-machine simulations during testing despite the history of differential reinforcement. A number of procedural details likely contributed to this …

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Blackjack Players Demonstrate The Near Miss Effect, Mark R. Dixon, Becky L. Nastally, Adam D. Hahs, Mollie Homer-King, James W. Jackson Jan 2009

Blackjack Players Demonstrate The Near Miss Effect, Mark R. Dixon, Becky L. Nastally, Adam D. Hahs, Mollie Homer-King, James W. Jackson

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The effect of the ‘near-miss’ as a potential conditioned reinforcer in slot machine play has recently been the subject of behavioral research on gambling. The present study extends prior research by examining this effect during the game of blackjack. Participants consisted of college undergraduates with no history of problematic gambling. Their verbal ratings of closeness to winning were recorded and examined for each of 50 hands of standard blackjack per session. Results indicated that as the number difference between the dealer and player’s hands decreased, closeness to win rating increased. Also for each participant, non-bust losses were rated closer to …

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Obstacles In Investigating The Role Of Restructuring In Insightful Problem Solving, Ivan K. Ash, Patrick J. Cushen, Jennifer Wiley Jan 2009

Obstacles In Investigating The Role Of Restructuring In Insightful Problem Solving, Ivan K. Ash, Patrick J. Cushen, Jennifer Wiley

Psychology Faculty Publications

In the present article, we articulate three assumptions underlying theories proposing that restructuring processes play a key role in insightful problem solving: representational difficulty, representational change, and discontinuity in solution processes. We argue that these assumptions need empirical validation to justify the proposition of restructuring mechanisms that are unique from those involved in classic information-processing theories of problem solving. To this end, we review some theoretical and methodological obstacles that are inherent in the investigation of the existence and nature of restructuring processes. We then offer some recommendations on how to overcome or avoid these obstacles in future studies. Finally, …

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