Theory and Philosophy Commons^™

Some Observations On Scientific Epistemology With Applications To Conflict Resolution And Constructive Controversy, Judith Puncochar, Don Faust

Other Presentations

An overview, by Judy and Don (published in 2013 in the BULLETIN OF SYMBOLIC LOGIC):

Explorationism is a perspective wherein all of our knowledge is (so far) less than certain, and naturally would come equipped with a base logic entailing machinery for representing and processing evidential knowledge. One such base logic is Evidence Logic, which strives to deal with the phenomenon of the gradational presence of both confirmatory and refutatory evidence. From this perspective, we will address questions surrounding sociological problem areas that we see as deeply infused with substantial epistemological factors. By defining a framework as any theory, …

Incorporating Embodied Cognition Into Sensemaking Theory: A Theoretical Integration Of Embodied Processes In A Leadership Context, Allison O'Malley, S. Ritchie, R. Lord, J. Gregory, C. Young

Alison L. O'Malley

Despite growing recognition across a number of disciplines that cognitive processes are based in the body's interaction with the environment (e.g., Wilson, 2002), the body is afforded a negligible role in current conceptualizations of cognition in organizations. For instance, Hodgkinson and Healey's (2008) recent review of cognition in organizations makes no mention of how the body is implicated in cognitive processing. Perspectives that recognize the body's fundamental involvement in cognitive processing are referred to as embodied cognitive approaches. Embodied cognitive approaches view the representation of knowledge as dependent on brain structures involved in perception, action, and introspection rather than based …

Hemispheric Bases For Emotion And Memory, Tad T. Brunyé, Sarah R. Cavanagh, Ruth E. Propper

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The goal of this Research Topic was to bring together diverse scientific perspectives on lateralized brain mechanisms underlying emotion, motivation, and memory. The Topic resulted in eight articles, three of which report original research and five of which review and synthesize past research with the aim of developing new hypotheses and theory. A range of international experts with diverse backgrounds, theoretical perspectives, and experimental methods contributed to the Topic. Contributions strongly reflect this diversity, ranging from examining pupil dilation in response to viewing Rembrandt portraits to understanding how caffeine supplementation influences levels of spatial processing. In all cases, the authors …

Psychotic Diagnosis And Artist Pathology: Schizophrenic Art’S Influence On The Identification Of The Disorder, Danielle Watson

Honors Projects

The use of artwork created by schizophrenic individuals is unique in its contextual elements, including bizarre imagery, strong border lines, and desexualized features. The uniqueness of schizophrenic art lends itself to the possibility of being identified as such, therefore, opening the possibility for it to be used as a diagnostic tool in the clinical setting. Presently, schizophrenic art is used in art therapy, but is not widely employed in diagnostic practices. The current study aimed to test the possible identification of schizophrenic art in contrast to normal art and no art. Three questionnaires were created and randomly distributed to participants. …

Enhancing Transparency Of The Research Process To Increase Accuracy Of Findings: A Guide For Relationship Researchers, Lorne Campbell, Timothy J. Loving, Etienne P. Lebel

Psychology Publications

The purpose of this paper is to extend to the field of relationship science, recent discussions and suggested changes in open research practises. We demonstrate different ways that greater transparency of the research process in our field will accelerate scientific progress by increasing accuracy of reported research findings. Importantly, we make concrete recommendations for how relationship researchers can transition to greater disclosure of research practices in a manner that is sensitive to the unique design features of methodologies employed by relationship scientists. We discuss how to implement these recommendations for four different research designs regularly used in relationship research and …

On Reporting The Onset Of The Intention To Move, Uri Maoz, Liad Mudrik, Ram Rivlin, Ian Ross, Adam Mamelak, Gideon Yaffe

Psychology Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"In 1965, Hans Kornhuber and Luder Deecke made a discovery that greatly influenced the study of voluntary action. Using electroencephalography (EEG), they showed that when aligning some tens of trials to movement onset and averaging, a slowly decreasing electrical potential emerges over central regions of the brain. It starts 1 second ( s) or so before the onset of the voluntary action1 and continues until shortly after the action begins. They termed this the Bereitschaftspotential, or readiness potential (RP; Kornhuber & Deecke, 1965).2 This became the first well-established neural marker of voluntary action. In that, the RP allowed for more …

Using A Photographic Gestalt In Your Therapy / Counselling Work, Harry B. Mayr

harry b mayr

Hi everyone,

I was lucky enough to take the photo below on a recent trip to Fraser Island. When I got home and started looking through my photos, I found that this photo (which I like to call 'THE STEPS OF LIFE' ), had the same qualities as those illustrations shown to us during psychology / social work / counselling courses e.g. the old woman's face gestalt.

I would like to share my photo with everyone as I feel it is a great tool in helping people learn and grow in their individual lives. Please just mention where you got …

Predicting Survey Responses: How And Why Semantics Shape Survey Statistics On Organizational Behaviour, Ketil Arnulf, Kai R. Larsen, Øyvind Martinsen, Chih How Bong

Kai R.T. Larsen

Some disciplines in the social sciences rely heavily on collecting survey responses to detect empirical relationships among variables. We explored whether these relationships were a priori predictable from the semantic properties of the survey items, using language processing algorithms which are now available as new research methods. Language processing algorithms were used to calculate the semantic similarity among all items in state-of-the-art surveys from Organisational Behaviour research. These surveys covered areas such as transformational leadership, work motivation and work outcomes. This information was used to explain and predict the response patterns from real subjects. Semantic algorithms explained 60–86% of the …

Transnational Gestures: Rethinking Trauma In U.S. War Fiction, Ruth A.H. Lahti

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the need to "world" our literary histories of U.S. war fiction, arguing that a transnational approach to this genre remaps on an enlarged scale the ethical implications of 20th and 21st century war writing. This study turns to representations of the human body to differently apprehend the ethical struggles of war fiction, thereby rethinking psychological and nationalist models of war trauma and developing a new method of reading the literature of war. To lay the ground for this analysis, I argue that the dominance of trauma theory in critical work on U.S. war fiction privileges the "authentic" …

Human Centered Design Applied To Perceptual Paradigms, Jonathan T. Fancher

All NMU Master's Theses

This thesis gives three examples of projects that apply knowledge from areas such as human centered design, computer science, and psychology to study sensation and perception. All three of these projects were created to gather information on how humans interact with their surrounding environment and the world. For instance the first area of discovery included the way humans interact within their perceptual and personal space through an interactive table. The second project looks at exploring the neural mechanisms that affect Haptic Hallucinations by creating a device that can give the feeling of bugs crawling on or below the surface of …

Ecological Worldviews: A Missing Perspective To Advance Sustainability Leadership, Steve Schein

Academic Conference on Good Business

ABSTRACT

This article presents the findings from an empirical study of ecological worldviews of global sustainability leaders. Although a significant body of research has emerged in recent years focused on corporate sustainability at the organizational level, the literature has paid less attention to corporate sustainability at the individual level. As a result, little is known about the deeper psychological motivations of sustainability leaders and how these motivations may influence their behavior and effectiveness as change agents.

The study was based on theoretical insights from several social science disciplines including deep ecology, eco-psychology, environmental sociology, and integral ecology. Drawing on interviews …

Time Travel With Gilles Deleuze, John M. Winslade

Special Education, Rehabilitation & Counseling Faculty Publications

My focus here will be on working in therapy with an elastic concept of time built on Deleuze’s readings of time as a synthesis of the past, present and future. This interest has particular value for the construction of remembering conversations. I shall speak to the value I can see for this field of practice. The poststructuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze has much to offer narrative practice through the concepts he developed. I intend to explore some specific aspects of his reconceptualization of time in this presentation.

State Psychological Associations, Licensing Criteria, And The “Master’S Issue”, Robert H.I. Dale

Robert H. I. Dale

The psychological associations in the 50 states and the District of Columbia were surveyed with regard to their membership structure and the status of master's-level members. Most (31) of these associations closely follow the membership criteria established by the American Psychological Association, allowing associate membership for master's-level personnel, whereas 15 associations provide full membership for such personnel. A minority (17) of the state psychology boards provide some form or licensing or certification for master's-level personnel, and 5 more states provide for registration of such personnel. It is argued that the structures of state psychological associations reflect a tension between two …

Fraudulent Therapies In Psychology: The Enduring Value Of Science., W. Joseph Wyatt

W. Joseph Wyatt

Therapy is an effort, based upon scientifically derived principles, to optimize the ration of positive-to-negative reinforcers, for the individual and for society. Fraudulent therapies do not derive from scientific principles. Among these are orgone therapy, re-birthing, facilitated communication, recovered memory therapy, alien abduction, and past-life therapy.

What To Do, Now That Big Pharma And Psychiatry Have Thrown Empiricism Under The Bus, W. Joseph Wyatt

W. Joseph Wyatt

Organized Psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry have worked toward a mutually reinforcing cultural zeitgeist, to wit: the majority of psychological/behavioral disorders are biologically caused and medications are the treatments of choice. The history of this phenomenon and its implications for behavioral practitioners will be presented.

Incarceration And Reintegration: How It Impacts Mental Health, April M. Marier, Alex Alfredo Reyes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Background: Previous criminal justice policies have been non-effective leading to overpopulated prisons and unsuccessful reintegration. There is a lack of effective supportive and/or rehabilitative services resulting in high rates of recidivism and mental health implications. Objective: This study investigated the perceived impact that incarceration and reintegration with little to no supportive and/or rehabilitative services has on the mental health status of an individual. The emphasis was on participant perception and not on professional reports because of underreporting and lack of attention to mental health in the criminal justice system. Methods: Focus groups in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley …

A Case Analysis Of The Foundational Ministry Principles Of Rev. Jerry Falwell From 1956-1966, Iain Lyttle

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research examines principles employed by Dr. Jerry Lamond Falwell between 1956 and 1966 and the early developmental stages of his church, Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC). The foundation built during these formative years facilitated precipitous growth within the church plant for decades, allowing TRBC to become one of America’s most prominent megachurches and to found Liberty University, the world’s largest evangelical university. As church plants are more likely to fail than to succeed, this research aimed to investigate key characteristics of a church planter who was highly successful, which can be replicated. Using primarily twenty-three interviews of TRBC congregants …

Mirror Neuron Activity Is No Proof For Action Understanding, Alina Steinhorst, Joachim Funke

Joachim Funke

Biological Psychiatry: A Practice In Search Of A Science, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff

W. Joseph Wyatt

The rise of the biological causation model in the past thirty years is traced to psychiatry’s efforts to regain lost status and to protect itself from intrusions by non-medical practitioners, as well as to the pharmaceutical industry’s drive for profits. Evidence in support of the model, including studies of identical twins and of brain structure and function, are less revealing than was earlier thought, due to problems in methodology and interpretation. Organized psychiatry, when challenged in 2003, was unable to provide compelling evidence for biological causation of most mental and behavioral disorders. A paradigm shift away from biological causation and …

Six-To-One Gets The Job Done: Comments On The Reviews, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff

W. Joseph Wyatt

We are pleased to note that six of the seven responses to our article were marked by approval, and/or thoughtful contemplation, regarding our central theses—that the research said to support biological causation of mental disorders is relatively weak, and that the claims of drug effectiveness are often overstated.

Course Syllabus (Sp14) Coli 211 Literature & Psychology: "The Sublime, The Uncanny, And The Imagination", Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty Scholarship

Course Description:

In a world in which what counts as knowledge is predominantly restricted to the measurable and the calculable, those elements of human experience which elude and exceed these parameters are often ignored and discounted. In this course, we will examine questions of the sublime, the uncanny, and the speculative as treated in literature, psychoanalysis, and philosophy in order to think and write critically about them. Here, we will consider the possible extent to which an openness to such experiences can enrich our lives.

Predicting Social Change: Transforming Victims Of Child Sex Trafficking In India And The United States, Kristie A. Weisert

Global Honors Theses

Human trafficking is a huge global issue that is highly linked to issues of poverty, physical abuse, and psychological control, culminating in the buying and selling of human beings, or what we call “modern day slavery.” For my Global Honors thesis, I applied a fairly optimistic philosophical human rights theory to an unimaginable human rights issue that is taking place all over the world. This paper focuses on domestic child sex trafficking in the U.S. and India along with the unique socioeconomic, political, and cultural factors that contributes to trafficking in these countries. I found that the international community, non-profits, …

Media Portrayal Of Individuals In The Lower Class And Its Effects On Attributions Of Educational Hardships, Krista A. Burke

Communication Studies

This study investigated how media portrayals of individuals in the lower class affect people’s beliefs about educational hardships in lower socioeconomic areas. Specifically, this study looked at the attributions of these hardships to determine if media consumption had an effect on the internality of attributions. It was hypothesized that increased media consumption would be related to an increased tendency toward internal attributions. It was hypothesized that increased media consumption would lead to lower support for policy changes regarding education. A survey was distributed to assess media consumption habits and attitudes toward educational hardships in the lower class. Correlation results yielded …

Book Review: Policing And The Poetics Of Everyday Life., Rodger E. Broome Phd

Rodger E. Broome

Policing and the poetics of everyday life. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008. 256 pp. ISBN 978-0-252-03371-1 (cloth). $42.00. Policing and the Poetics of Everyday Life is a hermeneutical-aesthetic analysis within a human scientific approach of modern policing in the United States. It is an important study of police-citizen encounters informed by hermeneutic aesthetic thought and the author’s professional experience as a veteran with a Seattle area police department in Washington, USA.

Editorial Comment: Not So Crazy Eight!, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

No abstract provided.

Experiential Gambling: Interactions Between Consumer Experiences, Emotional Engagement, And Behavioural Settings, Seema Bhate, Kevin Hannam

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

This investigation explores experiential gambling behavior by modifying the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework to build a theoretical model which examines the interactive nature of three variables, Experiences, Emotional engagement and Behavioral settings. Experiential motives such as Entertainment, Education, Esthetics and Escapism (Pine & Gilmore, 1999) are examined in the context of emotional responses (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974) of Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance (PAD) and how these responses interact with Open and Closed behavioral settings postulated by Foxall (1999) in the Behavioral Perspective model (BPM). Based upon a statistical analysis of 303 questionnaires, which collected information on gambling behavior in the North …

Validating The Gambling Functional Assessment-Revised In A Sample Of Probable Problem/Disordered Gamblers, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Heather K. Terrell

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The Gambling Functional Assessment-Revised (GFA-R) was designed to measure whether the respondent’s gambling is maintained by positive reinforcement or escape. However, it has only been administered in samples dominated by nonproblem gamblers. One hundred five adult participants who scored three or more on the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) completed the GFA-R and the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a 15-item GFA-R demonstrated a sound factor structure. The internal consistency of the GFA-R subscales was good to excellent for both probable problem and disordered gamblers. Participants scored significantly higher on gambling for positive reinforcement than …

Slot Machine Near Wins: Effects On Pause And Sensitivity To Win Ratios, Tadhg E. Daly, Gordon Tan, Lincoln S. Hely, Anne C. Macaskill, David N. Harper, Maree J. Hunt

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

When a near-win outcome occurs on a slot machine, stimuli presented resemble those presented when money is won, but no money is won. Research has shown that gamblers prefer and play for longer on slot machines that present near wins. One explanation for this is that near wins are conditioned reinforcers. If so, near wins would produce longer latencies to the next response than clear losses. Another explanation is that near wins produce frustration; if so, then near wins would produce shorter response latencies. The two current experiments manipulated win ratio across two concurrently available slot machines and also manipulated …

Sociobiophysicality And The Necessity Of Critical Theory: Moving Beyond Prevailing Conceptions Of Environmental Sociology In The Usa, Alex Stoner

Journal Articles

Today, to perceive the link between society and environment does not require that we engage in an effort of great abstraction. What remains paradoxical is that the intensity and scale of societally induced environmental degradation, which rose to historically unprecedented levels during the latter half of the 20th century, is synchronous with an equally impressive increase in public concern for and attention to the biophysical world. This article examines values-based and traditional Marxist-oriented approaches to environmental sociology in the USA in order to assess whether or not – and if so, how exactly – these approaches help us make sense …

Latent Psyche Concept, A Formula For Originating Ideas, Chuck Klein

Chuck Klein

Much has been written about people who are creative - those who produce ideas - but little about how they actually arrive at new concepts, theories or a different way of viewing old notions. The term, creativity, is easily defined, however, a technique for achieving this highly acclaimed attribute is not readily found.

Idea production, like any other manufacturing process, is subject to and dependent upon an identifiable pattern. It makes little difference whether the creator is writing a book, seeking a solution to a production line problem or looking to increase sales, the process of idea production is the …