Category: Theoretical Contributions

Jan Ilhan Kizilhan University of Freiburg Abstract Patients from collective cultures with a tradition-bound cultural background (e.g., people from the Middle East and some south European countries such as Italy and Greece), have a different perception of pain and different … Continue reading →

Diana Semmelhack Midwestern University Larry Ende Psychotherapist Karen Farrell Midwestern University Julieanne Pojas Midwestern University Abstract Our purposes in part I of the essay are: 1) to suggest that womb envy has been a significant element in the formation of … Continue reading →

George Varvatsoulias Acorn Independent College, London, UK Abstract In this article, I discuss the debate between domain-specificity and content-generality in regard to the human mind. My main objective is to argue that the human mind can both be understood as … Continue reading →

Julie A. Woodzicka Washington and Lee University Thomas E. Ford Western Carolina University Abstract The prevalence of sexist humor in popular culture and its disguise as benign amusement or “just a joke” give it potential to cultivate distress and harassment … Continue reading →

Sven Svebak Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway Abstract This paper presents the background for developing the Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ), including ideas that guided the ambition to design a … Continue reading →

Pavlo Kanellakis South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, UK Abstract This article addresses disability-related theory and research associated to attitudes and social action, equality of opportunity, respect and inclusion. It highlights the significance of disability in counselling psychology … Continue reading →

Jennifer Murray Glasgow Caledonian University Dr. Mary E. Thomson Glasgow Caledonian University Abstract A considerable proportion of research in the field of violence risk assessment has focused on the accuracy of clinical judgements of offender dangerousness. This has largely been … Continue reading →

Jennifer Murray Glasgow Caledonian University Dr. Mary E. Thomson Glasgow Caledonian University Abstract The present article discusses the three main approaches to violence risk assessment, clinical judgement, actuarial assessment, and structured clinical judgement, informing the reader of the comparative benefits … Continue reading →

Constantine Sandis Oxford Brookes University and NYU in London Abstract This paper explores Alfred Hitchcock’s use of Freudian psychoanalysis in a number of his films, with particular emphasis on Spellbound (1945), Psycho (1960), and Marnie (1964). I argue that the … Continue reading →

Satya Sundar Sethy Indira Gandhi National Open University Abstract This paper seeks to argue that creativity is not limited to only innovations and new discoveries. It encompasses other dominant and significant aspects of human intervention in the form of cognitions … Continue reading →

Nicoletta Isar Institute of Art History University of Copehangen Abstract Plato’s dialogue the Timaeus describes not only the making of the cosmos (order), but also the condition of what is not order, neither for the human body nor for the … Continue reading →

Saoud Al Mualla Institute of Art History Dubai Medical College Abstract This paper will introduce the ‘Psych-Aetiology Graph’, PAG for short. The concept of PAG is devised by the author as a way of conceptualising/formalising/summarising the client’s condition. The term … Continue reading →

Govind Singh Kushwaha Pant University of Technology & Agriculture Sanjay Kumar Pant University of Technology & Agriculture Abstract A new analytical method for psychological research is being proposed. The advantages of evaluation with fuzzy statistical analysis include: (i) The evaluation … Continue reading →

HRM can be considered to be responsibility of all those who manage people as well as a description of persons who are employed as specialists. It is that part of management that involves planning for human resource needs, including recruitment and selection, training and development. It also includes welfare and safety, wage and salary administration, collective bargaining and dealing with most aspects of industrial relations.
Continue reading →

Several scientific insights about the orgasm are presented. Insights from evolutionary biology and psychology contribute to understanding the orgasm. Important issues are the point of inevitability (which only exists in males), effects of endorphins, differences regarding orgasm for the two sexes, and how the orgasm increases the strength of a relationship.
Continue reading →

Research in social psychology would be inconceivable today without the use of questionnaires, interviews and focus groups. This essay will briefly present all three methods and compare their characteristics through an analysis of their importance for stereotype, identity and social representations research.
Both questionnaires and interviews / focus groups help researchers gather verbal data and all start from the same key-element: questions. This aspect is most obvious in the case of questionnaires that may resemble a “simple” set of questions.
Continue reading →

Traditionally social psychologists had been “stereotypical” about stereotypes. Especially the early work in this field presented stereotypes as misleading, extreme and destructive in the context of inter-group relations. Such a position is explained by the fact that most researchers focused initially on the study of antagonistic groups that shared a past of conflict, exploitation and violence (Brigham, 1971). As a result, a common belief at that time was that inter-group harmony can be enhanced by eliminating stereotypes (Taylor, 1981).
Continue reading →

First, we define the notion “Creator” as it is used in this article. From there, we discuss two important and contrary human beliefs.
Next, we present the situation of people who deal with troubles. From analyzing the change in their feeling, we withdraw a psychological mechanism describing the struggle between two contrary beliefs and the role of this struggle in dealing with troubles. In fact, this struggle is separated by two basic notions of time in our mind: The Past and The Future. In addition, we discuss the mutual relationship between the troubles relating to the Past and the troubles relating to the Future.
At last, we conclude about the importance of acknowledging and controlling these two contrary beliefs.
Continue reading →

Some historical background to schizophrenia is also outlined. The theory is that alternative support like long term clinical hypnotherapy and long term CBT plus psychotherapy and counselling is effective in helping some schizophrenics to reduce their medications to improve their quality of life.
Continue reading →

This essay deals with the social, religious and sexual dimensions of
cockfighting in Bali and the roles it plays in Balinese culture. It
considers unconscious attitudes Balinese men may have about
their penises and hidden anxieties they may have about circumcision
and castration generated by attendance at cockfights.
Continue reading →

This article proposes the integration of the subjective, developmental and cognitive aspects of the semiotic processes in a psychological context, and the historical, institutional and ideological fundamentals of sign systems in a sociocultural context. It revisits certain arguments for the rejection of the mind-body dichotomy, investigates the implications of this rejection in terms of the relations thought / language, individual / collective and cognition / emotion, and establishes relations between the process of semiotic mediation and the theory of social representations. It proposes, both theoretically and methodologically, a psychosocial synthesis for human psychological development, forming the basis for psychological intervention in social interaction situations, based on three main points. The focus group is used not simply in order to treat and develop a particular object through conversation, but as a procedure for psychological intervention and a locus of change, presupposing a sequence of group situations, each based on what was produced the previous time.
Continue reading →

Outsourcing has become an increasingly powerful option for many companies seeking to reduce costs, enhance service and focus on core competencies. Most commonly used for information technology services, this trend of business process outsourcing (BPO) is very prevalent in Human Resources (HR). It is a $1.36 billion industry in Canada alone and is expected to increase 10.6 percent each year over the next five years (Vu, 2004). According to the Gartner Group, HR administrative tasks topped the list of processes outsourced in 2003 and predict that by 2007, HR BPO will be a $37.8 billion-plus industry in the United States, up from $25 billion in 2002, for an 8.6 percent growth rate.
Continue reading →

Transactional analysis, commonly known as TA to its adherents, is a psychoanalytic theory of psychology, developed by psychiatrist Eric Berne during the late 1950s, (Berne, E. 1957) based on the study of evolution and the pathological functioning of ego states (Várkonyi F. Zsuzsa, 2003). Revising Freud’s concept of the human psyche as composed of the Ego, Superego, and the Id, (Freud, S. 1900, 1977) Berne, E. (1964) postulated instead three “ego states”, the Parent (P), Adult (A) and Child (C) ego states, which were largely shaped through childhood experiences. (Wikipedia, 2006) TA has four parts: the structural analysis, transactional analysis, game analysis and script analysis. (Járó Katalin, editor, 1999)
Continue reading →

MGT studies human games to find the best strategies for gaining a concrete advantage. TA studies human games to get the answer to the question why people make efforts in order to suffer, (to win negative payoffs), and how these people can be helped to give up these daily repeated games. These cause sufferings for all participants, and are the causes of many psychological diseases. However both describe the human conflicts, suffering having a sense of lost in MGT, apparently MGT games and TA games are in contrast with each other. Studying the evolution (the degeneration) of MGT games, we can observe that the majority of human conflicts start off with a “Prisoners Dilemma”, goes on with the “Chicken! Game” and degenerates into a “Dollar Auction Game”.
Continue reading →

This paper contrasts contemporary traditional and constructivist educational models to show that constructivist models have invaluable advantages over and are more effective than more traditional models. Bruner’s constructivist theory is discussed, as well as some of its influences, then traditional and constructivist educational models are contrasted point-for-point. The paper then refers to factual examples of successful constructivist education models in practice and suggests methods for using constructivist theory to improve traditionally designed curricula.
Continue reading →

When watching the mainstream in the media, values seem to be a “best seller”. New technologies have widened the possibilities for communication and in a consequence these innovations have increased the speed of the developmental process in society, economics, science etc.
But where do we go to?
Values are serving as points for orientation. People are united by the traditions of shared interpretation of specific religious and cultural principles. The present period of “high-speed-change” forces the individual and the public mind to turn the focus on these points for orientation and to ask how the new elements affect the stability of the traditional interpretation. The actuality and popularity of talking about values is guided by the necessity of the trial to assimilate these new elements into a valid new interpretation, which is the base for the construction of a stabile community.
Continue reading →

Researchers like Vassilis Saroglou have found a negative correlation between religious belief and sense of humor. I add two things to this line of research. First, I argue that the features that make religious believers humorless also make them militaristic. Secondly, I argue that militarism and humorlessness are concentrated in religions which stress orthodoxy and faith, such as Christianity and Islam; militarism and humorlessness do not dominate nontheistic religions such as Buddhism which do not stress orthodoxy and faith.
Continue reading →

This paper tries to investigate the problem of memory through one of its most intriguing patterns – chiasmus – reflected in old poetry, sacred texts, philosophy and theology, visual arts, as well as biology. It aims to search for some provisory explanation of why man was able once to acquire such excellence in memorizing internally thousands of lines of poetry, whereas now memory is expelled outside the human body and mind in a mere digital file.
Continue reading →

Foreign Affairs – as a practical activity, science or/and a form of arts – ask for solid interdisciplinary knowledge, as well as a series of inter-relationship abilities that are to be displayed inside and outside the country.
Continue reading →

European identity is probably one of the most frequently discussed topics in the social sciences arena nowadays, but also one of the most fluid and insecure concepts that politicians, scientists or the civil society are trying to get a grip on. There is a lot controversy with respect to both its existence and contents: public talks and scientific inquiries take on a very large spectrum of colors, from idealization and reification to utter denial
Continue reading →

The notion that humor is something that heals is now generally well recognized. Norman Cousins’ book, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient spread the news of humor’s healing powers to the general public. But well before Cousins came along, many others had been doing research and writing about the healing power of humor.
Continue reading →

As a general rule, identities are only widely discussed when we think there might be something wrong with them, or some kind of identity crisis is apparent. In the last decade or two, there have many conferences organized and books published on the subject of European identity, and so it is safe to assume that there are some perceived problems in this area. In an attempt to illuminate such problems, and even to provide some answers, we shall deal here with definitions: what exactly is collective identity? How does it work? What might a European identity consist of? And how might it compete with national identity? In this way some of the confusion surrounding this issue can be cleared away.
Continue reading →

Is the reality of the dream something (slightly) different from the psychic reality? We will try to answer this question by fitting the problem of dream into a classic communication pattern and looking at the psychic agencies from a communication-related perspective. Thus, the dream will take the form of a message whose shape is influenced by the sender and the receiver requirements, but also set as an (apparently) autonomous product of the unconscious. How much legitimacy would then lie in assigning the regulation of the onirical reality to “another” consciousness? Would it be possible for the reality “state” we experience while dreaming to be due to a sort of onirical awareness that arises from an integration-reflex in the moment when the dreamer encounters a world that lacks any kind of antagonistic sensations and so, seemingly, very real? Such faultless integration into the dreamt world through precise reflexes that are just the same as the ones used for appropriately approaching the outside world, seriously moots the problem of an (appearing) autonomy of reactions of the sleeping man – still perfectly awake in the strange light of a new, paradoxical and less approached “vigilance”.
Continue reading →

The classical Blatt-method of dilemma discussion to foster moral-democratic competencies is discussed and compared with the new Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion (KMDD). The KMDD is better teachable, easier to be applied and has higher effect sizes.
In a democracy, the rule of a king or a dictator has been replaced by the rule of moral principles of human conduct and interaction. Therefore, it is highly important that citizens do not only hold high moral and democratic ideals (which, according to the polls, most citizens do) but that they also possess a highly developed ability to apply these ideals in everyday-life, and solve inevitable conflicts through discussion and moral discourse.
http://www.uni-konstanz.de/
Continue reading →

http://www.eurocult.org/
The concept of identity – beyond its primary meaning of individual identity which is psychologically so important even in times of post-modern deconstruction of the individual – signals a sense of belonging. The question is: to whom or to what do we feel to belong, want to belong? To social, cultural, economical, political groups or communities? To our families, friends, kindred spirits? To a certain gender? To a belief, ideology? To specific memories and experiences? To certain topics and activities? To a borough, a city, a region, a nation, to Europe ? To…?
Continue reading →

Specialists tried to define who exactly young people are. In a world of globalisation, we can easily realise that such a question is hard to answer. The lack of such definition, while confusing the issue between perspectives, has led to different approaches to youth based on young people as a generation, an object of public policy or as an age group.
Continue reading →

The present study has as main object the investigation of the relationship between neuroticism, Ego defense mechanisms and valoric types, on a sample of 39 participants selected from the general population. In order to serve this purpose we started from the main psychoanalythic theories about defense mechanisms and neurotism, and we made the concepts that we used functional based on the psychological instruments used and the psychological thories underlying them: Bond´s “Defense Styles Questionnaire” for defense mechanisms; Allport-Vernon scale for the values as part of the personality and a composite testing instrument made up of neurotism items from Eysenck Personality Inventory and Cattell´s 16 Personality Factors. A significant number of our hypothesis has confirmed after performing the statistical data processing. On the one hand, we the authors of this investigation consider our results per se and this fact is going to be presented widely in the “Discussion” section and, on the other hand, we see our results also as starting points for further investigation in the area.
Continue reading →

People have often spoken about the importance and the role of the family, as “the foundation cell of the society”. To every man, the family represents an unmistakable universe, to which the birth, the growth, the creation and the development are closely linked personality. It also represents the environment within the human being learns how to articulate sounds, how to codify the first symbols of life. It is almost obvious that the way in which the individual will relate in the couple will attract satisfactions or dissatisfactions at the work place.
Continue reading →

Greek mythology doesn’t resume to the period of Antiquity. It can be found in other epochs (Renaissance and Classicism), other contexts (history and art) and other discourses (scientific and philosophical). The key to understand this “spiritual longevity” lies in myths. As a concept, the myth has known over 500 definitions in about 25 centuries (Topor, 2000); its etymology leads us to (of course) a Greek word, mithos , which means “a fabulous story”. The myth “reveals something that has already completely manifested, and this manifestation is at the same time creative and exemplar, because it is the support of a structure of the real as well as a human behavior” (Eliade, 1998, p.10-11). Throughout history there has been developed an authentic hermeneutics of myths , because they are an eternal “source of inspiration” (Auregan, Palayret, 1998, p.9). The explanation, in Aristotle’s opinion, is very simple: “the one who loves myths, loves, in a certain degree, wisdom” (Vladutescu, 1984, p.7).
Continue reading →