Self-directedness, integration and higher cognition

In this paper I discuss connections between self-directedness, integration and higher cognition. I present a model of self-directedness as a basis for approaching higher cognition from a situated cognition perspective. According to this model increases in sensorimotor complexity create pressure for integrative higher order control and learning processes for acquiring information about the context in which action occurs. This generates complex articulated abstractive information processing, which forms the major basis for higher cognition. I present evidence that indicates that the same integrative characteristics found in lower cognitive process such as motor adaptation are present in a range of higher cognitive process, including conceptual learning. This account helps explain situated cognition phenomena in humans because the integrative processes by which the brain adapts to control interaction are relatively agnostic concerning the source of the structure participating in the process. Thus, from the perspective of the motor control system using a tool is not fundamentally different to simply controlling an arm

Liberalism, lack and living the dream : re-considering youth, consumer sovereignty and the attractions of night-time leisure in Magaluf

Much of the academic literature on alcohol-based leisure focuses on the pleasures of hedonism and youthful cultural exploration in environments free from the prescriptions, pressures and routines of everyday life. In this article – in which we present data from our ongoing ethnographic research exploring the experiences and attitudes of young British tourists in the Spanish resort of Magaluf on the island of Majorca – we argue that the standard liberal social-scientific image of youth leisure is naive and misrepresents its variegated reality. Our research indicates that many young British tourists gain little contentment from their holiday in the sun. Rather than embarking on a leisure experience composed of boundless freedom, choice, indulgence, excess and that is indicative of personal consumer sovereignty, many of our interviewees could identify the regimented and commodified nature of alcohol-based tourism. Rather than satisfaction, they felt an imprecise dissatisfaction. Drawing upon elements of psychoanalytic theory, we argue that underneath our interviewees’ accounts of drunkenness and promiscuity lies an obdurate but imprecise sense of lack. Yet, it is precisely this absence which only recharges their motivation to do more of the same the year after in similar destinations, thus confirming the presence, power and domination of consumer sovereignty

Ethnoreligious Otherings and Passionate Conflicts

Departing from the mainstream practice and conventional wisdom of materialist and rationalist accounts of internal and intrastate conflicts, the book demonstrates how and why emotions, symbolic predispositions, and perceptions are just as powerful and useful in understanding and explaining these phenomena. By uncovering the invisible albeit concrete emotive, symbolic, and perceptual causal mechanisms underpinning ethnoreligious otherings and the resulting violent protracted conflicts, the book aims to help address the incongruence between how the actual actors operating within these contexts think and act and the existing theories and models of how they are expected to behave. Accordingly, the book has three main goals. First, to highlight the centrality of emotions, symbolic predispositions, and perceptions in providing a more holistic and realistic understanding of otherings and conflicts. Second, to illustrate how the ethnoreligious othering framework developed and applied in the study bolsters and advances process tracing explanations by systematically incorporating context-specific intersubjective meanings into causal accounts of the events under investigation. And third, to emphasize the importance of recognizing religion and nationalism as legitimate constituents and instruments of contemporary realpolitik by underlining their enduring security utility and essence at individual, group, and state levels. As argued and established throughout the book, because the causal mechanisms driving ethnoreligious otherings and passionate conflicts are simultaneously emitting and are propelled by deeply entrenched emotions, symbolic predispositions, and perceptions, achieving durable peace settlement requires reconciliation initiatives and regulation strategies that directly and unapologetically incorporate and address these neglected “immaterial” and “irrational” forces

Domestic Violence in Men\u27s and Women\u27s Magazines: Women Are Guilty of Choosing the Wrong Men, Men Are Not Guilty of Hitting Women

Men\u27s and women\u27s magazine discourse on domestic violence characterizes women as guilty of choosing the wrong men but does not hold men responsible for hitting women. Using qualitative narrative analysis on 10 leading titles over 10 years, I find an ongoing tolerance for and celebration of domestic violence in men\u27s magazines and an enduring expectation in women\u27s that women bear responsibility for both genders. No magazines discuss patriarchal cultural structures that enable violence against women

Populism and Leader Polarization in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Turkey

This dissertation studies the extent of polarization in Venezuela under Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), Ecuador under Rafael Correa (2007-2017), and Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (2002-2015). Theoretically, it develops the concept of leader polarization to describe cases where the elite or/and public opinion polarize over their levels of affection toward charismatic and dominant chief executives. To explain the occurrence of leader polarization, the dissertation unpacks the inclusionary vs. exclusionary nature of populism toward the members of the in-group and the out-group on symbolic, political, and material levels. It also examines how leader polarization contributes to democratic backsliding. Empirically, the dissertation uses qualitative and quantitative methodologies to understand the dynamics of leader polarization in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Turkey. Through qualitative case studies, it describes how Chávez, Correa, and Erdoğan simultaneously offered inclusion vs. exclusion to chavistas/correístas/pro-Erdoğan groups and anti-chavistas/anti-correístas/anti-Erdoğan groups. Furthermore, it discusses how leader polarization pushed the three countries away from liberal democracy toward an authoritarian direction. At the public opinion level, the dissertation uses LAPOP, KONDA, and CSES survey data and aims to find out the predictors of leader polarization. The results of multinomial logistic regressions reveal that political interest and sociotropic evaluations of the economy predict individuals’ expression of extreme affection toward Chávez, Correa, and Erdoğan. Overall, the findings of the dissertation contribute to the literature on polarization, populism, and democratization

The role of mental imagery in creativity

Mental imagery has been linked to creativity through the reports of many historically creative individuals. Following a review and evaluation of the theoretical, anecdotal and empirical literature, the material presented in the thesis investigates the role of individual differences in mental imagery in performance on psychometric creativity tasks. A meta-analytic review of previous research showed a small marginally acceptable criterion association between self-reported mental imagery vividness and control and divergent thinking performance. However, additional non-statistical examination showed that further investigation was required. This led to five studies of the variables under consideration and a revised meta-analytic review in the light of the findings. The main conclusion was that self-report measures of mental imagery have a statistically significant but inconsequential association with divergent thinking performance. Consequently a new series of studies was undertaken in which the creative visualization task (CVT) was employed using an individual differences approach. Having established the parametric properties of a test-format version of the CVT two behavioural measures of mental imagery were used to predict performance. As neither measure predicted CVT performance high and low vividness and Symbolic Equivalence Test groups were used to assess a dissociative model of CVT performance. A significant interaction effect showed that vividness plays a mediating role in predicting CVT performance. In two final studies the individual differences approach was employed in the context of a hypothesised perceptual mediation. The results showed firstly that High Imagers performed significantly better than Low Imagers in creativity tasks following perceptual isolation and secondly that Low Imagers performed significantly better on perceptually sourced creativity tasks than on verbally sourced creativity tasks. The combined findings suggest that, while established protocols do not support a strong imagery-creativity association, new methods of investigation may reveal the predicted differences in creativity between high and low imagery participants