The blush: literary and psychological perspectives

Literary analysis of the blush in Austen's novels identifies three themes, namely the potential ambiguity of a blush, its association with modesty, and its erotic and gendered nature, issues that scarcely figure in current psychological explanations of the phenomenon. I examine these themes and compare them with current psychological accounts which assign a central place to embarrassment and, more specifically, emphasise either unwanted social attention, exposure of the self, or the blush's signalling function. Analysis of Austen's work suggests that greater attention should be paid to self-consciousness as it relates to threats to reputation, to the erotic dimension of the blush, and to potential gender differences. It should encourage researchers to be aware of limitations of psychological accounts and to expand their range of sources of information in order to enhance understanding of this elusive phenomenon

Literary Careers: Breaks and Stalls

In his article, Literary Careers: Breaks and Stalls, W. Ray Crozier argues that biographical evidence points to considerable individual variation in writers\u27 output over the life span even when allowance is made for longevity and length of writing career. This issue has been neglected by psychological accounts of creativity. Crozier outlines a theoretical framework for understanding variation in terms of an artistic career. This is conceptualised as a sequence of projects, the success of which are influenced by intra-project factors such as the rewardingness and difficulties of literary projects and extra-project factors such as work pressures, poverty, and competing demands on time. This account is compared to an explanation proposed by Dean Keith Simonton, which emphasises the reduction over time in the potential to produce new work. The framework is applied to the analysis of biographical material on six writers of fiction who were all critically acclaimed writers who lived until at least their eightieth year but who were among the least productive in a large sample of twentieth-century British novelists

Shyness, sensation seeking and birth-order position

The study found no relationship between birth-order position and shyness or sensation seeking in a sample of 250 students. Shyness was significantly negatively correlated with total sensation seeking scores and scores on the four subscales, but closer analysis showed that this relationship was mediated by the correlation between shyness and disinhibition. This pattern implies that shyness is wariness specifically in social situations

Teachers' strategies for helping shy students: findings from a national survey in Norway

The goals of this study were to investigate strategies that teachers may use to help students with their shyness at school and to explore potential effects of demographic variables (i.e., teacher experience, class size, grade level) on teachers’ strategies. Participants were a national sample of N = 275 teachers (from 230 elementary schools) in Norway, who reported their frequency of use of different strategies and rated their perceived effectiveness for helping shy students across four domains: (1) encouraging oral participation; (2) promoting social relationships; (3) reducing anxiety; and (4) whole-class strategies. Across domains, common themes included teachers’ sensitivity to individual shy students, reduction of stress associated with novel situations, involving peers, focus on social skills, and building trusting relationships with shy students. Demographic variables had only limited effects on strategy use/effectiveness. Findings are discussed in relation to previous theory and research related to teachers’ strategies for assisting shy students at school

The signaling lipid sphingosine 1-phosphate regulates mechanical pain

Somatosensory neurons mediate responses to diverse mechanical stimuli, from innocuous touch to noxious pain. While recent studies have identified distinct populations of A mechanonociceptors (AMs) that are required for mechanical pain, the molecular underpinnings of mechanonociception remain unknown. Here, we show that the bioactive lipid sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) and S1P Receptor 3 (S1PR3) are critical regulators of acute mechanonociception. Genetic or pharmacological ablation of S1PR3, or blockade of S1P production, significantly impaired the behavioral response to noxious mechanical stimuli, with no effect on responses to innocuous touch or thermal stimuli. These effects are mediated by fast-conducting A mechanonociceptors, which displayed a significant decrease in mechanosensitivity in S1PR3 mutant mice. We show that S1PR3 signaling tunes mechanonociceptor excitability via modulation of KCNQ2/3 channels. Our findings define a new role for S1PR3 in regulating neuronal excitability and establish the importance of S1P/S1PR3 signaling in the setting of mechanical pain thresholds