Conceptual Metaphor and Text Development: a Narratological Perspective

This study attempts to analyse the structural role of metaphor in a specific texttype. For this purpose, we chose a specific genre, a popular magazine about scientific topics, the National Geographic (NG), and one of the typical texts of that magazine, the story of a natural disaster, an earthquake. Hypothesizing that every text displays a specific metaphoric configuration that will, in a sense, constitute the metaphorical identity of that text, the study explains how we can identify in a specific text the structure of its metaphorical relations. Having identified the conceptual keys which link the experiential domains activated by the text in the conceptualization of a disastrous event like an earthquake, the study then explores the interaction between common metaphorical conceptualizations and their text-specific configurations through narrative processing. Using a Labovian framework, the research perspective attempts to describe how the metaphoric conceptualization of earthquakes is linked to text development and narrative processing. Thus, working along the interface between cognition and discourse, the study demonstrates the utility of uncovering in text the relationship between universal human conceptualization, social experience and discourse structure.Este estudio pretende analizar el papel structural de la metáfora en un tipo de texto específico. Con tal propósito, hemos elegido un género específico, una revista de divulgación científica, National Geographic (NG), y uno de los textos típicos de dicha revista, el relato de un desastre natural, un terremoto. Con la hipótesis de que cada texto dispone de una configuración metafórica específica que, en cierto sentido, constituye la identidad metafórica del texto, el estudio muestra cómo podemos identificar en un texto específico la estructura de sus relaciones metafóricas. La identificación de claves conceptuales que ligan dominios experienciales activados por el texto, al conceptualizar sucesos como los terremotos, nos permite explorar la interacción entre conceptualizaciones metafóricas y sus configuraciones específicas a lo largo del proceso narrativo. Un enfoque Laboviano nos permite un intento de describir la connexion de la conceptualización metafórica de los terremotos con el desarrollo narrativo. Así, la interfaz entre cognición y discurso muestra la utilidad de descubrir en el texto la relación entre conceptualización humana universal, experiencia social y estructura del discurso

Trivializing the Female Body: A Cross-cultural Analysis of the Representation of Women in Sports Journalism

This paper addresses the question of the representation of female athleticism in the press. By means of a corpus-assisted analysis of sports reporting of the tennis athlete Maria Sharapova in both the English and Italian press, it offers a cross-linguistic description of the stereotyped language reserved for women in sports settings. The study reveals the presence in the corpus of a discursive frame which tends to trivialize the body of female athletes. This frame emerges from two basic discourse strategies, a thematic strategy, which eroticizes the female body, and a metaphorical strategy, which conceptualizes the female athlete as child-like. The study suggests that this type of representation is motivated by sexist stereotyping related to the ideological interests of male hegemony

Resisting the Male Gaze: Feminist Responses to the Normatization of the Female Body in Western Culture

This paper attempts to present a feminist critique of the social and political promotion in Western culture of a univocal model of female corporeity imposed on women, and consequently detrimental to female subjectivity and agency. Starting from the Foucauldian position concerning social oppression determined by the disciplinary gaze of power structures, the paper discusses perspectives of resistance to the patriarchally-motivated scrutiny of the female body, and to the mass-media induced coercion of conformity to the normatized model for the female body in contemporary society

White Counselor Trainees\u27 Racial Identity and Working Alliance Perceptions

Racial identity has been theorized to significantly affect cross-racial counseling relationships (Helms, 1984, 1995). This study examined the direct impact of White racial identity of 124 counselor trainees on working alliance formation in a same-racial and cross-racial vicarious counseling analogue. Regardless of the race of the client, disintegration and reintegration attitudes negatively affected working alliance ratings, and pseudoindependent and autonomy attitudes positively affected working alliance ratings. Implications for counseling, supervision, training, and research are discussed

White Counselor Trainees\u27 Racial Identity and Working Alliance Perceptions

Racial identity has been theorized to significantly affect cross-racial counseling relationships (Helms, 1984, 1995). This study examined the direct impact of White racial identity of 124 counselor trainees on working alliance formation in a same-racial and cross-racial vicarious counseling analogue. Regardless of the race of the client, disintegration and reintegration attitudes negatively affected working alliance ratings, and pseudoindependent and autonomy attitudes positively affected working alliance ratings. Implications for counseling, supervision, training, and research are discussed

Happiness is moving up: conceptualizing emotions through motion verbs

This paper reports an investigation into the role of motion verbs in representing emotional states by means of a cross-linguistic observation of English and Italian. The study selects the emotion HAPPINESS for observation and presents empirical data which reveals the metaphorical extension of movement constructions to conceptualize emotions. It posits a Conceptual Metaphor framework which can account for the use of verbs encoding manner of physical movement to conceptualize a cognitive/psychological state of emotio

Brief Note on the Origins, Evolution, and Meaning of the Qualitative Research Concept Thick Description

The origins, cross-disciplinary evolution, and definition of “thick description” are reviewed. Despite its frequent use in the qualitative literature, the concept of “thick description” is often confusing to researchers at all levels. The roots of this confusion are explored and examples of “thick description” are provided. The article closes with guidelines for presenting “thick description” in written reports

African American and European American Therapists’ Experiences of Addressing Race in Cross-Racial Psychotherapy Dyads

Using Consensual Qualitative Research, 12 licensed psychologists’ overall experiences addressing race in psychotherapy were investigated, as were their experiences addressing race in a specific cross-racial therapy dyad. Results indicated that only African American psychologists reported routinely addressing race with clients of color or when race was part of a client’s presenting concern. European American psychologists indicated that they would address race if clients raised the topic, and some reported that they did not normally address race with racially different clients. When discussing a specific cross-racial dyad, African American therapists more often than European American therapists addressed race because they perceived client discomfort. Only European American therapists reported feeling uncomfortable addressing race, but therapists of both races perceived that such discussions had positive effects

A Cautious Alliance: The Psychobiographer’s Relationship with Her/His Subject

Psychobiography has been a topical area and an applied research specialty in psychology since Freud’s (1910/1989) influential psychoanalytic psychobiography of Leonardo da Vinci. Throughout the last century, psychobiographers have emphasized the importance of anchoring interpretations of life histories in established psychological theories and rigorous historiographic research methods. One topical area receiving less attention in psychobiography is the critical relationship between the psychobiographer and her or his subject as it relates to the process of psychobiographical writing. The present article explores the phenomenology and challenges of this relationship in order to ultimately propose practical strategies for navigating countertransference issues throughout the subject selection, research and publication phases of psychobiography. Freud’s psychobiography of Leonardo da Vinci is used as a model of the stages of psychobiography, the evolution of the psychobiographer-subject relationship, and the challenges of countertransference

Bobby Fischer in Socio-Cultural Perspective: Application of Hiller’s (2011) Multi-Layered Chronological Chart Methodology

This article presents a case study application of Hiller’s (2011) Multi - Layered Chronological Chart (MLCC) methodology to the life story of former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer. Designed for use in qualitative biographical studies, the MLCC is adapted here for psychobiographical research. In 1972, Fischer became an American Cold War hero as he wrestled the World Chess Championship from a half century of Soviet domination. His rapid rise to world fame was followed by infamy as Fischer abandoned competitive chess, grew increasingly Anti - Semitic and Anti - American, became a fugitive from U.S. justice, and died in relative isolation in Reykjavik, Iceland. Fischer remains one of the more enigmatic personalities of the 20th century and many questions remain regarding his psychological health. The MLCC method is used to contextualize Fischer’s life in nine key topical domains across five developmental life stages. The value of the MLCC methodology to psychobiographical research is highlighted and suggestions for advancing this methodology are put forth