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Psychological Concepts (psychological + concept)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	40%

Selected Abstracts

Families of Origin, Foster Care Experience, and the Transition to Adulthood

JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009
Donna Dea Holland
ABSTRACT The rising number of young adults transitioning to adulthood from the foster care system has been a focus of prior research. The current study explored foster care youths transitions to adulthood to identify factors that contribute to or inhibit prosocial adult outcomes. Structured data derived from interviews with foster care-experienced adults and child welfare professionals as well as focus groups with foster care-experienced adults and foster parents were analyzed using content analysis to examine the transition to adulthood from foster care. Positive or negative life outcomes resulted from two key mechanisms: a) issues related to family of origin (inadequate parenting, abuse); and b) foster care experiences (including a pattern of "drift"). We explore disidentification, a new social psychological concept. Throughout, key players provide policy recommendations for the child welfare system. [source]

Theorizing Flow and Media Enjoyment as Cognitive Synchronization of Attentional and Reward Networks

COMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 4 2009
René Weber
This article reconceptualizes the psychological concept of "flow" as it pertains to media entertainment. Our goal is to advance flow theory in ways that highlight the necessity of reliable and valid operationalization. We posit flow as a discrete, energetically optimized, and gratifying experience resulting from a cognitive synchronization of specific attentional and reward networks under condition of balance between challenge and skill. We identify video-game play as a context in which flow is likely to occur, and where we can observe our neurophysiological conceptualization of flow using measurement techniques (functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]) without disrupting the experiential state. After presenting preliminary evidence consistent with our synchronization theory of flow, we suggest ways to advance this research. [source]

Distinguishing the effects of beliefs and preconditions: the folk psychology of goals and actions

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2005
Ann Boonzaier
Two studies examined lay people's understanding of goals and intentional actions, which are key concepts in folk psychology. The studies show how predictions of goals and actions are affected by actors' beliefs about their abilities and their actual possession of the preconditions required for the actions. In some conditions, the beliefs and the preconditions were contradictory. Actors' beliefs about their abilities shaped observers' goal ascriptions, whereas actual preconditions dominated predictions about action accomplishment. Participants judged the relationship between goals and actions to be stronger when preconditions were present. Participants judged that neither beliefs nor preconditions were necessary for the actor to have action fantasies. These studies clarify how folk psychological concepts of desires, beliefs, and preconditions relate to each other and how they relate to attributions of goals and actions. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Managerial ability , a review of its basis and potential improvement using psychological concepts

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2001
P.L. Nuthall
Abstract Achieving an appropriate resource allocation structure usually revolves around the farm manager. His or her ability is crucial to success. Yet, most farmers learn by experience and/or through various courses that concentrate on technical, production economic and related aspects. Putting more effort into understanding the components of managerial ability and how a managers' ability to perform well in each component might be improved is well overdue. As psychology is the study of people and their actions it is the obvious discipline to turn to for assistance. This paper contains a review of the psychology of decision making from a farm management perspective, outlines what psychology offers for changing a person's attributes, and considers the structure of a research programme aimed at developing methods for improving individual's managerial ability. [source]

Divine Unity and the Divided Self: Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian Theology in its Psychological Context

MODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 4 2002
Michel René Barnes
In the last hundred years Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian theology has received a substantial amount of attention. Unfortunately, it has been appropriated because of its perceived psychological content,so much so that Gregory's Trinitarian theology becomes re,stated as the Trinity as "personal relationship" or as "locating consciousness(es) in the Trinity." To be sure, a knowledge of Gregory's psychology reveals its role in his Trinitarian theology; however, it also makes clear that personal relationship or consciousness are not important, substantial psychological concepts in the way that they are often taken to be by contemporary interpreters. Rather, Gregory's psychology takes its fundamental shape from a concern for the integrity of the will in its action. [source]