Affective Scaffoldings as Habits: A Pragmatist Approach

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.629046 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Laura Candiotto ◽

Roberta Dreon

Keyword(s):

John Dewey ◽

Positive Role ◽

Human Conduct ◽

Affective Behaviors ◽

Human Sensibility ◽

Habitual Behavior ◽

Key Features

In this paper, we provide a pragmatist conceptualization of affective habits as relatively flexible ways of channeling affectivity. Our proposal, grounded in a conception of sensibility and habits derived from John Dewey, suggests understanding affective scaffoldings in a novel and broader sense by re-orienting the debate from objects to interactions. We claim that habits play a positive role in supporting and orienting human sensibility, allowing us to avoid any residue of dualism between internalist and externalist conceptions of affectivity. We provide pragmatist tools for understanding the environment's role in shaping our feelings, emotions, moods, and affective behaviors. However, we contend that in addition to environment, the continuous and recursive affective transaction between agent and environment (both natural and cultural) are also crucially involved. We claim that habits are transformative, which is especially evident when we consider that emotions are often the result of a crisis in habitual behavior and successively play a role in prompting changes of habits. The final upshot is a conceptualization of affective habits as pervasive tools for feelings that scaffold human conduct as well as key features in the transformation of behaviors.

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Reconstructive Habits: John Dewey on Human Functioning

ETHICS IN PROGRESS ◽

10.14746/eip.2018.1.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 4-24

Author(s):

David Jaitner

Keyword(s):

John Dewey ◽

Human Action ◽

Human Organism ◽

Basic Category ◽

Sensory Stimuli ◽

Stimulus Response ◽

Leading Role ◽

Human Conduct ◽

Human Functioning ◽

Key Concepts

The academic strife to parse, investigate and adjust human functioning establishes varieties of at least three key concepts: behavior, action, activity. Depending on the general approach chosen, human functioning is therefore defined in a certain way and in a certain understanding of freedom. Within this paper, the pragmatist considerations of John Dewey (1859-1952) offer a sophisticatedly formulated theory of human functioning that, undoubtedly, takes action-theoretical paths but formulates underlying assumptions in a significantly unusual way. The main focus is to outline the theory in such a way that clearly shows the unusual as part of the usual and the usual as part of the unusual. For this purpose, the first section defines action as the basic category of Deweyan human functioning where sensory stimuli, registering elements and motor responses play a leading role, but according to Dewey questions the today still popular model of behaviorist psychology, that positions isolated and a-cultural stimulus-response-procedures in the human organism. The second section affirms the theoretical inclusion of deliberative elements that constitute human action, but according to Dewey witnesses their substantial and rather sporadic significance in a predominantly habitual human functioning. The conclusive section outlines the possibilities and limits of transforming habitually inured patterns of human conduct by means of reconstructive habits.

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Cellular Senescence: Aging, Cancer, and Injury

Physiological Reviews ◽

10.1152/physrev.00020.2018 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 99 (2) ◽

pp. 1047-1078 ◽

Cited By ~ 85

Author(s):

Arianna Calcinotto ◽

Jaskaren Kohli ◽

Elena Zagato ◽

Laura Pellegrini ◽

Marco Demaria ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cell Cycle ◽

Cellular Senescence ◽

Defense Mechanism ◽

Tissue Remodeling ◽

Proliferating Cells ◽

Positive Role ◽

Cellular Defense ◽

Cycle Arrest ◽

Key Features

Cellular senescence is a permanent state of cell cycle arrest that occurs in proliferating cells subjected to different stresses. Senescence is, therefore, a cellular defense mechanism that prevents the cells to acquire an unnecessary damage. The senescent state is accompanied by a failure to re-enter the cell cycle in response to mitogenic stimuli, an enhanced secretory phenotype and resistance to cell death. Senescence takes place in several tissues during different physiological and pathological processes such as tissue remodeling, injury, cancer, and aging. Although senescence is one of the causative processes of aging and it is responsible of aging-related disorders, senescent cells can also play a positive role. In embryogenesis and tissue remodeling, senescent cells are required for the proper development of the embryo and tissue repair. In cancer, senescence works as a potent barrier to prevent tumorigenesis. Therefore, the identification and characterization of key features of senescence, the induction of senescence in cancer cells, or the elimination of senescent cells by pharmacological interventions in aging tissues is gaining consideration in several fields of research. Here, we describe the known key features of senescence, the cell-autonomous, and noncell-autonomous regulators of senescence, and we attempt to discuss the functional role of this fundamental process in different contexts in light of the development of novel therapeutic targets.

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Defining Habit in Psychology

10.31234/osf.io/kbpmy ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Asaf Mazar ◽

Wendy Wood

Keyword(s):

Ecological Momentary Assessment ◽

Assessment Methods ◽

Context Dependence ◽

Self Report ◽

Complete Understanding ◽

Self Reports ◽

Habitual Behavior ◽

Key Features ◽

Ecological Momentary ◽

Momentary Assessment

We review definitions of habit and evaluate how well current measures capture these definitions. Habits are context-behavior associations in memory that develop as people repeatedly experience rewards for a given action in a given context. Habitual behavior is cued directly by context and does not require supporting goals and conscious intentions. As we explain, goals are important to initiate behavior repetition and to inhibit unwanted habit performance, and in addition can be inferred from habits. To date, research has relied on self-report methods to measure habit. These measures, by themselves, may fall short of adequately testing key features of habit, such as context dependence, or dissociating habitual and non-habitual influences on behavior. By augmenting self-reports with implicit, behavioral, and ecological momentary assessment methods, researchers can gain a more complete understanding of habits and their role in shaping behavior.

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Are Three Items Sufficient to Measure Sense of Coherence?

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759/a000337 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 34 (4) ◽

pp. 229-237 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Francesca Chiesi ◽

Andrea Bonacchi ◽

Caterina Primi ◽

Alessandro Toccafondi ◽

Guido Miccinesi

Keyword(s):

Sense Of Coherence ◽

Convergent Validity ◽

Clinical Sample ◽

Clinical Samples ◽

Depression Symptoms ◽

Time Saving ◽

Positive Role ◽

Patients With Cancer ◽

Measure Sense

Abstract. The present study aimed at evaluating if the three-item sense of coherence (SOC) scale developed by Lundberg and Nystrom Peck (1995) can be effectively used for research purpose in both nonclinical and clinical samples. To provide evidence that it represents adequately the measured construct we tested its validity in a nonclinical (N = 658) and clinical sample (N = 764 patients with cancer). Results obtained in the nonclinical sample attested a positive relation of SOC – as measured by the three-item SOC scale – with Antonovsky’s 13-item and 29-item SOC scales (convergent validity), and with dispositional optimism, sense of mastery, anxiety, and depression symptoms (concurrent validity). Results obtained in the clinical sample confirmed the criterion validity of the scale attesting the positive role of SOC – as measured by the three-item SOC scale – on the person’s capacity to respond to illness and treatment. The current study provides evidence that the three-item SOC scale is a valid, low-loading, and time-saving instrument for research purposes on large sample.

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Guilty Pleasure No More

Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications ◽

10.1027/1864-1105/a000223 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 126-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Robin L. Nabi ◽

Debora Pérez Torres ◽

Abby Prestin

Keyword(s):

Stress Management ◽

Perceived Stress ◽

Media Use ◽

Well Being ◽

Breast Cancer Patients ◽

Positive Role ◽

Individual Difference Variables ◽

Relative Value ◽

Management Techniques ◽

Managing Stress

Abstract. Despite the substantial attention paid to stress management in the extant coping literature, media use has been surprisingly overlooked as a strategy worthy of close examination. Although media scholars have suggested media use may be driven by a need to relax, related research has been sporadic and, until recently, disconnected from the larger conversation about stress management. The present research aimed to determine the relative value of media use within the broader range of coping strategies. Based on surveys of both students and breast cancer patients, media use emerged as one of the most frequently selected strategies for managing stress across a range of personality and individual difference variables. Further, heavier television consumers and those with higher perceived stress were also more likely to use media for coping purposes. Finally, those who choose media for stress management reported it to be an effective tool, although perhaps not as effective as other popular strategies. This research not only documents the centrality of media use in the corpus of stress management techniques, thus highlighting the value of academic inquiry into media-based coping, but it also offers evidence supporting the positive role media use can play in promoting psychological well-being.

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