Self-as-Subject for Doctoral Research

This chapter presents reflections on the use of self-as-subject research within doctoral education as a pathway to explore meaning of study phenomena to uncover new knowledge from the individual of the self. Knowledge is contextual and discoverable from within this rich internal experience of the researcher-participant and extant and contemporary perspectives are presented to illustrate the importance and appropriateness of the selection of self-as-subject research methods including autoethnography and heuristic inquiry for doctoral-level research. The importance of the relational aspects of the doctoral researcher and doctoral research supervisor is briefly considered as well as contextual and institutional aspects necessary to inform doctoral researchers who may choose these methods of inquiry.

„W półsłowa” i „w półdźwięku”… O relacji Zygmunta Krasińskiego i Fryderyka Chopina

The article presents the relationship between Frédéric Chopin and Zygmunt Krasiński both on the biographical level and in the relationship between the word and the sound that Krasiński often wrote about in his letters. A special expression of the dialogue between poetry and music described by the poet are Chopin’s compositions to the words of poets contemporary to him, which is especially true about the words of the motto from Krasiński’s poem Ostatni (The last poem). It is extraordinary in the context of Chopin’s songs as it is not only a musical illustration, but also a sophisticated interpretation of the text through music. The attempts to present poetic content through musical notation presented in the article lead to the conclusion about Chopin as a conscious recipient of a literary work who, like Krasiński, saw in the symbiosis of word and sound the possibility for expressing internal experience.

Aristotle and Aristoxenus on Effort

The discussions of conatus – force, tendency, effort, and striving – in early modern metaphysics have roots in Aristotle’s understanding of life as an internal experience of living force. This paper examines the ways that Spinoza’s conatus is consonant with Aristotle on effort. By tracking effort from his psychology and ethics to aesthetics, I show there is a conatus at the heart of the activity of the ψυχή that involves an intensification of power in a way which anticipates many of the central insights of early modern and 20th century European philosophy. The first section outlines how Aristotle’s developmental conception of the soul as geometrically ordered lays the foundation for his understanding of effort. The developmental series of powers of the soul are analogous to the series of shapes in mathematics. The second section links the striving of the soul to the gradual acquisition of virtues as a directed activity unifying multiplicity. The third examines the paradigm of self-awareness that Aristotelian effort involves. In the final section I show how ancient Greek theories of music were founded on the experience of striving. The “nature” of music is defined by Aristoxenus, and Theophrastus, in relation to the passion and intentionality of the soul. The geometrical order, as a synthesis of elements in geometry, music, or ethics, is a generative process in which past elements are retained and reintegrated in later stages of development. It requires effort to think geometrically, and the progress of knowledge itself is an integral aspect of all effort. Effort is the lived and self-aware cause which, moving step by step in an orderly and deliberate way, grows and advances upon itself. For both Spinoza and Aristotle, effort is the immanent intelligence which accomplishes what is in the purview of its understanding. Thus, will, in this conception of effort, is not something we already possess innately, but emerges gradually by an effort aimed at improvement.

THE USE OF THE PHENOMENON OF SYNESTHESIA IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MNEMONIC TECHNIQUES BY STUDENTS

Рассматривается проблема разработки и апробации комплекса мнемотехнических приемов «Синестет» в рамках внедрения в образовательный процесс школ и вузов учебного курса «Основы мнемотехники». Проблема обучения мнемотехникам является актуальной для отечественной и зарубежной психолого-педагогической науки и образовательной практики, так как воспроизведение большого количества учебной (научной) информации требует использования ресурсов памяти обучающихся, а на фоне имеющегося дефицита специальных методик и техник запоминания данный процесс становится неэффективным. Теоретической основой исследования являются работы в области нейропсихологии, психофизиологии, нейропедагогики, нейродидактики. Особое внимание уделено изучению феномена синестезии. Результатом внедрения комплекса мнемотехнических приемов «Синестет» является развитие у обучающихся умения и готовности активизировать визуальную, аудиальную и кинестетическую память при восприятии, сохранении, переработке и воспроизведении учебной информации. Высокие результаты достигают обучающиеся, которые проявляют творческую активность и создают персональные системы более рациональной работы памяти на основе учета особенностей функционирования собственной модальности внутреннего опыта (репрезентативной системы). The article examines the problem of developing and testing the complex of mnemonic techniques «Synesthete» within the framework of introducing the training course «Fundamentals of mnemonics» into the educational process of schools and universities. The problem of teaching mnemonic technicians is relevant for domestic and foreign psychological and pedagogical science and educational practice, since the reproduction of a large amount of educational (scientific) information requires the use of students’ memory resources, and against the background of the existing shortage of special methods and techniques of memorization, this process becomes ineffective. The theoretical basis of the research is work in the field of neuropsychology, psychophysiology, neuropedagogy, neurodidactics. Particular attention is paid to the study of the phenomenon of synesthesia. The results of the use of this complex is the development of students – the ability and willingness to activate visual, auditory and kinesthetic memory in the perception, preservation, processing and reproduction of educational information. High results are achieved by students who are creative and create their own systems for more rational work of memory, based on taking into account their own neuropsychological characteristics – the modality of internal experience. The «Synesthete» complex complements and promotes the development of the main methods of mnemonics, such as: the method of associative connections; the method of «Places» for writing texts; eidotechnics; the method of memorizing numerical information and mathematical (chemical, physical) formulas, historical dates; the method of memorizing foreign words.

The Strasbourg Visual Scale: A Novel Method to Assess Visual Hallucinations

The experience of oneself in the world is based on sensory afferences, enabling us to reach a first-perspective perception of our environment and to differentiate oneself from the world. Visual hallucinations may arise from a difficulty in differentiating one's own mental imagery from externally-induced perceptions. To specify the relationship between hallucinations and the disorders of the self, we need to understand the mechanisms of hallucinations. However, visual hallucinations are often under reported in individuals with psychosis, who sometimes appear to experience difficulties describing them. We developed the “Strasbourg Visual Scale (SVS),” a novel computerized tool that allows us to explore and capture the subjective experience of visual hallucinations by circumventing the difficulties associated with verbal descriptions. This scale reconstructs the hallucinated image of the participants by presenting distinct physical properties of visual information, step-by-step to help them communicate their internal experience. The strategy that underlies the SVS is to present a sequence of images to the participants whose choice at each step provides a feedback toward re-creating the internal image held by them. The SVS displays simple images on a computer screen that provide choices for the participants. Each step focuses on one physical property of an image, and the successive choices made by the participants help them to progressively build an image close to his/her hallucination, similar to the tools commonly used to generate facial composites. The SVS was constructed based on our knowledge of the visual pathways leading to an integrated perception of our environment. We discuss the rationale for the successive steps of the scale, and to which extent it could complement existing scales.

Managerial experience, fixed asset, and capital structure

This study empirically investigates the effect of managerial experience on capital structure and the role of fixed assets as the moderating variable in this relationship. Our research sample is all firms in the infrastructure, utilities, and transportation sectors listed at the Indonesian Stock Exchange in 2014-2018 based on the purposive sampling method. We analyze the research data with the ordinary least square (OLS) method. The results of our regression analysis show that managerial experience negatively affects capital structure. However, we find that fixed assets do not moderate the relationship between managerial experience and capital structure. Further analysis indicates that fixed assets moderate the relationship between managerial experience (MANXEP) and capital structure when MANEXP is measured with internal experience but not with the external one. Besides, the relationship between managerial experience and capital structure is significant when the fixed asset ratio is moderate or high. Overall, these findings indicate that studies on the effects of top managers/ CEOs’ characteristics on firms’ policies or performance should obtain and analyze more detailed measures of the CEOs’ characteristics or the context variables.

Die räumliche Sprache der Erfahrung. Die innere Zeit und der innere Raum

This investigation addresses the internal experience as a spatial phenomenon. Ascertaining the difference between internal and external experience as a space metaphor leads to the question of the source of the space metaphors in principle. The analogy between time and space and the space metaphors in Husserl’s conception of time are considered. The question of the temporality of consciousness, evidence, and internal experience are brought to the fore by comparing Brentano’s and Husserl’s conceptions. The difference between the direct and indirect modes of consciousness by Brentano, his conception of time as the boundary in the continuum, and his concept of the proteraesthesis proves to be relevant for the concept of internal experience as a spatial phenomenon. The essay calls in question the self-sufficiency of time-experience and the traditional correspondence of time to the internal experience and of space to the external one. The relation of the Here/There- and Now/Then-experience is discussed. I intend to elucidate the experience of boundary as a primary internal experience from which the space-experience arises. In its turn the boundary-consciousness has its origin in the differentiation-experience. In the latter there is no time, the internal one included, but there is a boundary-experience as a primary and indirect experience. Time is s shadow of space; it originates from the manifold of human spaces.Esta investigación aborda la experiencia interna como un fenómeno espacial. Determinar la diferencia entre la experiencia interna y externa como una metáfora del espacio conduce a la cuestión de la fuente de las, en principio, metáforas espaciales. Aquí se atiende la analogía entre el tiempo y el espacio y las metáforas espaciales en la concepción del tiempo de Husserl. Se ponen de relieve la cuestión de la temporalidad de la conciencia, la evidencia y la experiencia interna, comparando las concepciones de Brentano y Husserl. La diferencia entre los modos de conciencia directos e indirectos de Brentano, su concepción del tiempo como el límite en el continuo, y su concepto de la proteroestesis, son relevantes para el concepto de experiencia interna como un fenómeno espacial. El ensayo cuestiona la autosuficiencia de la experiencia del tiempo y la correspondencia tradicional del tiempo con la experiencia interna y del espacio con la externa. Se discute la relación de la experiencia Aquí/Ahí y de la experiencia Ahora/Luego. Mi in-tención es esclarecer la experiencia de la frontera como una experiencia interna primaria de la cual surge la experiencia espacial. A su vez, la con-ciencia de frontera tiene su origen en la experiencia de diferenciación. En esta último no hay tiempo —incluso el interno—, pero hay una experiencia límite como experiencia primaria e indi-recta. El tiempo es la sombra del espacio; se origina en la multiplicidad de espacios humanos..

Being an imposter: Growing Out of Impostership

Imposter syndrome is the fear of being discovered as an intellectual fraud. It is an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be. It lowers a person’s inner self-confidence, self-esteem that impedes work performance and this phenomenon is more prevalent among medical students. However, talking openly about it with peers, rooting positive thoughts, and building confidence help us to the appropriate reality of our situation and counter our negative self-talk.

Network Analysis of Mindfulness Facets, Affect, Compassion, and Distress

Objectives Mindfulness, positive affect, and compassion may protect against psychological distress but there is lack of understanding about the ways in which these factors are linked to mental health. Network analysis is a statistical method used to investigate complex associations among constructs in a single network and is particularly suitable for this purpose. The aim of this study was to explore how mindfulness facets, affect, and compassion were linked to psychological distress using network analysis. Methods The sample (n = 400) included equal numbers from general and student populations who completed measures of five mindfulness facets, compassion, positive and negative affect, depression, anxiety, and stress. Network analysis was used to explore the direct associations between these variables. Results Compassion was directly related to positive affect, which in turn was strongly and inversely related to depression and positively related to the observing and describing facets of mindfulness. The non-judgment facet of mindfulness was strongly and inversely related to negative affect, anxiety, and depression, while non-reactivity and acting with awareness were inversely associated with stress and anxiety, respectively. Strong associations were found between all distress variables. Conclusions The present network analysis highlights the strong link between compassion and positive affect and suggests that observing and describing the world through the lens of compassion may enhance resilience to depression. Taking a non-judging and non-reacting stance toward internal experience while acting with awareness may protect against psychological distress. Applicability of these findings can be examined in experimental studies aiming to prevent distress and enhance psychological well-being.

Pump, person and Parfit: why the constitutive heart matters

The historical view of the heart as a source and repository of characteristics of individual persons remains prevalent in speech and literature. A more recent scientific view regards the heart as just a replaceable mechanical device, supporting a hydraulic system (the pump-view). To accept the pump-view is to reduce the historical view of the heart, and reference to it, to metaphor. To address whether this conclusion is justified, this paper investigates what constitutes an individual person over time and whether the heart has any role in that constitution. While some physical continuity may be necessary, most philosophers agree that our ‘personal identity’ is conferred through the persistence of ‘psychological’ characteristics predominantly through memory. Memory is constituted through the interplay of external and internal sensory experience—to which the heart is a major contributor. On scientific grounds alone this sensory role for the heart makes the pump-view incomplete. If our persistence as a person reflects the totality of experience codified through memory, and the heart is a central source of the internal component of that experience, then the pump-view is also misleading since the heart plays some constitutive role. More widely, if what fundamentally matters for our survival as persons is just psychological continuity, then the pump-view is irrelevant. While a ‘supportive heart’ may be necessary for continued embodiment, it is on the constitutive role of the heart, as part of a unique internal experience, that our individuation as persons depends.