Latin American Microentrepreneurs: Trajectories and Meanings about Informal Work

Latin America has suffered for many years deep economic, political, and social problems that have led to high levels of unemployment. Therefore, microentrepreneurship has been a way out of these precarious economic systems. This research presents an interpretative hermeneutic analysis of the meaning of work for microentrepreneurs in the metropolitan region of Lima, Peru. The qualitative naturalistic methodology was used and data were obtained through 24 interviews with microentrepreneurs according to inclusion criteria such as: located in the metropolitan region of Lima (divided into 4 regions: A, B, C, and D), more than 5 years of experience, more than 25 years of age, university level of study and having had a formal job. The data were processed through ATLAS.ti9, which allowed us to analyze the discourses of the microentrepreneurs. The main findings show the following emerging categories: Motivation for entrepreneurship, Advantages of self-employment, relationship with stakeholders or interest groups, and family involvement in the business. It is concluded that Latin American microentrepreneurs associate entrepreneurship as an opportunity to improve their quality of life and establish relationships with stakeholders, with the family playing a key role in the success or failure of the business.

Alcohol Hangover and Multitasking: Effects on Mood, Cognitive Performance, Stress Reactivity, and Perceived Effort

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of hangover on mood, multitasking ability, and psychological stress reactivity to cognitive demand. Using a crossover design and semi-naturalistic methodology, 25 participants attended the laboratory in the morning following a night of (i) alcohol abstinence and (ii) alcohol self-administration during a typical night out (with order counterbalanced across participants). They completed a four-module multitasking framework (MTF, a widely used laboratory stressor) and a battery of questionnaires assessing mood, hangover symptom severity, and previous night’s sleep. The effects of the MTF on mood and perceived workload were also assessed. Participants in the hangover condition reported significantly lower alertness and contentment coupled with a higher mental fatigue and anxiety. Multitasking ability was also significantly impaired in the hangover condition. Completion of the cognitive stressor increased reported levels of mental demand, effort, and frustration, and decreased perceived level of performance. MTF completion did not differentially affect mood. Lastly, participants rated their sleep as significantly worse during the night prior to the hangover compared with the control condition. These findings confirm the negative cognitive and mood effects of hangover on mood. They also demonstrate that hangover is associated with greater perceived effort during task performance.

Reduction: The Solution to Mind Representation?

Chomsky is an evolutionary figure in linguistics. His greatest contribution lies in transformational generative grammar, which put an end to the leading position structuralism had held in language for more than 30 years. His naturalistic methodology has greatly influenced the research of both linguistics and psychology, and he is also considered to be the first to study language from the cognitive perspective. He insists on a naturalistic methodology; therefore, he was even considered by some to be a physicalist. However, this is not the case. On the contrary, TGG, as a critique of the behaviorist view of language, is intertwined with a critique of physicalism. On the one hand, he thinks the mind, like chemical elements and electrons, can be approached from a third-person perspective; on the other hand, he again admits there exists consciousness, which can be merely approached in terms of a first-person authority, which, therefore, is a fatal challenge to his core theory. Now there remains a new solution to this dilemma, that is, to admit that the mind is a special natural phenomenon with two means of existence: one is involved in physical aspects with the brain, and the other is concerned with something mental, with the former approached by a third-person perspective and the latter better researched via a first-person authority.

Contemporary Methodological Perspectives in Educational Research on ‘Teachers’ practice’: Assumptions and Shortcomings for ‘Effective Practices’

In the context of the major influence that ‘effectiveness’ is having internationally, paper studies the contemporary methodological perspectives in educational research when considering teachers’ practice. It shows that current trends can be boiled down to: (1) naturalistic methodology, (2) descriptive methodology, and (3) the nonmethodological solution. It states two main conclusions: first, there is a neat continuity with traditional methodologies, which were in decline long ago; second, contemporary perspectives in educational research fail to provide a consistent methodological model for ‘effective practices’. The author finally draws some conclusions and makes some suggestions for the further development of methodology in educational research and teachers’ practice. This study is noteworthy for teachers’ practice, collaborations and partnerships, and also for the relationship amongst research/practice/policy, which is at the core of the implementation of educational systems.

Constructionism as Non-naturalism

Philosophical constructionism is far from being relativistic. This chapter will argue that it does not have to be naturalistic either. The discussion begins with a consideration of a strange predicament in which contemporary science seems to be caught. On the one hand, science holds a firm and reasonable commitment to a healthy naturalistic methodology, according to which explanations of natural phenomena should never overstep the limits of the natural itself. On the other hand, contemporary science is also inextricably and now inevitably dependent on ever more complex technologies, especially Information and Communication Technologies, which it exploits as well as fosters. Yet such technologies are increasingly ‘artificializing’ or ‘denaturalizing’ the world, human experiences, and interactions, as well as what qualifies as real. The search for the ultimate explanation of the natural seems to rely upon, and promote, the development of the artificial, seen here as an instantiation of the non-natural. In this chapter, I shall try and find a way out of this apparently strange predicament. I shall argue that the naturalization of our knowledge of the world is either philosophically trivial (naturalism as anti-supernaturalism and anti-preternaturalism), or mistaken (naturalism as anti-constructionism).

Film, Art, and the Third Culture

In this article, I reply to the eleven commentaries on Film, Art, and the Third Culture gathered here, organizing my responses thematically and seeking to find points of similarity and difference among the commentators as well as with my own perspective. I address arguments on embodied simulation; the analogy between films and dreams; aesthetic experience and the “expansion” of ordinary experience; the relationships between culture and cognition and between fiction and emotion; theories of the extended mind and of niche construction; the place of neuroscience in aesthetics; and the relationship between naturalism and normativity. I conclude with some reflections on naturalistic methodology.

Detection of New Motifs Properties in Biodata

Biodata are rich of information. Knowing the properties of biological sequence can be valuable in analyzing data and making appropriate conclusions. This research applied naturalistic methodology to investigate the structural properties of biological sequences (i.e., DNA). The research implemented in the field of motif finding. Two new motifs properties were discovered named identical neighbors and adjacent neighbors. The analysis is done in different situations of background frequency and motif model, using distinctive real data set of varied data size. The analysis demonstrated the strong existence of the properties. Exploiting of these properties considers significant steps towards developing powerful algorithms in molecular biology.

Getting Real: A Naturalistic Methodology for Using Smartphones to Collect Mediated Communications

This paper contributes an intentionally naturalistic methodology using smartphone logging technology to study communications in the wild. Smartphone logging can provide tremendous access to communications data from real environments. However, researchers must consider how it is employed to preserve naturalistic behaviors. Nine considerations are presented to this end. We also provide a description of a naturalistic logging approach that has been applied successfully to collecting mediated communications from iPhones. The methodology was designed to intentionally decrease reactivity and resulted in data that were more accurate than self-reports. Example analyses are also provided to show how data collected can be analyzed to establish empirical patterns and identify user differences. Smartphone logging technologies offer flexible capabilities to enhance access to real communications data, but methodologies employing these techniques must be designed appropriately to avoid provoking naturally occurring behaviors. Functionally, this methodology can be applied to establish empirical patterns and test specific hypotheses within the field of HCI research. Topically, this methodology can be applied to domains interested in understanding mediated communications such as mobile content and systems design, teamwork, and social networks.