SELF Research Articles

On the Self–adjointness of the Product Operators of Two mth–Order Differential Operators on [0, +∞)

In the present paper, the self–adjointness of the product of two mth–order differential operators on [0, +∞) is studied. By means of the construction theory of self–adjoint operators and matrix computation, we obtain a sufficient and necessary condition to ensure that the product operator is self–adjoint, which extends the results in the second order case.

Theory of self-contact in Kirchhoff rods with applications to supercoiling of knotted and unknotted DNA plasmids.

There are circumstances under which it is useful to model a molecule of duplex DNA as a homogeneous, inextensible, intrinsically straight, impenetrable elastic rod of circular cross-section obeying the theory of Kirchhoff. For such rods recent research has yielded exact analytical solutions of Kirchhoff's equations of mechanical equilibrium with the effects of impenetrability taken into account, and criteria have been derived for determining whether an equilibrium configuration is stable in the sense that it gives a strict local minimum to the elastic energy. This paper contains a summary of published results on equilibrium configurations for the case in which a rod has been pre-twisted and closed to form a knot-free ring. Emphasis is placed on the way the writhe Wr of the ring, the number of its discrete points of self-contact, and the presence or absence of lines of contact, depend on the excess link, Delta Lk, which is a measure of the amount the rod was twisted before its ends were joined. Bifurcation diagrams are presented and a summary is given of the properties of the primary, secondary and tertiary branches that arise by successive bifurcations from the 'trivial branch' comprised of configurations for which the axial curve is a circle. New results are presented in the theory of equilibrium configurations of closed rods with the topology of torus knots. It is remarked that examples of equilibrium configurations of closed rods of one knot type can be obtained from examples of other knot types using methods previously employed to calculate isolas of equilibrium configurations of knot-free rings. Bifurcation diagrams are shown for supercoiled (2,3) torus knots (trefoil knots). It is observed that for sufficiently large and sufficiently small Delta Lk the minimum elastic energy configuration of a trefoil knot contains plectonemic loops with straight contact lines, although the configuration that minimizes the elastic energy of a general (2,q) torus knot over the entire range of Delta Lk has self-contact along a closed curve. As the ratio of the diameter of the rod to its length approaches zero, that contact curve becomes a circle, and there is an open interval of values of Delta Lk for which stable equilibrium configurations with such circular contact curves exist. Examples of minimum energy configurations are presented for both torus knots and catenates formed by linking two unknots.

The Theory of Self in Gestalt Therapy: Re-Establishing a Relationship Between Subjectivity and Temporality

AbstractThis article re-examines the relationship between self-other and space-time, considered central for the epistemology and theory of practice in Gestalt therapy. Rather than presuming them to be closed and unproblematic topics, this article points out contradictions and difficulties observed in the attempt to overcome traditional dichotomous thinking in psychology and psychotherapy, which has left us a heritage of individualistic and structural attitudes that we have never completely overcome. This article first proposes a restitution of classical ruptures, re-affirming that the self is neither a physical organism nor a closed figure. It then characterizes the self as a concept in Gestalt therapy's theory of subjectivity which emphasizes its incorporeal, circular, and temporal qualities. This is followed by reports of some usually forgotten aspects of temporality that are basic to theory and practice. Small fragments of the author's own practice are shared to provide a more concrete view of temporal manifestations in psychotherapy. The article is intended to be a contribution to other authors' efforts to develop unfinished issues in the theoretical basis of the Gestalt approach.

Likelihood Ratio Tests in Linear Mixed Models with One Variance Component

SummaryWe consider the problem of testing null hypotheses that include restrictions on the variance component in a linear mixed model with one variance component and we derive the finite sample and asymptotic distribution of the likelihood ratio test and the restricted likelihood ratio test. The spectral representations of the likelihood ratio test and the restricted likelihood ratio test statistics are used as the basis of efficient simulation algorithms of their null distributions. The large sample χ2 mixture approximations using the usual asymptotic theory for a null hypothesis on the boundary of the parameter space have been shown to be poor in simulation studies. Our asymptotic calculations explain these empirical results. The theory of Self and Liang applies only to linear mixed models for which the data vector can be partitioned into a large number of independent and identically distributed subvectors. One-way analysis of variance and penalized splines models illustrate the results.

Values as the Core of Personal Identity: Drawing Links between Two Theories of Self

Personal identity is an underanalyzed level of the self often regarded erroneously as too idiosyncratic for proper social psychological analysis. The two dominant theories of self, identity theory and social identity theory, mention but rarely explicate the concept of personal identity. In this paper I address this gap by making two moves, one conceptual and one empirical. First, I argue that values are a cohesive force within personal identity. Conceptualizing values as the core of one's personal identity leads toward understanding the cohesion experienced among one's various social identities. In the second, empirical move, I use measures of a key dimension along which values are arrayed (self-enhancement vs. self-transcendence) to illustrate how a values-based conception of personal identity influences the formation of a role identity. Specifically, theoretically relevant values along the self-enhancement/self-transcendence dimension are significant predictors of the volunteer identity, even when previous measures of the identity are controlled. I conclude by discussing the utility of values for studying a level of the self often considered too ideographic for sociological analysis.

Forced Medication, Patients' Rights and Values Conflicts

The philosophical positions known as libertarianism or liberalism, and paternalism or parentalism, in their application to treatment refusals are outlined. The author then discusses recent public policy governing the alleged right to refuse psychotropic medication and draws attention to conceptual issues raised by such a right. These issues include the capacity for rational choice and the way it functions as a criterion in policy about choosing to refuse, the particular set of considerations involved in evaluating the refusal of medication, the category of danger to the self which forms the basis of much recent mental health policy over involuntary treatment, and finally, alternatives to the modernist, rights-based moral and political frameworks undergirding both liberalism and paternalism. These alternatives, deriving from feminist ethics, relational individualism and narrative theories of self, are applied to the challenge of establishing a just and comprehensive policy on forced psychotropic medication.

Interactive Resonance in Work with Children and Adolescents: A theory-based concept of interpersonal relationship through play and the use of toys / Interaktionsresonanz in der Arbeit mit Kindern und Jugendlichen—Ein theoriebegründetes Konzept der interpersonellen Beziehung über Spiel und Spielzeug / La Resonancia Interactiva en el trabajo con niños y adolescentes: un concepto teórico de relación interpersonal a través del juego

Play therapists give evidence of Interactive Resonance by playing with the child and by responding to the child's play through their own playing activities on a bodily level, by verbal or nonverbal means. This enhances their capacity to be primarily supportive and encouraging and to give the child space, thus increasing the child's symbolizations on a deeper level. This concept is supported by developmental psychological theories: Stern's theory of self and the theory of attachment behavior enrich the client-centered theory of personality and of empathic interventions. They indicate how empathy and authenticity can be offered in play interactions with a child or an adolescent. Brief descriptions of how in practice the therapist reacts to the child's actions present examples of how to proceed in games with rules, role playing, fights, and setting boundaries.

The radicalized self: the impact on the self of the contested nature of the diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a relatively new disease that is difficult to diagnose. It is also a contested disease immersed in dispute about whether it is a physical or psychiatric reality. Sufferers often claim to experience not only the physical challenges of the disease, and these can be extensive, but also, initially, the anomie of suffering from a condition whose very reality is debated both in the medical and in the wider communities. Theories of self in illness emphasize how people who are diagnosed as chronically ill work hard as they seek to maintain previous, or to develop supernormal, selves. Such goals are cast in a critical light by Foucault's notion of the technologies of self in the context of circulating neo-liberal discourses. As people with CFS, lacking an uncontested medical diagnosis, search for meaningful self-identities, they resist previously available discourses to take up an alternative discourse, one that we call radicalized selves. This paper raises questions about the constraints and liberties, power and powerlessness associated with a clear and undisputed medical diagnosis. It suggests a model of the self in chronic illness that considers not only changes in body and biography but also the availability of an uncontested diagnosis.

Asynchrony: Intuitively valid and theoretically reliable

The Columbus Group definition of giftedness is considered within a wider framework of theories of self. Traditions of environmental influence on development, together with motivational drive, conceptualize the experience of children of high intellectual potential. It is argued that, as described in the definition, asynchrony represents this interaction, with implications for self‐definition. This article analyzes archival data collected on 535 high IQ children (IQ ≥ 126) at the CHIP (Children of High Intellectual Potential) Foundation (Australia). The purpose was to identify patterns of behavior that could be interpreted as evidence of asynchronous development. Five such patterns were found related to home/school contexts. These were anxiety, self‐critical, overly sensitive, easily upset and easily frustrated, with depression evident in adolescents. Although the analysis is limited and exploratory only, some further research directions are suggested.

Clerkship students' attitudes towards patients and health care personnel:Implications for medical Education

Background : The former shtdies and observations indicate that medical shtdents vary considerably in their attitudes towards patients and health care personnel. Objectives: To study the attihtde of clerkship students towards select£:d types of patient and selected types of health care personnel. Methods : A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among clerkship students. The subjects received a self­ administered questionnaire with a covering letter explaining the project and outlining terms and conditions for participation. Since twenty-one subjects did not return the questionnaire, data analysis was based on ill questionnaires. The items were 5-poinf Likert-type. The internal consistency of the items was 0.706. Factor analysis was used in order to load the individual attitudinal items into main factors. Results : There is a significant association between sex and attitudes towards medical personnel. Clerkship students showed a more positive attihtde towards acute illness than chronic illness. The clerkship students responded more positively towards the health personnel than towards the patients. The results are discussed in terms of the impact of clerkship students' attitudes on patients and health personnel. Some possible justifications for these findings are discussed. Conclusions : Developing key skills within the medical curriculum, especially communication and information technology skills are essential Key Words: medical students, ati1tvde, view, health care team, patients, iran

Bermudez on Self-Consciousness

I argue that José Luis Bermúdez has not shown that there is a paradox in our concept of self–consciousness. The deflationary theory is not a plausible theory of self–consciousness, so its paradoxicality is irrelevant. A more plausible theory, ‘the simple theory’, is not paradoxical. However, I do think there is a puzzle about the connection between self–consciousness and ‘I’–thoughts.

Crises of Relationship: Developing Relational Models for the Study of the American Renaissance

If studies of American Renaissance have been haunted, until very recently, by pervasive presence of an Emerson-ghost, signs of that haunting persist in critical replication of Emerson's possessive investment in individualism. Mystifying social and ideological origins of self, Emerson—described by Harold Bloom as our brave ghostly father '—repressed necessities of life in favor of his vision of liberatory power. But perhaps greatest blind spot in Emerson's own theory of selfhood was occluded recognition that disseminating his paradigm of personal independence depended on readers and listeners imitating example of his exemplary persona, which was predicated upon assumption that the individual can speak universal and, hence, all others.2 By focusing on moments of solitary insight in his writing, Emerson mystified intersubjective aspects of rhetorical relationship between his authoritative persona and members of his audience. According to Joyce Warren, similar omissions have characterized canonical American literature, which has, for most part, focused on individual, especially a universalized individual who is white and male. Reading beyond Emerson, we need to reconstruct what disappears in Emersonian rhetorical model—a community of interpersonal relationships that Warren locates at center of nine

Inner hybridity in the city: Toward a critique of multiculturalism

Muddled as an idea and flawed as a public policy, multiculturalism in Canada advocates conformity to a unitary culture in the public place and tolerance of diverse cultures in the private place. This tolerance of cultural heterogeneity in the sphere of the intimate is often upheld as a defining characteristic of Canadian society. Yet multiculturalism is not without criticisms. For one, multiculturalism is at odds with the desire of the children and grandchildren of the Chinese immigrants in Canada to adapt themselves to their host society, thus transforming themselves as well as the larger society. A multicultural policy that continues to hark back to the past turns a blind eye to the fierce generation and gender politics within the Chinese family. Neither does the multicultural policy square well with a more progressive social theory of self, identity, and culture that is cognizant of the duality of the psychological make‐up of human beings: that one looks backward and forward, committed to preserving roots of the past and exploring routes to the future. As such, the Canadian multicultural policy suffers in a two‐fold way: empirical and theoretical. A possible way out is to pursue a Hegelian dialectics that sees culture as an aftermath of a collision of dissimilar cultures, a kind of forced entanglement of things different We need a new urban social theory that sees integration, fusion, and hybridization—not assimilation, and not cultural pluralism—as possible and desirable outcomes. This is a completely different vision of society altogether, a kind of Utopia. We need a public policy that sees a distinct promise of the city in designing institutions and public spaces that promote hybridism in the mind, an inner deliberation, a mental turmoil—which is not afraid of confronting modern life's many moments of contradictions, ironies and paradoxes.

Self-Regulated Learning: From Self-Management to Self-Definition

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 2003, Vol 48(1), 16–18. The reviewer notes that this book (see record 2001–06817–000) provides us with a thorough overview and analysis of the emergence of theories of self regulated learning from seven different perspectives: operant, phenomenological, social cognitive, information processing, volitional, Vygotskian, and constructivist. Over the 12 years since the first edition, new light has continually been shed on our understanding of the processes students use to regulate their own behavior. The second edition helps to highlight the evolution of these understandings and, with its focus on recent research findings, serves as an up-to-date resource for serious scholars of self regulated learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

From Research to Reality: Enhancing Learning and Psycho–Social Development

This author contends that we can develop more fully the pastoral capacity of the classroom, which will also enhance learning. The writer argues that this will be better achieved by understanding the ways in which beliefs about self and learning are shaped by classroom contexts, processes and relationships. She draws on recent work on learning and intelligence, in particular ‘risk and protection theory’ and ‘theories of self, self–efficacy and goal orientation’. In the concluding sections the application of these theories in practice is worked through and a final model is formulated.

End of management and the rise of organizational democracy

Foreword: Warren Bennis. Introduction. Part One: Making a Case for the End of Management. 1 The Revolution of Self--Management and Organizational Democracy. 2 A Brief History of Management. 3 The Emerging Theory of Self--Management. 4 Management Reduces Communication, Morale, and Motivation. 5 Management Constricts Quality and Customer Service. 6 The Double Bind of Managerial Change. 7 Breaking the Hold of Hierarchy, Bureaucracy, and Autocracy. 8 Where Do We Go from Here? Part Two: A Practical Guide to Organizational Democracy. 9 Shape a Context of Values, Ethics, and Integrity. 10 Form Living, Evolving Webs of Association. 11 Develop Ubiquitous, Linking Leadership. 12 Build Innovative Self--Managing Teams. 13 Implement Streamlined, Open, Collaborative Processes. 14 Create Complex Self--Correcting Systems. 15 Integrate Strategically, and Change the Way We Change. 16 The Consequences of Organizational Democracy. Acknowledgments. The Authors. Index.

HISTORY TEXTBOOKS AS REFLECTIONS OF THE POLITICAL SELF: TURKEY (1930s AND 1990s) AND UZBEKISTAN (1990s)

Variations in the formulation of the past as an official political enterprise give significant clues to the genres of nationalism. The “state past” reveals preferences for different historical periods and different subdisciplines of history, as well as for alternative regional and international alliances.

From `the Thought is the Thinker' to `the Voice is the Speaker'

In 1890, William James provided a rich account of self in his Principles of Psychology. Over a hundred years later, Hermans and his colleagues have provided an equally rich account of self, most particularly in Hermans and Kempen's The Dialogical Self (1993). One of the key distinctions in the former work is that between the `I' and `Me', a distinction that Hermans builds on in his concept of the dialogical self. Nevertheless, there are differences between the two theories of self that are developed out of this distinction. In the present article I look closely at some of the differences between the two theories, and also look closely at Bakhtin's contribution to the development of the dialogical self. Through a careful comparison of the works of James, Bakhtin and Hermans, I try to indicate how our understanding of the self has changed over the past hundred years or so. At the same time, the comparison of some of the central ideas of these three authors provides a basis for a critical evaluation of certain aspects of Hermans' theory of the dialogical self.

Sex Differences and/in the Self: Classic Themes, Feminist Variations, Postmodern Challenges

This article examines perspectives on and intersections between two recurrent themes in the history of American psychology: sex differences and theories of self. These themes and certain connections between them are considered in three eras: early American psychology, feminist psychology coincident with the second wave of feminism, and the recent postmodern turn in psychology. A contextual analysis of parallels and contrasts among theories of sex differences and of the self in these three eras highlights problems with modernist understandings, especially with essentialist construals of gender and individualistic understandings of self. The article presents relationally defined postmodern views of gender and self, and comments on their promise for the present era of globalization and the consequent increasing attention to interconnections among people.

Singular instantons in higher derivative theories

We study the Hawking-Turok (HT) instanton solutions which have been employed to describe the creation of an open inflationary universe, in the context of higher derivative theories. We consider the effects of adding quadratic and cubic terms of the forms $\alpha R^{2}$ and $\beta R^{3}$ to the gravitational action. Using a conformal transformation to convert the higher derivative theories into theories of self interacting scalar fields minimally coupled to Einstein gravity, we argue that the cubic term represents a generic perturbation of the polynomial type to the action and obtain the conditions on the parameters of these theories for the existence of singular and non-singular instanton solutions. We find that, relative to the quadratic case, there are significant changes in the nature of the constraints on the parameters for the existence of these instantons, once cubic (and higher order perturbations) are added to the action.