Personality and thinking style in different creative domains.

The crucial aspect of creativity in both personality and thinking style may be the ability or tendency to change within personality traits, such as, for example, moving between extraversion and introversion, and within thinking styles, such as moving between heuristic and algorithmic thinking. Such mobility is characteristic of the “complex” personality. On personality and thinking style tests, complexity would be expected to manifest itself in greater variability of responses to items measuring the same overall trait. This issue was investigated with 158 visual art, 136 music, and 309 psychology students. Art students (visual art and music students) showed greater complexity in conscientiousness than psychology and music students, respectively. Visual art students further showed a greater overall complexity (mean complexities across personality and thinking style) than psychology students did. A more traditional analysis revealed that visual art students were more neurotic, more open to experience and more inclined to heuristic thinking than psychology students do, whereas music students were more extraverted and more agreeable than visual art students were, and more inclined to heuristic thinking than psychology students were. Thus, it was possible to distinguish visual art students from music and psychology students by their personality and thinking style. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Engineering psychology in the United States.

Describes the origins and history of engineering psychology noting the successes: (1) Explosive expansion and growth, (2) a wide range of research efforts and engineering applications, (3) interest and acceptance by engineering associates, (4) an increasing number of graduate training programs in departments of psychology as well as schools of engineering, and (5) general benefits to psychology as a science and profession. The deficiencies in engineering psychology are attributed to too great an involvement between art and science. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional responses to art: From collation and arousal to cognition and emotion.

The study of emotional responses to art has remained curiously detached from the psychology of emotions. Historically, the leading tradition has been Daniel Berlyne's psychobiological model, embodied by the "new experimental aesthetics" movement of the 1970s. That theory explained hedonic qualities of art by referring to arousal-modifying "collative properties" of art, such as complexity, novelty, uncertainty, and conflict. Berlyne's influence on the experimental study of aesthetics has been enormous, largely for the better but also for the worse. Berlyne's suspicion of cognitive psychology led to an unproductive perseveration on arousal as the mechanism of "aesthetic responses." This article describes how appraisal theories of emotion inform the study of aesthetics. Appraisal theories make new predictions about emotional responses to art, expand the domain of aesthetic emotions beyond positive emotions such as interest and enjoyment, inform other theories (e.g., prototypicality models), and reinterpret past findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rudolf Julius Arnheim (1904-2007).

Presents an obituary for Rudolf Julius Arnheim. Arnheim died on June 9, 2007, in Anne Arbor, Michigan, at the age of 102. His wife (née Mary Frame) died in 1999. He is survived by his stepdaughter Margaret Nettinga, of the Netherlands, two grandchildren, and a great-grandchild. His life spanned the social cataclysms that swept the last century. Of Jewish descent, he first fled the Nazis and then the Italian fascists before he came to America from England in 1940. On this continent, his skills as a scholar and teacher brought him much success. He applied his formidable knowledge of philosophy, literature, art history, and perceptual psychology to central questions about the visual arts. His work has fundamentally influenced practitioners in many related fields: the psychology of art, art history, aesthetics, art education, and the study of popular culture. His books and essays are known around the globe. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An investigation into the ways in which art is taught in English reception classes.

Experimentally based research within developmental psychology has suggested that the way children are taught art shapes their artistic growth. Thus, researchers have begun to acknowledge the importance of studying the wider contexts that shape children's experiences of art. This paper builds on previous educational policy based research by examining how art is taught in English Primary Schools. Ethnographic methods informed by social constructionism are used to investigate the ways in which Reception teachers work with 4–5 year old children during art lessons held in two English primary schools. Reflexive ethnography and a synthesis approach to discourse analysis are utilized to examine (a) the positions adopted by teachers as they introduce an art activity and (b) wider art values drawn upon to conceptualize “good” art. It is argued that teachers adopt differing approaches which promote realistic art. This is discussed in relation to curriculum policy and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are student preferences really different from those of professionals? A comment on Babarik.

Criticizes P. Babarik's (1980) survey of undergraduates' preferences and aversions in psychology: his (1) failure to consider sources of influence that might affect the correlation between student and professional preferences; (2) definition of liberal education; and (3) charge that frequent student choice of history, art, and religion in psychology reflect disinterest in liberal education. It is concluded, in contrast to Babarik's conclusions, that there is not significant dissonance between professional and student preferences. (French abstract) (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rudolf Arnheim's contribution to Gestalt psychology.

Gestalt psychology was the foundation of Rudolf Arnheim's approach to art. Reviewing Arnheim's long and productive career, it becomes useful to assess his relationship to the evolving theory. By paying special attention to the issues of (1) perceptual abstraction and visual thinking, (2) perceptual dynamics and expression, and (3) perceptual "goodness" and beauty, it can be seen the degree to which Arnheim actually altered the basis of the general theory of Gestalt psychology, affirming the centrality of art in its purview. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary for Rudolf Arnheim (1904-2007).

Presents an obituary for Rudolf Arnheim. That Rudi was going to become a psychologist was not preordained, let alone that he would become the most important psychologist of art of the 20th century. Indeed, his father was a manufacturer of pianos and the expectation was that Rudi would enter the family business. Recoiling at this preordination, Rudi attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philosophy, psychology, music, and art. He had the good fortune to work with Max Wertheimer, perhaps the most gifted and imaginative of the three founders of Gestalt psychology. Rudi's doctoral dissertation, submitted in 1928 when he was but 24, was an empirical study of what could be learned from handwriting analysis. Thus Rudi began a lifelong fascination with how one perceived the visual world and how the act of perception is infused with--and inseparable from--cognition and the making of meaning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section: In search of a double paradigm.

The goal of this special section was to publish articles that would speak to two audiences simultaneously—health psychologists with an interest in adult development and aging and geropsychologists with an interest in health psychology. The three articles that were included were each quite different in conceptualization and design. They included a targeted longitudinal study of samples of hypertensive and normotensive patients, a large national population survey, and a targeted pair of experiments. These articles add to a growing literature in health psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Arnold P. Goldstein (1933-2002).

Reports the death of Arnold P. Goldstein (1933-2002) and notes his contributions in several fields, including psychology education, psychotherapy, the effects of social skills training and other approaches to aggression replacement with juvenile delinquents, prison inmates, and violent mentally ill patients. Goldstein believed completely in the connection between the art and science of psychotherapy and thought all psychologists were responsible for improving the practice of psychology through research. His great passion for the 25 yrs before his death was to create safer schools and communities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

论声乐演唱及教学中表现欲望的培养

声乐表演是表现性的艺术活动,表现欲望是主体心理面对歌唱活动所持有的一种积极参与心态。对表现欲望的培养利于表演者更为深入地理解艺术内涵、调节自身紧张的情绪,并且可以给声乐教学创造积极的能动作用。声乐演唱及教学过程中对表现欲望的激发和培养可以通过对审美主体素质的提高、对审美客体上的优化、对适宜教学环境的创新三个方面来实现。     

An experiential account of the psychology of art.

In this article, the authors consider the potential contribution of the concept “lived experience” to the psychology of art. From the perspective of “lived experience,” the self is always already engaged and comes to every situation with personal interests and ideologies, and the art object is, among other things, understood as “speaking to” or addressing interests and ideologies. This view situates art objects at the center of a variety of sense-making processes: embodied, felt, emotional, intellectual, and intersubjective. It also makes changes in identity that come about through aesthetic experience central to our analysis. In considering the potential of “lived experience,” the authors will examine the associated experiences of viewing and making art. The authors will argue that examining these experiences would benefit from a qualitative methodology and a focus on selfhood. The authors sketch the outlines of such an approach by examining relevant work from Dewey, Vygotsky, and Bakhtin. For these authors, creating an account of art also involves constructing an ontology of lived experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Art and Visual Perception.

Reviews the book "Art and visual perception," by Rudolph Arnheim (see record 1955-03680-000). In reading this book, one realizes why more psychologists have not been concerned with art. Art is a technical specialty in its own right and one must be expert both in psychology and in either creative art or the history of art to write on art. Arnheim's book brings the scientific knowledge of a trained psychologist to bear on the fundamental problems of visual art as it has developed through the ages. The discussion is always with reference to concrete works of art. Many original drawings, diagrams, and figures illustrate basic principles and important points. The writing is superb. The book is full of penetrating insights into questions of art and also into many problems of concern to the psychologist. Fundamentally this book is an argument against the usual art historian's approach, so well described by Arnheim as the purely subjective point of view, that what a person sees in a work of art "depends entirely on who he is, what he is interested in, what he has experienced in the past, and how he chooses to direct his attention". A book which reflects so well the author's urbanity, catholicity, and keenness of mind, as well as his technical grasp of the scientific and the artistic, is no small achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of An objective psychology of music.

Reviews the book An objective psychology of music by (see record 1954-00590-000). The reviewer notes that this book is a noteworthy addition to the psychology of music, especially for classroom use with the undergraduate student. Its style is clear and simple, its coverage is unusually comprehensive, and its range is wide. It will truly facilitate the learning process for the student, an advantage which has often been lacking in this field. The psychology of music demands an understanding of two very different disciplines, one of them a science, the other an art. The vocabulary and style employed by the artist has often proved baffling to the scientist, and vice versa. Lundin has shown a special talent as an interpreter, and has made his material thoroughly clear to both. His occasional oversimplifications will prove justifiable in terms of the student who seeks competency in two fields. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Leon Festinger (1919–1989).

Presents an obituary for Leon Festinger. The science fiction writer, Stanislaw Lem, speculated that if Newton and Galileo had died in childhood, classical mechanics would have emerged with only a slight delay. But if Dostoevski had been executed and Picasso killed in World War I, there would not have been a Crime and Punishment or a Guernica. One can safely say that if there was never the configuration of genes and experience that emerged as Leon Festinger, there would not have been a theory of cognitive dissonance, and social psychology would not be what it is today. It is even doubtful if experimental social psychology would have emerged as a discipline at all. This is saying on the one hand that experimental social psychology is in some ways a form of art, and on the other that Festinger was experimental social psychology's Picasso. For one must view Festinger's unique laboratory methods of studying social situations as nothing short of a high form of art, and his research as products of rare beauty. An inveterate smoker, who knew the data on smoking better than many, Leon Festinger died of liver cancer—quietly—in his hometown, on February 11, 1989, saying, "Make sure everyone knows that it wasn't lung cancer!" (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The reflective educator.

Since the Boulder conference on training in clinical psychology in 1949, at least 13 national conferences have been convened to examine issues in training for practice in psychology, all based on the assumption that extensive training is required to develop professional skills in psychotherapy, psychodiagnosis, and related professional functions. This assumption is challenged by a large body of research that fails to show any relationship between training and efficacy in common forms of practice. Educators of professional psychologists are urged to heed the challenge closely and examine its implications critically. At the same time, educators of researchers in psychology are encouraged to examine common assumptions about the nature of practice in psychology and to consider conceptions of professional work that emphasize reflection in action and disciplined inquiry, rather than psychotherapy and psychodiagnosis, as defining features. Education for practice is neither science nor art, but a profession in itself. When the educational process is approached from this vantage point, novel opportunities for systematic investigation emerge. Decisive studies of the appropriate kind have yet to be done. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creative vision and inspiration of Shona stone sculptors.

Whereas existing conceptions of giftedness and creativity, assessment tools, and models espoused in contemporary psychology are all grounded in the West, there are different ways to look at talent development. This study investigated Shona artists' talent attributions with a view to generate theoretical ideas that inform talent development from an African perspective. Using a grounded theory study approach informed by 20 Shona stone sculptors of Zimbabwe, the study endeavored to generate a mid-range theory of how Shona artists conceptualized the origins and development of talent in their art domain. Grounded theory suggested a dynamic and interactive process model (DIPM) from an indigenous cultural perspective that explains how Shona artists' talent attributions help to propel a field of art. The DIPM posits that creativity emerges from dynamic and interactive processes activated or reactivated in interactions evoking one's unique experiences, cultural consciousness, and domain specific consciousness and realized through practice and experience. The DIPM is based on the artists' belief systems; these belief systems are recommended as the focus of interest in future research to understand creativity in art. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of How the mind works.

Reviews the book, How the mind works by Steven Pinker (see record 1997-30233-000). In this book, the author writes with optimism and excitement about recent progress in psychology, but with despair about the human condition. The scope of the book is stated briefly: "I will try to explain what the mind is, where it came from, and how it lets us see, think, feel, interact, and pursue higher callings like art, religion, and philosophy" (p. 3). The reader will be disappointed in many of these explanations: the book dwells on the already-expansive topics of what the mind is, and where it came from. As for the rest, we are told that humans have innate knowledge of optics, logic, mathematics, physics, botany (p. 377), and even psychology (p. 329). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adaptations, exaptations, and spandrels.

Adaptation and natural selection are central concepts in the emerging science of evolutionary psychology. Natural selection is the only known causal process capable of producing complex functional organic mechanisms. These adaptations, along with their incidental by-products and a residue of noise, comprise all forms of life. Recently, S. J. Gould (1991) proposed that exaptations and spandrels may be more important than adaptations for evolutionary psychology. These refer to features that did not originally arise for their current use but rather were co-opted for new purposes. He suggested that many important phenomena—such as art, language, commerce, and war—although evolutionary in origin, are incidental spandrels of the large human brain. The authors outline the conceptual and evidentiary standards that apply to adaptations, exaptations, and spandrels and discuss the relative utility of these concepts for psychological science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)