Showing papers on "Surprise published in 1995"

Emotion elicitation using films

Abstract: Researchers interested in emotion have long struggled with the problem of how to elicit emotional responses in the laboratory. In this article, we summarise five years of work to develop a set of films that reliably elicit each of eight emotional states (amusement, anger, contentment, disgust, fear, neutral, sadness, and surprise). After evaluating over 250 films, we showed selected film clips to an ethnically diverse sample of 494 English-speaking subjects. We then chose the two best films for each of the eight target emotions based on the intensity and discreteness of subjects' responses to each film. We found that our set of 16 films successfully elicited amusement, anger, contentment. disgust, sadness, surprise, a relatively neutral state, and, to a lesser extent, fear. We compare this set of films with another set recently described by Philippot (1993), and indicate that detailed instructions for creating our set of film stimuli will be provided on request.

Representations in an Electronic Age: Geography, GIS, and Democracy

Abstract: The slow, uneven decline of these interlinked certainties, first in Western Europe, later elsewhere, under the impact of economic change, “discourses” (social and scientific), and the development of increasingly rapid communications, drove a harsh wedge between cosmology and history No surprise then that the search was, so to speak, for a new way of linking fraternity, power, and time meaningfully together Nothing perhaps more precipitated this search, nor made it more fruitful, than print-capitalism, which made it possible for rapidly growing numbers of people to think about themselves, and to relate themselves to others, in profoundly new ways (Anderson, 1983, 36)

Avoiding Ecological Surprise: Lessons From Long-Standing Communities

Abstract: Increasingly ecologists have recognized the importance of sudden and unexpected changes in the natural environment—often called “surprises.” Organizational scholars have not developed a theory of how to avoid ecological surprise. This article suggests one way to develop such a theory. Using ecology, systems analysis, and a historical comparison of four communities, the article concludes that organizing and managing natural resources in part as community property can play a central role in avoiding surprises.

Moral functionalism and moral motivation

Abstract: Cognitivists are on solid ground, it seems to us, when they maintain that practical evaluations - 'this is right', 'that is fair' - are expressions of judgement and belief (even if these may be massively mistaken). Their non-cognitivist opponents deny the appearances when they say that such evaluations are expressive only of feeling or desire or some such noncognitive attitude that differs from belief and its cognates in not being subject, in its own right, to the same disciplines of evidence and logic and reasoning. But while cognitivists are on the side of common sense in this respect, they have had a hard time meeting two challenges (see Blackburn 1984, 1993; Gibbard). The first challenge is to say what the cognitive content of evaluative belief is, given that the content is supposed to give direct if defeasible support to a conclusion about what should be desired and done. The second challenge is to explain why assent to such a content is not just inductively associated with forming a corresponding desire to act as the evaluation prescribes, why it is a matter of surprise, to be explained by some malaise like weakness of will, if someone sincerely assents to the positive evaluation of an option without feeling any inclination towards it (Smith 1989). The first challenge comes of the Humean assumption that matters of cognition, matters of putative fact, do not imply prescriptions: there is a gap between 'is' and 'ought'. The second comes of the assumption, equally Humean in origin, that states of cognition are motivationally inert and only lead to behaviour under the impulse of a distinct state of desire: reason, as it is said, is the slave of the passions. This paper is an attempt to sketch an answer to these two challenges. It presents what we describe as a functionalist account of the cognitive content of evaluative belief, and then shows why assent to such a content should generally be expected to involve the presence of a corresponding desire. We stress that the paper is only a sketch of our answer to the two challenges, for the matters we discuss connect with almost every issue in meta-ethics and it is not possible to do full justice to them here. We offer. the sketch in the hope that the position we identify, once it has

The Role of Surprise in the Attribution Process

Abstract: We report five studies which compared two theories linking surprise to causal attribution. According to the attributional model, surprise is frequently caused by luck attributions, whereas according to the expectancydisconfirmation model, surprise is caused by expectancy disconfirmation and stimulates causal thinking. Studies 1 to 3 focused on the question of whether surprise is caused by luck attributions or by unexpectedness. In Studies 1 and 2, subjects had to recall success or failure experiences characterised by a particular attribution (Study 1) or by low versus high surprisingness (Study 2), whereas in Study 3, unexpectedness and luck versus skill attributions were independently manipulated within a realistic setting. The main dependent variables were unexpectedness (Studies 1 and 2), degree of surprise (Studies 1 and 3), and causal attributions (Study 2). The results strongly suggest that surprise is caused by expectancy disconfirmation, whereas luck attributions are neither sufficient nor necessary for surprise. Studies 4 and 5 addressed the question of whether surprise stimulates attributional thinking, again using a remembered-incidents technique. The findings of the previous studies were replicated, and it was confirmed that surprising outcomes elicit more attributional search than unsurprising ones. Additional results from Study 5 suggest that causal thinking is also stimulated by outcomes that are both negative and important.

Creativity and unpredictability

Abstract: Devotees of the humanities expect to be surprised. An arresting metaphor or poetic image, an unpredicted twist of the plot, a novel style of music, painting, or dance...all these unexpected things amaze and delight us. Scientists, too, appreciate the shock of a new idea--the double helix, the jumping gene, or the benzene-ring. Indeed, unpredictability is often said to be the essence of creativity. But unpredictability is not enough. At the heart of creativity lie constraints: the very opposite of unpredictability. Constraints and unpredictability, familiarity and surprise, are somehow combined in original thinking.

The ECJ's Opinion 1/94 on the WTO - No Surprise, but Wise? -

Abstract: Indeed, States are sensitive when it comes to limitations of their foreign relations powers which are still considered to tbe the hard core of the ageing concept of national sovereignty. If it has already been difficult for them to accept constitutional restraints, it seems even more difficult for them to consent to being bound institutionally in relation to the process of European integration or international cooperation. Within the EC the Commission had requested the ECJ under the procedure of Article 228(6) ECT to confirm the exclusive competence of the EC to conclude the WTO Agreement which had been negotiated within the framework of the Uruguay Round. The Advisory Opinion given by the Court has to be seen in the light of the present atmosphere within various Member States as to the future development of the European Union. Moreover, the Court's own case-law has recently tended more towards understanding and protecting the legitimate interests of the EC Member

Visual and active supervision : roles, focus, technique

Abstract: Therapists are often thrust into supervisory positions with little preparation. Here is a book that gives them not only the basics of supervision but also creative, active techniques to open up new perspectives on therapeutic situations. Both beginning and experienced supervisors - whether psychologists, social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, or family therapists - will find the discussion and many case illustrations enriching. To help their trainees develop "clinical wisdom" - timing, judgment, and a deep understanding of therapeutic possibility - supervisors play several roles. In turn, they may be teachers, facilitators, consultants, or evaluators. The author defines these roles, as well as their associated functions and precepts, and demonstrates the supervisory stance in each role. Supervisors also focus on one of six areas, three from the therapy system and three from the supervisory system. The adept supervisor will help the trainee-therapist take the experiential learning from one arena and apply it in another. Sometimes trainees are restrained from "hearing" what their supervisor says; the supervisor's advice does not fit with their "map of the world." Moreover, using words alone, supervisees cannot surprise themselves - they have heard it all before. At those times, in particular, the author recommends visual and active techniques. These methods allow multiple and even contradictory maps or realities to be presented, opening trainees' eyes to new possibilities. Meaning becomes intensely personal, yet systemic. Dramatic and narrative enactments of therapeutic dilemmas, often using evocative objects (for example, magnets of horses, Superman, or the Virgin Mary), capture suchelusive elements as closeness, boundaries, and position, which are the very meat of therapy.

Assessing animal models of AIDS

Abstract: Animal models of AIDS continue to surprise researchers with results that can be difficult to explain. However, most researchers still believe that animal models are essential to progress in understanding the disease. But which animal model is best? (pages 321–329)

An Empirical Test of the Signaling Effect of Management's Earnings Forecasts: A Decomposition of the Earnings Surprise and Forecast Surprise Effects:

Abstract: When corporate management issues an earnings forecast there are potentially two surprises. One potential surprise is that a forecast was issued and the other is the surprise in the earnings forecast. Accordingly, the observed stock market reaction to management earnings forecasts may be due to one or the other, or both. This study decomposes the cross-sectional variability in stock market reactions to management earnings forecasts into the portions attributable to the forecast surprise and the earnings surprise. The results indicate that the market's reaction is a function of both the earnings surprise and the forecast surprise. However, the market reaction is more associated with forecast surprise than with the earnings surprise. This suggests that results in previous studies on the market reactions to management earnings forecasts may need to be reconsidered.

Analytic listening and the experience of surprise.

Abstract: The analyst's experience of surprise, its relation to different models of analytic listening and its function in the analytic process is illustrated and explored through a series of clinical vignettes. Surprise is a crucial affective ingredient of the analyst's attention and data-gathering. It is multiply determined and inevitably reflects some discovery or rediscovery on the part of the analyst about both the patient and the analyst. In the dynamic tension of the analyst's listening there is always an interplay between expectation and surprise, as each new facet of the patient's conflictual organisation is revealed. Evenly-hovering attention entails the setting aside of conscious expectation and so maximises the potential for curiosity, surprise and discovery. The author describes the relation of surprise to transient identifications with the patient and to the interventions that result, the relation of surprise to the sense of the uncanny, and the shifts in the analyst's defensive organisation that allow for the experience of surprise. Several vignettes illustrate the interplay of the analyst's and the patient's psychologies and the manner in which surprise may alert the analyst to mutually-created resistances and enactments, which may appear to be discrete phenomena, but are in fact continuous processes, intrinsic to the work.

Music Education as Community

Abstract: One of the most pervasive models underlying music education is that of community. Whether it be the Hindustani sitarist instructing his disciple in traditional manner, the Western classical pianist conducting her masterclass, the Australian Aboriginal songman teaching his young kinsman a love song, or the Balkan mother singing her daughter a lament, all participate in a community in which music making and taking plays a central role. I shall sketch four elements of the idea of community--as place, in time, as process, as an end-drawing particularly on the work of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Maxine Greene. Exploring aspects of this model illumines music education, broadly conceived, and suggests that community may also constitute a metaphor for envisioning music education thought and practice. Metaphors are one of the most important means of understanding our experience. Effective metaphors surprise and enlighten. They are not merely ornaments designed to dress up an idea, but constitute a means of cognitive and affective access to things, experiences, ideas, especially those that may otherwise be inadequately known or even incomprehensible. One of the most useful explanations of how they work is provided by Nelson Goodman who suggests that in metaphors a schema (or associative network of ideas) that has built up in reference to one realm is transferred to another, alien realm. There, its entities, structures, and relationships organize the new realm along the same lines as the old from where it came. As Goodman puts it, a metaphor is a matter of "teaching an old word new tricks," or "an affair between a predicate with a past and an object that yields while protesting."' He explains that these shifts in reference usually amount to "no mere distribution of family goods" but "an expedition abroad. A whole set of alternative labels, a whole apparatus of organization, takes over new territory." Looked at in this way, he adds, "a metaphor might be regarded as a

“Struggle for Existences”: Selection and Retention of a Metaphor

Abstract: “The entire Darwinian theory of the struggle for existence is simply the transfer of the Hobbesian theory of bellum omnium contra omnes and the bourgeois-economic one of competition as well as Malthus’ demographic theory from society into organic nature. After having accomplished this trick ... it is easy to transfer these theories back from natural history into the history of society ... and to claim one had proved this thesis as an eternal natural law of society.” This famous interpretation of Darwin’s theory by Friedrich Engels has been repeated by Nietzsche, Spengler, and countless lesser scholars to this day. It also underlies the general understanding of Social Darwinism and contains a description of the origin and function of metaphors in science. It provides an example of three different ways that metaphors are used as media of exchange of meaning: 1) from everyday language to scientific language; 2) from scientific to scientific language, and 3) from scientific to everyday language. The history of science is full of examples of each of these cases, much has been written on them, and it can no longer come as a surprise that metaphors reflect the links between scientific, social, and political discourses, and therefore corroborate that science is very much a social activity rather than anything else.

Low Power and Striking Results — A Surprise but Not a Paradox

Abstract: In this issue of the Journal, Verdonck et al.1 report on a study that, as they planned it, was barely large enough to detect a massive advantage for a controversial and expensive therapy. Moreover,...

Need for Control and Self-Esteem

Abstract: Personal control has been among the most ubiquitous topics in social and personality psychology for many years now. I recently thumbed through the tables of contents of several social psychology textbooks and could not find one chapter topic that researchers had not in some way tied to how much control people believe they have over events or the extent to which people are motivated to exercise personal control. Conformity, aggression, attitude change, gender roles, attributions, group dynamics, person perception, and the like all have been examined as a function of perceived control or motivation for control. Perhaps this ubiquity should come as no surprise. In any given situation, whether I believe I can control events or whether I want to control events intuitively is linked to the kind of action I decide to take.

Perception, Misperception and Surprise in the Yom Kippur War: A Look at the New Evidence

Abstract: During the years following the Second World War, intensive research was undertaken on the subject of response to threat. Confronted with the baffling, yet recurrent inability of nations to respond adequately to warnings of an impending attack, many scholars concentrated on such events as the Pearl Harbor attack, the Barbarossa Operation, and the outbreak of the Korean War, and produced a voluminous body of literature. Alongside the plethora of works which sought explanations solely in terms of the specific conditions operating at the time of the event analyzed, a few other inquiries attempted to integrate the case under scrutiny into a broader theoretical framework in order to better elucidate the inherent patterns by which nations cope with situations of crisis and threat. On the whole, the literature dealing with the failure of national actors to stand up to the challenge of an imminent assault can be divided into two major categories, which differ widely from one another in terms of the explicit and implicit premises, the specific nature of the explanation advanced, and the level of abstraction. These may be termed the analytic-revisionist and the cognitive-perceptual categories.

A Deconstructive Look at the Myth of Race and Motivation.

Abstract: This article examines the myth of motivational differences in Black and White children's achievement within a post-positivist paradigm aimed at deconstructing existing explanations rather than posing alternative ones. Two replications were conducted of an earlier study that substantiated a cognitive-developmental theory of motivational deficit in Blacks. In the first, the achievement task was varied as per the earlier experiment, and racial differences in apparent motivation were found to be consonant with the patterns reported; in the second, the task was systematically controlled across age, sex, and race substrata for interest value, and racial differences disappeared. The implications for theories of motivation and for the methodological integrity of myth-substantiating research on Black-White achievement and potential are discussed. INTRODUCTION One of the most enduring legacies of any society is its structure of myths. These myths usually romanticize, through both simplification and exaggeration, key dimensions of historical experience, along with the principles, values, and moral (as well as pragmatic) implications that derive from them. Powerful myths have remarkable endurance, evolving in narrative form along with the society's technical changes, while retaining the original substance of their central lessons. As such, it is no surprise that certain historical experiences of American society have spawned myths of racial differences whose roots in social, political, or economic programs have survived the paradigm shift to a postindustrial, technical/scientific age. Within the traditional positivistic framework of science, the empirical content of hypothesis statements consists of their evidential referents. Hypotheses, myth or otherwise, once substantiated remain in a status of priority until an alternative hypothesis is advanced of at least equal evidential or empirical substance. Thus, the conventional sociology of scientific practice gave rise early to the emergence of reconstructionist paradigms for the engagement of myths regarding the psychology of Black populations (Montagu, 1942; Stanfield, 1985a, 1985b, 1996). The inherently anti-progressive burden of this approach handicapped a full-scale attack first upon the myth of intelligence, and later upon the myth of motivation. The structure of this scientific mythology is, by now, well known. The behavioral sciences have largely built upon a pre-existing network of prejudices, stereotypes, and disinformation to form an edifice of misunderstanding about the nature of behavior and experience in Black populations (Banks, 1990; Gould, 1981; Montagu, 1942; Stanfield, 1985a, 1985b, 1996). There have been at least three general methodological strategies by which reformists within the discipline of psychology have sought to redress this situation (Banks, in press), but only the approach of deconstructionism has undertaken to confront these myths head-on for the unapologetic purpose of refuting them. Such a deconstructive perspective seems particularly apropos for the examination of a myth whose vitality seems to survive even the most thorough critiques (Banks,1980; Graham,1994), and that sustains an enduring scientific belief in the phenomenon of failure and its causes among Black individuals (McElroy-Johnson, 1993). In the analysis of race and social-class differences in achievement, a central conceptual issue has been that of intrinsic motivation. Katz (1967), for example, attributed minority children's deficiencies in academic achievement to their relative inability to sustain effort in tasks that are not immediately associated with extrinsic reinforcement. In this regard, a general hypothesis has been that minority and lower-class individuals fail to perform as effectively, or be as effectively achievement motivated, as White middle-class persons in the absence of material or concrete reinforcements. Several investigators have provided supportive evidence on behalf of this hypothesis. …

Metaphor design in user interfaces: how to effectively manage expectation, surprise, comprehension, and delight

Abstract: User interjbce &sign requires designing metaphors, the essential terms, concepts, and images representing data, functions, tasks, roles, organizations, and people. Advanced user interfaces require consi&ration of new metaphors and repurposing of ol&r ones. Awareness of semiotics principles, in particular the use of metaphors, can assist researchers and developers in achieving more ejjicient, ej%ectiveways to communicate to more diverse user communities.

Practical solutions to the surprise-examination paradox*

Abstract: In this paper I consider the surprise examination paradox from a practical perspective, paying special attention to the communicative role of the teacher's promise to the students. This perspective, which places the promise within a practice, rather than viewing it in the abstract, imposes constraints on adequate solutions to the paradox. In the light of these constraints. I examine various solutions which have been offered, and suggest two of my own.

Ukraine`s decision to joint the NPT

Abstract: The overwhelming approval by the Ukrainian parliament to accede to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) came as a surprise to many observers The author examines the demographic and political factors involved

Low morale among qualified nurses: action needed

Abstract: The results of a recent survey of 4438 RCN members, commissioned by the RCN and carried out by researchers from the Institute for Employment Studies, paints a picture of dissatisfaction and low morale among nurses that will come as no surprise to those with recent experience of working within the NHS.

Consensus and Contradiction in Textbook Treatments of the Sixties

Abstract: Working as a free-lance development editor on (nonhistory) textbooks over the past five years, I've learned something of how college texts are written, edited, and marketed. (A development editor plays no role in commissioning or shaping the general direction of a text but acts as an internal coordinator of the reviewing and rewriting process.) Most obviously, they are produced in a completely different fashion than scholarly monographs. Authorship does remain an important factor, however, both because the reputation of major scholars helps sell textbooks and because college-division editors have no illusions that these books can be written by computers. But all textbooks are consciously assembled, vetted, and packaged to a considerable extent by people other than the titular authors -no surprise to the hundreds of professors in every discipline who are routinely invited to review manuscripts for a modest fee. It is this reviewing process, largely an unscientific form of market testing, that indicates the central impulse of textbook publishing: the valid comparison for any text is the immediate competition. There is nothing submerged about these concerns. The most important question in the standard questionnaires sent to reviewers is the final one, "Will you consider adoption of over your present text?" To secure a sufficient number of "Yes" responses to this question, the editors who commission textbooks seek to balance originality and familiarity. Does a given manuscript cover the same material as its rivals, as well as they do or even better? Does it establish itself as innovative through a new approach that the market may or may not warrantin other words, is it a "mainstream" or a "niche" book, or can it be both? Most important, does it suit a typical teacher at one standard level of college teaching (elite liberal arts college or major public university, small state campus or religious school, or community college)? I refer to the conditions under which textbooks are written because they help explain the most obvious fact about them: they tend to be remarkably similar in what is and what is not included; how an incident, person, or occasion is described; and in the sequence used to establish relationships among events. In the case of what we call "the sixties," a category with a personal resonance for most authors, as well as for current political discourse, this conventionality takes on a distinctive

Israel caught unaware: Egypt's Sinai surprise of 1960

Abstract: (1995). Israel caught unaware: Egypt's Sinai surprise of 1960. International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence: Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 203-219.

From Pocahontas to power suits : everything you need to know about women's history in America

Abstract: This new book is sure to surprise and enlighten readers as it explores the rich history of American women over the past four centuries, from Susan B. Anthony to Susan Brownmiller, Jane Addams to Jane Roe, Eleanor Roosevelt to Eleanor Smeal.

Saddam Surprises the United States: Learning from "The Revolution of August 2"

Abstract: Little attention has been paid to Saddam Hussein's strategic surprise in the invasion of Kuwait. This is unfortunate, because in Saddam's invasion lies an exceptionally useful extension of what is known about surprise in strategy and diplomacy, an extension of particular value in the post-Cold War world where the risks of nuclear proliferation and the possible spread of other weapons of mass destruction heighten the importance of properly understanding surprise. This article argues that Saddam surprised Kuwait and its allies because they had deceived themselves about his intention to attack. It also argues that decision-makers and analysts are especially likely to indulge in self-deception when they believe they have found a way to avoid the dangers of their chosen path. American decision-makers minimized Saddam's rapacity and unpredictability because they thought the policy of tilting toward Iraq would convert him into a responsible international actor. The article first examines the literature on surpri...