- Table View
- List View
Models of Action: Mechanisms for Adaptive Behavior
by Clive D. L. Wynne John E. R. StaddonThis volume presents an international group of researchers who model animal and human behavior--both simple and complex. The models presented focus on such subjects as the pattern of eating in meals and bouts, the energizing and shaping impact of reinforcers on behavior, transitive inferential reasoning, responding to a compound stimulus, avoidance and escape learning, recognition memory, category formation, generalization, the timing of adaptive responses, and chromosomes exchanging information. The chapters are united by a common interest in adaptive behavior--whether of human, animal, or artificial system--and clearly demonstrate the rich variety of ways in which this fascinating area of research can be approached. In so doing, the book demonstrates the range of thought that qualifies as theorizing in the contemporary study of the mechanisms of adaptive behavior. It has two purposes: to bring together a very wide range of approaches in one place and to give authors space to explain how their ideas developed. Journal literature often presents fully-formed theories with no explanation of how an idea came to have the shape in which it is presented. In this volume, however, leaders in different fields provide background on the development of their ideas. Where once psychologists and a few zoologists had this field to themselves, now various types of computer scientists have added great energy to the mix.
Amor perruno: El libro definitivo para saber cuánto te quiere tu perro
by Clive D.L. WynneLa guía perfecta para entender el amor de tu perro y saber cómo corresponderlo. Este es un libro para todos. ¿Por qué? Porque si tienes un perro, descubrirás cuánto te quiere y cuánto te necesita, y ya no podrás mirarlo con los mismos ojos; si no lo tienes y no te gustan, espero que, después de leer estas páginas, no pienses lo mismo. Y es que de todas las especies que habitan el planeta ninguna nos entiende tanto como los perros. No solo son el mejor amigo del hombre, sino que saben interpretar nuestro lenguaje corporal, nos lo dan todo a cambio de una caricia, siempre están dispuestos a perdonar y nunca, nunca nos abandonan. La guía más completa para entender el comportamiento de estos animales tan maravillosos, para saber qué necesitan en cada momento, y para aprender a cuidarlos y a respetarlos como se merecen.
Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You
by Clive D.L. Wynne“Lively and fascinating... The reader comes away cheered, better informed, and with a new and deeper appreciation for our amazing canine companions and their enormous capacity for love.”—Cat Warren, New York Times best-selling author of What the Dog Knows Does your dog love you? Every dog lover knows the feeling. The nuzzle of a dog’s nose, the warmth of them lying at our feet, even their whining when they want to get up on the bed. It really seems like our dogs love us, too. But for years, scientists have resisted that conclusion, warning against anthropomorphizing our pets. Enter Clive Wynne, a pioneering canine behaviorist whose research is helping to usher in a new era: one in which love, not intelligence or submissiveness, is at the heart of the human-canine relationship. Drawing on cutting‑edge studies from his lab and others around the world, Wynne shows that affection is the very essence of dogs, from their faces and tails to their brains, hormones, even DNA. This scientific revolution is revealing more about dogs’ unique origins, behavior, needs, and hidden depths than we ever imagined possible. A humane, illuminating book, Dog Is Love is essential reading for anyone who has ever loved a dog—and experienced the wonder of being loved back.
I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger
by Frank WynneIn 1945, a small-time Dutch art dealer was arrested for selling a priceless national treasure--a painting by Vermeer--to the Nazi commander Hermann Göring. The charge was treason; the only possible sentence, death. And yet Han van Meegeren languished in his dank prison cell, incapable of uttering the four simple words that would set him free: "I am a forger." I Was Vermeer is the outrageous true story of one of the greatest art forgers of all time. From his early childhood, Han had dreamed of being an artist, but in the electrifying world of modern art, critics ridiculed his art as hopelessly old-fashioned. Furious and embittered, he turned to forgery--and became a secret superstar of the art world. In his heyday as a forger, he earned the equivalent of fifty million dollars and the acclaim of the world's press, and saw his paintings hung alongside those of Rembrandt and Vermeer. The acceptance of his work was so complete that when he finally confessed, no one believed him--until, in a huge media event, the courts staged the public painting of what would be van Meegeren's last "Vermeer." Frank Wynne's gripping book exposes the life and techniques of the consummate forger, the fascinating work of the experts who try to track down the fakes, and the collusion and ego in the art establishment that, even today, allow forgery to thrive. Wry, surprising, and with the drive of a thriller, it is the first major book in forty years on this extraordinary episode in history. A real page-turner! FRANK WYNNE is a journalist and literary translator. He was awarded the 2002 IMPAC Prize for his translation of Michel Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles, and the 2005 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for his translation of Frédéric Beigbeder's Windows on the World. He has also translated the work of Pierre Mérot, Philippe Besson, and Ahmadou Kourouma. He has written for the Sunday Times, the Independent, the Irish Times, Melody Maker, and Time Out. Born in Ireland, he is currently based in London.
Memory, Anniversaries and Mental Health in International Historical Perspective: Faith in Reform (Mental Health in Historical Perspective)
by Rebecca Wynter Jennifer Wallis Rob EllisThis book is the first to explore memory, misremembering, forgetting, and anniversaries in the history of psychiatry and mental health. It challenges simplistic representations of the callous nature of mental health care in the past, while at the same time eschewing a celebratory and uncritical marking of anniversaries and individuals. Asking critical questions of the early Whiggish histories of mental health care, the book problematizes the idea of a shared professional and institutional history, and the abiding faith placed in the reform of medicine, administration, and even patients. It contends that much post-1800 legislation drafted to ensure reform, acted to preserve beliefs about the ‘bad old days’ and a ‘brighter future’ in the state memories of imperial powers, which in turn exported these notions around the world. Conversely, the collection demonstrates the variety of remembering and forgetting, building on recent interest in the ideological and cultural linkages between past and present in international psychiatric practice. In this way, it seeks to trace the pathways of memory, exploring the direction of travel, and the perpetuation, remodeling, and uprooting of recollection.Chapter “The New Socialist Citizen and ‘Forgetting’ Authoritarianism: Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Revolution in Socialist Yugoslavia” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer. com.
Wilfred Bion and Literary Criticism
by Naomi Wynter-VincentWilfred Bion and Literary Criticism introduces the work of the British psychoanalyst, Wilfred Bion (1897–1979), and the immense potential of his ideas for thinking about literature, creative process, and creative writing. There is now renewed interest in Bion’s work following the publication of his Complete Works but the complexities of his theory and his distinctive style can be forbidding. Less well-known than Freud or Lacan, the work of Wilfred Bion nevertheless offers new insights for psychoanalytic literary criticism and creative writing. For newer readers of his work, this book offers an engaging introduction to several of Bion’s key ideas, including his theory of thinking (the ‘thought without a thinker’), the container/contained relationship, alpha-function; alpha-elements, beta-elements, and bizarre objects; K and -K; the Grid, O, and the caesura. It also offers a way in to Bion’s astonishing and challenging experimental work, A Memoir of the Future, and explores the impact of his devastating personal experiences as an officer during the First World War. Each chapter of Wilfred Bion and Literary Criticism draws on one or more specific aspects of Bion’s theory in relation to creative texts by Sigmund Freud, Stevie Smith, B.S. Johnson, Mary Butts, Jean Rhys, Nicholas Royle, J.G. Ballard, and Wilfred Bion himself. The first full-length study to explore the potential of Bion’s ideas for literary criticism, Wilfred Bion and Literary Criticism introduces his complex and extensive work for a new audience in an accessible and engaging way, and will be of great interest to scholars of creative writing, literary criticism, and psychoanalysis.
Conditioning: Situation Versus Intermittent Stimulus
by Wanda WyrwickaIn laboratory research, the process of conditioning is traditionally initiated with a single intermittent stimulus (such as a tone or flash of light). This is true of both classical and instrumental research. Because of its role in evoking conditioned behavior, the use of an intermittent stimulus has become an indispensable part of laboratory research on conditioned behavior. The question arises whether the same scheme of conditioning may be applied to behaviors occurring in real life.In Conditioning, Wanda Wyrwicka analyzes evidence of the influence of situations on behavior in laboratory studies. She looks at cases in which the subject's reaction was dependent on complex situations rather than a single stimulus. Wyrwicka suggests that beyond external situations there exists internal factors located in the brain that consist of previous and present experiences that may influence behavior. In Chapter 1, Wyrwicka summarizes Ivan Pavlov's concept of the conditioned reflex using intermittent stimuli. Chapter 2 deals with the mechanisms of motor conditioned behavior and the results of instrumental conditioning studies. Chapter 3 covers the phenomenon called "switching," which is the appearance of a conditioned reaction different than the original conditioned stimulus. In Chapter 4, Wyrwicka describes various studies in which situation becomes a potent factor in conditioned reactions. Chapter 5 describes research pertaining to defensive and alimentary behaviors. Chapter 6 analyzes three examples of complex conditioning: detour, feeding, and presleep behaviors. Chapters 7 and 8 focus on the functions of various internal organs, and the conditioning of electrical brain activity leading to inhibition of epileptic seizures. In her concluding chapter, Wyrwicka discusses theoretically the data mentioned previously.Conditioning opens up rich possibilities for continued exploration. This revealing work will interest scientists specializing in behavioral sciences, psychologists, neuroscientists, educators, as well as students of biology.
Imitation in Human and Animal Behavior
by Wanda WyrwickaImitation is an often-observed form of behavior that is beginning to attract widespread attention on the part of a variety of researchers. Imitative acts of newborn babies and development of imitation skills in later life have been discussed in a variety of scientific studies, but the large amount of observational and experimental data has been widely dispersed. There is a need for a synthetic study in which the results of this research can be analyzed and the neural mechanisms of imitation can be explored and established. Imitation in Human and Animal Behavior fulfills this need. This book presents an overview of a number of studies on imitative behavior of humans and animals, concentrating on selected cases of imitative behavior.The early chapters discuss the results of studies on humans, from ages of about one hour, to three years of age, and older. It has been shown, for example, that newborn babies under one hour old are already able to imitate simple facial gestures. There is a chapter devoted to the role of imitation in the cognitive development of children and adolescents, describing also the use of imitation as a method in the therapy of phobias. Finally, there is a section that concentrates on imitation related to the tragic social problem of suicide among adolescents and adults, including up-to-date statistical and clinical data.The second half of the book focuses on the data obtained in studies on feeding among animals, including examples of interspecies imitation. Newly hatched chicks, for instance, imitate their mother in selection of grain color; this is also true when the mother is replaced with an arrow-shaped object resembling a pecking beak. Included are observations on learning by imitation in rats, cats, and monkeys, offering some data related to learning by following the leader. The book also describes cases of inhibition of imitation in both humans and animals, including a clinical case in which imitative behavior was disrupted after surgery on prefrontal lobes of the brain.Imitation in Human and Animal Behavior is solidly rooted in observational and experimental data, discussing the possible neural mechanisms underlying imitative behavior. A hypothetical brain mechanism responsible for imitative behavior is proposed. Imitation in Human and Animal Behavior will be fascinating and enlightening reading for psychologists, neuroscientists, pediatricians, as well as nonprofessionals interested in behavior and development.
Harold the Iceberg Melts Down (Harold the Iceberg #1)
by Lisa WyzlicAccompanied by Rebecca Syracuse’s bold, whimsical artwork, Lisa Wyzlic’s debut picture book Harold the Iceberg Melts Down is all about the importance of friendship and self-care, perfect for any young reader worried about their planet’s future.Harold is an iceberg... lettuce. (But he doesn't realize the "lettuce" part because part of his sticker has ripped off.) So one day when he sees a documentary about how the icebergs are melting, Harold starts to worry, thinking that he's melting too.As his anxiety grows and grows, and he tries to find a way to stop melting, his fellow food friends try to help him cool down in a different way.
Subjectivity, the Unconscious and Consumerism: Consuming Dreams
by Marlon XavierSubjectivity, the Unconscious and Consumerism is a unique and imaginative psycho-sociological exploration of how postmodern, contemporary consumerism invades and colonises human subjectivity. Investigating especially consumerism’s unconscious aspects such as desires, imagination, and fantasy, it engages with an extensive analysis of dreams. The author frames these using a synthesis of Jungian psychology and the social imaginaries of Baudrillard and Bauman, in a dialogue with the theories of McDonaldization and Disneyization. The aim is to broaden our understanding of consumerism to include the perennial consumption of symbols and signs of identity - a process which is the basis for the fabrication of the commodified self. The book offers a profound, innovative critique of our consumption societies, challenging readers to rethink how we live, and how our identities are impacted by consumerism. As such it will be of interest to students and scholars of critical psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, but is also accessible to anyone interested in the complex psychology of contemporary subjectivity.
Camberwell Assessment of Need for Adults with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities: CANDID
by Kiriakos Xenitidis Mike Slade Graham Thornicroft Nick BourasThe Camberwell Assessment of Need for adults with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (CANDID) is a widely used tool for the assessment of health and social needs of people with intellectual disabilities and mental health problems. It uses the assessment approach adopted by CAN, the world's leading mental health needs assessment measure. Two versions of the CANDID are available: CANDID-S (short version) and CANDID-R (research version). Both versions are aimed at researchers and practitioners working with people with intellectual disabilities, and are suitable for clinical use in community and hospital-based services. Fully updated based on current policy, practice and terminology, this second edition introduces a more intuitive need rating system and an accessible rating algorithm. Guidance on how to use the measures is provided, as well as an overview of research developments since the first edition. The assessment forms are freely available to download from the CAN website (researchintorecovery.com/can) and cambridge.org.
Global Perspectives on Adolescents and Their Families (International and Cultural Psychology)
by Yan Ruth Xia Maria Rosario T. de Guzman Rosario Esteinou Cody Stonewall HollistThis edited volume examines the adolescent period across multiple cultural settings, and in a range of contemporary contexts (e.g., rural-vs-urban, political unrest/war, rapid globalization). It employs a multi-disciplinary lens, while addressing traditional issues (e.g., identity development) and recently emergent ones (e.g., social media). It contains four main sections: 1) adolescence and families in contexts with rapidly shifting societies/norms, 2) adolescence and families in the context of socio-political crisis and upheaval, 3) adolescence and families in the context of individual stress and strain, and 4) adolescent Identity development in the family and in transition to adulthood. Contributors to this volume are leading scholars from a range of disciplines (e.g., anthropology, psychology, family science) and thus explore adolescence from multiple perspectives. Cross-cutting themes include how the broader socio-ecological background and “ecocultural niche”shape various dimensions of adolescence, how the role of the family is redefined in these various contexts and circumstances, and how adolescent resilience and family strengths are formed across a broad range of settings. Throughout, this volume highlights the continued centrality of family in the development and well-being of adolescents across the globe. This is an essential resource for practitioners and researchers who treat and study adolescents.
Trilingual Education of Uyghur Children: Phonological Awareness, Language Acquisition and Literacy Development
by Wei XiaobaoGiven the differences in the orthographic structure of the Uyghur, Chinese and English languages, this study used a mixed-method approach to systematically describe and analyze the phonological awareness of Uyghur bilingual children as English learners and its contributions to their trilingual literacy acquisition and development.Focusing on the development of these learners' phonological awareness in Uyghur, Chinese and English, this study explored the influences of Uyghur and Chinese learning on the formation of their English phonological awareness and the roles of different components of phonological awareness in their trilingual literacy development. Based on the characteristics of the phonetic structure in Uyghur, Chinese and English and the development of Uyghur children's phonological awareness in these languages, a Chinese phonetic identification training and Uyghur–Chinese–English comprehensive phonetic training program (including intensive phoneme category contrast training and phonics training) was designed to explore whether such targeted phonetic identification training can effectively improve these children's phonological awareness in Chinese and English and thus further promote their trilingual literacy development.This book will appeal to researchers and students interested in the fields of psycholinguistics, language acquisition and multilingual education.
East Asian Men: Masculinity, Sexuality and Desire
by Xiaodong Lin, Chris Haywood and Mairtin Mac an GhaillThis book provides a fresh and contemporary take on the study of men and masculinity. It highlights new and exciting approaches to sexuality, desire, men and masculinity in East Asian contexts, focusing on the interconnections between them. In doing so, it re-examines the key concepts that underpin studies of masculinity, such as homophobia, homosociality and heteronormativity. Developing new ways of thinking about masculinity in local contexts, it fills a significant lacuna in contemporary scholarship. This thought-provoking work will appeal to students and scholars of gender studies, cultural studies and the wider social sciences.
Rights of Man
by Jason Xidias Mariana AssisThomas Paine’s 1791 Rights of Man is an impassioned political tract showing how the critical thinking skills of evaluation and reasoning can, and must, be applied to contentious issues. Divided into two parts, Rights of Man is, first, a response to Edmund Burke’s arguments against the French Revolution, put forward in his Reflections on the Revolution in France – also available in the Macat Library – and, second, an argument for how to run a fair and just society. The first part is a sustained performance in evaluation: Paine takes Burke’s arguments, and systematically exposes the ways in which Burke’s reasons against revolution are inadequate compared to the necessity of having a just society run according to a universal notion of people’s rights as individuals. The second part turns to an examination of different political systems, setting out a powerfully-structured argument for universal rights, a clear constitution enshrined in law, and a universal right to vote. Though Paine is in many ways a stronger rhetorician than he is a clear thinker, his reasons for preferring democracy to hereditary forms of government are compelling, coherent and clear. Rights of Man is a masterclass in how to use good reasoning to present a persuasive argument.
The Federalist Papers
by Jason Xidias Jeremy KleidostyThe 85 essays that maker up The Federalist Papers’ clearly demonstrate the vital importance of the art of persuasion. Written between 1787 and 1788 by three of the “Founding Fathers” of the United States, the Papers were written with the specific intention of convincing Americans that it was in their interest to back the creation of a strong national government, enshrined in a constitution – and they played a major role in deciding the debate between proponents of a federal state, with its government based on central institutions housed in a single capital, and the supporters of states’ rights. The papers’ authors – Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay – believed that centralised government was the only way to knit their newborn country together, while still preserving individual liberties. Closely involved with the politics of the time, they saw a real danger of America splintering, to the detriment of all its citizens. Given the fierce debates of the time, however, Hamilton, Jay and Madison knew they had to persuade the general public by advancing clear, well-structured arguments – and by systematically engaging with opposing points of view. By enshrining checks and balances in a constitution designed to protect individual liberties, they argued, fears that central government would oppress the newly free people of America would be allayed. The constitution that the three men helped forge governs the US to this day, and it remains the oldest written constitution, still in force, anywhere in the world.
Psychosocial Implications of Poverty: Diversities and Resistances
by Verônica Morais Ximenes James Ferreira Moura Jr. Elívia Camurça Cidade Bárbara Barbosa NepomucenoThis book presents a multidimensional, psychosocial and critical understanding of poverty by bringing together studies carried out with groups in different contexts and situations of deprivation in Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Nicaragua and Spain. The book is divided in two parts. The first part presents studies that unveil the psychosocial implications of poverty by revealing the processes of domination based on the stigmatization and criminalization of poor people, which contribute to maintain realities of social inequality. The second part presents studies focused on strategies to fight poverty and forms of resistance developed by individuals who are in situations of marginalization.The studies presented in this contributed volume depart from the theoretical framework developed by Critical Social Psychology, Community Psychology and Liberation Psychology, in an effort to understand poverty beyond its monetary dimension, bringing social, cultural, structural and subjective factors into the analysis. Psychological science in general has not produced specific knowledge about poverty as a result of the relations of domination produced by social inequalities fostered by the capitalist system. This book seeks to fill this gap by presenting a psychosocial perspective with psychological and sociological bases aligned in a dialectical way in order to understand and confront poverty. Psychosocial Implications of Poverty – Diversities and Resistances will be of interest to social psychologists, sociologists and economists interested in multidimensional studies of poverty, as well as to policy makers and activists directly working with the development of policies and strategies to fight poverty.
Enabling Mathematics Learning of Struggling Students (Research in Mathematics Education)
by Yan Ping Xin Ron Tzur Helen ThoulessThis book provides prospective and practicing teachers with research insights into the mathematical difficulties of students with learning disabilities and classroom practices that address these difficulties. This linkage between research and practice celebrates teachers as learners of their own students’ mathematical thinking, thus contributing an alternative view of mathematical progression in which students are taught conceptually. The research-based volume presents a unique collaboration among researchers in special education, psychology, and mathematics education from around the world. It reflects an ongoing work by members of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME) and the North American Chapter of the PME Working Groups. The authors of chapters in this book, who have been collaborating extensively over the past 7 years, are from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Perception and Metaphor: A Comparative Perspective Between English and Chinese (China Perspectives)
by Qin Xiugui Tie YiCognitive linguists believe that metaphors are prevalent in human thought, while metaphorical structures are reflected at the linguistic level. Therefore, analysing extensive language data can aid in revealing the metaphorical mappings of embodied experience with the senses of vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and temperature. This volume seeks to discover the similarities and differences between the metaphorical systems of the English and Chinese languages. Adopting a comparative view, the authors examine the semantic extensions of perception words in English and Chinese, in order to reveal the metaphorical scope of each sense and the metaphorical system behind it. They argue that the metaphorical systems of the senses not only help us understand and use conventionalised metaphorical expressions but also allow us to create novel expressions. The findings also unveil how abstract concepts are constructed via cognitive mechanisms, such as image schema and metaphor. This title is a useful reference for scholars and students who are interested in cognitive linguistics, comparative linguistics, and the philosophy of language.
Beyond Shanghai and PISA: Cognitive and Non-cognitive Competencies of Chinese Students in Mathematics (Research in Mathematics Education)
by Binyan Xu Yan Zhu Xiaoli LuThis book seeks to illustrate the research on mathematics competencies and disposition in China according to the conceptual development and empirical investigation perspective. Mathematics education in China has a distinguishing feature a focus of attention to mathematical competency. Paradoxically, there has not been an explicit, refined, and measurable evaluation system in place to assess mathematical competency in China. While academic achievement surveys or evaluations are common, these can only give an overall conclusion about mathematical thinking skills or problem solving abilities. In response to this deficiency, China is beginning to carry out national projects that emphasize defining both a conceptual framework on core competencies in school mathematics and developing a corresponding assessment framework. Thus, the main focus of this volume is the current investigations of different mathematics competencies and mathematical disposition of Chinese students, with the aim of promoting interaction between domestic and international student performance assessment, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of mathematics competencies and disposition in mainland China, and to stimulate innovative new directions in research. The primary audience of this volume is the large group of researchers interested in mathematics competencies, mathematics teaching and learning in China, or comparative studies, or the relation of the three. The book will also appeal to teaching trainers or instructors, as well as be an appropriate resource for graduate courses or seminars at either the master’s or doctoral level.
The Good Child: Moral Development in a Chinese Preschool
by Jing XuChinese academic traditions take zuo ren—self-fulfillment in terms of moral cultivation—as the ultimate goal of education. To many in contemporary China, however, the nation seems gripped by moral decay, the result of rapid and profound social change over the course of the twentieth century. Placing Chinese children, alternately seen as China's greatest hope and derided as self-centered "little emperors," at the center of her analysis, Jing Xu investigates the effects of these transformations on the moral development of the nation's youngest generation.The Good Child examines preschool-aged children in Shanghai, tracing how Chinese socialization beliefs and methods influence their construction of a moral world. Delving into the growing pains of an increasingly competitive and changing educational environment, Xu documents the confusion, struggles, and anxieties of today's parents, educators, and grandparents, as well as the striking creativity of their children in shaping their own moral practices. Her innovative blend of anthropology and psychology reveals the interplay of their dialogues and debates, illuminating how young children's nascent moral dispositions are selected, expressed or repressed, and modulated in daily experiences.
Social Ecology of a Chinese Kindergarten: Where culture grows (Cultural Psychology of Education #12)
by Shuangshuang Xu Giuseppina MarsicoThis book is the outcome of a joint collaboration between East China Normal University and the University of Luxembourg, initiated by the Center of Ideas for the Basic Education of the Future (IBEF), and focuses on kindergartens in China from a cultural psychology perspective. By coupling young scholars from diverse cultural backgrounds as research tandems, this book uses an innovative methodological method to reveal a deeply immersing research perspective of the often complicated issues in the Chinese social reality, where long historical tradition and strong motivation for a “modernized” future are fused together and continuously evolve itself into a vibrant and intricate landscape. Meanings and values consciously or unconsciously promoted and conducted in the kindergarten are semiotic devices and they mediate children’s and educator’s daily behaviours and activities, which are constantly navigating among different social institutions and crossing the border of kindergarten. The book discusses the process of children’s socialization in the kindergarten from different angles such as cultural objects, moral education, conflict negotiation, children's drawing analysis and the role of Lego in numeracy development. It also provides an overview of basic educational needs in Chinese kindergartens as well as three commentaries to provide background information and to add a reflective angle for the readers. By reading the book, readers will hopefully go through a constantly transforming process between familiarizing and de-familiarizing along with the research tandem and develop their own understanding of the complex landscape of the Chinese kindergarten and its children as developing subjects constantly living and transcending the context.
Perspectives on Midwifery and Parenthood
by Rita Borg Xuereb Julie JomeenThe book Perspectives on Midwifery and Parenthood explores contemporary issues relating to parenthood and midwifery. This book bridges a gap in the literature, where it highlights the close and unique relationships that midwives, nurses, doctors, other health care professionals and students enjoy with women and men during their transition to parenthood. Midwives work in close contact with and address the diverse needs of women and men during one of the most critical life's transitions, preconception, pregnancy, childbirth and early parenting and its long term implications on the psychosocial, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing of parents and infants. The chapters cover the transition and preparation for parenthood, midwives and parental-fetal-tie in pregnancy, perinatal mental health, maternal well-being, infertility, repeated loss and surrogacy, supporting early parenting following preterm birth, adolescent pregnancy and early parenthood, social challenges and parenthood including drug and alcohol use in pregnancy, intimate partners’ violence, migrants and transition to parenthood, fathers’ transition to parenthood, diversity of family formation - LGBTQ+ parents, breastfeeding, the role of spirituality during pregnancy, and midwifery and parenthood. Each person is unique and so is the response to parenthood, as the mother, father and family embark on this new lifeworld, a lifelong commitment. The book is a compendium of contemporary research depicting the strengths, opportunities, and recommendations how midwives and other health care professionals can nurture optimal, compassionate, respectful person- and family-centred care during pregnancy and early parenting, the transition to parenthood.
Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living
by Dimitris XygalatasA pioneering anthropologist takes readers on a 'fascinating, well-researched' (Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE) journey through the rich tapestry of human ritual—showing how and why our most irrational behaviors are a key driver of our success." Ritual is one of the oldest, and certainly most enigmatic, threads in the history of human culture. It presents a profound paradox: people ascribe the utmost importance to their rituals, but few can explain why they are so important. Apparently pointless ceremonies pervade every documented society, from handshakes to hexes, hazings to parades. Before we ever learned to farm, we were gathering in giant stone temples to perform elaborate rites and ceremonies. And yet, though rituals exist in every culture and can persist nearly unchanged for centuries, their logic has remained a mystery—until now. In Ritual, pathfinding scientist Dimitris Xygalatas leads us on an enlightening tour through this shadowy realm of human behavior. Armed with cutting-edge technology and drawing on discoveries from a wide range of disciplines, he presents a powerful new perspective on our place in the world. In birthday parties and coronations, in silent prayer, in fire-walks and terrifying rites of passage, in all the bewildering variety of human life, Ritual reveals the deep and subtle mechanisms that bind us together.
Moral Education in the 21st Century
by Douglas W. Yacek Mark E. Jonas Kevin H. GaryMoral education is an enduring concern for societies committed to the value of justice and the wellbeing of children. What kind of moral guidance do young people need to navigate the social world today? Which theories, perspectives, values, and ideals are best suited for the task? This volume offers educators insight into both the challenges and promises of moral education from a variety of ethical perspectives. It introduces and analyses several important developments in ethics and moral psychology and discusses how some key moral problems can be addressed in contemporary classrooms. In doing so, Moral Education in the 21st Century helps readers develop a deeper understanding of the complexities of helping young people grow into moral agents and ethical people. As such, researchers, students, and professionals in the fields of moral education, moral psychology, moral philosophy, ethics, educational theory, and philosophy of education will benefit from this volume.