The concept of decentering originated with Piaget, who defined decentering as a feature of operational thought, the ability to conceptualize multiple perspectives simultaneously. Feffer applied Piaget’s concept of decentering to the cognitive maturity of social content. This study used Feffer’s Interpersonal Decentering scoring system for stories told about TAT pictures to investigate the developmental hierarchy of decentering for children and adolescents. The participants originated from the Berkeley Guidance Study, a longitudinal sample of more than 200 individuals followed for more than 60 years by the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley. The hypotheses tested were: (1) chronological age will be positively related to Decentering as reflected in Feffer’s Interpersonal Decentering scores obtained annually between ages 10 and 13 and at 18; (2) children born into higher class homes would have higher Age 12 Decentering scores; (3) children born later in birth order will have higher Age 12 Decentering scores; (4) children whose parents were observed to have closer bonds with their children at age 21 months will have higher Age 12 Decentering scores; (5) adolescents with higher scores from the Decentering Q-sort Scale (derived from adolescent Q-sorts) will have higher Age 12 Decentering scores; and (6) participants who have higher Age 12 Decentering scores will self-report higher CPI Empathy scale scores at Age 30. A repeated measures ANOVA tested Hypothesis 1. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients tested Hypotheses 2-6. Age and Decentering scores were unrelated, as was birth order; social class findings were mixed. Parents’ bonds with child and Age 12 Decentering were negatively correlated (closer bonds predicted higher Decentering), as were Age 12 Decentering and Age 30 Empathy (higher early Decentering predicted lower adulthood Empathy). Girls (age 12) tended to decenter more consistently and had higher Decentering scores than boys.

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Breakups within emerging adulthood (EA) are associated with heightened distress because of individuals' tendency to be preoccupied by and prioritize romantic relationships. Global narrative scoring systems, such as Boals et al.'s meaning making (MM) and Feffer et al.'s interpersonal decentering, can be a useful for analyzing the activated cognitive processing in narratives about stressful events and have been linked to positive adjustment from those events. Attachment may moderate the benefits of processing a breakup. While avoidantly-attached people report lower breakup distress because of their tendency to suppress attachment-related thoughts and emotions, anxiously-attached individuals report prolonged distress due to their tendency to ruminate about the past relationship and to experience continued attachment to their ex-partner. The current study assessed the cross-sectional effects of MM and decentering on depression and breakup non-acceptance, as well as how attachment moderates the relationship between decentering and breakup adjustment. Results found higher MM was associated with higher depression and non-acceptance. More mature decentering was related to lower non-acceptance, but was unrelated to depression. Initial MM efforts may evoke more distress as individuals focus on distressing thoughts or emotions previously avoided. Initial decentering maturity may help with breakup adjustment as one effectively reflects on their own and their ex-partner's thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Attachment style did not moderate the relationship between decentering, depression, and non-acceptance. The present study contributes to the literature on processing relational stressors during EA.

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Developmental psychology aims to elucidate how children's early relationships influence their interactions with the world. Piaget's cognitive development theory is often noted when discussing development, and although his cognitive descriptions of decentering (i.e., perspective taking) were compelling, they neglected interpersonal contexts. Accordingly, Feffer conceptualized decentering within a social context. To expand on Feffer's consideration of the social context, the current study explored early parent-child bonds and their impact on child development, specifically interpersonal decentering, in adolescence. In the present secondary analysis of data from the Institute of Human Development longitudinal Guidance Study at the University of California, Berkeley, I hypothesized that, for both boys and girls, conflict with relatives and a parent's nervous instability would moderate the association between early strong parental bonds and more mature decentering at ages 12.5 and 18 years, and that more imaginative play, introspection, and better physical health would moderate the relationship between strong father-son bonds at age 21 months and the son's more mature decentering at age 12.5 and 18 years. The findings revealed that the association between strong father-son bonds at 21 months and the son's more mature decentering at age 12.5 was strongest when the son was less introspective compared to when the son was more introspective. When sons were in better health at ages 5-10 years and 11-17 years, their father-son bonds at age 21 months were more strongly related to more mature decentering at age 18 compared to sons who were in fair to poor health. The current study expands on the impact parental bonds, particularly paternal for sons, have on a child's social cognitive development.

Despite the success of available medical and psychosocial treatments, a sizable subgroup of individuals with commonly co-occurring disorders, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), fail to make sufficient treatment gains thereby prolonging their deficits in life functioning and satisfaction. Clinically, these patients often display temperamental features reflecting heightened sensitivity to underlying motivational systems related to threat/safety and reward/loss (e.g., somatic anxiety) as well as inordinate negative self-referential processing (e.g., worry, rumination). This profile may reflect disruption in two important neural networks associated with emotional/motivational salience (e.g., salience network) and self-referentiality (e.g., default network, DN). Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) was developed to target this hypothesized profile and its neurobehavioral markers. In the present study, 22 GAD patients (with and without MDD) completed resting state MRI scans before receiving 16 sessions of ERT. To test study these hypotheses, we examined the associations between baseline patterns of intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) of the insula and of hubs within the DN (anterior and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex [MPFC] and posterior cingulate cortex [PCC]) and treatment-related changes in worry, somatic anxiety symptoms and decentering. Results suggest that greater treatment linked reductions in worry were associated with iFC clusters in both the insular and parietal cortices. Greater treatment linked gains in decentering, a metacognitive process that involves the capacity to observe items that arise in the mind with healthy psychological distance that is targeted by ERT, was associated with iFC clusters in the anterior and posterior DN. The current study adds to the growing body of research implicating disruptions in the default and salience networks as promising targets of treatment for GAD with and without co-occurring MDD.

The dissertation investigates the postmodern features of Salman Rushdie’s novels Shame and Midnight’s Children within the theoretical framework of postmodernism. The inward-directed approach to a literary text, which has been chosen as a basis for the research, incorporates the body of texts by the famous theorists of postmodernism Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Ihab Hassan, Jean Baudrillard and others. With the view to the indeterminacy of the approach, the concept of decentering, embracing such terms as the elimination of the transcendental signified, supplement, simulacrum, indeterminacy, the death of the author, has been chosen as a key concept to discuss text-oriented propositions. The analysis of Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children explores the undermining of the traditional connotations of synecdoche. The interpretation of the text reveals how the strategy of play is employed to incorporate traditional images into the postmodern narrative of the novel. The connotations attributed to different images are constantly subjected to subversion and undermining in the text. The investigation of the concept indeterminacy with the view to the narrative of Midnight’s Children focuses on the imagery related to the concept of the void and its supplements. The analysis of Salman Rushdie’s novel Shame draws on the concept of the image as a simulacrum/supplement, employing J. Derrida and J. Baudrillard’s theoretical propositions. It uncovers the detachment of... [to full text] / Disertacijos tyrimo objektu pasirinktos postmodernizmo apraiškos Salman Rushdie romanuose Vidurnakčio vaikai ir Gėda. Tyrimo teoriniu pagrindu buvo pasirinktas į tekstą orientuotas požiūris, atstovaujamas šių mokslininkų: Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, Ihab Hassan, Jean Baudrillard ir kt. Atsižvelgiant į pasirinkto požiūrio neapibrėžtumą, pagrindine teorine sąvoka buvo pasirinkta išcentrinimo sąvoka, kuri yra sietina su šiais terminais: transcendentalinio subjekto nesatis, suplementas, simuliakras, neapibrėžtumas, autoriaus mirtis. Salman Rushdie romano Vidurnakčio vaikai interpretacijoje tiriama tradicinių sinekdochos reikšmių transformacija. Analizuojant atskleidžiama, kaip rašytojas naudoja žaidimo strategiją tradicinių įvaizdžių panaudojimui postmoderniame kūrinyje, nuolat transformuodamas ir neigdamas įvaizdžių reikšmes. Romano Vidurnakčio vaikai naratyvas analizuojamas neapibrėžtumo sąvokos pagrindu. Pagrindinis dėmesys šioje interpretacijoje skiriamas įvaizdžiams, siejamiems su tuštumos ir suplemento sąvokomis. Salman Rushdie romano Gėda interpretacijoje dėmesys skiriamas postmodernaus įvaizdžio kaip simuliakro/suplemento sampratos analizei. Teorinis interpretacijos pagrindas- J. Derrida ir J. Baudrillard veikalai. Analizė atskleidžia postmodernaus įvaizdžio ir realybės santykio nesatį bei realybės suplementų pažeidžiamumą. Apibendrinant, Salman Rushdei romanų interpretacija atskleidžia išcentrinimo sąvokos sudėtingumą ir neapibrėžtumą, bei bendrą... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

The dissertation investigates the postmodern features of Salman Rushdie’s novels Shame and Midnight’s Children within the theoretical framework of postmodernism. The inward-directed approach to a literary text, which has been chosen as a basis for the research, incorporates the body of texts by the famous theorists of postmodernism Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Ihab Hassan, Jean Baudrillard and others. With the view to the indeterminacy of the approach, the concept of decentering, embracing such terms as the elimination of the transcendental signified, supplement, simulacrum, indeterminacy, the death of the author, has been chosen as a key concept to discuss text-oriented propositions. The analysis of Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children explores the undermining of the traditional connotations of synecdoche. The interpretation of the text reveals how the strategy of play is employed to incorporate traditional images into the postmodern narrative of the novel. The connotations attributed to different images are constantly subjected to subversion and undermining in the text. The investigation of the concept indeterminacy with the view to the narrative of Midnight’s Children focuses on the imagery related to the concept of the void and its supplements. The analysis of Salman Rushdie’s novel Shame draws on the concept of the image as a simulacrum/supplement, employing J. Derrida and J. Baudrillard’s theoretical propositions. It uncovers the detachment of... [to full text] / Disertacijos tyrimo objektu pasirinktos postmodernizmo apraiškos Salman Rushdie romanuose Vidurnakčio vaikai ir Gėda. Tyrimo teoriniu pagrindu buvo pasirinktas į tekstą orientuotas požiūris, atstovaujamas šių mokslininkų: Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, Ihab Hassan, Jean Baudrillard ir kt. Atsižvelgiant į pasirinkto požiūrio neapibrėžtumą, pagrindine teorine sąvoka buvo pasirinkta išcentrinimo sąvoka, kuri yra sietina su šiais terminais: transcendentalinio subjekto nesatis, suplementas, simuliakras, neapibrėžtumas, autoriaus mirtis. Salman Rushdie romano Vidurnakčio vaikai interpretacijoje tiriama tradicinių sinekdochos reikšmių transformacija. Analizuojant atskleidžiama, kaip rašytojas naudoja žaidimo strategiją tradicinių įvaizdžių panaudojimui postmoderniame kūrinyje, nuolat transformuodamas ir neigdamas įvaizdžių reikšmes. Romano Vidurnakčio vaikai naratyvas analizuojamas neapibrėžtumo sąvokos pagrindu. Pagrindinis dėmesys šioje interpretacijoje skiriamas įvaizdžiams, siejamiems su tuštumos ir suplemento sąvokomis. Salman Rushdie romano Gėda interpretacijoje dėmesys skiriamas postmodernaus įvaizdžio kaip simuliakro/suplemento sampratos analizei. Teorinis interpretacijos pagrindas- J. Derrida ir J. Baudrillard veikalai. Analizė atskleidžia postmodernaus įvaizdžio ir realybės santykio nesatį bei realybės suplementų pažeidžiamumą. Apibendrinant, Salman Rushdei romanų interpretacija atskleidžia išcentrinimo sąvokos sudėtingumą ir neapibrėžtumą, bei bendrą... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]