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| Volume 18 Issue 1
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Beyond Prototypicality: Toward a Categorical-Motivation Model of Aesthetics
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T. W. Allan Whitfield, 2000, 18:1, 1-11.
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Abstract:
The article comments on the two early stages linking categorization to aesthetics, and introduces a third and unpublished stage. It expands upon a previous attempt (Whitfield, 1983) to reconcile the opposing positions occupied by the categorical and Collative-Motivational models. It does so by recourse to Tversky s (1977) distinction between two forms of feature salience--intensive and diagnostic. Features of high intensive salience should possess high arousal potential, while features of high diagnostic salience should be most prototypic. It postulates that intensive and diagnostic salience will be major determinants of aesthetic preference, and that the contribution of each will be a function of the categorical status--or meaningfulness--of the stimuli. This theoretical reconciliation could be termed a Categorical-Motivation model. Finally, attention is given to fundamental and unresolved problems that have undermined theory construction in the field of experimental aesthetics. These concern the nature of both the stimuli and the response measures typically employed. Questions of ecological validity are raised and the possible reinterpretation of results involving meaningless stimuli.
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Collative Variables Versus Prototypicality
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Adrian C. North and David J. Hargreaves, 2000, 18:1, 13-17.
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Abstract:
Recent research on experimental aesthetics has been dominated by debate on the relative importance of two theories concerning arousal-mediating and cognitive variables respectively. The present article discusses two arguments which suggest that this debate may be potentially spurious and unnecessary. First, the apparent importance of either theory may be partly dependent on the stimuli employed. Second, it is impossible to distinguish between the two classes of variables, such that variations in arousal-mediating factors also reflect variations in cognitive factors. A discussion of the implications of these arguments suggests that it is possible to reconcile the two approaches, such that both can make a useful contribution to the understanding of aesthetic processes.
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1983 at discounted rates.
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Creative Artists and Intrapsychic Structure
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Scott J. Ambers and Walter F. Burke, 2000, 18:1, 19-32.
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Abstract:
The recent psychoanalytic literature on creative artists is characterized by a paucity of empirical research. This study reviews some of the main analytic hypotheses, derived from object relations and self-psychology theory, about the intrapsychic structure characterizing artists and empirically tests those suppositions. The Rorschach test was administered to two groups of graduate students: twenty enrolled in Masters of Fine Arts programs and a control group of twenty students enrolled in Masters programs in non-art fields. Test results were analyzed via scoring systems designed to assess pertinent psychoanalytic constructs. Compared to the control subjects, the art students exhibited: more frequent generation of transitional objects; greater fluidity of self/other boundaries; more extensive preoccupation with early separation/ individuation issues; more vulnerability to self-fragmentation anxiety; and greater manufacturing of idealized objects.
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Buy the whole article at baywood.com - online shop now.
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As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts
twice a year for free and are able to purchase all back issues since
1983 at discounted rates.
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Personality Perception of Painted Faces in Beijing Opera
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Albert Wai-lap Chau and Chung-Fang Yang, 2000, 18:1, 33-42.
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Abstract:
The features of the painted face in Beijing opera are drawn to represent the personality of the character wearing the face. In two experiments, participants with different backgrounds and levels of experience with Beijing opera rated the painted faces on ten personality traits. Experiment 1 revealed that both Beijing and Hong Kong viewers were able to perceive the intended personality of ten real painted faces in Beijing opera regardless of their experience level or the availability of the identity of the character. In Experiment 2, eighteen computer-simulated painted faces were generated by combining base color, pattern, and shape of eyebrows. Again, both groups of viewers were able to see the intended personality borne by the base color and pattern, though they had opposite perceptions regarding the two eyebrow shapes. These results suggest that personality perception of the painted face is direct, i.e., features of the painted face capture the subjective element of the Chinese people in perceiving the personality traits of the character bearing the painted face.
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Buy the whole article at baywood.com - online shop now.
To let you know:
As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts
twice a year for free and are able to purchase all back issues since
1983 at discounted rates.
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Loneliness of Adolescents and Their Choice and Enjoyment of Love-Celebrating Versus Love-Lamenting Popular Music
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Rhonda Gibson, Charles F. Aust, and Dolf Zillmann, 2000, 18:1, 43-48.
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Abstract:
Black and White male and female high-school students reported their enjoyment of various love-lamenting and love-celebrating videos of popular romantic music. The student groups were subdivided into high versus low loneliness in terms of romantic deprivation. Loneliness proved inconsequential for the enjoyment of love-lamenting songs. Love-celebrating songs, however, were markedly less enjoyed by highly lonely males than by less lonely males; in contrast, these love-celebrating songs were more enjoyed by highly lonely females than by less lonely females. Reports of music choices in hypothetical situations of romantic success and failure yielded strikingly differed results. Most students indicated that they would make mood-congruent choices; that is, that they would match the music s mood to their own.
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As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts
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1983 at discounted rates.
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Pops and Flops: Some Properties of Famous English Poems
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Richard S. Forsyth, 2000, 18:1, 49-67.
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Abstract:
This article describes a preliminary study of linguistic attributes that differentiate popular from obscure poems in English. Following in the footsteps of Simonton (1989), Martindale (1990) and others, frequency of appearance in anthologies was used as an index of poetic popularity. Twenty general anthologies published between 1966 and 1997 were selected and all poems appearing in more than five of them were taken as a reference sample. This gave eighty-five poems by fifty-four different authors. (The two most popular were Matthew Arnold s Dover Beach with 16 occurrences and Kubla Khan by Samuel T. Coleridge with 15.) As a control group, fifty-four other poets were selected by finding a less eminent poet of the same sex born within ten years of each poet in the reference sample. The same number of poems were chosen (as near as possible randomly) from each obscure poet as from the matching popular poet. This gave eighty-five obscure poems, also by fifty-four different authors. As a check on this dichotomy, the number of quotations from each of these authors in the Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (Ratcliffe, 1994) was tallied. For the popular poets the median was seven entries, for the obscure poets the median was zero. This difference is highly significant. Some aspects of the language of the two subsets were then examined. Although the popular poems were on average longer than the obscure ones (median length 155 and 127 words respectively), this difference was not statistically significant. However, a number of significant differences were found: 1) the popular poems had significantly fewer syllables per word in their first lines; 2) popular poems were more likely to begin with an initial line composed entirely of monosyllables; 3) the mean number of letters per word in the popular poem was very significantly less (4.13 versus 4.29) than the obscure poems; and 4) the vocabulary of the popular poems was on average less rich than that of the obscure ones. Syntactic differences were also investigated. Overall a clear tendency for famous poems to use simpler language than obscure poems was found. In poetry, simplicity would seem to be a virtue.
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As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts
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1983 at discounted rates.
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The Interaction of Openness to Experience and Schizotypy in Predicting Preference for Abstract and Violent Paintings
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David Rawlings, 2000, 18:1, 69-91.
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Abstract:
Two studies examined the relationship between a multi-dimensional measure of schizotypy (the minor manifestations of schizophrenic symptoms in non-psychiatric individuals) and preference for paintings and line drawings. Study 1 correlated scores on the four schizotypy scales with seven categories of paintings and the "Origence" measure of figural complexity derived from the Barron-Welsh Art Scale. The strongest correlation was between the schizotypy measure of Impulsive Nonconformity and preference for "violent" paintings. Study 2 divided "violent," "erotic," and "religious" categories into "abstract" and "realistic," and employed measures of sensation seeking and openness to experience as well as the schizotypy scales. Openness was associated with liking for abstract over realistic paintings, and when Openness was kept constant in regression analyses, preference for violent, abstract paintings was positively associated with schizotypy measures of Unusual Experiences and Impulsive Nonconformity and negatively associated with Introvertive Anhedonia. Preference for erotic, abstract paintings was also associated negatively with Introvertive Anhedonia. The results are explained within a theoretical framework including Schubert s (1996) view that aesthetic context leads to a dissociation of negatively emotional information.
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To let you know:
As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts
twice a year for free and are able to purchase all back issues since
1983 at discounted rates.
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In Memoriam: Steen Folke Larsen
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JÁNOS LÁSZLÓ, 2000, 18:1, 93-94.
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Abstract:
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Buy the whole article at baywood.com - online shop now.
To let you know:
As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts
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1983 at discounted rates.
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