Shulamith Kreitler – författare

Hardly anything in psychology is as irking as the trait concept. Psychologists and laypersons alike use primarily adjective trait-names to characterize and even concep­ tualize the individuals they encounter. There are more than a hundred well-defined personality traits and a great many questionnaires for their assessment, some of which are designed to assess the same or very similar traits. Little is known about their ontogenetic development and even less about their underlying dynamics. Psy­ choanalytic theory was invoked for explaining the psychodynamics underlying a few personality traits without, however, presenting sufficient empirical evidence for the validity of these interpretations. In a reductionistic vein, behaviorally inclined psy­ chologists have propounded the thesis that all traits are acquired behaviors. Yet, this view neither reduces the number of personality tests nor explains the resistance of traits to modification by means of reward and punishment. Dissatisfied with these and some other less well-known approaches to person­ ality traits, we decided to explore whether applying our psychosemantic theory of cognition to the trait concept would do better. The way we had to follow was anything but easy.

This collection examines the many internal and external factors affecting cognitive processes. Editor Shulamith Kreitler brings together a wide range of international contributors to produce an outstanding assessment of recent research in the field. These contributions go beyond the standard approach of examining the effects of motivation and emotion to consider the contextual factors that may influence cognition. These broad and varied factors include personality, genetics, mental health, biological evolution, culture and social context. By contextualizing cognition, this volume draws out the practical applications of theoretical cognitive research while bringing separate areas of scholarship into meaningful dialogue.

This collection examines the many internal and external factors affecting cognitive processes. Editor Shulamith Kreitler brings together a wide range of international contributors to produce an outstanding assessment of recent research in the field. These contributions go beyond the standard approach of examining the effects of motivation and emotion to consider the contextual factors that may influence cognition. These broad and varied factors include personality, genetics, mental health, biological evolution, culture and social context. By contextualizing cognition, this volume draws out the practical applications of theoretical cognitive research while bringing separate areas of scholarship into meaningful dialogue.

Like the ground-breaking first edition, Pediatric Psycho-oncology, Second edition puts the child at the centre of medical and psychological care.  It broadens the focus beyond treatment and cure to consider the quality of life of the child and their family.  Written by an international group of pediatric oncologists and psychologists/psycho-oncologists brought together by an expert editorial team, it focuses on the real-life practical aspects of children undergoing treatment for cancer.

This edition has been restructured and opens with a major section on Active treatment, which includes chapters addressing quality of life, pain, psychosocial aspects of treatment and interventions, art therapy and different fantasy-based techniques, palliative care, communication and education, as well as a new chapter on psychopharmacology. Shorter sections then discuss survivorship and care of the dying child, including a new chapter on bereavement.  The final section comprises new chapters on ethical considerations and on addressing the emotional needs of children whose parents have cancer, as well as a case study on international collaboration.  An appendix provides a comprehensive overview of tools for evaluation and assessment in pediatric psychooncology.

This book is a highly practical resource that will be invaluable for all health care professionals looking after children and adolescents with cancer. 

Like the ground-breaking first edition, Pediatric Psycho-oncology, Second edition puts the child at the centre of medical and psychological care.  It broadens the focus beyond treatment and cure to consider the quality of life of the child and their family.  Written by an international group of pediatric oncologists and psychologists/psycho-oncologists brought together by an expert editorial team, it focuses on the real-life practical aspects of children undergoing treatment for cancer.

This edition has been restructured and opens with a major section on Active treatment, which includes chapters addressing quality of life, pain, psychosocial aspects of treatment and interventions, art therapy and different fantasy-based techniques, palliative care, communication and education, as well as a new chapter on psychopharmacology. Shorter sections then discuss survivorship and care of the dying child, including a new chapter on bereavement.  The final section comprises new chapters on ethical considerations and on addressing the emotional needs of children whose parents have cancer, as well as a case study on international collaboration.  An appendix provides a comprehensive overview of tools for evaluation and assessment in pediatric psychooncology.

This book is a highly practical resource that will be invaluable for all health care professionals looking after children and adolescents with cancer. 

Like the ground-breaking first edition, Pediatric Psycho-oncology, Second edition puts the child at the centre of medical and psychological care.  It broadens the focus beyond treatment and cure to consider the quality of life of the child and their family.  Written by an international group of pediatric oncologists and psychologists/psycho-oncologists brought together by an expert editorial team, it focuses on the real-life practical aspects of children undergoing treatment for cancer.This edition has been restructured and opens with a major section on Active treatment, which includes chapters addressing quality of life, pain, psychosocial aspects of treatment and interventions, art therapy and different fantasy-based techniques, palliative care, communication and education, as well as a new chapter on psychopharmacology. Shorter sections then discuss survivorship and care of the dying child, including a new chapter on bereavement.  The final section comprises new chapters on ethical considerations and on addressing the emotional needs of children whose parents have cancer, as well as a case study on international collaboration.  An appendix provides a comprehensive overview of tools for evaluation and assessment in pediatric psychooncology.This book is a highly practical resource that will be invaluable for all health care professionals looking after children and adolescents with cancer.

Hardly anything in psychology is as irking as the trait concept. Psychologists and laypersons alike use primarily adjective trait-names to characterize and even concep­ tualize the individuals they encounter. There are more than a hundred well-defined personality traits and a great many questionnaires for their assessment, some of which are designed to assess the same or very similar traits. Little is known about their ontogenetic development and even less about their underlying dynamics. Psy­ choanalytic theory was invoked for explaining the psychodynamics underlying a few personality traits without, however, presenting sufficient empirical evidence for the validity of these interpretations. In a reductionistic vein, behaviorally inclined psy­ chologists have propounded the thesis that all traits are acquired behaviors. Yet, this view neither reduces the number of personality tests nor explains the resistance of traits to modification by means of reward and punishment. Dissatisfied with these and some other less well-known approaches to person­ ality traits, we decided to explore whether applying our psychosemantic theory of cognition to the trait concept would do better. The way we had to follow was anything but easy.

Hardly anything in psychology is as irking as the trait concept. Psychologists and laypersons alike use primarily adjective trait-names to characterize and even concep­ tualize the individuals they encounter. There are more than a hundred well-defined personality traits and a great many questionnaires for their assessment, some of which are designed to assess the same or very similar traits. Little is known about their ontogenetic development and even less about their underlying dynamics. Psy­ choanalytic theory was invoked for explaining the psychodynamics underlying a few personality traits without, however, presenting sufficient empirical evidence for the validity of these interpretations. In a reductionistic vein, behaviorally inclined psy­ chologists have propounded the thesis that all traits are acquired behaviors. Yet, this view neither reduces the number of personality tests nor explains the resistance of traits to modification by means of reward and punishment. Dissatisfied with these and some other less well-known approaches to person­ ality traits, we decided to explore whether applying our psychosemantic theory of cognition to the trait concept would do better. The way we had to follow was anything but easy.

Recent years have witnessed an increasing awareness of the importance and relevance of creativity in social and psychological life. This has led to an awakening of research into creativity. The book “New Frontiers in Creativity” deals with themes that have emerged due to the expanding boundaries of research in creativity. These concern primarily new perspectives in regard to creativity, discovering of creativity in new populations and nurturing of creativity in new domains and spheres of action. The book presents four new perspectives concerning creativity. The first is a comprehensive model of creativity (by Kreitler) that does justice to the complexity of creativity in terms of the constitutive components, ranging from cognition through motivation, emotions, personality, psychopathology, behavior and the environment, focusing on the rich variety of variables in each of the components and their interactions. Another perspective focuses on creativity in the study and research of creativity (by Runco) by adopting meta-cognitive powerful tactics in the study and nurturing of creativity. A third new perspective describes the innovative methods and findings in neurophysiology of creativity, particularly in brain studies (by Shemyakina and Nagornova). The set of new perspectives is complemented by a description of the social processes characterizing the spread and maintenance of innovative ideas (by Fokas). The innovation in terms of populations is presented in the discussion of creativity in individuals diagnosed with dyslexia (by Cancer and Antonietti), in the controversial sphere of psychopathology (by Thys) and in the elderly (by Cohen-Shalev). Notably, the creativity of all three populations has been increasingly recognized in recent years. The third part of the book is devoted to creativity in various domains, including painting (by Vardi), psychotherapy (by Buzdugan, Grigore and Dinca), engineering (by Engel), architecture (by Casakin), sports (by Santos, Sampaio and Memmert) and nature (by Edlinger). The book includes 13 chapters, written by internationally known experts from different countries—Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Portugal, Romania, Russia, and USA—responsible for discoveries in the specific aspect of creativity with which they deal. The different chapters of the book present innovative approaches, based on empirical evidence and innovative methodologies. Thereby they contribute to the setting of the scene for new developments and new applications of creativity in the rapidly changing world that is in increasing need for creativity.

This book is exceptional in that it treats death as it has not yet been treated before. It presents a comprehensive updated overview of what happened to death in the last decades since the taboo against death has been lifted. The book is based on contributions from experts in different disciplines from the US, Europe and Israel, each focused on treating the death situation from a specific point of view. The first part of the book presents death from the viewpoint of various disciplines and concludes with an exceptional discussion of near-death experiences. The second part of the book deals with various more specific issues involved in death. In addition, the book also provides theoretical background and practical guidance for professionals and others concerned with helping dying individuals as well as their families and caretakers.

Spheres of Meaning describes the activation of meaning in real-life domains. After introducing the major theoretical tenets and assessment procedures, the book focuses on the role of meaning in various contexts. Chapter 1 describes in detail the main variables of the meaning system in the form of definitions accompanied by examples and the notations assigned to each variable, and Chapter 2 describes the essentials of the methodology employed in this work. The following chapters explore the application of meaning in education, health, society, communication, culture, art, the experiencing of reality, and consciousness. It is hoped that this book will help meaning to emerge from its state of invisibility long enough and impressively enough to evoke the attention of those who do not look that way habitually, and to convince the disbelievers that meaning is alive, active, and very functional. The time seems ripe for learning about the properties of meaning and of embedding it in the regular set of practical tools designed to benefit science. Hopefully newcomers and those who are already familiar with meaning alike will be inspired by the present volume to uncover new possibilities and yet unexplored domains for the advancement of science and the meaningfulness of life.

This book includes a comprehensive investigation of the concept of meaning, focusing on its structure, function, and materials. In terms of structure, it is proposed that meaning is a unit which consists of two components: the carrier of meaning, called referent, to which meaning is assigned, and the meaning assigned to the referent, called meaning value. In terms of function, meaning is designed to identify inputs from outside and inside the organism, so as to enable responding to them in forms adequate for the psychological system. Otherwise expressed, meaning turns stimuli into potential triggers of reactions on all psychological levels. In terms of materials, meaning consists of cognitions, which are neither expected to be logical or rational nor are necessarily subjected to awareness, voluntary control or verbal expression. So, in practice, meaning consists of cognitive units, which are characterized in terms of referents and meaning values, forming sequences and networks, providing identification of stimuli and potentialities for grasping reality, reacting to it and transforming it. This book is a culmination of the author's decades of academic experience in pursuit of an understanding of meaning. In this book's thirteen chapters, meaning is explored through a variety of perspectives, including those drawn from evolutionary psychology, linguistics, cognition, personality, and other fields. Also, exercises are included that provide tasks designed to allow readers to familiarize themselves with the system of meaning elucidated in the book.

The book is devoted to exploring creativity from several points of view and in a variety of domains that are mostly not discussed in the common approaches to creativity. An endeavor of this kind is of particular importance at the present time which is marked by the occurrence and necessity of changes in many domains of life and social functioning. Creativity is probably a major resource for dealing with the changes in a manner that minimizes suffering and maximizes growth for the individual and for humanity at large. The book includes 13 chapters by world-renowned experts in creativity which present new viewpoints about major processes of creativity and main domains in which it is manifested and needs to be explored. Two of the chapters are devoted to health and wellbeing, dealing with the role of intuition in medicine (chapter 7), of technology in nursing (chapter 9) and of mindfulness and related techniques in mental wellbeing (chapter 8). The emotional aspect is counterbalanced by the cognitively grounded explorations dealing with problem-solving (chapter 11), science and education in mathematics (chapter 10) and with humor (chapter 12) which contributes its share for moderating excessive seriousness in most domains of life. Three chapters deal with organization in terms of work, production (chapters 2 and 3) and perhaps unexpectedly with diplomacy (chapter 4) which provides the overall framework for social and administrative functioning. Creativity in the external environment is the dominant theme of the chapter that deals with the landscape (chapter 5) and ecology (chapter 6). The book is framed by two chapters in the beginning (chapter 1) and at the end (chapter 13). The first chapter provides an introduction to the study of creativity based on the major developmental trends in theory and methodology in the past up to the present (chapter 1). The last chapter provides an integrative introduction for development of creativity in the future, based on motivation, cognition and emotion, characterizing the producers of creativity and those who benefit from it through experiencing and implementation (chapter 13). Each chapter contributes its share to highlighting the role and potential contribution of creativity to enhancing the meaningfulness of our life and being in the world.

This volume strives to give oncologists and other medical practitioners a thorough picture of the oncology patient. It’s designed to show that psychological needs of the patient are an important aspect that should be considered for optimizing the effects of cancer treatment, no less than genetic, immunological, physiological and other medical features that are often considered as necessary components of personalized medicine. Using evidence-based information, the book describes the different ways cancer touches upon a person’s life, including emotional, physical, and social changes, important decisions, and support structure. It also details the phases every cancer patient encounters along the way, from getting tested and waiting for the diagnosis, to treatments, survival, and confronting one’s mortality. Psycho-oncology for the Clinician will serve to contribute to the further scientific development of psycho-oncology, expandits use as a treatment modality, strengthen its status as an essential component of cancer care, and promote the acceptance of psycho-oncology as the new evidence-based constituent of personalized medicine in oncology.

This volume strives to give oncologists and other medical practitioners a thorough picture of the oncology patient. It’s designed to show that psychological needs of the patient are an important aspect that should be considered for optimizing the effects of cancer treatment, no less than genetic, immunological, physiological and other medical features that are often considered as necessary components of personalized medicine. Using evidence-based information, the book describes the different ways cancer touches upon a person’s life, including emotional, physical, and social changes, important decisions, and support structure. It also details the phases every cancer patient encounters along the way, from getting tested and waiting for the diagnosis, to treatments, survival, and confronting one’s mortality. Psycho-oncology for the Clinician will serve to contribute to the further scientific development of psycho-oncology, expandits use as a treatment modality, strengthen its status as an essential component of cancer care, and promote the acceptance of psycho-oncology as the new evidence-based constituent of personalized medicine in oncology.