Possessiveness as an Inductor of Deformation of Consciousness as in Illusions of Perceptions

The research features the effect of possessiveness on consciousness. The problem was posed by K. Marx in the hypothesis that the consciousness of an individual depends on belonging to a certain social class, the differences between which are determined by relations with the ownership of the means of production. Theoretically, such an influence is possible via the psychological correlate of ownership, i.e. possessiveness. The sense of ownership, being a cognitive-affective structure, could have an impact on the reflective function of consciousness. In our previous studies, we discussed a possibility of evoking a basic perception illusion (the Uznadze effect) caused by an emotionally saturated psychological background of perception. However, a sense of ownership can play the role of such a background. But if possessiveness can contribute to the basic illusions, it would mean that it can contribute to the deformations of consciousness, because the basic illusion is a manifestation of the violation of the comparison of different parts of the perceptual field. This comparison is a function of the integrative level of reflection, which is traditionally associated with consciousness. Based on the analysis of a number of concepts, we assumed that the psychological basis of possessiveness is an act of mentally disposing of oneself, one’s Ego, in some object, as if in a place. During the experiment, the subjects were properly instructed and imposed with an act of such mental disposition in the form of a virtual assessment of the ability to trust the object. The objects were participants demonstrated to the subjects in a film. The subjects needed to evaluate who they could trust their money with. This was the way to rationalize the act of generating the "mine" – "alien" construct, which is fundamental to the sense of ownership. At the end of the video, the subjects were shown two identical circles, and they had to say if the circles were different or not. The results of the experiment showed that when the subjects had to perform the task, they saw the circles as different – much more often than in the control group. Consequently, the results confirmed the hypothesis. Possessiveness might also be capable of causing deformations of the reflective function of consciousness.

Additional Correlates of Greenberg and Jenkins' Linguistic S Scale

Greenberg and Jenkins (1964) reported a linear relationship between two independently derived scales. One was a linguistic substitution, S, scale of distance of CCVCs from English. The second was the means of judgments of distance from English of CCVCs constructed according to their S scale. Two hypotheses were tested. One was that a psychological correlate of their S scale was the effort of pronouncing. The second is that increasing values of the S scale result in increasing strangeness of sounds corresponding to their CCVCs. Both hypotheses remain tenable.

Cosmic Purpose and Self-Identity

“Christianity has tried to sustain three theological convictions, each with a psychological correlate: (1) man's nature needs to be grounded in something transcending his nature; he cannot create an ultimately valid self-identity apart from such a ground; (2) man is genuinely free; a major element in his freedom is the ability to choose a self-identity which ignores the ground of his nature and freedom, though he does so at his own risk; (3) man needs and can have hope that the cosmos (of which he is a part) has a potential direction and goal; his ultimate self-identity requires the capacity to envision his own future as coherent with that of a meaningful universe.”

Factorial Structure of Social Desirability at the University Level

From an analysis of the response by rural high school students in Grades X, XI and XII to a questionnaire derived by Messick from items related to Murray's needs, Anderson and Traub claimed the existence of a general factor of social desirability with its psychological correlate in the form of two extroverted dimensions, social extroversion and impulsivity. Implicit in this work are two hypotheses which were tested in the current study: that this general factor would be sustained at the adult level and that its greater impact on male than on female responses would also continue. From an analysis of responses by students in the first and in the third or fourth years of a university program, no support was found for these hypotheses.