JuniperPublishers-Psychology and Behavioral Science

  Abstract Upon reviewing the scientific research in the fields of pathological addiction and trauma, we find that there is a broad overlap between the neurophysiological substrate of memory and learning mechanisms in subjects suffering from these two ailments. We observe how these patients may develop an extraordinary ability to use their addiction, or their post-traumatic personality, in a generative way, by polarizing their functioning more and more intensely and pervasively around the substance or the post-traumatic transformation, which ends up functioning as an attractor, as defined in Complexity Theory. Such a process then sometimes also brings these patients to a ‘titanic’ type of functioning, which - again according to Complexity Theory - may be described as a hypercycle. We further observe that such dissociation from every other part of the personality is like the phenomenon described by Ferenczi [1] with the concept of Orpha, which takes place after a traum

  Abstract Self-regulation is critical for learning. It is often conceptualized as a cyclical process where the learner sets goals, monitors progress and then evaluates performance as a means to inform future learning efforts. Important, but less understood, is how motivational dimensions related to the learner influence the self-regulation process. While it is well documented that student beliefs about their competence (self-efficacy) correspond to academic achievement, less is known about how their explanations for their own learning (causal attributions) influence those beliefs. To research these constructs, it is important to study students who typically have maladaptive attributions for learning so that it can be determined what types of interventions can promote more adaptive attributions and whether doing so has a corresponding effect on student’s subsequent efforts to use learning strategies and ultimately their perceived competence. It is also important to st