Large language models (LLMs) have been proposed as candidate models of human semantics, and as such, they must be able to account for conceptual combination. This work explores the ability of two LLMs, namely, BERT-base and Llama-2-13b, to reveal the implicit meaning of existing and novel compound words. According to psycholinguistic theories, understanding the meaning of a compound (e.g., “snowman”) involves its automatic decomposition into constituent meanings (“snow,” “man”), which are then connected by an implicit semantic relation selected from a (...) set of possible competitors (FOR, MADE OF, BY, …) to obtain a plausible interpretation (“man MADE OF snow”). Here, we leverage the flexibility of LLMs to obtain contextualized representations for both target compounds (e.g., “snowman”) and their implicit interpretations (e.g., “man MADE OF snow”). We demonstrate that replacing a compound with a paraphrased version leads to changes to the embeddings that are inversely proportional to the paraphrase's plausibility, estimated by human raters. While this relation holds for both existing and novel compounds, results obtained for novel compounds are substantially weaker, and older distributional models outperform LLMs. Nonetheless, the present results show that LLMs can offer a valid approximation of the internal structure of compound words posited by cognitive theories, thus representing a promising tool to model word senses that are at once implicit and possible. (shrink)

BackgroundProphylactic Bilateral Salpingo-Oophorectomy reduces the risk of developing ovarian cancer. However, the psychological mechanisms that may affect post-surgery Quality of Life among patients who underwent PBSO are still largely unknown. Thus, this study aimed at exploring the direct and indirect associations of satisfaction with medical communication and cancer anxiety on post-surgery QoL among women at high risk of developing ovarian cancer.MethodFifty-nine women who underwent PBSO took part in this cross-sectional study, filling out a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire, a battery of (...) validated psychological measures and an ad hoc developed scale for the assessment of cancer anxiety. We first examined the correlations among all variables of interest, and then tested if cancer anxiety mediated the association between satisfaction with medical communication and post-surgery psychological QoL, controlling both for time from surgery and education.ResultsPost-surgery psychological QoL was unrelated from any sociodemographic or clinical variable. Cancer anxiety had a significant direct negative effect on psychological QoL, while satisfaction with medical communication had a significant positive direct effect on it. Finally, cancer anxiety significantly mediated the association between satisfaction with medical communication and post-surgery psychological QoL.DiscussionResults suggest that post-surgery psychological QoL of patients who underwent PBSO may be increased with interventions, delivered in a genetic counselling setting, targeting quality of medical communication and cancer anxiety. (shrink)

A brief theoretical review of the current state of the art of embodiment research in clinical psychology has been expounded in order to highlight the key role that embodied conceptualization has on the understanding and explanation of several mental disorders, such as eating disorders, schizophrenia and depression. Evidence has suggested that mental disorders may be explained as disturbances of embodiment, from the disembodiment to the hyperembodiment. In order to understand how some clinical conditions are affected by cultural models, we propose (...) and define a new framework called Exbodiment, complementary to the Embodiment approach to cognition. Mental disorder is strictly related to the subject-culture interaction that may be explained as a two way process in which embodiment and exbodiment are complementary points of view. In this perspective, embodiment may be seen as the “top-down” process, while exbodiment the “bottom-up” one. The introduction of exbodiment conceptualization highlights how subject is both receiver and interpreter of social influence. Subject is the target of a cultural pressure and, at the same time, enacts its own embodied culture in world. Exbodiment conceptualization may help clinicians to better understand and explain the role of culture in the onset and maintenance of mental disorders. (shrink)

This study concentrates on two kinds of video games, Massive Online Battle Arena and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Game, and examines the scores obtained by the subjects in the sample. Score...

This article aims at providing a critical review of the main studies about Mafia in a theoretical psychological and socio-anthropological framework, and investigating the perception of the phenomenon in relation to moral disengagement and values orientation in two groups of Sicilian teenagers, living in contexts with different Mafia density. Today Mafia is represented as a socio-psychological phenomenon, which has managed to make culture, community, family, and individuals coincide; it is founded on an individualistic social conception according to which violence is (...) the strongest form of self-achievement. (shrink)

Outdoor education is a pedagogical orientation that has been present for years in the educational institutions of the municipality of Modena; the latter, through research, monitors the trend in order to identify and resolve problems. Examining the professionalism of the staff in the outdoor education field and the limitations in implementing the practice, this contribution highlights how various factors constitute an obstacle to carrying out the activities, even in the presence of adequate training; the constraints that emerged concern relationships with (...) colleagues and parents, bureaucracy and the physical structure of the service itself. The study therefore offers ideas to take into consideration for the updating and training of educational personnel on outdoor education practices. (shrink)

This paper examines Aristotle’s treatment of friendship and self-love in Books VIII and IX of the Nicomachean Ethics. The purpose is to explore what Aristotle means by self, and his understanding of why selves become, engaged in benevolent relationships with others. Some discussion of Aristotle’s influence on Kierkegaard helps to bring out the significance of Aristotle’s insights about the self. Aristotle explains how the self’s movement toward actuality grounds friendship and benevolence. True friendship and all endeavors to “produce” good, derive (...) from love for one’s own being as mediated by one’s intelligence or nous. All such authentic endeavors constitute an effortto actualize one’s self, to act nobly, to be in one’s achievement and to panicipate in the community of being. (shrink)

Il presente lavoro intende cogliere l’originalità e la fecondità della prospettiva di Edith Stein sul fondamento antropologico ed etico dell’educativo. Mediante l’analisi del radicamento antropologico della dimensione formativa, che si fonda sulla la struttura antropologica della persona umana, si pone l’obiettivo di offrire i fondamenti antropologici ed etici alla relazione educativa, concentrandosi sul senso dell’educazione intesa come formazione ( Bildung ) integrale dell’uomo.

In Book IX of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the motivating psychology of the benefactor. He finds that self-love is the crucial element of consciousness that accounts for the benefactor’s desire to participate constructively in the community of being. His analysis invites comparison with Aquinas’s treatment of the theological virtue of caritas. Similarities are found, but Aquinas’s approach leads to a discussion of divine beatitude where we find a somewhat surprising analogy between Aristotle’s human and Aquinas’s divine benefactor. For Aquinas (...) finds that divine beatitude is also a self-love flowing outward to the divine creative project. (shrink)

O âmbito ético constitui, para Romano Guardini, um dos elementos que especificam o evento educativo. Olhar para a educação, segundo Guardini, significa captar as potencialidades e as tarefas confiadas a tal âmbito de experiência em toda a sua profundidade e riqueza. A formação, deste modo, não pode prescindir de realizar a plena humanização do humano que é dada pela perspectiva ética. Por meio da análise dos atos fundamentais da vida ética, o presente estudo busca evidenciar que realizar a própria humanidade (...) é uma tarefa educativa, a qual tem o seu fundamento na dimensão ética, compreendendo o princípio de humanização do homem. Palavras-chave: Homem. Ética. Educação. Ação. Formação. (shrink)

A presente reflexão pretende partir da afirmação da “morte de Deus”, que constitui em Nietzsche uma das suas concepções fundamentais e, poder-se-ia dizer, também, a chave de leitura do seu filosofar. Deste ponto de partida, o estudo procura extrair e identificar, sem para tal ser exaustivo, as emergências antropológicas e éticas do pensar nietzschiano. Palavras-chave: Übermensch. Dever ser. Vontade de potência. Riqueza antropológica. Ética.

v. 1. Logica, gnoseologia, ontologia.--v. 2. Etica, giuridica, politica.--v. 3. Estetica, semantica, istorica. 1947.

[v. 1] Corso A. -- [v. 2] Corso B, Intorno al materialismo storico.