Managing Contextual Complexity in an Experiential Learning Course: A Dynamic Systems Approach through the Identification of Turning Points in Students' Emotional Trajectories.

This study adopts a dynamic systems approach to investigate how individuals successfully manage contextual complexity. To that end, we tracked individuals' emotional trajectories during a challenging training course, seeking qualitative changes-turning points-and we tested their relationship with the perceived complexity of the training. The research context was a 5-day higher education course based on process-oriented experiential learning, and the sample consisted of 17 students. The students used a five-point Likert scale to rate the intensity of 16 emotions and the complexity of the training on 8 measurement points. Monte Carlo permutation tests enabled to identify 30 turning points in the 272 emotional trajectories analyzed (17 students * 16 emotions each). 83% of the turning points indicated a change of pattern in the emotional trajectories that consisted of: (a) increasingly intense positive emotions or (b) decreasingly intense negative emotions. These turning points also coincided with particularly complex periods in the training as perceived by the participants (p = 0.003, and p = 0.001 respectively). The relationship between positively-trended turning points in the students' emotional trajectories and the complexity of the training may be interpreted as evidence of a successful management of the cognitive conflict arising from the clash between the students' prior ways of meaning-making and the challenging demands of the training. One of the strengths of this study is that it provides a relatively simple procedure for identifying turning points in developmental trajectories, which can be applied to various longitudinal experiences that are very common in educational and developmental contexts. Additionally, the findings contribute to sustaining that the assumption that complex contextual demands lead unfailingly to individuals' learning is incomplete. Instead, it is how individuals manage complexity which may or may not lead to learning. Finally, this study can also be considered a first step in research on the developmental potential of process-oriented experiential learning training.

Transmanubrial transclavicular approach in tumors of the brachial plexus.

The standard transclavicular approach allows only limited and narrow exposure if the cervical thoracic region for the resection of tumors of the brachial plexus is involved. We report 2 cases of retroclavicular tumors of the brachial plexus. We performed a complete resection in both cases using the transmanubrial transclavicular approach. This approach consists of retracting an osteomuscular flap that involves the medial portion of the clavicle, part of the sternal manubrium, the sternoclavicular joint, and the sternocleidomastoid muscle. We describe and discuss this approach, which provides access to the entire brachial plexus and the major vessels, thereby affording excellent control of the vessels; it is the approach of choice for tumors in this location.

Dealing with homosexuality in a homophobic culture: a self-organization approach.

The psychological basis of homophobia (Madureira, Integr Psych Behav, 2007, doi:10.1007/s12124-007-9024-9) analyzes the relationships between sexuality, gender, culture and power as they relate to the phenomena of homophobia. Two theoretical models, the Semiotic Regulatory System and the two processes of Heimweh and Fernweh, are employed to demonstrate the embodiment of homophobic prejudices internalized through affective meaning making processes. These models are integrated in a self-organizational approach to describe in more detail top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top processes, which embody homophobic prejudices with sexual orientations and a sense of identity. The same case proposed by Madureira is chosen to be reinterpreted, and clarify the new distinctions that could be part of strategies of intervention against homophobia.