Book Chapters by Theron E Fairchild
Celebrating Giants and Trail- blazers: A-Z of Who’s Who in Creativity Research and Related Fields, 2021
This chapter discusses the career of Steven Pritzker. Although many creators tend to stay within ... more This chapter discusses the career of Steven Pritzker. Although many creators tend to stay within their respective domains throughout their careers, and scholars tend to be grounded in academics, Pritzker started in the arts and later recreated himself as an applied scholar of creativity. He began his career as a comedy writer in network television, working his way from Executive Story Editor of the Emmy winning Room 222 and the Mary Tyler Moore Show to eventually becoming Executive Producer on subsequent sitcoms. In the 1990s, Pritzker left television to pursue a doctorate in educational psy- chology. With backgrounds in business and counseling, Pritzker engaged topics ranging from organizational culture and expressive arts to substance abuse and humanistic therapies. He applied his expertise to writing, teaching, and life coaching, before founding the Master and Doctoral Specializations in creativity studies at Saybrook University. Pritzker conceived and became Co- Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Creativity, a comprehensive work currently in its third edition, which provides a wealth of information on crea- tivity research. Pritzker is a Fellow and served as President of the American Psychological Association’s Division 10, Psychology of Creativity, Aesthet- ics, and the Arts.
Encyclopedia of Creativity, 2020
Approaches utilizing computerized text analysis (CTA) offer new ways of assessing all types of wr... more Approaches utilizing computerized text analysis (CTA) offer new ways of assessing all types of writing, including creative writing. One advantage is the ability to see writing beyond the limits of the human reader, to help understand the constructions of the author and the psychology of the text. This entry presents a few of the quantitative strategies, techniques, and software choices for conducting CTA research. A selection of published findings on creative writing, ranging from classical studies to the contemporary bestselling novel, are reviewed.
Encyclopedia of Creativity, 2020
Novels are products of long-form narrative fiction, a domain-specific type of creative writing. T... more Novels are products of long-form narrative fiction, a domain-specific type of creative writing. The novel is as much commercial product as aesthetic object, as much the result of technological development as of cultural change. This entry presents an overview of the novel and how it informs a creativity understanding of domain, authors, and field. Literature about the novel is diverse, coming from historians, philosophers, psychologists, creativity researchers, literary critics, literary agents, writing teachers, and novelists themselves. This entry considers narrative form, representational rendering, manuscript development, and the role of emotion. The historical influence of women authors is discussed.
Journal Articles by Theron E Fairchild
Kirin, 2018
This is a research essay on the development of the author's experiences and education in fiction ... more This is a research essay on the development of the author's experiences and education in fiction writing and the psychology of writing. The essay is taken from the author's doctoral dissertation.
Kirin, 2020
This is a research essay on the development of the author's experiences and education in fiction ... more This is a research essay on the development of the author's experiences and education in fiction writing and the psychology of writing. The essay is taken from the author's doctoral dissertation.
International Management Review: Kanagawa University, 2018
The study addresses the presence of Japanese companies in online English news markets globally. T... more The study addresses the presence of Japanese companies in online English news markets globally. The primary instrument is graphical representation, based on searches conducted of the News on the Web (NOW) corpus. Unique keyword identities and quantifiable assessment point to word-frequency presence across 15 English language news markets. The study is a data treatment of recent history, and is just as much about assessing Japanese business presence as it is about the methods deployed to conduct the research. The study follows a type of historical science approach.
International Management Review: Kanagawa University, 2017
Japan and its modern history have played a major role in global developments over the past centur... more Japan and its modern history have played a major role in global developments over the past century. Knowledge of this must pass through the medium of language. In this case, the medium is American English. The study investigates the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA), to flush out language patterns in how Japan, its history, and its economics, have emerged in published American sources. The investigation does this through a simple word-frequency analysis of English vocabulary relevant to Japan. For comparison and insight, it also tests word frequencies related to China and Europe. The paper presents quantified and charted findings, to view publishing patterns in American English, and how those patterns graft onto important events in Japanese history, such as the asset price bubble of 1986-1991.
Kirin, 2017
The paper addresses the history and development of dystopian fiction, from its roots in ancient u... more The paper addresses the history and development of dystopian fiction, from its roots in ancient utopian writing, through its emergence within 20th century modernism, science fiction, and beyond. As several scholars suggested, dystopia is more than a genre, but also a trope, or a kind of outlook, feeling, or motif, which sets it apart in important ways. The paper discusses dystopia’s relationship with utopia and anti-utopia, and its narrative and expressive distinctions. Dystopian fiction itself developed through historical periods within the 20th century, ones that entailed revolution, the Cold War, and major social-critical changes. The names who most-influenced and contributed to the dystopian fiction canon, especially prior to the 1970s, were not genre writers, but eminent authors of literature. The paper addresses the emergence of the female dystopian author over the past four decades, and mentions important changes to the genre in the 21st century.
International Management Review: Kanagawa University, 2017
The Big Four, in corporate English school history in Japan, set the standards for language commun... more The Big Four, in corporate English school history in Japan, set the standards for language communication as a commodity, as well as drove and dominated a market that annually generated billions in Japanese yen and reached hundreds of thousands in student-customers. The paper addresses the historical rise, decline, and resiliency of this industry, from the perspectives of management, marketing, and its underlying consumer psychology. The paper begins with critiques on the Japanese system of English education and the need for communicative training, followed by recent research from social, educational, and language psychology, as well as neuroscience, which collectively support why the need for such communication was desired in Japan. The paper next explores how that desire was commodified and marketed, how the student became a customer, and how the role of teacher became a sales asset. The focus on the Big Four schools presents a brief history of how two of them survived, how two failed, and how the market for private English has changed, from its rocketing beginning during the Japanese bubble economy of the 1980s, through the changes and downturns that occurred up the present.
International Management Review: Kanagawa Universtiy, 2016
Human emotions constitute a complex interaction of biological and cultural cues. These are inter... more Human emotions constitute a complex interaction of biological and cultural cues. These are interpreted by an individual’s mind and body, and may or may not manifest through behavior. The paper briefly reviews the study of emotion, or affect, as it has evolved through the history of the West. The focus is on an interdisciplinary overlapping of humanities, arts, sciences, and philosophy. With advances in scientific fields such as neuroscience, complemented by stronger scholarship in social, psychological, and cultural studies, the most recent affective turn might be the stepping off point for the emergence of a sustainable affective science. The paper touches on a selection of theories and arguments headed in that direction.
International Management Review: Kanagawa University, 2016
The paper presents an introduction to cross-cultural studies on interpersonal and organizational ... more The paper presents an introduction to cross-cultural studies on interpersonal and organizational conflict styles. It addresses the typologies of collectivist-individualist and interdependent-independent, focusing on two styles of conflict management in particular: integrating and avoiding. The studies under review primarily concern participants identified as Chinese or Japanese. Other Asians, as well as Americans, are also reviewed for the purpose of comparison. At the same time, in discussions about East versus West, or group-values versus individual-values, several researchers suggest not to overgeneralize. Whether evaluating cross-culturally or intra-culturally, the research and opinions covered in this paper, and elsewhere, convey interactions that are far more complex in real life than such dichotomies as Asian/non-Asian or individual/collective.
Emotion, problem solving, and moral development are typically treated as three distinct areas of ... more Emotion, problem solving, and moral development are typically treated as three distinct areas of psychology and social science. However, there is clear overlap, if not inseparability, in their manifestation in real life. Humans do not form morals in a vacuum any more than they emote or solve problems in one. Likewise, they do not form morals separately from their emotional states or how they solve problems. The current paper reviews work from various fields, to draw attention to how complexity and uncertainty, imagination and problem solving, and emotion and morality, comprise an integral framework for how people form thought, behavior, and ethical practice. The formation process is not fixed, but ongoing and affected by both neurophysiology and culture.
Dissertation by Theron E Fairchild
ProQuest, 2019
This dissertation used word-frequency analysis to differentiate the psycholinguistic characterist... more This dissertation used word-frequency analysis to differentiate the psycholinguistic characteristics of fiction writing, specifically genre writing with a focus on masterwork dystopian novels. The primary research question was: What does a word-frequency analysis indicate about the psychological characteristics of masterwork dystopian novels? This question entailed two primary support questions: Does the dystopian canon of masterwork novels exhibit more psychoaffective distancing than other genres of novels (i.e., is this distancing an individuating characteristic)? Can embodiment be represented and discussed through a quantitative psychological word-frequency assessment?
In the respective literatures, textual embodiment is characteristic of fiction writing, the dystopian genre is partly defined by psychological characteristics, and word usages reveal the disposition of a narrative voice. Addressing this intersection of fiction, genre, and psychology, word-frequency characteristics helped (i) distinguish novels from other types of writing, (ii) measure embodiment and emotional tone in a text, (iii) describe and individuate dystopian fiction, and (iv) differentiate dystopian works and authors.
Conference Presentations by Theron E Fairchild
The position paper considers ethics in relation to the fields of creativity and history. Though r... more The position paper considers ethics in relation to the fields of creativity and history. Though routinely attached to contemporary areas such as politics and healthcare, ethics have largely remained ignored in historical scholarship despite their unspoken relevance. At the same time, the subject has entered the study of creativity and that of the creative individual. How, then, should the biography of a historical creative individual be approached? The traditional approach has depended heavily on what is known as narrative coherence, which remains popular for its ability to serve audience and publishing interests. However, as a selection of scholars have argued, this same coherence routinely alienates the perspectives, works, and stories of those who reside outside the mainstream, including the likes of artists, dissident writers, and other creative or fringe individuals. The current paper suggests that ethics have always been an unconscious part of narrative writing, particularly the biography, and should be consciously moved into practices of methodology.
Whether dealing with globalization and law, environment and sustainability, or human rights and e... more Whether dealing with globalization and law, environment and sustainability, or human rights and ethics, the challenges to human civilization continue to evolve. These challenges, in turn, demand our greater understanding of the world, its complex interdependencies, and ultimately our human selves. Taken a step further, they also insist that we become more aware of how we specifically address problems and create solutions. Hence, this current paper addresses a few key topics in the neuroscientific approach to human creativity. The literature reviewed comes specifically from perspectives in cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology, neuroimaging, and psychopathology. The paper’s purpose is to strip away some of the misconceptions about the brain and problem-solving processes, in an effort to provide deeper insight on how human neurological systems are thought to actually operate and influence creative decisions. Though much more in the neuroscience of creativity remains to be investigated, the results thus far clearly reinforce what has already been noted in related research: addressing problems and creating solutions are handled by the brain in a variety of ways. Unlike the popular depiction of the brain as a static, input-output machine, one rigidly divided between left and right hemispheres, the human neurological system operates much more like a multi-tasking network of converging, diverging, overlapping, and conflicting pursuits.
This paper explores what has been termed artificial consciousness (AC) (a.k.a., synthetic conscio... more This paper explores what has been termed artificial consciousness (AC) (a.k.a., synthetic consciousness or artificial sentience). Related to its companion, artificial intelligence (AI), the subject might sound more like science fiction or fantasy than possibility. Though humans have been speculating about nonhuman consciousness for centuries, it was in the 1960s when computer science promised the rise of machines with human-level abilities. While the real-world challenges persist, we went ahead and built autonomous, fictional entities like HAL 9000 and the Terminator. This task has been relatively simple for standard narrative, by merely placing anthropomorphic character over a machine. In reality, constructing the human platform, through silicon or otherwise, is more than a matter of physical engineering or reshuffling human qualities. In fact, a truly artificial agent has very little need to replicate human intelligence or other capabilities. Consequently, the potential emergence of real-world AC could have less to do with our machines than with the success or failure of our minds to comprehend it. Given the typical portrayal of AI in fiction, as talking bipedal robots and doomsday machines, and our centuries of misunderstanding organic life forms, including our own, we might simply be incapable of imagining where the future is headed.
Magazine Articles by Theron E Fairchild
The bombs were dropped. A war was ended. Japanese mourned. Americans rejoiced. The weapons were t... more The bombs were dropped. A war was ended. Japanese mourned. Americans rejoiced. The weapons were tragic but necessary. Order ensued. Prosperity emerged. Japan and the United States became friends.
The first accounts of any historical event tend to become the benchmarks by which all subsequent accounts are measured. And for the past seventy years, this popular narrative, concerning the atomic bombs and the final chapter of the Asia-Pacific War, has continued relatively unabated in the global imagination. Backed by early years of scholarship and official government positions on both sides of the Pacific, the story eventually became known as the traditional account. It remains an easy pill to swallow. The weapons came first, the surrender happened shortly thereafter. Thus, the first caused the second. What is left to know?
Papers by Theron E Fairchild
Institute of International Business and Management, Project Paper 58, 2023
The purpose of this report is to share two years of data that were collected in EFL classes withi... more The purpose of this report is to share two years of data that were collected in EFL classes within the International Business Communications (IBC) course at Kanagawa University. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the fall term of 2021 was conducted entirely online, whereas the spring term of 2022 was conducted entirely in a live campus classroom. This situation presented a unique opportunity to evaluate and compare student performances alongside self-reports on attitude and affect. In particular, could the data reveal any signals as to which students might perform better than others in IBC English classes? Could an assessment indicate any specific behaviors or evaluation questions that might predict which students were likely to struggle? Could the data inform the instructor on how to design student tasks and evaluate performances?
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Book Chapters by Theron E Fairchild
Journal Articles by Theron E Fairchild
Dissertation by Theron E Fairchild
In the respective literatures, textual embodiment is characteristic of fiction writing, the dystopian genre is partly defined by psychological characteristics, and word usages reveal the disposition of a narrative voice. Addressing this intersection of fiction, genre, and psychology, word-frequency characteristics helped (i) distinguish novels from other types of writing, (ii) measure embodiment and emotional tone in a text, (iii) describe and individuate dystopian fiction, and (iv) differentiate dystopian works and authors.
Conference Presentations by Theron E Fairchild
Magazine Articles by Theron E Fairchild
The first accounts of any historical event tend to become the benchmarks by which all subsequent accounts are measured. And for the past seventy years, this popular narrative, concerning the atomic bombs and the final chapter of the Asia-Pacific War, has continued relatively unabated in the global imagination. Backed by early years of scholarship and official government positions on both sides of the Pacific, the story eventually became known as the traditional account. It remains an easy pill to swallow. The weapons came first, the surrender happened shortly thereafter. Thus, the first caused the second. What is left to know?
Papers by Theron E Fairchild
In the respective literatures, textual embodiment is characteristic of fiction writing, the dystopian genre is partly defined by psychological characteristics, and word usages reveal the disposition of a narrative voice. Addressing this intersection of fiction, genre, and psychology, word-frequency characteristics helped (i) distinguish novels from other types of writing, (ii) measure embodiment and emotional tone in a text, (iii) describe and individuate dystopian fiction, and (iv) differentiate dystopian works and authors.
The first accounts of any historical event tend to become the benchmarks by which all subsequent accounts are measured. And for the past seventy years, this popular narrative, concerning the atomic bombs and the final chapter of the Asia-Pacific War, has continued relatively unabated in the global imagination. Backed by early years of scholarship and official government positions on both sides of the Pacific, the story eventually became known as the traditional account. It remains an easy pill to swallow. The weapons came first, the surrender happened shortly thereafter. Thus, the first caused the second. What is left to know?