Rhett Diessner
Biographic Data
| ID | 4499693 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rhett Diessner |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rhett |
| FAMILY NAME | Diessner |
| SIGNATURE | DIESSNER R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lewis Clark State College |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2186-6308 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 19 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Moral beauty, natural beauty, and artistic beauty cause self-transcendent emotions
Self-transcendent emotions (STEs) are a proximal cause of moral behavior, and contribute to individual and collective flourishing. While natural, artistic, and moral beauty have been shown to cause particular STEs, no published research has examined the differential influence among those three forms of beauty on causing a range of STEs. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four video conditions: natural beauty, artistic beauty, moral bea…
Development of the Engagement with Beauty Scale‐Revised, Japanese Version ( EBS‐R‐J ), and Confirmation of its Validity and Reliability
Appreciation of beauty is an ability to find, recognize, and emotionally respond to beauty. It is often considered to be associated with several psychological fields, such as forms of the good life, love, transcendence, and exploration. The Engagement with Beauty Scale‐Revised (EBS‐R) is one of the most comprehensive scales for measuring the beauty appreciation trait. In this study, we have developed the Japanese version of this scale (EBS‐R‐J) a…
Effects of alexithymia and its subfactors on emotional response to music
Alexithymia is a trait characterized by decreased emotional response to visual or verbal stimuli. However, Lyvers et al. suggest that alexithymia is positively correlated with the magnitude of emotional response to music (ERM). This study reexamines their findings in two sets of Asian population (China [ n = 344] and Japan [ n = 341]) using online surveys to investigate the subfactors of alexithymia. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Geneva E…
Altar-ing aesthetic emotions
Natural and Moral Beauty Have Indirect Effects on Proenvironmental Behavior
The purpose of this study was to examine the differential effectiveness of video-induced emotions on motivation for proenvironmental behavior (PEB). Participants (n = 205) were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: viewing short videos of (1) natural beauty, (2) environmental degradation (ugly nature), or (3) moral beauty; and two control conditions: videos of (4) mundane nature (rocks in a desert) and (5) non-nature (flute making).…
Can Beauty Save the World? Appreciation of Beauty Predicts Proenvironmental Behavior and Moral Elevation Better Than 23 Other Character Strengths
Biodiversity and unified ecological systems are deteriorating worldwide. Ecology is characterized by unity-in-diversity. An experience of beauty is defined by a majority of philosophers as apprehending the unity-in-diversity of the object under contemplation. Therefore, it seems plausible that engaging with nature's beauty will motivate people toward proenvironmental, ecologically sound, behavior. This study examines the relationships between thr…
Olfactory and gustatory beauty
Selflessness
This article aims to illustrate four major concepts shared by the protagonists of cognitive-developmentalism, such as Piaget, Kohlberg, and Kegan, and the primary authors of the sacred writings of the Bahá’í Faith—Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi. These concepts include: a developmental teleology, the stage-like nature of development, the importance of an epistemic focus, and selflessness. As the Bahá’í teachings stress a development…
Understanding the Beauty Appreciation Trait
Identifying with Nature Mediates the Influence of Valuing Nature's Beauty on Proenvironmental Behaviors
The issue of motivating individuals to engage in proenvironmental behaviors (PEB; Scott, Amel, Koger, & Manning, 2016) has become increasingly important. Although research has shown that nature identity, particularly a sense of connectedness to nature (CN), predicts PEB, the present study's goal was to better understand a previously unexplained connection between CN and engagement with natural beauty (ENB) in predicting PEB. Unsurprisingly, the C…
Beauty Will Save the World
Self-Actualization and the Tragedy of Beauty
A tragedy of beauty has occurred in Western culture and perhaps worldwide: The importance of beauty for a flourishing and self-actualizing life is largely going unnoticed by both the general public and by psychologists. Philosophers, sacred scriptures, and a range of empirical findings point to the centrality of engaging with beauty for a meaningful life and suggest engagement with beauty as a means of pursuing self-actualization. However, not on…
Ten Once-a-Week Brief Beauty Walks Increase Appreciation of Natural Beauty
In an action research experimental design, the experimental group participated in 10 directed-attention natural beauty walks, a control group took 10 walks without directed attention to natural beauty, and a comparison group simply completed pre- and posttest measures. The goal of the study was to determine if the directed-attention beauty walks would cause (a) an increase in noticing and paying attention to natural beauty, (b) an increase in lev…
Describing the Neoclassical Psyche Embedded in Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love
sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love was examined to identify the structure of the psyche implied in that theory. Sternberg's theory posits three components of human functioning to explain the phenomenon of love in close relationships: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Analysis of these three components indicates that they align with a neoclassical model of the human psyche. A neoclassical psyche consists of at least three fundamental, irreduci…
Predicting Adolescent Moral Reasoning from Family Climate
The climate of parental interactions with adolescents at 14 years of age, and its longitudinal prediction to adolescent moral reasoning at 16 years of age, was studied in 40 Canadian families. Three measures of family climate were obtained, including the authoritative parenting style construct of Baumrind, the transactive dialogue measure of Berkowitz and Gibbs, and a novel index of responsiveness to the “child’s voice” in the stories told by par…
Nonviolence and human values
Individuals such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully employed nonviolent strategies to attain significant political goals. Despite the implications of their achievements, psychologists have rarely studied predispositions to nonviolent behavior empirically. The purpose of this article is to link the current literature on human values with the literature on nonviolence from a Gandhian perspective. This study investigates the relation…
Kohlbergian narratives
Kohlbergian narratives
The Criterion-Related Validity of the Academic Ability Scale of the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery for a Sample of American Indian Students
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and the Sequential Tests of Educational Progress were given to a sample of 37 Yakima Indian students. The predictive validity of the Academic Ability Scale was statistically significant with respect to four of five STEP subtests
Predicting Adolescent Moral Reasoning from Family Climate
The climate of parental interactions with adolescents at 14 years of age, and its longitudinal prediction to adolescent moral reasoning at 16 years of age, was studied in 40 Canadian families. Three measures of family climate were obtained, including the authoritative parenting style construct of Baumrind, the transactive dialogue measure of Berkowitz and Gibbs, and a novel index of responsiveness to the “child’s voice” in the stories told by par…
Nonviolence and human values
Individuals such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully employed nonviolent strategies to attain significant political goals. Despite the implications of their achievements, psychologists have rarely studied predispositions to nonviolent behavior empirically. The purpose of this article is to link the current literature on human values with the literature on nonviolence from a Gandhian perspective. This study investigates the relation…
Self-Actualization and the Tragedy of Beauty
A tragedy of beauty has occurred in Western culture and perhaps worldwide: The importance of beauty for a flourishing and self-actualizing life is largely going unnoticed by both the general public and by psychologists. Philosophers, sacred scriptures, and a range of empirical findings point to the centrality of engaging with beauty for a meaningful life and suggest engagement with beauty as a means of pursuing self-actualization. However, not on…
The Criterion-Related Validity of the Academic Ability Scale of the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery for a Sample of American Indian Students
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and the Sequential Tests of Educational Progress were given to a sample of 37 Yakima Indian students. The predictive validity of the Academic Ability Scale was statistically significant with respect to four of five STEP subtests
Kohlbergian narratives
Kohlbergian narratives
Nonviolence and human values
Individuals such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully employed nonviolent strategies to attain significant political goals. Despite the implications of their achievements, psychologists have rarely studied predispositions to nonviolent behavior empirically. The purpose of this article is to link the current literature on human values with the literature on nonviolence from a Gandhian perspective. This study investigates the relation…
Predicting Adolescent Moral Reasoning from Family Climate
The climate of parental interactions with adolescents at 14 years of age, and its longitudinal prediction to adolescent moral reasoning at 16 years of age, was studied in 40 Canadian families. Three measures of family climate were obtained, including the authoritative parenting style construct of Baumrind, the transactive dialogue measure of Berkowitz and Gibbs, and a novel index of responsiveness to the “child’s voice” in the stories told by par…
Describing the Neoclassical Psyche Embedded in Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love
sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love was examined to identify the structure of the psyche implied in that theory. Sternberg's theory posits three components of human functioning to explain the phenomenon of love in close relationships: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Analysis of these three components indicates that they align with a neoclassical model of the human psyche. A neoclassical psyche consists of at least three fundamental, irreduci…
Ten Once-a-Week Brief Beauty Walks Increase Appreciation of Natural Beauty
In an action research experimental design, the experimental group participated in 10 directed-attention natural beauty walks, a control group took 10 walks without directed attention to natural beauty, and a comparison group simply completed pre- and posttest measures. The goal of the study was to determine if the directed-attention beauty walks would cause (a) an increase in noticing and paying attention to natural beauty, (b) an increase in lev…
Self-Actualization and the Tragedy of Beauty
A tragedy of beauty has occurred in Western culture and perhaps worldwide: The importance of beauty for a flourishing and self-actualizing life is largely going unnoticed by both the general public and by psychologists. Philosophers, sacred scriptures, and a range of empirical findings point to the centrality of engaging with beauty for a meaningful life and suggest engagement with beauty as a means of pursuing self-actualization. However, not on…
Identifying with Nature Mediates the Influence of Valuing Nature's Beauty on Proenvironmental Behaviors
The issue of motivating individuals to engage in proenvironmental behaviors (PEB; Scott, Amel, Koger, & Manning, 2016) has become increasingly important. Although research has shown that nature identity, particularly a sense of connectedness to nature (CN), predicts PEB, the present study's goal was to better understand a previously unexplained connection between CN and engagement with natural beauty (ENB) in predicting PEB. Unsurprisingly, the C…
Beauty Will Save the World
Understanding the Beauty Appreciation Trait
Olfactory and gustatory beauty
Selflessness
This article aims to illustrate four major concepts shared by the protagonists of cognitive-developmentalism, such as Piaget, Kohlberg, and Kegan, and the primary authors of the sacred writings of the Bahá’í Faith—Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi. These concepts include: a developmental teleology, the stage-like nature of development, the importance of an epistemic focus, and selflessness. As the Bahá’í teachings stress a development…
Altar-ing aesthetic emotions
Natural and Moral Beauty Have Indirect Effects on Proenvironmental Behavior
The purpose of this study was to examine the differential effectiveness of video-induced emotions on motivation for proenvironmental behavior (PEB). Participants (n = 205) were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: viewing short videos of (1) natural beauty, (2) environmental degradation (ugly nature), or (3) moral beauty; and two control conditions: videos of (4) mundane nature (rocks in a desert) and (5) non-nature (flute making).…
Can Beauty Save the World? Appreciation of Beauty Predicts Proenvironmental Behavior and Moral Elevation Better Than 23 Other Character Strengths
Biodiversity and unified ecological systems are deteriorating worldwide. Ecology is characterized by unity-in-diversity. An experience of beauty is defined by a majority of philosophers as apprehending the unity-in-diversity of the object under contemplation. Therefore, it seems plausible that engaging with nature's beauty will motivate people toward proenvironmental, ecologically sound, behavior. This study examines the relationships between thr…
Effects of alexithymia and its subfactors on emotional response to music
Alexithymia is a trait characterized by decreased emotional response to visual or verbal stimuli. However, Lyvers et al. suggest that alexithymia is positively correlated with the magnitude of emotional response to music (ERM). This study reexamines their findings in two sets of Asian population (China [ n = 344] and Japan [ n = 341]) using online surveys to investigate the subfactors of alexithymia. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Geneva E…
Development of the Engagement with Beauty Scale‐Revised, Japanese Version ( EBS‐R‐J ), and Confirmation of its Validity and Reliability
Appreciation of beauty is an ability to find, recognize, and emotionally respond to beauty. It is often considered to be associated with several psychological fields, such as forms of the good life, love, transcendence, and exploration. The Engagement with Beauty Scale‐Revised (EBS‐R) is one of the most comprehensive scales for measuring the beauty appreciation trait. In this study, we have developed the Japanese version of this scale (EBS‐R‐J) a…
Moral beauty, natural beauty, and artistic beauty cause self-transcendent emotions
Self-transcendent emotions (STEs) are a proximal cause of moral behavior, and contribute to individual and collective flourishing. While natural, artistic, and moral beauty have been shown to cause particular STEs, no published research has examined the differential influence among those three forms of beauty on causing a range of STEs. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four video conditions: natural beauty, artistic beauty, moral bea…
Psychology (17 works) · Art (10 works) · Beauty (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Aesthetics (9 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Trait (5 works) · Developmental psychology (4 works)