How does one speak of social psychology in a nation in transition?

Abstract: Although South Africa's transition into nationhood has been remarkable by all measures, persistent inequalities remain. These are directly traceable to the impact of the social engineering of apartheid which has left a legacy of poverty and a lack of education. In this talk, I focus on three key dilemmas for South Africans: identity as a nation of citizens with multiple identities, capacity for self‐knowledge and self‐acceptance and openness to new impulses. Acceptance of multiple identities is widespread but how deep is the acceptance of difference, especially when conflicts of opinion emerge? Finding a language of self‐knowledge and acceptance requires a language that enables us to gain greater mastery of the complexities of living in a diverse society. How can psychology help with this task? In African cultures illness is described as a visitation from the ancestors: affected persons become wounded healers whose healing powers come from their acknowledged weakness. To what extent might you, as analytical psychologists, help find the ritual processes and language to be effective healers of your own nation?     

Does each hemisphere monitor the ongoing process in the contralateral one?

The present study was conducted to examine hemispheric division of labor in the initial processing and error monitoring in tasks for which hemispheric specialization exists. We used lexical decision as a left hemisphere task and bargraph judgment as a right hemisphere task, and manipulated cognitive load. Participants had to respond to one of two stimuli presented to both visual fields and were instructed to correct their errors. To achieve enough correctable errors, participants were encouraged to respond quickly by using a bonus system. The results showed the classical asymmetry for initial responses in both tasks and reversed asymmetry for corrections in the bargraph task at both load conditions, and in the lexical decision task at the high load condition. The results suggest that each hemisphere monitors the ongoing process in the contralateral one and that the dissociation of initial process and its monitoring grows with load of task.     

50% off or buy one get one free? Frame preference as a function of consumable nature in dairy products

Previous studies on how framing differentially affects consumer perceptions of value from equivalent deals indicate that perceptions of deal value from price-saving versus extra-product promotions are moderated by the stock-up characteristic of the category. In this study, the authors explored the relationship between stock-up characteristic and frame preference and the influence of the consumable nature of goods on frame preference. An experiment involving 223 student participants showed that consumable nature, but not stock-up characteristic, affected frame preference. The authors discuss the implications of this finding for the study of information framing and how it impacts consumer judgment and decision making.     

The Russian Orthodox Church in Western Europe: one or many?

This article analyses the way Russian Orthodox communities, primarily in Western Europe, cope with the ecclesiological challenge of de-territorialisation and increased individual mobility in the modern world. It focuses on the developments within the three parallel Russian Orthodox jurisdictions in Western Europe, especially since the fall of the Iron Curtain. These developments can primarily be summarised in the context of two dilemmas. First, there is the question whether the ‘temporary’ solutions that were put in place as a result of the Soviet regime’s hostility towards the Russian Orthodox Church should come to an end in the new ‘free’ circumstances since 1990. Second, there is the question of how to reconcile Russian traditions and allegiances with the religious needs of local converts to Orthodoxy. The main developments include the conflict in the UK since the death of Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh in 2003, the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 2007 and, most importantly, the developments in the Archdiocese of Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe (Exarchate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople) since the turn of the millennium. The French debate on the future of Russian Orthodoxy in Western Europe is the most pertinent one and provides a key to understanding the challenges posed to Orthodox ecclesiology in the West.     

Confidence in one’s social beliefs: Implications for belief justification

Philosophers commonly define knowledge as justified true beliefs. A heated debate exists, however, about what makes a belief justified. In this article, we examine the question of belief justification from a psychological perspective, focusing on the subjective confidence in a belief that the person has just formed. Participants decided whether to accept or reject a proposition depicting a social belief, and indicated their confidence in their choice. The task was repeated six times, and choice latency was measured. The results were analyzed within a Self-Consistency Model (SCM) of subjective confidence. According to SCM, the decision to accept or reject a proposition is based on the on-line sampling of representations from a pool of representations associated with the proposition. Respondents behave like intuitive statisticians who infer the central tendency of a population based on a small sample. Confidence depends on the consistency with which the belief was supported across the sampled representations, and reflects the likelihood that a new sample will yield the same decision. The results supported the assumption of a commonly shared population of representations associated with each proposition. Based on this assumption, analyses of within-person consistency and cross-person consensus provided support for the model. As expected, choices that deviated from the person’s own modal judgment or from the consensually held judgment took relatively longer to form and were associated with relatively lower confidence, presumably because they were based on non-representative samples. The results were discussed in relation to major epistemological theories – foundationalism, coherentism and reliabilism.     

A memory span of one? Object identification in 6.5-month-old infants

Infants' abilities to identify objects based on their perceptual features develop gradually during the first year and possibly beyond. Earlier we reported [Káldy, Z., & Leslie, A. M. (2003). Identification of objects in 9-month-old infants: Integrating 'what' and 'where' information. Developmental Science, 6, 360-373] that infants at 9 months of age are able to use shape information to identify two objects and follow their spatiotemporal trajectories behind occlusion. On the other hand, another recent study suggests that infants at 4-5 months of age cannot identify objects by features and bind them to locations [Mareschal, D., & Johnson, M. H. (2003). The "what" and "where" of object representations in infancy. Cognition, 88, 259-276]. In the current study, we investigated the developmental steps between these two benchmark ages by testing 6.5-month-old infants. Experiment 1 and 2 adapted the paradigm used in our previous studies with 9-month-olds that involves two objects hidden sequentially behind separate occluders. This technique allows us to address object identification and to examine whether only one or both object identities are being tracked. Results of experiment 1 showed that 6.5-month-old infants could identify at least one of two objects based on shape and experiment 2 found that this ability holds for only one, the last object hidden. We propose that at this age, infants' working memory capacity is limited to one occluded object if there is a second intervening hiding. If their attention is distracted by an intervening object during the memory maintenance period, the memory of the first object identity appears to be lost. Results of experiment 3 supported this hypothesis with a simpler one-screen setup. Finally, results of experiment 4 show that temporal decay of the memory trace (without an intervening hiding) by itself cannot explain the observed pattern of results. Taken together, our findings suggest that at six months of age infants can store but a single object representation with bound shape information, most likely in the ventral stream. The memory span of one may be due to immaturity of the neural structures underlying working memory such that intervening items overwrite the existing storage.     

The role of rapport in satisfying one’s basic psychological needs

Psychological need satisfaction is essential for daily human functioning and one of its sources is high quality interactions. Rapport is essential to high quality interactions and may be one way that various relationships types can provide the nutriments of healthy functioning. We hypothesized that when people perceive interactions to be higher in rapport, they will experience greater satisfaction of their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. We also explored whether this would be a basic process that would be altered by the relationship between interactants, testing this with multiple operationalizations. We conducted an event-contingent diary study in which participants (n_participants?=?124) responded to items at baseline, each time they experienced an interaction (n_interaction?=?1293), and at two-week follow-up. Supporting hypotheses, rapport in interactions was positively associated with need satisfaction within-persons, between-persons, cross-sectionally, and when examining temporal change. Moreover, rapport tended to predict the satisfaction of one’s needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness independently. Finally, relationships between interactants did not moderate these associations.

     

Which one made it go? The emergence of diagnostic reasoning in preschoolers

We evaluate the hypothesis that children's diagnostic causal reasoning becomes more sophisticated as their understanding of uncertainty advances. When the causal status of candidate causes was known, 3- and 4-year-olds were capable of diagnostic inference (Experiment 1) and could revise their beliefs when told their initial diagnosis was incorrect (Experiment 2). In Experiments 3 and 4, only 4-year-olds made successful inferences when the causal status of candidate causes was uncertain. The results suggest that by age 3, children appreciate that an effect can have multiple candidate causes, but it is not until age 4 that they begin to reason correctly when the causal status of candidate causes is unknown.     

Multiple cues for quantification in infancy: is number one of them?

A review and synthesis of the literature on quantification in infancy and early childhood is provided. In most current conceptualizations, early quantification is assumed to be number based. However, the extant literature provides no clear-cut evidence that infants use number to perform quantitative tasks. Instead, new research suggests that quantification is initially based on nonnumerical cues, such as area and contour length, whether or not a task involves discrete items. The authors discuss the implications of these findings with respect to early quantification and its relation to later numerical development.     

When is one head better than two? Interdependent information in group decision making

Research on information exchange in group decision making has frequently assumed that information items have independent meanings. Relaxing this assumption raises new issues and presents new possibilities. In the experiment presented here, dyads worked on hidden profile decision tasks in which pairs of unshared information items had interdependent meanings. Dyad decisions were more likely to be accurate when each pair of interdependent items was allocated to a single member (a “connected” hidden profile) than when each pair of interdependent items was separated between the two members (a “disconnected” hidden profile). These information distributions influenced the degree to which dyads considered unshared information. Cognitive load was manipulated, and it impaired decision makers’ ability to identify connections among interdependent information items. The differentiated distribution of information inherent in transactive memory systems moderated the negative effects of cognitive load on dyad decisions.     

Time—distance relations in shifting attention between locations on one’s body

Does the time to discriminate the presence or absence of a tactile stimulus depend on its distance from the bodily location to which one has been attending? Subjects were tested by the presentation of air puffs at four of eight possible locations on the body. In each trial of Experiment 1, (1) subjects attended auditorily to an announcement of one of the eight locations; (2) 2 sec later, a second location was announced and, simultaneously, air puffs were presented at a randomly selected four of the eight locations; (3) the subjects reported as quickly as possible on whether or not air puffs had been presented at the second-announced location. Overall, reaction times increased with the distance between the just-attended and the tested locations. Experiment 2 was undertaken to determine whether the operative distance was distance through the subject’s body or directly through three-dimensional space. The subjects were tested as in Experiment 1, but with their arms or legs either side-by-side in front or spread out to each side. Reaction times then depended more on straight-line distance in space than on distance through the body.     

Believing in one’s equal rights: Self-respect as a predictor of assertiveness

In the present research self-respect is defined as a person’s ability to see the self as someone who has the same basic rights and dignity as others. Self-respect fills a gap in previous theorizing on the self because unlike other self-concepts it can be linked to assertiveness and claim making. Self-respect was empirically distinguished from self-competence and self-confidence (Study 1) as well as from psychological entitlement, self-esteem and self-acceptance (Study 2). Self-respect predicted assertive responses above and beyond these other self-scales in two correlational studies (Studies 1 and 3) and one experiment (Study 2). As predicted, self-respect was not related to aggressive responses, but psychological entitlement was (Studies 2 and 3). Implications for future research are discussed.     

Two boys—one event

The background of this paper is an investigation of child survivors from the Holocaust; in a study of interviews of these survivors, it could be concluded that past traumatic experiences are recovered not as memories (in the usual sense of the word), but as affects invading the present. Accordingly, affects seem to tell the story of the past traumatic experiences. In this paper, the author investigates two accounts (separately told by two survivors) of the same event in the Kielce ghetto. The two accounts present similarities, but also differences, and the author discusses these in relation to the concepts of historical and narrative truth, as well as in relation to construction and reconstruction, concluding that the interviews give a sketch of how the experiences have become idiosyncratically registered in the minds of the interviewees.     

Who can spot a potential problem gambler? Testing “it takes one to know one” and acquaintanceship effects in a university student population

How easy is it for individuals to detect low to moderate levels of problem gambling tendencies in others? Are individuals who have problem gambling tendencies themselves, or are close relationship partners, more accurate judges? We examine these questions in two studies involving a total of 336 interacting dyads drawn largely from a university student population. In Study 1 all pairs were strangers, whereas in Study 2 approximately half of the pairs were close. After the “judge” observed the “target” complete a gambling task, the dyad had a face-to-face discussion, with topics including favorite pastimes and personal weaknesses. Judges estimated the target's problem gambling tendencies, and both judges and targets self-reported their own gambling tendencies. There was evidence of modest, albeit somewhat inconsistent, accuracy in individuals’ judgments of the other person's problem gambling tendencies, but no “it takes one to know one” or acquaintanceship effects were apparent. Results also indicated that judges evidenced a projection bias, whereby they saw the target as similar to themselves, especially within close pairs. These results reveal that even after minimal interaction with a stranger individuals can be able to judge the person's gambling tendencies with some accuracy. At the same time, our findings indicating that close others and those with problem gambling tendencies themselves are not more or less tuned in to the early signs of a problem than anyone else suggest that it would be inappropriate to be especially convinced by—or skeptical of—these individuals’ judgments.     

Who's the one in trouble? experimental evidence for a ‘psychic state’ bias in lineups

In two experiments, a bias in lineups was examined, which has mostly been ignored in previous research. The psychic state of the suspects differs from the state of the fillers, in that they face a situation that can lead to personal loss (if they are identified) or relief (if they are not identified). This state might result in detectable behavioural cues, thus making the lineup unfair. Lineups were conducted with randomly chosen mock suspects who were promised money if they were not identified. Lineup samples were recorded on videotape once before the selection of the mock suspect (serving as a control) and once afterwards. The probability of identification of the mock suspect was significantly increased in the latter compared to the former condition. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“That one makes things small”: Experimentally induced spontaneous memories in 3.5-year-olds

We introduce a new method for examining spontaneous (unprompted) autobiographical memories in 3.5-year-old children, by inducing them in a laboratory setting. Thirty-eight 3.5-year-olds, who had previously participated in a study in our lab involving highly unique props, were brought back after a one-month delay to the same lab arranged as in the original study and with the same Experimenter present. While waiting for the Experimenter in front of the props, their spontaneous verbalizations about the previous unique experiment were recorded, scored, and compared to those of 29 naïve Controls of the same age. The children in the experimental group produced significantly more spontaneous verbalizations related to the to-be-remembered event measured on a variety of dimensions. The study introduces a promising new approach to investigating spontaneous memories in young children in a controlled lab setting. The findings are discussed in relation to involuntary autobiographical memories as examined in adults.     

Are two heuristics better than one? The fluency and distinctiveness heuristics in recognition memory

Four experiments were conducted to test the impact of having multiple heuristics (distinctiveness and fluency) available during a recognition test. Recent work by Gallo, Perlmutter, Moore, and Schacter (Memory & Cognition 36:461–466, 2008) suggested that fluency effects are reduced when the distinctiveness heuristic can be applied to a recognition decision. In Experiment 1, we used a response reversal paradigm (Van Zandt & Maldonado-Molina Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 30:1147–1166, 2004) to demonstrate that participants transitioned from an early response strategy that was largely reliant on fluency to a later strategy in which the influences of fluency and distinctiveness were both observable. Experiments 2a, 2b, and 3 showed no evidence for reduction of the fluency heuristic after picture study when the test required a delayed response (Exp. 2a), confidence ratings (Exp. 2b), or the application of conceptual fluency (Exp. 3). The results are consistent with models of memory that assume that familiarity and recollection influence individual memory decisions Wixted (Psychological Review, 114:152–176, 2007).     

Being present in more than one place at a time? Patterns of mental self-localization

Research in cognitive neuroscience and spatial presence suggests that human mental self-localization is tied to one place at a given point in time. In this study, we examined whether it is possible to feel localized at two distinct places at the same time. Participants (N = 30) were exposed to a virtual rollercoaster and they continuously judged to what extent they felt present in the immediate environment and in the mediated environment, respectively. The results show that participants distributed their self-localization to both environments, and the two values added up to closely 100% over time. In addition, even though the judgments are highly idiosyncratic, they were almost perfectly inversely related. This indicates that individuals can distribute their self over two distinct places. These findings provide important insights about understanding of the human self-localization.     

Executive function tests in early‐onset psychosis: which one to choose?

People with schizophrenia exhibit executive functioning deficits, an area well investigated in the adult onset schizophrenia (AOS) group, but far less so in early-onset schizophrenia (EOS). Since EOS in general seems to exhibit poorer cognitive functions and is clinically more compromised than AOS, choice of efficient and sensitive assessment measures is not necessarily the same within the two groups. The MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery was developed for adults when studying treatment effects and uses Mazes (Neuropsychological Assessment Battery [NAB]) to assess executive functioning. We tested 31 adolescents with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and 66 healthy controls in order to examine how Mazes compares to two other commonly used tests to measure executive functioning, D-KEFS Color Word Interference Test (Stroop) and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Significant discriminating power was found for all three measures. Patients performed 0.8-1.5 SD below controls with Stroop as the most sensitive measure, followed by Mazes and WCST. Mazes was selected by the MATRICS to assess treatment effects in AOS and is shown to be able. We find the instrument also able to separate adolescent patients from controls and thus, it appears a sensible choice in clinical settings. If a more elaborated neuropsychological evaluation of the executive functioning domain is needed, Stroop should be considered a complementary test.     

“Hearts with one purpose alone”? Thinking personal sustainability in social movements

While attention is now being paid to emotions and personal sustainability in social movements, relatively little attention has been paid to difference between social movement situations or broader cultural contexts. This paper locates the question in the broader history of thinking about ordinary people's political engagement since the French Revolution. It explores various literatures relating to the topic, arguing that emotional sustainability is only one aspect of personal sustainability in social movements. Using the example of WB Yeats' response to the 1916 Easter Rising, it highlights the importance of locating this in place, time and culture. The paper offers a typological approach as a counter-strategy to the assumption of uniformity, focussing on difference in social situation, organising contexts and background cultures.