You can't stop new motion: Attentional capture despite a control set for colour

When a stationary object begins to move, visual spatial attention is reflexively deployed to the location of that object. We tested whether this capture of attention by new motion is entirely stimulus driven, or whether it is contingent on an observer's goals. Participants monitored a visual display for a colour change, inducing an attentional control set (ACS) for colour. Across the three performed experiments, irrelevant new-motion cues always captured visual spatial attention, despite the ACS for colour. This persistence of the attentional cueing effect demonstrates that ACSs, in particular an ACS for colour, cannot prevent new motion from capturing attention. Unlike other stimulus types, such as luminance changes, colour singletons, and new objects, new motion may always capture attention regardless of an observer's goals. This conclusion entails that new motion is an important determinant of when, and to where, visual spatial attention is deployed.     

Why introverts can't always tell who likes them: multitasking and nonverbal decoding

Despite personality theories suggesting that extraversion correlates with social skill, most studies have not found a positive correlation between extraversion and nonverbal decoding. The authors propose that introverts are less able to multitask and thus are poorer at nonverbal decoding, but only when it is a secondary task. Prior research has uniformly extracted the nonverbal decoding from its multitasking context and, consequently, never tested this hypothesis. In Studies 1-3, introverts exhibited a nonverbal decoding deficit, relative to extraverts, but only when decoding was a secondary rather than a primary task within a multitasking context. In Study 4, extraversion was found to correlate with central executive efficiency (r = .42) but not with storage capacity (r = .04). These results are discussed in terms of arousal theories of extraversion and the role of catecholamines (dopamine and norepinephrine) in prefrontal function.     

You can't reason with them: Dismissing religious defectors as irrational

Millions of people leave their religion every year. Such defection often results in religious persecution, ostracism, and heightened intergroup conflict. Yet little is known about the underlying perceptions of religious defectors and what intergroup processes predict hostility toward them. In two pre-registered studies (N = 512), we investigated how religious group members' thoughts and feelings about defectors may lead to ostracism and a lack of dialogue. In both studies, group members rated defectors as unlikeable and irrational. Further, the strength of group members' religious group identification (but not religious belief conviction) predicted dislike and unwillingness to relate wisely with defectors (Study 2). Implications for intergroup research and improving the experience of religious defectors are discussed.     

You can't always get what you want: educational attainment, agency, and choice

Using educational attainment to indicate socioeconomic status, the authors examined models of agency and effects of choice among European American adults of different educational backgrounds in 3 studies. Whereas college-educated (BA) participants and their preferred cultural products (i.e., rock music lyrics) emphasized expressing uniqueness, controlling environments, and influencing others, less educated (HS) participants and their preferred cultural products (i.e., country music lyrics) emphasized maintaining integrity, adjusting selves, and resisting influence. Reflecting these models of agency, HS and BA participants differently responded to choice in dissonance and reactance paradigms: BA participants liked chosen objects more than unchosen objects, but choice did not affect HS participants' preferences. Results suggest that HS and BA models of agency qualitatively differ, despite overlap between HS and BA worlds.     

Rampage school shooters: A typology

A number of researchers have sought to identify the features that school shooters have in common in terms of family life, personalities, histories, and behaviors. This article examines the cases of 10 rampage school-shooters in an effort to find out not only how they are alike, but also how they differ. Based on available information, these youths are categorized into three types: traumatized, psychotic, and psychopathic. Out of the 10 shooters discussed, three were traumatized, five were psychotic, and two were psychopathic. The three traumatized shooters all came from broken homes with parental substance abuse and parental criminal behavior. They all were physically abused and two were sexually abused outside of the home. The five psychotic shooters had schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, including schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder. They all came from intact families with no history of abuse. The two psychopathic shooters were neither abused nor psychotic. They demonstrated narcissism, a lack of empathy, a lack of conscience, and sadistic behavior. Most people who are traumatized, psychotic, and psychopathic do not commit murder. Beyond identifying the three types of rampage shooters, additional factors are explored that may have contributed to the attacks. These include family structure, role models, and peer influence.     

You can't always get what you want: effortful control and children's responses to undesirable gifts

This study examined individual differences in children's regulation of emotional expression after receiving desirable and undesirable gifts. Effortful control, the ability to suppress a dominant response in favor of a subdominant one, was measured using a battery of behavioral tasks. Reactions to the gifts were videotaped, and emotional expression was coded. Age predicted effortful control, but not emotional displays. Effortful control predicted similarity of children's displays of positive affect after receiving the two gifts. Specifically, children high in effortful control showed similar amounts of positive affect after receiving the desirable and undesirable gifts, whereas children low in effortful control showed less positive affect after receiving the undesirable gift than after receiving the desirable gift. Results are discussed in terms of temperament and the development of socially appropriate expressive behavior.     

Religion in the Israeli Parliament: a typology

Because religion has been a constant source of social divisions and political conflicts, the role of Judaism in Israel is very often studied through the prism of a rigid religious–secular cleavage.Without denying the contentious character of religion in the political and social arenas, I suggest in this study that a closer look at the usages of religion in Israeli politics offers a more nuanced picture of the role of Judaism in Israel. In order to uphold this thesis, I identify the main usages of Judaism in the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) and scrutinise the extent to which these different mobilisations overlap or crosscut the secular–religious cleavage. This analysis leads to a typology of three usages of religion: religion as a source of authority, religion as a marker of identity and nation, and religion as a source of values. On this basis, I demonstrate that the role of religion in Israel and especially in the Israeli Parliament cannot be reduced to the divide between religious and secular groups. If in its first usage, the religious–secular cleavage indeed predominates, the use of religion as an identity marker does not necessarily lead to a conflict with secular members, while in its final form, religion is mobilised as a resource by members of both groups.     

You can't get something for nothing: Kierkegaard and Heidegger on how not to overcome Nihilism 1

This paper analyzes Kierkegaard's Religiousness A sphere of existence, presented in his edifying works, and Heidegger's concept of authenticity, proposed in Being and Time, as responses to modern nihilism. While Kierkegaard argues that Religiousness A is an unsuccessful response to modern nihilism, Heidegger claims that authenticity, a secularized version of Religiousness A, is a successful response. We argue that Heidegger's secularization of Religiousness A is incomplete and unsuccessful, that Heidegger's later work offers a reconsideration of the problem of modern nihilism, and that later Heidegger suggests a way out of nihilism which is compatible with Kierkegaard's Religiousness B sphere of existence.     

A typology of the here-and-now: issues in group therapy

This article categorizes the range of here-and-now issues and behaviours that occur in group therapy and are the legitimate concern of the group. It distinguishes those internal events that occur as an integral part of the group process from those external issues that occur in members daily lives and that they bring to the group for its attention. These problems are further categorized by whether they are structural in nature or interactionist in nature. Thus here-and-now group behaviors can be categorized by whether they are (1) internal structural, (2) internal interactionist, (3) external structural, or (4) external interactionist.     

You can't always get what you want: The influence of unexpected task constraint on voluntary task switching

The current study assessed the effect that unexpected task constraint, following self-generated task choice, has on task switching performance. Participants performed a modified double-registration voluntary task switching procedure in which participants specified the task they wanted to perform, were presented with a cue that, on the majority of trials, confirmed the choice, and then performed the cued task. On a small portion of trials, participants were cued to perform a task that did not match their choice. Trials on which cues unexpectedly failed to match the chosen task were associated with costs. These costs were particularly large when participants chose to switch tasks but had to unexpectedly repeat the previous task. The results suggest that when participants choose to switch tasks, they prepare for that switch in anticipation of the stimulus, and the preparation is durable such that it cannot be readily undone.     

The biological affects: a typology.

This typology of biological affects is based on developmental-interactionist theory of motivation, emotion, and cognition. Affects--subjectively experienced feelings and desires--involve interoceptive perceptual systems based on primordial molecules that characterize neurochemicals. Biological affects involve primary motivational-emotional systems (primes) associated with hierarchically organized neurochemical systems in the brain, including subcortical (reptilian) and paleocortical (limbic) brain structures. Affects fulfill individualistic (selfish) functions (arousal, approach-avoidance, agonistic) and prosocial (cooperative) functions. Selfish and cooperative functions are associated respectively with the right and left hemispheres. Biological affects constitute the physiological bases for higher level affects: social affects (e.g., pride, guilt, shame, pity, jealousy), cognitive affects (e.g., curiosity, surprise), and moral affects.     

A typology of dispersal prisoners

Despite the importance of maximum security dispersal prisons in England, and the plethora of studies on adult male prisoners, there is no published research on the dispersal prison population. The current study reports the results of a cluster analysis of demographic and criminological data on a large sample of this population. These results present a taxonomy of six subgroups of offenders. The taxonomy is essentially heuristic and requires replication and cross-validation. However, it presents a useful model to both describe the dispersal prison population and, importantly, to consider the question of optimal management strategies for the identified subgroups.     

Sibling relationships in early adulthood: A typology

This investigation attempted to classify adult sibling relationships into a small number of discrete types and to describe those sibling relationship types in terms of the relative warmth, conflict, and rivalry experienced by members of the sibling dyad. Adult participants (N= 267), ranging in age from 17 to 56 years, were asked to complete surveys describing their relationship with the biological sibling who was closest in age to themselves. Using the theoretical categories developed by Murphy (1993) in her study of young siblings, a retrospective questionnaire was constructed to classify the respondent's relationship with his or her sibling as Caretaker, Buddy, or Casual. Along with these three groups, a fourth type of sibling relationship was detected that closely resembled the Loyal subgroup described by Gold (1989) in her study of sibling relationships among the elderly. Differences among these four groups were assessed with the Adult Sibling Relationship Questionnaire developed by Lanthier and Stocker (1993). Group differences are summarized, and several potential developmental paths from childhood to adulthood for the various types of sibling relationships are outlined.