Humor and Counseling: Close Encounters of Another Kind

The basic premise of this article is that humor has a place in counseling. The paper touches on some of the more prominent theoretical explanations of humor, presents assumptions that seem pertinent to any rationale for using humor in counseling, points out the reasons counselors may have overlooked its value, and considers the uses and abuses of humor. Finally, the implications of using humor, both in terms of training and research, are considered, and a five-point scale for assessing its effectiveness in counseling is presented.     

Close Encounters of a New Kind: Toward an Integration of Psychoanalysis and Buddhism

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Similarity and Social Interaction: When Similarity Fosters Implicit Behavior Toward a Stranger

ABSTRACT

People interact more readily with someone whom they think they have something in common with. At a pedestrian crossing, confederates asked participants for the time and, in one condition, said she/he had the same watch as the participant. The amount of time that participants lingered near a confederate was used as the dependent variable. Participants in the similarity condition spent significantly more time near the confederate than when no similarity was manipulated. The results showed that similarity fosters implicit behavior, adding to the growing body of data on the positive effects of similarity and its role in social interaction.     

社交焦虑个体外显与内隐自尊的研究

社交恐惧图式理论、社交恐惧模式、和社交恐惧认知行为模式等认知理论,都认为社交恐惧产生于不良的自我图式。为了探讨社交恐惧个体是否具有不良的自我图式,要求40名高社交恐惧个体和30名低社交焦虑个体完成了自尊量表和内隐联想任务。结果发现：高社交恐惧个体在自尊量表上的得分显著低于低社交恐惧个体,但在内隐自尊上,他们都有着积极的自尊,且无显著差异。这一研究结果不支持社交恐惧的认知理论。根据自我呈现理论讨论了研究结果。     

网络行为失范者的内隐攻击性、内隐自尊研究

本研究采用内隐联想测验(IAT)对网络行为失范大学生的内隐攻击性、内隐自尊进行了实验研究,并与外显问卷调查结果作了对照.研究发现:相对于文明组而言,网络行为失范者不论在外显或内隐层面都体现出较高的攻击性与较低的自尊水平.     

The Lifespan Self-Esteem Scale: Initial Validation of a New Measure of Global Self-Esteem

This article introduces the Lifespan Self-Esteem Scale (LSE), a short measure of global self-esteem suitable for populations drawn from across the lifespan. Many existing measures of global self-esteem cannot be used across multiple developmental periods due to changes in item content, response formats, and other scale characteristics. This creates a need for a new lifespan scale so that changes in global self-esteem over time can be studied without confounding maturational changes with alterations in the measure. The LSE is a 4-item measure with a 5-point response format using items inspired by established self-esteem scales. The scale is essentially unidimensional and internally consistent, and it converges with existing self-esteem measures across ages 5 to 93 (N = 2,714). Thus, the LSE appears to be a useful measure of global self-esteem suitable for use across the lifespan as well as contexts where a short measure is desirable, such as populations with short attention spans or large projects assessing multiple constructs. Moreover, the LSE is one of the first global self-esteem scales to be validated for children younger than age 8, which provides the opportunity to broaden the field to include research on early formation and development of global self-esteem, an area that has previously been limited.     

Unemployment,Self-Esteem,and Depression: A Social Comparison Theory Approach

A social comparison theory approach to the relation between unemployment, self-esteem, and depression was tested using a cross-sectional questionnaire design (N = 88). Personal attributes were used as the domain of comparison, and four types of comparisons-intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup-were operationalized. Employment status affected the salience of intrapersonal comparisons. Comparisons with the past self were highly predictive of psychological distress among unemployed respondents, whereas comparisons with the ideal self predicted distress among the employed. Individual-level and group-level social comparisons had different associations with the dependent measures for unemployed respondents. Intrapersonal and interpersonal comparisons were significantly related to depression and self-esteem scores, whereas intragroup and intergroup comparisons were related only to self-esteem. Social comparisons with unemployed people were related to reduced depression levels among employed respondents. Results also showed that unemployed people had more negative social comparison scores relative to their employed counterparts. Results are discussed in terms of recent developments in social comparison theory. Suggestions for future research are outlined.     

Close Encounters With the Midwest: Forming Identity in a Bicultural Context

This study uses semi-structured interviews to examine how 16 people of Latvian heritage negotiated their cultural identities in high school (retrospectively) and at midlife (concurrently). Participants' high school and midlife cultural identity patterns were coded as marginalized, separated, assimilated, alternating integrated, or blended integrated. Although eleven participants were found to have had marginalized, separated, or alternating integrated patterns in high school, all 16 had either assimilated or blended integrated patterns at midlife. Further, there is evidence that the contexts in which identity negotiation occurred—specifically, the rigidity of the participants' Latvian and American contexts in high school and their relative openness at midlife—influenced these changes in pattern. The findings also underscore the importance of taking into account within-group differences when studying how people negotiate their cultural identities.     

Masculinity, Femininity, and Androgyny: Relations to Self-Esteem and Social Desirability

ABSTRACT The present investigation is a reanalysis of data from Antill and Cunningham (1979,1980) consisting of responses to five Masculinity-Femininity (MF) instruments, two self-esteem instruments, and two social desirability instruments The present study examined recently developed models of the MF/ esteem relation and the influence of social desirability on this relation The unique contribution of Masculinity (M) to esteem was consistently more positive than that of Femininity (F) which was either ml or negative, did not vary with sex as posited by sex-typed models, and did not interact with F as posited by interactive androgyny models Partialing out the effects of social desirability failed to alter the general pattern of results In contrast to esteem, social desirability was more correlated with F than M, and these findings were consistent with the observation that esteem items may reflect stereotypically masculine characteristics whereas social desirability items reflect stereotypically feminine characteristics The findings of the present study, and those of previous research, were examined in relation to important methodological issues that have been largely ignored by previous research in this area     

Personality Judgment at Zero Acquaintance: Agreement,Assumed Similarity,and Implicit Simplicity

Measures of frequency of dream recall for 47 Ss and of amount of dreaming for 18 Ss, as determined by the Dement-Kleitman method, were available as part of a larger investigation of the influence of personality factors on dream recall. Rorschach Test indices obtained from these Ss were intercorrelated among themselves and correlated with the appropriate dream variable in order to assess the presumed affinity of dream phenomena and Rorschach response processes. The results were: (1) indices of fantasy predominance correlated positively with both amount of dreaming and frequency of dream recall; (2) indices of associative productivity correlated positively with frequency of dream recall; (3) an index of introspective constriction correlated negatively with frequency of dream recall. Further exploration of this area seems promising.     

Close Encounters in the Liminal Zone: Experiments in Imaginal Communication Part I

The phenomenology of the experience of being in psychic contact with another person was explored in a series of observations using a novel dyadic interaction in imaginal space. Research participants working in pairs with eyes closed received instructions to imagine being in mental contact with one another for three minutes while they observed their internal experiences. Their reports indicated that the imagined contact was experienced as real, as intimate, and aroused the ambivalences usually associated with intimacy as well as phenomena suggestive of projective identification effects. This first part demonstrated that the liminal zone, or the transitional space between individuals, can be experimentally observed through the imagination. Part II of this report will present evidence that the experienced psychic contact was more than 'just imagination', and involved transpersonal interactions, including suggestions of synchronicity and telepathy.     

Initial Encounters of Young Men and Women: Impressions and Disclosure Estimates

The purpose of this study was to explore the expectation that, in conversations between unacquainted men and women, men would disclose more than women and would create a positive impression in so doing. In 8-min, relatively unstructured conversations, both men and women (N=301) perceived themselves and their partners as disclosing approximately the same amount. For both sexes, the more their partners disclosed, the more favorably they rated their partners on social attractiveness and positive attributes. Moreover, both sexes believed that the more they disclosed themselves, the more positively their partners evaluated them. However, the strength of this relationship was significantly stronger for men than for women. Neither sex conformed to the expectation that men should disclose more, but both may have believed to some extent that their partners were evaluating them in accord with this expectation.     

Membership in a Devalued Social Group and Emotional Well-Being: Developing a Model of Personal Self-Esteem,Collective Self-Esteem,and Group Socialization

We proposed and tested a theoretical model that links membership in a devalued social group to emotional health. People who identify with devalued social groups (e.g., ethnic minorities, gay men/lesbians, bisexuals, women) may be at increased risk for distress via 3 different pathways. First, some members of devalued groups may internalize negative stereotypes about their group, which negatively impact personal self-esteem. Second, being devalued simply on the basis of one's group membership could lead to emotional distress independent of one's own personal self-esteem. Third, some members of devalued groups may be socialized to develop attitudes and behaviors that increase their risk for emotional distress. Data were collected from a sample of White, middle-to-upper-class undergraduate women and men with respect to personal self-esteem, collective self-esteem on the basis of their gender group, attitudes and behaviors associated with female socialization, and emotional distress. Results supported the direct effect of each pathway in predicting concurrent depression and partially supported the prediction of concurrent anxiety. Each pathway fully accounted for women's greater levels of depression relative to men's. Implications for the study of devalued groups are discussed.     

Unconscious Unease and Self-Handicapping: Behavioral Consequences of Individual Differences in Implicit and Explicit Self-Esteem

In contrast to measures of explicit self-esteem, which assess introspectively accessible self-evaluations, measures of implicit self-esteem assess the valence of unconscious, introspectively inaccessible associations to the self. This experiment is the first to document a relationship between individual differences in implicit self-esteem and social behavior. Participants completed either a self-relevant or a self-irrelevant interview, and were then rated bythe interviewer on their anxiety. When the interview was self-relevant, apparent anxiety was greater for participants low in implicit self-esteem than for participants high in self-esteem; implicit self-esteem did not predict anxiety when the interview was self-irrelevant. Explicit self-esteem did not predict apparent anxiety in either interview, but did predict participants' explicit self-judgments of anxiety. Self-handicapping about interview performance was greater for participants low in both explicit and implicit self-esteem than for those high in these measures. The experiment provides direct evidence that effects of implicit and explicit self-esteem may be dissociated.     

内隐社会认知:社会性决策的个人背景效应

通过两个实验研究了个人背景对其社会性决策的影响。实验一采用 2× 2混合设计 ,其中被试性别为组间因素 ,策略类型为组内因素 ;结果发现不同性别的被试在选择决策策略时表现出了差异 ,其中男性更倾向于选择“综合比较”的策略 ,但女性却没有表现出对策略的偏向。实验二则选择 14项个人背景资料作为自变量 ,以“才—情”决策倾向为因变量 ,进行多元逐步回归分析 ,结果发现被试的家庭所在地、性别差异以及对自己容貌的评价等变量显著地影响了决策倾向。     

Discrepancies Between Explicit and Implicit Self-Esteem: Implications for Mate Retention Strategies and Perceived Infidelity

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the association between explicit self-esteem and relationship outcomes was moderated by implicit self-esteem. This was accomplished by asking 210 undergraduates who were currently involved in romantic relationships to complete measures of their explicit self-esteem, implicit self-esteem, mate retention strategies, and likelihood of future infidelity. Implicit self-esteem was found to moderate the association between high explicit self-esteem and relationship outcomes for male participants such that men with discrepant high self-esteem (i.e., high explicit self-esteem but low implicit self-esteem) reported less use of mate retention strategies and perceived a greater likelihood of future infidelity in their relationships during the next year. These findings provide additional support for the idea that fragile self-esteem may have consequences for the manner in which individuals perceive their relationships.     

浅谈内隐社会认知的研究与现状

内隐社会认知是无意识思想、认知理论和社会心理研究日渐整合的结果。作为认知心理学研究的一个组成部分,内隐社会认知的研究从方法论上,得益于内隐记忆研究中逐步完善的间接测量方法;从内容上,尽管内隐社会认知的研究还比较初浅,但却已经涵盖了社会认知、社会态度以及归因评价的多个方面。     

Stereotypes,Prejudice, and the Taxonomy of the Implicit Social Mind1

How do cognition and affect interact to produce action? Research in intergroup psychology illuminates this question by investigating the relationship between stereotypes and prejudices about social groups. Yet it is now clear that many social attitudes are implicit (roughly, nonconscious or involuntary). This raises the question: how does the distinction between cognition and affect apply to implicit mental states? An influential view—roughly analogous to a Humean theory of action—is that “implicit stereotypes” and “implicit prejudices” constitute two separate constructs, reflecting different mental processes and neural systems. On this basis, some have also argued that interventions to reduce discrimination should combat implicit stereotypes and prejudices separately. We propose an alternative (anti‐Humean) framework. We argue that all putative implicit stereotypes are affect‐laden and all putative implicit prejudices are “semantic,” that is, they stand in co‐activating associations with concepts and beliefs. Implicit biases, therefore, consist in “clusters” of semantic‐affective associations, which differ in degree, rather than kind. This framework captures the psychological structure of implicit bias, promises to improve the power of indirect measures to predict behavior, and points toward the design of more effective interventions to combat discrimination.     

从社会认知神经科学角度谈自尊研究

文章从社会认知神经科学的角度对自尊研究的发展进行简要述评。影像学的证据表明,自尊与海马的体积相关;电生理学的证据表明,自尊与P300成分的激活有关。文章最后提出,对自尊神经机制的研究要尊重自尊概念的复杂性,同时要达到提高个体自尊水平的最终目的。