Behavioral confirmation in social interaction: From social perception to social reality

A perceiver's actions, although based upon initially erroneous beliefs about a target individual may channel social interaction in ways that cause the behavior of the target to confirm the perceiver's beliefs. To chart this process of behavioral confirmation, we observed successive interactions between one target and two perceivers. In the first interaction, targets who interacted with perceivers who anticipated hostile partners displayed greater behavioral hostility than targets whose perceivers expected nonhostile partners. Only when targets regarded their actions as reflections of personal dispositions did these behavioral differences in hostility persevere into their subsequent interactions with naive perceivers who had no prior knowledge about them. Theoretical implications of the behavioral confirmation construct for social perception processes are discussed.     

The research/practice gap in psychotherapy: From discovering reality to making sense

It is widely accepted that a discontinuity or gap exists between clinical research and practice: research findings are not often reflected in the work which clinicians do. This is considered unsatisfactory and many suggestions have been made to bridge this gap. This paper is aimed to show that perception of such a discontinuity between research and practice flows from a way of thinking, an epistemology of realism or objectivity. From the perspective of a different epistemology, namely constructivism, no such gap exists. These two ways of thinking are contrasted in the paper and it is shown how adoption of a constructivist epistimology in research can circumvent some of the problems traditionally ascribed to the supposed research/practice gap.     

Saying goodbye to the hero: Jung,Liber Novus and conversion from addiction

Two chapters in Liber Novus throw fresh light on Jung's epistemology of addiction. Taking these as a starting point, the nature of the challenges that patients confront in leaving addiction behind are explored. It is suggested that an archetypal process of separation is constellated at the point of quitting as the precursor to a life without the object of the addiction. A short account is given of Jung's part in the inception of Alcoholics Anonymous and the potential role of a ‘conversion experience’ as an initiation into psychological reorientation away from the negative individuation experienced by the hero. The case of a patient addicted to heroin illustrates the contribution of an analytic approach in an NHS setting, along with other workers in a rehabilitation centre. Certain challenges of working with addicted people are outlined, including arousal of the psychotherapist's rescue fantasies.     

Emotions: from brain to robot

Some robots have been given emotional expressions in an attempt to improve human-computer interaction. In this article we analyze what it would mean for a robot to have emotion, distinguishing emotional expression for communication from emotion as a mechanism for the organization of behavior. Research on the neurobiology of emotion yields a deepening understanding of interacting brain structures and neural mechanisms rooted in neuromodulation that underlie emotions in humans and other animals. However, the chemical basis of animal function differs greatly from the mechanics and computations of current machines. We therefore abstract from biology a functional characterization of emotion that does not depend on physical substrate or evolutionary history, and is broad enough to encompass the possible emotions of robots.     

Racism leads to pushups: How racial discrimination threatens subordinate men's masculinity

Two studies explored the gendered nature of racial discrimination for Black men, focusing on the relationship between race, discrimination, and masculinity threat. Specifically, we hypothesized that racial discrimination may also represent a threat to Black, but not White, men's masculinity. Both studies examined the target's perspective (i.e. Black and White men's perspectives) on the experience of racism and threat. Black men who experienced discrimination reported greater endorsement of male gender norms and were more vigilant to masculinity threat cues than were those who did not experience discrimination. Additionally, Black men engaged in masculine-typed behaviors–for our purposes, completing more pushups–in proportion to their experience of masculinity threat. Conversely, White men disengaged from the pushup task after experiencing discrimination. Study 2 suggests that White men's disengagement is mediated by affirming their social status. Our data suggest the importance of considering the gendered consequences of racial discrimination toward subordinate-group men.     

Adolescents' hero identification and self-perception.

This study explored associations for having a hero with aspects of adolescents' self-concept for 168 high school students who completed Harter's Self-per ception Profile and questions about their heroes. Having a hero was related to having a stronger sense of social acceptance, romantic appeal, and athletic competence and a weaker sense of scholastic competence.     

Nightmare frequency and femininity/masculinity

Several large-scale studies showed that women tend to report nightmares more often than men. Despite this robust finding, empirically tested interpretations of these sex differences are lacking. Levin and Nielsen put forward the hypothesis that sex-specific socialization might be one of the risk factors for nightmare occurrence. The present findings of an online survey indicate that expressivity/femininity and instrumentality/masculinity were related to nightmare fre quency and, thus, supported this hypothesis. Since the sex difference in nightmare frequency was not fully explained by these two variables, future studies should investigate other variables--in addition to sex-role orientation--like depressive symptoms, history of sexual and/or physical abuse, ruminative coping styles, and physiological measures of processing emotional stimuli within the brain.     

Gender role masculinity and angry aggression in women

The extent to which gender role masculinity is related to degree of women's angry retaliation was investigated. The study also examined whether the relationship between gender role masculinity and anger is mediated by gender role differences in reactivity to provocation, or to differences in the labeling of anger. It was expected that the influence of gender role masculinity on affect and aggression would be greatest when the nature of the affective arousal is ambiguous. Sixty undergraduate women (predominantly upper middle class and white) were given a placebo pill. They were either given ambiguous information about the pill's effects, or were told it was a vitamin or a stimulant. They then were either provoked or not provoked, and finally received an opportunity to retaliate. The participants had been divided by median split into high- and low-masculinity groups based on their scores on Spence and Helmreich's (1978) Personal Attributes Questionnaire. As expected, when provoked, high-masculinity subjects were more aggressive than low-masculinity subjects but only in the ambiguous drug information condition. Although they reported more arousal-related sensations, they did not rate themselves higher in anger. The results are discussed in terms of gender role influences on the experience of anger and the expression of aggression.     

Riddles of masculinity: gender, bisexuality, and thirdness

Clinical examples are used to illuminate several riddles of masculinity-ambiguities, enigmas, and paradoxes in relation to gender, bisexuality, and thirdness-frequently seen in male patients. Basic psychoanalytic assumptions about male psychology are examined in the light of advances in female psychology, using ideas from feminist and gender studies as well as important and now widely accepted trends in contemporary psychoanalytic theory. By reexamining basic assumptions about heterosexual men, as has been done with ideas concerning women and homosexual men, complexity and nuance come to the fore to aid the clinician in treating the complex characterological pictures seen in men today. In a context of rapid historical and theoretical change, the use of persistent gender stereotypes and unnecessarily limiting theoretical formulations, though often unintended, may mask subtle countertransference and theoretical blind spots, and limit optimal clinical effectiveness.     

Prototypes and dimensions of masculinity and femininity

Sex Roles - Researchers have criticized existing measures of masculinity and femininity, largely on the basis of their unidimensional nature. The purpose of the present research was twofold: first,...     

Mate-preference drives mate-choice: Men’s self-rated masculinity predicts their female partner’s preference for masculinity

Women who rate their male partner as more masculine tend to prefer more masculine faces. However, it is unclear whether a preference for masculinity causes women to select masculine partners, or to perceive their current partner as more masculine. By incorporating multiple measures of male masculinity, we establish that women’s preference for facial masculinity in short-term partners is correlated with their rating of their partner’s masculinity and with their partner’s self-rated masculinity, but with neither independent ratings of men’s facial masculinity nor a facialmetric masculinity index. Facial masculinity preference in long-term partners is correlated with women’s rating of partner masculinity, with a similar trend for men’s self-rating. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that these relationships were independent of age, although only for short-term preference. We conclude that women who prefer masculine men tend to have more masculine partners, and therefore that mate-preferences do drive mate-choice.     

Men and masculinities: Scales for masculinity ideology and masculinity-related constructs

11 instruments for assessing beliefs and attitudes about men or masculinity standards (masculinity ideology) and 6 instruments that assess first-person accounts of gender role conflict, stress, or conformity to masculinity ideology are evaluated in this review. The 17 instruments were all developed in the past 2 decades and peer reviewed, and are readily accessible. An introductory section distinguishes between gender ideology and gender orientation and defines the scope of the first set of 11 scales as indexing the extent to which subjects accept the ideas and beliefs used to justify gender roles and relations. The second set of 6 scales focus on how men individually experience their gender. All scales were systematically evaluated according to whether they include items comparing the sexes or concerning gender relations or items assessing attitudes and beliefs about women. Inclusion of these types of items is noted in a table, along with information on whether the authors assumed one dominant form of masculinity, whether subscales were identified, and the psychometric properties of the scale and subscale. The review suggests that measures of gender orientation and measures of gender ideologies are independent and have differential correlates. Evidence also suggests that gender ideologies about men are distinct from and have differential correlates from gender ideologies about women or about gender relations in general. Items comparing genders should thus be avoided in measures of attitude toward masculinities. Several of the measures have too narrow a definition of masculinity.