What is right with “deep” dyslexic patients?

Two aphasic adults with a specific acquired dyslexia were given tests requiring the processing of written words and sentences. Despite the general severity of the patients' deficits, some aspects of such processing appear to be relatively well preserved. The patients have particular difficulty reading aloud function words and abstract words; yet in word/nonword discrimination tests, both patients showed normal recognition of function words and one showed normal performance with abstract words. The patients do have a deficit in comprehension of visually presented words and sentences; yet their performance on comprehension tests was considerable and, moreover, showed meaningful relationships with their ability to read aloud.     

Why you don't have a “perfect right” to anything

This paper demonstrates why the kind of rights usually presumed in assertive training most probably do not exist and why acting as if such rights do exist proves problematic. It contrasts these improbable rights with legal rights which do exist for some people in some societies. It concludes by suggesting an alternative scheme, The Picnic Mentality, for dealing with problems others have attempted to address using the concept of rights.Hank Robb is Executive Director for the Pacific Institute for RET and Training Coordinator for the Counseling Psychology Program, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon.I wish to thank four anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this article.     

How do you feel?

Does your heart pound because you feel afraid, or do you feel afraid because your heart is racing? This question is the crux of a century-old controversy, stemming from a proposal by William James. A recent neuroimaging study addresses this issue and suggests that the functional connectivity of the insula could provide the key to resolving the debate.     

“It's hip to be square”: Grounding moral traits in geometric shapes

To examine the hypothesis that there is a metaphoric link between geometric shapes (square vs. circle) and moral traits (integrity vs. deviousness), we conducted three experiments in China. In Study 1, integrity-related words were classified faster when embedded in a square than in a circle. Conversely, deviousness-related words were classified faster in a circle than in a square. Study 2 found that a person who preferred squares was perceived as more righteous and that a person who preferred circles was perceived as more devious. Study 3 revealed that the participants were more likely to pair a square with integrity-related words and a circle with deviousness-related words in a memory task. Given the negation of square-integrity and circle-deviousness emotional congruence, the findings of this research show that shape-related information is a meaningful part of the mental representations of moral traits.     

“It's Just Your Turn”: Performing Identity and Muslim Australian Popular Culture

Academic accounts of Muslim integration and inclusion in multicultural Australia are often at pains to emphasize that Muslim identity and Australian national identity are compatible with each other. While this political manoeuvre remains both important and relevant, it nevertheless chances reinscribing the very terms of debate it seeks to contest and worryingly aligns closely with prevalent governmental techniques to “domesticate” Muslim difference. Furthermore, it risks presenting both “Muslim” and “Australian” identities as self-evident, taken-for-granted categories. In this article, I consider two Muslim Australian popular cultural productions – namely, the television programme Salam Café and the stand-up comedy show Fear of a Brown Planet – in order to explore how Muslim and Australian identities, and the relationships between them, are performed, contested and rearticulated. What is most salient about both productions, the article argues, is that they present the identity of “Australian” as a site of political and cultural contestation, with the “nation” a contingent site through which multicultural politics are actualized. Such a move is salient for Australian multiculturalism more broadly, but is especially so for Muslim communities – not least because it undermines the West/Islam dichotomy altogether.     

“It's such a vicious cycle”: Narrative accounts of the sportsperson with epilepsy

ObjectivesThere is an abundance of quantitative and medical research promoting the benefits of exercise for people with epilepsy. However, the psychosocial barriers and benefits of exercising for the sportsperson/people with epilepsy (SWE) are absent. This research aims to present the narratives of SWE over time and as a result, develop further understanding of the psychosocial impact of exercising with epilepsy.MethodA holistic-content and structural narrative analysis were used to explore the exercise experiences of three SWE over the course of one year. A creative non-fictional technique was used to present first person narratives, therefore providing the SWE's voice for the reader.ResultsNarratives of ‘vicious cycle’ and ‘roller coaster’ presented complex and multi-thematic storied forms, with time and the hidden nature of epilepsy having a strong impact on narrative formation. Vicious cycle presented the cycle of desiring to exercise, but prevented from exercising because of uncontrolled seizures. This resulted in frustration and feelings of a lack of control, which subsequently increased the desire to exercise and created a cycle with no clear end. Roller coaster presented the constant psychosocial and physical undulations that epilepsy can create for a SWE over time.ConclusionThese narratives reveal that exercising with epilepsy has a constant and on-going positive and negative impact on the life of SWE. However, these narratives also show that it may be through the process of acceptance of their body's limitations that a healthier mental and physical state may result for the SWE.     

”I Know What It Means But It's Not How I Feel”

The use of the term survivor is widespread in the feminist therapy community. While the term survivor has been described in primarily positive terms in the abuse literature, this article examines some of the conflicting meanings it holds for women who have been sexually abused. Drawing from the words of clients, the authors argue that women's experiences with abuse are diverse and complex. This paper outlines the dangers of labeling in the therapeutic context, and advocates for approaches to working with women which acknowledge women's experiences of violation while not reducing women to those experiences. Finally, the authors encourage a therapeutic process which offers women an opportunity to explore language and acquire control over the naming of their realities.     

“The right thing to do?” Transformation in South African sport

In this paper I attempt to unpack the current public debate on racial transformation in South African sport, particularly with regard to the demographic make-up of its national cricket and rugby sides. I ask whether the alleged moral imperative to undertake such transformation is, in fact, a moral imperative at all. I discuss five possible such imperatives: (1) the need to compensate non-white South Africans for the injustices in sport's racist history, (2) the imperative to return the make-up of our national sides to what they would have been in the absence of that history, (3) the requirement that national sides be representative of the country, (4) the need to eliminate ongoing racial bias in selection, and (5) the obligation to provide all South Africans, regardless of their race, the opportunity to compete as equals for places in the national side. I argue that the first three, drawn from talk of “rectifying the injustices of the past”, “achieving demographic proportionality between the sides and the country”, “representivity”, and “transformation” itself, are not compelling. The remaining two are of great moral import, but, I argue, they have little to do with the sorts of phrases just mentioned, and which are frequently used in the debate.     

What else do you feel when you feel sad? Emotional overproduction, neuroticism and rumination

Numerous experimental and naturalistic studies have shown the relevant role of ruminative styles in the onset, duration and severity of depressive episodes. Recent research has increasingly focused on the precursors of these ruminative responses. Neuroticism has been found to be closely related to ruminative styles, but the nature of this relationship is unknown. Across three studies, we explored the role of emotional overproduction, conceptualized as the tendency to simultaneously experience an elevated number of negative emotions and feelings during sad episodes. Study 1 showed that emotional overproduction is independently and strongly associated with ruminative styles. Furthermore, emotional overproduction was found to mediate the relationship between neuroticism and ruminative styles. Study 2 replicated these findings in a large community sample even after controlling for mood, personality, and other emotion-related variables. In Study 3, we conducted a laboratory study to increase the internal and external validity of our findings. Implications for personality, for coping and stress literature, and for clinical research and treatment are suggested.     

“I feel better but I don't know why”: The psychology of implicit emotion regulation

Although emotion regulation has traditionally been conceived as a deliberative process, there is growing evidence that many emotion-regulation processes operate at implicit levels. This special issue of Cognition and Emotion showcases recent advances in theorising and empirical research on implicit emotion regulation. Implicit emotion regulation can be broadly defined as any process that operates without the need for conscious supervision or explicit intentions, and aims at modifying the quality, intensity, or duration of an emotional response. Implicit emotion regulation is likely to be pervasive in everyday life and may contribute considerably to the effectiveness of emotion regulation. Research in this area has developed several valid methods for measuring and manipulating implicit emotion. The contributions to this special issue highlight the significance of implicit emotion regulation in psychological adaptation, goal-directed behaviour, interpersonal behaviour, personality functioning, and mental health.     

What makes depressed people feel worse?

Fifty English-speaking adults were asked in a brief open-ended interview, ‘When you're feeling depressed, what sorts of things can make you feel worse?’ Their responses were subjected to content analysis and frequency counts. The most frequent replies were: being alone (mentioned by 24% of Ss), inactivity (20%) and thinking about the problem that was getting them down (18%). The results are discussed from phenomenological, theoretical, historical, methodological and clinical points of view.     

The efficacy of “right” as a function of its relationship with reinforcement

The effects of the relationship between the presentation of a verbal stimulus (“right”) and an established reinforcer (M&Ms) on the reinforcement efficacy of the verbal stimulus was tested with three groups of retarded boys. Blocks of training and test trials alternated. During training of the Discriminative Group, “right” reliably preceded candy. For the Contiguous Group, “right” accompanied candy, and for the Random Group “right” and candy were programmed independently. “Right” promoted learning in the Discriminative Group but did not in the latter two groups. The results support Cairns' analysis of the often found failure of approval to be an effective reinforcer in laboratory tasks.     

Young Rural Males in South Africa Speak on Teenage Pregnancy: “It's Really Her Problem”

The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of school-going rural males in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa on teenage pregnancy. Two methods of data collection were used, namely, a quantitative survey with a sample of 294 male youth from 10 schools. This was followed by focus group interviews with three groups, each comprising ten males, from three of the schools. Quantitative data examined self reported knowledge, behaviours, beliefs and attitudes of participants relating to teenage pregnancy. Qualitative data from the focus groups generated both an individual and ‘group think and provided insights into the relational construction of these beliefs and behaviours. Although the analysis revealed some mixed reactions, the majority response pointed to ‘dominant male-submissive female’ views of sexual relationships. Most participants supported the notion that the burden of pregnancy fell on the female, with males frequently denying paternity and criticizing females for careless sexual behaviour. Attributions for teenage pregnancy by boys are important for intervention to curtail impact on survivor girls.