Eye color as an indicator of behavior: revisiting Worthy and Scott

Phenotypic eye color has been suggested as an indicator of genetic predisposition toward certain behaviors both in humans and in animals. Previous research has yielded mixed results. Phototaxic and ethological behaviors were examined in 14 different strains of Drosophila melanogaster. No significant correlation between phenotypic eye coloration and behavior was found, although significant genotypical behavioral differences were noted even among subjects with similar eye colors. An analysis of cellular defects associated with eye color in D. melanogaster pointed to significant behavioral differences among cell-defect groups, indicating that the cell defect which causes eye color, rather than eye color itself, may serve as a crude indicator of behavior.     

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): An overview

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a recently developed psychotherapy procedure which has been reported to dramatically increase efficiency in the treatment of psychological disturbances rooted in traumatic memories. Following a review of the research on EMDR's efficacy, clinical considerations are addressed, including the client's experience and the potential for negative effects or treatment failure. Finally, the role of EMDR in clinical practice is discussed. Initial reports are encouraging, and further research is recommended. Clinicians who choose to use EMDR are urged to obtain formal training.     

(Re)presenting: Muslims on North American television

This article describes and analyzes the portrayal of Muslims on several North American television shows. Greatest detail is given to the two seasons of Sleeper Cell, the first show on American television created to deal with Muslim lives post 9/11. I deal briefly with Muslim characters on Oz for a look at portrayals of Muslim life pre 9/11. I also mention Muslim characters in Lost and 24 as well as some films to add further insights to my argument. These television dramas are compared with two comedies, Aliens in America as well as Little Mosque on the Prairie, the first Canadian television show to examine Muslim lives. The conclusion is that in dramas, Muslims are not recognized on American television as citizens of their own country, but instead are portrayed as dangerous immigrants with a religion that is both alien and wicked. Moreover, the religion as it is lived out on the television drama is one of violence—there seems to be no other substantive practice that embodies Islamic faith. The case is very different with regard to the television comedy.     

A reliability generalization study of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS)

Perfectionism has been identified as a common concern among clients who seek counseling services. For more than 20 years, the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS) has been used extensively to measure the construct of individuals' perfectionism. The current study used reliability generalization to identify the average score reliability as well as variables explaining the variability of score reliability. Typical reliability across subscale scores ranged from .71 to.86 with the Doubt about Action subscale showing the least variability and the Organization subscale showing the most. In addition, sex, language, and standard deviation of the scale had statistically significant relations to reliability estimates.     

Personality traits change in adulthood: reply to Costa and McCrae (2006)

In a response to comments by P. T. Costa, Jr., and R. R. McCrae on the current authors' original article, the authors show that Costa and McCrae's writings on personality suggest a belief in immutability of personality traits. The authors agree with Costa and McCrae that new personality trait models that provide an accurate lower order structure of personality traits are needed and explain why the Revised NEO Personality Inventory is not the correct model for that purpose. The authors provide direct evidence refuting the hypothesis that personality traits change only because of biologically based intrinsic maturation. The authors present arguments supporting the contention that meta-analyses should be preferred to single longitudinal studies when drawing inferences about general patterns of personality development. Finally, the authors point out why the differences between their position and Costa and McCrae's are important.     

A Reply to McDonald: A Defense in Favor of Requirement Conflicts

In "The Presumption in Favor of Requirement Conflicts" Julie McDonald has offered some serious and challenging criticisms of the recent literature centered around the moral dilemmas debate. If McDonald is correct, the philosophers who have contributed to this debate share some questionable presuppositions about the role and significance of an adequate moral theory. It is beyond dispute that the moral dilemmas debate has elevated the importance of requirement conflicts above other types of conflicts. McDonald argues that this is a needlessly restrictive way to approach the issue. She maintains that the potential for unavoidable moral residue in the form of guilt, as well as the chance of moral unresolvability, are the two central concerns which motivate the issue. These concerns then figure into her diagnosis of the implicit background assumptions that explain the rationality of the debate. In what follows I shall consider whether or not the participants to this debate are forced to accept these assumptions.     

Resolving conflict: A response to Martin and Cheng (2006)

Martin and Cheng (2006) report the results of an experiment aimed at disentangling the effects of association strength from those of competition on performance on a verb generation task. Their experiment is situated at the center of a putative debate regarding the function of the left inferior frontal gyrus in language processing (see, e.g., Wagner, Paré-Blagoev, Clark, & Poldrack, 2001). Following in this tradition, Martin and Cheng purport to contrast two processes—selection between competing representations and controlled retrieval of weak associates—that we argue can be reduced to the same mechanism. We contend that the distinction between competition and association strength is a false dichotomy, and we attempt to recast this discussion within a Bayesian framework in an attempt to guide research in this area in a more fruitful direction.     

What can be measured in dating data: comment on Vaillant (2006)

Vaillant's 2006 paper presents data from a marriage bureau to give evidence on partner-seeking behavior. Three questions may be asked about the nature and usefulness of such work, whether it can (i) measure the efficiency of such bureaux, (ii) indicate the volume of resources devoted to partner search from commercially sourced dating data, and (iii) be used to test hypotheses about preference formation.     

Some People Heed Advice Less than Others: Agency (but Not Communion) Predicts Advice Taking

Across three studies (total N = 793), we investigated the link between two fundamental dimensions of personality, agency and communion, and advice taking in quantity estimation tasks. We complemented the analyses of the individual studies with meta‐analyses across all three studies in order to gain insight into the robustness of our core results. In line with our expectations, agency was associated with less advice taking, and this effect was mediated by individuals' perceptions of their own competence. Contrary to what we expected, we did not find consistent evidence that communion systematically relates to advice taking. Analyses of judges' initial accuracy further suggested that agentic judges' lower willingness to heed advice was justified by greater initial accuracy as compared with their less agentic peers. Our data, thus, provide evidence of individual differences in advice taking and shed some light on the question which individuals are more inclined to heed advice than others. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

North is up(hill): Route planning heuristics in real-world environments

Navigators use both external cues and internal heuristics to help them plan efficient routes through environments. In six experiments, we discover and seek the origin of a novel heuristic that causes participants to preferentially choose southern rather than northern routes during map-based route planning. Experiment 1 demonstrates that participants who are tasked to choose between two equal-length routes, one going generally north and one south, show reliable decision preferences toward the southern option. Experiment 2 demonstrates that participants produce a southern preference only when instructed to adopt egocentric rather than allocentric perspectives during route planning. In Experiments 3-5, we examined participants’ judgments of route characteristics and found that judgments of route length and preferences for upper relative to lower path options do not contribute to the southern route preference. Rather, the southern route preference appears to be a result of misperceptions of increased elevation to the north (i.e., north is up). Experiment 6 further supports this finding by demonstrating that participants provide greater time estimates for north- than for equivalent south-going routes when planning travel between U.S. cities. Results are discussed with regard to predicting wayfinding behavior, the mental simulation of action, and theories of spatial cognition and navigation.     

Differences in How Trait Emotional Intelligence Predicts Life Satisfaction: The Role of Affect Balance Versus Social Support in India and Germany

In this study, we assessed cross-cultural differences in the extent to which general emotional intelligence is linked to life satisfaction and analyzed mediators of this relationship. We used data from an individualistic culture (Germany) and a collectivistic culture (India) and had university students respond to self-report measures of life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, emotional intelligence, perceived social support, and independent and interdependent self-construals. In line with our hypotheses, we found that Indian students reported less subjective well-being and emotional intelligence than German students. Emotional intelligence was associated with life satisfaction to a higher degree in Germany than in India. In Germany, independent but not interdependent self-construal was related to emotional intelligence; in India, both independent and interdependent self-construals were significantly associated with emotional intelligence. Results of structural equation modeling provided support for our hypotheses regarding mediational models in that the effect of emotional intelligence on life satisfaction was fully mediated by affect balance in Germany and by perceived social support in India.     

Lesbian Youth Support Information Service (LYSIS): Developing a Distance Support Agency for Young Lesbians

The Lesbian Youth Support Information Service (LYSIS) was established in 1991 as a result of research conducted into the needs and experiences of young lesbians. This research found that young lesbians are vulnerable to mental health problems, including depression, attempted suicide, self-harming behaviours and alcohol misuse, as well as isolation and social rejection. There were also strong indications that young lesbians are most vulnerable when they are coming to terms with their sexual orientation. LYSIS offers support to young lesbians in four main ways: correspondence counselling; telephone counselling; peer support; and information. LYSIS is part of an umbrella organization, the Lesbian Information Service (LIS), which provides indirect support for young lesbians including publishing, education and training, projects and campaigning.     

Observing behavior in monkeys (Macaca arctoides): Support for the information hypothesis

A single lever, discrete-trials observing procedure was used with stumptailed monkeys (Macaca arctoides). Lever-presses during a trial produced colored key lights (IS⁺ and IS^?) which signaled whether the trial would end with response-independent food or without food. During the baseline period, both IS⁺ and IS^? were produced on a variable-interval (VI) 15-sec schedule which began operating at the onset of the trial. The two experimental conditions involved a combination of this VI schedule and a DRL schedule. In one of these conditions, only a response that both met the VI requirement and was preceded by at least 6 sec of nonresponding could produce IS^? on nonfood trials, while the schedule for IS⁺ on food trials remained VI 15 sec. In the other experimental condition, the schedules for producing the two stimuli were the reverse. All subjects eventually learned to produce either IS⁺ or IS^? on the combined VI-DRL schedule. These data support an information hypothesis of observing in monkeys and contrast with data from pigeons which support a conditioned reinforcement hypothesis.     

The double-anchoring theory of lightness perception: a comment on Bressan (2006)

Recently, a double-anchoring theory (DAT) of lightness perception was proposed (P. Bressan, 2006), which offers explanations for all the data explained by the original anchoring theory (A. Gilchrist et al., 1999), as well as a number of additional lightness phenomena. Consequently, DAT can account for an unprecedented range of empirical results, potentially explaining everything from the basic simultaneous contrast display to subtle variations of the Gelb effect. In this comment, the authors raised 4 concerns that demonstrate serious theoretical and empirical difficulties for DAT.     

Perceived Esteem Support Predicts Competition Appraisals and Performance Satisfaction Among Varsity Athletes: A Test of Organizational Stressors as Moderators

Organizational stressors may be important factors influencing athletes' sport experiences. In this study, we examined organizational stressors as “background variables” (Gump & Matthews, 1999 Gump, B. B., & Matthews, K. A. (1999). Do background stressors influence reactivity to and recovery from acute stressors?. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29(3), 469–494. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1999.tb01397.x[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) that may impact athletes' perceptions of support and appraisals of competitive stressors. Perceptions of available esteem support, organizational stressors, competitive appraisals, and performance satisfaction were prospectively examined among varsity team sport athletes (N = 84). Esteem support was positively related to athletes' perceptions of satisfaction with performance, and the indirect effect through secondary appraisal was significant. Two types of organizational stressors moderated the association between esteem support and secondary appraisal: More frequent coaching stressors weakened the association between esteem support and secondary appraisal, whereas more frequent team and culture stressors strengthened the association between esteem support and appraisal. These results support previous research (cf. Freeman & Rees, 2009 Freeman, P., & Rees, T. (2009). How does perceived support lead to better performance? An examination of potential mechanisms. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 21, 429–441. doi:10.1080/10413200903222913[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), indicating that perceived available esteem support was positively associated with athletes' assessments that they had the necessary resources to cope with competitive stressors, which positively predicted performance satisfaction after a competition. Furthermore, these findings suggest that higher levels of coaching stressors were associated with poorer perceptions of having the necessary resources to cope with competition stressors, whereas conversely, higher team and culture stressors were not necessarily detrimental to athletes' perceptions of their resources to cope with competitive demands. These results suggest that different types of organizational stressors may have differential impacts on athletes' sport experiences.     

An Imbalance of Approach and Effortful Control Predicts Externalizing Problems: Support for Extending the Dual-Systems Model into Early Childhood

Although the association between deficits in effortful control and later externalizing behavior is well established, many researchers (Nigg Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47(3-4), 395–422, 2006; Steinberg Developmental Review, 28(1), 78–106, 2008) have hypothesized this association is actually the product of the imbalance of dual systems, or two underlying traits: approach and self-regulation. Very little research, however, has deployed a statistically robust strategy to examine that compelling model; further, no research has done so using behavioral measures, particularly in longitudinal studies. We examined the imbalance of approach and self-regulation (effortful control, EC) as predicting externalizing problems. Latent trait models of approach and EC were derived from behavioral measures collected from 102 children in a community sample at 25, 38, 52, and 67 months (2 to 5 ½ years), and used to predict externalizing behaviors, modeled as a latent trait derived from parent-reported measures at 80, 100, 123, and 147 months (6 ½ to 12 years). The imbalance hypothesis was supported: Children with an imbalance of approach and EC had more externalizing behavior problems in middle childhood and early preadolescence, relative to children with equal levels of the two traits.