Tipping the scales: Conciliatory behavior and the morality of self-forgiveness

Two studies examined whether conciliatory behavior aids self-forgiveness and whether it does so in part by making it seem more morally appropriate. Participants in Study 1 (n?=?269) completed an offense-recall procedure; participants in Study 2 (n?=?208) imagined a social transgression under conciliatory behavior (yes, no) and receipt of forgiveness (no, ambiguous, yes) conditions. Conciliatory behavior predicted (Study 1) and caused (Study 2) elevated self-forgiveness and increased perceptions of the moral appropriateness of self-forgiveness. Perceived morality consistently mediated the effect of conciliatory behavior on self-forgiveness. Received forgiveness and guilt were considered as additional mechanisms, but received mixed support. Results suggest that conciliatory behavior may influence self-forgiveness in part by satisfying moral prerequisites for self-forgiveness.     

The benefits of self-forgiveness on mental health: Evidence from correlational and experimental research

Previous research on self-forgiveness is mixed. Some argue self-forgiveness may have a salutary influence on mental health problems following an offense, whereas others suggest it may provide an excuse to reoffend. In two studies, we provide correlational and experimental evidence for the salutary effects of self-forgiveness following an offense. In Study 1 (N = 100), self-forgiveness was associated with lower levels of disordered eating behavior. In Study 2 (N = 462), participants recalled a drinking-related transgression, and were randomly assigned to a self-forgiveness or neutral priming condition. Results revealed that participants in the self-forgiveness condition reported significantly more self-forgiving beliefs and fewer feelings of remorse and self-condemnation than participants in the neutral priming condition to the degree that participants believed their drinking was the cause of the offense. These findings highlight the salutary effects of self-forgiveness.     

Exploring Confluence

Healthy coupling, defined as coupling which supports the growth of the personhood of both partners, is explored herin. Healthy coupling is viewed as being based on a rhythm of confluence (formation of a "We" from the "I" and the "Thou") and difluence (clear differentiation of an "I" and a "Thou" from the "We"). Criteria for the recognition of natural, flexible confluence and difluence are contrasted with those of an unnatural, rigid pattern.     

Exploring racism

Whilst the concept of 'race' has no basis in genetics or biology, the dynamics of racism pervade all aspects of modern life--including the consulting room. In this paper the relationship between a white therapist and a black patient is explored through an unbidden thought and a verbal slip that occurred in the course of the therapy. The amplification and examination of these unwanted 'slips' are used to shed light on the subtleties of the effects of difference in colour on the relationship. It is argued here that the interaction reflects and illuminates the asymmetrical relationship between 'black' and 'white' in modern-western society. This is then considered using the concepts of the cultural unconscious and social unconscious as ways of understanding the tenacity of racism in ourselves.     

Exploring MMPI-Rorschach relationships

Limitations exist in the current literature examining Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-Rorschach interrelationships. In this article I attempt to identify several issues to be addressed by researchers in this area. These include restricting conclusions about MMPI-Rorschach relationships to research using the Comprehensive System; considering the relative reliability and validity of these tests; comparing the predictive power of the Rorschach and MMPI; examining the effects extreme outliers have on statistical analyses; and determining the appropriate level of analysis for research, the level of individual test scores, or psychological constructs. The implications of these issues for research design, statistical analysis, and applied clinical work are discussed.     

Exploring Enactive Realism

Abstract

The paper considers the success of enactive realism about perception; the theory that perceivers gain direct access to the mind-independent physical world through their exercise of sensorimotor skills and understanding. I argue that while it is plausible that the possession of some forms of knowledge, conceptual or practical, may enable perceptual contact with the environment, the role of sensorimotor mastery is not as pervasive as the enactive realist proposes. Non-veridical perception, furthermore, cannot be captured adequately by enactivist resources under a disjunctivist framework.     

Exploring MMPI-Rorschach Relationships

Limitations exist in the current literature examining Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)—Rorschach interrelationships. In this article I attempt to identify several issues to be addressed by researchers in this area. These include restricting conclusions about MMPI—Rorschach relationships to research using the Comprehensive System; considering the relative reliability and validity of these tests; comparing the predictive power of the Rorschach and MMPI; examining the effects extreme outliers have on statistical analyses; and determining the appropriate level of analysis for research, the level of individual test scores, or psychological constructs. The implications of these issues for research design, statistical analysis, and applied clinical work are discussed.     

Exploring Subjective Representationalism

Representationalism is, roughly, the view that experiencing is to be analyzed wholly in terms of representing. But what sorts of properties are represented in experience? According to a prominent form of representationalism, objective representationalism, experiences represent only objective (i.e. suitably mind‐independent) properties. I explore subjective representationalism, the view that experiences represent at least some subjective (i.e. suitably mind‐dependent) properties. Subjective representationalists, but not objective representationalists, can accommodate cases of illusion‐free phenomenal inversion. Moreover, subjective representationalism captures the so‐called transparency of experience, as it is standardly articulated, just as well as objective representationalism.     

Exploring the Central Executive

The central executive component of working memory is a poorly specified and very powerful system that could be criticized as little more than a homunculus. A research strategy is outlined that attempts to specify and analyse its component functions and is illustrated with four lines of research. The first concerns the study of the capacity to coordinate performance on two separate tasks. A second involves the capacity to switch retrieval strategies as reflected in random generation. The capacity to attend selectively to one stimulus and inhibit the disrupting effect of others comprises the third line of research, and the fourth involves the capacity to hold and manipulate information in long-term memory, as reflected in measures of working memory span. It is suggested that this multifaceted approach is a fruitful one that leaves open the question of whether it will ultimately prove more appropriate to regard the executive as a unified system with multiple functions, or simply as an agglomeration of independent though interacting control processes. In the meantime, it seems useful to continue to use the concept of a central executive as a reminder of the crucially important control functions of working memory.     

Exploring a brightness-drag illusion

A sudden luminance increment on a moving stimulus was perceived significantly along the trajectory, in the direction of motion, from its displayed position. A nonlinear relationship with stimulus speed, for a Fr?hlich-like illusion, but not for the luminance-increment illusion, challenges certain models of spatial mislocalisation and argues for different processes underlying the two illusions.     

斐奇诺的基督教人文主义思想初探

斐奇诺是文艺复兴时期最重要的神学家、哲学家和人文主义者,他的神学带有浓烈的基督教人文主义色彩.本文通过梳理斐奇诺的人文主义思想背景和主要特征,介绍了他的非主流人文主义享乐观、人生的目的在于回归上帝的论断和提倡古代神学等三大人文主义特点,初步说明了其基督教人文主义的重要意义和深远影响.     

Exploring a Predictive Model

The purposes of this study were (a) to explore the utility of a model for predicting reporting of sexual harassment and (b) to collect data on the incidence of sexual harassment using the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ; Fitzgerald et al., 1988). The sample included 214 tenuretrack faculty women and 276 women graduate students. The full model postulated that age, marital status, feminist ideology, and frequency of behavior would be directly related to perceived offensiveness at the behavior. In turn, perceived offensiveness, normative expectations for reporting, and perceived outcomes of reporting would directly influence reporting. As predicted, perceived offensiveness showed a direct influence on reporting, and feminist ideology and frequency of behavior were significant predictors of perceived offensiveness. Incidence data showed that the most frequently experienced situations involved gender harassment and seductive behaviors. Results suggest that educating women about the offensiveness of sexual harassment might increase frequency of reporting. Also, further exploration of the model seems warranted.     

Exploring the Mental Lexicon

This paper is a broad survey of issues that I have been examining within the domain of lexical access. Experiments are briefly outlined looking at the questions of morphological processing in both visual and spoken word recognition, phonological recoding in visual word recognition, orthographic influences in spoken word recognition, and a morphophonemic level of word representation. These issues are discussed in the framework of a model of lexical access where the recognition system and the production system are seen as separate representational systems.     

Exploring fantasies of TAT reliability

It has been argued that low TAT stability estimates are an artifact of retest instructions to be original and creative. This view was supported in a recent study by Winter and Stewart (1977) who found that test-retest reliability was higher when subjects were told on the second occasion to write the same stories than when they were told to write different stories. This study attempted to replicate Winter and Stewart's results and also to determine whether the similarity of stories did vary as hypothesized. The replication was only partially successful. More importantly, it was concluded that while instructions to write similar stories did improve reliability, the increase reflected only subjects' memory capabilities and not greater stability in motive expression. While true TAT stability may still be commonly underestimated, altering retest instructions to improve reliability does not appear to be the solution.