The sense of entitlement in romantic relationships: ethnic and religious aspects

One’s sense of entitlement is activated and influences one’s interactions and attitudes in a wide range of contexts, but it rather seems especially relevant in the context of the romantic relationship, as this particular type of relationship serves as a unique meeting point between needs, wishes, and expectations. While a number of studies have indicated that both exaggerated and restricted forms of sense of entitlement in couple relationships seem to be maladaptive and put people at risk for emotional problems, the core question of the current study dealt with the possible contribution of ethnic and religious aspects. As expected, ethnicity was shown to be a predictor of relational entitlement. Israeli Arabs were higher on inflated and restricted senses of entitlement than Israeli Jews were. Findings also indicated that among the Jewish sector, young religious Jews were higher on restricted sense of entitlement and lower on assertive sense of entitlement than were young secular Jews. Findings were discussed in terms of the unique situation of the Arab minority in Israel as well as the role of religious values in shaping the sense of relational entitlement in couple relationships.     

Student ethics in an era of personal entitlement

397 students arriving to take an exam in a junior level Principles of Management course were clearly warned on several occasions to keep cell phones outside the testing area or receive a failing test grade if the policy was violated. Just before the examination was administered, with all students sitting in their assigned seats, the professor made a final announcement that anyone still in possession of a cell phone would have one last opportunity to come forward and place it in a box at the front of the testing room. After eight students accepted this final "opportunity," the professor produced a hand-held metal detector, demonstrated how it could detect cell phones placed inside clothing, and informed the class that random screening of students would be conducted as they handed in their examinations. He then added that, as a special favor, he would allow a two-minute amnesty period during which any student could bring a cell phone to the front of the room for storage during the test. 38 students responded by turning in cell phones they had retained in direct violation of course policy. Implications of this cell phone dishonesty for creating viable business ethics and the role of perceived entitlement in shaping the behavior of these future business leaders were discussed.     

The Preoedipal Development of the Critical Superego and Its Manifestations in Psychoanalytic Group Psychotherapy

Alexithymia is a psychic dysfunction in which symbolic thinking and fantasy are reduced, somatization is common, feelings are poorly communicated, empathy is impaired, and intimate interpersonal relations are difficult to maintain. Individuals with significant alexithymia may have a variety of psychiatric disorders but their psychotherapy should always be informed by an awareness of their alexithymia. This paper reviews the concept and details the most efficient means of psychotherapy for alexithymic patients. Ideal treatment for such patients maximizes their opportunities to learn while protecting their self-esteem and minimizing nonproductive stress. Such treatment involves concurrent individual and group psychotherapy. Clinical material is presented and specific therapeutic maneuvers are explored.     

Superego pathology in borderline conditions: Impediments to establishing a therapeutic alliance

Recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of borderline conditions have imposed upon the clinician not only the task of a clearer differential diagnosis, but the finer job of diagnosing those factors which may speak for the patient's capacity to build up a growth-inducing working alliance. Among such factors, considerations regarding superego functioning have a crucial importance. In this work, a brief exploration of structural defects in borderline conditions, particularly superego-related defects or malfunctioning, is illustrated with three clinical vignettes. Some treatment considerations conclude this work, namely, considerations related to: the therapeutic frame; the facilitation of superego growth; and some notes on sectors of therapeutic mis-alliances and interactional symptoms and syndromes.     

Links between grievance, complaint and different forms of entitlement

The author argues that different kinds of object relationships underlie the phenomena of grievance and complaint. Grievance is addressed to an object held responsible for a failure of idealisation, and the object is scolded or punished for this failure. Nursing grievance can restore the ideal object in phantasy and block mourning the ideal. With pathological grievance the self is seen as ideal and awareness of dependence on the libidinal other is denied, as are the passage of time and the transience of experience. An attitude of narcissistic entitlement to be special and exempt from ordinary reality is seen as intrinsic to the more persistent and pathological forms of grievance, and this narcissistic entitlement fuels grievance. Turning to complaint, the author argues that complaint is addressed to an object that is less idealised; there is more open acknowledgement of the need for and dependence on the other to realise liveliness. Complaint is the voice of the authentic lively self and intrinsic to complaint is a sense of lively entitlement. The author presents clinical material to illustrate these themes, and to show movement between complaint and grievance. Some technical difficulties in working with grievance are discussed.     

History of a Childhood Neurosis and Its Relation to the Adult Superego

The purpose of this paper is to find meaning for the “presence of conscience” observable in the psychoanalytic setting and corresponding evidence for the origins of such ways of thinking, feeling, and remembering. I apply this perspective to the case study of a man who presented as constricted, inhibited, anxious, and self-critical. He was outwardly successful but internally tormented with what can best be described as an obsessional neurosis. His initial symptomatic neurosis was supplanted by a transference neurosis reflecting a childhood obsessional neurosis. In my theory of mind during this analysis, I often saw the original ideas of Freud at work—unconscious sense of guilt, ego ideal, and conscience. The analysand represented over and over the dynamics of the Oedipus stage of development. I made additional observations about character formation and guilt. The analysand terminated his work with me symptom-free. From this case study, I learned that the presence of conscience (guilt and self-denigration), or of superego structure and function in classical terms, is best approached as to origin by following the development of self in reference to the other.     

The morning (mourning) minyan: Group therapeutic aspects

Group therapeutic benefits may be provided by the performance of religiously prescribed ritualistic activities in an emotionally supportive group environment. This brief paper describes the author’s experience of group therapeutic benefit from an early morning prayer meeting, particularly from the ritualistic act of Kaddish recitation in a group setting, for his own mourning experience following the death of his mother.     

Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Superego Functioning Following CS Readministration Procedures: Case Illustration

The Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003) has specific procedures to address brief Rorschach protocols when the first administration yields fewer than 14 responses. These procedures involve the assessor's asking the client to retake the test by providing more responses on the second administration than the first administration. The request carries with it an implicit criticism of the client's initial effort and a mandate to improve performance on retake. The retake request, with its ambiguously worded demand for improved performance, engages the client's superego (i.e., the client feels judged) and makes it possible to study superego manifestations (e.g., guilt, shame) on the Rorschach test, using a model of (a) brief first record, (b) retake directive, and (c) second administration. We present a case that illustrates a clinical strategy, modeled on a psychoanalytic understanding of the CS retake procedure, for studying the client's superego functioning under retest conditions.     

Diffusion of entitlement: An inhibitory effect of scarcity on consumption

Four studies demonstrated that increasing a desirable commodity's scarcity (i.e., decreasing its supply or increasing demand for it) can inhibit people from claiming the commodity for themselves, thereby delaying its consumption. In Study 1, participants were slower to claim a commodity when its supply was limited versus unlimited. In Study 2, participants expressed more disapproval of someone who took the last commodity compared to the second-last commodity. Participants in Study 3 anticipated that increased demand for a commodity would make them less likely to claim it despite wanting it more. Study 4 showed that the more participants there were who could claim a commodity, the longer it went unclaimed. The inhibitory effect of scarcity was mediated by diminished entitlement to the commodity (Study 3), and increasing entitlement reduced the inhibition against taking scarce commodities (Studies 1 and 2). These findings are discussed in the context of individuals' concern with equality.     

Overworked and underpaid: on the nature of gender differences in personal entitlement

This research investigated gender differences in feelings of personal entitlement with respect to monetary payment for work performed. Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that women's internal standards of fair pay for their work are lower than men's and to examine possible causes of this difference. In Experiment 1, men and women were asked to pay themselves in a private situation what they thought was fair pay for a fixed amount of work. Social comparison information was varied. As predicted, women paid themselves less money than men in the absence, but not the presence, of social comparison information. In Experiment 2, men and women were asked to do as much work as they thought was fair for a fixed, prepaid, amount of money. Subjects believed that their work was either monitored or unmonitored. Women worked significantly longer, did more work, and did more correct work than men in both public and private work settings. Furthermore, women, but not men, worked longer when they believed their work was monitored than when they believed it was unmonitored. Possible explanations for these gender differences are discussed.     

汉字的无线索回忆再认效应:重复学习和重复测验的作用

采用无线索回忆再认范式,对基于熟悉性的汉字语义特征再认进行了探索,考察了重复学习和重复测验对汉字语义特征的无线索回忆再认效应(RWCR效应)的影响。实验1采用即时测验,实验2采用延时测验,结果发现:(1)无论即时还是延时测验,汉字语义特征的再认均存在RWCR效应。(2)在即时测验时,重复学习对熟悉性有显著影响,重复测验对熟悉性没有影响;重复学习和重复测验均提高回想成绩,但二者无差异。(3)在延时测验时,重复学习组和重复测验组的熟悉性评分均下降,但前者下降快于后者;重复测验组回想的遗忘率较低,重复学习组回想的遗忘率较高。上述结果说明,汉字的语义特征存在稳定的RWCR效应,且重复学习主要影响熟悉性,重复测验主要影响回想。进一步证明了再认记忆的双加工理论。     

Psychosocial aspects of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in a pre-HAART sample

The psychosocial consequences of HLV-infection were studied using a semi-structured interview and the psychiatric questionnaire SCL-90-R, in 3 matched groups of homosexual men: 20 patients with Aids, 20 asymptomatic HIV-infected and 20 non-infected controls. The data was collected before the HAART (Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy) era. The results showed that the infected subjects more often concealed their homosexuality, engaged in more risky sexual behavior and were less inclined to regard AIDS as a serious problem. The infected subjects also revealed more psychopathology on 5 of the 9 indexes on the SCL-90. Across all 3 groups, contact ability was correlated to being open about homosexuality and to psychological well-being. These results indicate that HIV has considerable impact on psychological well-being among the infected and point to the need for health-care workers to be especially attentive to those HIV-infected who have difficulty in talking to others about their situation.     

Creating hostility and conflict: Effects of entitlement and self-image goals

People who feel entitled to admiration and respect from others do not make good companions. This research shows one reason why. Entitled people adopt self-image goals (goals that aim to construct and defend a positive self-image), which then lead to interpersonal conflict and hostility. Studies 1A and 1B documented a unique relation between entitlement and self-image goals. Study 2 extended these results by showing, via a longitudinal design, that entitlement prospectively predicts chronic self-image goals. These chronic self-image goals then predict chronic relationship conflict and hostility, all averaged over 10 weeks. Further, Study 2 revealed that self-image goals mediate the effect of pretest entitlement on both weekly hostility and conflict. These results suggest that by pursuing self-image goals, entitled people create conflict and hostility in their relationships.     

A study of syntactic processing in aphasia I: behavioral (psycholinguistic) aspects

This paper presents the results of a study of syntactically based comprehension in aphasic patients. We studied 42 patients with aphasia secondary to left hemisphere strokes and 25 control participants. We measured off-line, end-of-sentence, performance (accuracy and reaction time) in two tasks that require comprehension--enactment and sentence-picture matching--and in grammaticality judgment, with whole sentence auditory presentation. We also used sentence-picture matching and grammaticality judgment as tasks in two self-paced listening studies with the same patients to measure on-line performance. In each task and presentation format, we presented sentences that tested the ability to assign and interpret three structural contrasts chosen to examine different basic syntactic operations: actives and passives, subject and object extracted relative clauses, and reflexive pronouns and matched sentences without these elements. We examined these behavioral data to determine patterns of impairment in individual patients and in groups of patients, using correlational analyses, factor analyses, and analyses of variance. The results showed that almost no individual patients had stable deficits referable to the ability to interpret individual syntactic structures, that a variety of structural features contributed to sentence processing complexity both on-line and off-line, that correct responses were associated with normal on-line and errors with abnormal performance, and that the major determinant of performance is a factor that affected performance on all sentence types. The results indicate that the major cause of aphasic impairments of syntactically based comprehension are intermittent reductions in the processing capacity available for syntactic, interpretive, and task-related operations.     

Psychological entitlement: interpersonal consequences and validation of a self-report measure

Nine studies were conducted with the goal of developing a self-report measure of psychological entitlement and assessing its interpersonal consequences. The Psychological Entitlement Scale (PES) was found to be reliable and valid (Study 1, 2), not associated with social desirability (Study 2), stable across time (Study 3), and correlated negatively with two of the Big Five factors: agreeableness and emotional stability (Study 4). The validity of the PES was confirmed in studies that assessed willingness to take candy designated for children (Study 5) and reported deservingness of pay in a hypothetical employment setting (Study 6). Finally, the PES was linked to important interpersonal consequences including competitive choices in a commons dilemma (Study 7), selfish approaches to romantic relationships (Study 8), and aggression following ego threat (Study 9). Psychological entitlement has a pervasive and largely unconstructive impact on social behavior.     

Sleep physiology and psychological aspects of the fibrositis (fibromyalgia) syndrome

Fibrositis (fibromyalgia) patients were compared with normal controls in terms of electrophysiology (EEG), self-report indicants of awakening, quality of sleep, behaviourally signalled awakenings, and Symptom Check List 90R (SCL-90R) scores. The results differentiated fibrositis patients from normal controls in terms of SCL-90R scores, with fibrositis patients showing significantly more psychopathology. Fibrositis patients had more alpha EEG sleep and less REM and Stage 1 sleep. They were better able to recall their behaviourally signalled awakenings the following morning and reported qualitatively less satisfying sleep than the normal controls. The alpha EEG sleep anomaly may reflect a vigilant arousal state during nocturnal sleep and result in the daytime experience of unrefreshing sleep, psychologic distress, that re-enforces the perpetuation of the sleep-related symptoms.     

Temporal aspects of female musk shrew (Suncus murinus) sexual behavior

The effects of testing condition on sexual behavior were examined in female musk shrews (Suncus murinus). Females were tested in 2 conditions, a pair test and a paced test. The pair test was similar to traditional sex test conditions in which the female and male are placed into the same chamber together until mating occurs. The paced condition allowed the female to leave the male's chamber and revisit him at will, thus "pacing" the interaction. Females displayed receptivity continuously for 14 days in both conditions. In the paced condition, females were less likely to become receptive within 30 min and mate to ejaculation. However, few additional differences were found between test conditions. Because this is the 1st experiment to use a pacing test paradigm in a species with induced ovulation, the authors speculate that the absence of pacing behavior during mating may be shown by other species that have induced ovulation.