Empirical Support for an Evolutionary Model of Self‐Destructive Motivation

We tested predictions generated from an evolutionary account of self‐destructive motivation in two survey studies of 18–24‐year‐old university students. As hypothesized, hierarchical regressions showed that the positive relationship between perceived burden to family and suicide ideation was amplified for participants with low measured health and romantic relationship satisfaction, and for participants with relatively young mothers. The moderating effect of maternal age was also observed in logistic regressions of suicide attempts. These effects occurred independently of depression, hopelessness, and other relevant extraneous variables. Results have implications for understanding self‐destructive motivation, assessing suicide risk, and preventing suicidal thinking and behavior.     

Ideology or experience: A study of sexual harassment

“Ideology or Experience” is a replication and redefinition of a study done at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), Canada, which examined response biases with respect to the reporting of sexual harassment. In the replication, 192 William Paterson College (WPC), New Jersey, students were used to investigate the role of ideology and previous sexual harassment experiences in reporting sexual harassment incidents. Both studies assessed the relationship between one's experiences, perceptions, and attitudes toward sexual harassment. The WPC study, however, overcame acknowledged potential reporting biases by using face to face scale distribution rather than mailed questionnaires. Findings replicate most of the previous study and suggest that neither the experience of being sexually harassed nor a feminist ideology affects the reporting of sexual harassment. A gender by experience interaction was found with regard to tolerance of sexual harassment suggesting potential differences in cultural, and/or gender, attitudes toward sexual harassment. Further analysis, redefining the experience variable, as suggested by Mazer and Percival, also supports the notion that experience does not affect the reporting of sexual harassment.     

Couples' shared participation in novel and arousing activities and experienced relationship quality

Using a newspaper questionnaire, a door-to-door survey, and 3 laboratory experiments, the authors examined a proposed effect of shared participation in novel and arousing activities on experienced relationship quality. The questionnaire and survey studies found predicted correlations of reported shared "exciting" activities and relationship satisfaction plus their predicted mediation by relationship boredom. In all 3 experiments, the authors found predicted greater increases in experienced relationship quality from before to after participating together in a 7-min novel and arousing (vs. a more mundane) task. Comparison with a no-activity control showed the effect was due to the novel-arousing task. The same effect was found on ratings of videotaped discussions before and after the experimental task. Finally, all results remained after controlling for relationship social desirability. Results bear on general issues of boredom and excitement in relationships and the role of such processes in understanding the typical early decline of relationship quality after the honeymoon period.     

Conditioned enhancement of human's liking for flavor by pairing with sweetness

This paper reports a procedure, like classical conditioning, that produces enhancement of liking for flavors by humans. The procedure is “pairing” of a relatively neutral flavor with sugar (a hedonically positive taste). Specifically, subjects drank 24 small samples of flavor A sweetened and 24 small samples of flavor B unsweetened. They were then tested for their liking for flavors A and B, both sweetened and unsweetened. In three different studies, varying in a number of aspects of stimulus presentations and context, a relative enhancement in liking for flavor A appeared both on the day of exposure and 1 week later. An absolute enhancement in liking of flavor B (a “mere exposure” effect) also occurred in two of the three experiments.     

Sense of Closeness to Parents and Family Rules: A Study of Arab and Jewish Youth in Israel

The present study investigated adolescents' perception of closeness to their parents and family rules restricting their conduct, in Arab and Jewish Israeli samples. A total of 854 11th-grade high school students reported their perceptions by a self-report questionnaire. Overall, the results indicate that the Arab youths perceived more closeness toward their parents and more rules restricting their conduct, compared with their Jewish counterparts. In both cultures, girls reported more restrictions on dating and leaving home than boys. Among Israeli Arab adolescents a positive association was uncovered between closeness to parents and number of rules. No such pattern was evident among Israeli Jewish youth. These and additional findings are discussed within the context of Triandis' cross-cultural dimension of collectivism-individualism.     

Perceiving couples as discrete units: The existence of couple-level identities

The present studies examined the often-implicit notion that people think about couples as discrete entities, distinct from the individuals therein—a concept we refer to as couple-level identities. Findings suggest that people perceive both their own and other couples as distinct units (Study 1) that can possess dyadic qualities unique from those of either couple member. Exploring the implications of these identities, Studies 2 and 3 examined how couple-level identities (beyond the identities of the individuals) influence social judgment (e.g., cognitive biases). Finally, Study 4's findings suggest that perceptions of discrete couple-level identities are natural parts of everyday social cognition. Together, results suggest the need to consider couple-level identities in research on the self, social perception, and close relationships.     

Exploring consumer status and conspicuous consumption

In seeking to expand an understanding of consumption, this study assesses the relationship between status consumption and conspicuous consumption. Theoretically, the relationship between status consumption and conspicuous consumption is problematic and, therefore, the main focus of this paper examines the theoretical and empirical separation of consumers' status consumption and conspicuous consumption. Data were gathered via a survey of individuals aged between 18 and 25. The findings indicate that status consumption and conspicuous consumption are distinct constructs. Differences in status consumption tendencies between males and females were not found; however, in relation to conspicuous consumption gender differences were found. Status consumption was affected by self‐monitoring and interpersonal influences, but conspicuous consumption was affected only by interpersonal influences. The brands examined also clearly differed in terms of status and conspicuous consumption perceptions. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.     

Task-irrelevant distractors in the delay period interfere selectively with visual short-term memory for spatial locations

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) enables the representation of information in a readily accessible state. VSTM is typically conceptualized as a form of “active” storage that is resistant to interference or disruption, yet several recent studies have shown that under some circumstances task-irrelevant distractors may indeed disrupt performance. Here, we investigated how task-irrelevant visual distractors affected VSTM by asking whether distractors induce a general loss of remembered information or selectively interfere with memory representations. In a VSTM task, participants recalled the spatial location of a target visual stimulus after a delay in which distractors were presented on 75% of trials. Notably, the distractor’s eccentricity always matched the eccentricity of the target, while in the critical conditions the distractor’s angular position was shifted either clockwise or counterclockwise relative to the target. We then computed estimates of recall error for both eccentricity and polar angle. A general interference model would predict an effect of distractors on both polar angle and eccentricity errors, while a selective interference model would predict effects of distractors on angle but not on eccentricity errors. Results showed that for stimulus angle there was an increase in the magnitude and variability of recall errors. However, distractors had no effect on estimates of stimulus eccentricity. Our results suggest that distractors selectively interfere with VSTM for spatial locations.     

Discussion of “Bread and Roses: Empathy and Recognition”

Rachel Kabasakalian McKay’s (this issue) important contribution focuses on a comparison of “empathy” and “recognition.” In her paper, McKay compares the sensibility of responsive attunement that she associates with empathy to the sensibility of distinctiveness that she connects to recognition. This discussion takes up this comparison of empathy and recognition associated with their embeddedness in self-psychology in contrast to relational and intersubjectivity theories. In the author’s view, the essential tension between autonomy and at-one-ness is necessary to both empathy and recognition and should not be split between them. Because recognition is Benjamin’s fundamental idea, the foundation of intersubjective recognition theory, it is incumbent on us to develop and elaborate the precise technical meanings, denotations, and connotations of this term, along with its clinical and social implications. The author believes that the key to this project is to see that, for Benjamin, recognition occurs throughout life across developmental levels and thus actually refers to quite different, although deeply related, phenomena.