Contemporary attitudes and their ideological representation in Flanders (Belgium), Poland,and the Ukraine

The present research tests the validity of a two‐dimensional cultural and economic right‐wing model of ideology, as well as the relationships between these dimensions and attitudes toward recent political issues. Opinions about environmentalism, war on terror, and European Union enlargement were selected as representative contemporary attitudes. The present research questions were investigated in a Flemish (N = 176), Polish (N = 93), and Ukrainian (N = 93) sample. The results revealed that two dimensions underlie the ideological spectrum in all samples, one referring to cultural conservatism and right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA), and one referring to economic conservatism and social dominance orientation (SDO). Although the validity of differentiating between these ideological dimensions has been amply illustrated in studies on Western samples, the replication of these dimensions in former communist countries add to their validity and generality, because these countries have a specific political culture and history. However, important cross‐cultural differences with respect to the representation of the contemporary attitudes in this two‐dimensional ideological space were obtained as well. Whereas the war on terror attitude was meaningfully related to the cultural right‐wing dimension in all samples, the relationships for the environmentalism and EU enlargement attitudes were sample dependent. These cross‐cultural differences were explained in terms of saliency of the issue (nonsignificant versus significant relationships in the case of environmentalism) and pragmatic concerns in terms of profits and costs (in the case of EU enlargement). In the discussion it is also argued that the closer correspondence between the ideological representation of these attitudes in Polish and Western society may be caused by the fact that communism was less successful in penetrating political mentality in Poland than in the Ukraine.     

Spatial and temporal adaptations that accompany increasing catching performance during learning

The authors studied changes in performance and kinematics during the acquisition of a 1-handed catch. Participants were 8 women who took an intensive 2-week training program during which they evolved from poor catchers to subexpert catchers. An increased temporal consistency, shift in spatial location of ball-hand contact away from the body, and higher peak velocity of the transport of the hand toward the ball accompanied their improvement in catching performance. Moreover, novice catchers first adjusted spatial characteristics of the catch to the task constraints and fine-tuned temporal features only later during learning. A principal components analysis on a large set of kinematic variables indicated that a successful catch depends on (a) forward displacement of the hand and (b) the dynamics of the hand closure, thereby providing a kinematic underpinning for the traditional transport-manipulation dissociation in the grasping and catching literature.     

Herding by attribution of privileged information

We study a situation where agents take extreme actions and how these actions are imitated by others. First, Experiment 1 showed that an expert first mover had an advantage in obtaining herding by others on his investment decision, when compared to a non‐expert first mover. Experiment 2 showed that this advantage only appeared when the first mover's investment was out‐of‐the‐ordinary (in fact, highly aberrant). We obtained the same level of herding in Experiment 3 when the first mover had privileged information, instead of being an expert. Second, Experiment 4 showed that when people observed the same out‐of‐the‐ordinary investment and did not know whether the first mover had privileged information or not, they herded on him as if he had privileged information. In fact, our data revealed that participants thought that the unknown first mover had privileged information. Furthermore, herding was statistically indistinguishable from the condition where observers knew unambiguously that the first mover had privileged information. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Subjective frequency and imageability ratings for 3,600 French nouns

Subjective frequency and imageability estimates for a sample of 3,600 French nouns were collected from two independent groups of 72 young adults each. Both groups received standard instructions and provided their ratings on a 7-point scale. The timing, sequencing, presentation of lexical stimuli, and recording of responses were controlled by a computer. All estimates of internal consistency and test—retest reliability (≥.98) confirm the high level of precision and reliability of the ratings. Correlations with ratings drawn from similar studies were found to be positive and significant for subjective frequency (r ≥ .85) and for imageability (r ≥ .69). Subjective frequency was positively and significantly correlated with objective frequency estimates drawn from 10 different sources (r ≥ .42). Subjective frequency and imageability were significantly correlated (r=.26), a relationship that was driven primarily by a sudden drop in imageability ratings for words with a subjective frequency rating below 2.5. The methodological implications of these findings are discussed. The ratings can be downloaded as supplemental materials from brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Ergonomie cognitive d’un conseil génétique pour le test présymptomatique de maladie de Huntington

We would like to propose the analysis of a multidisciplinary genetic counselling activity. More precisely, we study an interaction that took place in the consultation between an asymptomatic patient who requests for a predictive genetic testing of Huntington’s disease and two doctors successively. We describe the failure of the multidisciplinary team’s attempt to influence the conviction, or the personal rationality, of the patient for the genetic risk perception. More generally, this study illustrates the communication practices which are engendered by modern medicine can be very delicate. Therefore, this information is carried by the act of informing. This action is made of processes which are relatively independent.     

The Need for Inclusion: The relationships between Relational and Collective inclusion needs and psychological well-and ill-being

The Need to Belong concept encompasses the need for inclusion and the discomfort with exclusion. The Need to Belong Scale of Leary, Kelly, Cottrell, and Schreindorfer (2013, p. 610), however, primarily probes into the discomfort aspect, and it does not distinguish between relational and collective self-levels. Two studies (total N = 429) provided evidence of the reliability, distinctiveness, and validity of the newly developed Need for Inclusion scale. The results revealed that Relational Need for Inclusion positively contributes to psychological well-being and negatively to ill-being. Collective Need for Inclusion was distinctively related to collective and group-level outcomes of self, such as social trust and collective self-esteem. Need to Belong yielded a reversed pattern of results for the studied outcomes. It is concluded that inclusion needs and discomfort with exclusion are positively related but clearly distinct, and that future studies should investigate their joint effects in a single research design.     

Unjust Lies,Just Wars? A Christian Pacifist Conversation with Augustine

Pacifism is routinely criticized as sectarian, incoherent, and preoccupied with moral purity at the expense of responsibility. The author contends that the pacifism of John Howard Yoder is vulnerable to none of these charges and defends this claim by establishing parallels between Yoder's analysis of killing and Augustine's analysis of lying. Although, within the terms of his own argument, Augustine's rejection of all lying as unjust is consistent with his condoning of some killing as just, the author shows that given a different conception of the defining characteristic of God (noncoercive love instead of truth), Augustine's theological argument against lying would become an argument against violence. The author therefore suggests that Yoder's rejection of killing is no more sectarian, incoherent, or irresponsible that Augustine's rejection of lying.     

To Have or To Be? A Comparison of Materialism‐Based Theories and Self‐Determination Theory as Explanatory Frameworks of Prejudice

ABSTRACT The present study aimed to delineate the psychological structure of materialism and intrinsic and extrinsic value pursuit. Moreover, we compared models based on self‐determination theory (SDT), Fromm's marketing character, and Inglehart's theory of social change to account for racial prejudice. In a sample of undergraduate students (n=131) and adults (n=176) it was revealed that the extrinsic value pursuit Financial Success/Materialism could be distinguished from the extrinsic value scales Physical Appeal and Social Recognition, and Community Concern could be distinguished from the intrinsic value pursuit scales Self‐acceptance and Affiliation. Moreover, Financial Success/Materialism and Community Concern were consistently and significantly related to prejudice, whereas the other SDT facet scales yielded weaker relationships with prejudice. Structural models based on SDT and Inglehart were not corroborated, but instead the present data supported a mediation model based on Fromm's work in which the effect of Community Concern was mediated by Financial Success/Materialism. Broader implications for SDT are critically assessed.     

Subjective frequency norms for 330 Spanish simple and compound words

Ratings were collected from 102 native speakers of Spanish on the subjective frequency of occurrence of 330 Spanish words, including 120 deverbal compounds and their constituents. These ratings were found to be highly reliable, whether items were analyzed together or separately by type (i.e., compounds, nouns, verbs), as evidenced by indexes of internal consistency and test-retest reliability that were equal to or greater than.98. The validity of the normative ratings was attested to by statistically significant correlations with objective frequency, estimated at.63 for all items together, and.41,.51, and.78 for compounds, nouns, and verbs, respectively. Among the substantive issues addressed was the potential dependency in ratings for compounds and their associated verb-noun constituents. No relationship was discerned, supporting the idea that compound and constituent ratings are statistically independent in this experimental task. The theoretical and methodological implications of the findings are discussed. The ratings can be downloaded from http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.