Thin slices of negotiation: predicting outcomes from conversational dynamics within the first 5 minutes

In this research the authors examined whether conversational dynamics occurring within the first 5 minutes of a negotiation can predict negotiated outcomes. In a simulated employment negotiation, microcoding conducted by a computer showed that activity level, conversational engagement, prosodic emphasis, and vocal mirroring predicted 30% of the variance in individual outcomes. The conversational dynamics associated with success among high-status parties were different from those associated with success among low-status parties. Results are interpreted in light of theory and research exploring the predictive power of "thin slices" of behavior (N. Ambady & R. Rosenthal, 1992). Implications include the development of new technology to diagnose and improve negotiation processes.     

Soames on Quine and Davidson

A discussion of Quine and Davidson, as interpreted and criticized in Scott Soames’ Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Volume II.     

The negative event scale: measuring frequency and intensity of adult hassles

This study examined the structure, concurrent validity, and reliability of a hassle measure for middle-aged adults in both event frequency and intensity recordings. The measure included a range of interpersonal day-to-day events and re-examined aspects of the primary appraisal confounding debate between Lazarus and colleagues (Lazarus, Delongis, Folkman, & Gruen, 1985) and Dohrenwend and Shrout (1985). Of the 373 participants, 73% were female, 72% were in paid work, 69% were in permanent relationships and 62% had children. Principal component analyses of separate hassle frequency and intensity scores highlighted components consistent with previous research. There were seven interpersonal and four non-interpersonal subscales associated with negative events with family and friends, work, health, money, and household. The subscales had very good reliability and concurrent validity and there were generally strong correlations (i.e. up .84) between frequency and intensity scores for each subscale. Given some important sampling limitations (e.g. female overrepresentation) the findings show a psychometrically sound hassle scale for adults.     

Identifying and changing the normative beliefs about aggression which lead young Muslim adults to join extremist anti‐Semitic groups in Pakistan

Two studies investigated the role of beliefs about the acceptability of aggression (“normative beliefs”) against Jews in determining who would join an extremist group. In Study 1, students in a university in Pakistan (N=144) completed self‐report attitude measures, and were subsequently approached by a confederate who asked whether they wanted to join an extremist anti‐Semitic organization. Normative beliefs about aggression against Jews were very strong predictors of whether participants agreed to join. In Study 2, participants (N=92) were experimentally assigned to either a brief educational intervention, designed to improve inter‐group relations, or to a control group. They also filled in self‐report attitude measures pre and post intervention. Participants in the intervention group were much less likely to agree to join the extremist group, and this effect of the intervention on joining was mediated by changes in normative beliefs about aggression against Jews. The results have implications for theories of inter‐group aggression and interventions to prevent people from being recruited into extremist groups. Aggr. Behav. 35:514–519, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Brain correlates of aesthetic expertise: a parametric fMRI study

Several studies have demonstrated that acquired expertise influences aesthetic judgments. In this paradigm we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study aesthetic judgments of visually presented architectural stimuli and control-stimuli (faces) for a group of architects and a group of non-architects. This design allowed us to test whether level of expertise modulates neural activity in brain areas associated with either perceptual processing, memory, or reward processing. We show that experts and non-experts recruit bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and subcallosal cingulate gyrus differentially during aesthetic judgment, even in the absence of behavioural aesthetic rating differences between experts and non-experts. By contrast, activity in nucleus accumbens (NAcc) exhibits a differential response profile compared to OFC and subcallosal cingulate gyrus, suggesting a dissociable role between these regions in the reward processing of expertise. Finally, categorical responses (irrespective of aesthetic ratings) resulted in expertise effects in memory-related areas such as hippocampus and precuneus. These results highlight the fact that expertise not only modulates cognitive processing, but also modulates the response in reward related brain areas.     

Neurobiological Markers of Illness Onset in Psychosis and Schizophrenia: The Search for a Moving Target

In this review, we describe neuropsychological and brain imaging findings in the early stages of psychosis and schizophrenia. We focus on recent clinical high-risk studies and consider whether the evidence supports these as ‘endophenotypes’ of a vulnerability to the illness or as ‘biomarkers’ of illness onset and transition. The findings suggest that there are a number of processes at psychosis onset that may represent biomarkers of incipient illness. These neurobiological indices particularly implicate the integrity of frontal and temporal cortices, which may or may not be related to the genetics of psychosis (i.e. potential ‘endophenotypes’). However, these brain regions are dynamically changing during normal maturation, meaning that any putative neurobiological markers identified at the earliest stages of illness may be relatively unstable. We suggest that, while such measures may be readily identified as potential neurobiological markers of established illness, they are inconsistent at (or around) the time of illness onset when assessed cross-sectionally. Instead, identification of more valid risk markers may require longitudinal assessment to ascertain normal or abnormal trajectories of neurodevelopment. Accordingly, we assert that the current conceptualisations of potential biomarkers and/or ‘endophenotypes’ for schizophrenia may need to be reconsidered in the context of normal and abnormal brain maturational processes at the time of onset of psychotic disorders.     

Christianity and the Shadow Side of Human Experience

Pastoral Psychology - In Jungian theory, every human being, including the Christian believer, has a shadow side to his or her personality. The shadow, then, like it or not, is a part of our common...     

Do Colours Look Like Dispositions? Reply to Langsam and Others

Dispositional theories of colour have been attacked by McGinn and others on the ground that 'Colours do not look like dispositions'. Langsam has argued that on the contrary they do, in 'Why Colours Do Look Like Dispositions', The Philosophical Quarterly , 50 (2000), pp. 68–75. I make three claims. First, neither side has made its case. Secondly, it is true, at least on one interpretation, that colours do not look like dispositions. Thirdly, this does not show that dispositionalism about colours is false.