Defensive pessimism and precautionary action during the COVID pandemic

The purpose of this research was to test, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hypothesis that individuals who use defensive pessimism as a strategy to manage anxiety are likely to act to prevent or mitigate negative outcomes. Across three crowd-sourced samples (Total N = 1416), defensive pessimism was correlated with self-reports of more precautionary behavior (Studies 1, 2, & 3) and fewer COVID-positive results (Study 3).     

Centering on figurative features during the comprehension of sentences describing scenes

Summary Subjects were asked to read sentences which described scenes containing objects. In the scene described in each sentence, a specific part of a particular object was necessarily implied as having an important role. The object was named but none of its parts were. The assumption was that the subjects, while processing the sentence and immediately afterward, would cognitively center on the important part, as a function of the context created by the sentence. Immediately after reading the sentence, the subjects were probed with a picture of either the important part, or of an unimportant part of the object. Judgments of the compatibility of this picture probe with the sentence were faster for pictures of important parts than for pictures of other parts. This was taken as supporting the hypothesis of cognitive centration. In a second experiment, in which words were used as probes instead of pictures, a purely verbal process to account for the results was ruled out. In a third experiment, subjects were given instructions to intentionally form visual images of the scenes described by the sentences. In this case, overall response times to the picture probes were shorter than in the absence of such instructions, but this decrease was greater for pictures of unimportant parts. This finding was interpreted as showing that imagery instructions increase the rate of activation of features to varying degrees as a function of the previous level of activation.     

Social marking in ordering tasks: Effects and action mechanisms

The same ordering task with social marking is used in two experimental training conditions. In one of the conditions, the answers based on the social norm contradict the answers that result from the cognitive processing of the examples provided. In the other condition, the two types of answers are the same. When compared to a control training condition, both of the test training conditions are shown to have the same effect. The observations made during training as well as the justifications given by the children support the hypothesis that the influence of social marking cannot be explained, at least for one of the test conditions, by the existence of socio-cognitive conflict. Social marking may lead to better representation of the task. In one of the experimental conditions, it may also lead to the use of a problem-solving procedure that is based on the properties of the objects to be ordered.     

Impaired word naming in right-brain-damaged right-handers: error types and time-course analyses

The purpose of this study is to search for cues that could account for the fact that right-hemisphere lesions affect word naming when the criterion for naming is semantic. The authors analyzed the errors as well as the time course of productions of 35 vascular right-brain-damaged subjects (RBD) and 20 control subjects (C) in a semantic-based word-naming task. Results show that there are no differences between groups in terms of (a) the number of errors produced and, (b) the patterns of error types. However, results also show a reduction of verbal fluency for semantic criteria in RBD-subjects present only after the first 30 seconds of production. These results indicate that reduction of word production in RBD-subjects is not the consequence of nonspecific factors such as perseveration or spontaneity, but reflects problems with the less automatized processes permitting exploration of semantic organization, either because scanning process are affected, or because the presence of a discreet semantic impairment prevents scanning from being as efficient. Given that efficient exploration of semantic knowledge is important for lexico-semantic functioning, the present results suggest that the right hemisphere contributes to some aspects of lexico-semantic processing necessary for language production.     

Family Therapy in France: A Brief Overview

The major issues in contemporary family therapy in France are described: Difficult beginnings, the practice of family therapy today, training and professionalisation, organization for family therapy, journals and publishing, and perspectives for family therapy in France.A psychiatrist, Head of Hospital Psychiatric and Mental Health Center near Paris (Ville Evrard. France 93330) and a family therapist     

Independence and interdependence of group judgments: Xenophobia and minority influence

A first experiment examined the effects of two methods of dividing resources between Swiss nationals and foreign residents in a study involving 118 subjects. Subjects gave judgments involving either interdependent allocation (resources allocated to the outgroup cannot be allocated to the ingroup) or independent allocation. The results indicated that the socio-cognitive functioning preferred by subjects varies as a function of their view of outsiders. Interdependence of judgments was more characteristic of the most xenophobic subjects, whereas the least xenophobic were more likely to reason in terms of independence. On the other hand, intermediate subjects (those who were clearly neither for nor against outsiders) were sensitive to these modalities of judgment: interdependence engendered an ingroup favoritism, while independence counteracted this bias. A second experiment further analysed the influence of a more or less imperative minority argument on the attitudes of 109 more xenophobic subjects. Independent as compared to interdependent judgment facilitated a latent influence by the source, especially when the source employed a more imperative rhetoric to urge a more favourable attitude to foreigners.     

Cortical evoked potentials as indicators of auditory-visual cross-modal association in young adults

Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were studied from scalp locations Cz and Oz on 37 adults aged 20–22 years during sensori-sensorial association of a weak sound (S) and a strong flash of light (L). After sound alone repetition (habituation), S-L association modified AEP: first, it caused a generalized orienting response expressed as increasing of Cz and Oz amplitude AEPs. Then, this pattern gave way to an activation limited to the Oz lead: the increase of amplitude was then concomitant with shortened latencies when compared to sound-alone-habituated responses. Inter-individual differences were observed since these occipital modifications were recorded only on 26 subjects. The other 11 subjects did not exhibit any occipital modifications following S-L association. For them, the main modification was a strong decrease of Cz AEP induced by S-L association. These two groups also differed in their capacity to ignore irrelevent stimuli which is higher in the first group (AEP amplitude habituation with sound-alone repetition) than in the second one (no AEP habituation).     

Faith and the developmental cycle

According to Paul Tillich, faith as a human response is an act of the total personality in which all the elements of man's personal life participate. This paper explores one aspect of this assertion that has been neglected by both psychologists and theologians-the heuristic idea that faith is a developmental phenomenon. Specifically, the paper contends that the dominant form of an individual's faith at any one time is determined in part by the particular developmental stage in which that individual is immersed. This contention is developed using the epigenetic approach of Erik Erikson. Eight developmental forms of faith are explored: among them, faith as trust, faith as obedience, and faith as self-surrender.