Domain-specificity in perfectionism: Variations across domains of life

Perfectionism has been assessed in relation to salient or narrow domains within specific populations, yet little is understood across broader domains of life. The aim was to assess positive perfectionism (PP) and negative perfectionism (NP) in five broad domains; university/work, relationships, physical activity, domestic environment and appearance and to determine any gender differences within domains. One hundred and forty four university students (females n = 101; males n = 43) completed a modified perfectionism measure for each domain. Correlations within and between domains for PP and NP ranged from low to moderate with differential patterns by gender, supporting more domain specificity and less of a universal trait. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that, overall, PP and NP in the university/work domain was significantly higher than all other domains. Females reported greater PP in the university domain compared to other domains, and more PP in the relationship, domestic environment and appearance domains as compared to the physical activity domain. In contrast, males reported significantly higher PP in the physical activity domain. Females reported significantly higher NP in the university and appearance domains, while males had similar NP across all domains. These findings present a more complex picture of perfectionism with implications for domain-specificity in perfectionistic behavior.     

Implications of Independent Versus Interdependent Self-knowledge for Motivated Social Cognition: The Semantic Procedural Interface Model of the Self

The Semantic Procedural Interface Model of the Self (SPI) suggests that, depending on the strength of the situational accessibility of independent or interdependent self-knowledge, people will tend to process stimuli either unaffected by context (context-independency) or cognizant of context (context-dependency). In this paper we describe the cognitive processes underlying context-independent or context-dependent information processing. We suggest that degree of context-dependency depends on cognitive control processes (attentional focus on focal or task-relevant information; inhibition of contextual or task-irrelevant information; task-management). Second, we predict motivational effects of the self's independence/interdependence by including assumptions about possible selves.     

Memories defining the self in Alzheimer’s disease

ABSTRACT

There is a debate over the extent to which personal identity or the self is preserved in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Autobiographical memory deficits at early stages of AD could contribute to altering patients’ self. However, the nature of the relationship between autobiographical memory deficits and the self in AD has not been much investigated experimentally. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the integrative meaning of self-defining memories (SDMs) in early stages of AD and to analyse its relationship with the self-concept. The results showed that, when compared to the control group, AD patients less frequently extracted meaning from their SDMs and the meaning was less frequently tied to the self. Patients exhibited some altered aspects of the self-concept (i.e., complexity and strength), though some other components still persisted (i.e., valence and certainty). Correlation analyses showed that the impaired integrative meaning in the AD group was correlated with some changes in self-concept. We suggest that integrative meaning may act as a bridge between autobiographical memories and the self-concept, with reduced integration abilities appearing as a potential mechanism for the deterioration of the self-concept in AD.     

Book reviews

D. E. M. Gardner: Susan Isaacs: A First Biography. Methuen Educational Ltd., 1972. Price £1.50.

Marion Milner: On Not Being Able to Paint. Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., London, 1971. Price 90p

Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins: Therapy in Music for Handicapped Children, with a foreword by Benjamin Britten. Victor Gollancz, London, 1971. Price £1.80.

The Mental Health Book Review Index: an Annual Bibliography of Books and Book Reviews in the Behavioural Sciences, Vol. 17, 1972, XXVI. Price $10.00. Published by the Council on Research in Bibliography, Inc., c/o Research Center for Mental Health, New York University, New York, N.Y. 10003. (Address orders to: Mental Health Book Review Index, c/o Paul Klapper Library, Queens College of the City University of New York, Flushing, New York 11367, U.S.A.)     

Reflex Responses of Human Lip Muscles to Mechanical Stimulation During Speech

The role played by reflex pathways in the production of movement has been a significant issue for motor control theorists interested in a wide variety of motor behaviors. From studies of locomotion and chewing, it appears that gains in reflex pathways can be altered so that activity in these pathways does not produce destabilizing responses during movement. In speech production, recent experimental evidence has been interpreted to suggest that autogenetic lip reflexes (perioral reflexes) are suppressed during sustained phonation or speech production. The present study was conducted to assess the effects of phonation, direction of movement, and ongoing speech production on reflex responses of lip muscles. The present results suggest, in contrast to earlier work, that this reflex pathway is not suppressed during phonation or speech. However, the response may appear to be suppressed or absent because the amplitude of the observed response depends upon the activation levels of the various muscles of the lower lip and, therefore, indirectly on the nature of the gesture the subject is instructed to produce.     

Yerushalmi in a French Key: (French) History and (French) Memory

This article explores the reception of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi in France in light of the many and diverse reactions his books and lectures engendered at major conferences and meetings. It describes how the American scholar became one of the leading figures among French intellectuals after the first translation of his book Zakhor in 1984 and his first lecture at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in 1987, which resulted in a series of annual lectures over the next ten years. Following the readings of Jacques Derrida, Paul Ric?ur, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, and François Furet, among other intellectuals, the eminent standing achieved by Yerushalmi coincided with a special “moment.” At a time when doubt was cast on the testimonies of living witnesses and when the words of Holocaust deniers and of members of the French Resistance were treated on equal terms, the politics of memory challenged the status of history and historians. This paper aims to recover the atmosphere of these past decades and to elucidate how Yerushalmi’s name has become inseparable from the issues linked with the debates about history and memory.     

Protecting Human Health and Security in Digital Europe: How to Deal with the “Privacy Paradox”?

This article is the result of an international research between law and ethics scholars from Universities in France and Switzerland, who have been closely collaborating with technical experts on the design and use of information and communication technologies in the fields of human health and security. The interdisciplinary approach is a unique feature and guarantees important new insights in the social, ethical and legal implications of these technologies for the individual and society as a whole. Its aim is to shed light on the tension between secrecy and transparency in the digital era. A special focus is put from the perspectives of psychology, medical ethics and European law on the contradiction between individuals’ motivations for consented processing of personal data and their fears about unknown disclosure, transferal and sharing of personal data via information and communication technologies (named the “privacy paradox”). Potential benefits and harms for the individual and society resulting from the use of computers, mobile phones, the Internet and social media are being discussed. Furthermore, the authors point out the ethical and legal limitations inherent to the processing of personal data in a democratic society governed by the rule of law. Finally, they seek to demonstrate that the impact of information and communication technology use on the individuals’ well-being, the latter being closely correlated with a high level of fundamental rights protection in Europe, is a promising feature of the socalled “e-democracy” as a new way to collectively attribute meaning to large-scale online actions, motivations and ideas.     

Structural Validation of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale

Despite the prolific use of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), there have been no prior studies using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to compare competing HDRS latent structures. The current study undertakes this task, examining CFAs on 397 older adults on the most stable latent models previously posited and a new rationally derived model by Cole and Motivala. CFAs were evaluated in their original first-order structure and in hierarchically related counterparts. All hierarchical models performed significantly better than their first-order counterparts. Moreover, the hierarchical Cole and Motivala model was significantly better on all comparative criteria than any of the other models. However, none of the tested models obtained sufficient fit with the data suggesting psychometric, scoring, or content limitations of the scale.