GENDER DIFFERENCES IN LEADER EMERGENCE PERSIST EVEN FOR DOMINANT WOMEN: AN UPDATED CONFIRMATION OF ROLE CONGRUITY THEORY

Role congruity theory predicts that women will be less likely than men to emerge as leaders when expectations for the leader role are incongruent with gender stereotypes. A 2 × 2 × 3 design that crossed the sex of the dominant partner, mixed- and same-sex dyads, and masculine, feminine, and neutral tasks involved 120 dyads of unacquainted college students in which one partner scored higher in dominance. In same-sex partnerships, the dominant member consistently emerged as leader. In mixed-sex dyads, the gender typing of the task did not influence dominant male ascendance but it did affect women's. When the task was masculine-typed or neutral, less dominant men were more likely to emerge as the leader of the dyad, frequently being appointed by the dominant woman herself. Thus, even when women possess the agentic quality of dominance consistent with the leader role, the incongruence between masculinized task demands and gender stereotypes mitigate against women's leadership emergence.     

Rates and Correlates of DSM-IV Diagnoses in Women Newly Diagnosed with Breast Cancer

Although the presence of psychological distress has been documented in women with breast cancer, previous studies have not established rates of DSM-IV diagnoses in this population, nor have prior investigations compared the utility of diagnostic interviewing vs. symptom checklists to assess distress. DSM-IV diagnoses of anxiety disorders and major depression, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and quality of life were examined in 207 women with newly diagnosed breast cancer. Eighteen percent of breast cancer patients met criteria for a current DSM-IV anxiety or depressive disorder and 54% met criteria for a disorder at some point in their lifetime. These rates are comparable to those found in recent community epidemiological studies (e.g., R. C. Kessler, K. A. McGonagle, S. Zhao, C. B. Nelson, M. Hughes, S. Esheman, et al., 1994). Sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value for anxiety and depression symptoms as predictors of DSM disorders were relatively poor. However, after accounting for demographic, treatment, and cancer variables, self-reported anxiety symptoms were significantly related to the presence of an anxiety disorder and self-reported depressive symptoms were significantly related to a diagnosis of a depressive disorder. Symptoms of anxiety and depression contributed significantly and uniquely to physical, medical, and sexual quality of life; DSM-IV diagnoses were not significantly related to quality of life after controlling for symptoms of depression and anxiety. The importance of measuring both symptoms of distress and psychiatric diagnoses in cancer patients and the clinical practice implications of the results are discussed.     

Negative attributes are gendered too: Conceptualizing and measuring positive and negative facets of sex‐role identity

Measures of gender identity have almost exclusively relied on positive aspects of masculinity and femininity, although conceptually the self‐concept is not limited to positive attributes. A theoretical argument is made for considering negative attributes of gender identity, followed by five studies developing the Positive–Negative Sex‐Role Inventory (PN‐SRI) as a new measure of gender identity. Study 1 demonstrated that many of the attributes of a German version of the Bem Sex‐Role Inventory are no longer considered to differ in desirability for men and women. For the PN‐SRI, Study 2 elicited attributes characterizing men and women in today's society, for which ratings of typicality and desirability as well as self‐ratings by men and women were obtained in Study 3. Study 4 examined the reliability and factorial structure of the four subscales of positive and negative masculinity and femininity and demonstrated the construct and discriminant validity of the PN‐SRI by showing that the negative masculinity and femininity scales were unique predictors of select validation constructs. Study 5 showed that the new instrument explained variance in the validation constructs beyond earlier measures of gender identity. Key message: Even in the construction of negative aspects of gender identity, individuals prefer gender‐congruent attributes. Negative masculinity and femininity make a unique contribution to understanding gender‐related differences in psychological outcome variables. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Remembering Words Never Presented: False Memory Effects in Dementia of the Alzheimer Type

Thirty-five young adults, 35 older adults and 29 individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer’s type studied lists of semantically related words (e.g., thread, pin, sewing) that converged on a non-presented lure (needle). Compared to the young adults, older adults remembered (recall and recognition tests) fewer studied items but falsely remembered more non-presented lures. Memory for studied items was lower in the DAT group compared to normal elders. The DAT group did recall some non-presented lures, although unlike the older adults, recall of non-presented lures was not elevated compared to veridical memory. Similar to the normal elders, the DAT group showed increased susceptibility to false recognition of non-presented lures. Susceptibility to false recognition did not vary as a function of disease severity.     

With infinite utility,more needn't be better

Plausibly, only moral agents can bear action-demanding duties. This places constraints on which groups can bear action-demanding duties: only groups with sufficient structure—call them ‘collectives’—have the necessary agency. Moreover, if duties imply ability then moral agents (of both the individual and collectives varieties) can bear duties only over actions they are able to perform. It is thus doubtful that individual agents can bear duties to perform actions that only a collective could perform. This appears to leave us at a loss when assigning duties in circumstances where only a collective could perform some morally desirable action and no collective exists. But, I argue, we are not at a loss. This article outlines a new way of assigning duties over collective acts when there is no collective. Specifically, we should assign collectivization duties to individuals. These are individual duties to take steps towards forming a collective, which then incurs a duty over the action. I give criteria for when individuals have collectivization duties and discuss the demands these duties place on their bearers.     

Female Passion and the Matrix of Mother,Daughter, and Body: Vicissitudes of the Maternal Transference in the Working Through of Sexual Inhibitions

The maternal object is rarely seen as a girl's source of identification as a vibrant, sexually desirous woman. In this paper, I propose that the mother's capacity both to convey her own pride and pleasure in her female body, its sexual and procreative capacities, and to confer the privilege of passion on her daughter is requisite for a girl's full, pleasurable possession of her body and sexuality. Using observations from two analyses, I explore ways in which transformations of the negative transference manifestations of thwarted maternal sexuality and its pernicious expressions within the mother–daughter relationship paralleled recovery of a fuller capacity for sexual pleasure and agency. To offer clinical pathways toward development of female analysands' capacities for feminine pride and sexual passion, theories must allow for adaptive resolution of oedipal-period conflicts—resolution that can lead to a mature mutuality between mother and daughter.     

Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences

Theory indicates that resilient individuals "bounce back" from stressful experiences quickly and effectively. Few studies, however, have provided empirical evidence for this theory. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (B. L. Fredrickson, 1998, 2001) is used as a framework for understanding psychological resilience. The authors used a multimethod approach in 3 studies to predict that resilient people use positive emotions to rebound from, and find positive meaning in, stressful encounters. Mediational analyses revealed that the experience of positive emotions contributed, in part, to participants' abilities to achieve efficient emotion regulation, demonstrated by accelerated cardiovascular recovery from negative emotional arousal (Studies 1 and 2) and by finding positive meaning in negative circumstances (Study 3). Implications for research on resilience and positive emotions are discussed.     

Six does not just mean a lot: preschoolers see number words as specific

This paper examines what children believe about unmapped number words - those number words whose exact meanings children have not yet learned. In Study 1, 31 children (ages 2-10 to 4-2) judged that the application of five and six changes when numerosity changes, although they did not know that equal sets must have the same number word. In Study 2, 15 children (ages 2-5 to 3-6) judged that six plus more is no longer six, but that a lot plus more is still a lot. Findings support the hypothesis that children treat number words as referring to specific, unique numerosities even before they know exactly which numerosity each word refers to.     

Digging Deeper: Why Metaphysics is More Than a Toolbox

Steven French (J Gen Philos Sci,  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-018-9401-8, 2018) proposes a vindication of “scientifically disinterested” metaphysics that leaves little room to its original ambitions. He claims that (1) as a discipline that looks to find out truths about the world, it is untenable; and that (2) rather, its vindication lies in its use as a “toolbox” of concepts for a philosophical discipline that does have a claim at getting us closer to truth—the philosophy of science, and more specifically of physics. I respond to both his main claims. The first claim, I argue, neglects what I call (with Ralf Busse) “archaeological” metaphysics, which tries to impose some order on phenomena by “digging deeper” from the less to the more fundamental, or from the less to the more abstract questions. The second claim imposes a hierarchical relation between metaphysics and philosophy of science which should, I argue, be replaced with a more egalitarian picture of philosophy.