Bilateral disadvantage: lack of interhemispheric cooperation in schizophrenia

Language anomalies and left-hemisphere dysfunction are commonly reported in schizophrenia. Additional evidence also suggests differences in the integration of information between the hemispheres. Bilateral gain is the increase in accuracy and decrease in latency that occurs when identical information is presented simultaneously to both hemispheres. This study measured bilateral gain in controls (n=20) and individuals with schizophrenia (n=10) using a lexical-decision task where word or non-word judgements were made to letter strings presented in the left visual field (LVF), right visual field (RVF) or bilaterally (BVF). Language was not abnormally lateralized in the schizophrenia group. Controls exhibited the expected decrease in latency when words were presented bilaterally. This effect was not observed in the schizophrenia group who were actually disadvantaged in this condition. The lack of bilateral gain in schizophrenia is discussed as arising from differences in the connections between areas in each hemisphere that mediate language.     

Masculinity,Femininity, Sexual Dysfunctional Beliefs,and Rape Myth Acceptance Among Heterosexual College Men and Women

Previous research has found links between masculinity, femininity, cognition, and rape myth acceptance. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sexual dysfunctional beliefs—beliefs about sexuality and gender roles that have been linked to sexual disorders—explain variance in rape myth acceptance beyond that explained by an individual’s masculinity or femininity. Heterosexual college men and women in the U.S. (N = 840) completed a survey online. We found that, among men, masculinity was not associated with rape myth acceptance but that male sexual dysfunctional beliefs were positively associated with rape myth acceptance. Among women, femininity was negatively associated with rape myth acceptance but female sexual dysfunctional beliefs were positively associated with rape myth acceptance. These results suggest that, among both men and women, sexual dysfunctional beliefs are better predictors of rape myth acceptance than masculinity and femininity.     

The Primal Scene Phenomenon: Witnessing Parental Sexual Activity and Sociosexual Orientation

Sigmund Freud coined the term urszene—or “primal scene”—to describe the experience of children witnessing their parents engaging in sexual activity. We examined the historical context in which the primal scene emerged, considered contemporary views of the primal scene, and conducted two empirical studies (N = 961, 1390) to investigate Freud’s proposition that children who witness the primal scene would later be prone to “attacks of falling physically in love,” which we operationalized as sociosexual orientation. In both studies, individuals who witnessed the primal scene as children had a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation than those who did not. Additionally, men had a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation than women. Altogether, these results suggest a possible link between primal scene exposure and sociosexual orientation. In contrast to psychoanalytic theories, we offer psychodynamic and normative social explanations of the primal scene phenomenon.     

Making and Breaking Abstinence Pledges: Moral Foundations and the Purity Movement

The purity movement encourages teenagers and young adults to make abstinence pledges, which are promises not to engage in premarital sexual intercourse. Moral foundations theory contends that there are individual differences in the bases of moral decision-making. The purpose of this study was to investigate, among a large sample (N = 961) of U.S. college students, whether there are differences in moral foundations between individuals who make and do not make abstinence pledges—and, among individuals who make an abstinence pledge, between those who do and do not break their pledge. Results indicated that abstinence pledgers endorsed greater binding foundations than those who did not make a pledge. Among abstinence pledgers, women who kept their pledge reported higher binding foundations than both men who kept their pledge and women who broke their pledge. Overall, these results suggest links between moral foundations and abstinence pledging.     

Role of Moral Identity and Moral Courage Characteristics in Adolescents’ Tendencies to Be a Moral Rebel

Extending prior research on the characteristics potentially associated with adolescents’ tendencies to be a moral rebel, the present study found that adolescents themselves, their peers, and their teachers agreed on adolescents’ tendencies to (a) possess a moral identity, (b) possess moral courage characteristics, and (c) be a moral rebel. Although moral identity (when considered independently and in combination with the moral courage characteristics) did not consistently predict the tendency to be a moral rebel, all indices of the adolescents’ moral courage characteristics positively predicted the tendency to be a moral rebel.     

Perceptions of self-oriented and other-oriented “everyday” helpers

In two investigations, participants were asked to evaluate eight different young adults (Study 1) and children (Study 2) who had described (a) a situation in which they had offered assistance to another individual and (b) the reason why they had offered the assistance in that situation. Although other-oriented helpers and their motives were generally rated more favorably than self-oriented helpers and their motives, participants' evaluations were found to be influenced by the closeness of the helper-recipient relationship, the type of help provided (i.e., instrumental vs. expressive), and the participants' gender. A similar pattern of responses was found for the undergraduate (Studies 1 and 2) and preadolescent (Study 2) participants.     

The instinct to teach: Altruism or aggression?

In this paper, the term ‘teaching’ means activities which induce a specific change in the behavior of a member of the same species, and are adapted until the pupil reaches a certain standard of performance. Teaching in this sense is confined to man, with one group of exceptions. Other forms of social learning are observed among the mammals and even the buds. The most important is imitation, or learning by observation. Teaching by other species always involves punishment, and always leads to the separation or spacing out of individuals. It occurs 1) at weaning, 2) in maintaining status within a group, and 3) in territorial behavior. In each case an animal is punished for approaching another. Man is distinguished by using punishment not only as a deterrent but also in the teaching of skills. Such conduct is sometimes called aggressive. To give it this name is to put teaching (by punishment) in the same class as socially undesirable acts. Such a usage obscures questions that can profitably be asked. Children learn much by imitation, and are encouraged to do so. But teaching of skills (usually not by punishment) and of customs seems to be universal in human communities, both primitive and advanced. To say that there is an instinct or drive to teach adds, however, nothing to this statement. Some teaching, especially the formal process in schools, is by adults and is confined to particular societies. But, in addition, children teach younger children, sometimes evidently without prompting by elders. This is one aspect of the nurturant behavior which is perhaps a feature of all societies. Some traditions seem to be maintained solely by children. Such conduct is probably at times altruistic in the traditional sense of the term. “Altruism” in biological writings today has, however, a different meaning, and is therefore becoming a source of confusion. In many communities, both primitive and advanced, nurturant behavior and the teaching of young children by older children are reported to be more prominent among girls than among boys. Teaching, considered as a type of behavior, has been neglected as a subject of study. It would repay multidisciplinary investigation, especially as it appears in the conduct of children.