Owning leads to valuing: Meta-analysis of the mere ownership effect

Mere ownership effect is the phenomenon that people tend to value what they own more than what they do not own. This classic effect is considered robust, yet effect sizes vary across studies, and the effect is often confused for or confounded with other classic phenomena, such as endowment or mere exposure effects. We conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis of 26 samples published before 2019 (N = 3024), which resulted in psychological ownership on valuing effect of g ∼ 0.57 [0.46, 0.69]. Suggestive moderator analyses supported the use of replica as the strongest moderators. Mere ownership effects were different from the null across all moderator categories and in most publication bias adjustments. We consider this as suggestive evidence that psychological owning leads to valuing, yet caution that much more research is needed. All materials, data, and codes are available on https://osf.io/fdyqw/ .     

Hope as a Psychological Factor Affecting Quality of Life in Patients With Psoriasis

Clinical observations and medical reports indicate that psoriasis has a tremendous impact on patients’ lives, lowering their quality in many important areas. However, the vast majority of research deals only with health-related issues. This study aimed to compare the general quality of life of psoriasis patients and healthy volunteers by examining psychological variables thought to modify the quality of life. 42 patients with psoriasis and 42 healthy volunteers matched for gender, age and education level were tested. Flanagan Quality of Life Scale was used to evaluate general quality of life. Basic hope level was assessed with Basic Hope Inventory. Trait hope was estimated using Trait Hope Scale. Psoriasis Area Severity Index was used to assess the severity of the disease. Psoriasis patients have a significantly lower overall quality of life (p?=?0.05), modified by Physical and Material Well-being (p?=?0.01), Personal Development and Fulfillment (p?=?0.03), and Recreation (p?=?0.04). They also have lower levels of trait hope (p?=?0.04) and its agency component (p?=?0.01). There were moderate, negative significant correlations with basic hope and such components of quality of life as Physical and Material Well-being (p?=?0.03, r?=?? 0.34) and Relations with other People (p?=?0.02, r?=?? 0.35). These results support the hypothesis of a reduced general quality of life and trait hope in psoriatics. Thus, psychological help for people suffering from dermatological disorders might be as important as medical intervention. Basic hope can be treated as a resource in coping with these disorders and trait hope as a resource conducive to well-being.     

I Am so Happy ‘Cause My Best Friend Makes Me Feel Unique: Friendship, Personal Sense of Uniqueness and Happiness

Decades of empirical research leave no doubt that friendship experiences are consistent correlates of happiness. Yet, little is known about how friendships are related to happiness. The present study examined personal sense of uniqueness as a mediator of the relationship between same-sex best friendship quality and happiness in three samples each employing a different measure of happiness (n = 2,429). Results provided support to the mediational model in every sample and showed that it was gender invariant. The findings suggest that one reason why the quality of friendships is related to happiness is because friendship experiences promote individuals’ feelings of uniqueness. The implications of the findings for friendship and happiness research are discussed and directions for future research are outlined.     

Intentional and Non-Intentional Assessments of Emotion Experiences: Comparisons of Old and New Measures

In two studies, we compared intentional and non-intentional measures of emotional well-being in terms of reliability and validity. In the first study, we expanded on the findings of ?im?ek (2011 ?im?ek, Ö. F. (2011). An Intentional Model of Emotional Well-Being: The Development and Initial Validation of a Measure of Subjective Well-Being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12, 421–442. [Google Scholar]) by showing that an intentional measure of emotional well-being, namely the Emotional Well-Being Scale, accounted for unique variance in both negative and positive mental health indicators above and beyond the variance accounted for by Larsen and Diener's Scales (1992), which measures all dimensions of affect circumplex. The correlated traits-correlated uniqueness model results showed that the original-intentional version of the Emotional Well-Being Scale explained more variance in the measurement model than the non-intentional version. The second study showed that the results were similar for the intentional vs. non-intentional versions of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedules (Watson, Clark &; Tellegen, 1988 Watson, D., Clark, L. A., &; Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070. [Google Scholar]). The intentional version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedules accounted for more variance in the criteria than the non-intentional version.     

Bocheński on authority

Józef Maria Bocheński introduced an important distinction between deontic and epistemic authority. A typical example of epistemic authority is the relation of a teacher to his students; a typical example of deontic authority is the relation between an employer and his employee. The difference between the two lies in domains of authority: declarative sentences make up the domain in the case of epistemic authority, orders—in the domain of deontic authority. In the article, I analyze in detail the concepts of the two kinds of authority and propose some new explications. The concept of epistemic authority is distinguished from the concept of infallibility and expertise; and the concept of deontic authority is distinguished from the concept of sovereign. I interpret various kinds of deontic authority in the light of the theory of imperative sentences. The concepts of gradation and de-gradation of authority are introduced and explicated.     

On the completeness of a certain system of arithmetic of whole numbers in which addition occurs as the only operation

Presburger's essay on the completeness and decidability of arithmetic with integer addition but without multiplication is a milestone in the history of mathematical logic and formal metatheory. The proof is constructive, using Tarski-style quantifier elimination and a four-part recursive comprehension principle for axiomatic consequence characterization. Presburger's proof for the completeness of first order arithmetic with identity and addition but without multiplication, in light of the restrictive formal metatheorems of Gödel, Church, and Rosser, takes the foundations of arithmetic in mathematical logic to the limits of completeness and decidability.