Is grammatical gender considered arbitrary or semantically motivated? Evidence from young adult monolinguals,second language learners,and early bilinguals

It is generally assumed that speakers of grammatical gender languages consider grammatical gender arbitrary, but this assumption has never been tested. Research shows that the grammatical gender of nouns can affect perceptions of the masculinity or femininity of the noun's referent in speakers of languages with masculine and feminine noun classes. However, bilingualism facilitates the development of lexical arbitrariness awareness, and could therefore affect awareness of grammatical gender arbitrariness. This study then compared three groups of young adult speakers of a grammatical gender language: monolinguals, early bilinguals, and instructed second language learners. Participants evaluated the gender assignments of 25 nouns of entities (animals, abstract concepts, natural kinds, and artefacts), and answered open and closed questions about grammatical gender. Participants considered grammatical gender as semantically motivated and mostly related gender assignments to perceived masculine or feminine connotations of referents. Knowledge of an additional grammatical gender language was linked to increased awareness of the arbitrariness of first language gender assignments in both early bilinguals and later instructed learners. It is argued that grammatical gender awareness deserves further investigation. Knowing more than one grammatical gender language can increase awareness of grammatical gender arbitrariness. Implications are discussed for language teaching and language reform.     

A Neuropsychological Model of Mentally Tough Behavior

Four studies were conducted with two primary objectives: (a) to conceptualize and measure mental toughness from a behavioral perspective and (b) to apply relevant personality theory to the examination of between‐person differences in mentally tough behavior. Studies 1 (N = 305 participants from a range of different sports) and 2 (N = 110 high‐level cricketers) focused on the development of an informant‐rated mental toughness questionnaire that assessed individual differences in ability to maintain or enhance performance under pressure from a wide range of stressors. Studies 3 (N = 214) and 4 (N = 196) examined the relationship between reinforcement sensitivities and mentally tough behavior in high‐level cricketers. The highest levels of mental toughness reported by coaches occurred when cricketers were sensitive to punishment and insensitive to reward. Study 4 suggested that such players are predisposed to identify threatening stimuli early, which gives them the best possible opportunity to prepare an effective response to the pressurized environments they encounter. The findings show that high‐level cricketers who are punishment sensitive, but not reward sensitive, detect threat early and can maintain goal‐directed behavior under pressure from a range of different stressors.     

“Women Like Me Are Bad at Math”: The Psychological Functions of Negative Self‐Stereotyping

The impact of negative stereotypes can be harmful, and as a result, stigmatized targets are often motivated to deny their accuracy. However, at times, targets of even the most unflattering stereotypes embrace them as valid. Early stigma researchers conceptualized this self‐stereotyping as a form of internalized self‐hatred. However, within the last few decades, stigma researchers have challenged this notion. This more contemporary approach asserts that there are situations where endorsing negative stereotypes can actually be of use to those who are targeted by them. For instance, endorsing negative self‐stereotypes can be used to help justify the status quo, fulfill assimilation and differentiation needs, and protect against personal and social threats. The purpose of the present paper is to review both traditional and contemporary explanations for the causes and consequences of negative self‐stereotyping. In doing so, we highlight strengths and limitations within the self‐stereotyping literature and suggest future directions for research.     

Adaptive memory: Is the animacy effect on memory due to emotional arousal?

Animate entities are often better remembered than inanimate ones. The proximal mechanisms underlying this animacy effect on recall are unclear. In two experiments, we tested whether the animacy effect is due to emotional arousal. Experiment 1 revealed that translations of the animate words used in the pioneering study of Nairne et al. (Psychological science, 24, 2099–2105, 2013) were perceived as being more arousing than translations of the inanimate words, suggesting that animacy might have been confounded with arousal in previous studies. In Experiment 2, new word lists were created in which the animate and inanimate words were matched on arousal (amongst several other dimensions), and participants were required to reproduce the animate and inanimate words in a free recall task. There was a tendency towards better memory for arousing items, but robust animacy effects were obtained even though animate and inanimate words were matched on arousal. Thus, while arousal may contribute to the animacy effect when it is not carefully controlled for, it cannot explain the memory advantage of animate items.     

The indifferent

This article presents a portrait of indifference, a psychosocial analysis of middle class bystanding of social suffering. It arises as a way to tell a research story of colonially produced racism, classism, and denial. Together, these ways of being produce a mode of perception that denies reality, an active erasure that makes the indifferent apathetic. It is based on research in postcolonial Jamaica, yet some of its features can be recognized elsewhere, where bystanders bury their witness, their insight, concealing their understanding of other’s pain. Because this portrait is based on what male and female research participants said, “he/she” are used interchangeably throughout the portrait.     

Creative Interventions for Teaching Empathy in the Counseling Classroom

Empathy is a foundational, necessary component of successful counseling. Relaying an understanding of empathy, including the components and science behind the phenomenon, is critical to the development of counselors-in-training. In addition, creative practice is a pillar of professional counseling, and is linked to experiential learning and meaningful integration of new knowledge in counselor education. The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the definitions of empathy, provide current literature on the science of empathy, and discuss specific creative interventions to use within counseling courses to increase empathic knowledge and skills.     

“In the Face,a Right Is There”: Arendt,Levinas and the Phenomenology of the Rights of Man

This paper examines the differences between the thought of Hannah Arendt and Emmanuel Levinas concerning the “Rights of Man”, in relation to stateless persons. In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt evinces a profound scepticism towards this ideal, which for her was powerless without being tethered to citizenship. But Arendt’s own idea of the “Right to have Rights” is critiqued here as being inadequate to the ethical demand placed upon states by refugees, in failing to articulate just what states might be responsible for. I argue that the ethical philosophy of Levinas meets this lacuna in Arendt’s thought, via his concept of the Face as the locus of human dignity and to which states can be recalled to responsibility. Levinas wrote several papers on what he called “the phenomenology of the Rights of Man”, and in his phrase, which provides a summation of precisely what is lacking in Arendt’s arguments: “In the face – a right is there”.     

Fearful Inhibition,Inhibitory Control,and Maternal Negative Behaviors During Toddlerhood Predict Internalizing Problems at Age 6

Many, but not all, young children with high levels of fearful inhibition will develop internalizing problems. Individual studies have examined either child regulatory or environmental factors that might influence the level of risk. We focused on the interaction of regulation and environment by assessing how early fearful inhibition at age 2, along with inhibitory control and maternal negative behaviors at age 3, interactively predicted internalizing problems at age 6. A total of 218 children (105 boys, 113 girls) and their mothers participated in the study. Results indicated a three-way interaction among fearful inhibition, inhibitory control, and maternal negative behaviors. The correlation between fearful inhibition and internalizing was significant only when children had low inhibitory control and experienced high levels of maternal negative behaviors. Either having high inhibitory control or experiencing low maternal negative behaviors buffered against the adverse effect caused by the absence of the other. These findings highlight the importance of considering associations among both within-child factors and environmental factors in studying children’s socioemotional outcomes.