TWO FACES OF THE CULTURE OF DEATH: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GRIEF WORK AND HUNGARIAN PEASANT SOUL BELIEFS

This article aims to demonstrate that peasant death culture–as a part of the social construction of reality–does not only support the grief work of survivors, but sometimes also interferes with and encumbers it. This destructive aspect of death culture is rooted in its this-worldly normative and order preservative role. If the deceased pursued a norm-following life course, peasant culture offers him or her a positive otherworldly perspective of existence, and supports the reorganization of the survivors in various ways. On the other hand, certain infringements of norms (e .g., suicide) are associated with deterrent otherworldly perspectives and are penalized with sanctions falling on the survivors. These sanctions increase survivors' bitterness and shelterlessness and make more difficult the finding of meaning, as well as a comforting closing of the relation to the deceased and its transition into an inner representation.     

A single exposure to severe stressors causes long-term desensitisation of the physiological response to the homotypic stressor

Although some laboratories have reported that a single session of stress is able to induce a long-lasting sensitisation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response to further exposures to stress, we have found that a single exposure to severe emotional (immobilisation, restraint or shock) or systemic (endotoxin) stressors reduces the responsiveness of the HPA to the same, but not to a novel (heterotypic), stressor, in which case a slight sensitisation was observed. Long-term desensitisation has been found to reduce not only secretion of peripheral HPA hormones (ACTH and corticosterone), but also to reduce responses of central components of the HPA axis (c-fos and CRF gene expression at the level of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, PVN). In addition, desensitisation also applies to the impact of the stressor on food intake and, probably, to stress-induced hyperglycaemia. The development of long-term desensitisation of the HPA axis does not appear to be a universal consequence of exposure to severe stressors as it was not observed in response to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia. Whether or not the development of long-term effects of stress depend on the specific pathways activated by particular stressors remains to be tested. The observed desensitisation of the HPA axis in response to the homotypic stressor shows two special features which makes it difficult to be interpreted in terms of an habituation-like process: (a) the effect increased with time (days to weeks) elapsed between the first and second exposure to the stressor, suggesting a progressive maturational process; and (b) the stronger the stressor the greater the long-term desensitisation. Therefore, it is possible that desensitisation of the HPA axis is the sum of two different phenomena: long-term effects and habituation-like processes. The contribution of the former may be more relevant with severe stressors and longer inter-stress intervals, and that of the latter with mild stressors and repeated exposures. Long-term stress-induced changes may not take place at the level of the PVN itself, but in brain nuclei showing synaptic plasticity and putatively involved in the control of the HPA axis and other physiological responses. As for the precise areas involved, these remain to be characterized.     

Asymptotic judgment of cause in a relative validity paradigm

We report three experiments in which we tested asymptotic and dynamic predictions of the Rescorla-Wagner (R-W) model and the asymptotic predictions of Cheng's probabilistic contrast model (PCM) concerning judgments of causality when there are two possible causal candidates. We used a paradigm in which the presence of a causal candidate that is highly correlated with an effect influences judgments of a second, moderately correlated or uncorrelated cause. In Experiment 1, which involved a moderate outcome density, judgments of a moderately positive cause were attenuated when it was paired with either a perfect positive or perfect negative cause. This attenuation was robust over a large set of trials but was greater when the strong predictor was positive. In Experiment 2, in which there was a low overall density of outcomes, judgments of a moderately correlated positive cause were elevated when this cause was paired with a perfect negative causal candidate. This elevation was also quite robust over a large set of trials. In Experiment 3, estimates of the strength of a causal candidate that was uncorrelated with the outcome were reduced when it was paired with a perfect cause. The predictions of three theoretical models of causal judgments are considered. Both the R-W model and Cheng's PCM accounted for some but not all aspects of the data. Pearce's model of stimulus generalization accounts for a greater proportion of the data.     

Psychological consequences of rheumatic diseases in children and adolescents: A first exploratory study

The objective of our study was to make a first exploratory study about the psychological status of children and adolescents with rheumatic diseases exploring, also, the significant differences between girls and boys. A total of 123 children (81 girls and 42 boys) with rheumatic diseases, between the ages of 1 and 19 years old were assessed using different measures for evaluating behavioral and emotional problems. The results showed a picture of a mild or moderate degree of psychological problems in the different measures of anxiety, depression, general distress and behavioral problems. Girls, compared to boys, scored higher in most of the measures used, showing more internalizing than externalizing kinds of symptoms. The results suggest the importance of making a more detailed study of these children, comparing them with matched controls and making prospective, longitudinal studies in order to detect psychological problems, and to explore the influence of predictive variables.     

Einstellung defused: Interactivity and mental set

Mental set is observed when a familiar problem-solving strategy is applied to new problems that can be solved in simpler, more efficient ways. It is most famously illustrated in the water jar problems (Luchins, 1942 ). In these volume measurement problems, participants learn a rule to obtain an exact volume of liquid involving a complex combination of liquid transfer. Participants persevere in using this rule for new problems that can be solved with a much simpler rule. In two experiments presented here, participants completed the water jar task either in interactive conditions with actual water jars at a sink or in noninteractive conditions, with the problems presented on paper, as in the original Luchins procedure. Interactivity significantly reduced the degree of perseverance. In addition, participants' visuospatial skills significantly predicted the rate of perseverance (and the latencies to solution) in interactive but not in noninteractive conditions. These results underscore the importance of designing problem-solving experiments that engineer distributed cognitive systems in which participants coordinate internal and external resources in thinking.     

Aggressive behavior as a function of Taekwondo ranking

This study examined the effect taekwondo training has on the level of aggression of children between the ages of 6 and 11 yr. 68 students (boys and girls) were tested using a behavior checklist designed to measure children's aggression. Analysis indicated a significant inverse relationship between the children's taekwondo rank and their aggression.     

Le « test par CDD » comme frein au fonctionnement des entreprises

In France, in order to evaluate job applicants, some employers use short term contract before recruiting on a long term contract. The present study aims to compare companies having this practice and others. More precisely, we will appreciate the level of recruitment difficulties and the degree of fundamental error of attribution according companies. Results indicate that companies having “test by CDD” have more recruitment difficulties and more fundamental error of attribution to explain these failures.