Adrenal mediation of intermale aggression maintained by aromatized and reduced metabolites of testosterone

Individually housed CD-1 mice were either sham castrated or castrated and treated with testosterone (T), estradiol benzoate (EB), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a combination of EB and DHT (EB+DHT), or the injection vehicle. Following 16 days of isolation and subcutaneous injections, animals were tested repeatedly for fighting behavior in paired encounters with nonaggressive stimulus males. Results indicated that the T and EB+DHT groups fought to the same extent as the gonadally intact group. Both the EB and DHT groups fought more than the vehicle-treated group but less than the T, EB+DHT and sham castrated groups. A similar study was subsequently performed with adrenalectomized animsls. Adrenalectomy eliminated agonistic responses in animals receiving metabolites of testosterone (EB, DHT, EB+DHT) but had only slight effects in gonadally intact and T-treated, castrated mice. The results suggested that a) EB and DHT, either singly or in combination, maintain aggression through a synergism with adrenal steroids; b) the combined effects of EB and DHT reflect an additive action rather than synergistic interaction, notwithstanding the synergism with adrenal steroids; c) metabolism of testosterone to estrogen and dihydrotestosterone does not sufficiently account for the action of testosterone.     

The Return of Ethnocentrism

The concept of ethnocentrism was introduced by Gumplowicz in the 1870s, popularized by Sumner in the 1900s, and first investigated psychometrically by Adorno and colleagues in the 1940s. It has become a fundamental concept in the social sciences, but over the last several decades, its popularity and usage in political and social psychology have decreased. Recent events, such as the growing popularity of ethno-nationalist and populist leaders and policies, show that ethnocentrism as a phenomenon has been resurging around the world. In addition, given its important explanatory power, an increasing number of political psychologists have started again to use the concept. This article presents an analysis of ethnocentrism reconceptualized as a hierarchical construct emanating from a strong sense of ethnic group self-centeredness and self-importance. It discusses the prevalence of ethnocentrism around the world, its conceptualization and measurement, and its theoretical underpinnings, supporting them with novel empirical research conducted with two abbreviated measures of ethnocentrism. The article argues that ethnocentrism ultimately stems from the need to strengthen one's own ethnic group at the expense of anyone who and anything that can weaken it.     

On the Conceptual Overlap between the Fluency Contamination Effect in Divergent Thinking Scores and the Chance View on Scientific Creativity

The equal odds baseline is a parsimonious model that describes the relationship between quantity and quality of output in scientific creativity. Specifically, it is posited that quality is a linear function of quantity, and therefore, strong positive correlations between these two variables are expected. Strong positive correlations also play a crucial role in a recurring issue in divergent thinking research: the fluency contamination effect. This effect refers to the problem that any other summative scoring of divergent thinking tests such as the number of original responses (i.e., quality of responses) is confounded by fluency (i.e., quantity of responses). The current work sheds further light into the conceptual overlap between the equal odds baseline, and the fluency contamination effect by demonstrating that a recent formalization of the fluency contamination effect can be used to derive the equal odds baseline. This result is then utilized within a structural equation modeling approach with simulated datasets to thoroughly examine the equal odds baseline. The findings of the structural equation modeling approach are discussed with respect to their potential to better understand the relationship between quantity and quality of productions in creativity research.     

The reality of absences

In this paper, I make a contribution to a naturalistically-minded theory of truthmakers by proposing a solution to the nasty problem of truthmakers for negative truths. After formulating the difficulty, I consider and reject a number of solutions to the problem, including Armstrong's states of affairs of totality, incompatibility accounts, and JC Beall's polarity view. I then defend the position that absences of truthmakers are real and are responsible for making negative truths true (and positive falsehoods false). According to the positive account of absences I offer, absences of contingent states of affairs are causally relevant mind-independent features of the physical world, located within space and time, and capable of being discovered by scientific inquiry. Recognition of the reality of absences strengthens truthmaker theory as a naturalistic metaphysics, as truth and falsity of each and every contingent proposition finds an ontological grounding in some region of the physical universe.     

Varieties of Group Self-Centeredness and Dislike of the Specific Other

This investigation tests relationships between three kinds of group self-centeredness and their relationship with negativity towards specific outgroups. A questionnaire study with 270 undergraduates focused on three prominent kinds of group self-centeredness: ethnocentrism, fundamentalism, and anthropocentrism. Although overall ethnocentrism, fundamentalism, and anthropocentrism were positively intercorrelated, fundamentalism was positively associated with one ethnocentrism dimension (intragroup) and negatively with the other (intergroup). A path analysis showed that each kind of group self-centeredness was related only to negativity to specific and relevant outgroups and not to other outgroups. Implications of the research, particularly for the study of religiosity and prejudice, are discussed.     

The Root of Dance Therapy: A Consideration of Movement,Dancing, and Verbalization vis-à-vis Dance/Movement Therapy

How and when does dance become therapy? And why is there a need for such intervention? The author, one of the great choreographer Balanchine's prima ballerinas and a professional choreographer in her own right as well, ranges far in seeking societal as well as individual causes for the creation of a new psychotherapy. She uses her passionate adherence to dance per se as a vantage point from which to view humanity's trials and tribulations. She also opens a door into the realm of professional, performing dancers who wanted to give their dancing to the world. Her ironic wit takes note of the nondancers who want to be dance therapists. She also draws a loving portrait of one of the originators of dance therapy in the United States, Marian Chace, who became her friend and mentor.     

Markets as a structural solution to knowledge-sharing dilemmas

The authors propose a new structural solution to the knowledge-sharing dilemma. They show that simple auction mechanisms, which impose a rigid set of rules designed to standardize interactions and communication among participants, can prevent some of the detrimental effects associated with conflict of interest in freely interacting groups. The authors report results of two experiments that show that transparent conflicts of interest lead to a breakdown of information sharing, learning, and knowledge transfer in freely interacting groups, but not in simple markets and auctions. In these settings, participants were able to identify the best candidate in a voting game and to learn the solution to an intellective reasoning task, allowing participants to successfully transfer their insights to a series of new intellective tasks (tackled up to four weeks later), despite the conflicts of interests among traders. The authors explain their findings within the theoretical framework of collective induction.     

Seeing and Being Seen: Courage and the Therapist in Cross-Racial Treatment

ABSTRACT

Correction of the patient's distortion is often the focus of therapeutic treatment. However, the therapist's distortions, based upon pre-existing fears, which themselves are often rooted in greater societal issues and energized by the work with the patient (especially as they relate to issues of racial difference between the therapist and patient), can lead to clinical impasse. Just as an effective treatment relies upon the patient's opening up to correcting distortions, so too the therapist must be able to use transference response and become vulnerable to knowing and moving beyond his own fears and distortions.