Context affects the interpretation of low but not high numerical probabilities: A hypothesis testing account of subjective probability

Low numerical probabilities tend to be directionally ambiguous, meaning they can be interpreted either positively, suggesting the occurrence of the target event, or negatively, suggesting its non-occurrence. High numerical probabilities, however, are typically interpreted positively. We argue that the greater directional ambiguity of low numerical probabilities may make them more susceptible than high probabilities to contextual influences. Results from five experiments supported this premise, with perceived base rate affecting the interpretation of an event’s numerical posterior probability more when it was low than high. The effect is consistent with a confirmatory hypothesis testing process, with the relevant perceived base rate suggesting the directional hypothesis which people then test in a confirmatory manner.     

Intersecting cultural identities and help-seeking attitudes: the role of religious commitment,gender, and self-stigma of seeking help

ABSTRACT

The current study (N?=?404) used a moderated moderation model to examine how gender, religious commitment, and self-stigma toward seeking psychological help may interact in the prediction of help-seeking attitudes. Bivariate zero-order correlations indicated that help-seeking attitudes was negatively associated with self-stigma of seeking help (r?=??.55) and positively associated with religious commitment (r?=?.14), and self-stigma was not significantly associated with religious commitment. Men reported more negative attitudes than women (ΔM?=??.18). Furthermore, multiple regression results revealed a three-way interaction such that the relationship between gender and help-seeking attitudes was moderated by both self-stigma and religious commitment. Specifically, men with high religious commitment and high self-stigma endorsed the most negative help-seeking attitudes, suggesting that religious men’s help-seeking attitudes may be particularly susceptible to the influence of self-stigma. Implications for research and the development of targeted interventions are discussed.     

How to mend love? Wrestling with the legacy of the holocaust in recent Israeli fiction

The children of Holocaust survivors struggle with the legacy of parental trauma, which occurred before they were born. In three recent Israeli novels the nature of this struggle departs from the normative Zionist attitude to the Holocaust, which has affirmed the triumph of the national rebirth. Rather than subscribing to the Zionist orientation, which looks at the catastrophe from the standpoint of the “new” Jew, the protagonists in the novels – children who replace the dead – turn to the unknown and unknowable past in an attempt to mend the parental love that was irreparably damaged in the destruction. Their attempts to reenter the world of parental terror reveal their predicament: they feel obligated to tell the story of suffering, which they find impossible to tell. My discussion shows how in these novels the moral obligation toward the parental story takes the form of a struggle to both reaffirm and reassess moral values in the face of the Holocaust dehumanizing destruction. David Grossman's See Under: Love explores the viability of the ideals of the Enlightenment; Michal Govrin's The Name confronts the idea of the Divine; Ruth Almog's The Inner Lake explores the possibilities of artistic creativity in face of terror. Paradoxically, the struggle to penetrate the parental experience signals a hope of repair. The daring to face the terrifying echoes and phantoms in an attempt to reconstruct the destroyed parental world becomes the act of mending because it reaffirms the relevance of humanistic values.     

Comparing Online Adjustments to Distance and Direction in Fast Pointing Movements

It has been suggested that movements are planned in terms of direction and distance. If so, online adjustments to changes in the direction and distance of the movements may also differ. The authors therefore investigated whether fast online movement adjustments are the same for perturbations of the direction and of the distance. While subjects made fast pointing movements, the authors perturbed either target direction or distance or both shortly after movement initiation. Both kinds of perturbations resulted in accurate online adjustments. The latency and intensity of corrections for distance and direction perturbations were quite similar. This suggests that there might be one mechanism controlling both distance and direction perturbations.     

Disentangling Gratitude: A Theoretical and Psychometric Examination of the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test–Revised Short (GRAT–RS)

This study extended our theoretical and applied understanding of gratitude through a psychometric examination of the most popular multidimensional measure of gratitude, the Gratitude, Resentment, and Appreciation Test–Revised Short form (GRAT–RS). Namely, the dimensionality of the GRAT–RS, the model-based reliability of the GRAT–RS total score and 3 subscale scores, and the incremental evidence of validity for its latent factors were assessed. Dimensionality measures (e.g., explained common variance) and confirmatory factor analysis results with 426 community adults indicated that the GRAT–RS conformed to a multidimensional (bifactor) structure. Model-based reliability measures (e.g., omega hierarchical) provided support for the future use of the Lack of a Sense of Deprivation raw subscale score, but not for the raw GRAT–RS total score, Simple Appreciation subscale score, or Appreciation of Others subscale score. Structural equation modeling results indicated that only the general gratitude factor and the lack of a sense of deprivation specific factor accounted for significant variance in life satisfaction, positive affect, and distress. These findings support the 3 pillars of gratitude conceptualization of gratitude over competing conceptualizations, the position that the specific forms of gratitude are theoretically distinct, and the argument that appreciation is distinct from the superordinate construct of gratitude.     

Depressive affect, anxiety, and psychic conflict in the phallic-oedipal phase.

The author's recent contributions to affect theory and its relation to psychic conflict are applied to the understanding of the nature, genesis, and consequences of psychic conflict in the phallic-oedipal phase. These contributions lead to a better understanding of 1) the importance of depressive affect in phallic-oedipal conflicts, 2) similarities and differences between such conflicts in boys and girls, 3) depression as a symptom in adult life, and 4) some aspects of narcissism.