Viewing Cognitive Conflicts as Dilemmas: Implications for Mental Health

The idea that internal conflicts play a significant role in mental health has been extensively addressed in various psychological traditions, including personal construct theory. In the context of the latter, several measures of conflict have been operationalized using the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT). All of them capture the notion that change, although desirable from the viewpoint of a given set of constructs, becomes undesirable from the perspective of other constructs. The goal of this study is to explore the presence of cognitive conflicts in a clinical sample (n = 284) and compare it to a control sample (n = 322). It is also meant to clarify which among the different types of conflict studied provides a greater clinical value and to investigate its relationship to symptom severity (SCL-90-R). Of the types of cognitive conflict studied, implicative dilemmas were the only ones to discriminate between clinical and nonclinical samples. These dilemmas were found in 34% of the nonclinical sample and in 53% of the clinical sample. Participants with implicative dilemmas showed higher symptom severity, and those from the clinical sample displayed a higher frequency of dilemmas than those from the nonclinical sample.     

Emotion Regulation: Antecedents and Well-Being Outcomes of Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression in Cross-Cultural Samples

Habitual emotional state is a predictor of long-term health and life expectancy and successful emotion regulation is necessary for adaptive functioning. However, people are often unsuccessful in regulating their emotions. We investigated the use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression in 489 university students in Norway, Australia, and the United States and how these strategies related to measures of well-being (affect, life satisfaction, and depressed mood). Data was collected by means of selfadministered questionnaires. The major aims of the study were to begin to explore the prevalence of use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression across gender, age and culture, possible antecedents of emotion regulation strategies, and the influence of emotion regulation upon well-being. Results showed that the use of emotion regulation strategies varied across age, gender and culture. Private self-consciousness (self-reflection and insight) was found to be a central antecedent for the use of cognitive reappraisal. Use of emotion regulation strategies predicted well-being outcomes, also after the effect of extraversion and neuroticism had been controlled for. Generally, increased use of cognitive reappraisal predicted increased levels of positive well-being outcomes, while increased use of expressive suppression predicted increased levels of negative well-being outcomes.

Is Moral Theory Harmful in Practice?—Relocating Anti-theory in Contemporary Ethics

In this paper I discuss the viability of the claim that at least some forms of moral theory are harmful for sound moral thought and practice. This claim was put forward by e.g. Elisabeth Anscombe (1981(1958)) and by Annette Baier, Peter Winch, D.Z Phillips and Bernard Williams in the 1970’s–1980’s. To this day aspects of it have found resonance in both post-Wittgensteinian and virtue ethical quarters. The criticism has on one hand contributed to a substantial change and broadening of the scope of analytic moral philosophy. On the other hand it is, at least in its most strongly anti-theoretical formulations, now broadly considered outdated and—to the extent that it is still defended—insensitive to the changes that have occurred within the field in the last 20–30 years. The task of this paper is to relocate the anti-theoretical critique into the field of analytic ethics today.     

Concept of uprightness in baboons: assessment with pictures of realistic scenes

How nonhuman primates process pictures of natural scenes or objects remains a matter of debates. This issue was addressed in the current research by questioning the processing of the canonical orientation of pictures in baboons. Two adult guinea baboons were trained to use an interactive key (IK) on a touch-screen to change the orientation of target pictures showing humans or quadruped mammals until upright. In experiment 1, both baboons successfully learned to use the IK when that key induced a 90 degrees rightward rotation of the picture, but post-training transfer of performance did not occur to novel pictures of natural scenes due to potential motor biases. In Experiment 2, a touch on IK randomly displayed the pictures in any of the four cardinal orientations. Baboons successfully learned the task, but transfer to novel pictures could only be demonstrated after they had been exposed to 360-480 pictures in that condition. Experiment 3 confirmed positive transfers to novel pictures, and showed that both the figure and background information controlled the behavior. Our research on baboons therefore demonstrates the development and use of an "upright" concept, and indicates that picture processing modes strongly depend on the subject's past experience with naturalistic pictorial stimuli.     

Automatic testing of cognitive performance in baboons maintained in social groups

Laboratory procedures used to study the cognitive functions of primates traditionally have involved removal of the subjects from their living quarters to be tested singly in a remote experimental room. This article presents an alternative research strategy favoring testing primates while they are maintained in their social group. The automatic learning device for monkeys (ALDM) is a computerized test system controlled by an automatic radio frequency identification of subjects. It is provided ad lib inside the social group of monkeys, for voluntary self-testing on a 24-h schedule. Nine baboons were tested with ALDM during a 7-month period. Experiments were performed to assess learning in motor control and abstract reasoning tasks. The results revealed high trial frequencies and excellent learning performance, even in tasks involving the highest cognitive complexities. A different study using ALDM with a group of 3 rhesus monkeys revealed social influences on learning. Beyond its interest for cognitive psychologists, ALDM is of interest for pharmacologists and cognitive neuroscientists working with nonhuman primates. ALDM also can serve as an enrichment tool for captive animals and may be used to study a variety of species other than primates.     

“2 x 3” primes naming “6”: Evidence from masked priming

It is a common assumption for multiplication-solving models that single-digit multiplications are automatically retrieved. However, the experimental evidence for this is based on paradigms under suspicion. In this research, we employed a new procedure with the aim of assessing the automatic retrieval of multiplication more directly. In two experiments, multiplication automatism was studied using briefly presented primes (stimulus onset asynchrony = 48 msec) in a number-naming task. In Experiment 1, in the congruent conditions, the target and the prime were the same numbers (e.g., prime, 6; target, 6) or the target was the solution to the multiplication prime (e.g., prime, 2×3=; target, 6). In the incongruent conditions, no relationship existed between the primes and the targets (e.g., prime, 32; target, 6; or prime, 4×8=; target, 6). Experiment 2 explored the relevance of the equal sign for the multiplication-priming effect. Data showed that naming was faster when the solution of the multiplication prime matched the target, as compared with the incongruent condition (multiplication-priming effect), and that these effects were found irrespective of the presence of the equal sign. The fact that this priming effect was found even though the participants were unaware of the presentation of the primes supports the automatic character of single-digit multiplication. We conclude by arguing that this procedure is highly valuable for exploring the mechanisms involved in simple arithmetic solving.     

Effects of morphine hydrochloride on social encounters between male mice

The effects of a single injection of morphine hydrochloride (0.3, 0.6, or 1.25 mg/kg) or physiological saline (0.9% NaCI) on the agonistic behaviour elicited by isolation in male mice were examined. Individually housed mice were exposed to anosmic “standard opponents” 30 minutes after drug administration, and the encounters were videotaped and evaluated using an ethologically based analysis. Morphine (at 0.6 and 1.25 mg/kg) significantly and dose-dependently decreased time spent in offensive (“threat” and “attack”) and “digging” behaviours but markedly increased “non-social exploration” without a significant increase of “immobility.” The lowest dose was completely ineffective in producing changes in any of the behaviours studied. It is concluded that these results present a specific ethopharmacological profile characterized by suppression of aggressive behaviour, increase in non-social explotation, and no evident impairment of motor activity. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Randomized controlled trial of an intervention to change cardiac misconceptions in myocardial infarction patients

There is converging evidence that changing beliefs about an illness leads to positive recovery outcomes. However, cardiac misconceptions interventions have been investigated mainly in Angina or Coronary Heart Disease patients, and less in patients following Myocardial Infarction (MI). In these patients, cardiac misconceptions may play a role in the adjustment or lifestyle changes. This article reports a randomized controlled trial of an intervention designed to reduce the strength of misconceptions in patients after a first MI. The primary outcome was the degree of change in misconceptions and the secondary outcomes were: exercise, smoking status, return to work and mood (anxiety and depression). Patients in the intervention condition (n = 60) were compared with a control group (n = 67) receiving usual care. Both groups were evaluated at baseline and 4, 8 and 12 months after hospital discharge. There was a significant time-by-group interaction for the total score of cardiac misconceptions. Patients in the intervention group significantly decreased their total score of cardiac misconceptions at 4 months compared with the control group and this difference was sustained over time. Patients in the intervention group were also more likely to exercise at the follow-up period after MI than the control group. This intervention was effective in reducing the strength of cardiac misconceptions in MI patients and had a positive impact on health behaviour outcomes. These results support the importance of misconceptions in health behaviours and the utility of belief change interventions in promoting health in patients with Myocardial Infarction.     

Unexpected death,religious coping and conjugal bereavement outcomes in Africa (Togo)

This pioneering study in sub-Saharan African context examined the role played by religious strategies (religious coping, religious community support (RCS)) in the conjugal bereavement process and its outcomes depending on the expected or unexpected death. Based on cross-sectional approach, the study targeted Togolese bereaved spouses (N?=?162). The mean period of mourning was 112.52 months (SD?=?94.72). The results of a hierarchical regression revealed that RCS was positively associated with grief symptoms when the death was expected and, unsurprisingly, the negative religious coping predicted grief symptoms when the death was sudden and unexpected. Religious strategies would play a threefold role: providing refuge and comfort, regulating the bereavement distress and serving resources to give meaning to the loss of the beloved. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.