Judges', lay judges', and police officers' beliefs about factors affecting children's testimony about sexual abuse

The authors examined Swedish judges', lay judges', and police officers' beliefs about factors that may complicate or facilitate children's reports of sexual abuse. Participants (N = 562) rated potential complicating and facilitating factors and freely reported which criteria they considered important when assessing the reliability of child witnesses. The groups had similar opinions regarding which factors are complicating and facilitating. Furthermore, the groups tended to regard emotional factors as more complicating than cognitive factors. When freely reporting criteria that are important when assessing reliability, judges and police officers reported criteria pertaining mainly to the child, whereas lay judges reported mainly criteria pertaining mainly to the police interview. Results indicate that participants believe that children have the capacity to remember and report about abuse but are hindered in doing so by emotional factors. Results also suggest that police officers may underestimate their own influence on the reliability of children's reports.     

Own-other differences in the realism of some metacognitive judgments

The present study investigated differences in judgments of one's own and others' knowledge (the own-other difference). Consistent with the below-average effect (e.g., Kruger, 1999), our main results showed that the participants gave lower knowledge ratings of their own extent of knowledge than of another person's extent of knowledge (Experiment 1). Furthermore, lower and more realistic judgments were found when the participants judged their own as compared with when judging another person's overall accuracy (frequency judgments) of answering knowledge questions correctly (Experiment 1 and 2). On the basis of these results it is argued that judgmental anchoring may be important also in the context of indirect comparisons, and that previous conclusions of cross-cultural psychology regarding the above-average effect may be oversimplified.     

Impact of Terrorism, Insurgency, and Other Human-caused Catastrophes on Pivotal National Leaders’ Vision Statements

Vision statements articulated by seven pivotal national leaders before and after a catastrophe were examined for changes in moral reasoning stage, moral reasoning orientation, explanatory style, and rumination. Established two-stage structured content analysis methods were used and a perspective of shared leadership. Five leaders showed no significant change in moral reasoning stage but two showed a statistically significant reduction following overt attack on their homeland. After a catastrophe, six showed significant change in moral reasoning orientation, four showed less positive or negative explanatory style, and all seven showed high rumination. From an organizational systems perspective, an impact of human-caused catastrophe was adjustment of these four variables in pivotal national leaders’ vision statements as if they are systems levers.     

Extracellular amino acid levels in the paraventricular nucleus and the central amygdala in high- and low-anxiety dams rats during maternal aggression: regulation by oxytocin

Brain oxytocin (OT) regulates aspects of emotionality and stress coping including maternal behavior and maternal aggression. Maternal aggression correlates with the amount of OT released within the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and the central amygdala (CeA). OT, a key neurotransmitter or neuromodulator, is likely to modulate other neurotransmitter systems. Here, we investigated the dynamic changes in extracellular concentrations of the amino acids aspartate, glutamate, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), serine, histidine, arginine and taurine in the PVN and CeA in lactating rats bred for high (HAB) and low (LAB) anxiety-related behavior under basal conditions and during maternal aggression. Further, to determine whether local OT is involved in the regulation of amino acid release we infused a selective OT receptor antagonist (OTA) via local retrodialysis. Within the CeA, HAB and LAB dams differed in the basal release of glutamate and arginine. Infusion of a selective OTA increased the concentrations of glutamate and aspartate in LAB dams and GABA in HAB dams. In OTA-treated HAB and LAB dams taurine levels increased during maternal aggression. Within the PVN, the highly-aggressive HAB dams showed a more pronounced increase in aspartate and serine levels; the latter being attenuated by local OTA administration. However, OTA did not affect the level of any amino acid in the LAB dams. Thus, the extracellular concentrations of selected amino acids differed between lactating HAB and LAB dams under both basal conditions and following maternal aggression. The effects of OT within the CeA and PVN on maternal aggressive behavior might be related to its regulation of local amino acid release.     

Specifying what makes a personal memory unique enhances emotion regulation

During recollection of past experiences, the way autobiographical information is processed affects the intensity of the emotion aroused. Two main hypotheses were proposed in this respect: One focuses on the type of information activated during retrieval; the second is centered on the mode of processing at work. This article defends the notion that both perspectives need to be integrated to predict emotional arousal during autobiographical recollection. The authors explored the consequences on emotional feeling intensity by manipulating the type of information processed, together with the cognitive mode activated (specific vs. general level of processing). Results support previous findings that voluntarily specifying memories reduces emotional intensity. However, this was observed only when the details that make the event unique were processed.     

Loneliness and Dread as Time Sense Disturbances

Our consciousness of time is created by our longing over duration for the care of a nurturing other. By means of a case study, it is shown here that the experience of abject loneliness is dependent upon a disturbed consciousness of time: unmet needs over the passage of time. Loneliness as such is the denial of the present moment—its possibilities and its demands. The loss of the present moment fosters a disturbed judgment of time: the sense that the present moment has stopped—is virtually endless, since the present moment has no future toward which to intend. This time disturbance diminishes the subject's capacity for agency.     

Concerning Madness and Human Suffering

Pastoral Psychology - Few behavioral scientists have attempted a penetrating examination of the problem of suffering. Eschewing its etiology as a moral issue, they have left it to philosophers and...     

Effects of repeated retrieval on long-term retention in a nonverbal learning task in younger children

Many studies have shown the benefits for long term retention of repeated retrieval during learning in verbal tasks, but few have shown its effectiveness using nonverbal materials. The aim of this study was to examine whether the retention benefits of repeated retrieval extend to preschool children performing a spatial location memory task. In this task, the children first studied where eight small toys were located in a partitioned box. Then, in the repeated retrieval condition, the children were asked to put each one of the toys in its place by themselves three times successively with feedback, whereas in the repeated study condition, they were asked to put each toy in its place with the experimenter showing them the correct location. Half of the children were then immediately tested and the remaining half tested after one day. The results showed that the 5 and 6 year old children in the retrieval condition retained location memory for the toys longer than those in the study condition in a memory task involving spatial content and enactment components. These findings have deep theoretical implications for the critical role of retrieval effort in long-term retention, and highlight the efficacy of repeated retrieval for different developmental ages and tasks.     

A Dangerous Subject: The Fashion Model and the Beauty/Narcissism Double Bind

In the wake of modernity, women's sexuality was positioned in a way that created a beauty/narcissism double bind that is still with us today. My concern in this article is that the subject position of “fashion model” serves as a constant reminder of this split, which is directed at all women and weakens the generalized woman's political agency. Fashion models themselves experience harassment and humiliation as well as pleasure and desire in their work as fashion models. However, the small portion of feminist work that has engaged explicitly with the fashion‐model business sees it mainly as an enterprise that is alienating and hostile to women. Although I do not entirely disagree with this analysis, it neglects the meaning of beauty and what beauty does to us with regard to creativity and pleasure. I wish to explore how some of the work experience of fashion models intersects with and challenges the beauty/narcissism double bind. I suggest that rather than grounding our understanding of the subject position “fashion model” and the fashion business solely in their reinforcement of the beauty/narcissism double bind, we should pay attention to the importance of what beauty and aspects of narcissism may mean.     

Emotional Abuse in Childhood and Attachment Anxiety in Adult Romantic Relationships as Predictors of Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are characterized by interpersonal problems. These problems might arise not only in current, but also in past relationships. To test this hypothesis, recollections of abuse and neglect in childhood and representations of adult attachment to the romantic partner were related to dimensional ratings of the 10 DSM-5 personality disorders. Ultimately, 110 patients of a psychosomatic clinic took part in the study. All data were collected with self-report measures. Among the different types of child abuse and neglect, emotional abuse was shown to be most frequently correlated with personality disorders. Attachment dimensions avoidance and anxiety were both associated with personality disorders; anxiety, however, showed stronger correlations. The results reveal that personality disorders come along with enduring adversities in close relationships, mainly experiences of emotional abuse and attachment anxiety, starting in the family of origin and continuing in adult attachment bonds.