Does sunshine prime loyal … or summer? Effects of associative relatedness on the evaluative priming effect in the valent/neutral categorisation task

After 30 years of research, the mechanisms underlying the evaluative priming effect are still a topic of debate. In this study, we tested whether the evaluative priming effect can result from (uncontrolled) associative relatedness rather than evaluative congruency. Stimuli that share the same evaluative connotation are more likely to show some degree of non-evaluative associative relatedness than stimuli that have a different evaluative connotation. Therefore, unless associative relatedness is explicitly controlled for, evaluative priming effects reported in earlier research may be driven by associative relatedness instead of evaluative relatedness. To address this possibility, we performed an evaluative priming study in which evaluative congruency and associative relatedness were manipulated independently from each other. The valent/neutral categorisation task was used to ensure evaluative stimulus processing in the absence of response priming effects. Results showed an effect of associative relatedness but no (overall) effect of evaluative congruency. Our findings highlight the importance of controlling for associative relatedness when testing for evaluative priming effects.     

EEG captures affective touch: CT-optimal touch and neural oscillations

Tactile interactions are of developmental importance to social and emotional interactions across species. In beginning to understand the affective component of tactile stimulation, research has begun to elucidate the neural mechanisms that underscore slow, affective touch. Here, we extended this emerging body of work and examined whether affective touch (C tactile [CT]-optimal speed), as compared to nonaffective touch (non-CT-optimal speed) and no touch conditions, modulated EEG oscillations. We report an attenuation in alpha and beta activity to affective and nonaffective touch relative to the no touch condition. Further, we found an attenuation in theta activity specific to the affective, as compared to the nonaffective touch and no touch conditions. Similar to theta, we also observed an attenuation of beta oscillations during the affective touch condition, although only in parietal scalp sites. Decreased activity in theta and parietal-beta ranges may reflect attentional-emotional regulatory mechanisms; however, future work is needed to provide insight into the potential neural coupling between theta and beta and their specific role in encoding slow, tactile stimulation.     

Emotional competence and friendship involvement: Spiral effects in adolescence

Abstract

Bidirectional relations are likely to exist between adolescents’ friendship involvement and their emotional competencies. Therefore, longitudinal selection and socialization effects were probed in a sample of N = 299 German adolescents in a 30-month study that started in grade 7 (152 boys, M _age = 12.6 years). Cross-lagged panel modeling of the three waves of measurement indicated a pattern of initial selection effects followed by socialization effects, which are best described as spiral effects. Adolescents who were more willing to self-disclose emotions at T1 had more reciprocal friends at T2, which in turn contributed to an increase in their emotional self-disclosure at T3, even after controlling for previous friendship involvement, previous emotional self-disclosure, peer acceptance, gender, and classroom membership. Adolescents with less adaptive coping with sadness and tendencies towards social isolation at T1 were likely to have fewer friends at T2, which in turn intensified these reclusive tendencies at T3. Upward and downward spiral effects are discussed.     

Qualitätskriterien forensischer Ambulanzen des Strafvollzugs

In 2007 the legal reform concerning the supervision of conduct established forensic aftercare as mandatory for patients released from forensic commitment hospitals and offenders released from penitentiaries. Therefore, in the past 10 years forensic outpatient departments have evolved all over Germany in a state-specific manner according to the legal mandate of treating and managing released offenders. Some of these outpatient departments were newly founded and some were long established units for treating and managing offenders that expanded their services for offenders under supervision of conduct. During the past years these heterogeneous outpatient departments have formed a federal network targeting professional exchange, commonalities, discrepancies and distinct characteristics in realizing the legal mandate. Following the debate on minimum requirements in forensic psychiatric aftercare departments of forensic commitment hospitals in 2014, this federal network developed quality criteria. Despite diverse state and trusteeship-specific conditions, these quality criteria emphasize common content and formal factors for a successful forensic outpatient treatment. This article presents the result of a discussion process along with the agreed quality criteria in the categories of the quality of structure, process and results.     

Influence of dialect use on early reading and spelling acquisition in German-speaking children in Grade 1

During literacy acquisition, children learn to match written and spoken language. Little is known about how this is achieved by children who grow up speaking a dialect. The present study examined literacy-related skills before school in 71 children (mean_age: 7.61y) with a differing degree of exposure to Swiss-German (SwissG) dialect and tested their reading and spelling skills at the end of Grade 1. No differences in Grade 1 reading and spelling were found between groups of children with different SwissG exposure. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) revealed that SwissG exposure was negatively associated with Grade 1 spelling and reading, when statistically controlling for early literacy-related-skills. At the same time, SwissG exposure was positively associated with early literacy-related skills that drive reading and spelling development. Thus, literacy acquisition in children speaking a dialect is characterised by disadvantages due to a linguistic mismatch, but also by compensatory advantages of higher metalinguistic skills.     

Impairment of Cognitive Function in Different Domains Early After Lung Transplantation

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - In this prospective observational pilot study patients with the diagnosis of end-stage lung disease and listed for lung transplantation...     

The twinship: A paradigm towards separation and integration

The twinship paradigm describes a pattern of dyadic, quasi-object relationship, the purpose of which is to facilitate differentiation, separation, and integration. Twinships can arise at any point in the life cycle, when the self faces a developmental impasse. The twin functions as an alter-ego. Twin selection is based on two principles, namely, sympathetic resonance of experience, and difference. The two essentials of the resonance are similarity of developmental task, and similarity of obstacles to its accomplishment. The essentials of the difference lie in the fact that the twin is seen either as an idealized alter-ego, or as the carrier of the self's intolerable aspects. Twinships can collapse, in the presence of massive investment in the archaic symbiotic bond. They then lose their transitional status, and can degenerate into a fixation on a separation-impeding dyadic mode of relating.