Separating fact from fiction: an examination of deceptive self-presentation in online dating profiles

This study examines self-presentation in online dating profiles using a novel cross-validation technique for establishing accuracy. Eighty online daters rated the accuracy of their online self-presentation. Information about participants' physical attributes was then collected (height, weight, and age) and compared with their online profile, revealing that deviations tended to be ubiquitous but small in magnitude. Men lied more about their height, and women lied more about their weight, with participants farther from the mean lying more. Participants' self-ratings of accuracy were significantly correlated with observed accuracy, suggesting that inaccuracies were intentional rather than self-deceptive. Overall, participants reported being the least accurate about their photographs and the most accurate about their relationship information. Deception patterns suggest that participants strategically balanced the deceptive opportunities presented by online self-presentation (e.g., the editability of profiles) with the social constraints of establishing romantic relationships (e.g., the anticipation of future interaction).     

Effects of accessibility and subjective relevance on the use of piecemeal and category information in impression formation

Three studies investigated the process by which categorical and individuating information impacts impression formation. The authors assumed that (a) both types of information are functionally equivalent in serving as evidence for interpersonal judgments and (b) their use is determined by their accessibility and perceived applicability to the impression's target. The first study constituted an extended replication of Pavelchak's experiment, and it showed that its results, initially interpreted to suggest the primacy in impression formation of category over trait information, may have been prompted by differential accessibility of the category versus trait information in some experimental conditions of the original research. Studies 2 and 3 additionally explored the role of informational accessibility manipulated in different ways. Study 3 demonstrated also that the effect of accessibility is qualified by the information's apparent relevance to the judgmental target.     

Employee assistance program liability and workplace privacy

Privacy protection is an essential part of any credible Employee Assistance Program (EAP). This article describes how invasion of privacy, defamation, and emotional distress claims can occur in EAPs. Practical guidelines are recommended to ensure that company managers and EAP staff protect troubled employees' privacy rights at all times.     

When Breaking the Rules Relates to Creativity: The Role of Creative Problem-Solving Demands and Organizational Constraints

Drawing on theoretical views of creative deviance, the present study hypothesized that employees with a tendency to break rules are more creative at their jobs (Hypothesis 1). Furthermore, we expected that this is particularly the case when employees face high problem-solving demands (i.e., they are expected to be creative) but at the same time they face high organizational constraints (e.g., they are not given the resources they need in order to be creative; Hypothesis 2). To test these expectations, we conducted a cross-sectional survey study (Study 1) and a daily diary survey study (Study 2) among employees from different occupational groups. Study 1 provided evidence that employee rule-breaking is related to other-rated employee creativity. Study 2 replicated this finding with a day-level measure of self-rated employee creativity. Furthermore, multilevel regression analyses revealed that the link is stronger when day-level problem-solving demands and organizational constraints are both high. Our findings contribute to the literature by providing empirical support to hardly examined propositions, namely, that non-compliant behaviors (i.e., rule-breaking) and obstacles (i.e., organizational constraints) may, in fact, boost creativity. Finally, suggestions for practice are made, recognizing the challenges posed to management in regulating employee rule-breaking.     

Making Numbers Come to Life: Two Scoring Methods for Creativity in Aurora's Cartoon Numbers

Although creativity has long been recognized as an important aspect of mathematical thinking, both for the advancement of the field and in students' developing expertise in mathematics, assessments of student creativity in that domain have been limited in number and focus. This article presents an assessment developed for creativity that provides a score for mathematical creativity (MaC) in addition to a score for general creativity in the numeric domain, or what we might call numerical creativity (NuC). We developed different rating scales for each and then explored how each scoring method accounts for the students' mathematical/numerical and creative skills. The psychometric properties for both scoring approaches were examined. Each method was shown to reflect different relationships with other performance tests. In addition, it is proposed that MaC may provide useful insight into students' levels of adaptive expertise in mathematics, as reflected by their ability to apply mathematical knowledge (i.e., language, operations, concepts) to novel situations, representing an informative supplement to performance indicators of math achievement.     

THE USE OF A VERBAL REPRIMAND TO DECREASE RUMINATION IN A CHILD WITH AUTISM

After a pre‐treatment screening analysis suggested that rumination exhibited by a boy with autism occurred in the absence of social consequences, we evaluated the effect of a verbal reprimand contingent on the target behavior via a reversal design. The reprimand reduced rumination to near‐zero levels; we then thinned the reprimand schedule and rumination remained infrequent. Follow‐up data collected 6, 12, and 18 months after initial treatment suggested that intervention effects were maintained. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘I am not crying. I am rubbing my eyes’: Annie and the hollow object

This article explores the relationship between the development of severe eczema and asthma in an eight-year-old girl and her difficulties with experiencing psychic pain and conflict. The author focuses on the transference dynamics that preceded and surrounded the psychosomatic reaction in the session. The observations in this case may explain why patients, despite feeling taken over by intense physical sensations, can display flatness and superficiality of affect giving the appearance that they are emotionally ‘hollow’. The author proposes that these patients experience an emotional sense of emptiness in themselves and in their objects that is the result of a very early defence of dissociation caused by overwhelming anxieties of annihilation that are lived out in and through the body. The appearance of a psychosomatic symptom during the session can follow the emergence of sudden and intense raw hostile feelings towards the primary object, accompanied by a sense of danger and profound anxiety, as the hated object is also desperately needed for the subject’s own physical/emotional survival. The analyst can contribute to triggering these episodes by failing to contain the patient’s projections, which may lead to the patient feeling forced to re-introject unprocessed and unbearable ‘psycho-physical’ emotions. This article discusses the different degrees – and forms – of symbolic functioning in connection to this girl’s experience of her eczema and asthma and their manifestation in the transference relationship to the therapist.     

Feeling Better But Doing Worse: Effects of Facebook Self-Presentation on Implicit Self-Esteem and Cognitive Task Performance

This study uses self-affirmation theory to draw predictions about the effect of Facebook profile self-presentation on two psychological outcomes: users' state self-esteem and their performance in a cognitive task. In an experimental procedure, participants were randomly assigned to examine either their own profiles, which tend to highlight social connectedness and treasured aspects of the self, or a stranger's profile. Afterward, participants reported their self-esteem using an implicit measure that is immune to reporting biases, and completed a serial subtraction task. Results show that a brief exposure to one's own profile raised state self-esteem, but that it hampered performance in a subsequent cognitive task by decreasing the motivation to perform well. The results advance the emerging literature on the effects of online self-presentation and also provide a theoretical contribution to self-affirmation theory.     

BORGES, IMMORTALITY AND THE CIRCULAR RUINS

The author explores ideas surrounding immortality and death focusing on the interplay between their development in two stories by Borges ('The circular ruins' and 'The immortal') and their manifestation in a patient. With the help of Borges's stories, the author addresses the desperate necessity experienced by some individuals to search for immortality. This is not just an expression of the universal wish to live forever but, at a deeper level, arises from the impossibility of bearing the mental pain of experiencing ordinary human vulnerability and loss - death being the ultimate expression of such vulnerability. It is suggested that the relentless pursuit of immortality in such individuals expresses an omnipotent phantasy of ridding the self of the emotional pain and fear that arises through being alive. It leads to a denial of the emotional significance of passage of time, of separation and sexual differences. In actuality, the individual's state of not feeling approximates to a complete loss of human identity and emotional death, with no place for any meaningful others. The individual him/herself becomes a 'mere image', living in a delusional world peopled by him/herself and his/ her projections, and ending up trapped inside the circular ruins he/she has generated. The horror experienced at the stark awareness of the individual's emotional death and the wish to re-establish contact with the good internal objects that have been attacked sets in motion the long process of searching for the recovery of a sense of temporality (that would still include the wish for immortality) and, with it, a sense of identity.