Constraining the comprehension of pronominal expressions in Chinese

This paper reports a series of self-paced reading time experiments designed to probe how the reference of pronominal expressions is resolved on-line in (Mandarin) Chinese. It is assumed that pronoun resolution is achieved by narrowing the candidate set of potential antecedents for a pronoun. The experimental evidence reported here indicates that two factors--syntactic prominence and the matching of lexical features (e.g. gender)--play a significant role in filtering this candidate set. It is shown that syntactic prominence and feature matching work in conjunction with each other rather than in a competitive, winner-take-all manner. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that syntactic prominence is sensitive to structural relations rather than exclusively to grammatical functions (such as subject and direct object) or semantic roles (such as agent and patient) as has been assumed in the psycholinguistic literature.     

THE AIMS OF TYPOLOGIES AND A TYPOLOGY OF METHODS

Typologies like Ian Barbour's have been widely used—and critiqued—in religion-and-science. Several alternatives have been proposed by, for example, John Haught, Willem Drees, Mikael Stenmark, and Shoaib Ahmed Malik. However, there has been a surprising deficit in discussion of what we wish typologies to do in religion and science in the first place. In this article, I provide a general analysis of typologies in religion-and-science by (1) providing a classification of existing typologies as conclusion- or concept-oriented; (2) showing that typologies are used, or expected to be used, as first-order categorizations of how religion and science are related and as second-order classifications of scholars/scholarly works; (3) discussing several aims which we might want typologies to achieve in their second-order usage; and (4) presenting a new kind of typology focused on the methods used by scholars which achieves those aims in a unique way.     

The benefits of need satisfaction depend on their relative importance for people with a unidimensional identity: an idiographic analysis

Motivation and Emotion - Self-determination theory proposes that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs is equally beneficial for everyone – the Universal Hypothesis. Equally, there...     

The Use of the Mirror Tracing Persistence Task as a Measure of Distress Tolerance in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Behavioral tasks offer an objective index of processes associated with psychopathology. The mirror tracing persistence task (MTPT) has been used as a measure of distress tolerance, or the ability to endure negative internal states. In generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a poor ability to tolerate aversive internal states may relate to the inability to adaptively regulate emotion. This study examined if those with GAD exhibit lower distress tolerance compared to controls as evidenced by length of time persisting on the MTPT. Participants underwent diagnostic interviews to determine the presence of absence of GAD and following group assignment, completed the MTPT. Results demonstrated that the groups differed significantly in time spent persisting on the task, with controls persisting longer than those with GAD, supporting the hypothesis that individuals with GAD exhibit lower distress tolerance than controls. These results provide support for the use of behavioral assessments as potential markers of distress tolerance.     

Memory and comprehension for health information among older adults: Distinguishing the effects of domain-general and domain-specific knowledge

While there is evidence that knowledge influences understanding of health information, less is known about the processing mechanisms underlying this effect and its impact on memory. We used the moving window paradigm to examine how older adults varying in domain-general crystallised ability (verbal ability) and health knowledge allocate attention to understand health and domain-general texts. Participants (n = 107, age: 60–88 years) read and recalled single sentences about hypertension and about non-health topics. Mixed-effects modelling of word-by-word reading times suggested that domain-general crystallised ability increased conceptual integration regardless of text domain, while health knowledge selectively increased resource allocation to conceptual integration at clause boundaries in health texts. These patterns of attentional allocation were related to subsequent recall performance. Although older adults with lower levels of crystallised ability were less likely to engage in integrative processing, when they did, this strategy had a compensatory effect in improving recall. These findings suggest that semantic integration during reading is an important comprehension process that supports the construction of the memory representation and is engendered by knowledge. Implications of the findings for theories of text processing and memory as well as for designing patient education materials are discussed.     

Swinging Around Stigma: Gendered Marketing of Swingers’ Websites

Most research on swingers focus on the participants of this lifestyle. While research has examined swingers from a relational perspective, few, if any, have specifically examined the sources that facilitated swingers’ networks. In this paper, we are interested in how websites promote themselves and manage such a stigmatized activity. Specifically, we examine what aspects of swinging these websites focus on in order to attract members. Our findings indicate that these websites employ strategies that do not confront the stigma directly. In fact, this approach in and of itself is another strategy to swing around stigma. In addition, these websites are gendered and clearly target heterosexual men.     

The distinguishing characteristics of narrative identity in adults with features of borderline personality disorder: an empirical investigation

While identity disturbance has long been considered one of the defining features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), the present study marks only the third empirical investigation to assess it and the first to do so from the perspective of research on narrative identity. Drawing on the rich tradition of studying narrative identity, the present study examined identity disturbance in a group of 40 mid-life adults, 20 with features of BPD and a matched sample of 20 without BPD. Extensive life story interviews were analyzed for a variety of narrative elements and the themes of agency, communion fulfillment (but not communion), and narrative coherence significantly distinguished the stories of those people with features of BPD from those without the disorder. In addition, associations between the theme of agency and psychopathology were evident six and twelve months following the life story interview. This study seeks to bridge the mutually-informative fields of research on personality disorders and normal identity processes.     

Changes in the meaning of the term ‘the people’ (jen-min) — An example of conceptual revolution as reflected in semantic evolution

Analysis of the use of the key term the people shows that it has varied both semantically and syntactically along the time-line of the evolution of the CPC.     

Diversity and leadership

Comments on the six articles contained in the special issue of the American Psychologist (January 2007) devoted to leadership, written by W. Bennis; S. J. Zaccaro; V. H. Vroom and A. G. Yago; B. J. Avolio; R. J. Sternberg; and R. J. Hackman and R. Wageman. The current authors express concern that the special issue failed to include attention to issues of diversity and intersecting identities as they pertain to leadership. A Special Issue Part II on Diversity and Leadership is being proposed to (a) advance new models of leadership, (b) expand on existing leadership theories, and (c) incorporate diversity and multiple identities in the formulation of more inclusive leadership research and theory. The goal of this special issue will be to revise our theories of leadership and our understanding of effective leadership to include gender, racial/ethnic minority status, sexual orientation, and disability status.