Does Happiness Increase in Old Age? Longitudinal Evidence from 20 European Countries

Journal of Happiness Studies - Several studies indicate that happiness follows a U-shape over the life cycle: Happiness decreases after the teenage years until reaching its nadir in middle age. A...     

Beauty: Neglected,but alive and kicking

This article is a commentary on ‘Ten years of a model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments: The aesthetic episode – developments and challenges in empirical aesthetics’ (Leder & Nadal, 2014, this issue). It focuses on the importance of beauty in aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments. Beauty is considered as a formal inherent property of visual stimuli that has the potential to elicit visual pleasure by direct sensory stimulation. It is argued that any comprehensive model of aesthetic experience must account fully for cognitive aspects of aesthetics (cultural, conceptual, psychological, and individual factors) as well as intrinsic properties of beautiful visual stimuli and how they relate to basic mechanisms of visual perception, which are universal among humans.     

Measuring Four Perspectives of Justice Sensitivity With Two Items Each

People differ systematically in their vulnerability to injustice. We present two-item scales for the efficient measurement of justice sensitivity from 4 perspectives (victim, observer, beneficiary, perpetrator). In Study 1 using a quota-based sample of German adults, a latent state–trait analysis revealed the factorial validity and high reliabilities of the scales. In Study 2 employing a large random sample, we tested for measurement invariance of the items within the context of our short 2-item scales compared to the original 10-item scales. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses confirmed that the validity of the indicators and the internal structure of the assessed constructs did not change across item contexts. In both studies, correlations with personality dimensions and life satisfaction provide evidence for the validity of our scales. With the presented instrument, future research can extend scientific knowledge regarding the role of individual differences in reactions to injustice for the explanation of well-being and physical health.     

From Games to Truth Functions: A Generalization of Giles’s Game

Motivated by aspects of reasoning in theories of physics, Robin Giles defined a characterization of infinite valued ?ukasiewicz logic in terms of a game that combines Lorenzen-style dialogue rules for logical connectives with a scheme for betting on results of dispersive experiments for evaluating atomic propositions. We analyze this game and provide conditions on payoff functions that allow us to extract many-valued truth functions from dialogue rules of a quite general form. Besides finite and infinite valued ?ukasiewicz logics, also Meyer and Slaney’s Abelian logic and Cancellative Hoop Logic turn out to be characterizable in this manner.     

Analyzing distributional properties of interference effects across modalities: chances and challenges

In research investigating Stroop or Simon effects, data are typically analyzed at the level of mean response time (RT), with results showing faster responses for compatible than for incompatible trials. However, this analysis provides only limited information as it glosses over the shape of the RT distributions and how they may differ across tasks and experimental conditions. These limitations have encouraged the analysis of RT distributions using delta plots. In the present review, we aim to bring together research on distributional properties of auditory and visual interference effects. Extending previous reviews on distributional properties of the Simon effect, we additionally review studies reporting distributional analyses of Stroop effects. We show that distributional analyses of sequential effects (i.e., taking into account congruency of the previous trial) capture important similarities and differences of interference effects across tasks (Simon, Stroop) as well as across sensory modalities, despite some challenges associated to this approach.     

EPISTEMOLOGY EXTENDED

A common presupposition in epistemology is that the processes contributing to the generation of knowledge do not extend beyond the knower's skin. This paper challenges this presupposition. I adduce a novel kind case that causes trouble for a number of even the most promising accounts of knowledge in current literature (virtue epistemological and modal accounts), at least so long as the presupposition is in place. I then look at a couple of recent accounts of knowledge that drop the presupposition and expressly allow the relevant processes to extended beyond the knower's skin. While these accounts can handle the problem case, they encounter difficulties elsewhere: extension occurs too easily and so the accounts predict knowledge where they ought not. Finally, I offer a novel way of extending epistemology and argue that it can steer clear of the problems on both sides.     

Sex differences in color preferences transcend extreme differences in culture and ecology

At first glance, color preferences might seem to be the most subjective and context-dependent aspects of color cognition. Yet they are not. The present study compares color preferences of women and men from an industrialized and a remote, nonindustrialized culture. In particular, we investigated preferences in observers from Poland and from the Yali in Papua, respectively. Not surprisingly, we found that color preferences clearly differed between the two communities and also between sexes. However, despite the pronounced cultural differences, the way in which men and women differed from each other was almost the same in both cultures. At the same time, this sexual contrast was not specific to biological components of color vision. Our results reveal a pattern of sexual dimorphism that transcends extreme differences in culture and ecology. They point toward strong cross-cultural constraints beyond the biological predispositions of nature and the cultural particularities of nurture.     

Epilepsie: Aktuelles zu Diagnostik und Therapie

Bei etwa 65 Prozent der Epilepsiepatienten kann durch eine antikonvulsive Therapie anhaltende Anfallsfreiheit erreicht werden, bei den übrigen 35 Prozent entwickelt sich eine therapieresistente beziehungsweise schwer behandelbare Epilepsie. Für manche Patienten mit therapieresistenten Epilepsien stellt die Epilepsiechirurgie eine effektive und sichere Behandlungsoption dar. Die wichtigsten Behandlungsziele sind neben der optimalen Anfallskontrolle (im Idealfall Anfallsfreiheit) die gute Vertr?glichkeit der medikament?sen Therapie, die Vermeidung von chronischen Nebenwirkungen, die einfache Handhabung der Medikation für Arzt und Patient, die günstige Beeinflussung von mit der Epilepsie h?ufig assoziierten Begleiterkrankungen sowie die Berücksichtigung der Bedürfnisse spezieller Patientengruppen. Generell sollte somit eine m?glichst individualisierte Therapie erfolgen, die auf die Bedürfnisse des jeweiligen Patienten abgestimmt ist.     

‘Any room won’t do.’ Clinical psychologists’ understanding of the consulting room. An interview study

In the social sciences, there is increasing interest in spatial practices and the meaning of places. The meaning of the psychotherapeutic room and its boundaries has traditionally been underlined in psychodynamic practice. In this study we investigated how clinical psychologists, working from different perspectives and with varying interventions and populations understand and use the consulting room. Five clinical psychologists were interviewed about how they perceive and use consulting rooms. The interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The participants understood the consulting room as a logistic unit but also as a welcoming place for relational encounters and sensed that spatial stability was important for their capacity to be fully attentive to their clients. Moreover, technological booking systems could hinder clinical work. The results were understood with respect to Winnicott’s theories of transitional space and holding. In sum, the importance of the room does not seem to be of concern exclusively to psychodynamic psychologists. On the contrary, it seems as if psychologists working with varying interventions and from different perspectives emphasise stable and personal consulting rooms that permit them to adapt to the needs of the clients, be attentive, and avoid disturbances.