Surviving the Kosovo Conflict: A Study of Social Identity, Appraisal of Extreme Events, and Mental Well-Being

Our study examined the role of social identity processes in determining how individuals evaluate, deal with, and are affected by severe events of war. We reasoned that for those who experience such events collectively and who identify strongly with their group, primary appraisal will be filtered through the prism of social identity. In a sample of Kosovo Albanians who had survived the armed conflict in 1999, we found that those who were able to evaluate the war as affirming their group identity presented lower levels of depressive mood and anxiety and higher levels of self-efficacy. Furthermore, this process of war appraisal affected the process of secondary appraisal. Specifically, positive war appraisal increased availability of support from close others and reduced the importance of positive individual coping strategies in dealing with extreme events. Conversely, negative war appraisal reduced availability of support from close others and reduced the importance of negative coping strategies in dealing with extreme events.     

Evaluating the two-component inspection model in a simplified luggage search task

Visual inspection of X-ray images of luggage is a time-pressured task that typically shows large initial training effects, but there exists a paucity of models capable of evaluating performance and speed concurrently. In the present study, visual inspection ability during learning was modeled using Drury’s two-component inspection model (TCM; Drury, 1975) in a laboratory experiment involving 12 younger (mean age = 20.8 years) and 12 older (mean age = 60.0 years) naive participants undertaking a simplified luggage search task. Model fits and assumptions were found to be reliable and accurately reflected improvement with training for decision time, although neither search nor decision components of the model individually showed a significant effect of age. The decision component of the model showed larger improvement with training than did the search component, and stopping-time policy accurately reflected the improvements found between ages and within training levels. The TCM is a useful supplement to detection theory when speed of performance is a factor.     

Helping to improve the group stereotype: on the strategic dimension of prosocial behavior

Three studies consider a basis for intergroup helping. Specifically, they show that group members may help others to disconfirm a stereotype of their own group as mean. Study 1 shows that Scots believe they are seen as mean by the English, resent this stereotype, are motivated to refute it, and believe out-group helping is a particularly effective way of doing so. Study 2 shows that increasing the salience of the English stereotype of the Scottish as mean leads Scots to accentuate the extent to which Scots are depicted as generous. Study 3 shows that increasing the salience of the stereotype of the Scots as mean results in an increase in the help volunteered to out-group members. These results highlight how strategic concerns may result in out-group helping. In turn, they underscore the point that helping others may be a means to advance a group's interest.     

Computer games,self-esteem and gratification of needs in adolescents

Playing computer games has become an increasingly popular leisure time activity amongst adolescents, but concerns have been expressed over possible associated consequences. One research area has investigated reasons for playing, and two prior explanations relate it to the functional concepts of ‘electronic friendship’ and ‘self-esteem’. A questionnaire study was conducted among 120 adolescents to obtain information on a number of measures including gratification of needs and self-esteem. Results showed that playing computer games is equally popular with males and females, but males spend more time on it. Positive correlations between playing and items on the needs scales were obtained. In particular males who were heavy players scored highly on the ‘preference to friends’ need, but interestingly they were also likely to see their friends more often outside school, thus providing no support for the theory that computer games are taking the place of normal social interaction. For females there was evidence of a negative relationship between self-esteem and need gratification through playing computer games. However more adolescents spend much more time watching television than playing computer games. These results are discussed in the context of previous research.     

Is menopause depressing? An investigation of three perspectives

This study examines three perspectives in the literature about menopausal depression. According to one, the physiological changes of menopause result in increased psychological distress. Another approach proposes that menopause is most depressing for women who occupy traditional female gender roles. The third asserts that menopause is not especially depressing for most women. This study empirically examines three perspectives using data from two community surveys. These analyses suggest menopausal status may not be associated with depressive symptomatology, either directly or indirectly through traditional gender roles.This research was supported in part by PHS grant numbers 5T32MH13043, 5T32MH16373, and 5T32MH15774. I appreciate the helpful comments I received from Janet Berkeley, Bruce Link, and an anonymous reviewer on earlier versions of this paper. I also am grateful to Lenore Radloff and NIMH for providing the CMHA data and to Harold Dupuy and NCHS for the HANES data.     

Complexity and colour preferences in chicks of different ages

Five- and six-day old chicks were found to prefer a complex stimulus to a simple one, whilst 2-day old ones showed no such preference; but a red stimulus, whether simple or complex, tended to be preferred at both age levels when it was paired with a non-coloured complex stimulus. Preference for complexity may be usefully viewed in any species in the context of the behavioural development of the individual.     

Discrimination of checkerboard patterns by rats

Fifteen rats were trained to discriminate between a regular checkerboard pattern and a similar pattern containing a “mistake.” The animals subsequently transferred to many other pairs of regular and irregular patterns differing widely from the originals. The results suggest that rats can induce and store highly abstract rules describing input patterns.     

The conceptual base view of categorization

An experiment was designed to show that some categories, called Type C categories, are mediated by an abstract, interpretively derived conceptual base. To this end, each of four groups of subjects ranked 10 sentences (instances) in terms of how well they illustrated the figurative meaning of a proverb (Proverb group), or how well they illustrated the meaning of an excellent interpretation of the proverb (Excellent Interpretation group), or a poor interpretation of the proverb (Poor Interpretation group), or an unspecified, unstated underlying meaning (Control group). The Excellent Interpretation groups' rankings correlated highly with standard ranks established by the Proverb group, but the Poor Interpretation group's and the Control group's ranking were uncorrelated with these two group's rankings. Apparently, the subjects in the Proverb group accomplished their rankings by using a conceptual base or microtheory similar in meaning to the interpretation used by the Excellent Interpretation group. Discussion centered on the question of whether the Classical, Probabilistic, or Exemplar Views of categorization (Smith & Medin, 1981) could account for the results. It was argued that they could not, basically because Type C categories are more dependent upon interpretive processes than the more perceptually based Type P categories to which these views have traditionally been applied.IBM.     

What's That Smell?

In philosophical discussions of the secondary qualities, color has taken center stage. Smells, tastes, sounds, and feels have been treated, by and large, as mere accessories to colors. We are, as it is said, visual creatures. This, at least, has been the working assumption in the philosophy of perception and in those metaphysical discussions about the nature of the secondary qualities. The result has been a scarcity of work on the “other” secondary qualities. In this paper, I take smells and place them front and center. I ask: What are smells? For many philosophers, the view that colors can be explained in purely physicalistic terms has seemed very appealing. In the case of smells, this kind of nonrelational view has seemed much less appealing. Philosophers have been drawn to versions of relationalism—the view that the nature of smells must be explained (at least in part) in terms of the effects they have on perceivers. In this paper, I consider a contemporary argument for this view. I argue that nonrelationalist views of smell have little to fear from this argument.