Beliefs in Equality for Women and Men as Related to Economic Factors in Central and Eastern Europe and the United States

Do economic indicators predict the general level of support for gender equality? This question was investigated in a sample of countries in Central and Eastern Europe, a region that has been undergoing rapid economic changes since the early 1990s. In this overall sample of male and female college students from ten countries, including the United States as a comparison, the predicted association between stronger beliefs in gender role egalitarianism and positive economic factors was generally supported. Also, consistent with other research, women were more in support of gender equality than men were. There was no support for a predicted trend in less support for gender equality over the time period of the present study.     

Affective interactions using virtual reality: the link between presence and emotions.

Many studies showed the ability of movies and imagery techniques to elicit emotions. Nevertheless, it is less clear how to manipulate the content of interactive media to induce specific emotional responses. In particular, this is true for the emerging medium virtual reality (VR), whose main feature is the ability to induce a feeling of "presence" in the computer-generated world experienced by the user. The main goal of this study was to analyze the possible use of VR as an affective medium. Within this general goal, the study also analyzed the relationship between presence and emotions. The results confirmed the efficacy of VR as affective medium: the interaction with "anxious" and "relaxing" virtual environments produced anxiety and relaxation. The data also showed a circular interaction between presence and emotions: on one side, the feeling of presence was greater in the "emotional" environments; on the other side, the emotional state was influenced by the level of presence. The significance of these results for the assessment of affective interaction is discussed.     

The relationship between need for closure and compliance to harsh power tactics in high demanding jobs: A study conducted among firefighters and social workers

The present research aimed at expanding Pierro, Kruglanski, and Raven’s work examining the interweaving between the need for closure (NFC; the desire to form quick and unambiguous knowledge) and the Interpersonal Power Interaction model. In particular, this study explored the idea that the greater compliance to harsh power tactics of subordinates’ employees, that are high on NFC, can increase when their desire to achieve cognitive closure is made more salient by a high (compared to low) level of perceived job demands. A sample of 280 subordinates employees belonging to two different organizational contexts filled in a self-report questionnaire. Through a moderation and simple slope analyses, we tested and confirmed our hypothesis. When job demands were high, it potentially impaired the subordinates’ chance to form a quick knowledge. As a result, high NFC subordinates showed a higher compliance with harsh power tactics. Such tactics, limiting the subordinates’ freedom of choice, can be conceived as a means to gain quick knowledge when the organizational context is perceived as particularly demanding. As far as practical implications, these results suggest that for high NFC subordinates the use of more directive and unambiguous guidelines (e.g., harsh power tactics) could minimize the scarcely tolerated cognitive cost associated with high job demands.     

Asymmetrical clustering by sex in free-forming groups: an observational field study

464 observations were carried out in public places of 3- or 4-person, mixed sex, free-forming groups who spontaneously divided into subgroups. An analysis of sex composition of the subgroups showed that significantly more single-sex subgroups were formed than expected by chance. This was significantly more pronounced among women than among men. Several explanations were considered.     

Why mood affects help giving,but not moral courage: Comparing two types of prosocial behaviour

A long tradition in the help giving literature assumes that mood states determine the level of prosocial behaviour shown by individuals. Most research in this area has been conducted in the context of low cost prosocial behaviour, whereas research has been neglected in which participants were confronted with situations involving potential severe and dangerous negative consequences (i.e., high cost situations) with the help‐giver risking his moral integrity and social disapproval (i.e., moral courage). To address this gap in the literature, the present studies investigate differential effects of positive and negative compared with neutral mood states on help giving versus moral courage. Study 1 shows that in situations requiring low cost helping, participants were more likely to help in positive and negative moods than those in a neutral mood, whereas in situations requiring moral courage (high cost), participants were comparably likely to help in each of the three mood conditions. In Study 2, we find that salience of moral norms mediates the interaction between type of prosocial behaviour and mood. Finally, Study 3 investigates whether the apparent discrepancy between help giving and moral courage as established by the differential impact of mood states can be determined still differently. It reveals that justice sensibility, civil disobedience, resistance to group pressure, moral mandates, and anger lead to moral courage, but not to help giving. Differences between these two types of prosocial behaviour are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are Psychiatric Residents Still Interested in Psychoanalysis? A Brief Report

In spite of the efficacy of the psychodynamic psychotherapies, the number of young psychiatric residents interested in psychodynamic therapies is decreasing. Our psychoanalytical group, Genden (Genève-Denver), explored the possible reasons for psychiatric residents' hesitation to get psychoanalytic training. Five psychoanalytical psychotherapists met weekly for a year in order to debate that question, focusing on personal feedbacks from all of our 100 residents in psychiatry working with us for at least 4 years. Following the residents' responses, our focus group proposed ten commonsense feedbacks for psychoanalysts regarding stimulating young psychiatric residents' interest in psychoanalytic approaches.     

Tendentious texts: Holocaust representations and nation-rebuilding in East German,Italian, and West German schoolbooks, 1949–1989*

This article examines how post-fascist perpetrator countries – East Germany, Italy, and West Germany – represented the Second World War and the Holocaust in middle school history textbooks. History textbooks were important actors in the creation of new democratic communities in East Germany, Italy, and West Germany. Through a transnational comparison of one leading textbook published in each country, this paper answers why and how West Germany was eventually more successful than East Germany and Italy in conveying to its youth a more nuanced and self-critical national memory of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Such knowledge is imperative, not just to understand the past, but also to provide a better grasp of how to democratize youth in the future, an important topic, given the spectre of right-wing ethno-nationalism that has seen a revival in recent years.     

Internal control beliefs and reference frame concurrently impact early performance monitoring ERPs

This study investigated the impact of criterion-based vs. social reference frames on behavioural and neural correlates of performance monitoring while taking individual differences in control beliefs into account. We conducted two experiments administering a time estimation task in which feedback was either delivered pertaining to participants’ own performance (nonsocial/criterion-based reference) or to the performance of a reference group of previous participants (social reference). In Experiment 1, 34 male volunteers participated. To test generalizability of the observed results to both sexes/genders, we recruited 36 female volunteers for Experiment 2. P2 and P300 amplitudes were generally larger in social than in nonsocial reference trials in the male participants of Experiment 1. ΔFRN amplitudes were larger for social compared to non-social reference trials in Experiment 1. No effects of reference frame were found in the female sample of Experiment 2. Rather, P2 and ΔFRN effects showed opposing patterns for nonsocial versus social reference frames. However, stronger internal control beliefs were accompanied by larger FRN amplitudes of negative social reference trials in both samples, suggesting generalizable effects independent of sex/gender. Enhanced P2 and ΔFRN amplitudes for social versus nonsocial reference trials suggest enhanced attentional capture and higher saliency of socially framed feedback in male participants only. In both sexes/genders, however, the social reference frame possibly challenges internal control beliefs and by this enhances performance monitoring. Our results demonstrate the complex interplay of trait variables and reference frames during performance monitoring influencing our daily lives-reference frames are omnipresent in education and one’s working environment.     

Knowing minds: Linking early perspective taking and later metacognitive insight

Recent metacognitive research using a partial knowledge task indicates that a firm understanding of ‘knowing about knowing’ develops surprisingly late, at around 6 years of age. To reveal the mechanisms subserving this development, the partial knowledge task was used in a longitudinal study with 67 children (33 girls) as an outcome measure at 5;9 (years;months). In addition, first- and second-order false belief was assessed at 4;2, 5;0, and 5;9. At 2;6, perspective taking and executive abilities were evaluated. Metacognition at 5;9 was correlated with earlier theory of mind and perspective taking – even when verbal intelligence and executive abilities were partialled out. This highlights the importance of perspective taking for the development of an understanding of one’s own mind.