Personality Factors and Adult Attachment Affecting Job Mobility

Past research has revealed that individuals' job mobility is affected by factors such as job satisfaction, specific career enhancing attributes and job availability. This study examined personality factors predicting voluntary internal and external job mobility. Three types of voluntary job mobility measures were studied: dissatisfaction changes, job improvement changes and job rotations within companies. These mobility measures were related to the Big Five personality factors, sensation seeking and adult attachment. Results showed that demographic variables and sensation seeking contributed to the variance in external job changes. Internal job rotations were not related to any of the demographic and personality variables.     

Contextual-specificity of short-delay extinction in humans: renewal of fear-potentiated startle in a virtual environment

A recent fear-potentiated startle study in rodents suggested that extinction was not context dependent when extinction was conducted after a short delay following acquisition, suggesting that extinction can lead to erasure of fear learning in some circumstances. The main objective of this study was to attempt to replicate these findings in humans by examining the context specificity of short-delay extinction in an ABA renewal procedure using virtual reality environments. A second objective was to examine whether renewal, if any, would be influenced by context conditioning. Subjects underwent differential aversive conditioning in virtual context A, which was immediately followed by extinction in virtual context B. Extinction was followed by tests of renewal in context A and B, with the order counterbalanced across subjects. Results showed that extinction was context dependent. Evidence for renewal was established using fear-potentiated startle as well as skin conductance and fear ratings. In addition, although contextual anxiety was greater in the acquisition context than in the extinction context during renewal, as assessed with startle, context conditioning did not influence the renewal effect. These data do not support the view that extinction conducted shortly after acquisition is context independent. Hence, they do not provide evidence that extinction can lead to erasure of a fear memory established via Pavlovian conditioning.     

Validity of the inventory of interpersonal problems for predicting treatment outcome: an investigation with the Pennsylvania Practice Research Network

In this study, we examined the relationship between treatment outcome and variables from the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Circumplex scales (IIP-C; Horowitz, Alden, Wiggins, & Pincus, 2000) in the Pennsylvania Psychological Association's Practice Research Network (PRN; Borkovec, Echemendia, Ragusea, & Ruiz, 2001). The PRN was a naturalistic observation treatment outcome study conducted with clinicians who were providing outpatient therapy. Assessment instruments, including the Compass Assessment System (Howard, Brill, Lueger, O'Mahoney, & Grissom, 1993; Sperry, Brill, Howard, & Grissom, 1996) and the IIP-C, were used to assess outcome at the 7th session (N=73) and at termination (N=42). Significant associations were identified between seventh-session outcome and most of the IIP variables. Only IIP elevation and amplitude were related to termination outcome. Elevation, amplitude, and hostile submissive problems were related to treatment length. Ad hoc analyses indicated that the IIP elevation fully mediated the relationships between interpersonal problems and seventh-session outcome but not the relationship between amplitude and outcome. We discuss the results in relation to the external validity of the IIP.     

Accessing word meaning in two languages: an event-related brain potential study of beginning bilinguals

Twenty-eight native-English speakers enrolled in beginning and intermediate university Spanish courses participated in a mixed language semantic categorization task in which critical words were presented in English (L1) and Spanish (L2) and repetitions of these words (within- and between-languages) were presented on subsequent trials (i.e., immediate repetition). Event-related potentials were recorded to all items allowing for comparisons of the N400 component to repetitions within- and between-languages as well as to words presented for the first time. Three important findings were observed in this sample of participants during relatively early stages of acquiring a second language. First, in the typical N400 window (300-500ms), between-language repetition (translation) produced a smaller reduction in N400 amplitude than did within-language repetition. Second, the time-course of between-language repetition effects tended to be more extended in time and differed as a function of language with L2-L1 repetitions producing larger priming effects early (during the typical N400 window) and L1-L2 repetitions producing larger priming effects later (during windows after the typical N400). Third, a greater negativity in the ERP waveforms was observed when the word on the directly preceding trial was from the other language. Within the time frame of the N400, this language switch effect arose only when the target word was Spanish and the preceding word English (i.e., L1-L2). The results are discussed within the framework of current models of bilingual lexical processing.     

Judicial Decision-Making in Family Law Proceedings

Judicial Family Law proceedings are peculiar; a large number of cases are never closed, until the children reach adulthood. We selected three variables to test whether they can explain the credibility of each party and agent in the proceedings: guiding principle that orients the court's decision, confirmation of maternal manipulation in the psycho-social report, and establishing credibility of the child's testimony. An incidental sample of 169 people was used. The three manipulated variables imply very different levels of credibility for each party to the proceedings. Finally, proposed modifications to court proceedings are suggested to ensure adequate protection of children.     

Between Actor and Spectator: Arnout Geulincx and the Stoics

The work of Arnout Geulincx (1624–1669), a Flemish Cartesian that developed a highly curious ‘parallelistic’ view on the universe, shows striking prima facie resemblances to Stoicism. Should we label Geulincx a reinventor of Stoic tenets, albeit within a strict Cartesian theoretical framework? To answer this question, my contribution begins by discussing relevant aspects of Stoicism and by introducing the ‘existential’ philosophy of Geulincx, whose metaphysical views on man brought him to adopt an ethics based upon absolute obedience and humility. It will discuss Geulincx's own views on the Stoics and, finally, compare Geulincx's philosophy with the Stoic world view. The main argument will be that, despite a deep affinity and many parallels, one crucial difference remains, as the dualism any true Cartesian metaphysics implies has important consequences for Geulincx's ethics in general and for his view on man in particular. As we will see, man plays a very peculiar role in the cosmic drama that we call the ‘universe’.     

Discussion increases efficacy when training accurate perception of patients' affect

Patients benefit when their healthcare providers accurately recognize their affect. The efficacy of three short‐term training components, practice, practice with feedback, and discussion with practice and feedback, to improve accuracy for judging patients' affect was experimentally assessed. Undergraduate participants were randomly assigned in pairs to one of the training conditions or an untrained control condition and the effect of training was measured using the Test of Accurate Perception of Patients' Affect (TAPPA). Participants were significantly more accurate on the TAPPA in the discussion with feedback and practice condition compared with the control condition. There was a significant linear trend in accuracy across training elements. Results suggest that a 40‐min discussion with feedback and practice training can significantly improve interpersonal accuracy.     

Pain reduces discrimination in helping

Because of their shared neurobiological underpinnings, factors increasing physical pain can also increase feelings of social disconnection (“social pain”). Feelings of connection with a social group are reflected in the term social identification, and social identity is commonly associated with intergroup discrimination. In two experiments, we examined the notion that physical pain would reduce social identification and subsequently inhibit intergroup discrimination in helping. By using a pain memory manipulation and a support measure of helping in Study 1 (N = 173), and an actual pain manipulation combined with a behavioural measure of helping in Study 2 (N = 72), results from both studies confirmed the predictions. As expected, physical pain eliminated ingroup favouritism in helping, and identification mediated this effect in the ingroup condition but not in the outgroup condition. We discuss these findings in light of the apparently paradoxical relationship between social support and pain. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.