Young men's coping with androgenetic alopecia: acceptance counts when hair gets thinner

The present study examined how young men cope with balding (androgenetic alopecia). The sample consisted of 160 university students (18–30 years) with varying degrees of hair loss (stages II–VII on the Norwood–Hamilton Scale). Three ways of coping were distinguished: compensation, avoidance, and acceptance. Psychological distress due to hair loss depended neither on the age of participants nor on the stage of balding. Since compensation and avoidance were associated with high levels of distress, their functional value might be questioned. Acceptance, however, was negatively related to distress – even, or rather, especially when stage of hair loss was advanced. Furthermore, acceptance had a direct negative effect on medical consultation about hair loss. By contrast, compensation and avoidance had a positive distress-mediated effect on medical consultation. Taken together, this study underlines the adaptive role of acceptance when confronted with irreversible changes such as androgenetic alopecia.     

Nature and facts about natural and artifactual categories: Sex differences in the semantic priming paradigm

There is abundant evidence from behavioral and neurophysiological experiments for the distinction of natural versus artifactual categories and a gender-specific difference: women’s performances in cognitive tasks increase when natural categories are used, whereas men’s performances increase with artifactual categories. Here, we used the semantic priming paradigm to study retrieval processes by presenting category labels as primes and exemplars as targets. Overall, in two experiments we found larger priming effects for natural than for artifactual categories. In addition, females showed positive priming effects for natural but negative effects for artifactual categories, whereas males showed positive priming effects for both categories. This pattern matches with that from other tasks and can be interpreted as evidence that the findings from these other tasks are, at least partially, indeed due to different representations or processing modes for males and females and not (exclusively) due to—for example—different familiarity with a category. In a further experiment, we showed that the found pattern for females can be manipulated by focusing on perceptual vs. functional features. The results can be interpreted as first evidence that there are (eventually in addition to different “crystallized” semantic structures) specific default processing modes that differ for males and females.     

Center-surround or spreading inhibition: which mechanism caused the negative effect from repeated masked semantic primes?

In the paradigm of repeated masked semantic priming (Wentura & Frings. 2005), prime and mask are repeatedly and rapidly interchanged. Using this technique in a semantic priming task with category labels as primes and category exemplars as targets (related, e.g.. BIRD - swan --> BIRD - finch; unrelated, e.g., BIRD - lily --> FRUIT - finch), Wentura and Frings found a negatively signed priming effect. Here we used the repeated masking technique with category exemplars as targets and primes (i.e., identity priming) for analyzing, whether this effect reflects center-surround or spreading inhibition. If the repeated masked technique reflects spreading inhibition, a negative effect should also appear for identity priming. In contrast, a center-surround approach would predict a positive effect. In accordance with the latter hypothesis, we found a significant positive effect in identity priming (Experiment 1a) and significant difference to the negatively signed semantic priming effect when primes were category labels (Experiment 1b). This is indicative of the repeated masked semantic priming effect being a negatively signed semantic priming effect due to a center-surround mechanism.     

Knowledge activation after information encoding: Implications of trait priming on person judgment

It is widely assumed that traits primed after the encoding of person information do not lead to assimilation effects on the judgment of that person. The authors challenge this view by providing evidence that post-encoding trait primes can result in assimilative person judgments under certain conditions. In Experiments 1 and 2, we identify the conditions under which these assimilation effects occur. Experiment 1 shows the importance of participants’ goals during person information encoding: assimilation is observed when person information is encoded as part of a memorization goal (as opposed to an impression formation goal). The findings of Experiment 2 further reveal that the encoded person information should imply trait concepts rather than being merely vague with respect to the primed trait category. Finally, the results of Experiment 3 suggest that the obtained assimilation effect is driven by differential accessibility for prime-congruent person information.     

Pathways to suicidal behaviors in childhood

Path analyses were applied to test a model that includes internalizing and externalizing behavior problems as predictors of suicidal behaviors in children. Parents of an inpatient sample of boys (N=87; M age=9.81 years) rated the frequency of suicidal ideation and completed standardized measures of behavior problems. Blind raters rated the severity of the children's suicidal behaviors. Results revealed a significant direct effect for suicidal ideation on suicide attempt and for depressive symptoms on suicidal ideation. There was also a significant indirect path from impulsivity to suicidal ideation through aggressive and depressive symptoms. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Walking on music

The present study focuses on the intricate relationship between human body movement and music, in particular on how music may influence the way humans walk. In an experiment, participants were asked to synchronize their walking tempo with the tempo of musical and metronome stimuli. The walking tempo and walking speed were measured. The tempi of the stimuli varied between 50 and 190 beats per minute. The data revealed that people walk faster on music than on metronome stimuli and that walking on music can be modeled as a resonance phenomenon that is related to the perceptual resonance phenomenon as described by Van Noorden and Moelants (Van Noorden, L., & Moelants, D. (1999). Resonance in the perception of musical pulse. Journal of New Music Research, 28, 43-66).     

Gender differences in cooperation and competition: the male-warrior hypothesis

Evolutionary scientists argue that human cooperation is the product of a long history of competition among rival groups. There are various reasons to believe that this logic applies particularly to men. In three experiments, using a step-level public-goods task, we found that men contributed more to their group if their group was competing with other groups than if there was no intergroup competition. Female cooperation was relatively unaffected by intergroup competition. These findings suggest that men respond more strongly than women to intergroup threats. We speculate about the evolutionary origins of this gender difference and note some implications.     

Changes in mechanical control of movement during the first 5 months of independent walking: a longitudinal study

Insight into neuromuscular control of movement is gained through an understanding of the mechanical causes of movement. Data on new walkers' net joint moments is scarce, however, although those moments can be considered the direct cause of movement. The authors' goal in this research project was to characterize net joint moments in toddlers (N = 10) during the first 5 months of independent walking and to discuss their role in mechanical control of walking. The authors modeled leg segments as oscillating pendulums fixed at the proximal joint and investigated the relationship between force and movement. Their investigation revealed that at the onset of independent gait, walking was primarily hip driven. Furthermore, the toddlers seemed to experience problems in uncoupling active and passive control around the joints. Changes in mechanical control of walking were observed after 3 to 4 months of independent walking. The changes were more obvious at the hip and the knee joint than at the ankle.     

When do primes prime? The moderating role of the self-concept in individuals’ susceptibility to priming effects on social behavior

Using cooperative behavior in economic decision-making settings, we predicted and found that people’s susceptibility to priming influences is moderated by two factors: people’s chronic accessibility to a behavioral repertoire and people’s self-concept activation. In Experiment 1, we show that individuals highly consistent in their social value orientation (SVO) assimilate their behavior to their dispositions rather than to the primes, whereas the opposite effect is obtained among individuals with a low consistent SVO. In Experiment 2, we show that low consistent SVO individuals become less susceptible to priming influences when their self-concept is activated. These studies shed new light on individuals’ susceptibility to priming influences on social behavior.