Does parochial cooperation exist in childhood and adolescence? A meta-analysis

Although previous meta-analytic evidence supports the existence of parochialism in cooperation among adults, the extent to which children and adolescents are more willing to incur a personal cost to benefit ingroups, compared to outgroups, is not yet clear. We provide the first meta-analysis on the existence and magnitude of parochialism in cooperation among pre-adults. Based on 20 experimental economics studies (k = 69, N = 5268, age = 3–19, 12 countries, published 2008–2019), a multilevel meta-analytic model revealed a small overall effect size indicating that children and adolescents were more cooperative towards ingroups (d = 0.22, 95% CI [0.07, 0.38]). A series of single-moderator analyses tested for the following conditions: participant age and sex; game type ([mini-]dictator game, prisoner's dilemma, public goods dilemma, trust game, ultimatum game); outcome interdependence; membership manipulation (between- vs. within-subjects); group type (natural vs. experimental); reward type (monetary vs. non-monetary); and country of the participant. Parochial cooperation did not vary with participants' age. Parochialism was larger in non-interdependent (dictator-type) compared to interdependent (bargaining and social dilemma) games. There were no moderating effects of group type, membership manipulation or reward type. To provide more data on how parochialism develops, primary studies should report age ranges more precisely and use more restricted age groups.     

The influence of rule availability and item similarity on metacognitive monitoring during categorisation

In four experiments, we examined the sources of metacognitive judgments during the categorisation of new items after the learning of old items was completed. In the rule condition, the categorisation rule was explicitly given to the participants during learning, while in the no-rule condition participants relied on feedback to infer category membership. In the transfer phase, two types of novel items were used: good and bad transfer items. Transfer items also differed in the level of similarity to their training pairs. In the rule condition, all types of transfer items were classified with high accuracy and confidence. In the no-rule condition, a dissociation between accuracy and confidence was revealed. Good transfer items were classified more accurately than bad transfer items, whereas similar items were classified with higher confidence than dissimilar items. The obtained results suggest the utilisation of two potential cues for metacognitive judgments: declarative knowledge if the correct rule is explicitly available, and item similarity if it is difficult to infer the correct rule from feedback.     

A mixed-model for psychoanalytic education*

Abstract

If psychoanalysis is to avoid total marginalization, something has to be changed in the way future generations are prepared for working with patients and doing research. Reformation of psychoanalytic education may easily be the crucial issue when it comes to the survival of psychoanalysis. Its current organizational scheme has been criticized for various reasons, and various models of its structure have been proposed. I advocate a model that would combine the best features of the university education (training in clinical skills together with philosophy of science and research methodology) with personal analysis as part of psychoanalytic institutes. Although universities can remedy some of the problems of psychoanalytic institutions, they cannot contain the subjective experience of being analyzed.     

The Mentalization Scale (MentS): A Self-Report Measure for the Assessment of Mentalizing Capacity

The psychometric properties of a new 28-item self-report measure of mentalization, the Mentalization Scale (MentS), were examined in 2 studies: with a sample of employed adults and university students (N₁ = 288 + 278) and with a sample of persons with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and matched controls (N₂ = 62 + 62). Besides the MentS, both studies employed measures of attachment and the Big Five; Study 1 also included assessments of empathy and emotional intelligence. MentS whole-scale internal consistency was good in the community and acceptable in the clinical sample (α = .84 and .75, respectively). A principal components analysis of Study 1 data yielded 3 interpretable factors, or subscales: Self-Related Mentalization (MentS-S), Other-Related Mentalization (MentS-O), and Motivation to Mentalize (MentS-M). These showed acceptable reliabilities (α = .74–.79), except for MentS-M in the clinical sample (α = .60). MentS scores further exhibited a coherent pattern of correlations with cognate constructs and the Big Five, relating positively to empathy, trait and ability emotional intelligence, openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness, and negatively to attachment avoidance and anxiety, and neuroticism. Persons with BPD scored significantly lower on MentS total and MentS-S. The proposed scale is thus deemed suitable for quick, yet meaningful, assessments of mentalization in both individual differences research and clinical contexts.     

Color opponency in synaesthetic experiences

Grapheme-color synaesthesia is a rare condition in which perception of a letter or a digit is associated with concurrent perception of a color. Synaesthetes report that these color experiences are vivid and realistic. We used a Stroop task to show that synaesthetically induced color, like real color, is processed in color-opponent channels (red-green or blue-yellow). Synaesthetic color produced maximal interference with the perception and naming of the real color of a grapheme if the real color was opponent to the synaesthetic color. Interference was reduced considerably if the synaesthetic and real colors engaged different color channels (e.g., synaesthetic blue and real red). No dependence on color opponency was found for semantic conflicts between shape and color (e.g., a blue lemon). Thus, the neural representation of synaesthetic colors closely resembles that of real colors. This suggests involvement of early stages of visual processing in color synaesthesia and explains the vivid and realistic nature of synaesthetic experiences.     

Multimethod longitudinal assessment of temperament in early childhood

The present study examined consistency of temperament across situations and time in early childhood. On two occasions, 7 months apart, we observed the responses of 94 four-year-olds to multiple standard laboratory procedures eliciting exuberance, fear, anger, sadness, or interest. In addition, fathers' and mothers' reports on children's temperament were obtained. Observed temperament showed substantial context specificity, varying across situations within dimensions. Structural equation models revealed separate observation and parental perception factors and factorial invariance and high stability for most dimensions. Stability coefficients based on correlations varied according to level of aggregation. Measurement convergence was generally moderate and was lowest for negative emotionality. Implications for the assessment of temperament are discussed in relation to differences in consistency across dimensions and convergence between measures.     

How to Be Helpful to Multiple People at Once

When someone hosts a party, when governments choose an aid program, or when assistive robots decide what meal to serve to a family, decision-makers must determine how to help even when their recipients have very different preferences. Which combination of people’s desires should a decision-maker serve? To provide a potential answer, we turned to psychology: What do people think is best when multiple people have different utilities over options? We developed a quantitative model of what people consider desirable behavior, characterizing participants’ preferences by inferring which combination of “metrics” (maximax, maxsum, maximin, or inequality aversion [IA]) best explained participants’ decisions in a drink-choosing task. We found that participants’ behavior was best described by the maximin metric, describing the desire to maximize the happiness of the worst-off person, though participant behavior was also consistent with maximizing group utility (the maxsum metric) and the IA metric to a lesser extent. Participant behavior was consistent across variation in the agents involved and  tended to become more maxsum-oriented when participants were told they were players in the task (Experiment 1). In later experiments, participants maintained maximin behavior across multi-step tasks rather than shortsightedly focusing on the individual steps therein (Experiment 2, Experiment 3). By repeatedly asking participants what choices they would hope for in an optimal, just decision-maker, and carefully disambiguating which quantitative metrics describe these nuanced choices, we help constrain the space of what behavior we desire in leaders, artificial intelligence systems helping decision-makers, and the assistive robots and decision-makers of the future.     

On the relationship between temperament, metacognition, and anxiety: independent and mediated effects

Abstract The present study examined the relations between temperamental traits distinguished in regulative theory of temperament, state anxiety, and metacognition as postulated in self-regulatory executive function (S-REF) theory of emotional disorder. Data analysis (n=315) consisted of independent and mediated effect analyses. Of the six traits, briskness, emotional reactivity and perseveration correlated significantly with both state anxiety and metacognitions (emotional reactivity and perseveration correlated positively, and briskness - negatively). These traits were predictors of state anxiety. Metacognition predicted state anxiety and relationships were independent of temperament. A mediating effect of metacognition was confirmed for the general index as well as negative and positive belief subscales. The findings support the metacognitive model of psychopathology and suggest that temperament is associated with metacognitions implicated in psychopathology and may have both direct and metacognitively mediated effects on anxiety.     

Treating Prepartum Depression to Improve Infant Developmental Outcomes: A Study of Diabetes in Pregnancy

Whether and how the co-occurrence of depression and diabetes in pregnancy may worsen infant development has not been reported. Pregnant women with diabetes and with (n?=?34) or without (n?=?34) major depressive disorder (MDD) were followed during pregnancy and 6-months postpartum. The MDD subset received randomly assigned treatment with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) or supportive counseling (SC). Depression severity was measured with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); infant developmental outcomes were measured with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) and its Behavior Rating Scale (BRS). Infants of women with MDD had lower BRS scores (p?=?.02). Reduction in depression scores was associated with better infant outcomes on the BSID and BRS (p values <.03). These preliminary findings suggest depression occurring in pregnant women with diabetes is associated with poorer infant development and improvement in prepartum depression is associated with improvement in measures of infant development.