Changes in straight-ahead eye position during adaptation to wedge prisms

If S is instructed to look straight ahead before adapting to laterally displaced vision, he does so without noticeable error. After adapting, however, in response to the same instruction, he may rotate his eyes as much as 8° toward the the displaced visual target. This is the change in judgment of the direction of gaze which Helmholtz identified in 1867 as an important physiological mechanism in adaptation to prisms. It leads to more accurate reaching behavior by causing S to make a visual judgment that the target is closer to straight ahead than it was when he first looked through the prisms. This type of adaptive change (change in judgment of the direction of gaze, oculomotor change) can be measured either by manual judgments (difference between successive “straight ahead” and “visual target” judgments) or by changes in straight-ahead eye position. It may be described as a parametric adjustment in the oculomotor control system, and is closely analogous to the eye movement which subserves the recovery of binocular fusion in prism vergence.     

Negative affectivity and the reporting of stressful life events

Maddi, Bartone, and Puccetti (1987) and Schroeder and Costa (1984) reported inconsistent findings regarding the impact of negative affectivity (NA; i.e., neuroticism) contaminated life event items on observed life event-illness relationships. Here, unlike the previous studied, such contaminated items were nonjudgmentally identified. Among a sample of managers and professionals, it was found that NA-contaminated items correlated significantly with three measures of well-being (depression, life satisfaction, and physical symptoms) and that uncontaminated items were unassociated with the well-being indicators. Moreover, in two of three cases, the correlations between contaminated items and the well-being measures were significantly different from the correlations between uncontaminated items and the well-being indicators. Therefore, we concluded that prior life event-well-being findings are inflated considerably by the use of NA-contaminated events. Suggestions for future life events research that incorporate the NA construct are detailed.     

Bimanual handedness in adults who stutter

25 adult stutterers and 29 nonstutterers who were right-handed as defined by a positive Laterality Quotient on the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory were compared with respect to their pattern of hand use in performing seven common tasks that involve bimanual cooperation. Among the stutterers was a higher proportion of participants who showed anomalies in how they carried out the two tasks that required synchronous manipulation by the two hands. On two other tasks that required speeded performance, the groups were similar in dealing playing cards with the right or left hands, but the stutterers were slower than nonstutterers and did not show a right-hand advantage on a task requiring removal of a nut from a bolt. The results were interpreted as indicating difficulty by stutterers in carrying out synchronously different response elements of motoric tasks.     

Burdens of Proof and the Case for Unevenness

How is the burden of proof to be distributed among individuals who are involved in resolving a particular issue? Under what conditions should the burden of proof be distributed unevenly? We distinguish attitudinal from dialectical burdens and argue that these questions should be answered differently, depending on which is in play. One has an attitudinal burden with respect to some proposition when one is required to possess sufficient evidence for it. One has a dialectical burden with respect to some proposition when one is required to provide supporting arguments for it as part of a deliberative process. We show that the attitudinal burden with respect to certain propositions is unevenly distributed in some deliberative contexts, but in all of these contexts, establishing the degree of support for the proposition is merely a means to some other deliberative end, such as action guidance, or persuasion. By contrast, uneven distributions of the dialectical burden regularly further the aims of deliberation, even in contexts where the quest for truth is the sole deliberative aim, rather than merely a means to some different deliberative end. We argue that our distinction between these two burdens resolves puzzles about unevenness that have been raised in the literature.     

Candidate characteristics driving initial impressions during rapport building: Implications for employment interview validity

We examine the antecedents impacting interviewers’ initial impressions of candidates formed during the rapport‐building stage of the interview and subsequent evaluations of answers to highly structured interview questions. Ratings for 130 mock interview candidates reveal a strong relationship between interviewers’ initial impression of the candidate and their evaluations of candidate responses to structured questions. These initial impressions correspond with candidate extraversion and verbal skill, controlling for job qualifications. Interviewers’ initial impressions mediate the effect of candidate characteristics, relevant for some jobs more so than others, on later evaluations. Thus, initial impressions formed during rapport building appear to influence subsequent evaluations whether they are clearly job‐relevant or not. These findings have important implications for the validity of structured interviews.     

Behavioral,Affective, and Cognitive Parenting Mechanisms of Child Internalizing and Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased mental health concerns, including depression and anxiety among parents and internalizing and...     

Understanding the power of the picture: the effect of image content on emotional and political responses to terrorism

Viewing images of terrorism can have a powerful impact on individuals' emotional and political responses, yet little is known about the psychological processes underlying these effects. We hypothesized that the content of terrorism images will shape viewers' appraisals of the event, which will elicit specific emotions and political attitudes. British citizens viewed photographs of the 2005 London bombings, either focusing on victims or terrorists. Exposure to images of victims increased appraisals of victim suffering, which predicted feelings of sympathy. Exposure to images of terrorists increased appraisals of terrorists as dangerous, which predicted fear; and of the attack as unjust, which predicted anger. Each emotion predicted support for a distinct counterterrorism policy. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The Suppression and Justification of Prejudice as a Function of Political Orientation

Politically conservative (versus liberal) individuals generally report more prejudice towards various low‐status out‐groups. Three studies examined whether prejudice suppression factors—specifically, internal and external motivation to suppress (IMS and EMS, respectively) prejudice—can help explain the relationship between political orientation and prejudice. Study 1 showed that IMS and EMS partially mediated the relationship between political orientation and affective prejudice towards Arabs. Study 2 demonstrated that when justification [right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation] and suppression (IMS and EMS) factors are simultaneously tested as mediators, only RWA partially mediated the relationship between political orientation and prejudice towards deviant (e.g. gay men) out‐groups, whereas RWA and IMS fully mediated the relationship between political orientation and prejudice towards derogated out‐groups (e.g. Blacks). Intriguingly, IMS rendered social dominance orientation effects non‐significant for derogated out‐groups. Study 3 showed that anticipating an out‐group interaction (with a Black or lesbian confederate) diminished the mediational contribution of IMS in the political orientation–prejudice relationship because of increased IMS among participants; yet the increases in IMS did not completely eliminate differences in prejudice as a function of political orientation. Ultimately, these three studies demonstrate that suppression (in addition to justification) factors do help explain the relationship between political orientation and prejudice. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology.