Individual Differences in Affective Priming Effects: Any Links with Personality and Trait Affectivity?

Processing tendencies refer to individual differences in the automatic processing of affective stimuli. Using the affective priming paradigm one can tap these processing tendencies and differentiate positive and negative affective priming scores. In this study we used a classical evaluative decision task with nouns as primes and adjectives as targets to assess individual differences in positive and negative affective priming in two time points. Using Steyer’s (Steyer et al. in Methods of Psychological Research Online 2(1), 21–33, 1997) true intraindividual change modeling approach, the positive and negative priming scores were defined on a latent level. No significant relationships were found between positive affective priming and trait positive affect nor extraversion, as well as between negative affective priming and trait negative affect and neuroticism. As these findings are not in line with previous research (Robinson et al. in Emotion 10(5), 615–626, 2010; Robinson et al. in Personality and Individual Differences 42(7), 1221–1231, 2007) possible moderating influences are discussed.     

The Dimensions of Generalized Prejudice within the Dual-Process Model: the Mediating Role of Moral Foundations

In our study we investigated how individualizing and binding moral foundations partially mediate the relationship between the attitudinal clusters of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), and the dimensions of generalized prejudice. We found that binding moral foundations partially mediate the association between RWA and negative attitudes towards dissident and dangerous groups, while individualizing moral foundations had a positive relationship with the evaluations of all three clusters of dissident, dangerous, and derogated outgroups, and partially mediated the effects of both SDO and RWA. Based on these results we claim that intergroup attitudes are at least partly determined by moral concerns, and different personal needs activate or inhibit different moral concerns. Furthermore, while individualizing moral foundations seem to have a universal prejudice reducing effect, the effect of binding foundations is selective, increasing prejudice principally against dangerous and derogated outgroups that threaten one’s personal need for security and certainty.     

On Detecting a Minimal Important Difference among Standardized Means

As a generalization of the standardized mean difference between two independent populations, two different effect size measures have been proposed to represent the degree of disparity among several treatment groups. One index relies on the standard deviation of the standardized means and the second formula is the range of the standardized means. Despite the obvious usage of the two measures, the associated test procedures for detecting a minimal important difference among standardized means have not been well explicated. This article reviews and compares the two approaches to testing the hypothesis that treatments have negligible effects rather than that of no difference. The primary emphasis is to reveal the underlying properties of the two methods with regard to power behavior and sample size requirement across a variety of design configurations. To enhance the practical usefulness, a complete set of computer algorithms for calculating the critical values, p-values, power levels, and sample sizes is also developed.     

Using Motivational Strategies in L2 Classrooms: Does Culture Have a Role?

The present study employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design to examine the use of motivational strategies by Iranian English teachers and to see whether there were any culture-specific strategies. For the quantitative phase of the study, Cheng and Dörnyei’s (2007) motivational strategies questionnaire was distributed among 185 teachers to investigate their attached importance to and actual frequency of use of motivational macro strategies. In the qualitative phase, in order to explore a deep picture of the salient and specific motivational strategies and the reasons behind them, a set of semi-structured interviews with 10 volunteer teachers were conducted. Although results generally endorsed the findings of the original study and other similar ones, some culture-specific differences in strategy importance and use were traced, particularly in terms of promoting learners’ autonomy and goal-orientedness. The teachers devalued the motivational load of these variables due to the authoritarian sense of respect in their local context.     

Mindfulness and Emotional Distress: the Mediating Role of Psychological well-Being

The present cross-sectional study aimed to clarify the relationships among specific facets of dispositional mindfulness, psychological well-being, and emotional distress. To understand the relationships among these variables is crucial in order to expand the knowledge of the processes underlying mindfulness effects and to develop effective interventions. The participants (119 Italian males and females; mean age = 29 years) completed self-report questionnaires assessing mindfulness (i.e., observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging of inner experience, non-reactivity to inner experience), emotional distress, and psychological well-being. Path analysis revealed that each facet of mindfulness played a unique role in influencing emotional suffering. In line with our prediction, no significant correlation emerged between the observing facet and either psychological well-being or emotional distress. Both the capacity to describe inner events and to act with awareness had an indirect effect on emotional distress, which was fully mediated by the perception of psychological well-being. On the other hand, the capacity for non-reacting to emotions and thoughts directly influenced emotional distress. Interestingly, non-judging inner events showed both a direct and indirect effect on the outcome variable. These findings confirmed the significant role of psychological well-being in mediating the relationship between some facets of mindfulness and emotional distress. Moreover, different mindfulness abilities play specific roles in reducing emotional distress, so mindfulness should be considered as a multidimensional construct.     

Early Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) intervention in a disaster mental health care context

‘Early psychological intervention’ is defined as commencing treatment within three months of the traumatic event, with the aim to prevent or treat posttraumatic stress disorder, ongoing distress or acute stress disorder. In natural disaster situations, specific issues may limit the amount of time available for treatment and the possibility of interventions. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) can be used without regard to these limits. The aim of the study is to evaluate the effects of EMDR, Recent Traumatic Episode Protocol (R-TEP) provided within three months of the traumatic event to a large sample of individuals exposed to the earthquake that hit Emilia Romagna Region (Northern Italy) in 2012. This study is based on a retrospective review of medical records collected during the activities of psychological and psychosocial unit in the immediate aftermath of earthquake. In total, 529 participants completed the Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R) (pre e post treatment). In order to provide a comparison similar to a waitlist-like control group, a method of cohort analysis was applied. In addition, possible time dependent effect was tested. ET (early-treated sample, participants treated within one month after the earthquake) and LT (late-treated sample, participants treated after the first month from the earthquake) reported at post-treatment an improvement to a level below the IES-R cutoff (65.8% of the ET sample and 64.02% of the LT sample). Control group analogue and time-outcome correlation suggest that positive changes in symptoms were likely due to the treatment provided and not merely to the time lapse from the traumatic event. The results of this study suggest that EMDR is a viable treatment option in response to a disaster crisis and in reducing psychological distress of acutely traumatized individuals within the context of a natural disaster.     

Ricoeur’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">askēsis</Emphasis>: textual and gymnastic exercises for self-transformation

This essay examines what the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur can contribute to current debates on the role of spiritual exercise, or askēsis, in philosophical life. The influential work of Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault has sparked a widespread interest in the ancient model of philosophy, variously described as a way of life, art of living, or care of the self. Ricoeur’s potential contribution to this conversation has been overlooked, largely because he does not discuss these themes explicitly or often. However, Ricoeur’s early phenomenology of embodiment in The Voluntary and the Involuntary offers valuable insights regarding the exercises of self-transformation. After a brief survey of Ricoeur’s concept of askēsis, this essay draws on Ricoeur to demonstrate the merits of physical exercise, or gymnastic, in ethical and spiritual formation. Gymnastic, Ricoeur shows, can be a form of spiritual exercise. The final section of the paper then makes a similarly counterintuitive claim: namely, that reading is an embodied practice that can facilitate the ethical formation of the lived body.     

Lefort as a reader of Machiavelli and Marx

This essay begins with the contention that phenomenology has taken a “hermeneutic turn,” “the things themselves” are always already interpreted. Philosophers often elaborate their own positions through a “reading” of the works of other philosophers. This is the case for Claude Lefort. Through his interpretive reading of the works of Machiavelli one sees the origin of Lefort’s idea of the autonomy and the anonymity of the political and thus his notion of political modernity. In tracing the evolution of Lefort’s relationship to Marx, we witness the process by which he disengages himself from his early “enchantment” with the works of Marx and the idea of the proletariat as a class bearing universal interest. Ultimately he criticizes Marx for his attempt to derive the political from the dimension of the social. This issues in his theory of totalitarianism as the attempt of a regime to close in on itself, thus denying any gesture to the dimension of the other.