Temperament and Character Inventory-R (TCI-R) and Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ): convergence and divergence

This study evaluated the correspondence between measures of two competing theories of personality, the five-factor model as measured by the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ), and Cloninger's psychobiological theory measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R). A sample of 900 Italian participants, balanced with respect to sex (393 men and 507 women), and representative of the adult population with respect to age (range 18 to 70 years; M = 39.6, SD = 15.7) completed the TCI-R and the Big Five Questionnaire. All TCI-R personality dimensions except Self-Transcendence were moderately correlated with one or more of the Big Five dimensions (from r = .40 to .61), and the two instruments showed areas of convergence. However, the differences outweighed the similarities, indicating that these current conceptualizations and measures of personality are somewhat inconsistent with each other.     

Disentangling the Associations Between Autistic-Like and Internalizing Traits: A Community Based Twin Study

Internalizing difficulties are prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), yet little is known about the underlying cause of this comorbidity. It is also unclear which types of autistic-like and internalizing difficulties are most strongly associated. The current study investigated the phenotypic and etiological associations between specific autistic-like traits and internalizing traits within a population-based sample. Parent-reported data were analyzed from 7,311 twin pairs at age 7 to 8?years. Structural equation modeling revealed distinguishable patterns of overlap between the three autistic-like traits (social difficulties, communication problems and repetitive/restricted behaviors) and four subtypes of internalizing traits (social anxiety, fears, generalized anxiety, negative affect). Although all phenotypic associations were modest (rph?=?0.00-0.36), autistic-like communication impairments and repetitive/restricted behaviors correlated most strongly with generalized anxiety and negative affect both phenotypically and genetically. Conversely, autistic-like social difficulties showed little overlap with internalizing behaviors. Disentangling these associations and their etiological underpinnings may help contribute to the conceptualization and diagnosis of 'comorbidity' within ASD and internalizing disorders.     

Precision of synesthetic color matching resembles that for recollected colors rather than physical colors

Grapheme-color synesthesia is an atypical condition in which individuals experience sensations of color when reading printed graphemes such as letters and digits. For some grapheme-color synesthetes, seeing a printed grapheme triggers a sensation of color, but hearing the name of a grapheme does not. This dissociation allowed us to compare the precision with which synesthetes are able to match their color experiences triggered by visible graphemes, with the precision of their matches for recalled colors based on the same graphemes spoken aloud. In six synesthetes, color matching for printed graphemes was equally variable relative to recalled experiences. In a control experiment, synesthetes and age-matched controls either matched the color of a circular patch while it was visible on a screen, or they judged its color from memory after it had disappeared. Both synesthetes and controls were more variable when matching from memory, and the variance of synesthetes' recalled color judgments matched that associated with their synesthetic judgments for visible graphemes in the first experiment. Results suggest that synesthetic experiences of color triggered by achromatic graphemes are analogous to recollections of color. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Is systemic thinking really extraneous to common sense?

Systemic therapists assume, but have not yet proved that ordinary people: (i) normally do not use triadic thinking and (ii) are able, thanks to therapists' interviewing techniques, to construct triadic explanations. To test these assumptions this study analyses the explanations provided by 400 undergraduates of an unexpected piece of behaviour framed in four stimulus situations where the breadth of the observation field was manipulated. The results show that triadic explanations are unusual and increase with the widening of the field of observation from the monad to the triad. It is the ‘enigmatic’ triadic situation – adding a puzzling discrepancy between the actors' forms of behaviour – that elicits more triadic explanations. This suggests that therapists should explore with clients the contradictions disclosed by the widening of the field of observation and support reframings actively co‐constructed with them instead of ‘pre‐packaged’ ones.     

Re-enactment of intended acts from a video presentation by 18- and 24-month-old children

We used the Re-enactment of intention paradigm to investigate whether children would re-enact what an adult intended to do in a video presentation as they do when presented with a live demonstration (Meltzoff in Dev Psychol 31(5):838-850, 1995). Unlike the 18-month-old infants studied by Meltzoff (Dev Psychol 31(5):838-850, 1995), the 18- and 24-month-olds in the current study did not frequently imitate unsuccessful goal-directed actions presented in a video model. Children who performed better in the task also tended to share more of their attention with the experimenter during co-viewing of the video. Performance on the Re-enactment of intention task was positively related to categorization score, an independent measure of cognitive functioning.     

Deterrence and transmission as mechanisms ensuring reliability of gossip

Spreading information about the members of one's group is one of the most universal human behaviors. Thanks to gossip, individuals can acquire the information about their peers without sustaining the burden of costly interactions with cheaters, but they can also create and revise social bonds. Gossip has also several positive functions at the group level, promoting cohesion and norm compliance. However, gossip can be unreliable, and can be used to damage others' reputation or to circulate false information, thus becoming detrimental to people involved and useless for the group. In this work, we propose a theoretical model in which reliability of gossip depends on the joint functioning of two distinct mechanisms. Thanks to the first, i.e., deterrence, individuals tend to avoid informational cheating because they fear punishment and the disruption of social bonds. On the other hand, transmission provides humans with the opportunity of reducing the consequences of cheating through a manipulation of the source of gossip.     

“Is Our Daughter Crazy or Bad?”: A Case Study of Therapeutic Assessment with Children

In this paper we present a new model of intervention with documented efficacy that combines psychological tests and assessment methods with therapeutic techniques to promote change in clients. We will discuss Therapeutic Assessment of Children and their families (TA-C) through the case of a 4-year-old girl, Clara, and her family. Clara’s parents were distressed by her uncontrollable rage outbursts and feared she might be “crazy”. The treatment helped to shift the narrative the parents had about Clara and give new meanings to her behaviors. We describe in detail the steps of the assessment and provide a theoretical discussion of the therapeutic processes involved.     

Spinoza's Concept of Substance and Attribute: A Reading of the Short Treatise

ABSTRACT

In the recent secondary literature on Ockham’s philosophy of mind, it has been debated whether Ockham proposed an externalist or an internalist view of the intentional contents of intuitive cognitions. It has also been debated whether Ockham only attributes intentional content to intuitive cognitions, or rather two different properties, i.e. a likeness and an intentional content. Intuitive cognitions can be roughly understood as perceptions. In this article I propose a different perspective for analysing both debates, that is, the perspective that concerns Ockham’s theory of reflexivity. Ockham defended the idea that one can reflexively cognize two different features of intuitive cognitions; namely, their similarity or likeness, and their intentional content. Ockham proposed different degrees and modes of reflexive cognition regarding these features.     

Post-traumatic Growth in Breast Cancer Survivors: New Insights into its Relationships with Well-Being and Distress

Research investigating possible relations between Post-traumatic growth (PTG) and clinical indexes—such as psychosocial distress, physical and psychological well-being—is lacking in medical settings. The aim of this study was to look into such relationships in breast cancer survivors (Bcs) and in healthy control subjects who experienced other stressful events. Sixty Bcs and 60 healthy women reporting other stressful events were compared according to the following scales: Post-traumatic Growth Inventory, Psychological Well-being Scales (PWB), Symptom Questionnaire and Psychosocial Index. Bcs reported significantly higher levels of PTG and distress, and lower levels of PWB compared to healthy women. Bcs with high levels of PTG showed increased levels of physical well-being and decreased distress. Healthy women under stressful circumstances reporting high levels of PTG showed increased levels of PWB. PTG levels were higher in Bcs and associated with decreased psychological distress and somatisation. These results carry important implications for clinical assessment, as well as for planning interventions to improve well-being and resilience in oncology.