Anomalous experiences and schizotypy: which comes first? The Hermit Crab syndrome hypothesis

This study confirms findings of previous research as they state that some triggering events or anomalous experiences can give rise to a disruption of cognitive processes and emotional changes in a predisposed person. Furthermore, our research states that the cognitive process and change of world view (paradigm shift (PS)) accompanying some paranormal experiences (PEs) could facilitate the development of a schizotypal personality structure. For the purposes of this study, 675 young people aged between 13 and 25 years old (M?=?16.8, SD?=?1.9) completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, the Revised and Modified Paranormal Belief Scales, the measurement of eight kinds of PE and a self-reported measurement of change of world view. The results confirm the mediating role of PS between paranormal practices and schizotypy as the cognitive process contributing to symptom formation as well as to symptom maintenance. The said results also confirm the existence of cognitive–emotional stages, also called Hermit Crab syndrome, in the process of the “paranormalisation” of reality.     

Moral Beliefs for the Error Theorist?

The moral error theory holds that moral claims and beliefs, because they commit us to the existence of illusory entities, are systematically false or untrue. It is an open question what we should do with moral thought and discourse once we have become convinced by this view. Until recently, this question had received two main answers. The abolitionist proposed that we should get rid of moral thought altogether. The fictionalist, though he agreed we should eliminate moral beliefs, enjoined us to replace them with attitudes that resemble to some extent the attitudes we have towards pieces of fiction. But there is now a third theory on the market: conservationism, the view that we should keep holding moral beliefs, even though we know them to be false. (According to a fourth theory, ‘substitutionism’, we should modify the content of our moral claims in such a way that they become true.) Putting abolitionism (and substitutionism) aside, our aim is to assess the plausibility of conservationism as an alternative to the – relatively dominant – fictionalism that we find in the literature. Given the difficulty of finding a conservationist view that is both (i) plausible and (ii) not merely a terminological variant of fictionalism, we will argue that conservationism fails to constitute a plausible alternative to fictionalism, at least insofar as it purports to be an alternative view as to what we should do with our moral thoughts.     

Age-based discrimination of rival males in western bluebirds

Adaptive social behavior frequently involves discriminating between classes of individuals such as relatives versus non-relatives, older versus younger individuals, or individuals of different status. In the absence of spatial cues, this discrimination may be based on signals that correlate with fitness-related traits (e.g., older or high-status males may sing higher performance songs) or with identity, for example, when receivers distinguish and classify signalers based on their unique signal structure. Here, we examine vocal age-based discrimination in western bluebirds (Sialia mexicana), a North American songbird in which older males have a significant advantage in obtaining extra-pair fertilizations, and therefore pose a significantly higher threat to paternity than younger males. We asked whether western bluebird males showed a higher response to playback of songs of older males compared to younger males relative to their own age. We prepared song stimuli by removing three potential signals of age that have been identified as important in other species: (1) note consistency (which was achieved by playing a single instance of each note repeatedly), (2) note repertoire size, and (3) singing rate (the latter two were equalized across conditions). Even in the absence of these potential signals of age, young males responded more strongly to playback of older males’ songs than to young males’ songs, suggesting that they are able to discriminate between age classes relative to the threat they pose. Further research is required to determine whether this discrimination is based on individual recognition or signal features that are correlated with age.     

Maternal attachment representations in relation to emotional availability and discipline behaviour

Maternal attachment representations have been investigated in relation to sensitivity and emotional support, but rarely in relation to other important areas of daily parent–child interactions in early childhood, like limit setting and discipline strategies. This study investigates maternal attachment representations in relation to parenting sensitive and discipline behaviours. The sample consists of 37 Portuguese high-risk severely economically disadvantaged mothers and their 1- to 4-year-old children, that responded to the Adult Attachment Interview, and were observed in play and discipline interaction contexts. The results showed that a more preoccupied state of mind was related to less emotional availability in free play interaction with child. A more secure attachment representation was related to more psychologically controlling discipline tactics. These findings highlight the relevance of maternal attachment states of mind in understanding parenting practices in several domains, and are discussed in light of sociocultural factors.     

“Nanostandardization” in Action: Implementing Standardization Processes in a Multidisciplinary Nanoparticle-Based Research and Development Project

Nanomaterials have attracted much interest in the medical field and related applications as their distinct properties in the nanorange enable new and improved diagnosis and therapies. Owing to these properties and their potential interactions with the human body and the environment, the impact of nanomaterials on humans and their potential toxicity have been regarded a very significant issue. Consequently, nanomaterials are the subject of a wide range of cutting-edge research efforts in the medical and related fields to thoroughly probe their potential beneficial utilizations and their more negative effects. We posit that the lack of standardization in the field is a serious shortcoming as it has led to the establishment of methods and results that do not ensure sufficient consistency and thus in our view can possibly result in research outputs that are not as robust as they should be. The main aim of this article is to present how NanoDiaRA, a large FP7 European multidisciplinary project that seeks to investigate and develop nanotechnology-based diagnostic systems, has developed and implemented robust, standardized methods to support research practices involving the engineering and manipulation of nanomaterials. First, to contextualize this research, an overview of the measures defined by different regulatory bodies concerning nanosafety is presented. Although these authorities have been very active in the past several years, many questions remain unanswered in our view. Second, a number of national and international projects that attempted to ensure more reliable exchanges of methods and results are discussed. However, the frequent lack of publication of procedures and protocols in research can often be a hindrance for sharing those good practices. Subsequently, the efforts made through NanoDiaRA to introduce standardized methods and techniques to support the development and utilization of nanomaterials are discussed in depth. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with the partners of this project, and the interviews were analyzed thematically to highlight the determined efforts of the researchers to standardize their methods. Finally, some recommendations are made toward the setting up of well-defined methods to support the high-quality work of collaborative nanoparticle-based research and development projects and to enhance standardization processes.     

Knowing that strawberries are red and seeing red strawberries: the interaction between surface colour and colour knowledge information

This study investigates the interaction between surface and colour knowledge information during object recognition. In two different experiments, participants were instructed to decide whether two presented stimuli belonged to the same object identity. On the non-matching trials, we manipulated the shape and colour knowledge information activated by the two stimuli by creating four different stimulus pairs: (1) similar in shape and colour (e.g. TOMATO–APPLE); (2) similar in shape and dissimilar in colour (e.g. TOMATO–COCONUT); (3) dissimilar in shape and similar in colour (e.g. TOMATO–CHILI PEPPER) and (4) dissimilar in both shape and colour (e.g. TOMATO–PEANUT). The object pictures were presented in typical and atypical colours and also in black-and-white. The interaction between surface and colour knowledge showed to be contingent upon shape information: while colour knowledge is more important for recognising structurally similar shaped objects, surface colour is more prominent for recognising structurally dissimilar shaped objects.     

Continued Bullying Victimization from Childhood to Young Adulthood: a Longitudinal Study of Mediating and Protective Factors

Bullying in schools has severe consequences for victims’ adjustment. It is unclear, however, whether victims of school bullying continue to be victimized in other contexts during adulthood. Mediating processes through which peer victimization in school increases the risk of revictimization in adulthood, as well as protective factors, also need to be explored. This study examined 1) the longitudinal association between peer victimization in school and victimization at work during young adulthood, 2) the predictive link of reactive and proactive aggression and anxious-withdrawn behavior in childhood with victimization in school and at the workplace, 3) the potential mediating role of depression symptoms, and 4) the potential protective effect of friendship support. The study included 251 participants (61% females) followed from age 12 to age 22. Participants reported about their victimization in school from ages 12 to 17 and their workplace victimization at age 22. They also reported about their depression-related thoughts and feelings and about friendship support. Teachers rated reactive and proactive aggression and anxiety-withdrawal at age 12. Structural equation modeling revealed that anxiety-withdrawal at age 12 predicted peer victimization in school, which in turn predicted later victimization at work. The latter association was partially mediated by increased depression symptoms. However, friendship support counteracted (via a main effect) the link between school victimization and subsequent depression symptoms. Bullying victims may benefit from interventions aimed at reducing depression symptoms and fostering social skills to establish supportive friendships to help avoid the generation of new interpersonal stress such as workplace victimization in adulthood.     

DEPLOYMENT STATUS: A DIRECT OR INDIRECT EFFECT ON MOTHER–CHILD ATTACHMENT WITHIN A CANADIAN MILITARY CONTEXT?

Research has suggested that military spouses experience increased depressive symptoms and parenting stress during a military member's deployment. A relationship between maternal depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and child attachment security has been found in the general population, as has an indication that social support may provide a buffering effect. While there appears to be an association between the emotional well‐being of military spouses and child emotional well‐being during deployment, data are limited regarding the association between maternal emotional well‐being and child attachment security. The current study explores the association between deployment status and child attachment to the nonmilitary parent (i.e., the mother in this study) in a sample of 68 Canadian military families. Results revealed a significant impact of deployment status on maternal depressive symptoms and on quality of child attachment. The impact of deployment status on attachment was not mediated through the maternal variables, and despite a main effect of social support on the maternal variables, there was no moderating effect. Thus, our results suggest that deployment may affect child attachment independently of maternal well‐being.     

On computing ELECTRE's credibility indices under partial information

The ELECTRE family of decision aid methods is a well‐known approach to help decision makers (DMs) advance in a decision process. Among the most recent methods in the family, ELECTRE IS, III, and TRI compute fuzzy indices for the credibility of a given action outranking some other. We consider the case when the DMs are unsure which values each parameter should take, which may result from insufficient, imprecise or contradictory information, as well as from different preferences among a group of DMs. In the framework of a robustness analysis approach, where DMs provide only partial information on the parameter values (through constraints on acceptable combinations), we study how to find whether an outranking among two actions in an ELECTRE method is robust. In this context, we study the resulting nonlinear problems of optimizing a credibility index (under the type of constraints that we consider to appear in practice) and present some examples. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Expanding Possibilities: Flexibility and Solidarity with Under-resourced Immigrant Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The novel coronavirus has added new anxieties and forms of grieving to the myriad practical and emotional burdens already present in the lives of underserved and uninsured immigrant families and communities. In this article, we relate our experiences since the COVID-19 crisis to the lessons we have learned over time as mental health professionals working with families in no-cost, student-managed community comprehensive health clinics in academic-community partnerships. We compare and contrast the learnings of flexibility of time, space, procedures, or attendance we acquired in this clinical community setting during regular times, with the new challenges families and therapists face, and the adaptations needed to continue to work with our clients in culturally responsive and empowering ways during the COVID-19 pandemic. We describe families, students, professionals, promotoras (community links), and IT support staff joining together in solidarity as the creative problem solvers of new possibilities when families do not have access to Wi-Fi, smartphones, or computers, or suffer overcrowding and lack of privacy. We describe many anxieties related to economic insecurity or fear of facing death alone, but also how to visualize expanding possibilities in styles of parenting or types of emotional support among family members as elements of hope that may endure beyond these unprecedented tragic times of loss and uncertainty.