Personal Uniqueness and Events

Human Studies - In contrast to Anglophone debates on personal identity initially formed by John Locke’s investigation of personal identity in the sense of personal continuity or persistence...     

Depth as Nemesis: Merleau-Ponty’s Concept of Depth in Phenomenology of Perception,Art and Politics

Human Studies - The concept of depth is central to Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and informed not only his philosophy of perception but also his thinking about psychology, art and politics....     

Human Self-Domestication and the Evolution of Pragmatics

As proposed for the emergence of modern languages, we argue that modern uses of languages (pragmatics) also evolved gradually in our species under the effects of human self-domestication, with three key aspects involved in a complex feedback loop: (a) a reduction in reactive aggression, (b) the sophistication of language structure (with emerging grammars initially facilitating the transition from physical aggression to verbal aggression); and (c) the potentiation of pragmatic principles governing conversation, including, but not limited to, turn-taking and inferential abilities. Our core hypothesis is that the reduction in reactive aggression, one of the key factors in self-domestication processes, enabled us to fully exploit our cognitive and interactional potential as applied to linguistic exchanges, and ultimately to evolve a specific form of communication governed by persuasive reciprocity—a trait of human conversation characterized by both competition and cooperation. In turn, both early crude forms of language, well suited for verbal aggression/insult, and later more sophisticated forms of language, well suited for persuasive reciprocity, significantly contributed to the resolution and reduction of (physical) aggression, thus having a return effect on the self-domestication processes. Supporting evidence for our proposal, as well as grounds for further testing, comes mainly from the consideration of cognitive disorders, which typically simultaneously present abnormal features of self-domestication (including aggressive behavior) and problems with pragmatics and social functioning. While various approaches to language evolution typically reduce it to a single factor, our approach considers language evolution as a multifactorial process, with each player acting upon the other, engaging in an intense mutually reinforcing feedback loop. Moreover, we see language evolution as a gradual process, continuous with the pre-linguistic cognitive abilities, which were engaged in a positive feedback loop with linguistic innovations, and where gene-culture co-evolution and cultural niche construction were the main driving forces.     

Language Processing Differences Between Blind and Sighted Individuals and the Abstract Versus Concrete Concept Difference

In the property listing task (PLT), participants are asked to list properties for a concept (e.g., for the concept dog, “barks,” and “is a pet” may be produced). In conceptual property norming (CPNs) studies, participants are asked to list properties for large sets of concepts. Here, we use a mathematical model of the property listing process to explore two longstanding issues: characterizing the difference between concrete and abstract concepts, and characterizing semantic knowledge in the blind versus sighted population. When we apply our mathematical model to a large CPN reporting properties listed by sighted and blind participants, the model uncovers significant differences between concrete and abstract concepts. Though we also find that blind individuals show many of the same processing differences between abstract and concrete concepts found in sighted individuals, our model shows that those differences are noticeably less pronounced than in sighted individuals. We discuss our results vis-a-vis theories attempting to characterize abstract concepts.     

May the odds be ever in your favor: The Hunger Games and the fight for a more equal society. (Negative) Media vicarious contact and collective action

Various studies have found that reading books about positive interactions between ingroup and outgroup characters, known as media vicarious contact, can reduce prejudice. Focusing on the fantasy saga of The Hunger Games, we examined the effects of negative vicarious contact on collective action across two studies. Specifically, we tested whether reading about fantasy characters living in a postapocalyptic conflictual society with large social disparities between advantaged and disadvantaged groups leads advantaged group members to display greater willingness to engage in collective action on behalf of the disadvantaged group. Results from Study 1 (correlational survey in the United Kingdom and United States) and Study 2 (experimental intervention in Italy) revealed that reading The Hunger Games is indirectly associated with greater collective action intentions via increased anger toward injustice. In both studies social dominance orientation (SDO) acted as a moderator, but in opposite directions: mediation was significant for low-SDOs in Study 1, and for high-SDOs in Study 2. Results are discussed in relation to the importance of media vicarious contact via book reading for social change, and to the need to identify the contextual conditions allowing to anticipate the specific moderation pattern that is more likely to emerge.     

Family and food variables that influence life satisfaction of mother-father-adolescent triads in a South American country

This study explored the influence of each family member’s life satisfaction on the other family members’ life satisfaction in mother-father-adolescent triads. We also explored the influence of each family member’s satisfaction with food-related life and family life on their own life satisfaction (LS) as well as on the other family members’ LS in mother-father-adolescent triads. The influence of family eating habits, food-related parenting practices used by each parent and sociodemographic characteristics on each family member’s LS were also explored. A survey was applied to a sample of 300 two-parent families with one child between 10 and 17 years of age in Temuco, Chile. The questionnaire included the Satisfaction with Life Scale, Satisfaction with Food-related Life scale, Satisfaction with Family Life scale, Adapted Healthy Eating Index, Family Food Behavior Survey and Family Eating Habits Questionnaire. Frequency and sources of family meals as well as sociodemographic characteristics were also consulted. Three multivariate ordinal logit models were proposed, with the dependent variable LS in the three subsamples: mothers, fathers and adolescents. The three logit models were significant, but differed in the explanatory variables. Mothers’ LS was influenced by their children’s LS and vice versa. Mothers’ LS was positively influenced by both their own satisfaction with family life and the fathers’ satisfaction with family life and vice versa. Children’s LS was also positively influenced by their own satisfaction with food-related and family life. Both parents’ LS was influenced by eating habits, food-related parenting practices and sociodemographic characteristics, but in different ways. Therefore, different interventions should be implemented to improve each family member’s life satisfaction.

     

Examining the psychometric properties of the burnout clinical subtype questionnaire (BCSQ-12) in secondary school teachers

Current Psychology - Based on Farber’s burnout proposal, the first aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the short version of the Burnout Clinical Subtype...     

Decisional forgiveness across spanish and american samples: Translation,validation, and measurement invariance of the decision to forgive scale

Current Psychology - More than twenty different models of how forgiveness occurs have been proposed within forgiveness literature. One idea highlighted in many of these models was that forgiveness...     

Measuring structural model invariance across internet-recruited and hospital-recruited IBD patients: Experiential avoidance’s effect on psychopathological symptoms

Current Psychology - Research has questioned whether it is feasible to assess psychosocial variables through web-based recruitment methods. Previous literature on IBD focused exclusively on testing...