Emotion regulation and culture: are the social consequences of emotion suppression culture-specific?

Emotional suppression has been associated with generally negative social consequences (Butler et al., 2003; Gross & John, 2003). A cultural perspective suggests, however, that these consequences may be moderated by cultural values. We tested this hypothesis in a two-part study, and found that, for Americans holding Western-European values, habitual suppression was associated with self-protective goals and negative emotion. In addition, experimentally elicited suppression resulted in reduced interpersonal responsiveness during face-to-face interaction, along with negative partner-perceptions and hostile behavior. These deleterious effects were reduced when individuals with more Asian values suppressed, and these reductions were mediated by cultural differences in the responsiveness of the suppressors. These findings suggest that many of suppression's negative social impacts may be moderated by cultural values.     

Receiving Help,Reciprocation, and Interpersonal Attraction1

In a 3 × 3 factorial experiment with 3 additional cells, 329 male or female subjects working with two same-sex confederates (A and B), received either voluntary, involuntary, or no help from A after which attraction to A and B were measured for one-fourth of the subjects. The remaining subjects were assigned to a second set of tasks and were induced to help A, help B, or were not given an opportunity to help, after which they completed attraction and mood measures. Subjects were more likely to volunteer help after the second task when they had received prior help. Receipt of help led to more liking for the helper and the helper was liked more when subjects were able to reciprocate. Attraction and mood results are discussed in relation to attractiveness mediation, modeling, and indebtedness explanations for reciprocity.     

Child/Adolescent Abuse and Suicidal Behavior: Are They Sex Related?

The association between childhood and adolescent abuse and suicidal behavior, and the possible contribution of abuse to sex differences in non lethal suicidal behavior, was investigated. Data were extracted from the Israel‐based component of the WHO World Mental Health Survey (Kessler & Utsun, 2008a). Increased risk for ideation, plan, and suicidal attempt were associated with childhood abuse, and increased risk for attempt was associated also with abuse at adolescence. No associations with sex or sex by abuse interactions were observed. The higher frequency of childhood abuse among women could account in part for their higher rates of suicidal attempts as compared to men.     

Enhancing Compassion: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Compassion Cultivation Training Program

Psychosocial interventions often aim to alleviate negative emotional states. However, there is growing interest in cultivating positive emotional states and qualities. One particular target is compassion, but it is not yet clear whether compassion can be trained. A community sample of 100 adults were randomly assigned to a 9-week compassion cultivation training (CCT) program (n = 60) or a waitlist control condition (n = 40). Before and after this 9-week period, participants completed self-report inventories that measured compassion for others, receiving compassion from others, and self-compassion. Compared to the waitlist control condition, CCT resulted in significant improvements in all three domains of compassion—compassion for others, receiving compassion from others, and self-compassion. The amount of formal meditation practiced during CCT was associated with increased compassion for others. Specific domains of compassion can be intentionally cultivated in a training program. These findings may have important implications for mental health and well-being.     

Ethics,policy, and rare genetic disorders: the case of Gaucher disease in Israel

Gaucher disease is a rare, chronic,ethnic-specific genetic disorder affecting Jewsof Eastern European descent. It is extremelyexpensive to treat and presents difficultdilemmas for officials and patients in Israelwhere many patients live. First, high-cost,high-benefit, but low volume treatment forGaucher creates severe allocation dilemmas forpolicy makers. Allocation policies driven bycost effectiveness, age, opportunity or needmake it difficult to justify funding. Processoriented decision making based on terms of faircooperation or decisions invoking the ``rule ofrescue' risk discriminating against minoritieswho may already suffer from inequitabledistribution of heath care resources. Apartfrom cost, Gaucher disease prompts questionsabout abortion. Unlike severe geneticdisorders, Gaucher offers no grounds forabortion and, in many ways, is analogous togender based abortions that are prohibitedregardless of fetal age. Finally, Gaucherraises concerns about the disclosure of geneticinformation. These affect potential carriersasked to participate in population studies andcarriers and patients who must considerdisclosure to others. These concerns weigh theright to privacy against communal interests andbilateral commitments.     

The cognitive control of emotion

The capacity to control emotion is important for human adaptation. Questions about the neural bases of emotion regulation have recently taken on new importance, as functional imaging studies in humans have permitted direct investigation of control strategies that draw upon higher cognitive processes difficult to study in nonhumans. Such studies have examined (1) controlling attention to, and (2) cognitively changing the meaning of, emotionally evocative stimuli. These two forms of emotion regulation depend upon interactions between prefrontal and cingulate control systems and cortical and subcortical emotion-generative systems. Taken together, the results suggest a functional architecture for the cognitive control of emotion that dovetails with findings from other human and nonhuman research on emotion.     

Two Languages, One Vocabulary

Two cultures (scientific and clinical) speaking different theoretical languages reside in psychology. The categorical structure of scientific language is based on sensorially, linearly, and analytically formatted cognitive processes (common sense). The categorical structure of the clinical language is formatted for cognitive processes accommodating nonsensory, nonlinear information about purposive personality processes. Clinically and scientifically oriented psychologists have difficulty communicating with one another because of underlying paradigmatic differences in their languages. Unfortunately, both cultures use the same sensory-system–based vocabulary, which leads to the unwitting and confusing assumption that they are speaking the same language.     

Analogical inference: the role of awareness in abstract learning

The acquisition and flexible expression of complex relations is often attributed to declarative memory processes. The extent to which such tasks may be done implicitly has not been sufficiently explored. We report that analogical or transfer processes may be accomplished implicitly. Our analogy task requires acquisition of a transverse patterning set, and then tests for transfer on an unrelated set. Participants learn the relations A>B (given a choice between A and B choose A) and B>C and the unrelated set X>Y and Y>Z. Only the experimental group was trained on the transverse pair C>A. At test all trials are unreinforced: A?B, B?C, A?C, X?Y, Y?Z, X?Z. Analogy was observed when the experimental group chose Z>X at greater frequency than controls who uniformly chose X>Z. Analogy occurred with or without awareness of the transfer. The capacity to transfer relations to an analogous set demonstrates a level of flexibility and abstraction not generally thought to be possible for implicit processes.