System‐justifying behaviors: When feeling dependent on a system triggers gender stereotype‐consistent academic performance

Based on system‐justification theory, we hypothesized that men and women would perform in accordance with gender stereotypes mainly when justification of the system is necessary. In this research, system‐justification motivation was triggered using a system‐dependency manipulation. Study 1 shows that when feeling highly (vs. less) dependent on the system, people endorsed system‐justifying beliefs more. In Study 2, men performed better in math than in verbal domains, while women showed the reverse pattern, but only when they felt highly dependent on the system. Similar results were obtained on performance self‐evaluation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beliefs about emotion’s malleability influence state emotion regulation

The current study examined how manipulating information about whether emotions are fixed or malleable influences the extent to which individuals engage in different emotion regulation strategies. We hypothesized that fixed, compared to malleable, emotion beliefs would produce less effort invested in emotion regulation. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental conditions emphasizing that emotions are malleable or fixed, and then completed an autobiographical negative emotion induction. Participants reported seven different emotion regulation strategies they used during the recall task. Participants in the fixed emotion condition, compared to those in the malleable emotion condition, reported engaging significantly less in self-blame and perspective-taking. They engaged somewhat, but not significantly, less in all of the other strategies, except acceptance. These results suggest that emotion malleability beliefs can be experimentally manipulated and systematically influence subsequent emotion regulatory behavior. Implications for affective science and mental health are discussed.     

Neuropsychological Consequences of Opiate Use

Approximately 3.7 million individuals have used heroin and other opiate substances in their lifetime. Despite increasing knowledge of the effects of heroin, it remains the most abused opiate and use among adults has recently increased. The empirical literature examining the neurocognitive effects of acute and chronic opioid use remains limited; however, findings to date suggest that the use of opiates has both acute and long-term effects on cognitive performance. Neuropsychological data indicate deficits in attention, concentration, recall, visuospatial skills and psychomotor speed with both acute and chronic opioid use. The long-term effects of opiate use appear to have the greatest impact on executive functions, including the ability to shift cognitive set and inhibit inappropriate response tendencies. Factors that contribute to addiction and recovery are also discussed, as it is difficult to disentangle the effects of opiate use on cognitive performance from other factors that may affect neurobehavioral measures.     

Dynamic perceptual completion and the dynamic snapshot view to help solve the ‘two times’ problem

Perceptual completion fills the gap for discrete perception to become continuous. Similarly, dynamic perceptual completion (DPC) provides an experience of dynamic continuity. Our recent discovery of the ‘happening’ (H) element of DPC completes the total experience for dynamism in the flow of time (FOT). However, a phenomenological explanation for these experiences is essential. The Snapshot Hypotheses especially the Dynamic Snapshot View provides the most comprehensive explanation. From that understanding the ‘two times’ problem (TTP) can be addressed. The static time of spacetime cosmologies has been irreconcilable with the dynamic FOT. Dismissing the FOT as an illusion is unsatisfactory. Therefore, we provide four hypotheses for the TTP.

1) Since cosmological static time demands that all events (cerebral included) are discrete, DPC elements for dynamism should likewise be expected to be discrete and accounted for by a snapshot phenomenology such as the DSV. 2) If temporality can be demonstrated to be similar to apparent motion by being a snapshot phenomenon and not demanding temporal extension it would confirm the DSV and permit reconciliation with static time. 3) If the ‘present moment’ (of the FOT) is subjective as static time theories suggest, it should be possible experimentally for an observer to choose his own ‘present’ by moving (perceptually) to various points in the past with the aid of virtual reality. 4) If dynamism e.g. motion can be precluded without significant information loss or violating physics principles it is a cognitive add-on, thereby contradicting non-static time theories which suggest that time is ‘real.’ We confirm those hypotheses.

     

Gender Schema and Social Judgments: A Developmental Study of Children from Hong Kong

The purpose of the study was to examine inferences and judgments of gender schematic and aschematic children. Kindergarten, third grade, and sixth grade Hong Kong Chinese children (n = 196) were categorized into schematic and aschematic groups on the basis of their reaction times to gender-stereotypic and counterstereotypic items. The children were then asked to make several inferences and judgments about four male and female targets behaving gender-stereotypically or counterstereotypically. Both age and gender schematicity were related to the children's inferences. Older children and gender-schematic children relied more on individuating information and younger children relied more on the gender label. The results are discussed within the framework of gender-schema theories.     

When trying is not enough: Emotion regulation and the effort-success gap in bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder (BD) is presumed to involve difficulties in emotion regulation. Little is known, however, about the specific emotion regulation profile associated with this disorder. The present study examined the use of specific emotion regulation strategies among individuals with BD (n = 37) and healthy controls (n = 38). Participants' spontaneous use of reappraisal and suppression, as well as their associated effort and success at regulating their emotions, was measured in the context of three emotionally evocative films (neutral, happy, sad). Results indicated that the BD participants made greater use of spontaneous suppression and reappraisal across all films compared to the control group. BD participants also reported greater effort, but less success, when spontaneously regulating emotions. These findings suggest that bipolar disorder is associated with less success when regulating emotions despite a widespread engagement of regulatory efforts. Discussion focuses on the disjunction between troubled emotion functioning in bipolar disorder and sustained efforts to modify intense emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The Life Space of a Scientist: The Visionary Function and Other Aspects of Jean Piaget's Thinking

This article (a) sketches briefly some systematic aspects of creative work as part of the rationale for the use of the case study method, (b) outlines a spectrum of processes that can be grouped as the 'visionary function,' which includes metaphor and other figures of thought, and (c) illustrates the previous points by examining both Jean Piaget's creative work and his ideas about creative work, drawing on unpublished interviews and other sources. Special attention is given to an example of metaphors and other figures of thought that play important roles in Piaget's thinking. These include the circle of the sciences, nourishment and growth, biology and knowledge, toys, projection, possibilities, incubation, writing as thinking, internal logic, music, morality and structure, adolescent dreamer, ascent, and ascending equilibration.