A Meta-Meta-Analysis: Empirical Review of Statistical Power,Type I Error Rates,Effect Sizes,and Model Selection of Meta-Analyses Published in Psychology

A general social desirability factor emerged at the second-order level when a set of individual social desirability scale values were correlated between subjects (i.e., across items) and factor analysed. However, no such general factor emerged at the second-order level when the individual judgments were correlated between items (i.e., across subjects).     

Gender,Parental Control,and Adolescent Risk-Taking

This study examines the relationship between gender, control, and adolescent risk-taking in a sample of 599 adolescents and explores the relation of paternal and maternal direct and indirect control with adolescent risk-taking, controlling for potentially confounding effect of family-related stressors and differential association. Gender differences in levels and effects of direct and indirect control, in levels and effects of family-related strain and in differential association are found. Although the variables related to direct control had a larger explanatory power in girls than in boys—and were in part mediated by differential association—none of the variables explains a substantial part of the gender gap in aggressive and/or non-aggressive risk-taking.     

The Concept of Harm and the Significance of Normality

Many believe that severe intellectual impairment, blindness or dying young amount to serious harm and disadvantage. It is also increasingly denied that it matters, from a moral point of view, whether something is biologically normal to humans. We show that these two claims are in serious tension. It is hard explain how, if we do not ascribe some deep moral significance to human nature or biological normality, we could distinguish severe intellectual impairment or blindness from the vast list of seemingly innocent ways in which we fail to have as much wellbeing as we could, such not having super‐intelligence, or not living to 130. We consider a range of attempts to draw this intuitive normative distinction without appealing to normality. These, we argue, all fail. But this doesn't mean that we cannot draw this distinction or that we must, implausibly, conclude that biological normality does possess an inherent moral importance. We argue that, despite appearances, it is not biological normality but rather statistical normality that, although lacking any intrinsic moral significance, nevertheless makes an important moral difference in ways that explain and largely justify the intuitive distinction.     

National-level Indicators of Androgens are Related to the Global Distribution of Scientific Productivity and Science Nobel Prizes

There are national differences in scientific activity that are not well accounted for by economic and intellectual factors alone. We examine the novel hypothesis that androgen levels may also play a role. Androgens are often referred to as male hormones, but are present in both men and women, and have been linked to performance in other domains, such as sports and entrepreneurship. National-level empirical data on scientific productivity, in terms of numbers of publications, and science Nobel laureates were compared to seven national-level androgen indicators; namely androgenic body hair, the length of the CAG repeat on the androgen receptor gene, prostate cancer incidence, male and female 2D:4D finger ratio, and sex frequency and number of partners. The majority of these indicators were associated in the expected direction with per capita number of scientific publications and Nobel prizes. Moreover, several indicators significantly interacted with national-level estimates of intelligence, such that androgen levels are related to measures of the scientific achievement only when the level of intelligence is relatively high. These findings may partly explain the global distribution of scientific productivity, achievements, and Nobel prizes.     

Mice with targeted genetic reduction of GABA(A) receptor alpha1 subunits display performance differences in Morris water maze tasks

Recent research has begun to demonstrate that specific subunits of GABA(A) receptors may be involved in the normal expression of specific behaviors. The present research used mice with GABA(A) receptors whose alpha1 subunits contained mutations of serine 270 to histidine and leucine 277 to alanine in the TM2 region. The purpose was an attempt to examine the possible role that this particular subunit may have in learning the spatial and nonspatial version of the Morris water maze task. Mutant animals, compared to controls, displayed elevated levels of pool circling in both the spatial task and the nonspatial task. These results suggested that normal performance of the spatial and nonspatial water maze tasks may be dependent upon a natural alpha1 subunit array.     

Mental imagery as an emotional amplifier: application to bipolar disorder

Cognitions in the form of mental images have a more powerful impact on emotion than their verbal counterparts. This review synthesizes the cognitive science of imagery and emotion with transdiagnostic clinical research, yielding novel predictions for the basis of emotional volatility in bipolar disorder. Anxiety is extremely common in patients with bipolar disorder and is associated with increased dysfunction and suicidality, yet it is poorly understood and rarely treated. Mental imagery is a neglected aspect of bipolar anxiety although in anxiety disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder and social phobia focusing on imagery has been crucial for the development of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT).In this review we present a cognitive model of imagery and emotion applied to bipolar disorder. Within this model mental imagery amplifies emotion, drawing on Clark's cyclical panic model [(1986). A cognitive approach to panic. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24, 461–470]. We (1) emphasise imagery's amplification of anxiety (cycle one); (2) suggest that imagery amplifies the defining (hypo-) mania of bipolar disorder (cycle two), whereby the overly positive misinterpretation of triggers leads to mood elevation (escalated by imagery), increasing associated beliefs, goals, and action likelihood (all strengthened by imagery).Imagery suggests a unifying explanation for key unexplained features of bipolar disorder: ubiquitous anxiety, mood instability and creativity. Introducing imagery has novel implications for bipolar treatment innovation - an area where CBT improvements are much-needed.     

The Impact of Group Norms and Generalization of Risks across Groups on Judgments of War Behavior

This paper investigates the effects of war experiences across three different levels (individuals, groups, and contexts) on moral judgments related to violations of humanitarian norms. Competing hypotheses derived from different theoretical perspectives are empirically evaluated. Social psychological studies of war traditionally highlight a reversal of morality and group norms justifying violence against outgroups. Rationalistic models insist on the importance of realistic costs on the choice of individuals. As a complement to these traditions, we suggest that situations in which risks are generalized across group boundaries tend to provoke a strengthening of principles, such as humanitarian norms, that enable the protection of the material and symbolic integrity of a community. Multilevel analyses of the international People on War survey dataset (N = 8,121) show that support for the ingroup's struggle, at both individual and group levels, predicts stronger justification of violence. Simultaneously, at the context level, generalization of war‐related risks predicts stronger condemnation of violations of humanitarian principles. These findings are consistent with a collective vulnerability model and, only in part, with the intractable conflict model.