Controlled by Love: The Harmful Relational Consequences of Perceived Conditional Positive Regard

Research on conditional positive regard (CPR) has shown that this seemingly benign practice has maladaptive correlates when used by parents. However, there is no research on the correlates of this practice in romantic relationships or on the processes mediating its effects. Building on self‐determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000 ), three studies tested the hypothesis that perceived CPR impairs relationship quality, partly because it undermines the fulfillment of the basic psychological needs for autonomy and relatedness. Study 1 (N = 125) examined perceived CPR and relationship quality across four relationship targets: mother, father, romantic partner, and best friend. Study 2, involving romantic partners (N = 142), examined whether needs fulfillment mediated the association between perceived CPR and relationship quality. Study 3, involving romantic dyads (N = 85), also included partner reports on CPR. Across the three studies, CPR was linked with poor relationship quality between relationships, between people, and between dyadic partners. Moreover, results of Study 2 and Study 3 revealed that the inverse association between perceived CPR and relationship quality was mediated by dissatisfaction of autonomy but not relatedness. Despite its seemingly benign nature, CPR is detrimental to relationship quality, partly because it thwarts the basic need for autonomy.     

Ineffability: Reply to Professors Metz and Cooper

In the first two sections of this reply article, I provide a brief introduction to the topic of ineffability and a summary of Ineffability and Religious Experience. This is followed, in section 3, by some reflections in reply to the response articles by Professors Metz and Cooper. Section 4 presents some concluding remarks on the future of philosophy of religion in the light of the most recent philosophical work on ineffability.     

Can Patriots Be Critical after a Nationalist War? The Struggle Between Recognition and Marginalization of Dissenting Voices

Previous research suggests that the relationship between ingroup identification and reactions to moral violations perpetrated by ingroup members depends on the mode of identification: while glorification lowers group‐based guilt, critical attachment enhances it. In our first study, based on comparative survey research, this pattern was replicated in Serbia, but not in Croatia. In Croatia, highly attached respondents tended to reject criticism of the past war irrespective of their mode of identification. In a second study, we sought to explain the Croatian results by examining how critical attachment is denied legitimacy. We analyzed the rhetorical structure of a parliamentary debate around regime‐critical media coverage. The analyses show how the marginalization of critics is anchored in (1) a monolithic construction of the nation, which sacralizes particular elements and places them beyond discussion, and (2) a construction of the international context as too threatening to permit any dissent. Overall, the results of this mixed‐method study highlight that the opportunity to be recognized as a critical patriot depends on a nation's sociopolitical climate.     

“I can see it in your eyes”: Biased Processing and Increased Arousal in Dishonest Responses

According to self‐maintenance theory, people notice their dishonest acts and thus experience ethical dissonance between their misconduct and their positive moral self. In this view, dishonesty is facilitated by justifications that redefine moral boundaries. By contrast, the bounded ethicality approach suggests that biased perception prevents people from becoming aware of their dishonesty. We tested the key process assumptions behind these accounts using pupillary responses and fixation data and found physiological evidence for both kinds of mechanisms. In particular, physiological arousal increased at the initial stage of cheating responses. This suggests that people are on some level aware of their wrongdoings. At the same time, however, we found attentional biases that can reduce the likelihood for detecting potentially disadvantageous information. We suggest that dishonest acts come at the internal cost of increased tension, which people aim to avoid by pre‐emptive biased processing as well as post hoc justifications. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MECHANISMS OF PLACEBO PAIN REDUCTION:

Abstract— Identical experimental pain stimuli were applied to the right and left index fingers of 56 university students, following the application of a placebo in the guise of a topical anesthetic to one of the fingers. The pain stimuli were administered simultaneously to treated and untreated fingers for half of the subjects and sequentially for the others Significant and equtvalent reductions in pain were reported in both conditions as a function of placebo administration. These data indicate that reductions of experimental pain produced by placebos presented in the guise of local anesthetics are not mediated by such global mechanisms as anxiety reduction or the release of endogenous opioids.     

A pragmatic account of a presuppositional effect

Two different theoretical accounts of a presuppositional effect in sentence interpretation were considered. One is a semantic account based on componential analysis. The other is a pragmatic account based on relevance theory which does not call for lexical decomposition. The two theoretical points of view were tested against each other by making use of a well-known riddle, studied by Noordman (1979), whose standard form is: “You are my son, but I am not your father. Who am I?” In the first experiment, a manipulation based on the replacement of a lexical unit with a paraphrastic expression that did not contain the critical semantic component failed to enhance performance, whereas in the second experiment, a manipulation of contextual information leaving the lexical unit unaltered was successful in modifying performance. Both results conform to the predictions of relevance theory, but are at variance with the predictions of the componential theory.     

Reading Wittgenstein

Books reviewed in this essay:
Robert Arrington and Hans-Johann Glock (eds), Wittgenstein & Quine
John Koethe, The Continuity of Wittgenstein's Thought
P.M.S. Hacker, Wittgenstein's Place in Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy
Hans Sluga and David G. Stern (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein
Marie McGinn, Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations     

The effects of computer-mediated vocational guidance procedures on the appropriateness of vocational preference

To assess the effectiveness of vocational guidance procedures proposed for inclusion in a computer-based vocational exploration system, 139 eleventh-grade male subjects were randomly assigned to three experimental groups and a control group. One group was given a computer-generated accuracy of self-knowledge feedback, another group was taught an occupational classification scheme, a third group experienced both. Utilizing a method of explicit comparison between students' measured characteristics and the measured characteristics of occupational norm groups, the results showed students in the groups receiving feedback increased in the appropriateness of the occupational level of their first occupational choice. In addition, students in the combined treatment group increased in the appropriateness of the level of their total occupational preferences. A delayed posttest indicated that these increases persisted.     

Agreement among teacher,peer, and self-ratings of children's aggression,withdrawal, and likability

This study examined the relationship among teacher, peer, and self-ratings of children's social behavior. The Pupil Evaluation Inventory was completed by 172 first-graders, 346 fourth-graders, 283 seventh-graders, and 30 teachers. Groups of deviant responders and controls were also selected from the total sample on the basis of peer-rated aggression and withdrawal scores. Interrater agreement was consistently greater between peer and teacher ratings than between self-ratings and either peer or teacher ratings. Discrepancies between raters were greatest for children with more deviant scores, with peer ratings providing the highest estimates of deviant behavior, and self ratings yielding the lowest. Self ratings were lower than teacher or peer ratings on aggression and withdrawal, and higher on likability. Aggression produced greatest agreement between raters. Agreement was uninfluenced by the cognitive maturity of peer evaluators. The results suggest that the selection of raters should be influenced by the class of behaviors to be evaluated and the context in which they occur.This research was funded by Québec Ministry of Social Affairs Grant RS 281 to Jane Ledingham and Alex Schwartzman. The authors wish to thank Lisa Serbin for her helpful comments on this article, and Claude Senneville, Geoff Selig, and Denise Morin for their assistance in the data collection and analysis.