Sowing Patriotism,But Reaping Nationalism? Consequences of Exposure to the American Flag

The American flag is a frequently displayed national symbol in the United States. Given its high visibility and importance, the present research examines the consequences of exposure to the flag on Americans' sense of national attachment. We hypothesized that the flag would increase patriotism, defined as love and commitment to one's country, and nationalism, defined as a sense of superiority over others. Two experimental studies supported the idea that the American flag increased nationalism, but not necessarily patriotism. The discussion focuses on the practices surrounding the American flag and its implications for the reproduction of American national identity.     

Identification of everyday objects on the basis of silhouette and outline versions

Line drawings of everyday objects were modified into silhouettes by filling-in the complete area enclosed by boundary contours, and outline versions were created by extracting the contours from the silhouettes. A large number of participants was asked to try to identify these silhouette and outline versions in experiment 1. Identifiability ranged from 0% to 100% correct responses with a large range in-between. Several kinds of errors and several reasons for difficulties with identification emerged in our data set. In experiment 2, we compared the original identification rates to those of inverted silhouettes (white figures on a black background), and in experiment 3 we compared the original identification rates of objects with filled-in holes or background parts to those of versions without filling-in. These stimuli and identification norms are useful for additional research on priming and context effects of object identification, neuropsychological deficits of object identification, and all kinds of studies with silhouettes where the role of top down knowledge could be of interest.     

On the Measurement of Implicative Dilemmas

The implicative dilemma (ID) is gradually receiving attention of clinical psychologists and researchers. Although research on its clinical relevance is promising, there are still some issues regarding its measurement that need further consideration. This article explores the adequacy of the different thresholds used to determine construct association, the efficacy of the different indices commonly used to measure IDs, and a verification of the ID not being a mere subproduct of the self-ideal distance. It also introduces a new index. Finally, guidelines are provided for practitioners on how to interpret the indices' numerical results in relation to major depression.     

Social justice and remembering “the personal is political” in counselling and psychotherapy: So,what can therapists do?

This brief contribution argues for the importance of a social justice perspective in counselling and psychotherapy, particularly within the current international socio‐political context. Much has been said about social justice over recent years in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy and counselling. Professionals and academics have expressed some concerns about what it might actually mean, or how difficult it might be in practice to engage with this perspective. In this paper, the activist phrase “the personal is political” (Hanisch, 1970) is used to illustrate the way in which a social justice approach to counselling and psychotherapy does not need to be complicated, but rather a foregrounding of a particular understanding of well‐being and the people we work with. Following this, some concrete and straightforward suggestions for how therapists might begin to act on their social justice values are made.     

High impact running improves learning

Regular physical exercise improves cognitive functions and lowers the risk for age-related cognitive decline. Since little is known about the nature and the timing of the underlying mechanisms, we probed whether exercise also has immediate beneficial effects on cognition. Learning performance was assessed directly after high impact anaerobic sprints, low impact aerobic running, or a period of rest in 27 healthy subjects in a randomized cross-over design. Dependent variables comprised learning speed as well as immediate (1 week) and long-term (>8 months) overall success in acquiring a novel vocabulary. Peripheral levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and catecholamines (dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine) were assessed prior to and after the interventions as well as after learning. We found that vocabulary learning was 20 percent faster after intense physical exercise as compared to the other two conditions. This condition also elicited the strongest increases in BDNF and catecholamine levels. More sustained BDNF levels during learning after intense exercise were related to better short-term learning success, whereas absolute dopamine and epinephrine levels were related to better intermediate (dopamine) and long-term (epinephrine) retentions of the novel vocabulary. Thus, BDNF and two of the catecholamines seem to be mediators by which physical exercise improves learning.     

Adolescent Friendship as a Dynamic System: Entropy and Deviance in the Etiology and Course of Male Antisocial Behavior

A dynamic systems framework was applied to understand the influence of friendship on antisocial behavior from childhood (age 9-10) through adulthood (age 24-25) for Oregon Youth Study males (N = 206). Boys were videotaped interacting with a friend at ages 14, 16, and 18, and deviant content and interpersonal processes were independently coded. Conditional dyadic interpersonal processes were studied as a communication system and summarized by an index of information entropy (F. Attneave, 1959). High entropy scores represent disorganized, unpredictable patterns of interaction, whereas low entropy scores reflect an organized dialogue. Conversations of early-onset antisocial boys and their best friends were less organized and included more deviant content than those of well-adjusted controls. Prediction analyses, however, revealed an interaction between entropy and deviant talk. Consistent with expectation, males with well-organized interactions (i.e., low entropy) but elevated levels of deviant content were most likely to continue antisocial behavior into adulthood. Findings suggest that individual risk for maladaptation may be amplified by early adolescent friendship dynamics organized around deviance.     

Femininity and fertility in sisters with twin brothers: prenatal androgenization? Cross-sex socialization?

Are sisters of twin brothers behaviorally or physiologically masculinized? Prenatal exposure to their brothers' androgens and postnatal socialization experiences unique to girls growing up with twin brothers might influence their attitudes, pubertal development, and reproductive histories. To investigate, we studied age- and cohort-matched samples of Finnish sisters from same-sex and opposite-sex twin pairs. Using data from two ongoing longitudinal studies of consecutive birth cohorts of Finnish twins, we assessed pubertal development at ages 11 and 14 and endorsement of attitudes associated with femininity at age 16. We also studied fertility in Finnish women from same- and opposite-sex twin pairs born from 1958 through 1971, obtaining information on their child-bearing histories when they were ages 15 to 28. Results of each comparison were unambiguously negative: There was no evidence of differences between sisters from same- and opposite-sex twin pairs, and thus, no evidence of either androgenization or cross-sex socialization.     

Reconstructing Life as a One-Foot Man: Reflections on the Role of Football

This article is one of a series of personal construct investigations of the aftermath of the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone. It is based on interviews conducted with nine members of the Sierra Leone Single-Leg Amputee Football Club, all of whom lost a limb during the war. Interview themes concerned participants’ construing of this event and its perpetrators, the constriction of their lives and the emotions they subsequently experienced, the choices that they made, and the role of football and of forgiveness in their recovery and in posttraumatic growth.     

Biomechanical Motor Patterns in Normal Walking

Motor patterns in normal human gait are evident in several biomechanical and EMG analyses over the stride period. Some of these patterns are invariant over the stride period with changes of cadence, while others are closely correlated with speed changes. The findings for slow, natural, and fast walking are summarized: 1. Joint angle patterns over the stride period are quite invariant, and do not change with cadence;

2. Moment of force patterns at the ankle are least variable and quite consistent at all speeds;

3. A recently defined support moment is quite consistent at all speeds.

4. Moments at the knee and hip are highly variable at all cadences but decrease their variability as cadence increases;

5. Mechanical power patterns at all joints show consistent timing over the stride period;

6. EMG profiles of 5 muscles show consistent timing over the stride, but the amplitude increases as walking speed increases.

Arguments are presented to support the concept that walking speed is largely controlled by gain and that the timing of the motor patterns, which is extremely tightly synchronized with the anatomical position, is under major afferent control.