The Reverse-Caricature Effect Revisited: Familiarization With Frontal Facial Caricatures Improves Veridical Face Recognition

Prior research suggests that recognition of a person's face can be facilitated by exaggerating the distinctive features of the face during training. We tested if this 'reverse-caricature effect' would be robust to procedural variations that created more difficult learning environments. Specifically, we examined whether the effect would emerge with frontal rather than three-quarter views, after very brief exposure to caricatures during the learning phase and after modest rotations of faces during the recognition phase. Results indicate that, even under these difficult training conditions, people are more accurate at recognizing unaltered faces if they are first familiarized with caricatures of the faces, rather than with the unaltered faces. These findings support the development of new training methods to improve face recognition.     

A Sequential Analysis of Externalizing in Narrative Therapy with Children

Externalizing, or separating the person from his/her problem-saturated story, is a central approach in narrative therapy. Michael White, one of the therapy’s founders, lately revised his map of the externalizing process in therapy according to Vygotskian theory. In this study we sought to determine whether White’s proposed process was evident in therapy sessions. Sequential analysis indicated that therapists scaffolded children’s responses according to White’s map, and therapists’ and children’s utterances tended to advance across the levels of the map over the course of a session, indicating that White’s model of narrative therapy matched the therapy’s empirical process.     

The rise of philosophy in Lithuania

The first Lithuanians to be introduced to philosophy were young members of the gentry who studied in European universities at the end of the 14th century. The recently christened Lithuania strove to adopt Western culture and to present itself as a Western state. At the end of the 14th century, the Vilnius Cathedral School was founded. The elements of logic were probably taught there. The growth of the political and economic power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania brought about the need for higher education. The need was significantly increased by the growing activity of various religious orders. In 1507, the Dominicans started teaching philosophy and theology to their novices in Vilnius. They taught late medieval philosophy in its Thomistic interpretation. We can regard 1507 as the year Lithuania began to benefit from a new phenomenon, professional philosophy, with the Dominicans as its initiators. The Dominicans and later the Jesuits, Franciscans, Benedictines, Carmelites, Trinitarians, and other monastic orders enriched intellectual life in Lithuania by teaching philosophy in their schools. The most important event in the development of philosophy in Lithuania was the foundation of Vilnius University in 1579. The disciplines belonging to scholasticism of the second level were taught in its philosophy department.

Interkulturelle Aspekte bei der Behandlung somatoformer Störungen

Patients from family-oriented societies have a different perception of pain and different conceptions of healing, which up to now have not been sufficiently appreciated in modern multimodal therapeutic approaches. Inadequate knowledge of anatomy and bodily functions and traditional perceptions of pain (e.g. magic, curses, punishment, etc.) have a substantial influence on diagnostics. The pain experience is regarded holistically in relation to the body, rather than being confined to a particular part of the body. Limited access to psychological complaints often leads to physical complaints. The ailing body is an expression of the social, the economic, the psychological and cultural state of the patient and the history of migration and status in the collective. A multimodal interdisciplinary and culture-sensitive approach is required for effective pain treatment of patients with a tradition-bound background.     

Beliefs About Psychological Services (BAPS): development and psychometric properties

A scale to measure attitudes towards seeking psychological help was developed (Beliefs About Psychological Services [BAPS]) and evaluated. This scale was based on items gathered from students, colleagues, and the authors when asked about common positive and negative attitudes toward psychologists and their services. Items were also based on the Fischer and Turner (1970 Fischer, EH and Turner, JLeB. 1970. Orientations to seeking professional help: Development and research utility of an attitude scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 35: 79–90. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]) Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Services (ATSPPH) measure. Three studies are reported describing the construction and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the BAPS. The BAPS is an 18-item measure consisting of three subscales: Intent, Stigma Tolerance, and Expertness. Support was found for the reliability and validity of the measure.     

When Are Attention and Saccade Preparation Dissociated?

ABSTRACT— To understand the mechanisms of visual attention, it is crucial to know the relationship between attention and saccades. Some theories propose a close relationship, whereas others view the attention and saccade systems as completely independent. One possible way to resolve this controversy is to distinguish between the maintenance and shifting of attention. The present study used a novel paradigm that allowed simultaneous measurement of attentional allocation and saccade preparation. Saccades toward the location where attention was maintained were either facilitated or suppressed depending on the probability of making a saccade to that location and the match between the attended location and the saccade location on the previous trial. Shifting attention to another location was always associated with saccade facilitation. The findings provide a new view, demonstrating that the maintenance of attention and shifting of attention differ in their relationship to the oculomotor system.     

Multi-Modal CTL: Completeness,Complexity, and an Application

We define a multi-modal version of Computation Tree Logic (ctl) by extending the language with path quantifiers E ^δ and A ^δ where δ denotes one of finitely many dimensions, interpreted over Kripke structures with one total relation for each dimension. As expected, the logic is axiomatised by taking a copy of a ctl axiomatisation for each dimension. Completeness is proved by employing the completeness result for ctl to obtain a model along each dimension in turn. We also show that the logic is decidable and that its satisfiability problem is no harder than the corresponding problem for ctl. We then demonstrate how Normative Systems can be conceived as a natural interpretation of such a multi-dimensional ctl logic. Presented by Jacek Malinowski     

Social Policies in Uruguay: A View from the Political Dimension of Community Psychology

This paper approaches social policy (SP) from the political perspective considered by Montero (Critical psychology: An introduction, Sage, London, pp 231–244, 1997; Community, Work and Family 1(1):65–78, 1998; Introducción a la Psicología Comunitaria. Desarrollo, conceptos y procesos, Paidos, Buenos Aires, pp 89–114, pp 255–284, 2004; Hacer para transformar. El método en la Psicología Comunitaria, Paidos, Buenos Aires, pp 229–256, 2004) as a paradigmatic dimension of community psychology. The field of SP, the characteristics of certain SPs and the role of SP in the production and reproduction of the subjectivities of those subject to them in Uruguay are described and an analysis given of the challenge posed by going from a compensatory or palliative to a transformative mode of SP. It is proposed that identification of, and understanding and intervention in, psychosocial processes in the field are the keys to maximising the likelihood of SPs assuming a transformative character. Psychosocial aspects and participatory processes implicit in the relationship between the State and civil society are discussed. Finally, some orientations for community psychological intervention in this field of action are proposed.     

Is the attribution of cultural differences to minorities an expression of racial prejudice?

The social psychological literature considers two main perspectives on the study of perceived cultural differences between majorities and minorities: one proposes that perception of cultural differences is an antecedent of prejudice and another states that the attribution of cultural differences to minorities is already a hidden expression of racial prejudice. This paper offers further support to this latter perspective. One hundred and ninety-four participants answered a questionnaire measuring (1) general racist belief; (2) cultural differences attributed to Black people (hetero-ethnicization); (3) the asymmetric attribution of secondary and primary emotions to the in-group and to Black people (infra-humanization); (4) the asymmetric attribution of natural and cultural traits to in-group members and to Black people (ontologization); and (5) negative evaluation of this social category. The general racist belief scale was not anchored in a specific group and measured the belief in the inferiority of certain social groups or peoples based on biological or cultural factors. Relationships between the scales were analysed through a set of Structural Equation Models. According to the predictions, results showed that the attribution of cultural differences is a dimension of prejudice. Results also showed that attribution of cultural differences, negative evaluation of Black people, ontologization, and infra-humanization were different dimensions of a common latent factor that can be identified as racial prejudice; and that prejudice was predicted by general racist belief. Results are discussed in the light of the study of the impact of perceived cultural differences on intergroup relations and in the light of the "new racism" approaches.     

Effects of received and mobilized support on recipients' and providers' self-efficacy beliefs: a 1-year follow-up study with patients receiving radical prostatectomy and their spouses

From a proactive agentic perspective, social support is not just seen as a protective cushion against environmental demands. Rather, support may facilitate an individual's self-regulation by enhancing perceived self-efficacy (i.e., enabling hypothesis). In the present study, patient-reported indicators of mobilized and received spousal support as predictors of their own and their spouses' self-efficacy beliefs were investigated within 1 year following radical prostatectomy. During this time frame, postoperative sequelae such as urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunctions are still likely to interfere with couples' everyday activities. Seventy-two patients receiving radical prostatectomy and their spouses participated. Patients' and spouses' self-efficacy beliefs and patients' received and mobilized spousal support were assessed prior to and 12 months following surgery. Additional patient-reported covariates at 1 year post-surgery were degree of bother by urinary incontinence, overall sexual satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction. Results indicated that patients' received spousal support was associated with higher levels of patients' self-efficacy only cross-sectionally, but not longitudinally. Support mobilized by the patient prior to and 1 year after surgery, however, positively predicted spouses' levels and changes in self-efficacy. Results, thus, did not fully confirm predictions by the enabling hypothesis of social support; rather, associated aspects, such as the degree of being mobilized as a provider of support or being needed, seem to enhance agency beliefs in spouses.