Serotonergic dysfunction: Brain imaging and behavioral correlates

Identification of gene-environment and gene-gene interactions has become increasingly important in understanding psychiatric disorders. Dysfunction of central serotonergic neurotransmission has been implicated in alcoholism, depression, and anxiety. We review the literature on nonhuman primates that assesses the interaction between the genetic constitution of the regulatory region of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) and environmental factors. Prospective studies in nonhuman primates that underwent social stress found a reduction of the serotonin turnover rate among carriers of one or two short alleles in a functional polymorphism of the 5-HTT promoter. In these primates, brain imaging studies showed a relative increase in the availability of raphe serotonin transporters. A low serotonin turnover rate and a high availability of serotonin transporters were associated with reduced response to excessive alcohol intake, anxiety, and impulsive aggression. Animal experiments point to a relationship between serotonergic dysfunction, negative mood states, and excessive alcohol intake, which may in part be mediated by reduced alcohol-induced sedation.     

Culture and egocentric perceptions of fairness in conflict and negotiation

In this article, the authors advanced a cultural view of judgment biases in conflict and negotiation. The authors predicted that disputants' self-serving biases of fairness would be more prevalent in individualistic cultures, such as the United States, in which the self is served by focusing on one's positive attributes to "stand out" and be better than others, yet would be attenuated in collectivistic cultures, such as Japan, where the self is served by focusing on one's negative characteristics to "blend in" (S. J. Heine, D. R. Lehman, H. R. Markus, & S. Kitayama, 1999). Four studies that used different methodologies (free recall, scenarios, and a laboratory experiment) supported this notion. Implications for the science and practice of negotiation are discussed.     

Can Inattention/Overactivity Be an Institutional Deprivation Syndrome?

Elevated rates of attention deficit and overactivity have been noted previously in samples of institution-reared children. This study examined the hypothesis that inattention/overactivity(I/O) might constitute a specific deprivation syndrome. One hundred and sixty five children adopted at varying ages (e.g., 0–42 months of age) into the UK following severe early deprivation were compared with 52 within-UK adoptees who did not suffer deprivation. The children were rated by teachers and parents on levels of I/O, conduct difficulties, and emotional difficulties using the Revised Rutter Scales. Data were collected at age 6 for the entire sample and at age 4 for the UK adoptees and for the subsample of Romanian children who entered the UK before the age of 2 years. Mean level analyses suggested a significant effect of duration of deprivation on I/O, but not on conduct or emotional difficulties. The effects of duration of deprivation were specific to I/O and were not accounted for by low birth weight, malnutrition, or cognitive impairment. Levels of I/O correlated with attachment disturbances. Furthermore, the effects of duration of deprivation on I/O did not attenuate over time. We conclude that I/O may well constitute an institutional deprivation syndrome, but that the type of attention deficit and overactivity exhibited by these children may present a different clinical picture from that of ordinary varieties of attention deficit disorder or hyperkinetic syndrome.     

Newborn habituation to visual stimuli: a sex difference in novelty detection

Thirty-six newborn human infants were repeatedly exposed to one of two visual stimuli, a four-square or 144-square black and white checkerboard target, until a set criterion of habituation was demonstrated, as measured by a decrement in visual fixation time. When the habituation criterion was reached, independent groups of Ss were either presented with the same target or with a target of either moderate or large discrepancy from the standard habituation stimulus. Results indicated that (1) there was habituation of visual attention, which replicated previous findings, and suggests that some infants soon after birth are capable of storing simple visual information, and (2) following habituation female infants displayed greater recovery of attention than male infants when the moderate stimulus change was introduced.     

A Comparison of ML,WLSMV, and Bayesian Methods for Multilevel Structural Equation Models in Small Samples: A Simulation Study

Multilevel structural equation models are increasingly applied in psychological research. With increasing model complexity, estimation becomes computationally demanding, and small sample sizes pose further challenges on estimation methods relying on asymptotic theory. Recent developments of Bayesian estimation techniques may help to overcome the shortcomings of classical estimation techniques. The use of potentially inaccurate prior information may, however, have detrimental effects, especially in small samples. The present Monte Carlo simulation study compares the statistical performance of classical estimation techniques with Bayesian estimation using different prior specifications for a two-level SEM with either continuous or ordinal indicators. Using two software programs (Mplus and Stan), differential effects of between- and within-level sample sizes on estimation accuracy were investigated. Moreover, it was tested to which extent inaccurate priors may have detrimental effects on parameter estimates in categorical indicator models. For continuous indicators, Bayesian estimation did not show performance advantages over ML. For categorical indicators, Bayesian estimation outperformed WLSMV solely in case of strongly informative accurate priors. Weakly informative inaccurate priors did not deteriorate performance of the Bayesian approach, while strong informative inaccurate priors led to severely biased estimates even with large sample sizes. With diffuse priors, Stan yielded better results than Mplus in terms of parameter estimates.     

The Sacred Bed: Sex Guilt Mediates Religiosity and Satisfaction for Unmarried People

The relationship between religion and sexual satisfaction has long been debated. Oftentimes, previous research on the relationship between these two constructs has been directly contradictory. The current study sought to provide more detail, or perhaps clarify the way that religiosity may relate to sexual satisfaction. Past studies have shown that high religiosity is connected to lower sexual activity, lower desires, and more conservative values. Thus, the current study examined sexual guilt, resulting from sensitivity to internalized religious beliefs and teachings, as a potential mediator between the two constructs. Participants completed an online questionnaire that included measures of religious identification and internalization, sexual satisfaction, and sex guilt. Results suggest that sex guilt mediates the relationship between religiosity and sexual satisfaction for unmarried individuals, but not for married individuals. We suggest calling this finding the sacred bed phenomenon because the difference between the models for married and unmarried samples may be due to a belief in the sacred marital bed.     

Temporal pattern and spectral complexity as stimulus parameters for eliciting a cardiacorienting reflex inhuman fetuses

The purpose of this study was to determine whether temporal pattern and/or spectral complexity were important stimulus parameters for eliciting a cardiac orienting reflex (OR) in low-risk human fetuses. Each of 28 term fetuses was exposed to four sounds formed from the four different combinations of temporal pattern (pulsed, continuous) and spectral complexity (sine wave, IsJ). The fetal cardiac electrical signal was captured transabdominally at a rate of 1024 Hz, and fetal R-waves were extracted by using adaptive signal-processing techniques. We found that pulsed sounds elicited a significantly greater decrease in heart rate (HR) than did continuous sounds. However, the HR response was relatively unaffected by spectral complexity. For the pure tone and the phoneme used in this study, our results indicate that temporal characteristics were more effective at eliciting a cardiac OR in human fetuses than was spectral complexity.     

Conscientiousness as a Predictor of Productive and Counterproductive Behaviors

This article extends the integrity testing literature by examining relationships between conscientiousness subscales and productive and counterproductive workplace behaviors. Correlational analyses (n = 359 employees) indicated conscientiousness predicted overall performance, supervisors' willingness to rehire and employee attendance, but not integrity/safety ratings. Conscientiousness subscales differentially predicted criteria and were more parsimonious.     

Are Speedy Brains Needed when Divergent Thinking is Speeded—or Unspeeded?

In this study, we focus on mental speed and divergent thinking, examining their relationship and the influence of task speededness. Participants (N = 109) completed a set of processing speed tasks and a test battery measuring divergent thinking. We used two speeded divergent-thinking tasks of 2 minutes and two unspeeded tasks of 8 minutes to test the influence of task speededness on creative quality and their relation to mental speed. Before each task, participants were instructed to be creative in order to optimally measure creative quality. We found a large main effect of task speededness: less creative ideas were generated when tasks were speeded as compared to unspeeded (Cohen's d = −1.64). We could also replicate a positive relationship of mental speed with speeded divergent thinking (r = .21) and mental speed with unspeeded divergent thinking (r = .25). Our hypothesis that the relation is higher for the speeded divergent-thinking tasks was not confirmed. Importantly, variation in creative quality scores under speeded conditions was not explained by mental speed beyond the predictive power of unspeeded creative quality. The latter finding implies that measurement of creative quality under speeded conditions is not confounded by mental speed.     

Traditional Chinese Thought: Philosophy or Religion?

Contemporary theoretical streams in sinology and modern Chinese philosophy have devoted increasing attention to investigating and comparing the substantial and methodological assumptions of the so-called ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ traditions. In spite of the complexity of these problems, the most important methodological condition for arriving at some reasonably valid conclusions will undoubtedly be satisfied if we consciously endeavor to preserve the characteristic structural blocks and observe the specific categorical laws of the cultural contexts being discussed. Whenever sinologists speak of Chinese philosophy, they must inevitably consider the appropriateness of this term. Due to the fact, that the general theory and genuine philosophical aspects of Chinese thought have only rarely been treated by Western scholars, they namely continue to remain quite obscure for the majority of them. Therefore, we must examine the fundamental question (or dilemma) of whether it is possible to speak of traditional Chinese thought as philosophy at all.