Conceiving Emotions: Martha Nussbaum's Upheavals of Thought

In Upheavals of Thought , Martha Nussbaum offers a theory of the emotions. She argues that emotions are best conceived as thoughts, and she argues that emotion-thoughts can make valuable contributions to the moral life. She develops extensive accounts of compassion and erotic love as thoughts that are of great moral import. This paper seeks to elucidate what it means, for Nussbaum, to say that emotions are forms of thought. It raises critical questions about her conception of the structure of emotion, and about her conception of compassion, in particular. Finally, the paper seeks to show how analyzing the structure, as well as the moral value, of the emotions ultimately requires entering the realm of religious ethics.     

Effect size estimates: current use, calculations, and interpretation

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (American Psychological Association, 2001, American Psychological Association, 2010) calls for the reporting of effect sizes and their confidence intervals. Estimates of effect size are useful for determining the practical or theoretical importance of an effect, the relative contributions of factors, and the power of an analysis. We surveyed articles published in 2009 and 2010 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, noting the statistical analyses reported and the associated reporting of effect size estimates. Effect sizes were reported for fewer than half of the analyses; no article reported a confidence interval for an effect size. The most often reported analysis was analysis of variance, and almost half of these reports were not accompanied by effect sizes. Partial η2 was the most commonly reported effect size estimate for analysis of variance. For t tests, 2/3 of the articles did not report an associated effect size estimate; Cohen's d was the most often reported. We provide a straightforward guide to understanding, selecting, calculating, and interpreting effect sizes for many types of data and to methods for calculating effect size confidence intervals and power analysis.     

Functioning within a relationship: mother-infant synchrony and infant sleep

The aim of this study was to investigate the coupling of the biological system of infant sleep and the social system of mother-infant synchrony. Before birth and shortly after birth the systems appear to be connected, but it is unclear whether this remains the case over time. This study therefore examined whether infant sleep measured at 6 weeks and 5 months could predict mother-infant gaze synchrony after a social challenge at 5 months (N=84). Infant sleep was measured in terms of sleep bout duration, which normally increases during this period. Gaze was defined in terms of looking at each other's head simultaneously, known as gaze synchrony, or looking elsewhere. Results showed that infant sleep could predict the temporal dynamics of the mother-infant interaction in terms of flexibility of gaze pattern shifts. The larger the increase in sleep bout duration over age, the more flexible the interaction appeared to be. Maternal Age, type of feeding and change of feeding appeared to function as confounding variables in this relation. Infant sleep could not predict percentage of synchrony (central tendency measure) or the average sequence length of gaze patterns (temporal dynamic measure).     

Exposure to intimate partner violence and children's psychological adjustment,cognitive functioning,and social competence: A review

Research over the past 30 years has established that exposure to intimate partner violence poses significant risks to children's adjustment and functioning. It is also clear, however, that there is considerable variability in children's outcomes, and research in the past decade has increasingly focused on understanding this variability. This paper provides a review of recent research that examines relations between children's exposure to intimate partner violence and their psychological adjustment, cognitive functioning, and social competence. Emphasis is placed on studies that examine risk and protective factors for children's functioning in the context of exposure to intimate partner violence. In addition to highlighting strengths of recent studies, limitations of existing research and future directions are considered.     

Approach/Avoidance Orientations Affect Self-Construal and Identification with In-group

Approach and avoidance are two basic motivational orientations. Their activation influences cognitive and perceptive processes: Previous work suggests that an approach orientation instigates a focus on larger units as compared to avoidance. Study 1 confirms this assumption using a paradigm that more directly taps a person's tendency to represent objects as belonging to small or large units than prior studies. It was further predicted that the self should also be represented as belonging to larger units, and hence be more interdependent under approach than under avoidance. Study 2 supports this prediction. As a consequence of this focus on belonging to larger units, it was finally predicted that approach results in a stronger identification with one's in-group than avoidance. Studies 3 and 4 support that prediction.     

Estimation of Effect Heterogeneity in Rare Events Meta-Analysis

Psychometrika - The paper outlines several approaches for dealing with meta-analyses of count outcome data. These counts are the accumulation of occurred events, and these events might be rare, so...     

On the V(I)Erge: Jean‐Luc Nancy,Christianity, and Incompletion

This article explores how Jean‐Luc Nancy attempts to gain critical traction on Christianity by proscribing thinking of completion. First, it describes Nancy's deconstruction of Christianity as stemming from his aesthetic redirection of Heidegger's thinking of finitude. Second, it further details Nancy's noetic declension of Heidegger via Kant and Lyotard, where the imagination and aesthetic communication are deemed impossible. Third, it examines Nancy's treatment of paintings of the Virgin Mary who, for Nancy, exemplifies his brand of incompletion. Nancy's work on Mary reveals both the oversights and the insights of his deconstruction of Christianity, which Catholic theology should seriously engage.     

Persistent Heightened Cortisol Awakening Response and Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms: A 3-year Longitudinal Community Study

An atypical Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) has been related to adult anxiety and depression, but little is known about the association between long-term atypical CAR and adolescent anxiety and depression. This study aimed to longitudinally identify subgroups of adolescents with distinct levels of CAR (i.e., adolescents with and without persistent atypical CAR) and to examine their development of anxiety and depressive symptoms over 3 successive years. A community sample of 184 Dutch adolescents (M _age?=?14.99 at T₁, 57 % boys) completed annual salivary cortisol assessments at home at time of awakening, and 30 and 60 min post-awakening (i.e., CAR) for 3 successive years. Adolescents also reported annually on their anxiety and depressive disorder symptoms. Latent Class Growth Analysis suggested two subgroups of adolescents with respect to CAR: a “low” group with stable low levels of AUC_g (Area Under the Curve with respect to the ground) over time and a “high” group with high and increasing levels of AUC_g over time. Controlling for sex, the high and low CAR groups significantly differed in depressive symptoms only, but none of the anxiety disorder symptoms. More specifically, adolescents in the high CAR group showed significantly higher mean levels of depressive symptoms over time compared to adolescents in the low CAR group. These results suggest that persistent heightened CAR is a more consistent, yet modest, correlate of adolescent depressive symptoms than anxiety disorder symptoms.