Validity of the Personality Assessment Inventory Aggression Scales and Violence Potential Index in Veterans With PTSD

Examined humor appreciation of cartoons as a function of sex of subject and type of humor. Four broad types of humor were presented: sexual-exploitative, sexual-nonexploitative, nonsexual-hostile, and nonsexual-nonhostile. Sexual-nonexploitative humor was rated as funnier than the other three types but nonsexual-nonhostile humor was given a more positive overall rating than the other types. Relative to males, females gave greater ratings of hostility to the cartoons and rated them less positively. Correlational analyses further suggested that females were not as affected as males by variations in sexuality, exploitation, and hostility. For males, greater ratings of sexuality were associated with greater funniness ratings while the reverse was true for greater ratings of hostility. Possible interpretations of these data were discussed.     

Youth Initiated Mentoring: Investigating a New Approach to Working with Vulnerable Adolescents

This study examines youth initiated mentoring (YIM), a new approach to mentoring in which youth nominate mentors from among the non-parental adults within their existing social networks (e.g., teachers, family friends, extended family members). YIM is currently being implemented through the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program (NGYCP), an intensive residential intervention program for youth ages 16–18 who have dropped out or been expelled from high school. This study employed a mixed methods explanatory design, drawing on quantitative data from a national longitudinal evaluation of NGYCP (N = 1,173) and qualitative data from a subsample of participants (N = 30) in the evaluation. Results indicated that more enduring mentoring relationships were associated with increased retention of educational, vocational, and behavioral outcomes 3 years following entry into the study. Qualitative data suggested that, when relationships endured, mentors contributed to improvements in participants’ educational and occupational success, quality of relationships with parents, peers, and others, and self-concept by providing social-emotional support, instrumental support, and guidance. Results also revealed that relationships were more likely to endure when youth chose their mentors on their own (rather than receiving help from parents or program staff) and when mentors were of the same race as youth. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

La position d’henri poincaré par rapport à l'axiome du choix, à travers ses ecrits et sa correspondance avec zermelo (1905–1912)

Le but de cet article est de décrire le point de vue d’Henri Poincaré sur l'axiome du choix, dont 1’explication par Zermelo en 1904, déclencha une vive polémique. Agitant le monde mathématique de l'époque, cette polémique avait ses racines dans la diversité des conceptions philosophiques que les mathématiciens avaient sur les mathématiques. Poincaré avait une position originale; quelques lettres qu’il écrivit à Zermelo (1906–1907), ainsi que les articles publiés à la même époques dans la Revue de métaphysique et morale, éclairent ce point de vue.

The aim of this paper is to describe the views of Henri Poincaré concerning axiom of choice, of which the statement by Zermelo in 1904 launched a sharp polemic. Shaking the mathematical society of the time, this controversy had its roots into the diversity of philosophical conceptions that mathematicians held about mathematics. Poincaré had a particular point of view; a few letters from him to Zermelo (1906–1907), together with papers published in Revue de métaphysique et morale at the same time, throw light on this view.     

Pleasing frowns, disappointing smiles: an ERP investigation of counterempathy

The biological predisposition to resonate emotionally with another person is regarded as a critical aspect of social interaction. There are, however, situations in which the emotional response to others is discordant with their emotional experience. Using event-related potentials, the present study investigated the neural underpinnings of this phenomenon, termed "counterempathy." Participants played a card game under the belief that they were playing jointly with another player who sat in an adjoining room and whose smiles and frowns in response to winning or losing in the game they could observe on a computer screen. Depending upon the experimental setting, the other player's facial expressions conveyed either of two opposing values to the participant. In the empathic setting, his emotional expressions were congruent with the participant's outcome (win or loss), whereas in the counterempathic setting, they indicated incongruent outcomes. Results revealed a reversed pattern of brain responses to facial expressions between congruent and incongruent conditions at ~170 ms (N170) over the temporal cortex. That is, N170 was sensitive to frowns in the congruent condition and to smiles in the incongruent condition, both indicating losses for the participant. Furthermore, frowns in the incongruent condition yielded larger medial frontal negativity (MFN) over the medial prefrontal cortex, which correlated with the subjective pleasantness about one's own winning in the incongruent condition. These findings demonstrate that (1) counterempathic responses are associated with modulation of early sensory processing of emotional cues, (2) that MFN is sensitive to the detection of another person's loss during positive inequity, and (3) that MFN is associated with a pleasant feeling during positive inequity, which is possibly related to "Schadenfreude."     

Social exclusion causes self-defeating behavior

Four experiments tested the idea that social exclusion leads to (unintentionally) self-defeating behavior. Exclusion was manipulated by telling some people that they were likely to end up alone later in life. This randomly assigned feedback caused people to take irrational, self-defeating risks (Experiments 1 and 2), choose unhealthy, rather than healthy, behaviors (Experiment 3), and procrastinate longer with pleasurable activities rather than practicing for an upcoming test (Experiment 4). A control group, who heard that their future would be marred by frequent accidents, did not show these self-defeating patterns. Thus, the effect goes beyond just hearing bad news. Emotional distress did not significantly mediate these effects across 3 different mood measures.     

Self‐Doubt

The need for understanding serves as a theme throughout social and personality psychology. It is reflected in people’s striving toward a shared, social construction of reality (e.g., conformity, uniformity) that runs through so much of the history of theory and research in the field. Stemming from this core motivation, the literature is peppered with illustrations of the preeminence of certainty as a goal (e.g., clarity, consistency, consonance, and related constructs) and the ultimate objective of cultural consensus. Yet, the role of doubt in the form of shaky certainty about the basis for beliefs in attitudes – or doubts about one’s self‐esteem or self‐concept – has increasingly taken center stage. This review takes the self‐competence element (vs. self‐liking element) of self‐worth judgments as its focus and provides an integration of individual difference approaches and experimental investigations of self‐doubt. Long neglected, self‐doubt increasingly appears critical for understanding some of the surprising, ironic, and self‐defeating cognitive, emotional, and behavioral findings seen in the achievement realm.     

Generational differences in young adults' life goals, concern for others, and civic orientation, 1966-2009

Three studies examined generational differences in life goals, concern for others, and civic orientation among American high school seniors (Monitoring the Future; N = 463,753, 1976-2008) and entering college students (The American Freshman; N = 8.7 million, 1966-2009). Compared to Baby Boomers (born 1946-1961) at the same age, GenX'ers (born 1962-1981) and Millennials (born after 1982) considered goals related to extrinsic values (money, image, fame) more important and those related to intrinsic values (self-acceptance, affiliation, community) less important. Concern for others (e.g., empathy for outgroups, charity donations, the importance of having a job worthwhile to society) declined slightly. Community service rose but was also increasingly required for high school graduation over the same time period. Civic orientation (e.g., interest in social problems, political participation, trust in government, taking action to help the environment and save energy) declined an average of d = -.34, with about half the decline occurring between GenX and the Millennials. Some of the largest declines appeared in taking action to help the environment. In most cases, Millennials slowed, though did not reverse, trends toward reduced community feeling begun by GenX. The results generally support the "Generation Me" view of generational differences rather than the "Generation We" or no change views.     

Effect of traditional judo training on aggressiveness among young boys

This study assessed the effect of one year of traditional judo training on aggressiveness among young boys. 27 primary school pupils and 28 judo students were asked to complete the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire at two times 1 year apart. Analysis showed that judoka were more aggressive (had higher scores on Total Aggression, Verbal Aggression, and Anger) than the control group after one year of training, even if variations in aggressiveness were not significant. So, results do not support the view that judo training leads to less aggressiveness in a sample of children this young.