Internet use by the socially fearful: addiction or therapy?

The Internet has often been argued to have adverse psychological consequences, such as depression or anxiety symptoms, among "over-users." The present study offers an alternative understanding, suggesting the Internet may be used as a forum for expanding social networks and consequently enhancing the chance of meaningful relationships, self-confidence, social abilities, and social support. An online sample of 188 people was recruited over the Internet, while paper and pencil tests were administered to an offline sample group of 27 undergraduate university students, who were regular Internet users. Subjects completed the Zung Depression Scale (ZDS), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire?Revised Short Scale (EPQ-R Short), Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) scale, Internet Use Questionnaire (IUQ), and an Internet Effects Questionnaire (IEQ). Results suggested that there was no relationship between time spent online and depression, anxiety, or social fearfulness. Those who primarily used the Internet for online chat believed that the Internet is psychologically beneficial to them, but also believed that frequent Internet users are lonely and that the Internet can be addictive. It is argued that "chat" users who are socially fearful may be using the Internet as a form of low-risk social approach and an opportunity to rehearse social behavior and communication skills, which, may help them improve interaction with offline, face-to-face, social environments.     

Memory on the beach: an Australian memory (and hypnosis) laboratory

The memory (and hypnosis) lab at the University of New South Wales investigates a broad range of memory topics. We try to find innovative methods from cognitive and clinical psychology to address theoretical and empirical questions about memory. We aso use hypnosis as one major methodological tool in our investigations of memory (as well as other cognitive processes). In this paper, we review the projects currently underway in our memory (and hypnosis) lab.     

Shame coping styles and psychopathic personality traits

The convergent validity of the primary and secondary psychopathy scales of the Levenson, Kiehl, and Fitzpatrick (1995) Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRPS) were investigated by contrasting correlations between the two SRPS scales and self-report adaptive and maladaptive shame coping scales. The results, from a sample of 305 undergraduates, supported the convergent validity of the SRPS primary (selfish, uncaring, manipulative interpersonal style) and secondary (impulsivity and self-defeating behavior) scales; both possessed small but significant negative relationships with adaptive shame coping and small but significant positive relationships with externalizing shame coping. An opposing pattern of convergent validity was evidenced by partial correlations (controlling for SPRS scale covariance) that indicated the SRPS primary scale had a negative relationship and the secondary scale had a positive relationship to internalizing shame coping.     

Measuring men's response to an imagined negative body image

To investigate response to an imagined negative body image, a sample of 29 men from an undergraduate university were given the Body Image Affect Scale of Campbell and Chow. Analysis showed more men, if they are experiencing a poor appearance, would try to cover up physical flaws and avoid approaching an individual in whom they were interested.     

Understanding the social costs of narcissism: the case of the tragedy of the commons

Two studies examined narcissism and behavior in a commons dilemma. Study 1 used a four-person, laboratory-based task and Study 2 used a dyadic task. Participants were told that they represented one of four (Study 1) or two (Study 2) forestry companies and then were asked to harvest timber from a renewable forest. Narcissism was found to be positively related to acquisitive goals and harvesting more timber in the initial round. The more narcissists harvesting in the competitive group of four (Study 1) or dyad (Study 2), the less timber was harvested overall and the more rapidly the forest was depleted. Within competitive groups and dyads, however, narcissists harvested more than the nonnarcissists competing with them. In all, narcissism provided a benefit to the self, but at a long-term cost to other individuals and to the commons.     

Perceptual asymmetries are preserved in memory for highly familiar faces of self and friend

We investigated the effect of familiarity on people's perception of facial likeness by asking participants to choose which of two mirror-symmetric chimeric images (made from the left or right half of a photograph of a face) looked more like an original image. In separate trials the participants made this judgment for their own face and for the face of a close friend; half of them matched to a true image of the original and half matched to a mirror image of the original. In the case of matching to a friend's face presented in the familiar orientation, over 80% of participants chose the left-left composite to be a better likeness to the original, whereas only 62% showed the same left-side bias when matching to a mirror image. The difference is significant, and the result contrasts markedly with a second experiment where participants who were unfamiliar with the faces showed comparable left-side biases when matching to true or mirror reversed images. The result suggests that perceptual asymmetries are retained in our long-term memory for highly familiar faces. While matching to images of self also showed an effect of familiarity, the data in this condition show less evidence of perceptual asymmetry and are discussed in relation to recent research on the representation of one's own face.     

Calculation,culture, and the repeated operand effect

A basic phenomenon of cognitive arithmetic is that problems composed of a repeated operand, so-called "ties" (e.g. 6+6, 7 x 7), typically are solved more quickly and accurately than comparable non-tie problems (e.g. 6+5, 7 x 8). In Experiment 1, we present evidence that the tie effect is due to more efficient memory for ties than for non-ties, which participants reported solving more often using calculation strategies. The memory/strategy hypothesis accounts for differences in the tie effect as a function of culture (Asian Chinese vs. non-Asian Canadian university students), operation (addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division), and problem size (numerically small vs. large problems). Nonetheless, Blankenberger (Cognition 82 (2001) B15) eliminated the tie response time (RT) advantage by presenting problems in mixed formats (e.g. 4 x four), which suggests that the tie effect with homogenous formats (4 x 4 or four x four) is due to encoding. In Experiment 2, using simple multiplication problems, we replicated elimination of the tie effect with mixed formats, but also demonstrated an interference effect for mixed-format ties that slowed RTs and increased errors relative to non-tie problems. Additionally, practicing non-tie problems in both orders (e.g. 3 x 4 and 4 x 3) each time ties were tested once (cf. Cognition 82 (2001) B15) reduced the tie effect. The format-mismatch effect on ties, combined with a reduced tie advantage because of extra practice of non-ties, eliminated the tie effect. Rather than an encoding advantage, the results indicate that memory access for ties was better than for non-ties.     

Selective attention and emotional vulnerability: assessing the causal basis of their association through the experimental manipulation of attentional bias

Although it is well-established that vulnerability to negative emotion is associated with attentional bias toward aversive information, the causal basis of this association remains undetermined. Two studies addressed this issue by experimentally inducing differential attentional responses to emotional stimuli using a modified dot probe task, and then examining the impact of such attentional manipulation on subsequent emotional vulnerability. The results supported the hypothesis that the induction of attentional bias should serve to modify emotional vulnerability, as revealed by participants' emotional reactions to a final standardized stress task. These findings provide a sound empirical basis for the previously speculative proposal that attentional bias can causally mediate emotional vulnerability, and they suggest the possibility that cognitive-experimental procedures designed to modify selective information processing may have potential therapeutic value.     

When the face reveals what words do not: facial expressions of emotion,smiling, and the willingness to disclose childhood sexual abuse

For survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), verbal disclosure is often complex and painful. The authors examined the voluntary disclosure-nondisclosure of CSA in relation to nonverbal expressions of emotion in the face. Consistent with hypotheses derived from recent theorizing about the moral nature of emotion, CSA survivors who did not voluntarily disclose CSA showed greater facial expressions of shame, whereas CSA survivors who voluntarily disclosed CSA expressed greater disgust. Expressions of disgust also signaled sexual abuse accompanied by violence. Consistent with recent theorizing about smiling behavior, CSA nondisclosers made more polite smiles, whereas nonabused participants expressed greater genuine positive emotion. Discussion addressed the implications of these findings for the study of disclosure of traumatic events, facial expression, and the links between morality and emotion.