The puzzle of language evolution

Linguistics must again concentrate on the evolutionary nature of language, so that language models are more realistic with respect to human natural languages and have a greater explanatory force. Multi-agent systems are proposed as a possible route to develop such evolutionary models and an example is given of a concrete experiment in the origins and evolution of word-meaning based on a multi-agent approach.     

Benchmark Memories in Adulthood: Central Domains and Predictors of Their Frequency

This study extended earlier research on the reminiscence bump phenomenon in autobiographical memory by examining the central domains and predictors of benchmark memories from a life history timeline and from three selected significant events. Memories elicited by these methods demonstrated the reminiscence bump as occurring in early adulthood. The central domains representing this era involved events with family and relationships followed by those related to education and work. Individual differences in socio-emotional variables associated with self and identity formations (i.e., family climate, defensive style, self-complexity, and adult attachment) were associated with the reminiscence bump. These findings support the self-narrative hypothesis that the reminiscence phenomenon is related to the process of identity formation in late adolescence and early adulthood.     

Counseling Older Adults with Dementia: A Survey of Therapists in Massachusetts

Although much has been written about therapeutic interventions with caregivers, little is known about the counseling services that are available for victims of dementia. The present study was designed to explore community mental health center (CMHC) services and therapists' experiences in providing psychotherapy to this population in Massachusetts. Only 27 of the 36 CMHCs in the state reported providing mental health services to older adults with a dementing illness. A survey of therapists who specialized in working with older adults found that the percentage of older adult clients estimated to have dementia averaged about half of their caseload. Older persons in the early phase of a dementing illness were most frequently referred for depression and anxiety, whereas those with moderate decline were most frequently referred for management of disruptive behavior. The most common services provided to clients with dementia consisted of assessment and individual counseling. The latter finding indicates a discrepancy between what is practiced and the professional literature. Most of the psychotherapy described in the literature concerns group interventions, which were rarely provided by the mental health centers in Massachusetts. The centers tended to offer individual counseling; however, little information on how to provide this form of treatment can be found.     

Young Adults' Anticipated Identity Importance of Career, Marital, and Parental Roles: Comparisons of Men and Women with Different Role Balance Orientations

This article discusses two studies that exploredcollege students' role balance expectations for theirfuture career, marital, and parental identities.Participants were primarily Caucasian. In the first study, men and women who were family, balanced,career, or career/marriage oriented were compared.Variation within gender, especially for women, in theareas of gender attitudes, gender attributes, role identity salience, and anticipated roleacquisition were found. Similarities between gender alsoemerged. The second study examined young adults'perceptions of their parents' identity importance androle balance orientations. Although some genderdifferences emerged, young men and women holding thesame role balance orientation were often similar intheir perceptions of their parents. Taken together,these studies provide evidence that contradictsprevious assumptions about gender differences inexpectations for work and family roles.     

Effects of Directed Thinking on Intentions to Engage in Beneficial Activities: Actions Versus Reasons1

An important application of psychological principles involves increasing intentions to engage in activities that, although admittedly beneficial, are often not initially appealing (e.g., studying, quitting smoking, dieting). The present study tests the utility of directed thinking as a tool for eliciting intentions to engage in such activities. Undergraduate students were directed to think either about the reasons why people should find studying enjoyable or about the actions that people might take to make studying enjoyable. Regardless of whether they thought as individuals or in cooperating dyads, students who thought about actions later reported greater intentions to spend time studying than did students who thought about reasons. The results have both theoretical and practical significance.     

The Effects of Feedback Equivocality on Escalation of Commitment: An Empirical Investigation of Decision Dilemma Theory1

The effects of feedback equivocality on escalation of commitment were examined in a laboratory study. Subjects had multiple opportunities to allocate money to market a software product. During the initial phase, subjects received feedback that was of either low or high equivocality. Half of the subjects in each equivocality level were given a standard by which to judge the feedback. In the second phase, all subjects received negative feedback. Consistent with Bowen's (1987) decision dilemma theory, subjects who received low equivocality feedback did not escalate allocations, and subjects who received high equivocal feedback escalated allocations. The presence of a standard or goal attenuated escalation. These results are consonant with a dynamic, temporally based account of escalation and are discussed in a synthesis of the literatures in behavior analysis, economics, forecasting, and psychology.     

Authority,Psychotherapy and the Authority of the Therapist in the Religious Haredi Community

This article considers the meaning and significance of authority, and its relevance to the transference process, within the framework of psychotherapy in the orthodox Jewish (Haredi) community in Israel. In this community, deeply-rooted habits of obedience to the commandments of the Torah and the authority of the Rabbi are integral to maintaining an orthodox way of life. Clinical vignettes with Haredi patients are presented to illustrate the complexities that arise when both patient and therapist belong to the orthodox community, and highlight the authority-related issues that are central to the therapy. This combination of factors requires a sensitive and finely-tuned approach which will enable the therapist to maintain the treatment framework while still accommodating the orthodox way of life.     

Melancholic Response to War Destruction and the Emergence of a Group Assumption of Post-Ness

What psychological response does war and forced displacement evoke in victims? How do survivors of war communicate their experiences to their children? Finally, what culture does the psychological response to loss shape? Using data collected through interviews, psychological consultations, and children’s drawings from two sources—the ongoing Syrian civil war and the Bosnian war of 1992–1995, this paper suggests that the experience of the war generation becomes the organizing axis of their identity and that of their children. It seeks to demonstrate that survivor parents communicate their experience of loss through gesture, act, and object rather than through a coherent narrative. Whereas survivor children use metaphoric and metonymic readings of their parents’ everyday performance in order to construct meaning and form their identities as descendants of a given family. This paper argues that such an identity is characterized by ambivalence towards the self and towards others, melancholic longing for an idealized pre-war past, and the impossibility of letting it go.