The persistence of a misconception about vision after educational interventions

Children and adults, like many ancient philosophers, believe that seeing involves emissions from the eye. Several experiments tested the strength of these “extramission” beliefs to determine whether they, like other scientific misconceptions, are resistant to educational experiences. Traditional college-level education had little impact. Presenting a simplified lesson, stressing visual input, and a lesson directly counteracting the vision misconception had an impact, but for older participants the effect was evident only on short-term tests. Despite some gain due to learning, overall the results demonstrated the robustness of extramission beliefs.     

Spider fear and covariation bias in children and adolescents

Covariation bias can be defined as phobic people's tendency to overestimate the association between fear-relevant stimuli and negative outcomes. The current article presents two studies that examined this type of cognitive bias in children and adolescents aged 8-16 years. Study 1 was concerned with a thought experiment during which youths (N=150) were asked to imagine that they participated in an experiment during which they had to view a series of pictures showing spiders, guns, and flowers, that were occasionally followed by a negative outcome (i.e., a mild electric shock). Participants were asked to estimate the relation between each type of picture and the negative outcome. The results indicated that youths with higher levels of spider fear displayed a specific tendency to relate spider pictures to a negative outcome. In Study 2, youths (N=220) actually participated in a computer game during which they were confronted with pictures of spiders, guns, and flowers, each of which was equally often followed by a negative (i.e., losing candy), positive (i.e., winning candy), or neutral outcome. After the game, participants had to estimate the relation between each type of picture and various outcomes. It was found that youths with higher levels of spider fear estimated more negative and less positive outcomes in relation to spider pictures. Taken together, these findings provide support for a fear-related covariation bias in youths. Further developmental analyses indicated that this type of cognitive bias seems to be more consistently present among adolescents than among children.     

A new characterization of scientific theories

First, I discuss the older “theory-centered” and the more recent semantic conception of scientific theories. I argue that these two perspectives are nothing more than terminological variants of one another. I then offer a new theory-centered view of scientific theories. I argue that this new view captures the insights had by each of these earlier views, that it’s closer to how scientists think about their own theories, and that it better accommodates the phenomenon of inconsistent scientific theories.     

To Dream,Perchance to Think: Discussion of Papers by Noelle Burton and Christopher Bonovitz

This is a discussion of papers by Noelle Burton and Christopher Bonovitz, which explores clinical work with patients who are either developmentally incapable of articulating symbolic thought or immersed in a transference–countertransference position in which abstract thinking is foreclosed.     

The meaning of work for South African women: A phenomenological study

This study sought to gain an in-depth understanding of the meaning that women attribute to their work in the South African context. The six women informants were 27–32 years old, all with tertiary education, in senior positions, without children. Data on the meaning of work for South African women were collected using semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that the meaning of work for South African women changes when they experience work autonomy. Working women also report having a sense of identity and self-worth, meeting instrumental needs, achieving social relatedness, and being of service to others. The meaning of work also comes from intrinsic satisfaction, a sense of power and authority.     

Resisting self-compassion: Why are some people opposed to being kind to themselves?

Although self-compassion is associated with positive emotions, resilience, and well-being, some people resist recommendations to treat themselves with kindness and compassion. This study investigated how people’s personal values and evaluations of self-compassionate behaviors relate to their level of self-compassion. After completing measures of trait self-compassion and values, participants rated how they would view themselves after behaving in a self-compassionate and self-critical way. Overall, participants associated self-compassion with positive attributes that connote emotional well-being, yet only those who were low in trait self-compassion associated self-compassionate responding with negative attributes that involve low motivation, self-indulgence, low conscientiousness, and poor performance. Participants’ endorsement of basic values was not meaningfully related to their evaluations of self-compassionate vs. self-critical behaviors or to self-compassion scores. We propose that self-compassion might operate as an instrumental value insofar as those high vs. low in self-compassion differ in their beliefs about whether self-compassion affects performance-related outcomes positively or negatively.     

Opening minds by supporting needs: do autonomy and competence support facilitate mindfulness and academic performance?

Social Psychology of Education - In a pair of studies, the present research examined mindfulness as a mediator through which perceived support for the basic psychological needs of autonomy and...     

The effect of perceived control on self-reported cardiovascular disease incidence across adulthood and old age

Objective: To examine whether rates of change in perceived control are predictive of cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence across adulthood and old age.

Design: We used the PATH Through Life Project (n = 7103, M = 40, SD = 16; 52% women), a longitudinal panel survey that encompasses three cohorts at Time 1, ages 20–24, 40–44 and 60–64, who have been assessed three times at four-year intervals.

Method: We examined whether rates of change in perceived control were associated with CVD incidence over 8 years of time, over and above that of baseline levels of perceived control and known risk factors for CVD.

Main Outcome Measures: Self-reported CVD incidence.

Results: Increases in perceived control over time were associated with decreased likelihood of 8-year incidence of CVD and these effects were independent of socio-demographics, covariates and baseline levels of perceived control. The effects were consistent across young adulthood, midlife and old age and for men and women.

Conclusions: Findings demonstrate the importance of changes in perceived control as a predictor of CVD incidence across adulthood and old age. We suggest future research using mediation analysis to test reverse causality and mechanisms underlying the effects of perceived control on CVD incidence.