How Fragile Is Conditional Cooperation? A Field Experiment with Smartphones during the 2014 Soccer World Cup

We conducted an experiment in a highly cooperative environment to find out how a disruption, similar to a broken window, affects behavior. A centipede game was framed as a game of soccer and run with smartphones during a soccer public viewing event, that is, a Bavarian beer garden with a large screen displaying a soccer game. We provided some subjects with information that was supportive to cooperation and others with disruptive information, aimed at inducing a broken window effect. The disruption reduced the willingness to cooperate at the final stage of the game. But expectations regarding teammates remained unaffected such that cooperation at earlier stages remained high. Cooperation is thus not as fragile as one might fear. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measurement invariance of personality traits from a five-factor model perspective: multi-group confirmatory factor analyses of the HP5 inventory

Associations between personality and health may be influenced by contextual factors varying across studied cohorts. Moreover, measurement bias related to contextual factors could also influence these associations. Gender and age have been discussed as important contextual factors when studying personality and health outcomes. An examination of measurement invariance across gender and age may therefore be warranted. In the present study, measurement invariance across age and gender was examined for a five-factor model of personality traits in which scales have been included to operationalise lower-order traits related to health-behaviour or health outcomes. Using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis on a population based cohort (n= 5700), all important parameters of the measurement model were found to be invariant. On the basis of this invariant model, hypotheses of mean differences across age and gender in personality traits were tested. These results were discussed in relation to meta-analyses on personality change and gender differences in personality.     

A citation analysis of Henri Tajfel's work on intergroup relations

The late Henri Tajfel (1919-1982) is one of the central figures who shaped the development of post-war European social psychology. His contributions range from the establishment of an infrastructure for a European social psychology, and the start of a new intellectual movement within social psychology, to the formulation of a set of concepts addressing intergroup relations that were finally integrated into Social Identity Theory. The present study provides an empirical examination of Tajfel's contribution to intergroup research over the last 30 years via a citation analysis of five journals: the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the British Journal of Social Psychology, the European Journal of Social Psychology, the South African Journal of Psychology, and the German Journal of Social Psychology (Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie). The results indicate that Tajfel's work on intergroup relations is increasingly cited, especially since the 1990s, and the international recognition of his work is substantial. Three possible reasons for the recognition his work still enjoys are proposed: its potential to generate theoretical and empirical controversies; its explanatory power; and the extent to which his work is used as a referential framework.     

The feminization of psychology: data from South Africa

In many countries, women outnumber men in psychology, both as students and as professionals. Much of this information is drawn from Europe and the USA, and the information available about the situation in developing countries is a lot less detailed. The steady increase in the presence of women in psychology in South Africa is examined, via access to two large national databases and telephone interviews. These sources are the most reliable available, and are comprehensive enough to give a very good snapshot of women in psychology in this country over the last 12 years. The data indicate that psychology as a profession in South Africa is dominated by women. Although the applied practical aspects of the discipline attract women disproportionally, women are also over-represented in research psychology and academia (except at the professorial level). The racial composition of the profession remains skewed, with white psychologists in the majority. Although the data in this regard are incomplete, approximately 5% of registered psychologists are black. An examination of student enrolments suggests that this situation will continue in future, as women (and white students) enrol in much greater numbers for both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. In 2002, 74% of psychology majors were women, and 78% of all Master's degrees in psychology were awarded to women. Thus it would appear that the feminization of psychology in this country is further advanced than in Europe and the USA. It is not a question of men abandoning the profession, but rather that women entered the profession at a much higher rate in recent years.     

Play enhances visual form perception in infancy–an active training study

Motor experiences and active exploration during early childhood may affect individual differences in a wide range of perceptual and cognitive abilities. In the current study, we suggest that active exploration of objects facilitates the ability to process object forms and magnitudes, which in turn impacts the development of numerosity perception. We tested our hypothesis by conducting a preregistered active exploration intervention with 59 8‐month‐old infants. The minimal intervention consisted of actively playing with and exploring blocks once a day for 8 weeks. In order to control for possible training effects on attention, we used book reading as a control condition. Pre‐ and post‐test assessments using eye‐tracking showed that block play improved visual form perception, where infants became better at detecting a deviant shape. Furthermore, using three control tasks, we showed that the intervention specifically improved infants' ability to process visual forms and the effect could not be explained by a domain general improvement in attention or visual perception. We found that the intervention did not improve numerosity perception and suggest that because of the sequential nature of our hypothesis, a longer time frame might be needed to see improvements in this ability. Our findings indicate that if infants are given more opportunities for play and exploration, it will have positive effects on their visual form perception, which in turn could help their understanding of geometrical concepts.     

Dissoziative Störung einst und jetzt

psychopraxis. neuropraxis - In der Behandlung der dissoziativen Störungen hat sich in den letzten 150 Jahren sehr viel verändert. Zu Zeiten Jean-Martin Charcots dominierten...     

The Two Dimensions of Narcissistic Personality and Support for the Radical Right: The Role of Right-wing Authoritarianism,Social Dominance Orientation and Anti-immigrant Sentiment

This paper offers an explanation of the link between grandiose narcissism and support for radical right parties. Drawing on representative data of the GESIS Panel (N = 2827), focusing on support for the German radical right populist party Alternative for Germany in 2016 and treating grandiose narcissism as a two-dimensional concept, it is shown that the effects of grandiose narcissism are indirect rather than direct. The paper also reveals that it is mainly narcissistic rivalry that accounts for radical right party support, whereas narcissistic admiration has a protecting relationship. Finally, our results indicate that the indirect effects of narcissistic rivalry on radical right party support via right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, respectively, are mediated by anti-immigrant sentiment. All in all, our results suggest that in studies on ideological orientations and voting behaviour, both dimensions of grandiose narcissism should be considered due to their contradictory relationship. Moreover, our findings indicate that the success of radical right parties might be the expression of personality dispositions of some parts of the electorate. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Effects of game‐based and standard executive control training on cognitive and academic abilities in elementary school children

Several studies indicate that executive functions (EF), such as working memory (WM), inhibition or flexibility can be improved by training and that these training‐related benefits in WM capacity generalize to reading and mathematical abilities. However, the results of these studies are inconsistent and most of them focused on WM training in children with learning difficulties. Evidence for typically developing children is rare and no study has investigated inhibition training or flexibility training. There is also a lack of studies taking motivational factors into account. Therefore, this study compared the effects of game‐based and standard training regimens targeting WM, inhibition, or flexibility in children. One hundred and fifty‐three typically developing elementary school students (mean age = 9.6 years, standard deviations  = 0.8) were investigated in an intervention design with a pretest, 21 sessions of training, a posttest and a follow‐up after three months. They were randomized into one of six training groups or a control group. We found training gains in all training groups and higher self‐reported motivation in the game‐based as compared to the standard training groups. Furthermore, there was domain‐specific transfer to untrained EF tasks across all training groups. We found greater performance improvements in reading ability (but not mathematics) in the game‐based flexibility training group and the game‐based inhibition training group as compared to the control group. Transfer effects were still significant at follow‐up. In sum, our findings provide first evidence for a systematic comparison of training on different domains of EF and their differential effects on academic abilities.