Attentional biases and memory for emotional stimuli in men and male rhesus monkeys

We examined attentional biases for social and non-social emotional stimuli in young adult men and compared the results to those of male rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) previously tested in a similar dot-probe task (King et al. in Psychoneuroendocrinology 37(3):396–409, 2012). Recognition memory for these stimuli was also analyzed in each species, using a recognition memory task in humans and a delayed non-matching-to-sample task in monkeys. We found that both humans and monkeys displayed a similar pattern of attentional biases toward threatening facial expressions of conspecifics. The bias was significant in monkeys and of marginal significance in humans. In addition, humans, but not monkeys, exhibited an attentional bias away from negative non-social images. Attentional biases for social and non-social threat differed significantly, with both species showing a pattern of vigilance toward negative social images and avoidance of negative non-social images. Positive stimuli did not elicit significant attentional biases for either species. In humans, emotional content facilitated the recognition of non-social images, but no effect of emotion was found for the recognition of social images. Recognition accuracy was not affected by emotion in monkeys, but response times were faster for negative relative to positive images. Altogether, these results suggest shared mechanisms of social attention in humans and monkeys, with both species showing a pattern of selective attention toward threatening faces of conspecifics. These data are consistent with the view that selective vigilance to social threat is the result of evolutionary constraints. Yet, selective attention to threat was weaker in humans than in monkeys, suggesting that regulatory mechanisms enable non-anxious humans to reduce sensitivity to social threat in this paradigm, likely through enhanced prefrontal control and reduced amygdala activation. In addition, the findings emphasize important differences in attentional biases to social versus non-social threat in both species. Differences in the impact of emotional stimuli on recognition memory between monkeys and humans will require further study, as methodological differences in the recognition tasks may have affected the results.     

The Role of the Therapist's Subjectivity: Using Countertransference in Psychotherapy

No abstract available for this article.     

Orientation priming of grasping decision for drawings of objects and blocks,and words

This study tested the influence of orientation priming on grasping decisions. Two groups of 20 healthy participants had to select a preferred grasping orientation (horizontal, vertical) based on drawings of everyday objects, geometric blocks or object names. Three priming conditions were used: congruent, incongruent and neutral. The facilitating effects of priming were observed in the grasping decision task for drawings of objects and blocks but not object names. The visual information about congruent orientation in the prime quickened participants’ responses but had no effect on response accuracy. The results are discussed in the context of the hypothesis that an object automatically potentiates grasping associated with it, and that the on-line visual information is necessary for grasping potentiation to occur. The possibility that the most frequent orientation of familiar objects might be included in object-action representation is also discussed.     

A review of theoretical and empirical advancements

In this article, we review both theoretical and empirical advancements in retirement adjustment research. After reviewing and integrating current theories about retirement adjustment, we propose a resource-based dynamic perspective to apply to the understanding of retirement adjustment. We then review empirical findings that are associated with the key research questions in this literature: (a) What is the general impact of retirement on the individual? and (b) What are the factors that influence retirement adjustment quality? We also highlight important future research directions that may be fruitful for psychologists to pursue in this area.     

Multicultural Counseling Beyond the Relationship: Expanding the Repertoire With Techniques

Multicultural counseling approaches variously focus on the counseling relationship. Relatively few discuss clinical techniques and strategies to any significant extent. This article explores enhancing multicultural counseling by offering an array of techniques and strategies based on addressing oppression and increasing psychological freedom. Techniques offered seek to internally free a person cognitively, affectively, and systemically using the Precursors Model of Change (Hanna, 2002). The goal is to help set a person free from oppressive, discriminatory systems and individuals.     

Striptease Spectators: Live and Imaginary

In the United States, adult entertainment striptease (also called exotic dance, nude dancing, and topless dancing) has both live and imaginary spectators. The real audience consists of those who actually enter a club (cabaret, theater), such as patrons and club personnel. However, there are people who only imagine what exotic dance is. I will comment on real and imaginary exotic dance spectators, the values they have, the actions they take that impact exotic dance, and the implications of these actions. A mosaic of contested meanings of exotic dance affects its existence or modification as well as American civil liberties. There are some feminist and uninformed imaginary spectators. Most active is an absent, imaginary audience of a segment of the politically active Christian Right that adheres to its interpretation of Scripture. Imaginary spectators are usually blind and deaf to the actual language of a dance form. Some believe exotic dance to be sinful and/or to cause crime, property depreciation, and disease, contrary to scientific evidence. These spectators’ actions in many places have destroyed the contemporary genre of exotic dance, hurt the industry economically, and caused the loss of jobs. Actual spectators, patrons who expect to see the same full nudity and sexy dance movements that are seen in “high” (“elite”) forms of art such as ballet, opera, modern dance, and theater, believe in free expression and unfettered enterprise and join the defense of exotic dance.     

Some conceptual problems involved in the consideration of disorders of narcissism

In a number of different areas of work at the Hampstead Clinic research groups have been concerned with the progressive refinement of psychoanalytic concepts in their application to clinical material. In particular, the procedure of systematic indexing of psychoanalytic case material (Sandler, 1962) and the routine application of Anna Freud's Diagnostic Profile (Anna Freud, 1963), have thrown up problems relating to the conceptual tools at our disposal for the evaluation of what can, broadly speaking, be called “disorders of narcissism”.     

Transport and use of common objects: Influence of weight on action planning

Internal knowledge and visual cues about object's weight play an important role in grasping and lifting objects. It has been shown that both visual cues and internal knowledge might influence movement kinematics and force production depending on action goal (use vs. transport). However, there is little evidence about weight's influence on action planning as reflected by initiation time. In the present study we investigated this issue. In Experiment 1, participants had to grasp light and heavy objects (without moving them) to either use or transport them. In Experiment 2 we asked another group of participants to actually use or transport the same objects. We observed that initiation times were faster for heavy objects than for light objects in both the transport and use tasks, but only in Experiment 2. Thus, weight influenced the planning of use and transport actions, only when the end-goal of the action was really achieved. These data are incompatible with the hypothesis that only use actions are supported by stored object's representations. They rather suggest that in some circumstances, depending of the end-goal of the action and the physical constraints the planning of both use and transport actions are based on stored object representation.