Social Orientation of Students in the Israeli State High School System

In this study, we focused on the relationship between schools differing in their ideologies, beliefs, and environments and students' social orientations. Three research instruments, each examining different social orientations, were administered to 331 11th-grade students attending a random sample of national-religious and national-secular high schools in the Israeli state educational system. The results indicated that students in the national-religious sector had a more conservative social orientations profile than national-secular sector students, who tended to have more liberal and optimistic social orientations.     

FROM MISSION TO MEMORY: WALTER BENJAMIN AND WERNER SCHOLEM IN THE LIFE AND WORK OF GERSHOM SCHOLEM

This article deals with Gershom Scholem's role in the remembrance and reception of two of the most influential figures of his youth: Walter Benjamin and Werner Scholem. The first part of the article examines his role in the reception and remembrance of Walter Benjamin in Germany, focusing on his position among émigré intellectuals in the light of Scholem's complex relationship with his friend and colleague Theodor Adorno. The second part of the article compares Scholem's memory of his friend with the remembrance of his brother, the communist politician Werner Scholem. By analysing the way Gershom Scholem reflected his relationship with his friend and his brother throughout the 1960s and 1970s, his own position towards the political and social changes in post war Germany is discussed.     

Aspects of situated cognition in embodied numerosity: the case of finger counting

Numerical cognitions such as spatial-numerical associations have been observed to be influenced by grounded, embodied and situated factors. For the case of finger counting, grounded and embodied influences have been reported. However, situated influences, e.g., that reported counting habits change with perception and action within a given situation, have not been systematically examined. To pursue the issue of situatedness of reported finger-counting habits, 458 participants were tested in three separate groups: (1) spontaneous condition: counting with both hands available, (2) perceptual condition: counting with horizontal (left-to-right) perceptual arrangement of fingers (3) perceptual and proprioceptive condition: counting with horizontal (left-to-right) perceptual arrangement of fingers and with busy dominant hand. Report of typical counting habits differed strongly between the three conditions. 28 % reported to start counting with the left hand in the spontaneous counting condition (1), 54 % in the perceptual condition (2) and 62 % in the perceptual and proprioceptive condition (3). Additionally, all participants in the spontaneous counting group showed a symmetry-based counting pattern (with the thumb as number 6), while in the two other groups, a considerable number of participants exhibited a spatially continuous counting pattern (with the pinkie as number 6). Taken together, the study shows that reported finger-counting habits depend on the perceptual and proprioceptive situation and thus are strongly influenced by situated cognition. We suggest that this account reconciles apparently contradictory previous findings of different counting preferences regarding the starting hand in different examination situations.     

Exploring the effects of ownership and choice on self-memory biases

Objects encoded in the context of temporary ownership by self enjoy a memorial advantage over objects owned by other people. This memory effect has been linked to self-referential encoding processes. The current inquiry explored the extent to which the effects of ownership are influenced by the degree of personal choice involved in assigning ownership. In three experiments pairs of participants chose objects to keep for ownership by self, and rejected objects that were given to the other participant to own. Recognition memory for the objects was then assessed. Experiment 1 showed that participants recognised more items encoded as "self-owned" than "other-owned", but only when they had been chosen by self. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern when participants' sense of choice was illusory. A source memory test in Experiment 3 showed that self-chosen items were most likely to be correctly attributed to ownership by self. These findings are discussed with reference to the link between owned objects and the self, and the routes through which self-referential operations can impact on cognition.     

Learning and development of embodied numerosity

Recent empirical evidence indicates that seemingly abstract numerical cognitions are rooted in sensory and bodily experiences. In particular in finger counting finger-based representations reflect a specific case of embodied cognition, we termed embodied numerosity. Furthermore, we suggest that finger-based representations should be considered a distinct representation of number (magnitude) and argue that this representation is activated automatically whenever we encounter a number. We discuss in what way such a theoretical framework can account for the associations of fingers and numbers observed so far. In the final part, we evaluate whether the concept of embodied numerosity should be generalized beyond finger-based representations with particular focus on whether bodily-sensory experiences (such as moving the whole body along the mental number line) may corroborate numerical capabilities. In a series of intervention studies, we consistently observed more pronounced training effects for our embodied numerosity trainings for different age groups, different digital media, different number ranges, and different control conditions. Taken together, we conclude that embodied representations of number (magnitude) exist, are not limited to finger-based representations, and influence number processing in a systematic and functional way that can be used to foster the efficiency of numerical trainings.     

Doing Good, Feeling Good, and Having More: Resources Mediate the Health Benefits of Altruism Differently for Males and Females with Lumbar Spine Disorders

We evaluated whether resources mediate and/or moderate the relationship between altruism and health outcomes in adults with lumbar spine disorders. Hierarchical regression modeling on 243 persons with lumbar spine disorders evaluated gender differences and whether physical, emotional, and economic resources mediated or moderated the relationship between altruism (Schwartz Altruism) and health (Rand-36, PROMIS Pain Impact). Men and women had similar altruism subscale scores, but there were gender differences in the altruism-health relationships. Both men and women had better mental health with higher levels of Community Connection, after adjusting for Community Pressure, and this effect was mediated by emotional resources. Women evidenced better physical health and less pain impact when they endorsed higher levels of Community Connection and/or General Helping aspects of altruism. Physical and economic resources partially but did not fully mediate women??s altruism-physical health link. The altruism-pain impact link was not significant after adjusting for covariates. Men and women report similar levels of altruism but enjoy different benefits. Emotional resources explained the altruism-mental health link in both genders, but women experienced a physical health benefit of altruism that was not mediated by resources. Future research should test causal relationships.     

In Search of the Underlying Mechanism of the Disposition Effect

Using comprehensive data from the Finnish stock market, we assess the explanatory value of the three most commonly cited explanations for the disposition effect: prospect theory, belief in mean reversion, and escalation of commitment. In general, the results provide evidence for the presence of the disposition effect. More importantly, the effect appears to be significantly more pronounced when investors are personally responsible for the initial investment decision. This finding suggests that investor behavior is influenced above all by self‐justificatory concerns, an interpretation that is consistent with the escalation of commitment‐based explanation of the disposition effect. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The linkage between infant negative temperament and parenting self‐efficacy: The role of resilience against negative performance feedback

Caring for infants with negative reactive temperament may tax parents' confidence in their caregiving ability, or parenting self‐efficacy (PSE). This may happen in particular in parents who interpret these signals as negative feedback on their performance. To test this hypothesis, 179 first‐time pregnant women were presented a caregiving simulation that provided positive and negative feedback on their attempts to comfort a crying baby. According to their PSE resilience to negative feedback during the task, they were grouped in a high resilient and low resilient group. PSE was followed up at 32 weeks of pregnancy and 3 and 12 months after birth, while perceived temperament of the child was assessed at 3 and 12 months after birth. Results showed that among women with low resilience against negative feedback, perceived negative temperament was negatively associated with PSE at 3 months, whereas no such association was observed among women with high resilience against negative feedback. Implications of the concept of resilience for the study of PSE are discussed.     

Continuity Between DSM–5 Section II and III Personality Disorders in a Dutch Clinical Sample

The goal of this study was to evaluate the continuity across the Section II personality disorders (PDs) and the proposed Section III model of PDs in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed. [DSM–5]; American Psychiatric Association, 2013a American Psychiatric Association. (2013a). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). More specifically, we analyzed association between the DSM–5 Section III pathological trait facets and Section II PDs among 110 Dutch adults (M age = 35.8 years, range = 19–60 years) receiving mental health care. We administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM–IV Axis II Disorders to all participants. Participants also completed the self-report Personality Inventory for DSM–5 (PID–5) as a measure of pathological trait facets. The distributions underlying the dependent variable were modeled as criterion counts, using negative binomial regression. The results provided some support for the validity of the PID–5 and the DSM–5 Section III Alternative Model, although analyses did not show a perfect match. Both at the trait level and the domain level, analyses showed mixed evidence of significant relationships between the PID–5 trait facets and domains with the traditional DSM–IV PDs.