Temptation Bias: Can Self-enhancement Limit the Influence of Gender Stereotypes?

Temptation bias is the tendency to see oneself as better than others at resisting temptation. To understand the influence of self-enhancement and gender stereotypes on temptation bias, 215 undergraduates from a university located in the southwest region of the United States compared their ability to resist ten sexually tempting scenarios to that of others in general, and to their romantic partner (Study 1). An additional 151 undergraduates from the same university rated their own or their partner’s ability to resist seven sexually tempting scenarios compared to other men and women (Study 2). Results revealed that temptation bias was present but reduced when romantic partners were the comparison targets; and when comparing themselves to others, women displayed temptation bias regardless of the gender of the referent while men displayed temptation bias only when comparing themselves to men.     

Applied Logic without Psychologism

Logic is a celebrated representation language because of its formal generality. But there are two senses in which a logic may be considered general, one that concerns a technical ability to discriminate between different types of individuals, and another that concerns constitutive norms for reasoning as such. This essay embraces the former, permutation-invariance conception of logic and rejects the latter, Fregean conception of logic. The question of how to apply logic under this pure invariantist view is addressed, and a methodology is given. The pure invariantist view is contrasted with logical pluralism, and a methodology for applied logic is demonstrated in remarks on a variety of issues concerning non-monotonic logic and non-monotonic inference, including Charles Morgan’s impossibility results for non-monotonic logic, David Makinson’s normative constraints for non-monotonic inference, and Igor Douven and Timothy Williamson’s proposed formal constraints on rational acceptance.     

Cognitive Coping Tool Kit for Psychosis: Development of a Group-Based Curriculum

This article outlines an 8-week curriculum that was created to help outpatients develop cognitive and behavioral skills for coping with delusions and hallucinations as well as to reduce patients’ comorbid subjective levels of distress (e.g., depression, anxiety). The manualized protocol consisted of psychoeducation and training in a variety of CBT skills that have shown promise in treating individuals with residual psychosis, using recovery-oriented “naturalistic” methods and culminating in the creation of an individualized “tool kit” of cognitive coping resources. A preliminary study of the effectiveness of this brief group-based CBT program for outpatients with chronic, residual symptoms of schizophrenia was conducted. Participants were 24 outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders who were stable on medications and connected to case management community follow-up. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for Schizophrenia interview and the Symptom Checklist-90 self-report symptom scales were administered pre- and post-intervention. The results suggest that there were significant improvements in psychotic symptoms and self-reported distress from pre- to posttreatment.     

Multiple Mechanisms of Prime-to-Behavior Effects

Recent research has explored how the activation of social constructs via priming can affect behavior. Multiple mechanisms have received support, including direct activation of behavioral representations, goal activation, biases in person perception, biases in situation perception, and biases in self-perception. We review the evolving complexity of proposed prime-to-behavior mechanisms, discuss the predictions of each mechanism, and suggest some integrative principles that influence how and when primed constructs affect behavior.     

Individual differences in anterior brain asymmetry and fundamental dimensions of emotion.

This research assessed whether individual differences in anterior brain asymmetry are linked to differences in basic dimensions of emotion. In each of 2 experimental sessions, separated by 3 weeks, resting electroencephalogram (EEG) activity was recorded from female adults during 8 60-s baselines. Mean alpha power asymmetry across both sessions was extracted in mid-frontal and anterior temporal sites. Across both regions, groups demonstrating stable and extreme relative left anterior activation reported increased generalized positive affect (PA) and decreased generalized negative affect (NA) compared with groups demonstrating stable and extreme relative right anterior activation. Additional correlational analyses revealed robust relations between anterior asymmetry and PA and NA, particularly among subjects who demonstrated stable patterns of EEG activation over time. Anterior asymmetry was unrelated to individual differences in generalized reactivity.     

Helping Groups Determine Their Most Accurate Member: The Role of Outcome Feedback1

One of the difficulties groups have when making quantitative judgments is determining the relative quality of members’ inputs. Outcome feedback was investigated as a method for improving the ability of groups to identify their most accurate member. Results indicate that groups given outcome feedback were better at identifying their best member than were groups that practiced without feedback. This occurred even though the same individual was seldom the most accurate across items. However, groups given feedback were not as accurate as their best member any more often. This suggests that groups given feedback are learning how to discriminate valid from invalid cues, but are not using this information consistently when making their group estimates.     

Counselling problem drinkers: The realm of specialists. Alcoholics Anonymous or generic counsellors?

A study was carried out to investigate counsellors' attitudes and experiences in working with people with drinking problems and counsellors' understanding of Alcoholics Anonymous as a helping agent. Ninety-four counsellors responded to a questionnaire about their work with people with drinking problems and their knowledge of AA. Generic counsellors tended not to feel competent working with clients with alcohol problems. Feelings of competence increased with greater experience of the client group and, to a lesser extent, with more hours of specialist training. It was found that counsellors whose intake of alcohol amounted to more than eight units per week were less likely to take on clients with alcohol problems than were those who drank less. Counsellors usually had some knowledge of AA but had little understanding of the 12-step programme that forms the basis of recovery for alcoholics as described by AA. They were, however, in favour of clients attending AA as an adjunct to individual counselling