Slurs under quotation

Philosophical Studies - Against content theories of slurs, according to which slurs have some kind of derogatory content, Anderson and Lepore have objected that they cannot explain that even slurs...     

Are Gender Differences in Vocational Interests Universal?: Moderating Effects of Cultural Dimensions

Are men and women more similar or different in their interests in careers? This question has propelled decades of research into the association between gender and vocational interests. However, our understanding of this question in an international context remains limited. In this study, we examined gender differences in vocational interests across national and cultural contexts by exploring whether national cultural dimensions would be associated with gender differences in the structure and mean levels of vocational interests in people/things, ideas/data, and prestige. Our findings support similarity in the structure of vocational interests for men and women across 42 countries based on two major models on interests. General trends of gender differences in interests emerge such that in comparison to men, women tend to report a large preference for working with people (versus things; d = 1.04), and smaller preferences for working with ideas (versus data; d = 0.29) and with prestige (d = 0.18). National cultural dimensions appear to moderate gender differences in interests beyond the influences of national gender inequality. Specifically, gender differences in interests in people (versus things) tend to be larger in countries of higher uncertainty avoidance and higher indulgence whereas gender differences in ideas (versus data) tend to be larger in countries of higher indulgence, uncertainty avoidance, and lower power distance. This study highlights how a better conceptualization of the influences of culture can inform vocational psychologists, gender studies researchers, and career counselors’ work with men and women in understanding their vocational interests.

     

Blunted Flanker P300 Demonstrates Specificity to Depressive Symptoms in Females during Adolescence

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Recent research suggests that depressive disorders in adults are characterized by reductions in flanker P300 amplitude, and that a reduced flanker...     

Estimation of Health-State Utility Values and Factors Driving Health-Related Quality of Life in People Living with HIV and AIDS and Receiving cART in Germany: Baseline Analysis of a Cohort Study

Applied Research in Quality of Life - HIV has become a chronic disease since widespread of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART). Understanding the influence of therapeutic and preventive...     

Development and Initial Validation of the Multicultural Personality Inventory (MPI)

Two studies summarize the development and initial validation of the Multicultural Personality Inventory (MPI). In Study 1, the 115-item prototype MPI was administered to 415 university students where exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 70-item, 7-factor model. In Study 2, the 70-item MPI and theoretically related companion instruments were administered to a multisite sample of 576 university students. Confirmatory factory analysis found the 7-factor structure to be a relatively good fit to the data (Comparative Fit Index =.954; root mean square error of approximation =.057), and MPI factors predicted variance in criterion variables above and beyond the variance accounted for by broad personality traits (i.e., Big Five). Study limitations and directions for further validation research are specified.     

Searching for Sharks and a Second Self

Twenty years ago, Pastoral Psychology published “The Extra Mile—Case History of a Homicide” (Moss, Pastoral Psychology 42:107–136, 1993, p.134). In that autobiographical vignette, I argued that pastoral theology has a responsibility to: “1) articulate contemporary ultimate concerns, 2) clarify healthy avenues for compensation, and 3) tell stories about the hopeful revelations of God’s providence in a broken world” (Moss, Pastoral Psychology 42:107–136, 1993, p.134). This story illustrates all three of these points by recording a psychological fragmentation and restoration resulting from the death of a dear friend—“a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). Aristotle referred to this type of friend as “a second self.” In the Celtic church such a person was anam cara, a Gaelic expression for “soul friend.” A few years ago I lost such a friend to cancer. During my grieving process I created a private tribute from our unfulfilled wish to go on one more adventure together—specifically, a shark hunt. The capture and release of sharks is a unique extreme sport. It is also the vehicle by which I finally resolved my grief: I reunited with my second self by means of an image in the eye of a requiem shark, a reflection of anam cara. The interrelated layers of this occurrence—particularly its coincidences—evidence Providence, as well as provide an example of a “Contact with the Dead Experience” described by Andrew Greeley and myself some 20 years ago in the Journal of Religion and Health (Moss, Journal of Religion and Health 29:261–283, 1990).     

Maternal Criticism and Adolescent Depressive and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms: A 6-Year Longitudinal Community Study

This 6-year longitudinal study examined the direction of effects (i.e., parent effects, child effects, or reciprocal effects) between maternal criticism and adolescent depressive and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) symptoms, including adolescents’ perceptions of criticism as a potential mediator. Consistent with recent empirical findings on associations between parenting and adolescent internalizing symptoms, we hypothesized stronger child effects than parent effects. A community sample of 497 adolescents (M _age?=?13.03 at T₁, 57 % boys) reported annually on their depressive and GAD symptoms as well as their perceptions of parental criticism. Their mothers (M _age?=?44.41 at T₁) also reported annually on their own critical behavior toward their adolescent. As expected, cross-lagged panel models demonstrated stronger child effects (i.e., adolescent psychopathology predicting maternal criticism) than parent effects (i.e., maternal criticism predicting adolescent psychopathology) for both adolescent depressive and GAD symptoms, including adolescent perceived criticism as a significant mediator. Our results emphasize the importance of considering (1) potential bidirectional influences over time, contrary to a focus on parent effects on adolescent mental health, as well as (2) adolescent perceptions of parenting as an important potential mediator in associations between aspects of the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescent internalizing psychopathological symptoms.     

Persistent Heightened Cortisol Awakening Response and Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms: A 3-year Longitudinal Community Study

An atypical Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) has been related to adult anxiety and depression, but little is known about the association between long-term atypical CAR and adolescent anxiety and depression. This study aimed to longitudinally identify subgroups of adolescents with distinct levels of CAR (i.e., adolescents with and without persistent atypical CAR) and to examine their development of anxiety and depressive symptoms over 3 successive years. A community sample of 184 Dutch adolescents (M _age?=?14.99 at T₁, 57 % boys) completed annual salivary cortisol assessments at home at time of awakening, and 30 and 60 min post-awakening (i.e., CAR) for 3 successive years. Adolescents also reported annually on their anxiety and depressive disorder symptoms. Latent Class Growth Analysis suggested two subgroups of adolescents with respect to CAR: a “low” group with stable low levels of AUC_g (Area Under the Curve with respect to the ground) over time and a “high” group with high and increasing levels of AUC_g over time. Controlling for sex, the high and low CAR groups significantly differed in depressive symptoms only, but none of the anxiety disorder symptoms. More specifically, adolescents in the high CAR group showed significantly higher mean levels of depressive symptoms over time compared to adolescents in the low CAR group. These results suggest that persistent heightened CAR is a more consistent, yet modest, correlate of adolescent depressive symptoms than anxiety disorder symptoms.     

Exploring the Interplay of Trait Self‐Control and Ego Depletion: Empirical Evidence for Ironic Effects

Trait self‐control (TSC) has been conceptualized as a general and abstract ability to exert self‐regulation across multiple domains that has mostly beneficial effects. However, its relationship to situational depletion of self‐regulatory resources has received little attention. We systematically explore the interplay of trait and situational self‐control in two studies (total N = 264). In contrast with a positive view of TSC, the results show greater ego depletion effects for high (vs. low) self‐control abilities across such diverse domains as candy consumption (Study 1), risk‐taking behaviour (Study 2) and achievement motivation (Study 2). It is proposed that these ironic effects are attributable to high‐TSC individuals' less frequent active inhibition of impulses in everyday life and their resulting lack of experience in resisting acute temptations. A third study (N> = 358) corroborated this general reasoning by showing that TSC is indeed associated with less frequent impulse inhibition in daily routines. Our data point to a downside of dispositional self‐control in ego depletion paradigms. Other explanations and potential future avenues for resolving inconsistent findings across the literature are discussed. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Regular probability comparisons imply the Banach–Tarski Paradox

Consider the regularity thesis that each possible event has non-zero probability. Hájek challenges this in two ways: (a) there can be nonmeasurable events that have no probability at all and (b) on a large enough sample space, some probabilities will have to be zero. But arguments for the existence of nonmeasurable events depend on the axiom of choice (AC). We shall show that the existence of anything like regular probabilities is by itself enough to imply a weak version of AC sufficient to prove the Banach–Tarski Paradox on the decomposition of a ball into two equally sized balls, and hence to show the existence of nonmeasurable events. This provides a powerful argument against unrestricted orthodox Bayesianism that works even without AC. A corollary of our formal result is that if every partial order extends to a total preorder while maintaining strict comparisons, then the Banach–Tarski Paradox holds. This yields an argument that incommensurability cannot be avoided in ambitious versions of decision theory.