Sex differences in behavioral and cognitive aspects of decision control

Sex differences in three components of decision control were examined in a series of studies utilizing 4-, 9-, and 14-year-old subjects. These components were actual decision control behavior, the cognitive understanding of the masculine or feminine nature of decision control, and the self-perception of decision control skills. At the behavioral level, boys controlled more decision outcomes than girls, especially at the oldest age grouping. In the area of self-perception, girls were less likely to perceive themselves as decision controllers compared to their male counterparts in the oldest age grouping. As far as general attitudes were concerned, neither boys nor girls equated decision control with masculinity. Results are discussed in terms of the socialization of powerlessness in women.     

SUPERORDINATE IDENTIFICATION, SUBGROUP IDENTIFICATION, AND JUSTICE CONCERNS:

Abstract— The diversity of American society raises concerns about whether authorities can maintain social cohesion amid competing interests and values The group-value model of justice suggests that authorities function more effectively when they are perceived as fair (e g, benevolent, neutral, and respectful) However, such relational evaluations may be effective only if authorities represent a group with which people identify In a diverse society, subgroup memberships may assume special importance People who identify predominantly with a subgroup may focus on instrumental issues when evaluating a superordinate-group authority, and conflicts with that authority may escalate if those people do not receive favorable outcomes Results indicate that subgroup identification creates problems for authorities only when people have strong subgroup subgroup identification and weak superordinate-group identification As long as people identify strongly with the superordinate group, even if they also identify strongly with their subgroup, relational issues will dominate reactions to authorities     

Causality,Action and Effective History. Remarks on Gadamer,von Wright and Others

ABSTRACT

Hermeneutics should take Gadamer’s claims about experience and reality seriously, the hermeneutic urgency, described in the following concise ways:

aus der Wahrheit des Erinnerns etwas entgegensetzen: das immer noch und immer wieder Wirkliche. WuM, p. XXVI     

Comorbidity in allergic asthma and allergic rhinitis: functional somatic syndromes

Based on the concept of central sensitisation, the present study tested the hypothesis of comorbidity in allergic asthma and allergic rhinitis with diagnoses of functional somatic syndromes (FSSs), including fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and migraine. Data were used from the population-based Västerbotten Environmental Health Study (n = 3406). The participants consisted of 164 individuals with allergic asthma and 298 individuals with allergic rhinitis as well as 2876 individuals without allergic or non-allergic asthma, allergic rhinitis or atopic dermatitis. Diagnoses were based on self-reports of having been diagnosed by a physician. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated from binary logistic regression analysis, both crude and adjusted for age and education. The adjusted ORs (1.87–4.00) for all FSSs differed significantly from unity for both allergic asthma and rhinitis. The results provide support for the hypothesis of comorbidity in allergic asthma and rhinitis with FSSs. Since central sensitisation is likely to underlie FSSs, the present findings raises the question as to whether central sensitisation may also be involved in allergic asthma and rhinitis.     

How something can be said about telling more than we can know: on choice blindness and introspection

The legacy of Nisbett and Wilson’s classic article, Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes (1977), is mixed. It is perhaps the most cited article in the recent history of consciousness studies, yet no empirical research program currently exists that continues the work presented in the article. To remedy this, we have introduced an experimental paradigm we call choice blindness [Johansson, P., Hall, L., Sikström, S., &; Olsson, A. (2005). Failure to detect mismatches between intention and outcome in a simple decision task. Science, 310(5745), 116–119.]. In the choice blindness paradigm participants fail to notice mismatches between their intended choice and the outcome they are presented with, while nevertheless offering introspectively derived reasons for why they chose the way they did. In this article, we use word-frequency and latent semantic analysis (LSA) to investigate a corpus of introspective reports collected within the choice blindness paradigm. We contrast the introspective reasons given in non-manipulated vs. manipulated trials, but find very few differences between these two groups of reports.     

Segregation of the Ego and Intra-Psychic Projection as a Defence against Super-Ego Anxiety

The process of psychoanalysis always involves two persons. The desire to be understood by the other is shared by analysand and analyst. In this article, this theme is discussed from several points of view. The precursors of shared creative experience, the importance of fiction, the listening to what is said between the lines, the mystical element and the playing in psychoanalysis are discussed.