Modulation of Amygdala Response by Cognitive Conflict in Adolescents with Conduct Problems and Varying Levels of CU Traits

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Adolescents with conduct problems and low callous-unemotional traits are characterised by high levels of reactive aggression. Prior studies...     

For better and for worse: everyday social comparisons between romantic partners

The authors examined the frequency, direction, and impact of social comparisons between romantic partners. Comparisons were expected to occur on a daily basis, owing to regular interactions between partners. To the extent that one empathizes and shares outcomes with one's partner, one might respond more positively to upward than to downward comparisons. Study 1a was an experience-sampling study in which participants reported comparisons made to their spouse over 2 weeks. Study 1b examined reactions to the most significant comparisons made during the experience-sampling study. Participants reported making comparisons to their romantic partner more than once a day on average and experienced more positive responses to upward than to downward comparisons. Study 2 demonstrated that participants empathized and shared outcomes with their partner to a greater extent than with a friend. Study 3 confirmed that participants responded more positively to upward than to downward comparisons even for domains high in self-relevance and even when the comparison had negative self-evaluative implications. These results suggest that, owing to higher levels of empathy and shared fate with partners, comparisons function differently in romantic than in other relationships.     

Cults,Consumerism, and the Construction of Self: Exploring the Religious within Fight Club

This article explores the manner in which the creation of new religious movements is depicted in the Fight Club narrative, not only through sardonic, stereotypical ‘cult’ imagery, but also through an academic lens; the narrative fits perfectly with the psychopathology model of cult recruitment as recapitulated by Stark and Bainbridge. The nature and motivations of new religious groups, even to the most worldly student of religion, can seem alien and mysterious to the rational contemporary mind, making the possibility for an empathetic methodological approach remote indeed. However, the presentation of the new religious movement created within the Fight Club narrative is unique in its familiarity to the modern consumerist West. The article also highlights the fascinating insights of the Fight Club narrative into the power of consumerism in a post-modern world, bringing to light ideas of the ‘religion of the market’ and the resulting fundamentalisms created by unstable belief systems and transient notions of self. Focusing particularly on the prominent demographic of ‘Generation X’, this analysis of the Fight Club narrative offers a detailed portrayal of the potential religious crises facing the consumerist West in its entirety.     

Distribution of the product confidence limits for the indirect effect: Program PRODCLIN

This article describes a program, PRODCLIN (distribution of the PRODuct Confidence Limits for INdirect effects), written for SAS, SPSS, and R, that computes confidence limits for the product of two normal random variables. The program is important because it can be used to obtain more accurate confidence limits for the indirect effect, as demonstrated in several recent articles (MacKinnon, Lockwood, & Williams, 2004; Pituch, Whittaker, & Stapleton, 2005). Tests of the significance of and confidence limits for indirect effects based on the distribution of the product method have more accurate Type I error rates and more power than other, more commonly used tests. Values for the two paths involved in the indirect effect and their standard errors are entered in the PRODCLIN program, and distribution of the product confidence limits are computed. Several examples are used to illustrate the PRODCLIN program. The PRODCLIN programs in rich text format may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

Spatial metaphors in thinking about other people

Spatial metaphors contribute to our capacity for abstract thought. Consistent with this idea, it has been shown that processing semantic information (related to valence, power, etc.) can bias performance in a spatial task. Advancing this line of work, the present study examined whether spatial metaphors have a role in thinking about other people. Participants read short vignettes about academic performance, health or social life, which described students in superior and inferior states. In Experiment 1, after reading each vignette, participants were explicitly asked to assign a location to each protagonist using a pen-and-paper task. Findings from this experiment provided initial indication that thinking about the protagonists could recruit spatial metaphors. In Experiments 2 and 3, each vignette was immediately followed by an implicit test of spatial association. In Experiment 2, participants performed a name-recognition task in response to the protagonists’ names presented above or below the central fixation. In this experiment, metaphorical congruency facilitated performance. In Experiment 3, participants were presented with names at central fixation, followed by a visual discrimination target (“X”/”O”) above or below fixation. In this experiment, metaphorical congruency interfered with performance. The diverging patterns of results are explained in terms of the conjunction and separation of the conceptual and perceptual components of the recognition task, respectively, in Experiments 2 and 3. Overall, the findings support the role of spatial metaphors in thinking about other people and, more generally, for the spontaneous use of space in conceptual processes.     

Two studies of the movement responses in young children: new and highly discrepant norms

The Holtzman Ink Blot Test was administered to 5- to 6-year-old children and analyzed for movement response. The range and frequency of movement response in both an original and replication study are significantly greater than would have been anticipated for this age group based upon available normative data. NO significant differences were found in the frequency of Human Movement and Animal Movement responses. No sex difference among subjects was found in the range and frequency of movement responses produced. These new findings call into question previously reported data as well as some of the theoretical presumptions underlying the production of movement responses by young children.     

Fine points aside: data are data

Movement responses by 5 1/2- to 6 1/2-year-old children on the Holtzman Inkblot Test were reported on by Lockwood et al. in volume 45 of this Journal. Criticism of the findings discussed in that article by J. Swartz, Reinehr, and C. Swartz was published in the December, 1981, volume of the Journal. The present article rebuts their criticism and emphasizes the significance of the original findings which reflect new and highly discrepant normative M response data from that previously available.     

Increasing the salience of one's best selves can undermine inspiration by outstanding role models

The accessibility of people's highest hopes and achievements can affect their reactions to upward comparisons. Three studies showed that, under normal circumstances, individuals were inspired by an outstanding role model; their motivation and self-evaluations were enhanced. However, when their most positive self-views were temporarily or chronically activated, inspiration was undermined, and individuals' motivation and self-evaluations tended to decrease. Another study found that role models inspired participants to generate more spectacular hopes and achievements than they would have generated otherwise. It appears that increasing the accessibility of one's best selves undercuts inspiration because it constrains the positivity of the future selves one may imagine and prevents one from generating the more spectacular future selves that the role model normally inspires.