Bilingual comparison of Mandarin and English cognitive bias tasks

Most research into cognitive biases has used Western samples, despite potential East-West socio-cultural differences. One reason is the lack of appropriate measures for non-Westerners. This study is about cross-linguistic equivalence which needs to be established before assessing cross-cultural differences in future research. We developed parallel Mandarin and English measures of interpretation bias and attention bias using back-translation and decentering procedures. We assessed task equivalence by administering both sets of measures to 47 bilingual Mandarin-English speakers. Interpretation bias measurement was similar and reliable across language versions, confirming suitability of the Mandarin versions for future cross-cultural research. By contrast, scores on attention bias tasks did not intercorrelate reliably, suggesting that nonverbal stimuli such as pictures or facial expressions of emotion might present better prospects for cross-cultural comparison. The development of the first set of equivalent measures of interpretation bias in an Eastern language paves the way for future research investigating East-West differences in biased cognition.     

Dimensionality,identity and security: finding a home through psychoanalysis

This paper suggests that Meltzer’s understanding of the development of inner space can be thought about in relation to how a state of ‘being at home’ can be impaired through early trauma and developmental failure. It shows how a very young child developed a greater capacity for recognising inner and outer experience and consequently a greater awareness of inner space through intensive psychotherapy. Clinical material is presented in which this two-year-old boy moves from profound disorientation and disconnection, through physical containment and moments of communication, to some shared expression and symbolisation of his preoccupations. The author uses episodes from the psychotherapy to illustrate links between Meltzer’s thoughts on impaired interior dimensionality and a resulting terror of the ‘breaking of surfaces’ with Winnicott’s understanding of the necessary ‘gravitational pull’ of a good internal object and the negative retreat which may be caused by overwhelming anxiety. The paper suggests that a developmental approach to psychotherapy with young children has some technical ramifications which might include physical containment, emphasised attunement, simple observational commentary and developmental interpretation. The relationship between interior and exterior spatial awareness is discussed and brief reference is made to a study of psychotherapy with homeless adults regarding their capacity to make use of a physical home. Finally, Bion’s encouragement to abandon memory and desire is discussed in relation to the need traumatised children may have for environmental hope and hopefulness in the person of their therapist.     

Trait Aggressiveness and Aggressive Behavior in the Context of Provocation and Inhibition

Aggressive behavior often occurs despite salient cues within the immediate environment that indicate aversive consequences will likely follow. Prior research has shown high trait aggressiveness to be related to sensitivity to situational provocation; however, little research has examined whether it is also related to insensitivity to situational inhibitors. This study examines the relationship between trait aggressiveness and aggressive behavior in a provocative context with, and without, an unambiguous inhibitory stimulus. Prior to experiencing provocation and being afforded the opportunity to retaliate, participants who varied in trait aggressiveness were explicitly given (or not given) an instruction that aggressive behavior might lead to aversive consequences and, thus, one should not behave aggressively. Findings revealed that without the instruction, those higher in trait aggressiveness exhibited steeper increases in aggressive responding as provocation increased. In the group that received the instruction, trait aggressiveness was unrelated to aggressive responding at all levels of provocation.     

Social cognition is not associated with cognitive reserve in older adults

Social and general cognitive abilities decline in late life. Those with high cognitive reserve display better general cognitive performance in old age; however, it is unknown whether this is also the case for social cognition. A total of 115 healthy older adults, aged 60–85 years (m = 44, f = 71) were assessed using The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT-R; social cognition), the Lifetime of Experiences Questionnaire (LEQ; cognitive reserve), and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI-II; general cognitive ability). The LEQ did not predict performance on any TASIT-R subtest: Emotion Evaluation Test (β = -.097, p = .325), Social Inference – Minimal (β = -.004, p = .972), or Social Inference – Enriched (β = -.016, p = .878). Sensitivity analyses using two alternative cognitive reserve measures, years of education and the National Adult Reading Test, supported these effects. Cognitive reserve was strongly related to WASI-II performance. Unlike general cognitive ability, social cognition appears unaffected by cognitive reserve. Findings contribute to the emerging understanding that cognitive reserve differentially affects individual cognitive domains, which has implications for the theoretical understanding of cognitive reserve and its brain correlates. Cognitive measures unbiased by cognitive reserve may serve as best indicators of brain health, free of compensatory mechanisms.     

An Examination of Gendered Violence and School Push-Out Directed Against Urban Black Girls/Adolescents: Illustrative Data,Cases and a Call to Action

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on Black girls/adolescents, a frequently neglected group, given a dominant focus on Black males and their risk status within the school-to-prison pipeline. This article provides a framework for the analysis of the gendered violence to which Black girls/adolescents are subjected while urging a shift in focus from individual-level behavior to a focus on social contextual, structural, and social determinant factors; this means a shift from focusing on proximal factors to distal or upstream factors operating as underlying mechanisms. Both illustrative data and cases are presented and analyzed to highlight how racial disparities in suspension, expulsion, and discipline—which disproportionately negatively impact Black girls/adolescents compared to White girls/adolescents—necessitate a major call to action to close these disturbing gaps.     

From instinct to identity: Implications of changing psychoanalytic concepts of social life from Freud to Erikson

Applied to the interpretation of social phenomena, Freud's insights have been at once extraordinarily fruitful yet susceptible to oversimplification and pejorative stereotyping. A number of his fundamental concepts–the existence of an irrational mass mind, the Oedipal family constellation, the pathology of psychic regression–have, when used to understand collective experience, created powerful myths. Only gradually did he and his successors modify and amplify these myths, resulting in the elaboration of ego psychology and the concept of identity. These concepts connected psychoanalysis with contemporary social, political, and historical thought and allowed more nuanced forms of explanations.     

The impact of a subsequent pregnancy on grief and emotional adjustment following a perinatal loss

The present study examined the impact of a subsequent pregnancy on emotional adjustment associated with a previous perinatal loss and on the following components of parental grief—active grief, difficulty coping, despair. Participants included 25 women and 24 partners who were expecting a baby for the first time since their loss and 25 women and 18 partners who were not expecting and had not had a child or pregnancy after their loss. Depressive symptomatology, anxiety, marital adjustment, as well as active grief, despair, and difficulty coping were measured. Mothers who were not pregnant were experiencing significantly higher levels of despair and difficulty coping than pregnant mothers, independently from the effect of time elapsed since the loss. For the fathers, no significant group effect in emotional distress or intensity of grief was found. Women reported significantly higher levels of negative affectivity than men. A new pregnancy may be associated with a beneficial effect on the mourning process of women with a previous perinatal loss, primarily by decreasing their despair and difficulty coping. However, in our sample, grief intensity remained high, suggesting that the mourning process may not be hindered by a subsequent pregnancy.