Need,Compassion, and Support for Social Welfare

Funding for social welfare depends on citizen support. Drawing on evolutionary psychological approaches to politics, we study two types of need that might shape citizens' welfare support by regulating their feelings of compassion. One type of need is a recipient's absolute need. The other type is acute need created by sudden misfortune, such as sudden job loss. Across four studies, we find that absolute and acute needs independently affect compassion and welfare attitudes. This leads to potential inefficiencies in judgments: People who have fallen far are judged more deserving of compassion and access to welfare even when they are not in an absolute sense the most impoverished.     

Predicting Burnout Among HIV/AIDS and Oncology Health Care Workers

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between repressive coping, controllability, self-esteem and comparative optimism for health-related events. Repressors (low trait anxiety-high defensiveness) compared with both (a) specific control groups on anxiety and defensiveness (e.g., low-anxious, high-anxious and defensive high anxious) and (b) total nonrepressors were significantly more comparatively optimistic for health-related events. Repressors remained significantly more comparatively optimistic than total nonrepressors when self-esteem was partialled out.

For individual events, repressors differed in comparative optimism for events which were rated as high controllability. It is concluded that repressors are exhibiting comparative optimism over and above nonrepressor groups for events which are rated as controllable. These results suggest that comparative optimism findings may be exaggerated by not controlling for the disproportionate influence of repressors in skewing sample means. Suggestions for future studies are discussed.     

Illness perceptions and self efficacy beliefs in adolescents and young adults with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus

Abstract

The study examined the role of illness perceptions and self-efficacy in diabetic regimen adherence and metabolic control among young patients with Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM). Sixty-four outpatients with Insulin Dependent Diabetes completed measures of illness perceptions, generalised and diabetes specific self-efficacy and a self-report measure of adherence. Metabolic control (HbAlc) was also assessed. Control, identity and consequences components of illness perceptions were significantly correlated with self-efficacy expectancies. Control beliefs were consistently associated with self-reported adherence across all treatment aspects and accounted for 39% of the predicted variance in total adherence. The associations of the other psychological predictors examined, varied depending on the regimen area. Multiple regression analysis showed that 30.8% of the variance in HbAlc assays was explained by patients' diabetes specific self-efficacy, consequences and identity. Our findings suggest that patients' beliefs are useful predictors of physiological and behavioural outcomes in diabetes self-management and should thus be the focus of routine clinical assessments and future interventions.     

Identifying repressors: A methodological issue for health psychology

Abstract

The majority of studies in health psychology use self-report measures. However, there is a growing body of evidence indicating that this methodology may be problematic for a significant minority of the population: individuals who possess a repressive coping style (repressors). Repressors, who fail to report negative affect, answer many self-report measures in a positive fashion. Research has identified an association between repressors, who are identified by low trait anxiety scores and high defensiveness scores, and adverse health outcomes. Therefore, repressors are an important group for health psychologists to investigate. Health psychology research should use more than one method of data collection in an attempt to unravel this difficult methodological problem.     

The interaction of synesthetic and print color and its relation to visual imagery

Synesthetic color induced by graphemes is well understood to be an automatic perceptual phenomenon paralleling print color in some ways, but also differing in others. We addressed this juxtaposition by asking how synesthetes are affected by synesthetic and print colors that are the same. We tested two groups of grapheme–color synesthetes using a basic color-priming method in which a grapheme prime was presented, followed by a color patch (probe), the color of which was to be named as quickly and accurately as possible. The primes induced either no color, print color only, synesthetic color only, or both forms of color (e.g., a letter “A” printed in red that also triggered synesthetic red). As expected, responses to name the probe color were faster if it was congruent with the prime color than if it was incongruent. The new finding (Exp. 1) was that a prime that induced the same print and synesthetic colors led to substantially larger priming effects than did either type of color individually, an effect that could not be attributed to semantic priming (Exp. 2). In addition, the synesthesia effects correlated with a standard measure of visual imagery. These findings are discussed as being consistent with the hypothesis that print and synesthetic color converge on similar color mechanisms.     

Measuring motor imagery ability: A review

The internal nature of motor imagery makes the measurement of motor imagery ability a difficult task. In this review, we describe and evaluate existing measures of motor imagery ability. Following Jeannerod (1994, 1997) we define motor imagery in terms of imagined movement from the first person perspective. We describe how explicit motor imagery ability can be measured by questionnaire and mental chronometry, and how implicit motor imagery ability can be measured through prospective action judgement and motorically driven perceptual decision paradigms. Future research should be directed towards a theoretical analysis of motor imagery ability, the improvement of existing questionnaires and the development of new ones, and the standardisation of existing paradigms.     

Some Differences in Extinction by Normal and Whole-Body Irradiated Monkeys

Abstract

Blanchard, P. The Child and Society: An Introduction to the Social Psychology of the Child. New York: Longmans, Green, 1928. Pp. ix + 369. $2.25.

Cobb, S. The New Leaven: Progressive Education and Its Effect upon the Child and Society. New York: John Day, 1928. Pp. x + 340.

Jones, R. M. New Studies in Mystical Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1927. Pp. 205. $1.75.

Woodburne, A. S. (Introduction by Shailer Mathews.) The Religious Attitude. New York: Macmillan, 1927. Pp. vi+353. $2.50.

Holzinger, K. J. Statistical Methods for Students in Education. Boston: Ginn, 1928. Pp. viii + 372. $3.60.

Hartshorne, H. and May, M. A. Studies in Deceit. New York: Macmillan, 1928. Bk. I, pp xxi+414; Bk. II, pp. viii+306. $4.50.

Claremont, C. A. Intelligence and Mental Growth. New York: Norton, 1928. Pp. 120. $1.00.

Malinowski, B. Myth in Primitive Psychology. New York: Norton, 1926. Pp. ix+94. $1.00.

Malinowski, B. The Father in Primitive Psychology. New York: Norton, 1927. Pp. 95. $1.00.

Miller, E. Types of Mind and Body. New York: Norton, 1927. Pp. 95. $1.00.

Warden, C. J. A Short Outline of Comparative Psychology. New York: Norton, 1927. Pp. xii+96. $1.00.

Wheeler, W. M. Emergent Evolution and the Development of Societies. New York: Norton, 1928. Pp. vii+80. $1.00.     

Development of Bimanual Skill: The Search for Stable Patterns of Coordination

In 2 experiments, dynamic systems theory predictions concerning intrinsic dynamics and variability of bimanual coordination were examined at different developmental stages. In Experiment 1, ten 4-, 6-, 7-, 8-, and 10-year-old children and adults performed unimanual dominant, unimanual nondominant, and bimanual continuous circle drawing. All tasks were performed at the participants' preferred rate, size, and mode of coordination. The 4-, 6-, and 7-year-old children produced larger circles with longer durations than those of the 8- and 10-year-olds and the adults. That finding demonstrates that younger children display different intrinsic dynamics than older children and adults. The 4-, 6-, and 7-year-old children also displayed more variability in bimanual coordination (more time in less stable patterns of coordination, higher standard deviation in relative phase) and produced more transitions between coordination patterns than the 8- and 10-year-olds and the adults. In Experiment 2, the same participants performed bimanual circles at increasing rates. Consistent with predictions of the HKB model (H. Haken, J. A. S. Kelso, & H. Bunz, 1985), the number of transitions decreased as speed increased. Some support was found for the notion that age-related variables of attention and rate contribute to the increased variability in young children's bimanual coordination.