Evidence for an Evolutionary Cheater Strategy—Relationships Between Primary and Secondary Psychopathy,Parenting, and Shame and Guilt

In the present study, shame and guilt proneness were investigated in relation to primary and secondary psychopathy, looking at parental care as a possible mediator. A sample of 388 volunteers participated in an on-line study, completing several self-report measurements. Primary psychopathy, robust to parental care and sex of the participant, was associated with lower guilt proneness after a private transgression and lower negative self-evaluations after a public transgression. Secondary psychopathy was not associated with guilt or shame proneness. Paternal care played a mediating role between primary psychopathy and guilt, but only in male participants. High paternal care was associated with lower guilt repair in high psychopathy males, suggesting that a positive father-son relationship might be essential for development of exploitive strategies in primary psychopathy. The results highlight the fundamental differences between primary and secondary psychopathy, and provide support for the idea that primary psychopathy is an evolutionary cheater-strategy.     

The effect of propensity to trust and perceptions of trustworthiness on trust behaviors in dyads

Research on trust has burgeoned in the last few decades. Despite the growing interest in trust, little is known about trusting behaviors in non-dichotomous trust games. The current study explored propensity to trust, trustworthiness, and trust behaviors in a new computer-mediated trust relevant task. We used multivariate multilevel survival analysis (MMSA) to analyze behaviors across time. Results indicated propensity to trust did not influence trust behaviors. However, trustworthiness perceptions influenced initial trust behaviors and trust behaviors influenced subsequent trustworthiness perceptions. Indeed, behaviors fully mediated the relationship of trustworthiness perceptions over time. The study demonstrated the utility of MMSA and the new trust game, Checkmate, as viable research methods and stimuli for assessing the loci of trust.     

Sustained attentional and disattentional abilities and arousability: Factor analysis and relationships to hypnotic susceptibility

The neurophysiologically separate dimensions of deeply focused, sustained attention and arousability are shown to be differentially related to hypnotic susceptibility. University undergraduates, 98 men and 112 women, were administered the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility; the Group Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS:C); and questionnaires that assessed attentional abilities (Differential Attentional Processes Inventory (DAPI), Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS)), Extraversion (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire), strength of the nervous system (Strelau Temperament Scale (STS)), augmenting-reducing (Vando Reducer-Augmenter Scale (RAS)), and emotionality (Affect Intensity Measure (AIM)). Women were significantly higher on TAS, DAPI dual attention physical-cognitive scale, and AIM; men were significantly higher on TAS and STI Strength of Excitation Scale. Separate factor analyses for men and women separately yielded fairly similar four-factor solutions. The first major factor, defined by DAPI Moderately Focused Attention and Dual Attention scales, represented moderately sustained attention in a complex environment with limited interference from competing stimuli. The extremely involved and focused attention factor, defined by the TAS and DAPI Extremely Focused Attention Scale, had hypnotic susceptibility loaded more strongly for men than women. The arousability factor was defined by EPQ Extraversion, STI Mobility of Nervous System (MNS) scale, and RAS. The neo-Pavlovian nervous system processes factor was defined by the STI Strength of Excitation and Strength of Inhibition scales; the STI MNS scale also loaded on this factor for men. Only for women were introverts more hypnotizable than extraverts. Results support H. J. Crawford and J. H. Gruzelier's (1992) in E. Fromm and M. Nash (Eds.) Contemporary Perspectives in Hypnosis Research (pp. 227–266) New York: Guildford Press) neurophysiological model of hypnosis that proposes that highly hypnotizable persons have a more efficient fronto-limbic sustained attentional and disattentional system.     

A pilot study of performance in young and middle-aged adults on verbal recall

The objective was to explore whether middle-aged adults (M age = 48.9 yr.; n = 26) differed on verbal recall from young adults (M age = 26.3 yr.; n = 26). Little data exist on the performance of middle-aged, healthy adults. Groups of young and middle-aged adults recalled words from the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test across six trials during a single session. The same 15 words were used for recall in Trials 1-5. Prior to the sixth trial, 15 distractor words were presented. Participants then recalled the original set of 15 words. No significant differences occurred on any of the recall trials. Although the power of this study was low, the effect of age is apparently quite small.     

The neurobiology of the stress-resistant brain

The 2010 Neurobiology of Stress Workshop brought together scientists from all over the world to share and discuss their results from studies examining the consequences of acute, repeated, and chronic stressor exposure on health and disease. Session IV entitled "The neurobiology of the stress-resistant brain" explored how we can intervene to promote stress resistance and stress resilience. Four scientists, who explore this topic from unique and convergent perspectives, presented their experimental results derived from studies in rat (Fleshner and Maier), non-human primates (Lyons), and human (Raskind). Summaries of each presentation, supporting publications, and overall take-home messages from the session are presented.     

Consuming Male Identities: Masculinities,Gender Relations and Alcohol Consumption in Aotearoa New Zealand

The excessive and public consumption of alcohol with other men has been a traditional indication of manliness in Western cultures for many years. However, over the last two decades, this association has been eroded, in part through increased consumption by women. Within the gender‐relational context of this increase, we empirically explore ways in which particular (friendship) groups of young men and women (re)construct masculine identities. The male participants demonstrated greater discursive flexibility in enacting their gender identities through alcohol consumption compared with earlier NZ research although also greater constraints on change compared with more recent UK research. A minority of men constructed themselves as atypical in that they did not like rugby, beer or consuming vast quantities of alcohol. These men were all in professional occupations, and we speculate that their social class and financial status may enable them to negotiate alternative demonstrations of masculinity. We conclude that these findings could be explicated through an examination of national gendered identities that arose out of a pioneer culture, and the commodification of gender identities through alcohol consumption. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical predictors of arithmetic success in grades 1–6

Math relies on mastery and integration of a wide range of simpler numerical processes and concepts. Recent work has identified several numerical competencies that predict variation in math ability. We examined the unique relations between eight basic numerical skills and early arithmetic ability in a large sample (N = 1391) of children across grades 1–6. In grades 1–2, children's ability to judge the relative magnitude of numerical symbols was most predictive of early arithmetic skills. The unique contribution of children's ability to assess ordinality in numerical symbols steadily increased across grades, overtaking all other predictors by grade 6. We found no evidence that children's ability to judge the relative magnitude of approximate, nonsymbolic numbers was uniquely predictive of arithmetic ability at any grade. Overall, symbolic number processing was more predictive of arithmetic ability than nonsymbolic number processing, though the relative importance of symbolic number ability appears to shift from cardinal to ordinal processing.     

Invited Article: The Construct of Suspicion and How It Can Benefit Theories and Models in Organizational Science

This article introduces the construct of suspicion to researchers in business and applied psychology, provides a literature-based definition of state suspicion and an initial self-report measure of that construct, and encourages research on this important topic. The construct of suspicion is under-researched in business and applied psychology, yet has wide application for both researchers and practitioners. These applications occur across many content domains (e.g., consumer psychology, leadership), as well as at varying levels of analysis (e.g., individual, group, organizational). To motivate research on this construct, possible studies are delineated/suggested by way of example and a Call for Papers also appears. The organizational sciences will benefit from the incorporation of suspicion-based constructs in theoretical and explanatory models. Organizations might also function more efficiently because of these efforts —as decision makers assess, understand, and better manage appropriate levels of suspicion in their employees and work groups.     

Emotional intelligence and resilience

This study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and the stress process. Participants (N = 126) completed an ability-based measure of EI and then engaged with two stressors. We assessed stressor appraisals, emotions, and physiological stress responses over time. We expected that higher EI would facilitate stress responses in the direction of challenge, rather than threat. As expected, EI facets were related to lower threat appraisals, more modest declines in positive affect, less negative affect and challenge physiological responses to stress. However, findings differed for men and women. This study provides predictive validity that EI facilitates stress resilience.