On the Road to the Unconscious Self: Understanding when People Gain Self‐knowledge of Implicit Disgust Sensitivity from Behavioural Cues

On the basis of an integration of dual‐process models of information processing and the lens model framework of person perception, we conducted two studies to investigate whether self‐perceivers could detect their implicit disposition from video feedback of behavioural cues and whether these cues were used for explicit dispositional inferences under conditions that maximized the presumed self‐perception process. Using an approach that differed from previous research, we used the following: (i) a more detailed and stepwise self‐perception procedure; (ii) a specific explicit measure compared with a global explicit measure; and (iii) disgust sensitivity as a domain with clear, unambiguous cues and an assumed low self‐presentation bias. The results from two studies (N = 117 and N = 130) on disgust sensitivity provide the first evidence for the assumed process with regard to bodily reaction cues but not with regard to facial expression cues. These novel findings suggest that people can get to know their unconscious selves better if supporting conditions are met and the right behavioural cues are attended to. Additional boundary conditions of this self‐perception process were investigated using display rules and need for closure in Study 2. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Implicit–Explicit Consistency of the Intelligence Self‐Concept Moderates Reactions to Performance Feedback

At present, it is not well understood which individual characteristics determine whether individuals will benefit or suffer from feedback about suboptimal performance. Three separate studies tested the idea that individuals' reactions to (neutral versus negative; positive versus negative) feedback as either improving or deteriorating performance in intelligence tests depended on their explicit and implicit self‐concept of intelligence (eSCI and iSCI). In all studies (Study 1, N = 177; Study 2, N = 165; Study 3, N = 132), persons with low eSCI/high iSCI showed a boost in performance after negative feedback, whereas persons with any other combination showed a decline in performance. The studies also provide an explanation for these effects in terms of mediating mechanisms. Whereas the performance boost of individuals with low eSCI/high iSCI can be best explained by achievement‐related reactance (Studies 2 and 3) and decrease in ruminative thinking (Study 3), the performance declines in the other configurations were mediated by decreased achievement motivation, increased frustration and increased outrage (Study 3). All these mediating mechanisms proved independent and incremental in a bootstrapping‐based moderated meditation analysis. The results are discussed in light of the construct validity of our Implicit Association Test (IAT) and IATs in general. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alcohol use affects sleep duration among military couples

Alcohol misuse and sleep disorders are highly comorbid, prevalent among service members and their romantic partners, and affected by relationship interdependence. As most military health research focuses on either service members or their spouses, the current study examined dyadic effects of alcohol use on sleep cycle duration in dating and married military couples (N = 149 dyads), using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Person-level results from a series of multilevel path models showed partial support for our focal hypothesis implicating high alcohol use in shortened average sleep duration for the service members and their romantic partners. Specifically, partners of service members who drank more regularly had shorter average sleep durations, as did female service members who drank more alcohol per drinking occasion. At the couple-level, a partner effect indicated that service members’ lower depressive symptoms were associated with their partner’s shorter average sleep durations. In addition, when service members reported relatively high alcohol-related problems, their partner tended to have a shorter average sleep duration. In contrast, when service members’ partners reported relatively high alcohol-related problems, they had a longer average sleep duration. This suggests the consequences of problematic alcohol use for service members’ partners depended on each dyad member’s drinking patterns. Taken together, these findings underscore the importance of viewing military couples as a dyadic unit in research studies and clinical interventions.     

Application testing of a new three-dimensional acceleration measuring system with wireless data transfer (WAS) for behavior analysis

A wireless acceleration measurement system was applied to free-moving cows and horses. Sensors were available as a collar and a flat box for measuring leg or trunk movements. Results were transmitted simultaneously by radio or stored in an 8-MB internal memory. As analytical procedures, frequency distributions with standard deviations, spectral analyses, and fractal analyses were applied. By means of the collar sensor, basic behavior patterns (standing, grazing, walking, ruminating, drinking, and hay uptake) could be identified in cows. Lameness could be detected in cows and horses by means of the leg sensor. The portion of basic and harmonic spectral components was reduced; the fractal dimension was reduced. The system can be used for the detection and analysis of even small movements of free-moving humans or animals over several hours. It is convenient for the analysis of basic behaviors, emotional reactions, or events causing flight or fright or for comparing different housing elements, such as floors or fences.     

Modulations of the processing of line discontinuities under selective attention conditions?

We examined whether the processing of discontinuities involved in figure-ground segmentation, like line ends, can be modulated under selective attention conditions. Subjects decided whether a gap in collinear or parallel lines was located to the right or left. Two stimuli were displayed in immediate succession. When the gaps were on the same side, reaction times (RTs) for the second stimulus increased when collinear lines followed parallel lines, or the reverse, but only when the two stimuli shared the same orientation and location. The effect did not depend on the global form of the stimuli or on the relative orientation of the gaps. A frame drawn around collinear elements affected the results, suggesting a crucial role of the "amodal" orthogonal lines produced when line ends are aligned. Including several gaps in the first stimulus also eliminated RT variations. By contrast, RT variations remained stable across several experimental blocks and were significant for interstimulus intervals from 50 to 600 msec between the two stimuli. These results are interpreted in terms of a modulation of the processing of line ends or the production of amodal lines, arising when attention is selectively drawn to a gap.     

Learning to tell apples from oranges

Recognizing images requires sorting them into the correct perceptual categories. Without categories, apples could not be discriminated from oranges. A fundamental question is whether categories are innate or learned, and if learned, how well such discriminations generalize. A recent finding by Notman et al. demonstrates that certain categorical discriminations are learned fast but vanish for slightly rotated stimuli. Rather than higher "cognitive" learning, this indicates involvement of "early" mechanisms, which cannot generalize across different stimulus orientations.     

Die Artistik der Psychoanalyse

Zusammenfasssung  Die Psychoanalyse wird im Rückgriff auf die Praxis Freuds als artistisches Handwerk begriffen, das der Phantasie als Erkenntnismittel und -zweck die entscheidende Bedeutung zuweist. Sie ist eine Imaginationslehre und der Phantasieschlüssel, die produktive Einbildungskraft eines Therapeuten, der Zentralbegriff für dessen Güte: Gegen das Klischee des Standardsettings werden die Fähigkeit und das Ausmaß phantastischer Induktion durch den Therapeuten gestellt, gegen die Fiktion von rekonstruktiver Arbeit der produktive Konstruktivismus der Psychoanalyse. Die antizipatorische Kompetenz des Therapeuten erweist sich als Quelle der Heilkraft, die dem Patienten eine sinnvolle Benennung für seine unerklärlichen und fremden Erfahrungen der Symptome gibt. Der Analytiker ist, wie der Künstler, ein Experte phantasierenden Umdenkens und Umgestaltens der vorfindlichen Wahrnehmungsrealität. Seine kompositorischen Fähigkeiten sind die Bedingung, dem Patienten das Noch-Nicht-Bekannte, Nichterfahrene aus dem Fundus seines Phantasievermögens hinzuzufügen. In diesem hermeneutischen Ergänzungsprinzip der Psychoanalyse, ihrem gestaltschaffenden Entdeckungsprinzip, liegt die Hauptquelle der therapeutischen Wirksamkeit. Die von uns entwickelte Technik der korrigierenden kognitiven Erfahrung ist eine Methode zur produktiven Sinnbestimmung der Symptome und wird in ihrer klinischen Bedeutung für alle Strukturen dargestellt. Die Wahrheit der psychoanalytischen Methode offenbart sich gleichwie das Wahre in der Kunst durch eine andere und neue Selbst- und Weltanschauung des Patienten.

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The artistic quality of psychoanalysisIngeniousity and the corrective cognitive experience

Taking up the practice of Freud, psychoanalysis is regarded here as an artistic skill attaching central importance to phantasy as a means and also goal of insight. Psychoanalysis is a science of imagination. The key, the productive imaginative ability of the therapist is the central concept for its quality. The clichee of the standard setting is contrasted with the ability and the extent of phantasy induction by the therapist, as well as the fiction of reconstructive work with the productive contructivism of psychoanalysis. The anticipatory competence of the therapist is the source of the healing force offering a meaningful designation to the patients inexplicable and strange experiences and symptoms. The psychoanalyst is in the same way as an artist an expert of imaginative rethinking and reshaping of the given perceptional reality. His compositional abilities are the pre-condition for amplifying out of his imaginative resources the patients experience by still unknown and new experiences. The main source of therapeutic effectivity is this hermeneutic completion principle of psychoanalysis by which it creates through discovery new Gestalts. Our technique of the corrective cognitive experience is a method of productive sense-giving to the symptoms and is presented in its importance for all structures. The truth of the psychoanalytic method reveals itself just as the truth of arts in the patients new and different view of the self and the world.

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Prof. Dr. Manfred Pohlen ist emeritierter Direktor der Klinik für Psychotherapie der Philipps-Universität, Marburg.* Der vorliegende Exkurs über die Artistik der Psychoanalyse folgt den umfassenderen Ausführungen zu diesem Thema in der von M. Polen und M. Bautz-Holzherr vorgelegten Monographie: Eine andere Psychodynamik - Psychotherapie als Programm zur Selbstbemächtigung des Subjekts (Huber 2001), in der wir eine psychodynamische Praxistheorie unter der Perspektive der Selbstbemächtigung des therapeutischen Subjekts veröffentlicht haben.

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Synergistic person x situation interaction in distributive justice behavior

A person x situation interaction is synergistic when a personality trait amplifies the effect of a situational factor. The present study tested how individuals' justice attitudes and situational factors jointly affect the allocation of financial burdens. Six insurance cases were described to 80 participants. Economic status of client (high, low) and responsibility of client for damage of the insured (high, low) were manipulated between subjects. Participants suggested a percentage of the total costs that they considered a fair contribution by the client. In accordance with the synergistic model, justice attitude (person factor) and responsibility for damage (situation factor) interacted and explained 5% of the variance of the dependent variable. With increasing negativity of attitude toward equality, the effect of responsibility was larger. Several cognitive mechanisms, such as motivated perception, selective attention, and the availability of attitude congruent situation schemas, that may account for synergistic interactions in justice behavior and in other domains were discussed.