Elimination of soiling behavior in an elementary school child through the application of aversive techniques

A case study illustrating the application of aversive techniques in a school setting was presented. Soiling behavior, which had occured as often as three times per day before aversive procedures were initiated, was eliminated in this child with no reoccurence in a six month follow-up. This report lends additional confirmation to the feasibility of employing aversive conditioning or punishment in modifying or eliminating socially unacceptable behavior. Also, it is another example in which amelioration of symptomology appropriately seemed to precede a thorough investigation of etiological factors.     

I sell seashells by the seashore and my name is Jack: comment on Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones (2002)

According to a new hypothesis based on implicit egotism, people gravitate toward cities, states, and careers with names similar to their own names. To support this hypothesis, B. W. Pelham, M. C. Mirenberg, and J. T. Jones (2002) reported a series of results regarding distributions of names in different cities, states, and jobs. In the present article, new analyses of the original data are reported, showing that the hypothesis is not supported for the large majority of names considered by the authors, and for some names even the opposite result is found. In addition, a meta-analysis reveals that either the data are unreliable, or the hypothesis cannot be supported in the whole population of names. Overall, the original data give no support of the idea that implicit egotism influences major life decisions.     

Questions of culture,age and gender in the epidemiology of suicide

Cultural values were examined as predictors of suicide incidence rates compiled for men and women in six age groups for 33 nations for the years 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, and 1985. Hofstede's cultural values of Power-Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Masculinity (i.e., social indifference) were negative correlates of reported suicide, and Individualism was a strong positive correlate. The proportion of variance in suicide reports generally related to these four cultural values was R2 = 0.25. Suicide by women and by middle-aged people was most related to cultural values, even though international variance in suicide is greater for men and for the elderly. Suicide incidence for girls and young women showed unique negative correlations with Individualism. For all age groups, Individualism predicted a greater preponderance of male suicides, and Power-Distance predicted more similar male and female suicide rates. Social alienation and Gilligan's feminist theory of moral judgment were hypothesized to explain some gender differences.     

A hierarchical faceted model of the Big Five

The Five-Factor Model (FFM) is nowadays the personality structure which has reached the highest consensus among researchers. Although there exists agreement on its general features, there are some controversies regarding its specific features. With this contribution we intend to add a ‘little brick’ to the unfolding of the FFM. We propose a multifaceted organization of the Big Five and a methodological approach to reach this aim. Using a sample of 961 subjects and a data set of 116 adjectives, 22 facets were empirically developed. They proved to be reliable, convergent, discriminable, and coherent in meaning. When factor analysed together, they reproduced a clear FFM. Moreover, they proved to lie at the narrower core of their factor. To develop these facets we performed a series of principal-component analyses with Promax rotation on a set of adjectives already selected as lying in the core of the factors (i.e. a less than 30° distance from the factor). These facets and this methodology can help to bring out the more prototypical elements of the Big Five: a hierarchical multifaceted FFM is advocated as an approach that refines knowledge about the Big Five. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigating the role of time in affective forecasting: temporal influences on forecasting accuracy

Using extensive diary data from people taking their driver's license exam, the authors investigated the role of time in affective forecasting accuracy. Replicating existing findings, participants grossly overestimated the intensity and duration of their negative affect after failure and only slightly overestimated the intensity and duration of their positive affect after success. Extending existing findings, participants accurately predicted a decrease of their affective reactions over time but underestimated the speed with which this decrease would occur. In addition, they showed greater forecasting accuracy for positive affect than negative affect when the exam was distant and greater forecasting accuracy for negative affect than positive affect when the exam was close. The motivational processes underlying these findings are being discussed.     

Religion in the UK: An Overview of Equality Statistics and Evidence Gaps

Social survey data is essential to measuring equality, for the assessment of change over time, and to the evaluation of the impact of new policies. In this article we have identified and evaluated the statistical data and evidence on religion in the UK in relation to key policy areas, such as employment, housing, health, education, and criminal justice. For each data source, we consider definitions, data collection, coverage of issues, sample size, and data access. We examine the multi-faceted nature of religion and consider the links between religious and ethnic identities. We also outline models that can link religious identity to equality outcomes (and hence potentially allow the measurement of discrimination) and identify the evidence gaps. The UK has one of the most religiously diverse populations in the European Union, both in terms of diversity within Christianity and between different world religions. However, while religion is increasingly recognised, in both legal and policy terms, as an important equality issue, the data on the dynamics of religion in the UK are limited. The inclusion of a new question on religion in the 2001 Census in England, Scotland, and Wales is a major new source of data, but data are limited regarding the role and significance of religion in people's everyday lives, particularly among ethnic minority populations. It is clear that there is a need for a far more comprehensive and rounded approach to data on religion in the UK, which takes account of its multi-dimensional nature.     

Cold-blooded loneliness: social exclusion leads to lower skin temperatures

Being ostracized or excluded, even briefly and by strangers, is painful and threatens fundamental needs. Recent work by Zhong and Leonardelli (2008) found that excluded individuals perceive the room as cooler and that they desire warmer drinks. A perspective that many rely on in embodiment is the theoretical idea that people use metaphorical associations to understand social exclusion (see Landau, Meier, & Keefer, 2010). We suggest that people feel colder because they are colder. The results strongly support the idea that more complex metaphorical understandings of social relations are scaffolded onto literal changes in bodily temperature: Being excluded in an online ball tossing game leads to lower finger temperatures (Study 1), while the negative affect typically experienced after such social exclusion is alleviated after holding a cup of warm tea (Study 2). The authors discuss further implications for the interaction between body and social relations specifically, and for basic and cognitive systems in general.     

Introducing the Geneva Multimodal expression corpus for experimental research on emotion perception

Research on the perception of emotional expressions in faces and voices is exploding in psychology, the neurosciences, and affective computing. This article provides an overview of some of the major emotion expression (EE) corpora currently available for empirical research and introduces a new, dynamic, multimodal corpus of emotion expressions, the Geneva Multimodal Emotion Portrayals Core Set (GEMEP-CS). The design features of the corpus are outlined and justified, and detailed validation data for the core set selection are presented and discussed. Finally, an associated database with microcoded facial, vocal, and body action elements, as well as observer ratings, is introduced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

REFLECTIONS ON THE FAILURE OF THE LOVERS OF ZION

This article considers the important role of archival photographs in the work of historians, artists and writers of the generation after the Holocaust. Powerful “points of memory” linking past and present, memory and postmemory, individual remembrance and cultural recall, photographs can offer evidence of past crimes and function as haunting specters that enable an affective visceral connection to the past. And yet, photographs may also be limited and flawed historical documents, promising more than they can actually reveal. The article argues that such ambiguous evidence may be a resource for historians seeking to grasp and transmit the past's emotional truth.