Punitive Reactions to Completed Crimes Versus Accidentally Uncompleted Crimes1

Previous studies have shown that the harm caused by crime affects punitive reactions even if differences in the degree of harm are merely accidental. However, it remains unclear whether the effect is direct or whether it is mediated by attributed responsibility or blame. Participants were 303 university students who listened to 4 case vignettes (between‐subjects design). Half received information about a completed crime and half about an accidentally uncompleted crime. Crime type was either fraud or rape. The results suggest that individuals consider the actual harm to a significantly greater extent than attribution theory would predict. Moreover, the link between harm and punishment was virtually not mediated by attributed blame and not moderated by individual differences in morality. Future studies should investigate whether the harm‐punishment link is a result of an automatic act of retaliation or a desire to compensate for the harm done to the victim (restorative justice).     

Time is tight: how higher economic value of time increases feelings of time pressure

The common heuristic association between scarcity and value implies that more valuable things appear scarcer (King, Hicks, & Abdelkhalik, 2009), an effect we show applies to time as well. In a series of studies, we found that both income and wealth, which affect the economic value of time, influence perceived time pressure. Study 1 found that changes in income were associated with changes in perceived time pressure. Studies 2-4 showed that experimentally manipulating time's perceived economic value caused greater feelings of time pressure and less patient behavior. Finally, Study 5 demonstrated that the relationship between income and time pressure was strengthened when participants were randomly assigned to think about the precise economic value of their time.     

Changing Meanings Through Art: A Systematization of a Psychosocial Intervention with Chilean Women in Urban Poverty Situation

This study explores the experiences that women in urban poverty situation have about their participation in a psychosocial group intervention mediated by artistic techniques. An investigation was done using a qualitative methodology. Participants were ten women older than 21 years old who live in Santiago de Chile in poverty situation. Two group evaluations were performed during the intervention process and once it was completed, ten individual semi-structure interviews. The information was analyzed following the proposals of Grounded Theory, identifying negative experience about tiredness and sacrifice related to the circumstances they live in. It was possible, at the same time, to describe the benefits of an artistic activity including a psychosocial work over the individual well-being. The artistic creation was revealed as a way of expression, of re-viewing oneself and the environment, and relaxation. Transformation is discussed concerning self-affirmation, reparation and transference of this experience in their lives, as a preventive and protective resource to overcome their problems.     

Motor sequence learning performance in Parkinson's disease patients depends on the stage of disease

It is still unclear, whether patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are impaired in the incidental learning of different motor sequences in short succession, although such a deficit might greatly impact their daily life. The aim of this study was thus to clarify the relation between disease parameters of PD and incidental motor learning of two different sequences in short succession. Results revealed that the PD patients were able to acquire two sequences in short succession but needed more time than healthy subjects. However, both the severity of axial manifestations, as assessed on a subsection of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale III (UPDRS III) and the Hoehn and Yahr score, and the levodopa-equivalent dose (LED) were negatively correlated with the sequence learning performance. These findings indicate that, although PD patients are able to learn two sequences in short succession, they need more time and their overall sequence learning performance is strongly correlated with the stage of disease.     

Which preventive interventions effectively enhance depressed mothers' sensitivity? A meta‐analysis

Improving depressed mothers' sensitivity is assumed to be a key element in preventing adverse outcomes for children of such mothers. This meta‐analysis examines the short‐term effectiveness of preventive interventions in terms of enhancing depressed mothers' sensitivity toward their child and investigates what type of intervention is most effective. Thirteen interventions, reported in 10 controlled outcome studies, met the inclusion criteria (N = 918). Meta‐analytic results showed a small to medium, significant mean effect size (g = 0.32) with large variation in individual effect sizes (?0.56–1.76). Interventions including baby massage were highly effective in improving maternal sensitivity (g = 0.85). In contrast, individual therapy for the mother proved ineffective in terms of improving maternal sensitivity (g = ?0.00). Two other significant predictors of greater effect sizes were the inclusion of a support group and the use of a higher number of intervention methods; however, the significance of these results was largely accounted for by one single study. Our meta‐analysis confirms that depressed mothers' sensitivity can be improved by preventive intervention and suggests that baby massage may be an effective intervention method to evoke short‐term changes in maternal sensitivity. It is unclear whether these changes are maintained over time.     

REMEMBERING A DEPRESSIVE PRIMARY OBJECT

Memory has always been a central issue in psychoanalytic theory and practice. Recent developments in the cognitive and neural sciences suggest that traditional notions of memory based on stored structures which are also often underlying psychoanalytic thinking cannot account for a number of fundamental phenomena and thus need to be revised. We suggest that memory be conceived as a) a theoretical construct explaining current behaviour by reference to events that have happened in the past. b) Memory is not to be conceived as stored structures but as a function of the whole organism, as a complex, dynamic, recategorising and interactive process, which is always 'embodied'. c) Memory always has a subjective and an objective side. The subjective side is given by the individual's history, the objective side by the neural patterns generated by the sensory motor interactions with the environment. This implies that both 'narrative' (subjective) and 'historical' (objective) truth have to be taken into account achieving stable psychic change as is illustrated by extensive clinical materials taken from a psychoanalysis with a psychogenic sterile borderline patient.     

Heterogeneity among peer-rejected boys across middle childhood: developmental pathways of social behavior

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to identify subgroups of rejected boys with different developmental pathways of aggression and prosocial behavior across the elementary school years. Peer, teacher, and parent reports and behavior observations yielded composite scores for aggression and prosocial behavior at 3 measurement waves. A cluster analysis with these composites on 87 initially rejected boys identified 4 subgroups with different developmental pathways of prosocial behavior and aggression that were associated with different patterns of sociometric acceptance and rejection over time and with social emotional adjustment in the last measurement wave. Changes in acceptance and rejection tend to precede changes in aggression and prosocial behavior. Cluster differences on social emotional adjustment indicators converged into I moderately discriminating factor, Social Maladaptation in Peer-Oriented Behavior.     

The correlates and consequences of newspaper reports of research on sex differences

Correlates and consequences of newspaper accounts of research on sex differences were examined. In Study 1, articles from high-circulation newspapers were coded for the degree to which biological factors were used to explain sex differences. Results showed that political conservatism and traditional attitudes toward gender roles coded from other newspaper sections predicted greater use of biological explanations than did political liberalism and less traditional attitudes toward gender roles. In Studies 2 and 3, participants read a fictional newspaper article reporting research on a gender difference that cited either biological or sociocultural factors as explaining the difference. Results showed that exposure to biological explanations significantly increased participants' endorsement of gender stereotypes. Moreover, exposure to social explanations significantly increased participants' belief in the mutability of human behavior. Together, these studies show that political ideology influences how the popular press reports research findings and that such reporting in turn affects readers' beliefs and attitudes.     

Gender differences in memory for the appearance of others

Five studies investigated gender differences in the accurate recall of the appearance of others. The greater interpersonal orientation and interpersonal sensitivity of women were predicted to give women an advantage over men in appearance accuracy. Under both directed- and incidental-learning conditions, women more accurately recalled information concerning the appearance of their social targets than did men, participants' memory for the appearance of female targets was more accurate than it was for male targets, and neither gender was found to be a relative advantage in recalling the appearance of same-gender targets. The motivational and knowledge-based factors that might underlie a gender difference in appearance accuracy are discussed.     

Anybody can be a boss but only certain people make good subordinates: behavioral impacts of striving for dominance and dominance aversion

The present study investigated whether people in assigned subordinate or dominant roles differ in their dominance behavior according to whether they initially wanted a subordinate or a dominant role. Sixty-six females and 72 males interacted twice for 8 mins in same-gender dyads. Prior to the interaction, participants could indicate whether they preferred to take a subordinate or a dominant role. Roles were then assigned randomly. Both interactions were videotaped and later coded for perceived dominance and speaking time. Results showed that for assigned subordinates, those who initially wanted to be in the dominant position were perceived as more dominant and behaved more dominantly than those who initially wanted to be in the subordinate role. For assigned high-dominance people, there was no difference in perceived dominance and behavioral dominance between those who initially wanted the dominant versus subordinate position.