Effects of objective and subjective account components on forgiving

The authors explored the effects of the components of a harm-doer's account of her transgression on the victims' emotional reactions to the transgression and to the character traits that she attributes to the harm-doer. Participants were 480 people whom the authors asked to imagine an incident in which they were harmed by the careless behavior of a friend. Subsequently, the authors offered participants an account of the harm-doer. In a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects design, the authors manipulated 5 account components: Admitting Fault, Admitting Damage, Expressing Remorse, Asking for Pardon, and Offering Compensation. The authors measured the participants' perceptions of these components. Results indicated that (a) the subjective perception of account components occurs schematically so that components are implicitly perceived without being objectively present, (b) objective components affect victims' reactions via subjective perceptions of these components, (c) personality factors (Irreconcilability, Interpersonal Trust, and Trait Anger) affect victims' reactions directly. Finally, certain configurations of account components are more effective than others. Specifically, asking for pardon had an effect on forgiving only when it was combined with an acknowledgment of the damage and a compensation offer. This result suggests that in this situation, the victim perceives a harm-doer's asking for pardon without the other components as an insincere apology.     

Parallel versus serial processing and individual differences in high-speed search in human memory

Many mental tasks that involve operations on a number of items take place within a few hundred milliseconds. In such tasks, whether the items are processed simultaneously (in parallel) or sequentially (serially) has long been of interest to psychologists. Although certain types of parallel and serial models have been ruled out, it has proven extremely difficult to entirely separate reasonable serial and limited-capacity parallel models on the basis of typical data. Recent advances in theory-driven methodology now permit strong tests of serial versus parallel processing in such tasks, in ways that bypass the capacity issue and that are distribution and parameter free. We employ new methodologies to assess serial versus parallel processing and find strong evidence for pure serial or pure parallel processing, with some striking apparent differences across individuals and interstimulus conditions.     

Attachment, caregiving, and altruism: boosting attachment security increases compassion and helping

Recent studies based on J. Bowlby's (1969/1982) attachment theory reveal that both dispositional and experimentally enhanced attachment security facilitate cognitive openness and empathy, strengthen self-transcendent values, and foster tolerance of out-group members. Moreover, dispositional attachment security is associated with volunteering to help others in everyday life and to unselfish motives for volunteering. The present article reports 5 experiments, replicated in 2 countries (Israel and the United States), testing the hypothesis that increases in security (accomplished through both implicit and explicit priming techniques) foster compassion and altruistic behavior. The hypothesized effects were consistently obtained, and various alternative explanations were explored and ruled out. Dispositional attachment-related anxiety and avoidance adversely influenced compassion, personal distress, and altruistic behavior in theoretically predictable ways. As expected, attachment security provides a foundation for care-oriented feelings and caregiving behaviors, whereas various forms of insecurity suppress or interfere with compassionate caregiving.     

Response styles in the assessment of anger expression

This study demonstrates how mixture distribution item response models can be used to detect different response styles in the clinical assessment of anger expression. Analyses of 3 subscales of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory in a clinical sample of 4,497 patients revealed that there are different response styles that manifest themselves in 2- and 3-class solutions. These solutions are robust across subsamples. Response styles reflect both psychologically meaningful biases (i.e., social desirability) and nonmeaningful response category preferences. Person parameters that correct for class membership (and thus, for response styles) are computed and compared with raw scores. The implications of these results for research on clinical assessment are discussed.     

Neural correlates of lexical and sublexical processes in reading

The purpose of the present study was to compare the brain regions and systems that subserve lexical and sublexical processes in reading. In order to do so, three types of tasks were used: (i). silent reading of very high frequency regular words (lexical task); (ii). silent reading of nonwords (sublexical task); and, (iii). silent reading of very low frequency regular words (sublexical task). All three conditions were contrasted with a visual/phonological baseline condition. The lexical condition engaged primarily an area at the border of the left angular and supramarginal gyri. Activation found in this region suggests that this area may be involved in mapping orthographic-to-phonological whole word representations. Both sublexical conditions elicited significantly greater activation in the left inferior prefrontal gyrus. This region is thought to be associated with sublexical processes in reading such as grapheme-to-phoneme conversion, phoneme assembly and underlying verbal working memory processes. Activation in the left IFG was also associated with left superior and middle temporal activation. These areas are thought to be functionally correlated with the left IFG and to contribute to a phonologically based form of reading. The results as a whole demonstrate that lexical and sublexical processes in reading activate different regions within a complex network of brain structures.     

Attachment style and the regulation of negative affect: exploring individual differences in mood congruency effects on memory and judgment

Three studies examined the role that attachment style plays in moderating the effects of induced negative affect on memory and judgment. Israeli undergraduates completed an attachment style scale and were exposed to a negative or neutral affect induction. In Study 1, incidental recall of negative and positive information was assessed; in Study 2, the attribution of negative and positive relational events was studied; and in Study 3, findings of Study 1 were replicated using a different affect induction procedure. Whereas securely attached persons reacted to induced negative affect with an affect-incongruent pattern of cognitions (better recall of positive information, more unstable/specific attribution of negative event), anxiously attached persons reacted with an affect-congruent pattern (worse recall of positive information, more stable/global attribution of negative event). Persons scoring high on attachment avoidance showed no significant cognitive effect of negative affect. The discussion emphasizes the role that attachment strategies play in the affect-cognition link.     

Leptin functioning in eating disorders

Leptin is an adipocyte-derived hormone, which is involved predominantly in the long-term regulation of body weight and energy balance by acting as a hunger suppressant signal to the brain. Leptin is also involved in the modulation of reproduction, immune function, physical activity, and some endogenous endocrine axes. Since anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) are characterized by abnormal eating behaviors, dysregulation of endogenous endocrine axes, alterations of reproductive and immune functions, and increased physical activity, extensive research has been carried out in the last decade in order to ascertain a role of this hormone in the pathophysiology of these syndromes. In this article, we review the available data on leptin physiology in patients with eating disorders. These data support the idea that leptin is not directly involved in the etiology of AN or BN. However, malnutrition-induced alterations in its physiology may contribute to the genesis and/or the maintenance of some clinical manifestations of AN and BN and may have an impact on the prognosis of AN.     

The relationship of mental illness to targeted contact behavior toward state government agencies and officials

Research in the burgeoning field of threat assessment has illuminated the importance of mental illness factors when considering risk of targeted violence-particularly related to government agencies and officials. The authors analyzed 127 cases investigated by a state law enforcement agency regarding threatening or other contacts toward public officials or state agency employees prompting security intervention. Univariate and discriminant analysis indicated that mentally ill subjects were significantly more likely to engage in more contacts as well as to make specific demands during such contacts. Mentally ill subjects were also more likely to articulate help-seeking concerns and employ religious themes, as opposed to using insulting, degrading, or ominous language toward the target or issuing complaints regarding policy issues. Contrary to other research, the mentally ill subjects within this sample were not significantly more likely to engage in approach behavior, a threshold for higher risk of violence. Implications for threat assessment activity are discussed.