Psychoanalysis,a Bridge Between Attachment Research and Neurobiology

Attachment theory and neurobiology are at the forefront of scientific research, particularly in the area of child psychiatry. Several authors have encountered a surprising isomorphism between findings in these areas and concepts central in psychoanalysis. The author postulates that attachment theory is an outcome of the history of the transformation of the old concept of libido now applied interpersonally. The author also postulates that the neurobiology of attachment mediates but does not substitute psychoanalysis for the final understanding of the human bond. Findings in both fields, attachment theory and psychobiology, often compellingly lead to psychoanalytic concepts; on the other hand, the neurobiology of the psyche does not make full sense without the wealth of research conducted by psychoanalysts during the 20th century. The concept of seduction in particular, in its broad sense, is akin to mirroring and attachment and a useful tool in this regard. Although some cling to the idea of the purity of psychoanalysis and see these kin areas as a threat to its integrity, the author believes that psychoanalysis, serving as a bridge between them, can only be enriched by their empirical and experimental outcomes.The American Journal of Psychoanalysis (2008) 68, 148-155. doi:10.1057/ajp.2008.4.     

Adult Attachment Style and Cognitive Reactions to Positive Affect: A Test of Mental Categorization and Creative Problem Solving

Three studies examined the moderating effect of attachment style on cognitive reactions to positive affect inductions. In Study 1 (N = 110), participants completed attachment style scales, were asked to retrieve a happy or a neutral memory, and, then, performed a categorization task. Study 2 (N = 120) used the same affect induction, while examining creative problem solving in the Remote Associates Test. Study 3 (N = 120) replicated Study 2, while using another affect induction (watching a comedy film) and controlling for trait anxiety scores. Overall, securely attached persons reacted to positive affect with broader categorization and better performance in creative problem-solving tasks. Anxious–ambivalent persons showed an opposite pattern of cognitive reactions to positive affect, and avoidant persons showed no difference in their cognitive reactions to positive and neutral affect inductions. The discussion emphasizes the role that attachment-related strategies of affect regulation may play in episodes of positive affect.     

A Note on Formality and Logical Consequence

Logic is formal in the sense that all arguments of the same form as logically valid arguments are also logically valid and hence truth-preserving. However, it is not known whether all arguments that are valid in the usual model-theoretic sense are truth-preserving. Tarski claimed that it could be proved that all arguments that are valid (in the sense of validity he contemplated in his 1936 paper on logical consequence) are truth-preserving. But he did not offer the proof. The question arises whether the usual model-theoretic sense of validity and Tarski's 1936 sense are the same. I argue in this paper that they probably are not, and that the proof Tarski had in mind, although unusable to prove that model-theoretically valid arguments are truth-preserving, can be used to prove that arguments valid in Tarski's 1936 sense are truth-preserving.     

Why and when justice sensitivity leads to pro- and antisocial behavior

People differ in how injustice-sensitive they are either as victims or as observers. Whereas observer sensitivity is positively related to cooperative behavior, victim sensitivity promotes antisocial and egoistic behavior. The present article investigates the dynamics underlying these effects. Participants played an online-based public goods game and were informed about the number of people who violated a fairness rule in previous rounds of the game (no, some, or many violators). High victim-sensitive participants contributed less to the public good even in the “some violators” condition. High observer-sensitive participants contributed more to the public good even in the “many violators” condition. The findings correspond with the sensitivity to mean intentions model and cannot be explained by individual differences in general trust.     

Competition between two memory traces for long-term recognition memory

Previous studies investigating the processes which underlie memory consolidation focused almost exclusively on isolated learning events. Here I studied the competition of two similar memory traces for consolidation non-conditioned recognition memory in adult male C57BL/6JOlaHsd mice using the olfactory cues based social discrimination procedure. My results show that the interference phenomena that cause forgetting are time-dependent, and that retroactive interference can be discriminated from proactive interference. Furthermore, both types of interference can be suppressed by subcutaneous anisomycin treatment immediately after presentation of the interference stimulus. These findings imply that interference phenomena, which result from the competition of two similar memory traces for long-term recognition memory, are related to the progress of memory consolidation and linked to protein synthesis.     

The challenge of measuring immigrant origin and immigration-related ethnicity in Europe

Different European nation-states use the most diverse statistical constructions of foreign origin or ethnic minority populations. Several countries traditionally even shun from producing such data. This makes international comparison a very difficult endeavour. Anyone wanting to perform comparative research on immigrants or (immigrant origin) ethnic minorities in Europe is unavoidably confronted with the most diverse types of national statistical data and has to opt for ad hoc solutions. Attempts at international comparison can thus be very tricky due to data characteristics. It is important that researchers are aware of these problems and do not simply accept data (especially in comparisons) at face value. In this article we embark on a comparative explorative study of the way in which immigrant background and immigration related ethnicity is taken stock of by national statistical institutes in a set of European nation-states.     

Eudaimonic Well-Being in Transsexual People,Before and After Gender Confirming Surgery

Gender confirming surgery (GCS) and cross-sex hormones (CSH) are crucial steps in the self-realization of a transsexual individual. However, no study has analyzed the outcome of GCS in a eudaimonic perspective, nor explored eudaimonic well-being before GCS. The study compares the eudaimonic well-being of trans men (N = 56) and women (N = 89) before and after GCS; in the MtF sample, a further comparison was carried out between those who never started any medical intervention and those who were already taking CSH. Finally, the impact of experiences of harassment, discrimination and violence on eudaimonic well-being in the post-surgery sample was explored. All participants completed the Psychological Well-being Scales (Ryff in J Pers Soc Psychol 57:1069–1081, 1989) and, only the post-surgery sample, a questionnaire to assess previous experiences of harassment, discrimination and violence. Both in MtF and FtM participants, those who already received GCS showed higher scores on self-acceptance; in the MtF sample, higher scores were also found on environmental mastery and lower scores on personal growth. The association between experiences of discrimination on well-being was limited and positive, with higher scores in personal growth only in FtM participants who reported being victims of such experiences. Our results suggest that both MtF and FtM transsexuals show higher levels of eudaimonic well-being after GCS.     

The appeal of the devil’s eye: social evaluation affects social attention

Humans typically exhibit a tendency to follow the gaze of conspecifics, a social attention behaviour known as gaze cueing. Here, we addressed whether episodically learned social knowledge about the behaviours performed by the individual bearing the gaze can influence this phenomenon. In a learning phase, different faces were systematically associated with either positive or negative behaviours. The same faces were then used as stimuli in a gaze-cueing task. The results showed that faces associated with antisocial norm-violating behaviours triggered stronger gaze-cueing effects as compared to faces associated with sociable behaviours. Importantly, this was especially evident for participants who perceived the presented norm-violating behaviours as far more negative as compared to positive behaviours. These findings suggest that reflexive attentional responses can be affected by our appraisal of the valence of the behaviours of individuals around us.     

The Best Is Yet to Come? Attitudes Toward Gender Roles Among Adolescents in 36 Countries

In the present article, we look at attitudes toward gender roles among young women and men in 36 countries with different levels of societal gender inequality. By applying multilevel models to data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009, the study contributes to our understanding of gender inequality by showing that (a) both young women and young men (in 8th grade; M_age = 14.39 years) display more gender-egalitarian attitudes in countries with higher levels of societal gender equality; (b) young women in all countries have more egalitarian attitudes toward gender roles than young men do, but (c) the gender gap in attitudes is more evident in more egalitarian contexts; and (d) a higher level of maternal education is associated with more gender-egalitarian attitudes among young women. In contrast, no statistically significant association emerges between maternal employment and young men’s attitudes. Overall, the findings suggest that adolescents in different contexts are influenced by the dominant societal discourse on gender inequality, which they interiorize and display through their own attitudes toward gender roles. However, the findings also indicate that young women are more responsive to external cues than young men are. This result, coupled with the fact that young men in egalitarian contexts have not adopted gender-egalitarian attitudes to the same extent as young women, is concerning because it suggests a slowdown in the achievement of societal gender equality that is still far from being reached.     

The mental representation of numerical fractions: real or integer?

Numerical fractions are commonly used to express ratios and proportions (i.e., real numbers), but little is known about how they are mentally represented and processed by skilled adults. Four experiments employed comparison tasks to investigate the distance effect and the effect of the spatial numerical association of response codes (SNARC) for fractions. Results showed that fractions were processed componentially and that the real numerical value of the fraction was not accessed, indicating that processing the fraction's magnitude is not automatic. In contrast, responses were influenced by the numerical magnitude of the components and reflected the simple comparison between numerators, denominators, and reference, depending on the strategy adopted. Strategies were used even by highly skilled participants and were flexibly adapted to the specific experimental context. In line with results on the whole number bias in children, these findings suggest that the understanding of fractions is rooted in the ability to represent discrete numerosities (i.e., integers) rather than real numbers and that the well-known difficulties of children in mastering fractions are circumvented by skilled adults through a flexible use of strategies based on the integer components.