Reward expectation influences audiovisual spatial integration

In order to determine the spatial location of an object that is simultaneously seen and heard, the brain assigns higher weights to the sensory inputs that provide the most reliable information. For example, in the well-known ventriloquism effect, the perceived location of a sound is shifted toward the location of a concurrent but spatially misaligned visual stimulus. This perceptual illusion can be explained by the usually much higher spatial resolution of the visual system as compared to the auditory system. Recently, it has been demonstrated that this cross-modal binding process is not fully automatic, but can be modulated by emotional learning. Here we tested whether cross-modal binding is similarly affected by motivational factors, as exemplified by reward expectancy. Participants received a monetary reward for precise and accurate localization of brief auditory stimuli. Auditory stimuli were accompanied by task-irrelevant, spatially misaligned visual stimuli. Thus, the participants’ motivational goal of maximizing their reward was put in conflict with the spatial bias of auditory localization induced by the ventriloquist situation. Crucially, the amounts of expected reward differed between the two hemifields. As compared to the hemifield associated with a low reward, the ventriloquism effect was reduced in the high-reward hemifield. This finding suggests that reward expectations modulate cross-modal binding processes, possibly mediated via cognitive control mechanisms. The motivational significance of the stimulus material, thus, constitutes an important factor that needs to be considered in the study of top-down influences on multisensory integration.     

Predicting employees' satisfaction and burnout from managers' attachment and caregiving orientations

In recent years, there have been initial attempts to apply attachment theory to account for leader–follower relationships and leaders' contribution to followers' performance. Drawing on this theoretical framework, we examined the relationships between managers' attachment orientations and subordinates' job satisfaction and burnout. Data were collected from 85 work groups from 71 organizations consisting of 483 subordinates and their 85 direct managers from a variety of job roles. Hierarchical linear modelling analyses indicated that managers' attachment insecurities predicted higher job burnout and lower job satisfaction among subordinates, and that ineffective caring orientation of the managers mediated these links. Findings further showed that subordinates' attachment insecurities were associated with burnout and job dissatisfaction. Implications for leadership research and for the design of organizational intervention as well as future research directions are discussed.     

The Sensitivity to Mean Intentions (SeMI) Model: Basic Assumptions,Recent Findings,and Potential Avenues for Future Research

A large body of research has demonstrated that people who are habitually sensitive towards victimization tend to behave uncooperatively and immorally in socially uncertain situations. The “Sensitivity to Mean Intentions” (SeMI) model (Gollwitzer & Rothmund 2009) aims at describing social‐cognitive mechanisms that underlie and explain this effect. The model posits that in socially uncertain situations, victim‐sensitive individuals are asymmetrically sensitive to cues of untrustworthiness. When such cues are present, suspicious cognitive and motivational reactions are triggered in victim‐sensitive individuals, and they behave preemptively selfish to avoid being exploited by others. Although functional at times, victim sensitivity does have dysfunctional side effects. The present article reviews recent findings regarding the SeMI model and sketches potential avenues for future research.     

Psychologists' perspectives on the diagnostic classification of mental disorders: Results from the WHO‐IUPsyS Global Survey

This study examined psychologists' views and practices regarding diagnostic classification systems for mental and behavioral disorders so as to inform the development of the ICD‐11 by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO and the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) conducted a multilingual survey of 2155 psychologists from 23 countries, recruited through their national psychological associations. Sixty percent of global psychologists routinely used a formal classification system, with ICD‐10 used most frequently by 51% and DSM‐IV by 44%. Psychologists viewed informing treatment decisions and facilitating communication as the most important purposes of classification, and preferred flexible diagnostic guidelines to strict criteria. Clinicians favorably evaluated most diagnostic categories, but identified a number of problematic diagnoses. Substantial percentages reported problems with crosscultural applicability and cultural bias, especially among psychologists outside the USA and Europe. Findings underscore the priority of clinical utility and professional and cultural differences in international psychology. Implications for ICD‐11 development and dissemination are discussed.     

Beyond community analysis: A response to Dr Borg

Abstract

Medicine, psychology, and psychiatry are not only modes of scientific knowledge or professional practice, but also means of social control that participate in regulating behavior. The “re-pathologizing” of psychiatry during the past 25 years bears witness to an anthropological mutation that reduces the human being to the sum of his or her conduct. In order to get to this “medico-economic” civilization of the subject, postmodern psychiatry has needed to deconstruct and reconstruct its normative landscape for the benefit of “fickle” notions and “behavioral disorders,” at the expense of the concept of “psychological suffering.”     

Occupational Stress and Wellness Among Italian Secondary School Teachers

As a part of a larger cross-cultural investigation (Euroteach) which involves 11 European countries and 2 182 secondary school teachers, two were the aims of the present study: (1) to examine the relationship between job conditions and wellness/health outcomes on a group of 169 Italian secondary school teachers, by using the Job Demand-Control-Support (JDCS) Model (Karasek and Theorell, <citeref rid="bib24">1990</citeref>); (2) to analyse the differences with other European countries in the light of specific cultural differences. Controlling for age and gender, results of hierarchical regression indicated that job control and social support combine in different additive patterns with job demands to explain the well-being outcomes (job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, somatic complaints). The predictor's linearity check indicated that the job demands variable is curvilinearly associated both with emotional exhaustion ( p<0.005) and with somatic symptoms ( p<0.01). As compared to the average of the other European countries, on the positive side, the Italian teachers manifest both a higher degree of personal accomplishment and a lesser degree of depersonalisation; on the other hand, they claim a lesser degree of social support and a higher degree of somatic complaints.     

Die psychische Dimension von Institutionen

The psychological dimension of an institution comprises the conscious and unconscious experiences of its members. This article analyzes from the standpoint of an “advocatus diaboli” processes effecting that institutions often do not fulfill the tasks for which they were created. Freud developed in Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego a scarcely noticed model of “two psychologies” in institutions: depending on whether the individual is positioned “at the top” or “at the bottom”, it develops a psychology of a group member or one of a leader. Both may be transformed into each other. In the present article the author examines both the renunciation of power imposed on the “group individuals” and its consequences for the individual, and the effects of hierarchical advancement on the mind. As examples for the interrelations of violence, castration and law psychoanalytic and state institutions (bureaucracies) are presented.     

Time processing in children with Tourette’s syndrome

Background

Tourette syndrome (TS) is characterized by dysfunctional connectivity between prefrontal cortex and sub-cortical structures, and altered meso-cortical and/or meso-striatal dopamine release. Since time processing is also regulated by fronto-striatal circuits and modulated by dopaminergic transmission, we hypothesized that time processing is abnormal in TS.

Methods

We compared time processing abilities between nine children with TS-only (i.e. without major psychiatric comorbidities) and 10 age-matched healthy children, employing a time reproduction task in which subjects actively reproduce different temporal intervals, and a time comparison task in which subjects judge whether a test interval is longer or shorter than a reference interval. IQ, sustained and divided attention, and working memory were assessed in both groups using the Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised, and the Digit Span sub-test of the WISC-R.

Results

Children with TS-only reproduced in an overestimated fashion over-second, but not sub-second, time intervals. The precision of over-second intervals reproduction correlated with tic severity, in that the lower the tic severity, the closer the reproduction of over-second time intervals to their real duration. Time reproduction performance did not significantly correlate with IQ, attention and working memory measures in both groups. No differences between groups were documented in the time comparison task.

Conclusions

The improvement of time processing in children with TS-only seems specific for the over-second range of intervals, consistent with an enhancement in the ‘cognitively controlled’ timing system, which mainly processes longer duration intervals, and depends upon dysfunctional connectivity between the basal ganglia and the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex. The absence of between-group differences on time comparison, moreover, suggests that TS patients manifest a selective improvement of ‘motor’ timing abilities, rather than of perceptual time abilities. Our data also support an enhancement of cognitive control processes in TS children, probably facilitated by effortful tic suppression.     

The Impact of Religious Coping on the Acculturative Stress and Alcohol Use of Recent Latino Immigrants

Religion plays a prominent role in Latino culture and could be influential during difficult life transitions, such as those experienced during the immigration process. This study examines relations between religious coping, acculturative stress, and alcohol use in a sample of 415 recent Latino immigrants. Higher levels of acculturative stress were associated more positive and negative religious coping. Positive religious coping was related to lower alcohol use. Negative religious coping moderated the relationship between acculturative stress and alcohol use. Participants who used more negative religious coping had higher rates of alcohol use when experiencing high levels acculturative stress. Implications for culturally tailored prevention/interventions are discussed.     

HIV Testing Experience and Risk Behavior Among Sexually Active Black Young Adults: A CBPR-Based Study Using Respondent-Driven Sampling in Durham,North Carolina

African Americans are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic inclusive of men who have sex with men, heterosexual men, and women. As part of a community‐based participatory research study we assessed HIV testing experience among sexually active 18–30 year old Black men and women in Durham, NC. Of 508 participants, 173 (74 %) men and 236 (86 %; p = 0.0008) women reported ever being tested. Barriers to testing (e.g., perceived risk and stigma) were the same for men and women, but men fell behind mainly because a primary facilitator of testing—routine screening in clinical settings—was more effective at reaching women. Structural and behavioral risk factors associated with HIV infection were prevalent but did not predict HIV testing experience. Reduced access to health care services for low income Black young adults may exacerbate HIV testing barriers that already exist for men and undermine previous success rates in reaching women.