Fairness lies in the heart of the beholder: How the social emotions of third parties influence reactions to injustice

The present research explores third parties’ (e.g., jurors, ombudsmen, auditors, and employees observing others’ encounters) ability to objectively judge fairness. More specifically, the current research suggests that third parties’ justice judgments and reactions are biased by their attitudes toward the decision recipient and, in particular, the affective aspect of those attitudes as characterized by their felt social emotions. We explore how the congruence of a social emotion (i.e., the extent to which the emotion reflects feeling a subjective sense of alignment with the target of the emotion) can influence their evaluations of recipients’ decision outcomes. The five studies presented show that congruence can lead third parties to react positively to objectively unfair decision outcomes and, importantly, that the influence of social emotions on subjective justice judgments drive third party reactions to decisions, decision makers, and even national policies.     

Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy: Theoretical and Clinical Foundations

Ecosystemic structural family therapy (ESFT) is a systemic, strength-based, and trauma-informed family therapy model that has evolved from structural family therapy (SFT; Minuchin in Families and family therapy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1974). ESFT is an evidenced-based family therapy approach designed to intervene with families of children who are experiencing behavioral health problems and are at the risk of out-of-home placement. In this article we review the theoretical, applied, and empirical evolution of ESFT relative to extant SFT models. ESFT is based on the fundamental assumption that child, parental, and marital functioning are inextricably linked to their relational environment. Five interrelated constructs guide ESFT therapists in their understanding of clinical problems: family structure; family and individual emotional regulation; individual differences (e.g., historical, biological, cultural, developmental); affective proximity; and family development (Gehart 2010). ESFT has an extensive evaluation history dating back to the 1980s involving over 4,000 families in 39 different sites. While ESFT is considered evidence-based, it might be more consistent with “Practice-Based Evidence” given its long, extensive, and successful, history in the child mental health system in Pennsylvania.     

Models of data and theoretical hypotheses: a case-study in classical genetics

Linkage (or genetic) maps are graphs, which are intended to represent the linear ordering of genes on the chromosomes. They are constructed on the basis of statistical data concerning the transmission of genes. The invention of this technique in 1913 was driven by Morgan’s group’s adoption of a set of hypotheses concerning the physical mechanism of heredity. These hypotheses were themselves grounded in Morgan’s defense of the chromosome theory of heredity, according to which chromosomes are the physical basis of genes. In this paper, I analyze the 1919 debate between William Castle and Morgan’s group, about the construction of genetic maps. The official issue of the debate concerns the arrangement of genes on chromosomes. However, the disputants tend to carry out the discussions about how one should model the data in order to draw predictions concerning the transmission of genes; the debate does not bear on the data themselves, nor does it focus on the hypotheses explaining these data. The main criteria that are appealed to by the protagonists are simplicity and predictive efficacy. However, I show that both parties’ assessments of the simplicity and predictive efficacy of different ways of modeling the data themselves depend on background theoretical positions. I aim at clarifying how preference for a given model and theoretical commitments articulate.     

Critical Issues in Cross‐Cultural Counseling Research: Case Example of an Ongoing Project

Cross‐cultural counseling practice is characterized by a proliferation of opinions without empirical substantiation. Most research in this area is based on survey or analog studies that do not address practice issues in terms of outcome or actual clinical process. The authors examine issues in cross‐cultural counseling and research, using illustrations from an ongoing study. El consejo intercultural se caracteriza por medio de la generación de opiniones proliferas sin justificación empírica. Muchos estudios en este campo se basan en encuestas or estudios analógicos que no se dirigen a las cuestiones de la práctica, en cuanto a los resultados o al verdadero proceso clínico. Los autores examinan temas en las investigaciones del consejo intercultural, utilizando ejemplos de un proyecto actual.     

Pavloviana in the USA: Archives of the history of American psychology,university of Akron

This paper represents one step in the effort to locate, examine, and make generally available archival materials related to the life and work of I. P. Pavlov and held outside the Soviet Union, in particular in the United States. The Archives of the History of American Psychology contain fairly extensive correspondence among American psychologists, with informative references to Pavlov, including letters written by K. S. Lashley, R. M. Yerkes, and J. B. Watson. References to Pavlov are also located in a variety of other sources, including reminiscenses of psychologists and R. M. Yerkes’“Obituary” of Pavlov written in 1916. Pictures of Pavlov and his close associates are reproduced from still photographs and motion picture films.     

The interpretation of a test validity coefficient in terms of increased efficiency of a selected group of personnel

The predictive efficiency of a test used to select personnel is defined in terms of total effectiveness of the group thus selected, as compared with chance selection. The formula developed requires the use of an estimate of the ratio of average effectiveness of men selected to the average effectiveness of men not selected by the test. The predictive efficiency of the test varies directly with the magnitude of this ratio and also directly with the percentage rejected.     

Links Among Cognitive Empathy,Theory of Mind,and Affective Perspective Taking by Young Children

The authors investigated the development of the affective, cognitive, and behavioral components of empathy in preschoolers, specifically examining how cognitive empathy is linked to theory of mind and affective perspective taking. Participants were 158 children aged 4–6 years. They listened to narratives and then answered questions about the protagonists' emotions. The affective component was probed with the question, “How do you feel seeing the little girl/boy?”; the cognitive component with the question, “Why do you feel [emotion shared with the character]?”; and the behavioral one with the question, “What would you do if you were next to the little boy/girl [experiencing an emotional scenario]?” Results revealed a developmental sequence in the self-focused attribution of cognitive empathy, and a trend toward a developmental sequence for behavioral empathy, which underwent a slight linear increase between 4 and 6 years old. Affective empathy remained stable. More interestingly, they showed that cognitive empathy is linked to both theory of mind and affective perspective taking.     

Ecological and Dynamical Study of the Creative Process and Affects of Scientific Students Working in Groups

Although creativity has drawn the attention of researchers during the past century, collaborative processes have barely been investigated. In this article, the collective dimension of a creative process is investigated, based on a dynamic and ecological approach that includes an affective component. Dynamic means that the creative process is no longer considered as sequential, and ecological, that the individuals were observed in their normal place of creation. This study was conducted with science students that were required to carry on a research project during 15 weeks in small groups. The results tend to confirm the hypothesis of a nonlinear process, with important variations of the affects depending on the stage. Moreover, each group creative process seems to be specific. The relation between the social functioning of the group and the process is also discussed. Finally, because it is a part of any teamwork, verbalization is proposed as a new powerful tool to investigate creative process.