Identity theft1

Abstract

Psychoanalysis has almost disappeared from the curricula of most American universities, which I illustrate by the case of the department of psychology at my own university, Harvard. Courses on psychoanalysis are very rare there and it is mostly seen as a part of history of psychology and not as a set of ideas that can be useful nowadays. Personality models developed by Freud or Melanie Klein, as well as many more contemporary psychoanalysts, are, however, still very relevant for the humanities. This is particularly the case for Shakespeare studies and I am trying to show that despite the fact that psychoanalysis can enrich this field, less and less students show interest in it or are willing to admit that they themselves may have unconscious reactions. I focus on the usefullness of the concept of projective identification and propose the thesis that is another name for the activities of theater, and indeed for theater itself.     

Sex-specific cognitive–behavioural profiles emerging from individual variation in numerosity discrimination in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gambusia affinis</Emphasis>

The relationship between an individual’s cognitive abilities and other behavioural attributes is complex, yet critical to understanding how individual differences in cognition arise. Here we use western mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis, to investigate the relationship between individual associative learning performance in numerical discrimination tests and independent measures of activity, exploration, anxiety and sociability. We found extensive and highly repeatable inter-individual variation in learning performance (r = 0.89; ICC = 0.89). Males and females exhibited similar learning performance, yet differed in sociability, activity and their relationship between learning and anxiety/exploration tendencies. Sex-specific multivariate behaviour scores successfully predicted variation in individual learning performance, whereas combined sex analyses did not. Female multivariate behaviour scores significantly predict learning performance across females (ρ = 0.80, p = 0.005) with high-performing female learners differentiated from female non-learners and low-performing learners by significant contributions of activity and sociability measures. Meanwhile, males of different learning performance levels (high-, low- and non-learners) were distinguished from each other by unique behavioural loadings of sociability, activity and anxiety/exploration scores, respectively. Our data suggest that despite convergence on learning performance, the sexes diverge in cognitive–behavioural relationships that are likely products of different sexual selection pressures.     

Age and gender comparisons of driving while sleepy: Behaviours and risk perceptions

To assist road safety professionals in developing effective strategies to combat the risk associated with driving while fatigued, a survey was administered to 1000 Australian drivers. Participants reported their past behaviours in regards to driving while sleepy and their perceptions of risk associated with driving fatigued as compared to speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol. Although participants appeared to be aware of the substantial risk associated with driving while sleepy, many drivers reported that they frequently drive when sleepy. Age and gender comparisons, revealed that risk taking behaviour in regards to driving while sleepy is occurring across all age groups and in both male and female drivers. Overall young to middle age drivers and male drivers reported the highest frequency of driving while sleepy and reported the lowest perceived personal risk in regards to driving while sleepy.     

Propension à discriminer à l’égard du genre et dominance sociale

This work aims to study the propensity to discriminate (PTD) (Dovidio & Helb, 2005 ; Tisserant, Wagner & Barth, 2010) against gender and other salient criteria in the working place, such as ethnic origin and religious background. More precisely, we investigated the link between PTD and the social dominance orientation (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). 119 counsellors from French employment services answered a questionnaire dealing on concepts and attitudes towards social groups. Results show that social dominance, as a system of belief justifying social inequalities, generally predict the PTD of individuals, whatever the criterion of discrimination considered. The sex of counsellors can be considered as a moderating variable since females are less likely to accept inequalities than males do. We discuss the need for work and organizational psychologists to invest, alongside the managers, this field of research on equality, non-discrimination and diversity (ENDD).     

College students, tattoos, and sexual activity

This research examined the association of having a tattoo and engaging in premarital sexual intercourse. Data gathered from a convenience sample of 450 college students indicated that tattooed respondents were substantively and significantly more likely to be sexually active than nontattooed college students. Tattooed men became sexually active at a significantly earlier age than nontattooed men but no such difference was found between tattooed and nontattooed college women.     

The impact of frontal and non-frontal brain tumor lesions on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance

Several lesion and imaging studies have suggested that the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is a measure of executive dysfunction. However, some studies have reported that this measure has poor anatomical specificity because patients with either frontal or non-frontal focal lesions exhibit similar performance. This study examined 25 frontal, 20 non-frontal low-grade brain tumor patients, and 63 normal controls (NC) on the WCST. The frontal patients were also assigned to either a left frontal (n=10) group or a right frontal group (n=15) and compared with the non-frontal group and NC. It was hypothesized that the frontal brain tumor patients would display greater deficits on categories achieved and a higher number of perseverative errors than non-frontal brain tumor patients on the WCST. Finally, it was predicted that right frontal brain tumors would result in greater executive functioning deficits than left frontal or non-frontal brain tumors. Results indicated that the left frontal group achieved the fewest categories and committed the most perseverative errors compared to the other patient and normal control groups. In addition, the left frontal group committed significantly more perseverative errors than the right frontal group. These results suggest that the WCST is sensitive to the effects of low-grade brain tumors on executive functioning.     

Sex differences in the links between attractiveness, self-esteem and the body

Two studies were conducted to determine: if the links between the body and self-perceived attractiveness and self-esteem for men and women differ. Following evolutionary and social learning theories, affective and cognitive links were hypothesized for women's attractiveness while no links were hypothesized for men's attractiveness. Additionally, affective links were expected for women's self-esteem while no links were expected for men's self-esteem. The results obtained supported these hypotheses. Findings are discussed in terms of the societal value placed on women's attractiveness and evolutionary theory.     

Haptic perception of linear extent

The perception of linear extent in haptic touch appears to be anisotropic, in that haptically perceived extents can depend on the spatial orientation and location of the object and, thus, on the direction of exploratory motion. Experiments 1 and 2 quantified how the haptic perception of linear extent depended on the type of motion (radial or tangential to the body) when subjects explored different stimulus objects (raised lines or solid blocks) varying in length and in relative spatial location. Relatively narrow, shallow, raised lines were judged to be longer, by magnitude estimation, than solid blocks. Consistent with earlier reports, stimuli explored with radial arm motions were judged to be longer than identical stimuli explored with tangential motions; this difference did not depend consistently on the lateral position of the stimulus object, the direction of movement (toward or away from the body), or the distance of the hand from the body but did depend slightly on the angular position of the shoulder. Experiment 3 showed that the radial-tangential effect could be explained by temporal differences in exploratory movements, implying that the apparent anisotropy is not intrinsic to the structure of haptic space.