Lack of habituation to shocking words: The attentional bias to their spatial origin is context free

Following a suggestion made by Aquino and Arnell (2007), we assumed that the processing of emotional words is influenced by their context of presentation. Supporting this idea, previous studies using the emotional Stroop task in its visual or auditory variant revealed different results depending on the mixed versus blocked presentation of the stimuli (Bertels, Kolinsky, Pietrons, & Morais, 2011; Richards, French, Johnson, Naparstek, & Williams, 1992). In the present study, we investigated the impact of these presentation designs on the occurrence of spatial attentional biases in a modified version of the beep-probe task (Bertels, Kolinsky, & Morais, 2010). Attentional vigilance to taboo words as well as non-spatial slowing effects of these words were observed whatever the mixed or blocked design, whereas attentional vigilance to positive words was only observed in the mixed design. Together with the results from our previous study (Bertels et al., 2010), the present data support the reliability of the effects of shocking stimuli, while vigilance to positive words would only be observed in a threatening context.     

“I Tried to Make it not Confusing by Fixing it”: Describing Six First Graders’ Use of Strategies to Understand Text

This study describes six first-grade students’ use of metacognitive strategies. The students (4 boys and 2 girls) represented low, average, and above-average readers and were enrolled in a rural Midwestern elementary school. A variety of data were collected throughout the year: (a) an informal reading inventory and metacognitive awareness interview were conducted at the beginning and end of the year; and (b) during the school year, think-aloud interview protocols, running records, anecdotal notes, and retellings were conducted. The analysis revealed that these first graders were reporting and using a variety of strategies to read.     

The anticipatory construction of reality as a central concern for psychology and robotics

How is it that, given our diverse sensors that are moving at any moment, we get to the idea that there is a more or less permanent world around us that contains objects and living beings and that is endowed with spatial and temporal properties? This question is difficult, it is “the child’s construction of reality” issue. Given the complexity of the underlying phenomena, it requires a dialog between engineering sciences and life sciences to be solved. In this paper, we introduce the contributions to this dialog that have been collected in this special issue.     

Deconstructing the construct: A network perspective on psychological phenomena

In psychological measurement, two interpretations of measurement systems have been developed: the reflective interpretation, in which the measured attribute is conceptualized as the common cause of the observables, and the formative interpretation, in which the measured attribute is seen as the common effect of the observables. We advocate a third interpretation, in which attributes are conceptualized as systems of causally coupled (observable) variables. In such a view, a construct like ’depression’ is not seen as a latent variable that underlies symptoms like ’lack of sleep’ or ’fatigue’, and neither as a composite constructed out of these symptoms, but as a system of causal relations between the symptoms themselves (e.g., lack of sleep → fatigue, etc.). We discuss methodological strategies to investigate such systems as well as theoretical consequences that bear on the question in which sense such a construct could be interpreted as real.     

The emotional development of a woman: A form of social perversion

Abstract

This paper presents a point of view about how Mexican women who have achieved economical and professional freedom see their process of liberation through several unconscious social, cultural, and family filters. Would it be a form of social perversion not to analyse the delay in their emotional maturity related to cultural patterns, unresolved psychic conflicts, and the social unconscious?

Gila Jiménez Rosas. Die emotionale Entwicklung von Frauen: Eine Form von sozialer Perversion.

Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit dem Selbstverständnis mexikanischer Frauen, die ökonomische und soziale Befreiung verwirklicht haben. Diese Frauen sehen aber ihren Befreiungsprozess nicht klar, sondern verschleiert durch verschiedene unbewusste soziale, kulturelle und familiäre Gegebenheiten. Es scheint eine Art sozialer Perversion in ihren verspäteten emotionalen Reifeprozessen vorzuliegen, dies auf Grund von kulturellen Mustern und ungelösten unbewussten Konflikten.

Gila Jiménez Rosas. El desarrollo emocional de la mujer: Una forma de perversión social.

Este trabajo presenta un punto de vista acerca de cómo la mujer mexicana, que consigue libertad económica y profesional, ve su proceso de liberación a través de varios filtros sociales,culturales y familiares. Sería una forma de perversión el no analizar el retraso en su madurez emocional relacionada a patrones culturales, conflictos psíquicos no resueltos y al inconsciente social?     

Understanding Hope. Persons in the Process of Dying

Changes both within the profession of psychoanalysis and in society as a whole have affected our psychoanalytic training programs and presented new ethical challenges. Whereas in earlier decades training programs needed to be concerned primarily about the inviolability of the training analysis and the choice of appropriate analytic candidates, today there is little support for psychoanalysis as a treatment modality. Institutes are experiencing greater competition in attracting quality candidates and in providing them with adequate training experiences. This strain encourages institutes to operate in unethical ways to attract candidates. On the other hand, within the profession itself we are experiencing much theoretical ferment and the increasing feminization of the profession. These changes are affecting our training institutes and our ethical values in both positive and negative ways.     

True Overconfidence in Interval Estimates: Evidence Based on a New Measure of Miscalibration

Overconfidence is often regarded as one of the most prevalent judgment biases. Several studies show that overconfidence can lead to suboptimal decisions of investors, managers, or politicians. Recent research, however, questions whether overconfidence should be regarded as a bias and shows that standard “overconfidence” findings can easily be explained by different degrees of knowledge of agents plus a random error in predictions. We contribute to the current literature and ongoing research by extensively analyzing interval estimates for knowledge questions, for real financial time series, and for artificially generated charts. We thereby suggest a new method to measure overconfidence in interval estimates, which is based on the implied probability mass behind a stated prediction interval. We document overconfidence patterns, which are difficult to reconcile with rationality of agents and which cannot be explained by differences in knowledge as differences in knowledge do not exist in our task. Furthermore, we show that overconfidence measures are reliable in the sense that there exist stable individual differences in the degree of overconfidence in interval estimates, thereby testing an important assumption of behavioral economics and behavioral finance models: stable individual differences in the degree of overconfidence across people. We do this in a “field experiment,” for different levels of expertise of subjects (students on the one hand and professional traders and investment bankers on the other hand), over time, by using different miscalibration metrics, and for tasks that avoid common weaknesses such as a non‐representative selection of trick questions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Much Distress Is Too Much on Deployed Operations? Validation of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) for Application in Military Operational Settings

The aim of this study was threefold: (a) to assess the factor structure of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) to determine whether interpreting the scale as a single dimensional measure of psychological distress is justified in military operational setting; (b) to validate the K10 for mental health surveillance in operational settings against self-reported occupational impairment; (c) to evaluate whether the K10 has better discriminatory power than de facto standards for mental health surveillance on deployment, namely the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist, Civilian version. A convenience sample of Canadian Armed Forces personnel serving in Afghanistan (N = 1,264) completed self-report measures of psychological distress and occupational impairment. On examination of 6 competing models, the authors determined that interpreting the K10 as a measure of unspecified psychological distress is justified. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, they identified new cutoff values for dichotomous and polychotomous scoring methods. After comparing the area beneath the ROC curves for each of the 3 mental health surveillance questionnaires, the authors determined that all measures perform well as predictors of self-rated occupational impairment, with values ranging from .86 to .90. These results highlight the importance of cross-setting validation and demonstrate that validating psychological screening questionnaires against self-report measures of occupational impairment can be a useful strategy for understanding the manifestation of psychological distress on deployed military operations.     

Effects of Hardiness and Years of Military Service on Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in U.S. Army Medics

We examined the effects of hardiness on symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTS) in postdeployed U.S. Army medics (N = 322). Medics endure a high level of work-related stress on and off the battlefield. Hardiness correlated negatively with reports of PTS symptoms and moderated the cumulative effects of years of military service on PTS symptoms. After controlling for socially desirable responding, PTS symptoms increased with years of military service for those with low levels of hardiness and decreased with years of military service for those with very high levels of hardiness. The military’s current resiliency training programs would likely benefit from incorporating hardiness measures and principles into its curriculum.     

Mental Health Services Use Intentions Among Canadian Military Recruits

Identifying the factors associated with mental health services use (MHSU) is an important step in developing strategies to improve services access and delivery. The aims of the present study were to (a) identify personality and individual difference characteristics associated with MHSU intentions within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and (b) explore complex relationships that might exist between these characteristics and determinants of MHSU intentions identified in TPB, including attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Data for 244 Canadian Armed Forces recruits who completed a MHSU questionnaire following mental health training were linked to personality data collected earlier. Multivariate analyses showed that the relationship between agreeableness and MHSU intentions was mediated by instrumental attitudes and subjective norms. The relationship between hardiness and MHSU intentions was mediated by subjective norms and self-efficacy. Findings suggest it may be worthwhile to consider mental health education initiatives to improve MHSU.