The effect of mood and incentives on helping: Are there some things money can't buy?

Happy, guilty, and neutral mood states were induced in participants who were then provided with an opportunity to donate blood for free, to donate in exchange for $5, or to choose between donating for free or for $5. As expected, there was a significantly higher incidence of helping when subjects felt happy and guilty as opposed to emotively neutral. Contrary to predictions, helping was unaffected by the type of incentive (donate for $5, donate for free, choose $5/free) subjects were offered in interaction with their mood state. However, the type of incentive did seem to influence the postdonation emotions of subjects: Guilty subjects who donated for money felt significantly less guilty following donation than prior to it and happy subjects felt more self-altruistic (kind and generous) following donation when they helped for free. The results are discussed in terms of Cialdini's negative state relief model (for negative moods) and the intrinsic qualities of helping (for positive moods).     

Social anxiety and receptivity to interpersonal evaluation

Reactions to interpersonal evaluation were investigated among subjects chronically low and high in social anxiety, or shyness. Both groups of subjects expressed more positive affect after receiving favorable than after receiving unfavorable evaluations, supporting a “self-esteem” prediction. However, support for a “self-consistency” viewpoint was also found. In particular, low social anxiety individuals expressed more negative affect (anger) following negative than following positive feedback, while high social anxiety individuals expressed more unpleasant affect (distress) following positive than following negative interpersonal feedback. Additionally, low social anxiety subjects were alone in derogating the accuracy of negative feedback; high social anxiety individuals were indiscriminate in rating the two types of feedback as equally accurate. The role of interpersonal evaluation in the maintenance of social anxiety was discussed briefly.     

Hierarchical factor solution of coding and planning processes: Any new insights?

Hierarchical factor solution was used in the present paper in order to examine if two coding processes, simultaneous and successive, would load on a general 2nd level factor. It was further used to test if the coding processes and a factor representing planful behavior will not share the same general factor, revealing their relative independence as expected from a theoretical model of cognitive functions. Results supported the grouping of the coding tasks within a general factor, as well as the emergence of two general factors, one each for coding and planning. Further correlational evidence supported the relative independence of these two kinds of cognitive processes. These findings were discussed in the context of a general factor of intelligence.     

Temperamental factors in human development

The initial dispositions to approach or to avoid unfamiliar events are 2 temperamental characteristics of children--among the many that have been described--that appear to be moderately stable over time and associated with distinct, physiological profiles that may be under partial genetic control. The display of high versus low levels of both motor activity and crying to unfamiliar in 4-month-old infants predicts these 2 temperamental profiles in the 2nd year. This fact implies, but does not prove, that variation in the excitability of those brain areas that mediate motor activity and crying participates in the actualization of the temperamental categories called inhibited and uninhibited to the unfamiliar.     

Psychologists' role in family-centered approach to practice, training, and research with young children

Family-centered, community-based, coordinated care for children with special needs is presented as the best practice model for providing services to children and families. Psychologists must learn to play an active role in this frame-work that both integrates psychology with other health and education disciplines and uses the broad spectrum of psychological knowledge about families, development, community organization, and intervention strategies. Key principles of family-centered child psychology affect practice research and training. The psychologist becomes part of a team created to support families as the primary care-givers of their children. Training programs must reorganize the types of experiences both in the classroom and the field to train new psychologists within this model. As mandates for family-centered care affect policies at the state and federal levels, research will remain a critical factor in understanding the effects of these policy shifts on child and family functioning and the delivery of services.     

The process of pregnancy resolution among adolescent mothers

This paper reports on in-depth interviews with black and white unmarried adolescent mothers, from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, about their pregnancy resolution. They revealed the importance of family members and other significant adults in the decision process. The analysis also indicated that personal, familial, and religious values were primary considerations in deciding to bear and keep their children.     

Primordial Image and the Archetypal Design of Art

This paper extends Jung's work on the relationship of art to (postulated) archetypes of the collective unconscious. Archetypes of the collective unconscious, according to Jung, are revealed to ego consciousness only by way of images--images of a specific form. Jung suggests that archetypes, primordial images, combine two aspects in a single form and are therefore paradoxical. The wise old man and youth and hermaphrodites illustrate Jung's definition of a primordial image. My study of Jung's illustrations concludes that he is referring to what I term double-figures as the design form of primordial imagery. I elaborate upon the design form of double-figures, and illustrate my conception of archetypal imagery through comparative analysis of nine cases of double-figure imagery from selected prehistoric and contemporary societies. Double-figures, as archetypal primordial imagery of the collective unconscious, are spontaneously generated, autonomous, and known to a wide variety of societies. I distinguish between form and content in the study of primordial imagery, and conclude with a summary of the importance of Jung to the cross-cultural study of art.     

Psychological Peculiarities and Acoustical Environment Changes

In this paper all psychological aspects of global change that concern acoustical environment changes are discussed. It is revealed that an acoustical environment has undergone essential qualitative changes: Human auditory perception is now mostly mediated by technical means and modern technologies. The general aspects of the research approach and some results are outlined. The problem of acoustical environment pollution is discussed and proposals for international cooperative research are made.     

Sleep in Alzheimer's disease and other dementing disorders

It is estimated that up to 10% of the elderly population have clinically significant cognitive deficits. The neuronal pathologies that underlie the dementing disorders cause both cognitive dysfunction and disturbances in normal sleep/wake patterns. Here we report the changes in sleep/wake patterns seen with increasing severity of Alzheimer's disease, probably the most common dementing disorder. In addition, studies examining sleep/wake patterns in a number of other dementing disorders are reviewed.     

What children can tell us about living in danger

Developmental challenges faced by children growing up in situations of chronic danger linked to community violence and communal conflict are reviewed. The concept of post-traumatic stress disorder is expanded to include situations of chronic and on-going traumatic stress associated with dangerous environments--war zones and inner city neighborhoods plagued by violence and crime. Of particular importance is the impact of chronic stress and danger on the child's world view, the child's social map, and the child's moral development. On the basis of field work in 5 war zones, the article points to the importance of adult-led "processing" of the young child's experience to his or her psychological coping and moral development. Some of the contradictions operating in such environments are explored--for example, that "fanatical" ideology may provide short-term support for adults and children but also may serve to prolong communal conflict, impede the necessary processing of experience, and increase vulnerability in the long run.