Transparency of Self-Report Racial Attitude Scales

Researchers frequently use self-report prejudice scales to assess predictors and outcomes. Responding to evidence that such instruments are vulnerable to social desirability pressures and diverge from implicit attitude measures, researchers have developed instruments intended to be less transparent in their social implications. The purpose of this study was to assess the transparency of a sample of such instruments. Participants completed prejudice measures under typical scale instructions, or under alternate instructions to portray themselves either positively or negatively. The results indicate that several common measures of prejudice are quite transparent in their implications. Further, mean scores of participants instructed to provide desirable responses were indistinguishable from those ostensibly responding honestly.     

Mental imagery as an emotional amplifier: application to bipolar disorder

Cognitions in the form of mental images have a more powerful impact on emotion than their verbal counterparts. This review synthesizes the cognitive science of imagery and emotion with transdiagnostic clinical research, yielding novel predictions for the basis of emotional volatility in bipolar disorder. Anxiety is extremely common in patients with bipolar disorder and is associated with increased dysfunction and suicidality, yet it is poorly understood and rarely treated. Mental imagery is a neglected aspect of bipolar anxiety although in anxiety disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder and social phobia focusing on imagery has been crucial for the development of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT).In this review we present a cognitive model of imagery and emotion applied to bipolar disorder. Within this model mental imagery amplifies emotion, drawing on Clark's cyclical panic model [(1986). A cognitive approach to panic. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24, 461–470]. We (1) emphasise imagery's amplification of anxiety (cycle one); (2) suggest that imagery amplifies the defining (hypo-) mania of bipolar disorder (cycle two), whereby the overly positive misinterpretation of triggers leads to mood elevation (escalated by imagery), increasing associated beliefs, goals, and action likelihood (all strengthened by imagery).Imagery suggests a unifying explanation for key unexplained features of bipolar disorder: ubiquitous anxiety, mood instability and creativity. Introducing imagery has novel implications for bipolar treatment innovation - an area where CBT improvements are much-needed.     

"Hotspots" in trauma memories in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder: a replication

"Hotspots" refer to memories of detailed moments of peak emotional distress during a traumatic event. This study investigates hotspot frequency, and the emotions and cognitions contained in hotspots of memory for trauma, to replicate a previous study in this area (Holmes, Grey, & Young, 2005). Participants were patients receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at a specialist outpatient clinic after experiencing a range of traumatic events. The main finding was that, after fear, the most common emotions reported were anger and sadness. Cognitions related to psychological threat to the self were more common than those related to physical threat.     

Factor structure of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML) in children with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM).

Maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis was performed with the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML) for a clinical sample of 246 children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Consistent with previous literature examining the factor structure of the WRAML, findings supported the validity of a three-factor model including Verbal Memory, Visual Memory, and Attention/Concentration (AC) factors for this clinical sample. However, in contrast to previous factor analytic research, results also supported the validity of an alternative two-factor model consisting of a combined modality Memory/Learning (ML) factor and an AC factor. While the results suggest that the three-factor solution may provide an adequate characterization of memory and learning in the majority of this sample of children with IDDM, it appears that certain groups of children with IDDM, particularly those children with early disease onset and those who experience hypoglycemic seizures, may exhibit a specific profile of differences that may result in a lack of differentiation between the verbal and visual modalities.     

Empathy,Selfism, and Coping as Elements of the Psychology of Forgiveness: A Preliminary Study

This research expanded understanding of forgiveness by (a) distinguishing forgiveness from unforgiveness and their respective correlates (empathy and selfism) and (b) examining coping style and its impact on the process of forgiveness and unforgiveness. Participants were 92 students in a large northeastern urban public university. Correlates of forgiveness and unforgiveness were distinctly different. With respect to forgiveness, 42% of the variance was explained by the variables under study. Emotion‐focused coping was associated with forgiving. Clinically relevant issues were raised, specifically regarding the role of selfism and emotion‐focused coping and contextual variables such as financial resources, age, gender, and religiosity.     

Categorical Perception Beyond the Basic Level: The Case of Warm and Cool Colors

Categories can affect our perception of the world, rendering between‐category differences more salient than within‐category ones. Across many studies, such categorical perception (CP) has been observed for the basic‐level categories of one's native language. Other research points to categorical distinctions beyond the basic level, but it does not demonstrate CP for such distinctions. Here we provide such a demonstration. Specifically, we show CP in English speakers for the non‐basic distinction between “warm” and “cool” colors, claimed to represent the earliest stage of color lexicon evolution. Notably, the advantage for discriminating colors that straddle the warm–cool boundary was restricted to the right visual field—the same behavioral signature previously observed for basic‐level categories. This pattern held in a replication experiment with increased power. Our findings show that categorical distinctions beyond the basic‐level repertoire of one's native language are psychologically salient and may be spontaneously accessed during normal perceptual processing.     

Reflections on Hollander’s “Hegemonic Mind” and How to Treat It

This response to Hollander’s consideration of the “hegemonic mind” critiques her social psychoanalytic formulation of man’s inclination to disempower the many to serve the personal, particularly the financial desires of the few. In the spirit of her point of view, I propose that this inclination is a function of active if not always conscious motivation, not a manifestation of “social malaise.” Further, I raise for consideration the fact that hegemonic “fever” is quite contagious, noting that those perpetrating it, and those on its receiving end, are attracted to it. I also consider that hegemony is an important manifest content, the latent determinant of which is a stubborn universal tendency for humans to show ill will toward one another. Through clinical examples I show that hegemonic formulations add to but do not replace other conceptualizations of how to understand and work with our patients’ personal and social dysfunction.     

INEVITABLE HUMANS: SIMON CONWAY MORRIS'S EVOLUTIONARY PALEONTOLOGY

Abstract. Simon Conway Morris, noted Cambridge University paleontologist, argues that in evolutionary natural history humans (or beings rather like humans) are an inevitable outcome of the developing speciating processes over millennia; humans are “inherent” in the system. This claim, in marked contrast to claims about contingency made by other prominent paleontologists, is based on numerous remarkable convergences—similar trends found repeatedly in evolutionary history. Conway Morris concludes approaching a natural theology. His argument is powerful and informed. But does it face adequately the surprising events in such history, particularly notable in unexpected co‐options that redirect the course of life? The challenge to understand how humans are both on a continuum with other species and also utterly different remains a central puzzle in paleontology.     

Cultural Values and Volunteering: A Cross-cultural Comparison of Students�� Motivation to Volunteer in 13 Countries

Voluntary participation is connected to cultural, political, religious and social contexts. Social and societal factors can provide opportunities, expectations and requirements for voluntary activity, as well as influence the values and norms promoting this. These contexts are especially central in the case of voluntary participation among students as they are often responding to the societal demands for building a career and qualifying for future assignments and/or government requirements for completing community service. This article questions how cultural values affect attitudes towards volunteerism, using data from an empirical research project on student volunteering activity in 13 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region. The findings indicate that there are differences in motivation between countries which represent different cultural values. This article sets these findings in context by comparing structural and cultural factors which may influence volunteerism within each country.