Emotion differentiation moderates aggressive tendencies in angry people: A daily diary analysis

Anger is commonly associated with aggression. Inefficient anger-coping strategies increase negative affect and deplete the regulatory resources needed to control aggressive impulses. Factors linked with better emotion regulation may then weaken the relationship between anger and aggression. The current work explored one factor associated with emotion regulation-differentiating one's emotions into discrete categories-that may buffer angry people from aggression. Three diary studies (N = 628) tested the hypothesis that emotion differentiation would weaken the relationship between anger and aggression. In Study 1, participants high in emotion differentiation reported less daily aggressive tendencies when angry, compared to low differentiators. In Study 2, compared to low differentiators, high differentiators reported less frequent provocation in daily life and less daily aggression in response to being provoked and feeling intense anger. Study 3 showed that high daily emotional control mediated the interactive effect of emotion differentiation and anger on aggression. These results highlight the importance of considering how angry people differentiate their emotions in predicting their aggressive responses to anger.     

Unconditioned freezing is enhanced in an appetitive context: implications for the contextual dependency of unconditioned fear

It has been well established that expression of conditioned fear is context independent, but the context dependency of unconditioned fear expression has rarely been explored. A recent study reported that unconditioned freezing in rats is enhanced in a familiar context, which suggests that unconditioned fear expression can be modulated by contextual processing. In order to further explore this possibility we examined unconditioned freezing in novel, familiar, and appetitive contexts; and attempted to identify brain regions critical for context-related changes in unconditioned freezing by measuring c-Fos mRNA levels in emotional circuits. Unconditioned freezing was enhanced in the appetitive context, and this enhancement was accompanied by increased c-Fos mRNA expression in the medial amygdala and hippocampus, but attenuated expression in the medial prefrontal cortex. In the appetitive context, expectation of a reward coupled with detection of threat may have enhanced unconditioned fear expression, which suggests that unconditioned fear expression can be modulated by contextual factors. Context-related expectancy mismatch may explain the enhancement of unconditioned fear expression seen in this study and warrants further examination.     

Program for advanced studies in integrative psychotherapy: Family,couple, and individual therapy (an interdisciplinary program)

This article describes briefly an advanced program in integrative marital and family therapy and individual psychotherapy established at the Hebrew University of Jersusalem in 1993–94 and its first two years of successful operation.     

Projective identification: Pros and cons. An essay review of Samuel Slipp,the technique and practice of Object Relations Family Therapy

This paper is a critical appraisal of Samuel Slipp's book on Object Relations Family Therapy (ORFT), which uses the concept of projective identification as a central thesis in explaining interpersonal influence. Slipp's book is praised for its excellent review of the literature of object relations theory and the major schools of family therapy, classification of families according to complementary projections, and revealing case material. Interpersonal-Systemic (I-S) theory and methodology with its use of the concepts of empathy, interpersonal influences, search for intimacy, maintenance of self-esteem, selective inattention, and reflected appraisals is offered as an alternative view to projective identification.     

A computer-based intervention to reduce internalized heterosexism in men

Internalized heterosexism (IH) is a strong predictor of the psychological well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB), or other same-sex attracted individuals. To respond to the call for interventions to address IH, the current study developed and tested an online intervention to reduce IH among gay, bisexual, and other same-sex attracted men. A total of 367 self-identified same-sex attracted adult males were recruited through various nationwide LGB-related sources and were assigned by birth month to either the experimental condition (focusing on IH reduction) or the control condition (a similarly structured invention focusing on stress management); 290 of these participants completed the intervention and all post-intervention measures. Mean levels of IH were compared by condition, indicating significant differences on the IH global score and 2 of the 3 IH subscale scores between the participants in the 2 conditions. The study findings support the promise of using the Internet to deliver IH interventions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Tempo sensitivity in isochronous tone sequences: the multiple-look model revisited

Factors affecting tempo sensitivity in isochronous tone sequences were investigated in two experiments. Participants listened to tones in sequence conditions in which the number of time intervals in isochronous standard and comparison sequences was varied, and they were asked to judge the tempo of the comparison relative to the standard. When the duration of the standard interval was held constant, tempo sensitivity was affected by the number of comparison intervals, but not by the number of standard intervals. In contrast, when the duration of the standard interval was varied randomly from trial to trial, tempo sensitivity was affected by the number of intervals in both sequences. The present findings are discussed in the context of a generalized multiple-look model that posits independent contributions of both sequences to tempo sensitivity. Quantitative model fits suggest that the relative contribution of the number of the standard intervals to tempo thresholds depends on (1) the availability of a stable long-term referent for the standard tempo and (2) a priori knowledge about the number of standard intervals.     

Speaking Like a Queen in RuPaul’s Drag Race: Towards a Speech Code of American Drag Queens

Employing Speech Codes Theory (Philipsen et al. in Theorizing about intercultural communication. Sage, Thousand Oaks, 2005) as my theoretical framework, I examine communicative practices and beliefs as to what it means to speak like a drag queen as portrayed within the reality TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR): Season Four. Examining this particular population increases knowledge on how marginalized populations use talk to construct rules of conduct for a coherent identity. Members uphold drag queen speech codes by revealing what it means to speak like a queen. Such items include to look like a “fish,” don’t be “hungry,” be humble, resist negativity, don’t complain, and exude professionalism. These are qualities and characteristics of communication that a drag queen must perform, uphold, and repeat in order to uphold drag family values, thus fulfilling the code of sisterhood that comes with the performance of drag. These are evident within beliefs and everyday talk as portrayed within RPDR.