Expressed emotion and sociocultural moderation in the course of schizophrenia

This study examined whether the sociocultural context moderates the relationship between families' expressed emotion (EE) and clinical outcomes in schizophrenia. In a sample of 60 Mexican American caregivers and their ill relatives, we first assessed whether EE and its indices (criticism, emotional overinvolvement [EOI], and warmth) related to relapse. Second, we extended the analysis of EE and its indices to a longitudinal assessment of symptomatology. Last, we tested whether bidimensional acculturation moderated the relationship between EE (and its indices) and both relapse and symptom trajectory over time. Results indicated that EOI was associated with increased relapse and that criticism was associated with increased symptomatology. Additionally, as patients' Mexican enculturation (Spanish language and media involvement) decreased, EE was increasingly related to relapse. For symptomatology, as patients' U.S. acculturation (English language and media involvement) increased, EE was associated with increased symptoms longitudinally. Our results replicate and extend past research on how culture might shape the way family factors relate to the course of schizophrenia.     

Kant on Complete Determination and Infinite Judgement

In the Transcendental Ideal Kant discusses the principle of complete determination: for every object and every predicate A, the object is either determinately A or not-A. He claims this principle is synthetic, but it appears to follow from the principle of excluded middle, which is analytic. He also makes a puzzling claim in support of its syntheticity: that it represents individual objects as deriving their possibility from the whole of possibility. This raises a puzzle about why Kant regarded it as synthetic, and what his explanatory claim means. I argue that the principle of complete determination does not follow from the principle of excluded middle because the externally negated or ‘negative’ judgement ‘Not (S is P)’ does not entail the internally negated or ‘infinite’ judgement ‘S is not-P.’ Kant's puzzling explanatory claim means that empirical objects are determined by the content of the totality of experience. This entails that empirical objects are completely determinate if and only if the totality of experience has a completely determinate content. I argue that it is not a priori whether experience has such a completely determinate content and thus not analytic that objects obey the principle of complete determination.     

Goal pursuit,goal self-concordance,and the accessibility of autobiographical knowledge

Recent theory suggests that personal goals influence the accessibility of autobiographical knowledge. We suggest that this effect is moderated by goal self-concordance: the extent to which a goal is pursued for autonomous rather than controlling reasons. Cueing paradigms were used to measure the accessibility of autobiographical knowledge relating to (i) goals that participants were and were not pursuing, and (ii) currently pursued goals that were high and low in self-concordance. As predicted, autobiographical knowledge relating to currently pursued goals was more accessible than autobiographical knowledge relating to non-pursued goals. General event knowledge relating to self-concordant goals was more accessible than general event knowledge relating to non-self-concordant goals, but a corresponding relationship did not emerge for event-specific knowledge.     

Dealing With Complexity Differently: From Interaction-Dominant Dynamics to Theoretical Plurality

We describe how the work of Guy Van Orden has been deeply influential in a variety of ways and focus on 2 important features: measurement and context. The centrality of these variables in understanding how psychological regularities emerge in our investigative contexts, and evolve into theories, recommends a different way of dealing with complexity. We argue that the Van Orden approach has, as one possible consequence, a plural approach to psychological phenomena. We end by describing what this means for cognitive science.     

Morality and political orientations: An analysis of their relationship

Groups are social constructions with differences. People spontaneously attempt to explain differences between groups. Stereotypes often play this explanatory role. Specifically, group members tend to attribute different essences to social categories. Given widespread ethnocentrism, it is not surprising that individuals reserve “the human essence” for their ingroup, while other groups are attributed a lesser humanity. This phenomenon is called infra‐humanisation and happens outside people's awareness. Secondary emotions (e.g., love, hope, contempt, resentment) are considered uniquely human emotions in contrast to primary emotions (e.g., joy, surprise, fear, anger) that are shared with animals. The research programme summarised in this chapter demonstrates through various paradigms that members of groups not only attribute more secondary emotions to their ingroup than to outgroups, but are also reluctant to associate these emotions with outgroups. Moreover, people behave less cooperatively with an outgroup member who expresses himself with secondary emotions than with an ingroup member who uses the same terms. Interestingly, infra‐humanisation occurs for both high‐ and low‐status groups, even in the absence of conflict between groups.     

Fear and loving in social hierarchy: Sex differences in preferences for power versus status

Famous thinkers throughout history from Nepos to Machiavelli have had strong opinions about whether it is better to be feared or loved. A related debate continues today about whether it is preferable to have power or status, a distinction between resources and respect. Across three studies, I find that men desire power more than women do, whereas women desire status more than men do. Furthermore, the extent to which hierarchical differences are seen as fair and legitimate increases the desirability of status, but power legitimacy does not affect the desirability of power. This research indicates that people perceive and value power and status distinctly, and provides additional evidence that confounding the two theoretically or empirically may distort our understanding of psychological responses to social hierarchy.     

Partial Reinforcement in a Bar-Pressing Situation with Preschool Children

Forty fifth- and sixth-grade children were given a list of names which they had prerated for Reinforcement Value in a free recall format. The prediction was made that high self-esteem children will learn their liked names more rapidly than their disliked names, but that low self-esteem children would show the reverse tendency. Although an RV-positive effect is noted in the sample, the expected reversal did not occur. A confounding factor proved to be intelligence, since it was impossible to divorce self-esteem from IQ in the sample investigated. The presentation closes with a discussion of the “logical learning theory” on which RV study is based, and the implications that this theory has for the role of self-induced behavior.     

Self-Cutting and Suicidal Ideation among Adolescents: Gender Differences in the Causes and Correlates of Self-Injury

In recent years, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents has been identified as alarmingly common place. Some studies have suggested that more than one in eight adolescents have engaged in self-cutting or other self-injuring behaviors. Even more of a concern is that self-injury often foreshadows suicide or suicide attempts. With self-cutting common in middle and high schools, understanding the antecedents and correlates of such behavior may help counselors and others public health officials identify troubled students and initiate preventative measures. This study utilizes data from 2,639 high school students from the Delaware Youth Risk Behavior Survey to investigate the gender differences in NSSI and suicidal ideation. Overall, 13% reported engaging in NSSI within the past year, with females reporting significantly higher rates (17%) of NSSI than males (9%). Results indicate that there are significant gender differences in NSSI and suicidal thoughts based upon previous victimization experiences, reported substance use, depression, health behaviors, and sexual orientation.     

The general factor of personality and humor styles

The present study examined the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between a general factor of personality (GFP) and four humor styles: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating. Participants were 571 same-sex adult twin pairs. Individuals completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and a short form of the NEO personality scale (from which the GFP was extracted). The GFP was found to be heritable with an estimated value of .31. At the phenotypic level, the GFP was found to correlate significantly with the HSQ scales; positively with affiliative and self-enhancing, and negatively with aggressive and self-defeating. Three of the four phenotypic correlations were found to be attributable to correlated genetic factors, suggesting that these dimensions of humor styles and the GFP may have a common genetic factor.