The closer we are,the more we are alike: The effect of self-other merging on depersonalized self-perception

The present study examined whether or not the extent to which people include other group members in the self, influences depersonalized self-perception (i.e., perceiving self and others as similar in terms of group characteristics). The results revealed that self-other merging positively influenced feelings of belongingness and identification with the in-group. Furthermore, a strong experience of self-other merging was shown to lead to depersonalized self-perception as measured by a self-assimilation and an in-group homogeneity index. Finally, results also revealed that feelings of belongingness and group identification mediated, at least partly, the effect of self-other merging on depersonalized self-perception. The findings are discussed in light of the literature on self-expansion.     

Extinction-induced immobility in the water maze and its neurochemical concomitants in aged and adult rats: a possible model for depression?

Extinction of escape behavior in the water maze due to the removal of the platform, was hypothesized to induce a negative state, including the development of immobility, which is held to reflect a state of "despair" when measured in the forced swimming test. 27 aged and 8 adult animals (26 and 3 months old Wistar rats, respectively) were tested in the water maze during nine days with a platform hidden, followed by 7 days of extinction trials with the platform absent. As expected, both age groups developed immobility over the extinction trials, with the aged showing more than the adults. To examine whether the age difference in immobility was related to performance differences during acquisition, the aged were subdivided into superior, intermediate and inferior learners (n = 9 per group) on the basis of overall times to platform during acquisition, and compared with each other and the adults. Results showed that the aged inferior learners displayed the highest levels of immobility among the aged. Immobility scores were then correlated with post-mortem neurotransmitter contents in the hippocampus and ventral striatum. In the ventral striatum, levels of immobility were correlated with levels of acetylcholine, dopamine and the metabolite dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in the aged, and with norepinephrine in the adults. The data support the hypothesis that multiple extinction trials in the water maze result in immobility that may indicate "behavioral despair," and that striatal neurotransmitter systems correlate with the degree of its expression. The concept of extinction-induced despair is held to provide the promise of a conceptual and empirical model of human depression that is the consequence of loss of reinforcers.     

The Five-factor Personality Inventory as a measure of the Five-factor Model: Belgian, American, and Hungarian comparisons with the NEO-PI-R

The lexically based Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) was correlated with the factors and facets of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) in Belgian (N = 265), American (N = 116), and Hungarian (N = 320) samples. Results were similar across the three cultures. Analysis of orthogonalized FFPI factors showed that three of them--emotional stability, extraversion, and agreeableness--showed a direct correspondence to their NEO-PI-R counterparts. Autonomy, however, was not clearly related to openness, and facet analysis suggested that it might be interpreted as a dominance factor Better matches to NEO-PI-R conscientiousness and openness could be obtained by using vectors rotated 30 degrees from the FFPI positions. Raw scale scores showed similar results. Researchers should not assume that all measures of the Five-Factor Model are qualitatively similar     

Senior capstone design and ethics: A bridge to the professional world

A senior level capstone design experience has been developed and offered with a particular emphasis on many of the professional issues raised in Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Engineering Criterion IV. The course has sought to develop student awareness of the ethical foundation of the engineering profession, the global and societal framework within which engineers practice, and the environmental impact on engineering. The capstone design course also focused upon improving the technical communications skills of the graduating senior class with both extensive instruction in writing and multiple workshops dealing with the art of making an effective oral presentation. The effectiveness of the design course was assessed using Kirkpatrick’s model for evaluating training programs. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the “Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology” meeting, New Orleans, 2003.     

The factor structure of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index among Northern Plains Native Americans

Within our current research climate, an emphasis has been placed on examining the cross-cultural applicability of psychological tools, and exploring their utility with people of different backgrounds. Within this line of investigation lies the risk of classifying people too broadly and masking important regional, tribal, or dialectical differences. This may be particularly potent among Native Americans, given the number of distinct indigenous entities. This study examined the psychometric characteristics of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index with a tribally homogeneous sample, as compared to previous tribally-heterogeneous and majority culture findings. Results suggested that data from a homogeneous Native American sample poorly fit factor solutions reported from heterogeneous Native American and Caucasian samples, and favored a unifactorial solution. Implications for assessment with Native American peoples are discussed.     

Work group diversity and group performance: an integrative model and research agenda

Research on the relationship between work group diversity and performance has yielded inconsistent results. To address this problem, the authors propose the categorization-elaboration model (CEM), which reconceptualizes and integrates information/decision making and social categorization perspectives on work-group diversity and performance. The CEM incorporates mediator and moderator variables that typically have been ignored in diversity research and incorporates the view that information/decision making and social categorization processes interact such that intergroup biases flowing from social categorization disrupt the elaboration (in-depth processing) of task-relevant information and perspectives. In addition, the authors propose that attempts to link the positive and negative effects of diversity to specific types of diversity should be abandoned in favor of the assumption that all dimensions of diversity may have positive as well as negative effects. The ways in which these propositions may set the agenda for future research in diversity are discussed.     

Religiosity, values, and horizontal and vertical individualism-collectivism: a study of Turkey, the United States, and the Philippines

The authors examined the links between two dimensions that have been useful in understanding cross-cultural differences and similarities, namely, individualism-collectivism (I-C) and value orientations. The authors examined the relations and parallels between the two variables by directly relating them and examining the patterns of relations that both have with a third variable, religiosity. Participants were 475 college students from the Philippines, the United States, and Turkey who responded to measures of horizontal and vertical I-C, value orientations, and religiosity. The authors found partial support for the parallels between I-C and value types, particularly for collectivism and conservative values. Moreover, religiosity was associated positively with conservative values and collectivism, across all three cultures. The authors found individualism to also relate to openness-to-change values, though the patterns were not as consistent as those that they found between collectivism and conservation. Differences and similarities emerged in links of I-C-values to religiosity across the three samples.     

Update Semantics of Security Protocols

We present a model-theoretic approach for reasoning about security protocols, applying recent insights from dynamic epistemic logics. This enables us to describe exactly the subsequent epistemic states of the agents participating in the protocol, using Kripke models and transitions between these based on updates of the agents’ beliefs associated with steps in the protocol. As a case study we will consider the SRA Three Pass protocol and discuss the Wide-Mouthed Frog protocol.     

From Aristotle's Syllogistic to Stoic Conditionals: Holzwege or Detectable Paths?

This paper is chiefly aimed at individuating some deep, but as yet almost unnoticed, similarities between Aristotle's syllogistic and the Stoic doctrine of conditionals, notably between Aristotle's metasyllogistic equimodality condition (as stated at APr. I 24, 41b27–31) and truth-conditions for third type (Chrysippean) conditionals (as they can be inferred from, say, S.E. P. II 111 and 189). In fact, as is shown in §1, Aristotle's condition amounts to introducing in his (propositional) metasyllogistic a non-truthfunctional implicational arrow '', the truth-conditions of which turn out to be logically equivalent to truth-conditions of third type conditionals, according to which only the impossible (and not the possible) follows from the impossible. Moreover, Aristotle is given precisely this non-Scotian conditional logic in two so far overlooked passages of (Latin and Hebraic translations of) Themistius' Paraphrasis of De Caelo (CAG V 4, 71.8–13 and 47.8–10 Landauer). Some further consequences of Aristotle's equimodality condition on his logic, and notably on his syllogistic (no matter whether modal or not), are pointed out and discussed at length. A (possibly Chrysippean) extension of Aristotle's condition is also discussed, along with a full characterization of truth-conditions of fourth type conditionals.     

The effect of the September 11 terrorist attacks on suicide and deliberate self-harm: a time trend study

Suicide rates may be affected by world news. Our objective was to investigate the possible impact of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on suicidal behavior in the Netherlands. There was evidence of an increase in rates of suicide and deliberate self-harm in the weeks immediately following the attacks. These findings contrast with Durkheim's (1897) original suggestion that suicide rates decline in times of war and outside threat but are in line with findings of increases in suicidal behavior after media coverage of lethal violence.