TOPOLOGICAL AND EUCLIDEAN SPATIAL FEATURES NOTED BY CHILDREN

The question explored in this study is whether the spatial-perceptual difficulties experienced in some cultures could be partly accounted for in terms of a persistence of predominantly topological functioning. An oddity-choice task was devised consisting of one set of regular and another of irregular figures such that responses could be classified as topological (T), Euclidean (E) or “unrelated” (U), the last indicating failure to categorize figures consistently. A total of 415 children aged 4–12 were tested in Hong Kong, India, Scotland and Zambia. Few significant age trends but highly significant cultural and sub-cultural differences were found. Contrary to expectation, T responses were roughly constant while the proportion of both E and U responses showed systematic cross-cultural variations. There was evidence that it is U responses rather than the proportion of E responses which directly reflect spatial ability. The factors producing cultural and sub-cultural differences are discussed.     

Covariates of Multiplicity of Risk Behavior Among Injecting Drug Users in Nepal

Drug abuse, needle sharing, and high-risk sexual behaviour are often compounded to increase the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. This paper analyzes covariates of multiplicity of risk behavior among injecting drug users (IDUs). Findings are based on data from 1471 IDUs following modified time-location cluster sampling across Nepal in 2010–2011. Among Nepalese IDUs, average duration of injecting drugs is 4.4 years with two-fifths initiating it before age 20. Alcohol use is common with two-fifths reporting its daily consumption. Needle sharing is quite prevalent especially among younger and alcoholic IDUs. Further, IDUs practicing needle sharing exhibit rampant multi-partner behavior. Condom use with non-commercial partners is almost 80 %, whereas with intimate partner it is 41 %. Coexistence of needle sharing and unprotected sex enhances STI prevalence (7 %), which is further pronounced among alcoholics (9 %). Working towards risk reduction for IDUs must deal with multiplicity of risk. Interventions should deal with covariates of risk, addressing youth, substance abuse and risky sexual behavior.     

Theorising 'Talk' about 'Religious Pluralism' and 'Religious Harmony' in Singapore

This article aims to make sense of the discourse on 'religious pluralism' and 'religious harmony' in Singapore. My choice of the 'Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act' , passed in 1990, to launch this inquiry is by no means accidental or random. I argue that in addition to an empirical domain, it is a central analytical tool that has provided an occasion for the articulation of a range of taken-for-granted statements about 'religion', 'religious pluralism', and 'religious harmony' in Singapore. I map out how the religious scene is discussed by various parties. The inevitability of Singapore's multi-religiosity, the fragility of religious harmony, and the need for constant vigilance are dominant strands. The article addresses these related areas: a brief historical contextualisation of religion in secular Singapore is followed by a condensed narrative of the conditions and deliberations leading to the Act. Further, the discourse on religious harmony from the early 1990s is juxtaposed to present concerns about religion and religious encounters in Singapore. The intention for this is two-fold: to see if there have been any major shifts in such 'talk, and to use the empirical material to call for the re-conceptualisation of categories/notions, such as 'religious pluralism' and 'religious harmony'.     

Real-world face recognition: the importance of surface reflectance properties

The face recognition task we perform [corrected] most often in everyday experience is the identification of people with whom we are familiar. However, because of logistical challenges, most studies focus on unfamiliar-face recognition, wherein subjects are asked to match or remember images of unfamiliar people's faces. Here we explore the importance of two facial attributes -shape and surface reflectance-in the context of a familiar-face recognition task. In our experiment, subjects were asked to recognise color images of the faces of their friends. The images were manipulated such that only reflectance or only shape information was useful for recognizing any particular face. Subjects were actually better at recognizing their friends' faces from reflectance information than from shape information. This provides evidence that reflectance information is important for face recognition in ecologically relevant contexts.     

The Ways of ‘Being’ and ‘Becoming’ Human

We argue that developing integrative models of psychological phenomenon require dealing simultaneously with information-theoretic and meaning making processes at the individual and group levels. Attempts to fuse these across levels based on intentionality become difficult because phenomena at the lower level organisms are conceptualized employing concrete systems language, while in case of human and social systems both concrete and abstracted systems concepts are used. Intentionality also needs to be looked at as arising out of the processes of both being and becoming. Fusing of psycho-and socio-logics necessarily requires taking into consideration psychological processes and notions of intentionality and future within cultural contexts in a more holistic manner. It is also argued that both at personal and collective levels, human intentionality operate as bounded intentionality alternating between states of being and becoming.     

Biases in social comparisons: Optimism or pessimism?

Social comparisons typically lead to two kinds of biases: A comparative optimism bias (i.e., a tendency for people to view themselves as more likely than others to be the beneficiaries of positive outcomes) or a comparative pessimism bias (i.e., a tendency for people to view themselves as less likely than others to be such beneficiaries); rarely are people fully calibrated in terms of how they compare to others. However, there is little systematic research on the factors that determine when a comparative optimism versus pessimism bias will occur, how they can be attenuated and whether such attenuation is always desirable. In this paper, we report four studies which demonstrate the following key results: First, we show that perceived level of control over the outcome drives whether a comparative optimism or pessimism bias will occur (Study 1). Second, an increase in perceived similarity between self and a comparison target person attenuates the comparative optimism bias in domains that people view as highly controllable (Study 2a) and attenuates the comparative pessimism bias in domains that people view as less controllable (Study 2b). Finally, we show that people are willing to work harder when they experience more comparative optimism in higher control scenarios and when they experience less comparative pessimism in lower control scenarios, illustrating that motivating people to strive harder for positive outcomes can result from exacerbated or attenuated bias, depending on the context (Study 3).     

Factors Facilitating and Impeding Growth of Psychology in South Asia with Special Reference to India

The growth of psychology in South Asian countries has been impeded by the lack of intellectual climate, scarcity of resources, and poor professional support. These proximate factors are embedded in a socio-cultural milieu of pervasive poverty, collectivism, and centralized control of resources. The cultural factors get a free hand because of the inappropriate nature of Western psychology, which is being transplanted as a greenhouse plant. Psychologists can come out of this greenhouse and develop an appropriate science by addressing societal problems from indigenous perspectives. If they do so, the same cultural factors would either facilitate the growth of psychology or be contained to a great extent.