Approach motivation as incentive salience: perceptual sources of evidence in relation to positive word primes

Four experiments (total N = 391) examined predictions derived from a biologically based incentive salience theory of approach motivation. In all experiments, judgments indicative of enhanced perceptual salience were exaggerated in the context of positive, relative to neutral or negative, stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, positive words were judged to be of a larger size (Experiment 1) and led individuals to judge subsequently presented neutral objects as larger in size (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, similar effects were observed in a mock subliminal presentation paradigm. In Experiment 4, positive word primes were perceived to have been presented for a longer duration of time, again relative to both neutral and negative word primes. Results are discussed in relation to theories of approach motivation, affective priming, and the motivation-perception interface.     

Kicking the digital dog: a longitudinal investigation of young adults' victimization and cyber-displaced aggression

Abstract Using the general strain theory as a theoretical framework, the present longitudinal study investigated both face-to-face and cyber victimization in relation to cyber-displaced aggression. Longitudinal data were collected from 130 (70 women) young adults who completed measures assessing their victimization (face-to-face and cyber), cyber aggression, and both face-to-face and cyber-displaced aggression. Findings indicated that victimization in both social contexts (face-to-face and cyber) contributed to cyber-displaced aggression 6 months later (Time 2), after controlling for gender, cyber aggression, face-to-face displaced aggression, and cyber-displaced aggression at Time 1. A significant two-way interaction revealed that Time 1 cyber victimization was more strongly related to Time 2 cyber-displaced aggression when young adults had higher levels of face-to-face victimization at Time 1. Implications of these findings are discussed as well as a call for more research investigating displaced aggression in the cyber context.     

Life values and mental health: A longitudinal study comparing chronically ill women to women without chronic disease

We tested the hypothesis that among women who are chronically ill, a re-ordering of life values maintains mental health. A community-based prospective longitudinal study was conducted in which data were obtained from 601 women in 1986, when the women were with mean age 42 and again in 2003, when the women were with mean age 58. There was a significant change in life values as women aged with more change among women with chronic disease (n = 476) than those without chronic disease (n = 125). Increased valuation of intrinsic life values (health and love) and decreased valuation of extrinsic life values (power, fame and attractiveness) were associated with subsequent better mental health for women with chronic disease, but not for those without chronic disease.     

Hobbes's Challenge to Descartes,Bramhall and Boyle: A Corporeal God

This paper brings new work to bear on the perennial question about Hobbes's atheism to show that as a debate about scepticism it is falsely framed. Hobbes, like fellow members of the Mersenne circle, Descartes and Gassendi, was no sceptic, but rather concerned to rescue physics and metaphysics from radical scepticism by exploring corporealism. In his early letter of November 1640, Hobbes had issued a provocative challenge to Descartes to abandon metaphysical dualism and subscribe to a ‘corporeal God’; a provocation to which the Frenchman angrily responded, but was perhaps importantly influenced. Hobbes's minimal realism was consonant with atheism, to which Descartes felt he was being forced. Moreover, Hobbes was unrelenting in his battle against Cartesian dualism, for which he saw Robert Boyle's experimental science as a surrogate.     

Couples in Therapy: Actor-Partner Analyses of the Relationships Between Adult Romantic Attachment and Marital Satisfaction

This study was the first to investigate the relationship between adult romantic attachment and marital satisfaction in a clinical sample of 172 distressed couples seeking therapy. Fifty-six therapy-seeking nondistressed couples were also assessed for comparison. Analyses of variance showed that attachment avoidance was a distinctive characteristic of distressed couples. Actor-partner analyses revealed that attachment avoidance (for men and women) and attachment anxiety (for women only) were predictive of marital dissatisfaction for distressed couples. Gender-stereotype discordant partner effects were also found. Results suggest that attachment orientations (especially avoidance) are relevant predictors of marital dissatisfaction in distressed couples seeking therapy, and that couple therapists can gain important information by assessing partners’ attachment orientations.     

Positive affectivity and attentional control moderate the link between negative affectivity and depressed mood

Research and theory suggest that deficits in trait positive affectivity (PA) and in capacity for executive control of attention (i.e., attentional control or AC) may each intensify risk for depressive symptoms associated with high trait negative affectivity (NA). In contrast, high levels of PA and AC should protect against that risk. However, prospective tests of such predictions are rare. Furthermore, if PA and AC both modulate NA-related risk, it remains to be seen if those effects are independent and complementary or if they operate in an overlapping manner. This study assessed baseline temperament and change in depressed mood across one month in a sample of 125 adolescents. Results supported both PA and AC as modulators of NA’s association with changes in depressed mood. Furthermore, results suggested that these modulating effects are largely non-overlapping and complementary, such that when both PA and AC are low, high NA predicts increases in depressed mood. In contrast, high NA predicts decreases in depressed mood when both PA and AC are high. Limitations of these findings, directions for future research, and implications for prevention are discussed.     

Mirror,mirror on the wall,which form of narcissist knows self and others best of all?

We examined the relationships of narcissism and its various facets with measures of cognition, such as perspective-taking/theory of mind, emotional intelligence, empathy, and systemizing, in a non-clinical sample of 368 undergraduate students. Social and physical causal reasoning was assessed using a novel procedure, which allowed for a thorough examination of participants’ attributions of causes to social and non-social events. Results revealed that individuals high in grandiosity scored higher on measures of social reasoning, emotional intelligence, perspective-taking, systemizing, and empathy. Other facets of narcissism, as well as the overall construct of narcissism, were negatively associated with emotional intelligence, empathy, and perspective-taking. These results suggest that the facets of narcissism may differ considerably in their associations with various aspects of social cognition, which should prompt researchers to further examine the heterogeneous nature of narcissism.     

Association between maternal sensitivity and externalizing behavior from preschool to preadolescence

Using data from the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1364), this study examined the association between mothers' sensitivity and children's externalizing behavior from preschool to preadolescence. Externalizing behavior declined on average across this period with a slowing of this decline around middle childhood. Maternal sensitivity remained relatively stable on average, and there was significant variation across mothers. A decrease in maternal sensitivity from ages 3 to 11 was related to an increase in externalizing behavior from ages 4 to 12. A model-based test of the direction of the effect suggested that the association between changes in maternal sensitivity and externalizing behavior from ages 4 to 11 was driven by child effects on mothers and not vice-versa. Between late preschool age and preadolescence, the behavior problems of children appear to strongly influence the sensitive support of mothers. Practical implications were discussed in light of these findings.     

The patient,the nurse,his life and her mother: Psychodynamic influences in nurse education and practice

Using the film The Cook, the Thief His Wife and her Lover (from which this paper's title is borrowed) as a powerful illustration, the paper examines some of the unconscious processes which form part of everyday life for nurses working in the community, particularly on the wards of our hospitals. It is an attempt to describe some of these processes and to understand the conditions that promote them. With acknowledgements to the pioneers in this sort of work, such as Main, Menzies-Lyth, Trist, Bamforth and Jaques, the paper looks at the ethology of institutions and at activity that takes place on the boundaries between self and other, between the inner world and external reality, and between various levels in the hierarchy.

The paper identifies some of the ‘routines’ which grew up in nursing (and those which have replaced them), the unconscious purpose of which is to safeguard the emotional and psychological integrity of the nurse, through creating a distance between herself and her patients. The paper argues against removing these necessary defences until more helpful alternatives are in place. To fulfil this aim, it recommends that clinical supervision and support seminars should become a regular part of all nurse-training programmes, and should continue throughout the professional life of the nurse.