Chewing on it can chew you up: effects of rumination on triggered displaced aggression

Ruminating about a provocation increases the likelihood of displaced aggression following a minor annoyance (trigger). In Study 1, provoked participants who ruminated for 25 min were more aggressive toward a fumbling confederate than were distracted participants. Provocation-induced negative affect was positively related to aggression but only among those who ruminated. Study 2 conceptually replicated Study 1 and also found that the more negatively people reacted to the trigger, the more likely the trigger was to increase displaced aggression. Study 3 replicated the findings of Studies 1 and 2 by using an 8-hr rumination period. All 3 studies suggest that ruminating about a provocation increases the likelihood that a minor triggering annoyance will increase displaced aggression.     

Fonagy and Freud. Psychological versus psychic reality

Peter Fonagy and Mary Target present their Playing with reality theory as a developmental theory centred on the concept of psychic reality. This paper compares Fonagy and Target's use of the concept of psychic reality with Freud's original concept. It is argued that the concept of psychic reality has been redefined from delineating a psychic reality stemming from the unconscious to denoting a kind of conscious or preconscious psychological reality characterized by an experience of equality between the internal and the external worlds. The theoretical discussion is illustrated by being applied to eating disorder pathology, which by Fonagy and colleagues is described as associated with thought processes characterized by psychic reality.     

Atomistic simulations of cross-slip of jogged screw dislocations in copper

We have performed atomic-scale simulations of cross-slip processes of screw dislocations in copper, simulating jog-free dislocations as well as different types of jogged screw dislocations. Minimum-energy paths and corresponding transition state energies are obtained using the nudged-elastic-band path technique. We find low barriers and effective masses for the conservative motion along the dislocations of elementary jogs on both ordinary {111}<110> and nonoctahedral {110}<110> slip systems. The jogs are found to be constricted and therefore effectively act as pre-existing constrictions; the cross-slip activation energy is thereby dramatically reduced, yielding values in agreement with experiment.     

The “Making and Unmaking” of Prejudice Against Australian Muslims and Gay Men and Lesbians: The Role of Religious Development and Fundamentalism

Despite the growing international interest in the relation between religion and prejudice, there has been a dearth of studies conducted within Australia. We used the Faith Development Scale (FDS) to examine the relation between religious maturity and attitudes toward Muslims and toward gay men and lesbians in an Australian context using a sample of churchgoers from the Perth metropolitan area (N = 139). Respondents who scored lower on the FDS were more prejudiced toward both target groups than were high scorers. Furthermore, participants who scored lower on the FDS were more prejudiced against gay men and lesbians than they were against Muslim Australians. The FDS was a better predictor of attitudes toward the two groups than was the Quest Scale. Contrary to overseas studies, we found that religious fundamentalists held more prejudiced attitudes toward gay men and lesbians than toward those of a different religion (Australian Muslims). Right-wing political orientation was also found to be predictive of prejudice against Australian Muslims and against gay men and lesbians independently of religious development. Results suggest that religious maturity, as well as fundamentalism and right-wing political views, plays an important role in the “making” or “unmaking” of prejudice against Australian Muslims and against gay men and lesbians. Evidence is presented that suggests that the Quest Scale and the FDS are measuring different aspects of religious development.     

Genetic Mediation of the Associations Among Motor and Perceptual Speed and Adult Cognitive Abilities

Quantitative genetic analyses were conducted to determine the genetic mediation of the associations among motor speed, perceptual speed, and cognitive abilities in normal aging. Measures of motor performance, perceptual speed, and cognitive functioning in four domains (crystallized, fluid, spatial, and memory) were available from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging. The sample included 206 twin pairs ranging in age from 44 to 82 years. A Motor Speed factor was constructed from 17 timed measures of motor performance. Heritability of Motor Speed was .26 in middle-aged twins and .00 in older twins. Results indicated that genetic variance in cognitive functioning in the middle-aged cohort may be defined by working memory, whereas genetic variance in the older cohort was defined by perceptual speed. Indications of a nonshared environmental component in the association among motor speed, perceptual speed, and spatial abilities suggest possible frontal lobe involvement.     

Social relationships,stressful life events,and self-reported physical health: Genetic and environmental influences

Abstract

This study investigates how the associations between self-reported health, stressful life events, and social relationships are mediated by genetic and environmental influences and how much of the variance in health is in common with variation in these psychosocial factors. The analyses are based on questionnaire data from 576 pairs of twins reared apart and twins reared together. The data revealed that for men environmental influences were solely important for variation in the psychosocial measures and were the primary mediators of the relationship with health. For women, on the other hand, a substantial portion of the variance in the psychosocial factors was due to genetic influences and these influences also contributed to the bulk of the correlations with health. The gender differences for the relationships and their mediation indicate that what should be regarded as a psychosocial factor of importance for health might differ between genders.     

Later life health optimism,pessimism and realism: Psychosocial contributors and health correlates

Prior research has established positive outcomes of health optimism (appraising one's health as good despite poor objective health (OH)) and negative outcomes of health pessimism (appraising health as poor despite good OH), yet little is known about their contributors. We examined the role of psychosocial factors (life event stress, depression, dispositional optimism, perceived social support) in health realism (appraising health in accordance with OH), optimism and pessimism among 489 older men and women. We then accounted for the psychosocial factors when examining multiple health correlates of health realism, optimism and pessimism. Controlling for age, gender and income, regression results indicate that depression and social support were associated with less health optimism, while dispositional optimism was associated with greater health optimism among those in poor OH. Dispositional optimism was associated with less health pessimism and life event stress was associated with greater pessimism among those in good OH. Beyond the effects of the psychosocial factors, structural equation model results indicate that health optimism was positively associated with healthy behaviours and perceived control over one's health; health pessimism was associated with poorer perceived health care management. Health optimism and pessimism have different psychosocial contributors and health correlates, validating the health congruence approach to later life well-being, health and survival.     

Genetic and environmental contributions to the associations between intraindividual variability in reaction time and cognitive function

Intraindividual variability (IIV) in reaction time has been related to cognitive decline, but questions remain about the nature of this relationship. Mean and range in movement and decision time for simple reaction time were available from 241 individuals aged 51–86 years at the fifth testing wave of the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging. Cognitive performance on four factors was also available: verbal, spatial, memory, and speed. Analyses indicated that range in reaction time could be used as an indicator of IIV. Heritability estimates were 35% for mean reaction and 20% for range in reaction. Multivariate analysis indicated that the genetic variance on the memory, speed, and spatial factors is shared with genetic variance for mean or range in reaction time. IIV shares significant genetic variance with fluid ability in late adulthood, over and above and genetic variance shared with mean reaction time.