Facial gender confirmation surgery—review of the literature and recommendations for Version 8 of the WPATH Standards of Care

Facial gender confirmation surgery (FGCS), also popularly known and referred to in the scientific literature as facial feminization surgery (FFS), was previously treated as a collection of aesthetic procedures complementing other aspects of gender-confirming surgery. Recent literature on quality-of-life outcomes following FGCS has supported the substantial impact these procedures have on overall well-being and reduction of psychosocial sequelae in patients. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care, Version 7 (WPATH SOC 7), did not deem FGCS a medical necessity. Based on these new studies, increasing evidence points to the need to include FGCS among medically necessary gender-confirming surgeries, though more-prospective studies are needed. Updates to the WPATH SOC 8 are proposed based on available quality of life studies.     

Group Therapy for Loss: Attachment,Intersubjectivity, and Healing

Loss is a fundamental human experience that can impact a person’s mental health in diverse ways. While this experience is potentially formative, harmful manifestations can fracture one’s sense of self and undermine relational health. In this article, we present a rationale for process-oriented group therapy focused on healing relational injuries associated with loss. We draw on attachment, self-psychology, intersubjectivity, and Yalom & Leszcz’s (2005) model of group psychotherapy to explore how group processes allow clients to work through losses and relational frustrations in the here-and-now. A case vignette and discussion offer practical insight on the ways in which loss manifests in the room and demonstrate the uniqueness of the group setting for reparative processing.     

Looking forward to helping: The effects of prospection on prosocial intentions and behavior

Three experiments were conducted to further examine how prospection (i.e., thinking about the future) fosters prosociality. In Study 1 (n = 238), participants who wrote about the future expressed significantly stronger prosocial intentions than people who wrote about the past. In a similar study (n = 87), participants who wrote about the future were significantly more likely to behave prosocially than those who wrote about the past. In Study 3 (n = 203), mediational analyses revealed that prospection and optimism each predicted positive affect, which then predicted stronger prosocial intentions. These findings extend previous work by demonstrating that prospection enhances general prosocial intentions, that this effect extends to prosocial behavior, and that the effect is partially mediated by positive affect.     

Gender Bias in the Measurement of Workaholism

Past research suggests gender differences in workaholism might be due to differences in how men and women respond to the item content in workaholism measures. Using item response theory differential item functioning, we show women are less likely to report some workaholism items, leading to contamination. Specifically, women are less likely to report spending more time at work than other activities, and staying at work longer than others. We speculate that societal norms and practical restrictions on women's time results in lower endorsement rates for these items compared to men, and thus underestimates their workaholism. Results contradict past findings that men and women are similar in regard to workaholism and suggest women are in fact higher in workaholism than men. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

The Moderating Role of Anxiety in the Associations of Callous-Unemotional Traits with Self-Report and Laboratory Measures of Affective and Cognitive Empathy

In a sample of detained male adolescents (n = 107; Mean age = 15.50; SD = 1.30), we tested whether anxiety moderated the association of CU traits with self-report and computerized measures of affective (emotional reactivity) and cognitive (affective facial recognition and Theory of Mind [ToM]) empathy. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that CU traits were negatively associated with self-reports of affective empathy and this association was not moderated by level of anxiety. Significant interactions revealed that CU traits were negatively associated with cognitive empathy (self-report) only at high levels of anxiety, whereas CU traits were positively associated with cognitive empathy on the ToM task only at low levels of anxiety. CU traits were also associated with greater fear recognition accuracy at low levels of anxiety. Implications for understanding and treating different variants of CU traits (i.e., primary and secondary) are discussed.     

Emotion Regulation Mediates Effects of Alexithymia and Emotion Differentiation on Impulsive Aggressive Behavior

Alexithymia and low emotion differentiation restrict access to emotional information and increase propensity toward dysregulated and deviant behaviors, such as impulsive aggression. However, mechanisms underlying such effects are largely unknown. This study examined the mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between restricted access to emotional information and impulsive aggression. Alexithymic features and emotion differentiation explained 43% of the variance in impulsive aggression; these relationships were fully mediated by emotion-regulation difficulty. Contrary to previously held assumptions, alexithymic features and emotion differentiation were uncorrelated with one another, each limiting the translation of unique emotion information necessary for adaptive emotion and behavior regulation.     

Slut Shaming in a School Bullying Case: Evaluators Ignore Level of Harm When the Victim Self-Presents as Sexually Available

To investigate slut shaming (condemnation aimed at presumably sexually active females) as a form of bullying, we asked 142 U.S. college students acting as disciplinary committee members to decide a case involving two female high school students. We manipulated the victim’s self-presentation (sexually available, control) and the level of harm she suffered (mild anxiety, PTSD). Although evaluators typically make more pro-victim judgments when the level of harm is higher rather than lower, we expected participants to ignore harm when the victim self-presented as sexually available. As predicted, participants in the control condition made higher probability of guilt estimates and harsher sentence recommendations when the victim experienced PTSD versus mild anxiety. In contrast, harm level did not influence participants’ judgments in the sexually available condition. Additional analyses demonstrated that participants attributed relatively more responsibility to the sexually available than to the control victim, and the effect of the victim’s self-presentation on guilt estimates was mediated by attributions about the cause of the harm. The results correspond with previous findings that evaluators blame bullying victims whom they believe made themselves targets. We suggest that school districts revise their policies as necessary to avoid encouraging slut shaming and that evaluators receive training to help them apply the legal definition of bullying to specific situations.     

What Is ‘The Meaning of Our Cheerfulness’? Philosophy as a Way of Life in Nietzsche and Montaigne

Robert Pippin has recently raised what he calls ‘the Montaigne problem’ for Nietzsche's philosophy: although Nietzsche advocates a ‘cheerful’ mode of philosophizing for which Montaigne is an exemplar, he signally fails to write with the obvious cheerfulness attained by Montaigne. We explore the moral psychological structure of the cheerfulness Nietzsche values, revealing unexpected complexity in his conception of the attitude. For him, the right kind of cheerfulness is radically non‐naïve; it expresses the overcoming of justified revulsion at calamitous aspects of life through a reflective, higher‐order affirmative attitude. This complex notion of cheerfulness turns out to have roots in Montaigne himself, and it must (according to both philosophers) be thought of as a kind of second nature cultivated through practice, as a kind of second nature. Understanding the meaning of cheerfulness thereby sheds light on the conception of philosophy as a way of life in both Nietzsche and Montaigne.