Assessment of multiple implicit self‐concept dimensions using the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST)

This study explored the psychometric properties of the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST; De Houwer, 2003a ) as adapted for the measurement of the implicit self‐concept of personality. The EAST was adapted to allow the simultaneous assessment of the three traits shyness, anxiousness, and angriness. In order to test the EAST's psychometric properties, 100 participants completed a trait EAST, Implicit Association Tests (IATs), and direct self‐ratings. The EAST showed low internal consistencies and correlated neither with the IATs nor with the direct measures. The main problem of the EAST, namely its low reliability, is discussed, and general conclusions regarding the indirect assessment of the personality self‐concept by EASTs are derived. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychische Beschwerden und Störungen von Studierenden

Background

Psychological distress among students is receiving growing attention in the scientific community as well as in the general public. There are counseling services available in student societies and universities which address psychological distress among students but scientific research in this area is rudimentary and poorly represented.

Problem in question

In order to present the prevalence, extent and type of psychological disorders in students and the alterations over time, an investigation was carried out to show which psychological complaints and disorders were present in students who consulted a psychotherapeutic counseling center. These data were compared with the psychological complaints of a student field study population. Furthermore, alterations in the psychological complaints and disorders of students over periods of 10 and 15 years will be presented.

Methods

The prevalence and change over time of psychological syndromes in students were identified by a comparison between an unselected sample of counseling center clients and several student field samples from the previous 15 years. The type of distress and severity of symptoms were measured with a Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R), the Psychosocial Complaints List (PSB), the Satisfaction With Life And Studies Scale (LSZ), the diagnostic assessment according to International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision (ICD-10), the Complaints Severity Score (BSS) and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF).

Results

Previous results of investigations which showed that 20–25% of students suffer from psychological disorders could be confirmed in this study. However, 60–65% of the clients of a counseling center suffered from clinically relevant psychological disorders, which is significantly higher. The most common disorders were depressive moods, lack of self-confidence and exam anxiety, which can mostly be diagnostically assigned to adjustment, depression and anxiety disorders. The comparison with previous studies showed that the types and severity of psychological distress among students have remained stable over the last 15 years, with the exception of test anxiety which increased by 51% from 1993 to 2008. With respect to alcohol abuse, considerably less impairments were found than had been assumed based on the earlier investigations.

Conclusions

Psychological complaints and disorders are frequently found among students and they cause individual suffering as well as economic expenses. Noticeable was the obvious increase in clinically relevant exam anxiety. Psychological-psychotherapeutic counseling centers make an important contribution to screening, clinical assessment, primary health care and prevention of severe mental disorders among students and have shown a continuously increasing number of cases in recent years. Further studies especially in a process-outcome design of the mostly eclectic counseling centers are needed and possibilities will be presented.     

Ausdrucksformen des Lachens

Based on the phenomenology of laughter in the facial expression and in the voice it is shown which other emotions and drives are most frequently linked to laughter. These are in particular contempt, disgust, sadness and seduction. The phylogenetic deduction of laughter from submission on the one hand and play on the other is described. In the ontogenetic development mutual laughing is the behavioral basis for creating reciprocity between mother and child and one of the behavioral foundations for a sufficient knowledge for the growing baby to be a source of happiness. In relation to the current genesis happiness and joy in the contexts of captured aggression, shame regulation and “funktionslust”. There is no evidence that the empirically verified reduced expression and experience of joy of mentally disturbed people can be treated with specific laughter therapies beyond placebo effects.     

Aggravation of DSS-induced colitis after chronic subordinate colony (CSC) housing is partially mediated by adrenal mechanisms

Chronic subordinate colony housing (CSC) is a relevant chronic psycho-social stressor for male mice. Here, we investigated effects of CSC on the severity of dextran sulphate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis and the involvement of adrenal mechanisms. After 19 days of CSC, male C57BL/6 mice were treated with 1% DSS (8 days). After 8 days, inflammatory shortening of the colon and the histological inflammation score were increased in CSC mice. Additionally, the increased secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines by mesenteric lymph node cells found on day 2 and 4 of DSS treatment was down-regulated in CSC mice on day 8 of DSS treatment, paralleled by an increase in plasma corticosterone. In contrast, in unstressed controls, elevation of cytokine secretion was delayed and only found on day 8 of DSS treatment, associated with a prompt rise in plasma corticosterone. To reveal adrenal mechanisms in CSC-induced effects on colitis, mice were adrenalectomized, exposed to CSC and treated with DSS (8 days). In adrenalectomized CSC mice, the severity of DSS-induced colitis was reduced, as body weight loss, shortening of colon, histological damage score, and cytokine secretion from mesenteric lymph node cells were diminished compared with sham-operated CSC mice. In conclusion, exposure to chronic psycho-social stress increases the severity of acute DSS colitis, an effect which is, at least partly, mediated by adrenal mechanisms.     

Location-specific versus hemisphere-specific adaptation of processing selectivity

Current theories of cognitive control assume that processing selectivity is adjusted according to the utility of processing task-irrelevant stimulus features. Consistently, interference evoked by flanker stimuli is reduced when the proportion of incompatible trials—in which flankers are associated with an incorrect response—is increased. Consistent with the idea that the cerebral hemispheres select processing strategies independently of each other, Corballis and Gratton (2003) demonstrated that flanker interference for stimuli presented in either the left or right visual hemifield is affected by the ratio of compatible and incompatible target-flanker pairings presented in the same—but not in the other—hemifield. Presenting stimuli at four different locations, we demonstrated independent effects of the ratio of compatible and incompatible trials for stimulus locations in different hemifields as well as for stimulus locations within the same hemifield. Independent selectivity adjustment regarding the left and right visual hemifields thus appears to be a special case of a larger class of location-specific adaptation effects and might not be informative regarding hemisphere-specific processing.     

Person–city personality fit and entrepreneurial success: An explorative study in China

While the study of personality differences is a traditional psychological approach in entrepreneurship research, economic research directs attention towards the entrepreneurial ecosystems in which entrepreneurial activity are embedded. We combine both approaches and quantify the interplay between the individual personality make‐up of entrepreneurs and the local personality composition of ecosystems, with a special focus on person–city personality fit. Specifically, we analyse personality data from N = 26,405 Chinese residents across 42 major Chinese cities, including N = 1091 Chinese entrepreneurs. Multi‐level polynomial regression and response surface plots revealed that: (a) individual‐level conscientiousness had a positive effect and individual‐level agreeableness and neuroticism had a negative effect on entrepreneurial success, (b) city‐level conscientiousness had a positive, and city‐level neuroticism had a negative effect on entrepreneurial success, and (c) additional person–city personality fit effects existed for agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism. For example, entrepreneurs who are high in agreeableness and conduct their business in a city with a low agreeableness level show the lowest entrepreneurial success. In contrast, entrepreneurs who are low in agreeableness and conduct their business in a city with a high agreeableness level show relatively high entrepreneurial success. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Biased recipients encounter biased sources: Effect of ethical (dis‐)agreement between recipient and author on evaluating scientific claims

Scientific claims that are connected to ethical concerns are frequently brought forward by communicators who are not ethically neutral. This study investigated how far recipients' evaluation of such claims is guided by vigilance toward a potential ethical source bias rather than their own ethical bias. One hundred ten individuals opposed to capital punishment read a topic‐related text by an ethically positioned source. A scientific claim in the text either supported or did not support the recipient's ethical stance; in addition, the source either shared or opposed their stance. Results showed that recipients are guided to some extent by their own ethically motivated reasoning: They agree more consistently with sources sharing their ethical stance and consider these sources to be more credible. Recipients appear to be principally aware that a source's ethical stance may bias its scientific message, but this vigilance seems to depend on their own ethical disagreement with the source.     

Evidence for individual face discrimination in non-face selective areas of the visual cortex in acquired prosopagnosia

Two areas in the human occipito-temporal cortex respond preferentially to faces: 'the fusiform face area' ('FFA') and the 'occipital face area' ('OFA'). However, it is unclear whether these areas have an exclusive role in processing faces, or if sub-maximal responses in other visual areas such as the lateral occipital complex (LOC) are also involved. To clarify this issue, we tested a brain-damaged patient (PS) presenting a face-selective impairment with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The right hemisphere lesion of the prosopagnosic patient encompasses the 'OFA' but preserves the 'FFA' and LOC. Using fMRI-adaptation, we found a larger response to different faces than repeated faces in the ventral part of the LOC both for normals and the patient, next to her right hemisphere lesion. This observation indicates that following prosopagnosia, areas that do not respond preferentially to faces such as the ventral part of the LOC (vLOC) may still be recruited to subtend residual perception of individual faces.