Worn out relationship? The role of expectations in judgments of relational boredom

This study examined the role of growth and security expectations in shaping people's judgments of relational boredom and conflict (for discriminant validity). In Studies 1 and 2, the type of expectation gaps (growth vs. security) in hypothetical relationships (as well as the occurrence of a gap in Study 2) was manipulated, and people's judgments of relational boredom and conflict were assessed; Study 3 assessed these associations in people's own relationships. Across all studies, people were more likely to diagnose boredom in other people's relationships (Studies 1 and 2) and their own relationship (Study 3) if the expectation gap for growth (vs. security) was greater. People reported more conflict in their own relationship if the expectation gap for security (vs. growth) was greater.     

Careful What You Wish

Dilip Ninan has raised a puzzle for centered world accounts of de re attitude reports extended to accommodate what he calls “counterfactual attitudes.” As a solution, Ninan introduces multiple centers to the standard centered world framework, resulting in a more robust semantics for de re attitude reports. However, while the so-called multi-centered world proposal solves Ninan’s counterfactual puzzle, this additional machinery is not without problems. In Section 1, I present the centered world account of attitude reports, followed by the extension to counterfactual attitudes which Ninan targets with his puzzle. In Section 2, I pose the counterfactual puzzle and present Ninan’s multi-centered world solution, emphasizing similarities and differences between multi-centered and centered world accounts of attitude reports. In Section 3, I argue the counterfactual attitude wishing falls under the purview of the multi-centered proposal, but that the proposal generates false predictions for wish reports concerning unsatisfiable content. I canvass responses, ultimately concluding Ninan’s proposal requires substantial revisions.     

Unusual but sound minds: Mental health indicators in spiritual individuals

Previous research has linked certain types of modern spirituality, including New Age and Pagan, with either benign schizotypy or insecure attachment. While the first view emphasizes a positive aspect of spiritual believers’ mental health (benign schizotypy), the second view emphasizes a negative aspect, namely the unhealthy emotional compensation associated with an insecure attachment style. This study addresses these two conflicting views by comparing a sample of modern spiritual individuals (N = 114) with a contrast group of traditional religious believers (N = 86). Measures of schizotypy and attachment style were combined with mental health scales of anxiety and depression. We further assessed death anxiety to determine whether modern spiritual beliefs fulfilled a similar function as traditional religious beliefs in the reduction of existential threat. Our results support a psychological contiguity between traditional and modern spiritual believers and reinforce the need to de‐stigmatize spiritual ideas and experiences. Using hierarchical regression, we showed that unusual experiences and ideas are the major predictor of engagement in modern spiritual practices. Anxiety, depression variables, and insecure attachment were not significant predictors of spirituality or correlated with them; on the other hand, the results show that spiritual believers report high social support satisfaction and this variable predicts involvement in modern spirituality. Further, spiritual practices were negatively correlated with and negatively predicted by death anxiety scores. Overall, the results strengthen the association between modern spirituality, good mental health, and general well‐being.     

Extended Family Impact of Genetic Testing: The Experiences of X-linked Carrier Grandmothers

In many cases, X-linked conditions are transmitted through families “silently” until the first affected individual is diagnosed. Grandmothers are often then tested to help determine the risk to other family members. To date, psychosocial research on carriers of X-linked conditions has focused primarily on mothers and sisters of affected males. In the wider social science literature, studies on grandparents of children with disabilities have centered on their role within the family and relationship with the grandchild. We therefore know little about the impact of carrier testing for a genetic condition on grandparents. This qualitative study aims to contribute towards filling that gap. This study included thirteen grandmothers in families with Fragile X or Duchenne muscular dystrophy; ten had living affected grandsons and three had daughters who chose not to continue with affected male pregnancies after prenatal diagnosis. All thirteen took part in semi-structured interviews and provided a rich and varied data source for conducting thematic analysis. Most of the grandmothers expressed recurring feelings of guilt and a strong sense of responsibility for what had occurred in the family. Other themes included feelings of shock after receiving their test result, changes in family relationships and searching to make sense of the inheritance within the context of the family’s experience. This study provides evidence that X-linked carrier testing can have a profound and lasting impact on grandmothers. Although genetic counseling for X-linked conditions is often focused on the potential reproductive implications for carriers, these findings suggest that grandmothers should also be offered genetic counseling when tests are carried out, because of the likely psychosocial impact of a positive test result.     

Anxiety, a benefit and detriment to cognition: behavioral and magnetoencephalographic evidence from a mixed-saccade task

Anxiety is typically considered an impediment to cognition. We propose anxiety-related impairments in cognitive-behavioral performance are the consequences of enhanced stimulus-driven attention. Accordingly, reflexive, habitual behaviors that rely on stimulus-driven mechanisms should be facilitated in an anxious state, while novel, flexible behaviors that compete with the former should be impaired. To test these predictions, healthy adults (N=17) performed a mixed-saccade task, which pits habitual actions (pro-saccades) against atypical ones (anti-saccades), under anxiety-inducing threat of shock and safe conditions. Whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) captured oscillatory responses in the preparatory interval preceding target onset and saccade execution. Results showed threat-induced anxiety differentially impacted response times based on the type of saccade initiated, slowing anti-saccades but facilitating erroneous pro-saccades on anti-saccade trials. MEG source analyses revealed that successful suppression of reflexive pro-saccades and correct initiation of anti-saccades during threat was marked by increased theta power in right ventrolateral prefrontal cortical and midbrain regions (superior colliculi) implicated in stimulus-driven attention. Theta activity may delay stimulus-driven processes to enable generation of an anti-saccade. Moreover, compared to safety, threat reduced beta desynchronization in inferior parietal cortices during anti-saccade preparation but increased it during pro-saccade preparation. Differential effects in inferior parietal cortices indicate a greater readiness to execute anti-saccades during safety and to execute pro-saccades during threat. These findings suggest that, in an anxiety state, reduced cognitive-behavioral flexibility may stem from enhanced stimulus-driven attention, which may serve the adaptive function of optimizing threat detection.     

Determining the sample size for a replication attempt: A short and simple microcomputer program

Replication studies frequently fail to detect genuine effects because too few subjects are employed to yield an acceptable level of power. To remedy this situation, a method of sample size determination in replication attempts is described that uses information supplied by the original experiment to establish a distribution of probable effect sizes. The sample size to be employed is that which supplies an expected power of the desired amount over the distribution of probable effect sizes. The method may be used in replication attempts involving the comparison of means, the comparison of correlation coefficients, and the comparison of proportions. The widely available equation-solving program EUREKA provides a rapid means of executing the method on a microcomputer. Only ten lines are required to represent the method as a set of equations in EUREKA’s language. Such an equation file is readily modified, so that even inexperienced users find it a straightforward means of obtaining the sample size for a variety of designs.     

Comparisons of two measures of free-operant avoidance under two conditions of response feedback

Lever-pressing responses of 6 rats were studied under a free-operant avoidance procedure, in 6 two-hour sessions. Three of the subjects were given an added visual feedback for each response; they avoided shocks more effectively than the subjects without the feedback. Two different measures of overall performance in free-operant avoidance were applied to the results of the experiment. There was little difference between the measures: both reflected the subjects' performance equally well. Relative merits of the measures and the criteria for selecting one of them were discussed.