Association of Economic Internality With Saving Behavior and Motives,Financial Confidence,and Attitudes Toward State Intervention1

This study investigates economic locus of control (ELOC) in a Greek sample using Furnham's (1986) scale. In particular, it examines the association between ELOC and saving behavior and motives, attitudes toward state intervention in the economic field, and factors engendering confidence in economic matters. The main hypotheses predicted that internal ELOC should be associated with (a) desire for less state intervention; (b) confidence in factors under one's own control (knowing the other party in transactions, being well informed) more strongly than with other factors of economic trust, such as the state and the law; (c) more saving; and (d) that respondents with internal and external ELOC should be differentiated with respect to saving motives. Analysis was based on a sample of 135 participants from Athens. Principal components analysis of the Greek translation of Furnham's ELOC questionnaire gave results similar to those reported from England, yielding 4 factors interpretable as chance, internal, external/denial, and powerful others. The findings of the study include confirmation of all of the hypotheses.     

Changing Kinematics as a Means of Reducing Vulnerability to Physical Attack1

Three experiments investigated whether women can change their walking style and hence reduce their vulnerability to physical attack. In Experiment 1, women were videotaped walking normally and when imagining themselves in a situation of low personal safety. Women were rated as harder to attack in the low safety condition. Differences in walking style accounted for differences in ease‐of‐attack ratings. Experiment 2 compared walking styles and vulnerability of women before and after completing a self‐defense course. No differences were seen across sessions. Experiment 3 investigated walking styles and vulnerability of women before and after completing individualized walking training programs. Differences in vulnerability between sessions were revealed and could be accounted for by changes in walking‐style features.     

The emergence of new intentions in subjective experience: A social/personal constructionist and relational understanding

As part of the larger project to revision vocational psychology for a new era, a process referred to as the emergence of new intentions in subjective experience is defined and described. It is proposed that this process is central to the ongoing construction and reconstruction of lives in the changing landscape of the times. Following an elaboration of the meaning of emergence of new intentions in subjective experience through comparison to related constructs and theories, a social/personal constructionist and relational understanding of this process is developed. The article concludes by addressing implications for vocational psychology practice.     

Identifying the task characteristics that predict children's construction task performance

Construction tasks form a major part of children's play and can be linked to achievement in maths and science. However there is a lack of understanding of construction task ability and development. Therefore, there is little foundation for the applied use of construction tasks, such as in teaching or research, as there are no apparent methods for assessing difficulty. This empirical research identifies four construction task characteristics that impact on cognition and predict construction task difficulty in children aged 7–8 and 10–11 years and adults. The results also reveal a developmental trajectory in construction ability. The research provides a method to quantify, predict and control the complexity of construction tasks for future research and to inform applied use. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fibroblast growth factor-2 alters the nature of extinction

These experiments examined the effects of the NMDA-receptor (NMDAr) antagonist MK801 on reacquisition and re-extinction of a conditioned fear that had been previously extinguished before injection of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) or vehicle. Recent findings have shown that relearning and re-extinction, unlike initial learning and extinction, do not depend on NMDAr activation. Three experiments demonstrated that FGF2 prevents the switch from NMDAr-dependent to NMDAr-independent reacquisition and re-extinction, suggesting that FGF2 may lead to the partial erasure of the original fear memory. These findings add to a growing body of work suggesting that FGF2 may be a novel pharmacological enhancer of exposure therapy for humans with anxiety disorders.     

The accidental transgressor: morally-relevant theory of mind

To test young children’s false belief theory of mind in a morally relevant context, two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, children (N = 162) at 3.5, 5.5, and 7.5 years of age were administered three tasks: prototypic moral transgression task, false belief theory of mind task (ToM), and an “accidental transgressor” task, which measured a morally-relevant false belief theory of mind (MoToM). Children who did not pass false belief ToM were more likely to attribute negative intentions to an accidental transgressor than children who passed false belief ToM, and to use moral reasons when blaming the accidental transgressor. In Experiment 2, children (N = 46) who did not pass false belief ToM viewed it as more acceptable to punish the accidental transgressor than did participants who passed false belief ToM. Findings are discussed in light of research on the emergence of moral judgment and theory of mind.     

The influence of heightened body‐awareness on walking through apertures

The reported study measured the ratio between aperture‐width and hip‐width that marked the critical transition from frontal walking to body rotation for male and female participants. Half of the participants of each sex wore form‐fitting lycra clothes and half loose‐fitting jogging suits. Participants wearing the form‐fitting clothing reported heightened body awareness relative to those wearing the loose‐fitting clothing. For male participants this difference was reflected in a smaller aperture‐to‐hip ratio in the form‐fitting than loose‐fitting clothing condition. That is, males walked frontally through smaller apertures when wearing form‐fitting than when wearing loose‐fitting clothing. For females there was no difference in walking action as a function of clothing style. Results are discussed in terms of the perception of action opportunities in the environment, the influence of body awareness on such perception and sex differences. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Affording cooperation: Embodied constraints,dynamics, and action-scaled invariance in joint lifting

Understanding the physical and interpersonal constraints that afford cooperation during real-world tasks requires consideration of the fit between the environment and task-relevant dimensions of coactors and the coactors’ fit with each other. In the present study, we examined how cooperation can emerge during ongoing interaction using the simple task of two actors’ moving long wooden planks. The system dynamics showed hysteresis: A past-action mode persisted when both solo and joint actions were possible. Moreover, pairs whose arm spans were both short, both long, or mismatched made action-mode transitions at similar points, when scaled by a relational measure. The relational measure of plank length to arm span was dictated by the pair member with the shorter arm span, who, thus, had a greater need to cooperate during the task. The results suggest that understanding affordances for cooperation requires giving more consideration to constraints imposed by the fit between coactors’ action capabilities.