Imagination and society: the role of visual sociology

The paper presents the field of Visual Sociology as an approach that makes use of photographs, films, documentaries, videos, to capture and assess aspects of social life and social signals. It overviews some relevant works in the field, it deals with methodological and epistemological issues, by raising the question of the relation between the observer and the observed, and makes reference to some methods of analysis, such as those proposed by the Grounded Theory, and to some connected tools for automatic qualitative analysis, like NVivo. The relevance of visual sociology to the study of social signals lies in the fact that it can validly integrate the information, introducing a multi-modal approach in the analysis of social signals.     

Imagination and society: the role of visual sociology

The paper presents the field of Visual Sociology as an approach that makes use of photographs, films, documentaries, videos, to capture and assess aspects of social life and social signals. It overviews some relevant works in the field, it deals with methodological and epistemological issues, by raising the question of the relation between the observer and the observed, and makes reference to some methods of analysis, such as those proposed by the Grounded Theory, and to some connected tools for automatic qualitative analysis, like NVivo. The relevance of visual sociology to the study of social signals lies in the fact that it can validly integrate the information, introducing a multi-modal approach in the analysis of social signals.     

Some varieties of shadow illusions: split shadows, occluded shadows, stolen shadows, and shadows of shadows

Shadows are visual objects and as such are subject to preference rules for segmenting the visual scene (such as Gestalt laws). These rules govern shadows along two dimensions: their general unity and individuation (eg they describe a certain area as a unitary shadow as opposed to a set of two distinct shadows), and their being the shadow of a given object, as opposed to being the shadow of any other object in the scene (the shadow correspondence problem Mamassian, 2004 Perception 33 1279-1290). I describe a few phenomena that indicate the interplay of preferences in determining the final visual aspect of scenes in which shadows are present.     

Just an anger synonym? Moral context influences predictors of disgust word use

Are verbal reports of disgust in moral situations specific indicators of the concept of disgust, or are they used metaphorically to refer to anger? In this experiment, participants read scenarios describing a violation of a norm either about the use of the body (bodily moral) or about harm and rights (socio-moral). They then expressed disgust and anger on verbal scales, and through facial expression endorsement measures. The use of disgust words in the socio-moral condition was largely predicted by anger words and only secondarily by disgust faces, whereas in the bodily moral condition the use of disgust words was predicted to a similar extent by disgust faces and anger words. Angry faces, however, never predicted disgust words independently of anger words. These results support a middle-ground position in which disgust words concerning socio-moral violations are not entirely a metaphor for anger, but bear some relationship to other representations of disgust. In the case of socio-moral violations, however, the use of disgust language is more strongly related to anger language, and less strongly to facial representations of disgust than in the case of bodily moral violations.     

GOOD or BAD responder? Behavioural and neuroanatomical markers of clinical response to donepezil in dementia

We explored the neuropsychological and neuromorphometrical differences between probable Alzheimer's disease patients showing a good or a bad response to nine months treatment with donepezil. Before treatment, the neuropsychological profile of the two patient groups was perfectly matched. By the ninth month after treatment, the BAD-responders showed a decline of the MMSE score together with a progressive impairment of executive functions. A voxel-based morphometry investigation (VBM), at the time of the second neuropsychological assessment, showed that the BAD-responders had larger grey and white matter atrophies involving the substantia innominata of Meynert bilaterally, the ventral part of caudate nuclei and the left uncinate fasciculus, brain areas belonging to the cholinergic pathways. A more widespread degeneration of the central cholinergic pathways may explain the lack of donepezil efficacy in those patients not responding to a treatment that operates on the grounds that some degree of endogeneous release of acetylcholine is still available.     

Behavioral,Affective, and Cognitive Parenting Mechanisms of Child Internalizing and Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased mental health concerns, including depression and anxiety among parents and internalizing and...     

Mind Reading Skills and Empathy: Evidence for Nice and Nasty ToM Behaviours in School-Aged Children

We investigated the social use of theory of mind in school-aged children. The expressions Nice Theory of Mind and Nasty Theory of Mind are used to differentiate behaviours requiring a prosocial use and an antisocial use of ToM abilities respectively. Our goals was to investigate whether and how mind reading abilities and empathy affect nice and nasty ToM behaviours. One hundred and ninety-seven children who were fourth and fifth graders took part in this study. Participants were administered stories that assessed cognitive, affective or moral mental state reasoning abilities and they also completed a self-report measure of empathy. Teachers’ rating on children’s prosocial and antisocial behaviours that underpin ToM abilities led us to identify nice and nasty ToM behaviours. We found that children who engage in nasty ToM behaviour showed good abilities to understand others’ thoughts and beliefs. However, children with nice ToM behaviour showed more moral and emotional sensitivity as compared to children who engage in nasty ToM behaviour. Furthermore, the hot component of empathy is stronger in fostering prosocial behaviours and inhibiting antisocial acts than cognitive component.     

Prevalence of Sexual Abuse Among Children with Conduct Disorder: A Systematic Review

Many clinicians and researchers have speculated that child sexual abuse and conduct disorder co-occur frequently, yet no systematic reviews of literature have specifically addressed both these conditions. To estimate the prevalence of sexual abuse among children with conduct disorder, the pertinent literature was systematically reviewed. Ten databases were searched, supplemented with hand search of reference lists from retrieved papers. Blind assessments of study eligibility and quality were conducted by two independent researchers. Disagreements were resolved by consensus. Twenty-three studies meeting minimum quality criteria that were enough to insure objectivity and not to invalidate results and including 7,256 participants with either conduct disorder or child sexual abuse were examined. The prevalence of child sexual abuse among participants with conduct disorder was 27 %; however, such figure might be underestimated due to selection, sampling, and recall biases; poor assessment methods; and narrow definitions of abuse in included studies. Participants with conduct disorder, compared with healthy individuals, reported higher rates of child sexual abuse. However, compared with other psychiatric populations, they reported similar or lower rates. There was also some evidence suggesting that children with conduct disorder might be more likely to report child physical abuse. Female participants with conduct disorder, compared with males, were significantly more likely to report child sexual abuse. Youths with conduct disorder are at risk of being (or having been) sexually abused, although such risk seems to be neither more specific to nor stronger for these individuals, compared with people with other psychiatric disorders.