Thawing Rivalries and Fading Friendships: An Experimental Approach to Rapprochement and Alienation

Although international relations (IR) theorists generally assume that actors update their beliefs about the intentions of adversaries and allies based on structure, costly signaling, and past actions, little is known about how the process of rapprochement between adversaries differs from the process of alienation between allies, particularly with respect to the nature and degree of costly signaling. Furthermore, until recently the role of the individual in these processes has only been engaged by a small number of scholars, and fewer still have integrated this perspective with conventional approaches to rapprochement and alienation. Drawing from findings in social psychology, We present results from an original survey experiment showing that (1) political belief systems are a powerful determinant of how individuals perceive the intentions of other states, more so than an observed state's signaling behavior; (2) there are diminishing returns in increasing the cost of a signal; and (3) hostile signals are more effective in signaling intent than reassuring signals.     

I want it and I want it now: Using a temporal discounting paradigm to examine predictors of consumer impulsivity

This paper proposes a new model of consumer impulsivity, using type of good, a person's endorsement of materialistic values, and identity deficits as predictors. Traditional decision making and psychological accounts see impulsive behaviour as a general overweighing of short‐term gratification (I want that dress now) relative to longer‐term concerns, irrespective of consumer good. Our proposal is that consumers' impulsivity (a) differs according to type of good and (b) is linked systematically to a combination of materialistic values and high identity deficits. Beginning with Study 1, three experiments, using a temporal discounting paradigm, show consistently that discount rates are higher for goods that are seen as highly expressive of identity (e.g., clothes) than goods not expressive of identity (e.g., basic body care products). For materialistic consumers, identity deficits predict discount rates for identity‐expressive goods (Study 2), and discount rates change for materialistic individuals when their identity deficits are made salient (Study 3). These findings support a conceptualization of consumer impulsivity as identity‐seeking behaviour.     

Adoption with contact: a study of adoptive parents and the impact of continuing contact with families of origin

Adoption practice has seen an increase in adoptive families where contact continues with families of origin. This study, based on responses from adoptive parents at least two years after placement, aims to enhance understanding of the meaning of these experiences for adoptive parents. Data from thirty questionnaire responses indicate that attitudes change, while there are gender differences in the degree of comfort with contact. Fifteen adopters participated in follow-up interviews. The analysis has considered (1) the impact on parenthood, exploring themes of control, entitlement to parent, communication, bonding and ownership, and (2) relationships between adoptive and birth parents, exploring themes of fear, anger and blame, competition and empathy. The findings suggest that passage of time and a greater sense of control assist in establishing confidence, while a more empathic view towards birth mothers develops. This has emotional costs to the adoptive mother. The implications for practice are discussed.     

Preference exploration and learning: the role of intensiveness and extensiveness of experience

In this article, the authors partition the construct of experience into intensiveness (i.e., amount) and extensiveness (i.e., breadth) and examine the impact of the two specific types of experience on preference learning. In the first three studies, the authors' theory that experience can be partitioned into intensiveness (i.e., amount) and extensiveness (i.e., breadth) of experience and that extensiveness has a greater impact on preference learning is supported in environments where prior experience is measured. Further, in study 4 they demonstrate that extensiveness or breadth of experience exerts a larger influence on preference learning in an experiment where each unique type of experience is manipulated as well as measured.     

Humour and the super-ego: A case study of Paul Muldoon’s poetry

This article focuses on the workings of ‘humour’, a phenomenon that is often neglected in Freudian readings of literature, and also (perhaps relatedly) in the analysis of work with patients. Challenging views that the details of humour are best left uninterpreted, it explores how they can provide a mode of access to what is important. In particular, it focuses on the idea of Galgenhumor (literally ‘gallows humour’) in Northern Irish verse. The Ulster poet Paul Muldoon provides a ‘case study’ of someone using considerable humour while facing political atrocities. I aim to show that Muldoon can be viewed as a useful chronicler of ‘the Troubles’ and that a Freudian view of his humour can help readers to appreciate his significance. The method of the article is to interpret some of Muldoon’s verse by applying Freudian theory, working on the basis that poetry can sometimes achieve its effects in ways that are obscured to both the reader and the poet. I have not set out to psychoanalyze Paul Muldoon through a reading of his poems, but rather to stage a discussion of ways that humour can work, making use of Freud’s theories about the unconscious, especially his writings on humour. I examine how humour can create an outlet for affect while simultaneously assisting its repression, and also how it can leave memorable traces of traumatic experience, making it easier for the experience to become available for retrospective examination and exploration.