A New View of Meditation

After years of meditating, are you still saddled with many of the same personal conflicts and interpersonal inhibitions that plagued you before you began? Rubin explores the hidden flaws in the meditative method itself. He explores Buddhism's ambivalent relationship to emotional life, and the negative consequences of letting go of experience. Detaching from experience may result in renouncing vital aspects of ourselves, such as constructive passion. The author argues that real meditation is transformative not tranquilizing, fostering a dynamic way of living.     

Cross-cultural variability of component processes in autobiographical remembering: Japan, Turkey, and the USA

Although the underlying mechanics of autobiographical memory may be identical across cultures, the processing of information differs. Undergraduates from Japan, Turkey, and the USA rated 30 autobiographical memories on 15 phenomenological and cognitive properties. Mean values were similar across cultures, with means from the Japanese sample being lower on most measures but higher on belief in the accuracy of their memories. Correlations within individuals were also similar across cultures, with correlations from the Turkish sample being higher between measures of language and measures of recollection and belief. For all three cultures, in multiple regression analyses, measures of recollection were predicted by visual imagery, auditory imagery, and emotions, whereas measures of belief were predicted by knowledge of the setting. These results show subtle cultural differences in the experience of remembering.     

Resolving the latent structure of schizophrenia endophenotypes using expectation-maximization-based finite mixture modeling

Prior research has focused on the latent structure of endophenotypic markers of schizophrenia liability, or schizotypy. The work supports the existence of 2 relatively distinct latent classes and derives largely from the taxometric analysis of psychometric values. The present study used finite mixture modeling as a technique for discerning latent structure and the laboratory-measured endophenotypes of sustained attention deficits and eye-tracking dysfunction as endophenotype indexes. In a large adult community sample (N=311), finite mixture analysis of the sustained attention index d' and 2 eye-tracking indexes (gain and catch-up saccade rate) revealed evidence for 2 latent components. A putative schizotypy class accounted for 27% of the sample. A supplementary maximum covariance taxometric analysis yielded highly consistent results. Subjects in the schizotypy component displayed higher rates of schizotypal personality features and an increased rate of treated schizophrenia in their 1st-degree biological relatives compared with subjects in the other component. Implications of these results are examined in light of major theories of schizophrenia liability, and methodological advantages of finite mixture modeling for psychopathology research, with particular emphasis on genomic issues, are discussed.     

Rape Myth Acceptance Among First- and Second-Generation South Asian American Women

Differences between European American women and first- and second-generation South Asian American women in their acceptance of rape myths were investigated. The Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale, and a demographic questionnaire were administered to 75 participants. A one-way analysis of variance and planned comparisons analyses showed that first-generation South Asian American women had higher rape myth acceptance than second-generation South Asian American women and European American women. Second-generation South Asian American women and European American women had similar rates of acceptance of rape myths.     

Flavor Fatigue: Cognitive Depletion Influences Consumer Enjoyment of Complex Flavors

Surprisingly, little research has examined how consumer responses to specific flavor characteristics of food are formed or how they may fluctuate situationally. We address this lacuna in the literature on the hedonic appreciation of food by demonstrating that enjoyment along one important gustatory dimension, flavor complexity, varies with the degree to which consumers are mentally depleted. Specifically, showing that gustatory sensations are more cognitively demanding than previously thought, findings from three studies evince that cognitive depletion reduces consumer enjoyment of complex‐flavored (but not simple‐flavored) foods via a reduction in pleasure that otherwise can be derived from complex flavors. We establish this effect across three different food categories and provide preliminary evidence for consumers’ ability to identify flavors as the underlying process. Our findings offer theoretical contributions and avenues for future research.     

Group status is related to group prototypicality in the absence of social identity concerns

Based on self-categorization theory, group status should be positively related to group prototypicality when the relevant superordinate category is positively valued. In this case, high-status groups should be perceived to be more prototypical than low-status groups even in the absence of concerns about maintaining a positive social identity. To test this hypothesis, a minimal group study was conducted in which participants (N = 139) did not belong to any of the groups involved. Consistent with predictions, participants perceived high-status groups to be significantly more prototypical than low-status groups. Consistent with self-categorization theory's cognitive analysis, these results demonstrate that the relation between group status and group prototypicality is a relatively basic and pervasive effect that does not depend on social identity motives.     

The effects of winning and losing on perceived group variability

Previous research has shown that the people in low status, negatively-valued groups are perceived to be more homogeneous than the people in high status, positively-valued groups. The present research investigated the possibility of an opposite effect in which people perceive positive groups to be more homogeneous than negative groups. The researchers hypothesized that winning groups would be perceived to be more homogenous than losing groups because group homogeneity is associated with group cohesiveness, and group cohesiveness has a positive value in the context of an intergroup competition. In a first experiment (N = 175), target groups varied according to their objective group variability and whether they won or lost a competition. As predicted, winning groups were perceived to be significantly more homogenous than losing groups regardless of their objective variability. In a second experiment (N = 186), these effects were replicated using different social groups, and the effect of group performance on homogeneity judgments was mediated by perceptions of group cohesiveness.     

Perceived Responder Legitimacy and Group Identification Predict Cooperation and Compliance in a Mass Decontamination Field Exercise

Emergency responders' failure to communicate effectively during decontamination following a chemical or biological incident has been associated with increased public anxiety and reduced public compliance. In this study we applied the social identity approach to evaluating a field exercise that involved mass decontamination. Questionnaires were collected from 115 volunteers, who participated in the exercise as simulated casualties. Volunteers' perceptions of effective responder communication predicted increased self-reported compliance with decontamination, mediated by perceived responder legitimacy and identification with other group members. Developing effective communication strategies using a social psychology perspective could improve the way in which incidents are managed.