The subjective–agentic personality sector (SAPS): Introduction to the special issue on self,identity, and psychopathology

This special issue is predicated upon the premise that there exists a subjective–agentic personality sector (SAPS) that is crucially relevant to the understanding and treatment of psychopathology. SAPS is often overlooked by “trait” models in personality psychology. It is comprised of “hot” cognitions about one's self and identity as they unfold throughout the life span and are brought to bear on interpersonal relationships. There are four ways in which SAPS may be involved in psychopathology: (a) inherently, as a component of psychiatric disorders, (b) as a passive vulnerability dimension, namely by interacting with life stress, (c) as an active vulnerability dimension, that is, by propelling external situations that culminate in psychopathology, and (d) by constituting a central consequent of psychopathology (i.e., the scarring pattern, see below). In this Journal of Personality special issue, experts in personality and psychopathology demonstrate the centrality of SAPS in unipolar depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar spectrum disorder, eating disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, complex trauma and borderline personality disorder, social anxiety disorder, suicidality in the context of mood disorders, and recovery from schizophrenia. A commentary by Dan McAdams, a leader in the study of self and identity, concludes this special issue.     

Reaching within video-capture virtual reality: using virtual reality as a motor control paradigm.

We have developed a virtual reality (VR) system that integrates a three-dimensional tracking device with a video-capture VR platform to record upper limb movements. The influence of target velocity on planning and execution of reaching movements was studied in five healthy subjects. Our initial results suggest that a target's velocity is considered when planning an interceptive action and that a hand reaching toward a moving virtual target is controlled in a similar way to how it is in the real visual environment.     

How the Consideration of Positive Emotions Influences Persuasion: The Differential Effect of Pride Versus Joy

Although pride and joy are both positive emotions, we expected their consideration to affect persuasion differently because of the different perspectives (near vs. distant) and level of abstractness they involve, with pride being more abstract than joy. Therefore, we predicted that when the attitude object is construed at a high level rather than a low level, the consideration of pride is likely to promote more persuasion than the consideration of joy. In three studies, we found that the consideration of pride, when featured in the persuasion message (Studies 1a and 1b) or incidentally (Study 2), increased persuasion more than did the consideration of joy, when the persuasion object was temporally distant compared with temporally near (Studies 1a and 1b) or construed as a high‐level category compared with a more concrete individual (Study 2). These findings advance our understanding of the ways in which specific emotions may affect persuasion, beyond valence. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Positive weighing of the other's collective narrative among Jewish and Bedouin‐Palestinian teachers in Israel and its correlates

Teachers play a pivotal role in the educational discourse around collective narratives, and especially the other's narrative. The study assumed that members of groups entangled in a conflict approach the different modules of the other's narrative distinctively. Jewish and Palestinian teachers, Israeli citizens, answered questionnaires dealing with the narrative of the other, readiness for interethnic contact, negative between‐group emotions and preferences for resolutions of the Israeli–Palestinian (I–P) conflict. Positive weighing of the other's narrative among Jewish teachers correlated with high levels of readiness for interethnic contact and low levels of negative between‐group emotions, across the various modules of the Palestinian narrative. Preferences for a peaceful resolution of the I–P conflict and rejection of a violent one were noted in two of the modules. Among Palestinian teachers, positive weighing of the other's collective narrative was exclusively noted for the Israeli narrative of the Holocaust, and this stance negatively related to negative between‐group emotions and preference for a violent solution of the I–P conflict, and positively related to readiness for interethnic contact and preference of a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Practical implications of these findings for peace education are discussed.     

The effect of in-vehicle warning systems on speed compliance in work zones

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of augmented in-vehicle speed warnings on driver behavior in work zones. The influence of three device configurations were examined as the drivers entered a work zone which was presented in a simulated driving environment. The first configuration was a control condition which used only traditional signage. The second condition had the addition of a visual in-vehicle warning while the final condition had the addition of an auditory in-vehicle warning. Results indicated that adding in-vehicle warnings did affect driver compliance to the work zone speed limit. Participants in the audio warning condition responded more quickly to the warning than those in the visual condition. Both augmented warning configurations differed significantly and were each respectively different from the drivers in the control condition. Based on these results we suggest a combination of in-vehicle warnings. Upon entry of the work zone we suggest a combined audio and visual warning message. However, after the initial entry phase, a visual warning message shows greater promise for the on-going modulation of driver speed transit.     

From data to phenomena and back again: computer-simulated signatures

This paper draws attention to an increasingly common method of using computer simulations to establish evidential standards in physics. By simulating an actual detection procedure on a computer, physicists produce patterns of data (‘signatures’) that are expected to be observed if a sought-after phenomenon is present. Claims to detect the phenomenon are evaluated by comparing such simulated signatures with actual data. Here I provide a justification for this practice by showing how computer simulations establish the reliability of detection procedures. I argue that this use of computer simulation undermines two fundamental tenets of the Bogen–Woodward account of evidential reasoning. Contrary to Bogen and Woodward’s view, computer-simulated signatures rely on ‘downward’ inferences from phenomena to data. Furthermore, these simulations establish the reliability of experimental setups without physically interacting with the apparatus. I illustrate my claims with a study of the recent detection of the superfluid-to-Mott-insulator phase transition in ultracold atomic gases.     

Countering the Vices: On the Neglected Side of Character Education

Following the rise of virtue and character education, educational philosophers have recently given much attention to questions relating to virtue and the good. This, however, has not been paralleled by a similar interest in vice and evil, which, in this context, are examined only rarely. In this article, I use the work of the American philosopher John Kekes as a backdrop for discussing the role coping with vice and evil should play in virtue and character education. I show how Kekes’ assumptions that people have natural inclinations towards both virtue and vice and that evil and vice are an inevitable part of human existence lead to the idea that character education should explicitly discuss not only the virtues but also the vices, that it should promote self-control and that it should bring people to recognize that they have mixed moral inclinations. I then argue that even if we reject Kekes’ key assumptions, embracing these three ideas that attempt to provide means to counter the vices might still have marked benefits for character education. The article concludes by suggesting that while the ideas that stem from Kekes’ approach should not necessarily be embraced, the themes that they raise call for greater consideration and further analysis.