Schmerz ist nicht gleich Schmerz

Not all types of pain are the same. For successful treatment of pain, acute pain must be distinguished from chronic and nociceptive must be distinguished from neuropathic pain. Selection of the right medication is based on the severity of the pain. Despite all efforts to standardize treatment, there is still no consensus on the optimal treatment method. The effective drug must be determined for each patient by taking into account the patient’s symptom profile, the pain intensity and duration as well as the side effects and contraindications. In chronic pain syndromes, only after 6–8 weeks with adequate dosage can the ineffectiveness of a drug be assessed. Single doses, intervals between administration and routes of administration must be selected depending on the pharmacokinetics and interaction profile and the age and needs of the patient.     

A danger foreseen is a danger avoided: how chemical cues of different tadpoles influence parental decisions of a Neotropical poison frog

The protection of offspring against predators and competitors is especially important in organisms using spatially separated breeding resources, impeding the offspring’s chances to escape. One example of such isolated reproductive resources are phytotelmata (small water bodies in plant axils), exploited by the Neotropical poison frog Ranitomeya variabilis (Dendrobatidae) for both clutch and tadpole deposition. Because poison frog tadpoles are often cannibalistic, parents tend to avoid deposition with conspecifics. Previous studies have shown that this avoidance is based on chemical cues produced by conspecific tadpoles. Further, cues produced by phylogenetically less-related tadpoles (Bufonidae) were avoided for clutch but not tadpole depositions. We analyzed how the different responses to tadpole cues are triggered. We tested the reactions of parental R. variabilis to tadpole cues of species differing in two aspects: whether or not they are dendrobatids, and whether or not they reproduce in phytotelmata. We found that for clutch deposition, tadpole cues were always avoided, i.e., all tadpoles were treated by the frogs as if they pose a danger to the eggs. However, responses varied for tadpole depositions: while dendrobatid larvae living in phytotelmata were avoided, those breeding in streams were not. Non-poison frog tadpoles were ignored when associated with habitat other than phytotelmata, but they were preferred when living in phytotelmata. This suggests that both phylogeny and tadpole habitat are important triggers for the decisions made by R. variabilis. Only tadpoles using the same breeding resources are considered as relevant for the frog’s own larvae (i.e., as a potential danger or food resource), while further decisions are related to evolutionary relationship.     

Correction to: A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story

Motivation and Emotion - Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study...     

Analytic thinking reduces belief in conspiracy theories

Belief in conspiracy theories has been associated with a range of negative health, civic, and social outcomes, requiring reliable methods of reducing such belief. Thinking dispositions have been highlighted as one possible factor associated with belief in conspiracy theories, but actual relationships have only been infrequently studied. In Study 1, we examined associations between belief in conspiracy theories and a range of measures of thinking dispositions in a British sample (N = 990). Results indicated that a stronger belief in conspiracy theories was significantly associated with lower analytic thinking and open-mindedness and greater intuitive thinking. In Studies 2–4, we examined the causational role played by analytic thinking in relation to conspiracist ideation. In Study 2 (N = 112), we showed that a verbal fluency task that elicited analytic thinking reduced belief in conspiracy theories. In Study 3 (N = 189), we found that an alternative method of eliciting analytic thinking, which related to cognitive disfluency, was effective at reducing conspiracist ideation in a student sample. In Study 4, we replicated the results of Study 3 among a general population sample (N = 140) in relation to generic conspiracist ideation and belief in conspiracy theories about the July 7, 2005, bombings in London. Our results highlight the potential utility of supporting attempts to promote analytic thinking as a means of countering the widespread acceptance of conspiracy theories.     

Measuring Implicit Gender-Role Orientation: The Gender Initial Preference Task

Individuals prefer their name letters over nonname letters, which is known as the name-letter effect (NLE). This research aimed to examine a possible NLE for gender-role orientation (GRO) by rating letters for their gender-typicality in an initial preference task (Gender-IPT). Indeed, a clear NLE appeared: Men rated their initials as more male-typical, whereas women rated them as more female-typical. The Gender-IPT showed good convergent validity with other direct and indirect (Gender Implicit Association Test) measures of GRO as well as predictive validity with sensation seeking and gender-typical everyday life behaviors. The Gender-IPT seems to be a useful and practical indirect measure to assess GRO in a short, convenient, and computer-independent way, complementing other indirect measures of GRO.     

Individual Differences in Antisocial Punishment in Public Goods Situations: The Interplay of Cortisol with Testosterone and Dominance

This research investigates which endocrinological and psychological factors are associated with individuals' tendency to engage in destructive antisocial punishment, that is, to costly punish cooperative individuals in public goods situations. In this work, we focus on the interplay of endogenous cortisol with testosterone and dominance. We applied the dual‐hormone hypothesis according to which testosterone is positively associated with destructive and dominant behavior but only in individuals with low levels of cortisol. Study 1 shows that individuals are more likely to engage in destructive antisocial punishment in a public goods game with the option to punish when their testosterone level is high, given that their level of cortisol is low, which bolsters the dual‐hormone hypothesis. In contrast, no significant interaction effect of testosterone and cortisol emerges for the punishment of uncooperative free‐riders (altruistic punishment). In a second study, we build on these findings and document that self‐reported dominance is only positively associated with antisocial punishment (but not with altruistic punishment) when cortisol is low. In sum, the results indicate the importance of taking endocrinological and psychological factors (and their interactions) into account in order to reach a comprehensive understanding of individuals' behavior in social dilemma situations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Set-Point Theory and Societal Collapse: The Case of Russia

Can a society’s overall level of happiness change? Until recently, it was widely held that happiness fluctuates around set-points, so that neither individuals nor societies can lastingly increase their happiness. However, data from surveys carried out in Russia from 1982 to 2011 show that happiness fell substantially following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and has begun to rise again only recently. Additional data sources, including suicide rates and indices of negative affect expression, confirm these shifts. Contrary to set-point theory, we find that the recent increase has been driven as much by generational replacement as by mean reversion among individuals. The collapse of communism led to a permanent drop in subjective wellbeing among mid-life cohorts that was subsequently never fully recovered. Happiness can be substantially and permanently impacted by life-events, including those affecting society as a whole, and societal-level happiness can rise or fall over time as a result.     

Soul searching on the wings of my wheels: Motorcyclists’ happiness

This study aimed to investigate how personal characteristics of motorcyclists influenced their affect and sense of happiness with their motorcycles. Data on personal characteristics, motorcycle characteristics, feelings about owning a motorcycle, discreet emotions, and overall happiness were collected from 367 motorcyclists attending the annual charity run event (female = 29%, male = 71%, average age ranged between 40 and 49). Results, following Structural Equation Modelling, indicated male and younger motorcyclists to experience higher discreet positive emotions compared to females and those with a preference for outdoors lifestyle. Male motorcyclists reported being happier, overall, with their motorcycles compared to female motorcyclists. Amongst males, those reporting to be self-employed and with a social life involving drinking places, tended to report higher discreet negative emotions than other male motorcyclists. Lifestyle characteristics of motorcyclists appear to have a direct effect on their overall happiness.     

Single Parenthood and Adolescent Sexual Outcomes

Research suggests that children of single parents are at heightened risk of precocious sexual behavior, STDs, and other risky sexual outcomes. However, few such studies have addressed the type of single-parent family (single mother or single father), or differences across other-sex parent–child dyads. While gender essentialist models assume differences among youth living only with mothers or with fathers, constructivist models propose more flexible modes of parenting that lead to more similar outcomes. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n?=?2570) on youth between the ages of 15 and 19, we compared sexually-related outcomes among adolescents, both boys and girls, who lived with a single mother or a single father. These outcomes include sexual intercourse and knowledge, use of contraception, attitudes toward intimacy and pregnancy, and diagnosis of sexually-transmitted diseases. The results from linear and logistic regression models indicated few differences between single-mother and single-father families, or between same-sex and opposite-sex parent–child matches, using p values of .05 or smaller. Our results called into question essentialist models that posit higher risks for adolescents living with a particular parent or with an opposite-sex parent.     

Interpolation in 16-Valued Trilattice Logics

In a recent paper we have defined an analytic tableau calculus \({{\mathbf {\mathsf{{PL}}}}}_{\mathbf {16}}\) for a functionally complete extension of Shramko and Wansing’s logic based on the trilattice \({SIXTEEN}_3\). This calculus makes it possible to define syntactic entailment relations that capture central semantic relations of the logic—such as the relations Open image in new window , Open image in new window , and Open image in new window that each correspond to a lattice order in \({SIXTEEN}_3\); and Open image in new window , the intersection of Open image in new window and Open image in new window . It turns out that our method of characterising these semantic relations—as intersections of auxiliary relations that can be captured with the help of a single calculus—lends itself well to proving interpolation. All entailment relations just mentioned have the interpolation property, not only when they are defined with respect to a functionally complete language, but also in a range of cases where less expressive languages are considered. For example, we will show that Open image in new window , when restricted to \(\mathcal {L}_{tf}\), the language originally considered by Shramko and Wansing, enjoys interpolation. This answers a question that was recently posed by M. Takano.