Brain activity underlying negative self- and other-perception in adolescents: The role of attachment-derived self-representations

One of teenagers’ key developmental tasks is to engage in new and meaningful relationships with peers and adults outside the family context. Attachment-derived expectations about the self and others in terms of internal attachment working models have the potential to shape such social reorientation processes critically and thereby influence adolescents’ social-emotional development and social integration. Because the neural underpinnings of this developmental task remain largely unknown, we sought to investigate them by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We asked n = 44 adolescents (ages 12.01–18.84 years) to evaluate positive and negative adjectives regarding either themselves or a close other during an adapted version of the well-established self-other trait-evaluation task. As measures of attachment, we obtained scores reflecting participants’ positive versus negative attachment-derived self- and other-models by means of the Relationship Questionnaire. We controlled for possible confounding factors by also obtaining scores reflecting internalizing/externalizing problems, schizotypy, and borderline symptomatology. Our results revealed that participants with a more negative attachment-derived self-model showed increased brain activity during positive and negative adjective evaluation regarding the self, but decreased brain activity during negative adjective evaluation regarding a close other, in bilateral amygdala/parahippocampus, bilateral anterior temporal pole/anterior superior temporal gyrus, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These findings suggest that a low positivity of the self-concept characteristic for the attachment anxiety dimension may influence neural information processing, but in opposite directions when it comes to self- versus (close) other-representations. We discuss our results in the framework of attachment theory and regarding their implications especially for adolescent social-emotional development and social integration.     

Incongruences of Ethical and Legal Norms in Academia: the Case on Revocation of Doctoral Degrees

In the academic setting as in any organization legal norms prevail and are assumed to be congruent with ethical norms. Nevertheless, there are cases when the ratio of ethical and legal norms is inadequate and disproportional, especially those dealing with socially responsible decisions in academia. For this reason, the aim here is to analyse incongruences of ethical and legal norms related to the revocation of doctoral degrees in Lithuania, illustrated with examples of deviant behaviour by academic degree holders in terms of decisions of the courts and the ombudsman for academic ethics. Lithuania, being a Member State of the European Union, is currently facing the challenge of implementing newly-adopted laws related to the revocation of doctoral degrees. Accordingly, data were collected from available online official sources to gain more comprehensive evidence, and then analysed using the inductive approach of qualitative content analysis. Research findings show that there is still a thin line between ethical and legal norms, and this line fluctuates depending on nuanced considerations. This is to say that it is still problematical to dress ethical principles in legal clothing.     

Are the aesthetic preferences towards snake species already formed in pre-school aged children?

This study explores aesthetic preferences towards boa and python species among pre-school children and adults, and compares the ratings between the two groups. A set of snake photographs was presented (56 species) to children and adult respondents. The respondents were asked to select the five most preferred and five least preferred species. The children’s agreement on which species were ‘beautiful’ and which were ‘ugly’ was statistically significant and a positive relationship between the mean ranks provided by children and adults was also found (r = .54, P < .001). Children preferred species with thick necks and inconspicuous heads, usually small species, harmless to children. Large pythons probably posed more danger to children than they did to adults during human evolution in African savannas and therefore we hypothesize that young children’s aesthetic preferences were shaped by natural selection through interactions with dangerous snakes.     

The Roles of Child Gender and Parental Knowledge of Child Development in Parent-Child Interactive Play

In our study, we aimed to analyse the effect of child gender on parental and child interactive play behaviour, as well as to determine relations between parental general knowledge of child development and parental play behaviour in two developmental periods, namely toddlerhood and early childhood. The sample included 99 children (50 toddlers 1–3 years-old; 49 preschoolers 3–5 years-old) and their parents. Parent–child interactive play with a standard set of toys was observed and assessed in the home setting. We found that parental and child play behaviours were closely related in both age groups. In addition, child’s gender affected child, but not parental, play behaviour such that girls more frequently established the content of play, sustained play frame, and used more symbolic transformations during play than boys did. Parents’ general knowledge of child development was associated with both parental education and parental play behaviour. The findings are applicable to different professionals working with children and their parents in the preschool period.     

Testing Factorial Structure and Validity of the PCL:SV in Lithuanian Prison Population

This study examined the factorial structure and validity of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) in a European forensic context. A random sample of 257 criminal offenders from the Lithuanian prison population were administered the PCL:SV (Hart et al. 1995). The pattern of validity coefficients in this sample was comparable to other North American and non-North American samples. Several theoretical factorial structures for the PCL:SV were tested and compared. The two-factor model was not supported, while three- and four-factor models provided an acceptable fit to Lithuanian data. The four-factor model showed significantly better fit compared to the two-factor model. Correlations between PCL:SV factors and demographic variables confirm construct validity. However in the four-factor model, when controlling for correlations of the remaining three factors, only the Antisocial factor significantly correlated with variables related to criminal activity. It was concluded that the overall results of the PCL:SV in a male sample of Lithuanian offenders support cross-cultural generalizability of the construct of psychopathy as measured by the PCL:SV.     

The rise of philosophy in Lithuania

The first Lithuanians to be introduced to philosophy were young members of the gentry who studied in European universities at the end of the 14th century. The recently christened Lithuania strove to adopt Western culture and to present itself as a Western state. At the end of the 14th century, the Vilnius Cathedral School was founded. The elements of logic were probably taught there. The growth of the political and economic power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania brought about the need for higher education. The need was significantly increased by the growing activity of various religious orders. In 1507, the Dominicans started teaching philosophy and theology to their novices in Vilnius. They taught late medieval philosophy in its Thomistic interpretation. We can regard 1507 as the year Lithuania began to benefit from a new phenomenon, professional philosophy, with the Dominicans as its initiators. The Dominicans and later the Jesuits, Franciscans, Benedictines, Carmelites, Trinitarians, and other monastic orders enriched intellectual life in Lithuania by teaching philosophy in their schools. The most important event in the development of philosophy in Lithuania was the foundation of Vilnius University in 1579. The disciplines belonging to scholasticism of the second level were taught in its philosophy department.

Premarital Sex and Marital Satisfaction of Middle Aged Men and Women: A Study of Married Lithuanian Couples

A study was conducted to investigate possible links between current marital satisfaction and age of onset of sexual intercourse, having an experience of premarital intercourse, the number of premarital sexual partners, and having an experience of premarital cohabitation. A convenience sample of subjects consisted of 41 middle-aged married Lithuanian couples. Marital satisfaction was measured by a 16-item Marital Satisfaction Scale developed by the principle investigators of this study. Results indicated no significant relationship between the experience of premarital sexual intercourse and marital satisfaction of men or women. However, men, who had more premarital partners and cohabitation experience, were less satisfied with their marriages. For women, younger onset of sexual activity and larger number of premarital partners was related to lower marital satisfaction.     

The notion of feminine in Asian philosophical traditions

The abstract notion of “the feminine”, (womanliness, feminine nature)—in French, le féminin, and in German, das Weibliche—as substantivum neutrum, remains together with its opposite, the masculine, connotative of an inherent disparity. It is meant neither as the biological affiliation of sex, nor as gender, the social response, or echo, of this biological affiliation. Rather, it is the spiritual attitude (psychic, spiritual being, mind) which is the norm for psychic manifestations in general, and is its subtle psychosomatic background. It is not necessarily connected with the rude biological differentiation of sex, but rather appears as a quality in one or the other form; either as the individual, the social group or forms of activities, etc., without respect to the biological manifestations of the participants.

What this paper attempts to demonstrate, is the way in which the above described notion of the feminine, functions in classical Asian cultures and philosophies. In the famous Yijing, for instance, this is seen as the hexagram correlated to the male Qian; in the philosophy of Yin and Yang, as Yin the Earth, in correlation with Yang, the Heaven; which are united in the famous Taiji diagram, a sophisticated development of Chinese Neo‐Confucianism. The paper focuses on the Dao de jing, in which Lao Zi gives, as a counterbalance to the existing praxis, priority to the female principle (the feminine). He remains, however, faithful to the Asian tradition, maintaining that the masculine and the feminine should remain equal, correlative, neither one nor the other vying for dominance. The correlative embrace, “When you know the male yet hold on to. the female” (Dao de jing, chapter 28) subsists in the mythical past where both principles are joined in androgynous unity.