Personality types and hetero- versus auto-hypnosis

The Multivariate Personality Inventory (MPI; Magaro & Smith, 1981), the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS; Shor & Orne, 1962), and the Inventory of Self-Hypnosis (ISH; Shor, 1970) were used to investigate the relationship between personality style and hypnotic procedure in the determination of hypnotic susceptibility. On the basis of MPI scores, a normal college population was segregated into 5 personality styles: hysteric, manic, depressive, character disorder, and compulsive. The hysteric personality was found significantly more hypnotizable than the other personality types in the HGSHS induction context, whereas the compulsive personality was found significantly more hypnotizable in the ISH induction context. Results are discussed in terms of personality and situational factors in relation to previous hypnotic susceptibility research.     

Motivated social categorization: fundamental motives enhance people's sensitivity to basic social categories

This article presents an evolutionary framework for identifying the characteristics people use to categorize members of their social world. Findings suggest that fundamental social motives lead people to implicitly categorize social targets based on whether those targets display goal-relevant phenotypic traits. A mate-search prime caused participants to categorize opposite-sex targets (but not same-sex targets) based on their level of physical attractiveness (Experiment 1). A mate-guarding prime interacted with relationship investment, causing participants to categorize same-sex targets (but not opposite-sex targets) based on their physical attractiveness (Experiment 2). A self-protection prime interacted with chronic beliefs about danger, increasing participants' tendency to categorize targets based on their racial group membership (Black or White; Experiment 3). This work demonstrates that people categorize others based on whether they display goal-relevant characteristics reflecting high levels of perceived desirability or threat. Social categorization is guided by fundamental evolved motives designed to enhance adaptive social outcomes.     

Perspectives on the home advantage: A comparison of football players, fans and referees

Objectives

The study aimed to address the paucity of research pertaining to perceptions of causes of the home advantage. The views of three key personnel groups in football (soccer) were examined with regard to their perspectives.

Design and procedure

Players (n = 94), fans (n = 116) and referees (n = 163) completed a ten-item questionnaire on which they rated the contribution of the most prominent factors known to influence the home advantage.

Results

Factor analysis revealed three subscales (officials, player state and home environment) relating to explanations for the home advantage. A MANOVA examining the groups’ ratings for these three subscales found that the fans and player gave higher ratings for the contribution of officials and player state than did referees, while the fans gave higher ratings for the home environment.

Conclusion

The present study provides an insight into conceptualisations of the home advantage from the perspectives of different football groups. The relevance of self-enhancement, emanating from motivational and information processing mechanisms, is considered.     

Searching for Sharks and a Second Self

Twenty years ago, Pastoral Psychology published “The Extra Mile—Case History of a Homicide” (Moss, Pastoral Psychology 42:107–136, 1993, p.134). In that autobiographical vignette, I argued that pastoral theology has a responsibility to: “1) articulate contemporary ultimate concerns, 2) clarify healthy avenues for compensation, and 3) tell stories about the hopeful revelations of God’s providence in a broken world” (Moss, Pastoral Psychology 42:107–136, 1993, p.134). This story illustrates all three of these points by recording a psychological fragmentation and restoration resulting from the death of a dear friend—“a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). Aristotle referred to this type of friend as “a second self.” In the Celtic church such a person was anam cara, a Gaelic expression for “soul friend.” A few years ago I lost such a friend to cancer. During my grieving process I created a private tribute from our unfulfilled wish to go on one more adventure together—specifically, a shark hunt. The capture and release of sharks is a unique extreme sport. It is also the vehicle by which I finally resolved my grief: I reunited with my second self by means of an image in the eye of a requiem shark, a reflection of anam cara. The interrelated layers of this occurrence—particularly its coincidences—evidence Providence, as well as provide an example of a “Contact with the Dead Experience” described by Andrew Greeley and myself some 20 years ago in the Journal of Religion and Health (Moss, Journal of Religion and Health 29:261–283, 1990).     

Degree of Disturbance in Figure Drawings as Related to Mode of Approach to Problem Solving

Spontaneous and induced hierarchical organization was investigated with 72 first, third, and fifth graders (12 females and 12 males at each grade level). Stimuli consisted of an initial set of 20 unrelated pictures and a second set of 20 pictures which could be classified according to four super ordinate categories. Ss were randomly assigned to either the spontaneous or induced condition for the second set. Both recall scores and clustering indexes indicated that induced organization facilitates recall(p < .01 and p < .05, respectively). The effect of the induced presentation condition was most pronounced for third and fifth graders (p < .05). The clustering analysis indicated sex differences in the induced presentation condition (p < .05); with increasing age, girls exhibited a greater improvement than boys in induced organizational ability.