Forms of Transformation in the Reflective Space: Clarifying “Mentalization” Theory Through a Clinical Application: Commentary on Paper by Stephen Seligman

In responding to discussions of my paper “Jonah: A Fantasy of Flight” by Fishman, Salberg, and Shulman, I focus on some of my critical assumptions in reading this or any other biblical text. Prominent among these is the need to relinquish the stance of “already knowing” the meaning of the text. This irreducibly enigmatic book demands close, informed, and literary reading. Within the context of a sustained reflection on the methodology and spirit of my enterprise, I discuss the main points of difference or disagreement that arise in the papers of my discussants, as well as celebrating the places of accord and enrichment.     

Dimensions of Social Well-Being in a Motor Manufacturing Organisation in South Africa

The study examined the psychometric properties of the 15-item version of the Social Well-being Scale (SWBS-15: Keyes, 1998) for a South African sample with diversity in culture. The SWBS-15 and a biographical questionnaire were administered to employees in a motor manufacturing organisation (N = 203). The five-factor structure of social well-being obtained previously in Western studies, were not replicated. Instead, we found three factors with acceptable levels of internal consistency emerged through exploratory factor analysis. Significant differences regarding social well-being were obtained between groups that differed in terms of their marital status and job levels. The results suggest that social well-being in South Africa might be operationalized differently than it is currently operationalized in traditional western measurements.     

音乐与情绪诱发的机制模型

音乐与情绪关系的讨论正处于行为层面描述向认知及神经机制研究的初探阶段.线索一致性模型、音乐期待模型、协同化理论和多重机制模型分别从音乐线索、听者认知、音乐与听者互动关系及多重整合角度对音乐诱发情绪的过程做出了解释.当前分歧集中于三方面:(1)音乐诱发情绪是否必须以认知为中介;(2)诱发过程是一般领域还是特殊领域;(3)诱发情绪的机制是多元还是单一.文章提出确定概念同质、借助多指标测量和思考机制关系等解决思路,并阐明了此领域的研究趋势.     

Online communication and social well‐being: how playing World of Warcraft affects players' social competence and loneliness

This study was designed to examine the effects of playing the online game World of Warcraft (WoW) on adolescents' social competence and loneliness, and to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the Internet‐affected social compensation hypothesis. The hypothesis states that being online affects adolescents' social competence as a result of a variety of communication partners and identity experiments online. A survey was conducted among 790 high school students. There appeared to be no direct effect between playing WoW and adolescents' social competence and loneliness. We did find an indirect effect via variety of communication partners. Adolescents who play WoW vary more in their communication partners, leading to an increase of social competence and a decrease of loneliness.     

Positive Effects of Imagery on Police Officers' Shooting Performance under Threat

We investigated the effects of imagery on police officers' shooting performance under threat. To this end, 66 officers executed a realistic shooting exercise against an opponent that initially did not shoot back with painful coloured‐soap cartridges (low‐threat condition) followed by a condition in which he did [high‐threat (HT) condition]. In between conditions, participants performed an imagery intervention: one group imagined ‘successful shot execution’ and one imagined ‘successful shot execution under threat, including the accompanying emotions’; a control group received no imagery intervention. Although for the control group shot accuracy was significantly lower in the HT condition than under low‐threat conditions, both imagery groups were able to maintain their shot accuracy in the HT condition, despite increased levels of anxiety. It is concluded that focusing on successful shot execution is pivotal, whereas adding emotional statements does not seem to have an additional positive effect. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dutch taboo norms

This article provides norms for general taboo, personal taboo, insult, valence, and arousal for 672 Dutch words, including 202 taboo words. Norms were collected using a 7-point Likert scale and based on ratings by psychology students from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Netherlands. The sample consisted of 87 psychology students (58 females, 29 males). We obtained high reliability based on split-half analyses. Our norms show high correlations with arousal and valence ratings collected by another Dutch word-norms study (Moors et al.,, Behavior Research Methods, 45, 169–177, 2013). Our results show that the previously found quadratic relation (i.e., U-shaped pattern) between valence and arousal also holds when only taboo words are considered. Additionally, words rated high on taboo tended to be rated low on valence, but some words related to sex rated high on both taboo and valence. Words that rated high on taboo rated high on insult, again with the exception of words related to sex many of which rated low on insult. Finally, words rated high on taboo and insult rated high on arousal. The Dutch Taboo Norms (DTN) database is a useful tool for researchers interested in the effects of taboo words on cognitive processing. The data associated with this paper can be accessed via the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/vk782/).     

‘That's OK. He's a guy’: A mixed-methods study of gender double-standards for alcohol use

Although drinking and drunkenness have traditionally been considered masculine behaviours, young women's alcohol consumption has increased in recent years. This mixed methods study was conducted to examine the extent to which young people endorse gender double-standards for alcohol use – i.e., less acceptance of drinking and drunkenness in women than men – and how these influence men's and women's alcohol consumption. A sample of 731 English university students completed an online survey of gender role attitudes, beliefs about the gendered nature of alcohol use and recent alcohol consumption. Sixteen participants were then purposively selected for individual interviews: eight women and men with the most egalitarian gender role beliefs, and eight women and men with the least egalitarian beliefs. The two sets of data revealed that although there were few sex differences in actual levels of drinking or drunkenness, gender double-standards for alcohol use persist: beer drinking, binge drinking and public drunkenness tended to be perceived as masculine, and even the most egalitarian respondents were more judgemental of women's drinking. Participants modified their drinking style so as to maintain a desired gender identity. Although gender double-standards could be a focus of interventions to encourage moderate drinking, such approaches could reinforce gender inequalities.     

Who are you and what do you want? Life aspirations,personality, and well-being

In two studies with undergraduate samples, we investigated the relations between life aspirations and personality and evaluated whether aspirations added to the prediction of psychological well-being and sexuality. Within the HEXACO framework, aspirations were highly related to Honesty–Humility. Within the Big Five framework, intrinsic aspirations were related to high Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and extrinsic aspirations were most related to low Openness and Agreeableness. Aspirations did not add to the HEXACO’s prediction of well-being in study one, but in study two, aspirations added to the prediction of sexuality variables beyond the two personality frameworks. These results suggest that aspirations may account for beyond personality in explaining specific types of well-being.