Social anxiety and the shame of psychosis: a study in first episode psychosis

Social anxiety disorder (SaD) or social phobia is a co-morbid affective disorder in schizophrenia, present in up to one in three individuals. We employ 'social rank' theory to predict that one pathway to social anxiety in schizophrenia is triggered by the anticipation of a catastrophic loss of social status that the stigma of schizophrenia can entail. A group of 79 people with a first episode of psychosis were assessed for social anxiety: hypotheses were tested comparing 23 socially anxious and 56 non-anxious patients on measures of cognitive appraisals of shame/stigma of psychosis and perceived social status, controlling for depression, psychotic symptoms and general psychopathology. Participants with social anxiety experienced greater shame attached to their diagnosis and felt that the diagnosis placed them apart from others, i.e., socially marginalised them and incurred low social status. We propose a stigma model of social anxiety that makes testable predictions about how the shame beliefs may contaminate social interaction and thereby exacerbate and maintain social phobia.     

Using vision and dynamic touch to perceive the affordances of tools

The information that people use to perceive whether a tool is suitable for a certain task depends on what is available at a given time. Visually scanning a tool and wielding it each provide information about the functional attributes of the tool. In experiment 1, we investigated the relative contributions of vision and dynamic touch to perceiving the suitability of various tools for various tasks. The results show that, when both vision and dynamic touch are available, the visual information dominates. When limited to dynamic touch, ratings of suitability are constrained by the inertial properties of the tool, and the inertial properties that are exploited depend on the task. In experiment 2, we asked whether the manner in which a tool is manipulated in exploration depends on the task for which it is being evaluated. The results suggest that tools are manipulated in ways that reflect intentions to perceive particular affordances. Exploratory movements sometimes mimic performatory movements.     

Does contour classification precede contour grouping in perception of partially visible figures?

When a figure is only partially visible and its contours represent a small fraction of total image contours (as when there is much background clutter), a fast contour classification mechanism may filter non-figure contours in order to restrict the size of the input to subsequent contour grouping mechanisms. The results of two psychophysical experiments suggest that the human visual system can classify figure from non-figure contours on the basis of a difference in some contour property (e.g. length, orientation, curvature, etc). While certain contour properties (e.g. orientation, curvature) require only local analysis for classification, other contour properties (e.g. length) may require more global analysis of the retinal image. We constructed a pyramid-based computational model based on these observations and performed two simulations of experiment 1: one simulation with classification enabled and the other simulation with classification disabled. The classification-based simulation gave the superior account of human performance in experiment 1. When a figure is partially visible, with few contours relative to the number of non-figure contours, contour classification followed by contour grouping can be more efficient than contour grouping alone, owing to smaller input to grouping mechanisms.     

月经周期对女性知觉性侵犯遭遇的影响

女性在排卵期遭遇强奸或其它形式的性侵犯可能会受到较大伤害。进化历史中女性遭遇性侵犯的危险不断重现使现代社会女性在排卵期对男性性侵犯的线索较为敏感。本研究旨在探讨女性被试观看男性试图吸引其它女性的录像后如何评价每位男性性侵犯的可能性。研究发现接近排卵期的女性比不处于排卵期的女性更可能认为男性会进行性侵犯。这些发现显示,女性具有特定的知觉进化机制来警惕性侵犯,这种特定的进化机制可能受到月经变化的调节     

联合王国的职业心理学

联合王国的心理学通常分为八种主要门类。例如,英国心理学会就包括认知、临床、犯罪、发展、教育、数学、职业和社会心理学分会。在这些分会中,职业心理学现在的会员数仅次于临床心理学。职业研究和专业活动在近年来发展得很快,而且有续继发展的迹象。薪金雇佣是任何社会的主要制度之一,雇佣的心理学方面具有重要的个体和社会意     

党的建設中列宁的民主集中制原則和現代修正主义

現代修正主义者几乎在所有根本問题上攻击馬克思列宁主义,而在他們的叫囂声中党的学說差不多成为受到最惡毒攻击的对象。这是用不着奇怪的,人人都知道,只有通过破坏党的建設所依据的理論原則,才能达到破坏共产党和工人党的目的,这是帝国主义者所幻想的,实际上也是机会主义者自觉地或不自觉地力圖实現的。特別是民主集中制遭到了猛烈的攻击。可以說,沒有一次攻击不包括对民主集中制     

指南是怎样制定的?

最近在制定临床实践指南的方法上发生了一些变化,这深刻地影响着医学保健的质量和成本,远远超过前后10年所有新出现的诊疗手段的作用。人们预期,制定指南方法的改变影响着指南的内容,进而对未来几十年中成千上万的临床决策发挥指导作用。目前,制定指南的方法所经历的改变代表了     

决策的过程

2个主要因素决定医疗保健(medical care)的质量:(1)医疗决策的质量;(2)执行医疗决策的质量。医疗决策错误,执行正确,或决策正确,执行错误,都会降低医疗保健质量。医学已认识到正确执行医疗决策的意义,但对医疗决策过程的评价、研究重视不够,做得太少。若把医疗决策喻为战场指挥     

论辩证法的概念

在西方思想史上,辩证法的概念经历了相当大的变化。概括地说,它的发展,经历了从对某些特殊思想形式的说明,到关于自然过程、社会关系(社会过程)、存在的现实的本质的形而上学概念或本体论概念的说明过程。在苏格拉底看来,辩证法似乎向来是一种帮助澄清概念的论证形式。苏格拉底试图通过问答质疑的方式,揭露他的对手的观点所依据的前提同他们的论题的自相矛盾。这种反驳论证法既是建设性的,又是破坏性的。苏格拉底认为,辩     

现代自然科学关于生命起源问题的材料

许多世纪以来,生命起源的问题一直是唯物主义和唯心主义激烈的思想斗争的场所。到二十世纪初,这个斗争特别地尖锐化起来了。这是由于当时的自然科学不能对这个问题作出合理的有科学根据的回答,似乎这个问题已陷入绝境了。直到十九世纪末,在生命起源的问题上,自然发生说在大多数人的意识中几乎占着完全的统治地位。这种说法认为有机体是从无机界的材料中突然产生出来的。全部的争论只是归结于一个问题:是什么原因、是那种力量决定生命的这样的产生的呢?按照唯心主义的观念,特别是按照宗教的观念,一切的生物,也包括人在内,当它们产生的时候,就具有了完善的组织和形态结构(大致像我们现