Escaping the World: Linguistic Indicators of Suicide Attempts in Poets

The purpose of this study was to determine features of language use in the texts of poets who committed suicide and to identify psychological factors contributing to depression and suicide. Texts of suicidal and non-suicidal poets were analyzed via the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program. ANOVA and logistic regression analysis revealed predictors of suicide: higher percentage of words self-oriented, expressed negative emotions, ambiguity, exclusion attitude toward reality, and lower percentages of words related to others, world entitativity, and experiencing the world. The data support hypotheses that suicide is facilitated by weak social bonds, egocentrism, helplessness, and visions of an unordered, uncertain, and unsafe world.     

THE ELUSIVENESS OF MASCULINITY: PRIMORDIAL VULNERABILITY,LACK, AND THE CHALLENGES OF MALE DEVELOPMENT

Reaching beyond the Oedipus prototype to address the unrepresentable vulnerability founded on the boy's infantile helplessness in contact with the mother's body, the author aims to identify the inherent tensions and enigmas of being male. He proposes that both the repudiation of femininity and the overvaluation of phallicity are unconsciously constructed to withstand the fundamental deficiency grounded in the asymmetry of the boy's prephallic relation with his primary object. This bodily based primordial vulnerability, marked by absence and lack, remains elusive—an unsymbolizable experience that provides the archaic matrix for adaptive and defensive phallicism, the oedipal complex, and genital progression. A clinical vignette is presented to illustrate these concepts.     

The cognitive specificity of learned helplessness and depression deficits: The role of self-focused cognitions

Abstract

Four experiments assessed similarities and differences in learned helplessness and depression-related deficits in cognitive performance and self-focused cognitions. Subjects answered the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961), were exposed to no-feedback or failure in unsolvable problems, and their response time in a digit comparison task (with or without a memory component, with different number of digits, and different number of mental transformations) and self-focused cognitions were assessed. Learned helplessness and depression deficits were found in a memory task, and the deficits increased with the number of digits. Depression deficits also increased with the number of transformations, and were also found in the no-memory/two transformation condition. Finally, task-related worries were related to learned helplessness deficits, and task-irrelevant thoughts were related to depression deficits. Findings were discussed in terms of the cognitive specificity of learned helplessness and depression deficits.     

Crying: discussing its basic reasons and uses

Crying can occur in a great variety of contexts, including fulfilment and happiness as well as failure, loss, and sadness or other negative feelings, such as anger and guilt. Despite such differences, we have tried to identify a unitary underlying psychological cause for crying: perceived helplessness. We explore the different crying situations, describing the basic cognitive ingredients and critical steps in the process leading to crying. We start from those situations which directly imply personal frustration and suffering, then we consider empathic crying, crying for joy, and “aesthetic” crying, i.e., crying elicited by aesthetic experiences. We try to show that all of them imply a common core: some frustration (anticipated, actual, or previous), one's attempt to resist, perceived helplessness, and surrender to frustration. Finally, we address both the psychological benefits and costs of crying, either expected or unexpected, showing their links with perceived helplessness.     

Two-factor theory has strong empirical evidence of validity.

Traditional two-factor theory is supported by parallels in the clinical literature. Theoretical problems with two-factor theory are obviated by the role of safety signals, which serve as positive conditioned reinforcers and retard the extinction of conditioned fear.     

批评/表扬与儿童反应模式的关系

该文在介绍了成人实施的批评与表扬的基本类型基础上,着重分析并阐述了成人的批评/表扬与儿童儿童反应模式之间关系的最新研究成果,即个人取向的批评/表扬导致儿童的无助反应模式而过程取向的批评/表扬引发儿童掌握取向的反应模式。然后,进一步从儿童社会认知的角度分析说明了批评/表扬与儿童反应模式之间关系的内在心理机制。不同类型的批评/表扬导致儿童持有不同的能力理论,引发儿童追求不同的成就目标,改变儿童对任务成绩的归因等,进而使儿童表现出不同的反应模式。最后,作者指出了该领域尚待进一步探讨的问题     

From Glossy to Greasy: The Impact of Learned Associations on Perceptions of Food Healthfulness

We demonstrate that consumers have learned that unhealthy snacks such as potato chips tend to be sold in glossy packages, whereas healthier snacks such as crackers tend to be sold in matte packages (in studies 1–3). As a result, consumers who see a snack food package with a glossy [matte] surface will infer lesser [greater] healthfulness of its contents (study 4), consume less [more] of it (study 5), and be more likely to choose a glossy [matte] package from an assortment of snack packages if motivated to engage in tasty [healthful] eating (study 6). Theoretical and managerial implications as well as future research opportunities are discussed.     

Learned Helplessness,Therapy, and Personality Traits: An Experimental Study

Abstract

The authors investigated 3 aspects of the learned helplessness (LH) phenomenon: the induction of helplessness in humans by a new instrumental task, the effects of a therapy technique that relies on direct retroactive reevaluation of the helplessness experience, and the role of personality characteristics in both helplessness induction and therapy. The sample consisted of 92 Turkish Bo?aziçi University undergraduates, 42 men and 50 women. The authors exposed 2 experimental groups to an LH induction by presenting them with an unsolvable maze task; 1 group received therapy afterward, and the other group did not. There were also 2 control groups: a group that received only a solvable version of the maze and another group that received no treatment. Before the experimental procedure, all participants completed the Turkish version of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (FFI). The authors evaluated picture-rating and anagram-solving performances to differentiate the cognitive and emotional deficits of LH. Results of the factorial analyses of variance and the Wilcoxon signed ranks test supported the success of both the helplessness induction and the therapy technique. Although no significant gender differences were found in the effects of the helplessness-induction and therapy procedures, correlation analyses revealed that individual differences, particularly in the interaction between gender and personality characteristics, can have an important impact on LH and on the capacity to benefit from therapy.     

Performance deficits following failure: Integrating motivational and functional aspects of learned helplessness

Abstract

This paper deals with the psychological processes that mediate between repeated, uncontrollable failure on one task and performance deficits on subsequent tasks. A model is presented that integrates Seligman's (1975) motivational and Kuhl's (1981) functional interpretation of performance deficits following failure. The central assumptions of this model were tested in a laboratory study with college students. In accordance with our model, repeated failure (1) increasingly led to task- and solution-irrelevant cognitive activities (state orientation, according to Kuhl) the more it was attributed to internal, stable, and global causes, and (2) led to an increment in effort the more it was attributed to unstable and specific causes. Furthermore, results indicated that the influence of failure on state orientation was partly mediated by the importance subjects attached to the failure, and that the performance on subsequent tasks was influenced by both the motivational (effort) and functional (state orientation) consequences of failure.     

Social Support,Self-image,and Future Outlook Among Poverty-stricken Unemployed Men in Namibia: A Phenomenological Study

The study aimed to explore how poverty-stricken job seekers in Namibia felt about their unemployment situation and how they perceived themselves, their social support, and their future. Ten men (aged 18 to 40 years) participated in the study. In-depth interviews were conducted and analysed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings revealed that the lack of a job and the constant shortage of food caused feelings of helplessness, nagging thoughts, and difficulties to sleep. All participants received very little social support from family and friends, which they attributed to their joblessness; they perceived their position within their social network as low and degrading. The participants' self-image was negatively inclined and dominated by their unemployment status. Their future outlook concentrated on finding a job but was overshadowed by worries and doubts.