Unsanctioned aggression in rugby union: relationships among aggressiveness,anger, athletic identity,and professionalization

Aggressive players who intentionally cause injury to their opponents are common in many sports, particularly collision sports such as Rugby Union. Although some acts of aggression fall within the rules (sanctioned), others do not (unsanctioned), with the latter tending to be less acceptable than the former. This study attempts to identify characteristics of players who are more likely to employ unsanctioned methods in order to injure an opponent. Male Rugby Union players completed questionnaires assessing aggressiveness, anger, past aggression, professionalization, and athletic identity. Players were assigned to one of two groups based on self‐reported past unsanctioned aggression. Results indicated that demographic variables (e.g., age, playing position, or level of play) were not predictive of group membership. Measures of aggressiveness and professionalization were significant predictors; high scores on both indicated a greater probability of reporting the use of unsanctioned aggressive force for the sole purpose of causing injury or pain. In addition, players who had been taught how to execute aggressive illegal plays without detection were also more likely to report using excessive force to injure an opponent. Results provide further support that highly professionalized players may be more likely to use methods outside the constitutive rules of Rugby Union in order to intentionally injure their opponents. Results are discussed within the context of the increasing win‐at‐all‐cost attitude that is becoming more prevalent in sport and its implications for youth athletes. Aggr. Behav. 35:237–243, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Answer comparison in automated question answering

In the context of Question Answering (QA) on free text, we assess the value of answer comparison and information fusion in handling multiple answers. We report improvements in answer re-ranking using fusion on a set of location questions and show the advantages of considering candidates as allies rather than competitors. We conclude with some observations about answer modeling and evaluation methodology, arising from a more recent experiment with a larger set of questions and a greater diversity of question types and candidates.     

Why neuroscience matters to cognitive neuropsychology

The broad issue in this paper is the relationship between cognitive psychology and neuroscience. That issue arises particularly sharply for cognitive neurospsychology, some of whose practitioners claim a methodological autonomy for their discipline. They hold that behavioural data from neuropsychological impairments are sufficient to justify assumptions about the underlying modular structure of human cognitive architecture, as well as to make inferences about its various components. But this claim to methodological autonomy can be challenged on both philosophical and empirical grounds. A priori considerations about (cognitive) multiple realisability challenge the thesis on philosophical grounds, and neuroscientific findings from developmental disorders substantiate that challenge empirically. The conclusion is that behavioural evidence alone is inadequate for scientific progress since appearances of modularity can be thoroughly deceptive, obscuring both the dynamic processes of neural development and the endstate network architecture of real cognitive systems.     

Conceptual framework from the Paris Psychosomatic School: A clinical psychoanalytic approach to oncology1

This article presents further clinical material from the Paris Psychosomatic School ( Aisenstein, 2006 ). The Freudian foundations of psychosomatics are detailed and post-Freudian developments focusing on the contribution of the Paris Psychosomatic School are outlined, in particular, the somatizing process as a result of regression and the somatizing process as a result of drive unbinding. The authors argue that the latter possibly gives rise to progressive and serious illness leading to death. The relationship of classical psychoanalysis to psychotherapeutic treatment from the angle of the Paris school is commented on. The authors then turn to two clinical presentations of women suffering from breast cancer. The method of evaluating the patients’ capacities for undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment and their mental capacity for healing is discussed. The face-to-face psychoanalytic treatment undertaken with the second case is discussed. Finally, the authors recall Freud’s insistence after 1920 on the opposition of the life drives and the death drives, which placed self-destruction at the centre of psychic functioning. They conclude that current research in biology and medicine, notably research concerning programmed cell death, will converge with psychoanalytic psychosomatics to illuminate somatizing processes and demonstrate the relevance of psychoanalytic treatment to patients who are capable of mental reorganization in the course of their illness and medical treatment.     

Reliability and validity of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List - Revised

A recent factor analysis of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL) changed the Anxiety, Depression, and Hostility scales from bipolar to unipolar scales and added two new scales: Positive Affect and Sensation Seeking. Internal reliability of the MAACL-R scales, computed for normal and patient samples, was adequate for state and trait forms except for Sensation Seeking. Test-retest reliability in college students was higher for the trait form with retest intervals of from 2 to 8 weeks than for the state form with retest intervals of from 2 to 5 days. The pattern of correlations among self-, peer, and counselor ratings and the MAACL-R scales for normal and patient samples indicates improved discriminant validity and equally good convergent validity as the old scales. The use of standard scores that are indexed to the number of items checked reduced scale intercorrelations by controlling the acquiescence set.The financial support of the Weldon Springs Endowment Fund, University of Missouri at Kansas City, toward the completion of this research project is gratefully acknowledged.     

Resurgence of derived stimulus relations.

Resurgence has been shown in human and nonhuman operant behavior, but not in derived relational responses. The present study examined this issue. Twenty-three undergraduates were trained to make conditional discriminations in a three-choice matching-to-sample paradigm. The training resulted in three equivalence classes, each consisting of four arbitrarily configured visual stimuli. The same 12 stimuli were then reorganized, and the conditional discrimination training was repeated such that three new classes were possible. In a subsequent test of derived relations, most subjects showed response patterns that were consistent with the altered conditional discriminations. Subjects were then exposed to conditional discrimination trials under extinction. Most subjects continued to respond consistently with the most recently reinforced conditional discrimination trials. During the next phase, subjects were exposed to symmetry and equivalence trials. Responses consistent with the most recent training produced feedback saying that the responses were incorrect, whereas other responses produced no feedback. Most subjects showed a resurgence of responding that was consistent with their earlier training. Finally, subjects were exposed to conditional discrimination trials carried out in extinction. Most subjects continued to show a resurgence of responding that was consistent with their early training.     

Statistical inference based on latent ability estimates

The quality of approximations to first and second order moments (e.g., statistics like means, variances, regression coefficients) based on latent ability estimates is being discussed. The ability estimates are obtained using either the Rasch, or the two-parameter logistic model. Straightforward use of such statistics to make inferences with respect to true latent ability is not recommended, unless we account for the fact that the basic quantities are estimates. In this paper true score theory is used to account for the latter; the counterpart of observed/true score being estimated/true latent ability. It is shown that statistics based on the true score theory are virtually unbiased if the number of items presented to each examinee is larger than fifteen. Three types of estimators are compared: maximum likelihood, weighted maximum likelihood, and Bayes modal. Furthermore, the (dis)advantages of the true score method and direct modeling of latent ability is discussed.     

从黑夜走向黎明：动脉粥样硬化从早期发现到消退

年１０年来,动态粥样硬化的早期诊断已成为可能,影像学能无创直接检测血管功能和形态学变化。在此基础上,动态粥样硬化的防治也进入了一级预防的时代。一级预防使早期粥样硬化消退,特效降脂药也可使中、晚期粥样硬化患者明显受益。随着对动态粥样硬化发病机制认识的不断深入,到下世纪初,人类有可能终止动态粥样硬化在全球的肆虐。     

Dimensionality of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List-Revised: A comparison of factor analytic procedures

The purpose of the study was to determine the factor structure of the revised Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL-R). The data from 307 undergraduate students who completed the MAACL-R were factor analyzed using both principal-components and principal-axis techniques. Based upon research with the original MAACL, two- and five-factor solutions to the MAACL-R factor structure were examined. The principal-components and principal-axis techniques yielded similar item loadings for each solution and the results of both techniques indicated the superiority of the two-factor solution. The two identified factors could be best characterized as representing independent dimensions of negative and positive affect. These findings are interpreted as providing support for the use of the MAACL-R summary scores of Dysphoria and PASS (Positive Affect and Sensation Seeking) rather than for the use of the five MAACL-R subscales.     

A note on monotone polygons fitted to bivariate data

The monotone regression function of Kruskal and the rank image function of Guttman and Lingoes were fitted to bivariate normal samples and their statistical properties contrasted.This paper was written while the author was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychology, University College, London.