The borderline empathy effect: Do high BPD individuals have greater empathic ability? Or are they just more difficult to “read”?

Clinical psychologists have suggested that patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are unusually accurate at “reading” other people. We investigated this claim by obtaining measures of trait accuracy and empathic accuracy in 38 same-sex dyads, each composed of one high BPD and one low BPD member. At first glance, the results suggested that the high borderline dyad members displayed both better trait accuracy and better empathic accuracy. Additional analyses revealed, however, that these effects were instead a consequence of the high BPD participants having more unusual, harder-to-predict personalities and more difficult-to-infer thoughts and feelings than those of their low BPD counterparts. We conclude that the relative empathic advantage displayed by high BPD individuals does not reflect greater ability; instead, they are simply more difficult to “read” than low BPD individuals are.     

Testing and validating the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire (TEIQue) in a German-speaking sample

The trait emotional intelligence questionnaire (TEIQue) was tested and validated using a sample of 352 German-speaking participants. A detailed psychometric analysis provided evidence in support of the reliability of the TEIQue (at the facet, factor and global levels) and the robustness of its proposed four-factor structure. Using a subsample of 150 participants, the associations between the TEIQue and a series of relevant constructs (Big Five, life satisfaction, somatic complaints) were examined, which also included data on other trait EI measures. Overall, the TEIQue showed theoretically expected relationships to all other constructs and incremental validity in the prediction of life satisfaction and somatic complaints over and above the Big Five as well as all other trait EI measures combined.     

The Comparative Set Fallacy

This paper argues for the validity of inferences that take the form of: A is more X than B; therefore A and B are both X. After considering representative counterexamples, it is claimed that these inferences are valid if and only if the comparative terms in the inference are taken from no more than one comparative set, where a comparative set is understood to be comprised of a positive, comparative, and superlative, represented as {X, more X than, most X}. In all instances where arguments appearing to be of this form are invalid, it is the case that the argument has fallaciously taken terms from more than one comparative set. The fallacy of appealing to more than one comparative set in an inference involving comparative terms is shown to be analogous to the fallacy of equivocation in argumentation. The paper concludes by suggesting a conflation of logical issues with grammatical issues is the core difficulty leading some to consider inferences in the form of A is more X than B; therefore A and B are X to be invalid.     

Consequences of autonomous and team-oriented forms of dispositional proactivity for demonstrating advancement potential

Under the paradigm of individualism, proactive personality has garnered much attention in connection with indicators of career success. We regard this construct as an autonomous form of dispositional proactivity and explored it along with team-oriented proactivity as a predictor of self-perceived influence and observed advancement potential in a team-based setting. We proposed that insofar as advancement potential entails demonstrating adeptness at furthering collective performance, autonomous proactivity would be detrimental whereas team-oriented proactivity would be beneficial. This proposition was the basis for a structural model with self-perceived influence as a mediator. Results from data on 672 personnel in 70 teams supported the model and the hypothesized consequences of autonomous (negative) and team-oriented (positive) forms of dispositional proactivity for observed advancement potential.     

Anger tendencies and sleep: Poor anger control is associated with objectively measured sleep disruption

This study investigated whether trait anger linked to actual sleep behavior and what anger tendencies play the most important role for particular aspects of sleep. Data from 436 adults in Midlife of the United States Study were used to link anger tendencies to both objectively (actigraphy) and subjectively (daily diary) assessed sleep across a week. Overall, individuals who had poor anger control also had worse objectively and subjectively measured sleep and these relations were robust to effects of gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, and stress. The findings tie actual sleep behavior to individual differences in anger, suggesting poor anger control plays the most important role, and add to the growing evidence that anger and sleep depend on each other.     

儿童句子错误记忆:发展性逆转现象及精加工推理效应

为探究文本背景下句子错误记忆的发展性逆转现象及精加工推理效应,95名有效被试学习3篇文本材料后,参与由学过句、内涵推理句、外延推理句和无关句组成的再认测验。结果发现：（1）高中二年级被试学过句的正确再认率和关键诱饵句的校正的错误再认率均显著高于小学五年级和初中二年级,后二者差异不显著;（2）内涵推理句错误再认率高于外延推理句,高中二年级被试尤甚。结论：（1）句子真实记忆随着年龄增长而增加;句子错误记忆存在发展性逆转现象,初中二年级到高中二年级是句子错误记忆发展相对迅速的阶段;（2）文本背景下,不同的精加工推理诱发了不同程度的句子错误记忆,这种精加工推理效应与一般世界知识的自上而下激活的程度有关。     

Examining the durability of incidentally learned trust from gaze cues

In everyday interactions we find our attention follows the eye gaze of faces around us. As this cueing is so powerful and difficult to inhibit, gaze can therefore be used to facilitate or disrupt visual processing of the environment, and when we experience this we infer information about the trustworthiness of the cueing face. However, to date no studies have investigated how long these impressions last. To explore this we used a gaze-cueing paradigm where faces consistently demonstrated either valid or invalid cueing behaviours. Previous experiments show that valid faces are subsequently rated as more trustworthy than invalid faces. We replicate this effect (Experiment 1) and then include a brief interference task in Experiment 2 between gaze cueing and trustworthiness rating, which weakens but does not completely eliminate the effect. In Experiment 3, we explore whether greater familiarity with the faces improves the durability of trust learning and find that the effect is more resilient with familiar faces. Finally, in Experiment 4, we push this further and show that evidence of trust learning can be seen up to an hour after cueing has ended. Taken together, our results suggest that incidentally learned trust can be durable, especially for faces that deceive.     

Developmental changes in children's inductive inferences for biological concepts: implications for the development of essentialist beliefs

We examined developmental changes in children's inductive inferences about biological concepts as a function of knowledge of properties and concepts. Specifically, 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds and 9‐ to 10‐year‐olds were taught either familiar or unfamiliar internal, external, or functional properties about known and unknown target animals. Children were asked to infer whether each of four probes, varying in categorical and perceptual similarity to the target, also shared that property. Overall, children made more inferences for known concepts and familiar properties. Older children were more likely to use categorical than perceptual information when making inferences about internal and functional properties of known concepts; however, younger children, in general, made no distinction for property type, and they weighted categorical and perceptual information similarly. Both age groups utilized appearance when making inferences about external properties. Results are discussed in terms of developmental changes in children's appreciation of essentialism. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

高特质愤怒个体对负性情绪面孔注意偏向的实验研究

摘 要：目的 探讨高特质愤怒个体是否对负性情绪面孔有注意偏向。方法 采用点探测任务,比较高低特质愤怒个体（高特质愤怒组23人,低特质愤怒组23人）对不同性质情绪面孔同异侧探测符号反应时的差异。结果 重复测量方差分析发现存在面孔性质边缘主效应（F=2.462,p=.073）及组别与面孔性质的交互效应,探测位置主效应（F=5.089,p=.029）及组别与探测位置的交互效应,组别、面孔性质与探测位置的交互效应。进一步分析发现,高特质愤怒组对愤怒面孔同侧探测刺激反应时显著快于异侧反应时[（386.12±50.09）ms VS.(403.33±59.39)ms,F=17.050,p=.000],快乐面孔同侧探测刺激反应时显著慢于异侧反应时[（396.88±53.87）ms VS.(38.78±41.06)ms,F=18.200,p=.000）],低特质愤怒组被试不同性质面孔同异侧反应时无显著差异。结论 高特质愤怒个体对与愤怒相关刺激存在注意偏向。