Perceived Control and the Optimistic Bias: A Meta-Analytic Review

People consistently believe that negative events are less likely to happen to them than to others. Research suggests a relationship between this optimistic bias and perceived control such that the greater control people perceive over future events, the greater their optimistic bias. We conducted a meta-analysis of 27 independent samples to quantify the size of this relationship and examine what variables moderated the relationship. Greater perceived control was significantly related to greater optimistic bias, but this relationship was moderated by participant nationality, student status, risk status, and the type of optimistic bias measure used. We discuss the findings in the context of primary versus secondary control.     

The False Modesty of the Identity Theory of Truth

The identity theory of truth, according to which true thoughts are identical with facts, is very hard to formulate. It oscillates between substantive versions, which are implausible, and a merely truistic version, which is difficult to distinguish from deflationism about truth. This tension is present in the form of identity theory that one can attribute to McDowell from his views on perception, and in the conception defended by Hornsby under that name     

Is the truth table task mistaken?

There is ample evidence that in classical truth table task experiments false antecedents are judged as “irrelevant”. Instead of interpreting this in support of a suppositional representation of conditionals, Schroyens (2010a Schroyens, W. 2010a. Mistaking the instance for the rule: A critical analysis of the truth-table evaluation paradigm. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63: 246–259. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2010b Schroyens, W. 2010b. A meta-analytic review of thinking about what is true, possible, and irrelevant in reasoning from or reasoning about conditional propositions. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 22: 897–921. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) attributes it to the induction problem: the impossibility of establishing the truth of a universal claim on the basis of a single case. In the first experiment a truth table task with four options is administered and the correlation with intelligence is inspected. It is observed that “undetermined” is chosen in one third of the judgements and “irrelevant” in another third. A positive correlation is revealed between intelligence and the number of “irrelevant” and “undetermined” judgements. The data do not exclude that a part of the “irrelevant” judgements in classical truth table task experiments might be caused by the induction problem. In the second experiment participants are presented with a simplified four-option truth table task and asked for a justification of their judgements. These justifications show the induction problem is not the reason for choosing the “irrelevant” or “undetermined” option, which is supportive for a suppositional representation of conditionals.     

Memory bias for negative emotional words in recognition memory is driven by effects of category membership

Recognition memory studies often find that emotional items are more likely than neutral items to be labelled as studied. Previous work suggests this bias is driven by increased memory strength/familiarity for emotional items. We explored strength and bias interpretations of this effect with the conjecture that emotional stimuli might seem more familiar because they share features with studied items from the same category. Categorical effects were manipulated in a recognition task by presenting lists with a small, medium or large proportion of emotional words. The liberal memory bias for emotional words was only observed when a medium or large proportion of categorised words were presented in the lists. Similar, though weaker, effects were observed with categorised words that were not emotional (animal names). These results suggest that liberal memory bias for emotional items may be largely driven by effects of category membership.     

The moderating effects of contamination sensitivity on state affect and information processing: Examination of disgust specificity

Although contamination sensitivity has been implicated in several disorders, there is a paucity of research examining the influence of this trait on various outcomes. Accordingly, the present study examined the extent to which individual differences in contamination sensitivity moderated state affect in response to a mood induction and subsequent information processing biases, as assessed by a lexical decision task (LDT). It was hypothesised that the moderating effects of contamination sensitivity would be specific to disgust responding to a negative but not positive mood induction, and to reaction times to disgust and fear compared to happy words on the LDT. The findings were largely consistent with this hypothesis, as contamination sensitivity predicted increased disgust and arousal to the negative mood induction. Contamination sensitivity was also a better predictor of reaction times to disgust and fear words than happy words. However, the moderating effect of contamination sensitivity on reaction times on the LDT was not mediated by its effects on response to the negative mood induction. Implications of these findings for conceptualising the role of contamination sensitivity and its association with disgust in specific disorders are discussed.     

Negative truths and truthmaker principles

This paper argues that a consideration of the problem of providing truthmakers for negative truths undermines truthmaker theory. Truthmaker theorists are presented with an uncomfortable dilemma. Either they must take up the challenge of providing truthmakers for negative truths, or else they must explain why negative truths are exceptions to the principle that every truth must have a truthmaker. The first horn is unattractive since the prospects of providing truthmakers for negative truths do not look good neither absences, nor totality states of affairs, nor Graham Priest and J.C. Beall’s ‘polarities’ (Beall, 2000; Priest, 2000) are up to the job. The second horn, meanwhile, is problematic because restricting the truthmaker principle to atomic truths, or weakening it to the thesis that truth supervenes on being, undercuts truthmaker theory’s original motivation. The paper ends by arguing that truthmaker theory is, in any case, an under-motivated doctrine because the groundedness of truth can be explained without appeal to the truthmaker principle. This leaves us free to give the ommonsensical and deflationary explanation of negative truths that common-sense suggests.     

Forgiveness and Reconciliation in the Life and Work of Desmond Tutu

This article explores how mission, forgiveness, and reconciliation have shaped the ministry and work of Desmond Tutu. As much as space permits, it tries to glean the ways in which Tutu has lived out his understanding of mission, forgiveness, and reconciliation in his various roles as lecturer of theology, as Africa director of the Theological Education Fund of the World Council of Churches, as the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, as president of the All Africa Conference of Churches, as archbishop of Cape Town, and more recently as chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Through a close reading of seminal publications, the article will attempt to draw as complete a picture as possible of his views on forgiveness and reconciliation. To conclude, the essay shall refer to the work of Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice.     

惩罚预期对羞怯个体注意偏向的影响

本研究采用点探测研究范式,通过三个实验研究探讨惩罚预期对羞怯个体注意偏向的影响。得出以下研究结论：（1）羞怯个体在惩罚预期条件下对消极情绪面孔存在注意偏向;（2）短时间进程下,惩罚频率的改变没有影响羞怯个体的注意偏向。在长时间进程下,高惩罚频率更容易使羞怯个体逃避消极情绪面孔图片;（3）惩罚预期大更容易使羞怯个体有回避消极情绪面孔的倾向。     

Linking Informant Discrepancies to Observed Variations in Young Children’s Disruptive Behavior

Prior work has not tested the basic theoretical notion that informant discrepancies in reports of children’s behavior exist, in part, because different informants observe children’s behavior in different settings. We examined patterns of observed preschool disruptive behavior across varying social contexts in the laboratory and whether they related to parent-teacher rating discrepancies of disruptive behavior in a sample of 327 preschoolers. Observed disruptive behavior was assessed with a lab-based developmentally sensitive diagnostic observation paradigm that assesses disruptive behavior across three interactions with the child with parent and examiner. Latent class analysis identified four patterns of disruptive behavior: (a) low across parent and examiner contexts, (b) high with parent only, (c) high with examiner only, and (d) high with parent and examiner. Observed disruptive behavior specific to the parent and examiner contexts were uniquely related to parent-identified and teacher-identified disruptive behavior, respectively. Further, observed disruptive behavior across both parent and examiner contexts was associated with disruptive behavior as identified by both informants. Links between observed behavior and informant discrepancies were not explained by child impairment or observed problematic parenting. Findings provide the first laboratory-based support for the Attribution Bias Context Model (De Los Reyes and Kazdin Psychological Bulletin 131:483–509, 2005), which posits that informant discrepancies are indicative of cross-contextual variability in children’s behavior and informants’ perspectives on this behavior. These findings have important implications for clinical assessment, treatment outcomes, and developmental psychopathology research.