Problem Clarity as a Moderator between Trait Affect and Self‐Perceived Creativity

Empirical studies on the relationship between affect and creativity often produce conflicting results. This inconsistency has led us to believe that the relationship between affect and creativity may be better understood by looking at potential moderators. Our study looked specifically at trait affect and self‐perceived creativity. Using the Affect Infusion Model (AIM) theory with problem clarity as the potential moderator, we hypothesized that when individuals are faced with problems that lack clarity, trait affect has greater sway over their self‐perceived creativity. Our results provided evidence that problem clarity moderated the relationship between positive trait affect and self‐perceived creativity; the positive relationship between positive trait affect and self‐perceived creativity is stronger when problem clarity is low and weaker when problem clarity is high. No moderating effect was found in the relationship between negative trait affect and self‐perceived creativity.     

基于Think/No-think范式的动机性遗忘研究:行为与脑机制

想/不想范式(Think/No-think,TNT)是基于go/no-go范式提出来的用于研究动机性遗忘过程的实验范式,主要过程是指个体对于记忆的提取抑制可以导致随后该记忆的遗忘。近年来TNT范式的大量行为学研究都一致性地发现记忆提取抑制可以产生负性控制效应,验证了在实验室情境下对动机性遗忘进行研究的可行性。其中,负性控制效应指的是压抑条件的项目相对于基线条件的项目的回忆量有显著降低。关于动机性遗忘发生的神经机制的探讨已积累了大量的研究证据,总结脑电(EEG)和功能核磁共振(f MRI)两个模态的研究,我们提出了动机性遗忘发生的多模态功能网络模型。最后,在该模型的基础上,我们展望了TNT范式未来的研究方向,其中特别注意到同步EEG-f MRI技术的应用有望为我们揭示出记忆提取抑制导致的动机性遗忘发生的动态过程。     

负性情绪词语在外显和内隐记忆测验中的定向遗忘效应

以两类具有不同负性情绪强度值的高频汉语双字词为材料,采用项目法定向遗忘范式,探究负性情绪词语在外显和内隐记忆测验中是否存在定向遗忘效应。结果显示,(1)在外显记忆测验中,强、弱负性词均出现了显著的定向遗忘并且弱负性词的定向遗忘效应大于强负性词;(2)在内隐记忆测验中,只有弱负性词出现了显著的定向遗忘,而强负性词则无。可见,内隐记忆测验中的定向遗忘效应对负性信息比外显记忆测验更加敏感。     

“I HEAR MY VOICE,BUT WHO IS TALKING?”: UNDERSTANDING DEPERSONALIZATION

Depersonalization is the frightening experience of being a shut‐inside, ghostlike, “true” self that observes another part of the self interacting in the outside world. The “true” self hides safely within, while the “participating” self holds all affects and impulses. This split in the ego is created via internal projective identification in the face of overwhelming affect, unavailability of adequate identifications, and insufficient support for psychic cohesion. As the transference develops, the powerful entrapping cocoon of depersonalization can be projected onto the now‐entrapping analyst, where it can be addressed. A clinical vignette illustrates these points.     

When death is not a problem: Regulating implicit negative affect under mortality salience

Terror management theory assumes that death arouses existential anxiety in humans which is suppressed in focal attention. Whereas most studies provide indirect evidence for negative affect under mortality salience by showing cultural worldview defenses and self‐esteem strivings, there is only little direct evidence for implicit negative affect under mortality salience. In the present study, we assume that this implicit affective reaction towards death depends on people's ability to self‐regulate negative affect as assessed by the personality dimension of action versus state orientation. Consistent with our expectations, action‐oriented participants judged artificial words to express less negative affect under mortality salience compared to control conditions whereas state‐oriented participants showed the reversed pattern.     

The effect of preterm birth on infant negative affect and maternal postpartum depressive symptoms: A preliminary examination in an underrepresented minority sample

ObjectiveTo examine the effect of preterm birth on maternal postpartum depressive symptoms and infant negative affect in an underrepresented minority sample.MethodParticipants were 102 mothers and their 3- to 10-month-old infants. Mothers completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised.ResultsRelative to normative samples, the current underrepresented minority sample of mostly Hispanics and Blacks displayed high rates of preterm birth (30%) and maternal postpartum depressive symptoms (17%). Preterm birth had a significant direct effect on postpartum depressive symptoms and infant negative affect. Additionally, there was an indirect effect of postpartum depressive symptoms on the relation between preterm birth and infant negative affect. Specifically, lower birth weight and gestational age predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms in the mother, and higher levels of depressive symptoms in the mother, in turn, predicted higher levels of infant negative affect.ConclusionFindings emphasize the importance of screening for postpartum depressive symptoms and infant negative affect among mothers and their preterm infants, especially among families from underrepresented minority backgrounds.     

Searching for certainty: Religious beliefs and intolerance toward value-violating groups

Religiosity has been consistently linked to prejudice toward a variety of outgroups. This article proposes that this is the case only when religiosity reflects a specific aspect of seeking guidance and security in daily practices and complex sociocultural norms. Outgroups that challenge the epistemic certainty that belief in God provides are rejected in an effort to protect this certainty. The results from two studies found that uncertainty avoidance was related to belief in God and this belief mediated the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and intolerance within the context of general human rights (Study 1), and the derogation of value-violating groups (e.g., homosexuals or followers of other religions) but not of groups that pose no threat to religious values (old or poor people) (Study 2). The interpretative dimension of religiosity (i.e., the way in which people process religious content) is not connected to security seeking, as reflected in the lack of a correlation with uncertainty avoidance and with different prejudice measures. The results are discussed in relation to past research on religiosity and prejudice, and suggest that for people who avoid uncertainty, only those types of religious beliefs that provide a sense of certainty are linked with intolerance toward value-violating groups.     

Antisocial Behavior,Moral Disengagement,Empathy and Negative Emotion: A Comparison Between Disabled and Able-Bodied Athletes

Theories of morality suggest that negative emotions associated with antisocial behavior should diminish motivation for such behavior. Two reasons that have been proposed to explain why some individuals repeatedly harm others are that (a) they use mechanisms of moral disengagement to justify their actions, and (b) they may not empathize with and vicariously experience the negative emotions felt by their victims. With the aim of testing these proposals, the present study compared spinal cord injured disabled athletes and able-bodied athletes to determine the effect of reduced visceral afferent feedback caused by spinal cord injury on antisocial behavior, moral disengagement, empathy, and negative emotion (i.e., anger, anxiety, and dejection). Disabled athletes reported less frequent antisocial behavior and lower moral disengagement than able-bodied athletes. Group differences in antisocial behavior were mediated by differences in moral disengagement. The two groups did not differ in empathy or negative emotion. The findings of this study suggest that antisocial behavior may be regulated by mechanisms of moral disengagement.     

Valid representation of a highly dynamic collision avoidance scenario in a driving simulator

In Germany the second-most frequent accidents in road traffic are rear-end collisions. For this reason rear-end collisions are quite important for accident research and the development of driving safety systems. To examine the functionality and to design the human–machine-interface of new driving safety systems, especially in the early development phase, subject tests are necessary. Because of the great hazard potential of such safety critical scenarios for the test persons, they are often conducted in a driving simulator (DS). Accordingly, validity is an important qualification to ensure that the findings collected in a simulated test environment can be directly transferred to the real world.This paper regards the question of driving behavior validity of DS in critical situations. There are hardly any validation studies which analyze the driving behavior in a specific collision avoidance situation.The validation study described in this paper aims to evaluate the behavioral validity of a fixed-base simulator in a collision avoidance situation. For this reason a field study from 2007 was replicated in a fixed-base simulator environment.The main questions of this validation study were if the driver can notice an active hazard braking system and if the driving behavior in a static simulator can be valid in such a critical situation.The key finding of the study states that there is no driving behavior validity in a static driving simulator for the tested dynamic scenario. The missing vestibular feedback causes a different behavior of the participants in field and simulator. The resulting absence of comparability leads to non-valid performance indicators. But these indicators are key parameters for analyzing the function and acceptance of active braking systems. So the question arises, which motion performance does a motion base have to provide in order to achieve valid acceleration simulation of such a highly dynamic collision avoidance scenario. The DS’s performance is measured in workspace, velocity and acceleration.     

The bark and bite of the logically negative soul: further reflections on Rilke's dog of ‘divine inseeing’

Following on the approach taken in the previous essay, this article critically reflects Rilke's account of his having imaginatively entered into the interior of a passing dog more deeply into itself. In doing so, it illustrates the concepts of logical negativity and absolute negative interiorization, which are core concepts of the speculative turn within analytical psychology that is known by the name ‘psychology as the discipline of interiority’. Just as analytical psychology often thinks in terms of the alchemical figure of ‘the stone that is not a stone’, so in this article the bark and bite of a logically negative ‘dog that is not a dog’ is grappled with. Further insights into what is meant by the author's phrase, ‘the Archimedean‐less interiority of the soul’, are imparted.