REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE: A PSYCHOANALYTIC AND FAMILY‐LIFE‐CYCLE VIEW OF EMERGING ADULTHOOD IN THE FILM

The period during which grown children leave home and establish a new, self‐supporting family is called emerging adulthood. This paper uses psychoanalytic concepts and family‐life‐cycle theory to analyze the film Rebel without a Cause ( 1955 ) as a dramatic example of three families going through this phase. Freud's ( 1910 ) rescue‐motif of the child trying to save an endangered peer to repay his parents for having been nurtured is also characteristic of this period and is considered practice for parenting the next generation. Proximate conflict and support enable two of the film's families to continue the path to reproduce themselves.     

Reducing Consumers’ Perceived Risk through Banking Service Quality Cues in Taiwan

This study not only elucidates how service quality cues and perceived risk are related, but also explores the internal composition of this relationship. Financial and psychological risks found to be affected mainly by reliability and empathy of service quality, whereas functional and social risks are influenced by tangibles cues of service quality. Finally, exactly how demographic variables affect the relationship between service quality and perceived risk is considered, and the family life cycle notably modulates this relationship. People in various stages may perceive different levels of service quality, according to their age, which is a variable in the family life cycle.     

心理账户:缘起、理论及应用

心理账户深刻地体现了心理学和经济学的结合,是在行为经济学的大背景下开始研究的。心理账户是人们在心理上对结果,尤其是经济结果的编码,分类和估价的过程,它反映了人们在进行资金财富决策过程中的心理认知过程。心理账户与经济账户的运算法则不同,它具有非替代性。心理账户与金融投资结合形成了行为资产组合理论,心理账户与消费经济结合,形成了行为生命周期理论。     

女性生理周期与修饰行为的关系

众所周知, 与男性相比, 女性偏爱修饰。通过修饰行为, 提升自身吸引力具有普遍的社会意义。近年来, 一些研究者将女性修饰行为与繁殖目的联系起来, 认为女性修饰行为受到生理周期(主要是排卵期和安全期)的影响。具体而言, 排卵期时, 女性的修饰行为会增强, 缘于同性竞争, 包括竞争资源及配偶; 黄体期时, 启动异性吸引动机也会显著增强女性的修饰动机, 目的可能是保持“异性”对自己及后代的持续“投资”。总之, 上述观点为女性持续存在的、对修饰行为的关注提供了生物学解释。     

Female sexual orientation and menstrual influences on person perception

Heterosexual women have previously been shown to display enhanced sensitivity to information that is both reproductively- and sexually-relevant (e.g., sexually mature male faces) during phases of high fertility. In the present study, homosexual women who maintained a regular menstrual cycle and did not use hormonal contraceptives completed a sex-categorization task at periods of high and low fertility within their menstrual cycle. For homosexual women there is a separation between reproductively-relevant (i.e., sexually mature males) and sexually-relevant (i.e., sexually mature females) targets. Our participants showed enhanced sensitivity to sexually-relevant information (i.e., female faces) at high fertility but showed no fluctuation in sensitivity to reproductively-relevant information (i.e., male faces) across testing sessions. These findings are considered in terms of adaptive person perception and the impact of sexual desire on mate preferences.     

Family- versus couple-initiated marriages in Turkey: Similarities and differences over the family life cycle

The present study aimed to investigate marital relationships of the Urban Turkish family. Questionnaires were given to both members of 430 couples at various stages of the marriage cycle. Information concerning demographic characteristics, spousal feelings, marital functioning, including division of labour and satisfaction with division of labour, decision-making, and conflict; and relationships with social network, including feelings for families of origin and frequency of interaction with families was obtained. Results revealed that in comparison to family-initiated marriages, couple-initiated marriages were more emotionally involving, less enmeshed with families, more egalitarian, and involved fewer conflicts. However, over successive stages of the marital cycle, conflict declined in family-initiated marriages and division of labour became less equalitarian in couple-initiated marriages. No differences between the two types of marriage emerged with respect to decision-making and conflict management style. Wives were reportedly more influential with respect to decisions concerning families and children than their husbands in both types of marriage. Couples at later stages of the marital cycle reported lower emotional involvement and less equalitarian division of labour. Relationships between educational level and various marital measures were also obtained. The results are discussed in relation to the possibly different marital schema entertained by men and women within the modernising context of Turkey and with respect to possibly different effects of modernization on different aspects of marraige.     

Cardiac modulation of startle: Effects on eye blink and higher cognitive processing

Cardiac cycle time has been shown to affect pre-attentive brainstem startle processes, such as the magnitude of acoustically evoked reflexive startle eye blinks. These effects were attributed to baro-afferent feedback mechanisms. However, it remains unclear whether cardiac cycle time plays a role in higher startle-related cognitive processes, as well. Twenty-five volunteers responded first by ’fast as possible’ button pushes (reaction time, RT), and second, rated perceived intensity of 60 acoustic startle stimuli (85, 95, or 105 dB; 50 ms duration; binaural; instantaneous rise time), which were presented either 230 or 530 ms after the R-wave, and eye blink responses were measured by EMG. RT was divided into evaluation and motor response time according to previous research. Increasing stimulus intensity enhanced startle eye blink, intensity ratings, and RT components. Eye blinks and intensity judgments were lower when startle was elicited at a latency of R + 230 ms, but RT components were differentially affected: the evaluative component was attenuated, and the motor component was accelerated when stimuli were presented 230 ms after the R-wave. We conclude that the cardiac cycle affects the attentive processing of acoustic startle stimuli.     

Life Cycle Welfare: Trends and Differences

A cohort analysis of United States General Social Science Survey data since 1972 reveals that the life cycle trend in average happiness is remarkably flat. Throughout the life course, however, whites are typically happier than blacks, and more educated persons are happier than their less educated counterparts. In recent years the black-white differential has narrowed moderately, and – although there is no consistent difference by gender – the happiness of females has declined relative to males. Some psychologists assert that happiness is largely determined by genetic or personality traits, but the persistence of life cycle differences by race and education suggests that external socio-economic circumstances are important influences on happiness.     

Differential effects of the menstrual cycle on reactive and proactive aggression in borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by rapidly shifting symptoms, including intense anger and aggressive behavior. Understanding how fluctuations in ovarian hormones across the menstrual cycle may contribute to symptom instability is key for accurate assessment of BPD symptoms and effective interventions. Reactive and proactive aggression, as well as anger-in and anger-out, were assessed daily in 15 physically healthy, unmedicated naturally cycling female individuals meeting criteria for BPD across 35 days. Urine luteinizing hormone surge and salivary progesterone were used to confirm ovulation and verify the cycle phase. Multilevel models evaluated cyclical differences of symptoms between cycle phases. Both forms of aggressive behavior demonstrated marked cycle effects, with reactive aggression highest during the midluteal cycle phase, co-occurring with initial increases in anger and irritability and followed by perimenstrual peaks in anger and anger-in. In contrast, highest levels of proactive aggression were observed during the follicular and ovulatory phases, when emotional symptoms and anger were otherwise at lowest levels. These findings highlight the importance of identifying the function of aggression when considering potential psychological and biological influences. Naturally cycling individuals with BPD may be at elevated risk for luteal worsening of a range of interpersonally reactive symptoms, including reactive aggression, whereas proactive aggression may occur more in phases characterized by less emotional and cognitive vulnerability and greater reward sensitivity. Research on aggression in this population should consider cycle effects. Cycling individuals with BPD attempting to reduce aggressive behavior may benefit from cycle-tracking to increase awareness of these effects and to develop appropriate strategies.     

Aggressive behavior during the breeding season of adult female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

The aggressive behavior of eight adult female rhesus living in a captive social group was studied prior to and during a breeding season extended by vasectomizing all the adult males in the group. Female reproductive status was ascertained by: recording all adult female-adult male copulations; detecting menstruation by vaginal swabbing; and analyzing serum progesterone levels by radioimmunoassay. Females showed more non-contact aggression during the breeding season, but wounding did not increase. Individual cycling females directed more frequent aggression to: particular adult males subordinate to them, subordinate females also in estrus, and (in a few cases) juveniles and infants.