Asymmetrical responding to male versus female other-race categories in 9- to 12-month-old infants

Faces can be categorized along various dimensions including gender or race, an ability developing in infancy. Infant categorization studies have focused on facial attributes in isolation, but the interaction between these attributes remains poorly understood. Experiment 1 examined gender categorization of other-race faces in 9- and 12-month-old White infants. Nine- and 12-month-olds were familiarized with Asian male or female faces, and tested with a novel exemplar from the familiarized category paired with a novel exemplar from a novel category. Both age groups showed novel category preferences for novel Asian female faces after familiarization with Asian male faces, but showed no novel category preference for novel Asian male faces after familiarization with Asian female faces. This categorization asymmetry was not due to a spontaneous preference hindering novel category reaction (Experiment 2), and both age groups displayed difficulty discriminating among male, but not female, other-race faces (Experiment 3). These results indicate that category formation for male other-race faces is mediated by categorical perception. Overall, the findings suggest that even by 12 months of age, infants are not fully able to form gender category representations of other-race faces, responding categorically to male, but not female, other-race faces.     

Aggressive and affiliative behavior in green monkeys with differing housing complexity

Eleven green monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) were combined into three social groups (two heterosexual, one all-male) in enclosures with similar volume but different levels of environmental complexity (two or four compartments). Agonistic and affiliative interactions were recorded over a 21-week period. The two heterosexual groups had their environmental complexity reduced (number of compartments reduced by one-half and volume/floorspace reduced by one-third) for a 5-week period in the middle of the study. Rates of contact aggression were low throughout the study. In the group with complexity reduced to one compartment, rates of noncontact aggression and affiliative behavior increased, and remained high after complexity was restored. In the group reduced to two compartments, rates of affiliative behavior increased but rates of noncontact aggression decreased, trends which continued after complexity was restored. The all-male group exhibited low rates of affiliative behavior throughout. Two compartments appear to foster successful group formation, but any change in a group's enclosure can have long-term effects on rates of aggression. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

On Potentiality And Respect For Embryos: A Reply To Mary Mahowald

In order to understand the nature of human embryos I first distinguish between active and passive potentiality, and then argue that the former is found in human gametes and embryos (even in embryos in vitro that may fail to be implanted) because they all have an indwelling power or capacity to initiate certain changes. Implantation provides necessary conditions for the actualization of that prior, active potentiality. This does not imply that embryos are potential persons that do not deserve the same respect as actual persons. To claim that embryos become persons is to understand the predicate person as a phase sortal, roughly equivalent to adult person. This entails that we would not be essentially persons. In order to explain the traditional understanding of person as a proper sortal rather than a phase sortal, the author distinguishes between proximate and remote potentiality, and shows that, unlike feline embryos, human embryos, by their genetic constitution, possess the remote potentiality to later exercise the typically human activities. It follows that they are already persons essentially.     

从个体印象管理到组织印象管理

组织印象管理（OIM）关注组织如何通过行为和信息的调控来影响受众的知觉问题,成为当前印象管理研究的新领域。组织印象管理与个体印象管理具有互动关系;个体印象管理研究为组织印象管理研究奠定了基础。未来组织印象管理研究的重点领域包括：研发组织印象管理的评价工具,了解组织印象管理的策略,认识组织印象管理策略使用的后效,并突出组织印象管理的在我国的实际应用研究     

Distance patterns and disposal sites in rural area homicides committed in Finland

The present study examined offender characteristics, distance patterns, and the nature of disposal sites in rural area homicides. Pre‐trial investigation files of cases where victims' bodies were found in rural areas in 1994–2005 (n = 46) and forensic psychiatric examination reports of the offenders were content‐analysed. Psychopathy Check List‐Revised was used to assess psychopathy. Investigators of these homicides filled out a questionnaire on the offender's familiarity with the body disposal area, and MapInfo was used to measure offender/victim‐residence‐to‐crime‐to‐body‐disposal‐site distances. Rural area homicides more frequently involved multiple offenders who were significantly younger than offenders in other homicides. Of the victims, 73% were found in woods and 27% in water. Offenders were familiar with disposal sites in over half of the cases. The victim's gender, close relationship with the offender, and the offender's violent crime history were associated with longer homicide‐scene‐to‐body‐disposal‐site distances. The number of inhabitants and offender's violent crime history were related to longer offender‐residence‐to‐body‐disposal‐site distances. Offender's age, intelligence, or psychopathology bore no significant association with the distance patterns. The results can be applied when searching missing persons in homicide investigations and in prioritising suspects in rural area homicides. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Novel attitudes can be faked on the Implicit Association Test

We asked participants to imagine that a researcher would provide them with positive or negative information about fictitious social groups. Half of the participants were asked to act in such a way that they would conform to the expectations of the researcher. The other participants were asked to behave in the manner opposite to what the researcher expected. Participants then completed an IAT designed to measure the newly formed attitudes toward the fictitious social groups. The direction of the IAT effect depended on the faking instructions. The results call for caution when using the IAT to study the development of implicit attitudes.     

印象管理及其相关研究述评

近年来,印象管理日益受到社会学、心理学等领域的关注,成为一个重要的研究变量。文章回顾了印象管理概念的由来及发展过程,介绍了国内外有关印象管理的研究现状,对已有研究进行了评价,并对未来研究进行了展望。对我国学者进一步开展有关印象管理的研究提供了新的思路     

学生的自我妨碍行为及其教育干预

学校是典型的能力评价情境,学生的自我妨碍行为较为常见。自我妨碍行为的潜在认知机制是防御性归因模式,学生会有意无意地采取不努力等多种方式为学业成功设置障碍,这样在失败时以避免对自己做缺乏能力的归因,从而保护自我价值和他人心目中的能力形象。文章从自我妨碍行为的动机、结果、归因、影响因素等多方面进行了探讨,并在此基础上提出了一系列有效的预防和干预措施。     

The personal myth: A re‐evaluation

This paper presents a re‐evaluation of Kris's personal myth. The notion has been used rather sparingly despite the Delphi Symposium in 1984 on the question of its clinical usefulness. After framing the notion of myth, some difficulties related to the question are identified. A clinical vignette exemplifies some of the ambiguities in its definition but stresses its clinical relevance. A discussion expands on these situations so as to propose three various aspects of personal myths to account for the two variants identified by Kris. The actualization of the underlying fantasy in the character organization is a third form and the technical aspect associated with it is reviewed from a new perspective. The family romance is revisited to reassess its role as the basis of the personal myth in the face of studies favouring an earlier development of the myth.