Proximity and distance goals in adult attachment

We used a variant of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and explicit reports to examine the assumption that attachment anxiety and avoidance are related to proximity and distance goals. Results confirmed that attachment avoidance was associated with a stronger implicit motivation for and positive evaluation of distance goals in attachment relationships. This was found both at the implicit and explicit levels and both in a threat and non‐threat context. Attachment anxiety was associated with proximity goals only when measured explicitly, but not when goal activation was measured implicitly. Our findings highlight the importance of considering both implicit and explicit goal representations when studying motivational processes in the context of attachment, and suggest that the IAT can provide a useful tool for investigating implicit motivational constructs. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Difference Between Lonely Old Ladies and CCTV Cameras: A Response to Ryberg

This article considers the question of whether it is meaningful to speak of privacy rights in public spaces, and the possibility of such rights framing the basis for regulating or restricting the use of surveillance technologies such as closed circuit television (CCTV). In particular, it responds to a recent article by Jesper Ryberg that suggests that there is little difference between being watched by private individuals and CCTV cameras, and instead argues that state surveillance is qualitatively different from (and more problematic than) surveillance by ‘lonely old ladies’.

Lateralization of egocentric and allocentric spatial processing after parietal brain lesions

The purpose of this paper was to verify whether left and right parietal brain lesions may selectively impair egocentric and allocentric processing of spatial information in near/far spaces. Two Right-Brain-Damaged (RBD), 2 Left-Brain-Damaged (LBD) patients (not affected by neglect or language disturbances) and eight normal controls were submitted to the Ego-Allo Task requiring distance judgments computed according to egocentric or allocentric frames of reference in near/far spaces. Subjects also completed a general neuropsychological assessment and the following visuospatial tasks: reproduction of the Rey-Osterreith figure, line length judgement, point position identification, mental rotation, mental construction, line length memory, line length inference, Corsi block-tapping task. LBD patients presented difficulties in both egocentric and allocentric processing, whereas RBD patients dropped in egocentric but not in allocentric judgements, and in near but not far space. Further, RBD patients dropped in perceptually comparing linear distances, whereas LBD patients failed in memory for distances. The overall pattern of results suggests that the right hemisphere is specialized in processing metric information according to egocentric frames of reference. The data are interpreted according to a theoretical model that highlights the close link between egocentric processing and perceptual control of action.     

Maternal attitudes during pregnancy predict mother-infant physical proximity six months after birth

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument for assessing maternal attitudes. Three photographs representing infants or mother-infant dyads were presented to 26 mothers in the second half of pregnancy and six months after birth. Nine mothers were clinical cases, seventeen mothers were nonpathological controls. Thirty-three semantic categories were used to code the mothers' responses to the pictures. Mothers' responses were coded independently by two researchers. The factor analysis of the codes yielded an ‘attraction to, vs rejection of, children’ factor. Compared with the control group, the mean factor score of the clinical group was significantly lower, i. e. reflected less attraction (p < 0.01). To study the relation between the attraction factor and the physical proximity of mothers and infants, 21 of these mother-infant dyads were videotaped in a semi-structured play interaction six months after birth. Recordings were coded independently by two researchers for various indices of proximity (spatial proximity, kisses, embraces, touches). The factor analysis of the codes yielded a factor contrasting distant vs close and tender interaction. A significant correlation was found between the attraction scores of pregnant women and the proximity scores of mother-infant interaction (r = 0.46; p < 0.05). These results suggest that this instrument is useful in assessing maternal attitudes of psychiatrically disturbed pregnant women and that maternal attitudes of pregnant women are significant predictors of physical proximity in motherinfant interaction at the end of the first semester.     

AN ANALYSIS OF SOME VARIABLES INFLUENCING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF REPRIMANDS

Although several studies have shown that social reprimands can function as punishers, no study reported to date has isolated any of the factors influencing reprimand efficacy. Three experiments were conducted to investigate several factors. Experiment 1 used an alternating treatments design and was conducted on two elementary school boys, one of whom was in a special education class. Results showed that verbal reprimands delivered with eye contact and firm grasp of the student's shoulders reduced disruptive behavior to a greater extent than did verbal reprimands delivered without eye contact and grasp. Both types of reprimand were more effective than a baseline condition during which disruptive behavior was ignored. Experiment 2 also used an alternating treatments design and was conducted on one elementary school boy. Results demonstrated that reprimands delivered from one meter away were considerably more effective than reprimands delivered from seven meters away. Experiment 3 used a reversal design and was conducted on two pairs of elementary school children, one a pair of boys and the other a pair of girls. Results demonstrated that reprimands delivered to just one member of the pair reduced the disruptive behavior of both members of the pair. Thus, the effects of reprimands “spilled” over to nonreprimanded students.     

Observational assessment of behavioral changes accompanying clinical improvement in hospitalized psychiatric patients

Naturalistic observational techniques were employed over a four-week period to assess the behavior of clinically improved (n=7) and unimproved (n=12) hospitalized patients suffering from acute psychiatric disorders. The population was selected from four clinical diagnostic groups. Patients were sampled on an individual basis. Categories of recorded behaviors included social behavior as well as spatial proximity measures between individuals. Social behavior was further divided into components of sending and receiving. Results showed that patients who clinically improved had significantly different behavioral profiles and greater degrees of behavioral change for the following categories: send affiliation, receive affiliation, send assertion, and receive assertion. Improved patients also maintained closer distance to other individuals during the latter stages of hospitalization. In most cases, week 2 of hospitalization marked the point at which behavioral divergence between improved and unimproved patients occurred. Clinical and theoretical implications of observational procedures are discussed.     

Hand function,not proximity,biases visuotactile integration later in object processing: An ERP study

Behavioral studies document a functional hand proximity effect: objects near the palm, but not the back of the hand, affect visual processing. Although visuotactile bimodal neurons integrate visual and haptic inputs, their receptive fields in monkey cortex encompass the whole hand, not just the palm. Using ERPs, we investigated whether hand function influenced the topology of integrated space around the hand. In a visual detection paradigm, target and non-target stimuli appeared equidistantly in front or in back of the hand. Equivalent N1 amplitudes were found for both conditions. P3 target versus non-target amplitude differences were greater for palm conditions. Hand proximity biased processing of visual targets equidistant from the hand early in processing. However, hand function biases emerged later when targets were selected for potential action. Thus, early hand proximity effects on object processing depend on sensory-reliant neural responses, whereas later multisensory integration depend more on the hand’s functional expertise.     

“Minimax length links” of a dissimilarity matrix and minimum spanning trees

A theorem is proved stating that the set of all minimax links, defined as links minimizing, over paths, the maximum length of links in any path connecting a pair of objects comprising nodes in an undirected weighted graph, comprise the union of all minimum spanning trees of that graph. This theorem is related to methods of fitting network models to dissimilarity data, particularly a method called Pathfinder due to Schvaneveldt and his colleagues, as well as to single linkage clustering, and results concerning the relationship between minimum spanning trees and single linkage hierarchical trees.Acknowledgments: The author thanks Phipps Arabie, Lawrence J. Hubert, and K. Christoph Klauer for a number of helpful suggestions and comments on various aspects of this paper.     

Guestbooks in multifaith spaces as (inter-)religious media

ABSTRACT

In recent years, various forms of multifaith spaces have been emerging in Germany which include so-called Rooms of Silence in hospitals or educational institutions as well as Gardens of Religions. So far, empirical research on these spaces has focused on their establishment or their functions within the surrounding organisations. In this article we will put a focus on the ‘user experience’ of multifaith spaces based on an analysis of guestbooks. These books are a unique source of data for a qualitative in-depth analysis as they offer an opportunity for visitors for commentary including religious references and speech acts. Drawing on two case studies from a Room of Silence within a hospital and a Garden of Religions, we investigate how users experience and appropriate multifaith spaces and how guestbooks may become media of (inter-) religious contact.     

Prior distributions on symmetric groups

Fully and partially ranked data arise in a variety of contexts. From a Bayesian perspective, attention has focused on distance-based models; in particular, the Mallows model and extensions thereof. In this paper, a class of prior distributions, the Binary Tree, is developed on the symmetric group. The attractive features of the class are: it provides a closed-form solution to the posterior distribution; and a simple way to interpret the parameters of the prior distribution. The advantages of the proposed method are illustrated by comparing it to metric-based models using data analyzed by other researchers in this context.This revised article was published online in August 2005 with the PDF paginated correctly.