回避与趋近性负性人格特质对应激心血管反应模式的不同影响

本研究考察了回避与趋近性负性特质对不同强度心理社会应激刺激重复暴露的心血管反应、应激后心血管反应恢复、重复应激心血管反应的影响,并探讨了应激认知评价在其中的作用。167名大学生被试被随机分配到中/高强度应激条件中,连续采集其在基线期、首次应激期、恢复期、重复应激期四个阶段的心血管反应数据。结果发现:(1)无论应激强度如何,回避性负性特质预测首次和重复应激中较低(钝化)的心血管反应和应激后较差的恢复,而趋近性负性特质预测较大的心血管反应和应激后较差的恢复。(2)重复应激个人资源感知在回避性负性特质与重复应激心率反应之间起中介作用。因此,回避性负性特质与持续较低(钝化)的应激心血管反应和应激后较差的恢复相联系,而趋近性负性特质与较大的应激心血管反应和应激后较差的恢复相联系,即两类负性特质均表现出不适应的固化的应激心血管反应模式,这可能构成了两类不同负性特质增加罹患心血管疾病风险的生理机制。     

The puzzle of transparency and how to solve it

ABSTRACT

According to the transparency approach, achievement of self-knowledge is a two-stage process: first, the subject arrives at the judgment ‘p’; second, the subject proceeds to the judgment ‘I believe that p.’ The puzzle of transparency is to understand why the transition from the first to the second judgment is rationally permissible. After revisiting the debate between Byrne and Boyle on this matter, I present a novel solution according to which the transition is rationally permissible in virtue of a justifying argument that begins from a premise referring to the mental utterance that is emitted in the course of judging ‘p.’     

On Polarizing Outranking Relations with Large Performance Differences

We introduce a bipolarly extended veto principle—a positive, as well as negative, large performance differences polarization—which allows us to extend the definition of the classical outranking relation in such a way that the identity between its asymmetric part and its codual relation is preserved. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pubertal status associations with reward and threat sensitivities and subcortical brain volumes during adolescence

Adolescence is characterized by complex developmental processes that impact behavior, biology, and social functioning. Two such adolescence-specific processes are puberty and increases in reward sensitivity. Relations between these processes are poorly understood. The present study focused on examining unique effects of puberty, age, and sex on reward and threat sensitivities and volumes of subcortical brain structures relevant for reward/threat processing in a healthy sample of 9–18 year-olds. Unlike age, pubertal status had a significant unique positive relationship with reward sensitivity. In addition, there was a trend for adolescent females to exhibit higher threat sensitivity with more advanced pubertal development and higher reward and threat sensitivity with older age. Similarly, there were significant puberty by sex interaction effects on striatal volumes, i.e., left nucleus accumbens and right pallidum. The present pattern of results suggests that pubertal development, independent of chronological age, is uniquely associated with reward hypersensitivity and with structural differences in striatal regions implicated in reward processing.     

影响全子宫切除术施术途径选择的因素的初步分析

通过回顾分析（n=1238）和电话问卷调查（n=864），分析子宫切除术手术途径（开腹、腹腔镜、阴式）选择有关的因素，并探讨其在决策过程中的作用。结果发现，疾病本身的特点是影响手术途径选择的最主要因素。如果有备选途径，医师的偏好成为重要的抉择因素。患者在决策过程中的作用除受医师影响外，还受医疗费用支付方式制约。伤口美观和术后恢复快是腹腔镜子宫切除术患者选择该途径的主要原因。     

An improved method for counting stressful life events (SLEs) when predicting mental health and wellness

Objective: Checklists for registering stressful life events (SLEs) generally correlate negatively, but weakly, with mental health outcome measures. Thus, the present study examined various methodological approaches for improving these relationships.

Design: A total of 1679 participants (women?=?943, men?=?736, M age-39.8) were randomly drawn from the general Norwegian population (response rate 34%). This prospective cohort study included two follow-ups at 10 (n?=?1181) and 23 months (n?=?942).

Main outcome measures: Satisfaction with life and absence of psychological distress (i.e. anxiety and depression) represented a joint measure for indexing ‘mental wellness’ (MW).

Results: A simple count of SLEs weakly predicted MW, as expected, whereas the addition of a moderator (i.e. manageability of the event) substantially improved predictive power. Four additional moderators were examined: duration, impact, help-seeking and time since onset, but these were non-significant after inserting manageability into the model. This SLE counting method also retained its predictive power after including multiple criterion-related variables that substantially adjusted the longitudinal statistical model.

Conclusion: This new SLE counting method exhibited a considerable improvement to predicting mental health and well-being. It is well suited for use in epidemiological research requiring a short SLE checklist format with high predictive power.     

Key characteristics of decision making in soccer and their implications

This paper puts forward the position that the cognitivist approach adopted in research on decision making in team sports leads to a disconnection from the actual environment of play. The argument is structured as a narrative review of 60 articles that were analyzed to identify the most recent concepts related to the following topics or combinations thereof: tactics and action in the play; decision making and associated cognitive mechanisms and skills; and the teaching–learning–training process. The results of the review led us to characterize decision making in the team sports context as being (a) “prereflected,” (b) based on evaluation, (c) frugal, and (d) “generated,” as opposed to being a process of choosing from alternatives. In addition to showing clear adjustments to the environment of play, the four characteristics imply that teaching, learning, and training to play should also be designed according to the restrictions imposed by the context and the actual lived experience of the play. We conclude that cognition should not be considered solely responsible for decisions, and thus both theoretical and pedagogical models of player development should take the ecological perspective of decision making into account. As a result, the methodologies employed to develop players from an early age could be elaborated on by taking into account the interaction between cognitive skills and the possibilities emerging in the play.     

Speak your mind and I will make it right: the case of “selection task”

ABSTRACT

The “Wason selection task” is still one of the most studied tasks in cognitive psychology. We argue that the low performance originally obtained seems to be caused by how the information of the task is presented. By systematically manipulating the task instructions, making explicit the information that participants are required to infer in accordance with the logical interpretation of the material implication “if, then”, we found an improvement in performance. In Experiment 1, the conditional rule has been formulated within a relevant context and in accordance with the conversational rules of communication, hence transmitting the actual meaning of the material implication. In Experiment 2, a similar improvement has been obtained even without the realistic scenario, only by making explicit the unidirectionality of the material implication. We conclude that task instructions are often formulate neglecting the conversational rules of communication, and this greatly reduces the possibility to succeed in the task.     

Psychoanalytic treatments and empirical research on their efficacy: A commentary

Abstract

The author summarizes the problems inherent in nomological approaches examining the efficacy of psychoanalysis as a form of treatment. He argues that nomologically oriented research operates with assumptions lacking empirical foundation and, moreover, that studies of this type merely give the impression of the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapies while overlooking the specificity of the psychoanalytic method. He suggests that research into psychoanalytic treatments should not be subjected to a nomological conception of science, and that structural analysis of treatment courses should be examined and systematized within the frame of psychoanalytic treatment theory relative to their outcome. Given this approach, and provided that the theory of treatment is based on conceptual common ground, such studies would enable a prognostic conclusion that psychoanalytic treatments are successful, providing that the sequences generalized in the treatment theory do actually take place in treatments that take patients’ individuality into account.