Trust of an Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance Technology: A Fighter Pilot Perspective

The present study examined the antecedents of trust among operational Air Force fighter pilots for an automatic ground collision avoidance technology. This technology offered a platform with high face validity for studying trust in automation because it is an automatic system currently being used in operations by the Air Force. Pilots (N = 142) responded to an online survey which asked about their attitudes toward the technology and assessed a number of psychological factors. Consistent with prior research on trust in automation, a number of trust antecedents were identified which corresponded to human factors, learned trust factors, and situational factors. Implications for the introduction of novel automatic systems into the military are discussed.     

Disgust sensitivity and the HEXACO model of personality

In the current investigation, we test for relationships between three domains of disgust sensitivity (pathogen, sexual, and moral disgust) and the six dimensions of the HEXACO personality model in a large, demographically diverse Dutch sample. Our results extend upon previous investigations into the relationship between disgust sensitivity and personality in two important ways. First, in contrast with most previous investigations into disgust sensitivity, we measure sensitivities to sexual and moral disgust, two domains that elicit self-reports of disgust and facial expressions of disgust. Second, in contrast with the few investigations that have tested for relationships between sensitivities to sexual and moral disgust and Five Factor Model personality dimensions, we use the HEXACO personality model. We find that honesty–humility, a personality dimension assessed in the HEXACO model but not the Five Factor Model, accounts for unique variance in sensitivities to sexual and moral disgust, but not sensitivity to pathogen disgust. Other relationships between disgust sensitivity and personality are discussed, as are implications for understanding the fitness-relevant tradeoffs potentially underlying disgust sensitivity and personality.     

Personality styles and suggestibility: A differential approach

This study addresses the relationship between personality styles measured with the Portuguese adaptation of the Millon Index of Personality Styles Revised – MIPS-R and interrogative suggestibility assessed by the Portuguese adaptation of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale – GSS1. Hypotheses predicted individual differences in suggestibility and that these differences correspond to differences in individuals’ personality styles. The study was conducted with a sample of 258 individuals (M_age = 31.8 years, SD = 12.0). Results showed that there were individual differences in suggestibility and that these differences corresponded to certain personality characteristics, mainly related to the Thinking Styles and some Behaving Styles.     

The measurement of Human Life History strategy

This retrospective essay appraises J. Philippe Rushton’s application of life history to understanding the covariation among human traits in light of subsequent developments in the measurement and latent structure of Human Life History, covitality, and personality. We conclude that Rushton should be recognized for having initiated a theoretically and empirically highly fertile paradigm in human individual differences research.     

An epistemological history of time: From technology to representations

Abstract

This paper attempts to link the social history of the mechanization of time with the history of the psychological notion of time. Historical processes such as the mechanization of tower clocks from the Middle Ages onwards, the reform of the Gregorian calendar and the quarrel of the Christian and Chinese calendars characterized the modern representation of time on three points: isochrony, desacralization and abstraction. While Western societies learned to domesticate the practical aspects of time, the scholars of the Enlightenment naturalized time. They considered it a concept only related to man and used quantified time for scientific purposes. Empiricists saw time as a product of the succession of thought while idealists considered it a form necessary for the human experience to occur. Both trends agreed in removing time from nature and accepted isochrony, desaralization and abstraction as the necessary foundation for the modern notion of time.     

Sex in the City: The ambiguity of female mating strategies

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the limitations of evolutionary explanations of female mating strategies, and to present an alternative theory that accounts for the ambiguity of mating strategies throughout a woman's life. While mating strategies are considered to be discrete entities, it is clear that women's decision making in everyday life is based on mutually fused, ambiguous courses of actions. The current perspective addresses the commonality of female mating experiences while highlighting the uniqueness of each woman's mating strategy and outlines a multi-level perspective on strategies of women's reproductive decision making.     

The neuropsychology of religious experience. A review of different scientific approaches to the phenomenon / Neuropsicología de la experiencia religiosa. Una revisión de distintas aproximaciones científicas al fenómeno

Abstract

The current article is a critical review of the neuropsychological study of religious experience. First, we analyse the philosophical and theological roots of the term and its characterization as a sui generis and unique phenomenon. We subsequently describe the adoption of the concept in psychology, as well as the emergence of alternative approaches that emphasize the role of categorization of experiences as religious. We then move on to explore how both approaches have influenced the neuropsychological study of religious experience, consequently producing different models: sui generis, attributional and others that consider the variety of factors and the heterogeneity of experiences associated with religious practices.     

Brightness differences influence the evaluation of affective pictures

We explored the possibility of a general brightness bias: brighter pictures are evaluated more positively, while darker pictures are evaluated more negatively. In Study 1 we found that positive pictures are brighter than negative pictures in two affective picture databases (the IAPS and the GAPED). Study 2 revealed that because researchers select affective pictures on the extremity of their affective rating without controlling for brightness differences, pictures used in positive conditions of experiments were on average brighter than those used in negative conditions. Going beyond correlational support for our hypothesis, Studies 3 and 4 showed that brighter versions of neutral pictures were evaluated more positively than darker versions of the same picture. Study 5 revealed that people categorised positive words more quickly than negative words after a bright picture prime, and vice versa for negative pictures. Together, these studies provide strong support for the hypotheses that picture brightness influences evaluations.     

Ruth

No abstract available for this article.     

Social Responsibility and the Mental Health Professions

Summary

While mental health professionals tend to primarily focus on their professional responsibilities toward the specific members of the public whom they serve, many are also concerned about positively impacting the broader society or culture in which they live and work. This notion of social responsibility is addressed in the ethics codes of both psychologists and social workers. This article reviews how this notion is addressed for these two mental health professions and also examines the changes that have occurred for psychologists between the 1992 and 2002 ethics codes. Finally, some general issues regarding the role of mental health professionals in changing society are considered.