向死存在对智慧的影响:观点、机制及评价

向死存在对智慧产生了怎样的影响?三种观点及相关证据回答了这个问题,并提供了解释机制:(1)向死存在助推智慧,使人谦卑、超越、利他、公平和宽容等,其主要解释机制是创伤后成长理论;(2)向死存在阻碍智慧,引起心理不健康、自我服务偏见、内群体偏见、贪婪、物质主义等,其主要解释机制是恐惧管理理论;(3)向死存在是否助推智慧受到如自尊、权力感、自我构念、政治信念、宗教信仰等多种因素的调节。文末评价了过去研究中存在的问题,即概念界定问题、向死存在的心理阶段性问题和文化世界观的内涵问题,并提出了化解之道。     

Ideologic Learning Under Conditions of Social Enslavement: The Case of the Soviet Union in the 1930s AND 1940s

A sequence of theoretical models is constructed as an extension to Leszek Nowak's theory of socialist society to explain important characteristics of the violent party purges in Soviet Stalinism. According to these models, purges are a regular and systemic feature of a socialist system during a certain phase of development (modelled as the phase of social enslavement). Contrary to traditional conceptions which interpret the purges essentially as resulting from the actions of an almost omnipotent, and partly irrational, despot, the models presented here provide an explanation which does not need to conceive Stalin as the architect of terror (Robert Conquest), i.e. as the long-term planner of the terror. However, the concepts presented here preserve the vital arguments of the traditional approach, thereby contradicting the revisionist pattern of interpretation. In particular the models seek to provide a theoretical base for an explanation of the moderation of inner-party terror from 1938. This moderation is interpreted as resulting from a modification of the then existing ideology (and corresponding habits of the party's leadership); a modification which in itself had been stimulated by the disastrous effects of the great purge in 1937/38. This modification can be theoretically conceived as a process of ideological learning. The historical fact that the post-war purges (i.e. the Leningrad affair in 1949 and the Mingrelian affair 1951/52) did not reach such an enormous extent as the purges of the late 1930s may thus be attributed to a process of ideological learning.     

The psychodynamic of panic attacks: A useful integration of psychoanalysis and neuroscience1

This article tries to explain, in the light of some neuroscientific and psychoanalytical considerations, the repetitive pattern of panic attacks. Freud considered the panic attack as an ‘actual neurosis’ not involving any conflictual process. Recent neuroscientific findings indicate that psychosomatic reactions, set off by a danger situation, depend on the primitive circuit of fear (including the amygdala) characterised by its speed, but lack accurate responses and may also be activated by harmless stimuli perceived erroneously as dangerous. The traumatic terror is stored in implicit memory and may be set off by a conditioned stimulus linked to a previous danger situation. In the panic attack, the traumatic event is created by the imagination and this construction (a micro‐delusion), built in loneliness and anxiety, has the same power as the real trauma. A mutual psychosomatic short‐circuit between body and psyche, in which terror reinforces the somatic reactions and the psychic construction, is established. Therefore, it is important to highlight these constructions in order to analyse and transform them. In the second part of the article the author reviews the main psychoanalytical theories about panic attacks, stressing how, in his opinion, panic attack is a consequence of the breakdown of the defence organisation at various levels and may appear during periods of life crisis. Two patients suffering from a deficit of personal identity are presented. The various organisations and the different levels (biological, neuroscientific, associative, traumatic) of the panic attack determine different kinds of therapeutic approaches (pharmacological, cognitive and psychoanalytical). While the psychopharmacological treatment is aimed at reducing the neurovegetative reaction and the cognitive method is attempting to correct the associative and perceptive processes of fear signals, psychoanalytical therapy represents both a specific means to free patients from panic attacks as well as an indispensable route for their emotional growth.     

Characteristics of juvenile sex offending against strangers: Findings from a non‐clinical study

Previous studies of the characteristics of juvenile sex offending have been restricted to clinical samples (with convicted offenders undergoing treatment or assessment), which have several inherent limitations. To overcome these limitations victim allegations made to the London Metropolitan Police, UK, in 2001, of sexual assault by juvenile stranger perpetrators were sampled. The study aimed to determine more accurately the alleged nature of sex offending by this type of juvenile offender (aged less than 18 years) and to determine what factors were associated with the most serious cases of this type of aggressive behaviour. The most common offence characteristics were identified, and relationships between suspect and offence/victim characteristics were statistically tested. Offence seriousness, as indicated by physical violence and the occurrence of penetration, was significantly associated with an assault by a team of offenders, a young victim, and older juvenile offenders. The potential for predicting offender characteristics from offence characteristics was examined. Estimated offender age was significantly predicted by the absence/presence of penetration. An older juvenile offender was predicted by a penetrative attack. Aggr. Behav. 30:243–253, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Mortality salience effects on reckless driving intentions in a motorcyclist sample: The moderating role of group riding

Campaigns against reckless driving often mention the risk of dying. Research on terror management theory indicates that death claims may backfire and foster reckless driving. Here, we studied such mortality salience effects in a motorcyclist sample. Two moderating variables, particularly interesting regarding the sample of motorcyclists, were considered: group riding (vs. riding alone) and driving‐related self‐esteem. Motorcyclists were exposed to a campaign, either highlighting mortality or not. Orthogonally, cyclists were primed with riding in a group (vs. riding alone). Driving‐related self‐esteem was assessed via a questionnaire. We predicted that reminders of riding in a group would buffer against ironic mortality effects. Supporting this hypothesis, mortality salience effects interacted with the group prime. The results indicate that death appeals are likely to backfire with cyclists riding alone rather than cyclists riding in a group, especially if motorcycling is relevant to the self.     

Practitioners’ Views on the Role of Spirituality in Working With Women Victims and Survivors of Domestic Violence

Based on a study of 1,481 domestic violence workers or practitioners from 180 organizations across 12 countries, this article studies their views on spirituality for domestic violence women victims and survivors. Results showed that spirituality is favored by domestic violence workers, and more so by Christians and those with higher spiritual self-inclination. Subtle variations exist between views of practitioners from European countries, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia vis-à-vis those from Asian and African countries. Whereas practitioners from the former attested mindfulness, peace, and letting go as spiritual techniques for domestic violence work, Asian and African practitioners were more in favor of practiced distance detachment. In terms of goals of spiritually sensitive interventions, Asian and African practitioners favored letting go and empowered reconciliation, whereas their counterparts favored moving on and detachment. Practitioners from European countries, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia endorsed ‘letting go’ as a technique of living in the present, with a sense of positive orientation. Spirituality creates spaces in the psychic domains for women to exert their free will and address hegemonic masculinity. Asian and African practitioners saw the potential of spirituality in engendering systems and structures. This calls for a culturally alert approach in deploying spirituality in violence against women work.     

死亡提醒效应的心理机制及影响因素

死亡提醒效应是指个体在死亡提醒后会产生世界观防御或自尊寻求的一种普遍现象。其心理机制是以死亡想法通达性为指标的潜在死亡焦虑,影响因素则包括年龄、宗教信仰、结构需求、自我控制、依恋类型等个体差异和不同的情境启动。未来研究应解释与死亡无直接关联的刺激可引发类似效应的原因,进一步阐释与证实潜在的死亡焦虑,并明确自尊对死亡提醒效应的影响。     

基于恐怖分子的恐怖主义心理学述评

关于恐怖主义的定义至今仍没有达成共识。文章中的恐怖主义是指任何个体、团体或组织为了达成某种政治、宗教或社会目的, 而对无辜者非法使用暴力或其他胁迫性手段, 企图引起目标对象或公众的注意, 并制造恐怖气氛的行为。其形成和发展可以用综合症模型、自恋–攻击模型、挫折–攻击模型、工具模型、社会情境模型和其他综合性模型来解释。作者对这些模型进行了述评并提出了相应的防止恐怖主义的心理学策略。心理学界对于恐怖主义的实证研究较少, 而且侧重于描述和解释, 在预测和应用上有待进一步发展。     

Existential function of babies: Babies as a buffer of death-related anxiety

The present study examined babies as death anxiety buffers with Chinese participants in three experiments. In Experiment 1, death-related thoughts increased college-aged participants' interest in human babies. In Experiment 2, images of newborn animals reduced the number of death-related thoughts recorded by college-aged participants. In Experiment 3, female factory workers who read news articles describing deaths of babies had pessimistic estimations of their own life expectancies. An explanation of these results is provided within a terror management theory framework, with a primary focus on how babies reinforce cultural worldviews and enhance self-esteem via the notion of symbolic immortality. Thus, the anxiety-buffering function of baby is subsumed under cultural worldviews validation and self-esteem enhancement.     

ALTRUISM IN SUICIDE TERROR ORGANIZATIONS

In recent years, much has been learned about the strategic and organizational contexts of suicide attacks. However, motivations of the agents who commit them remain difficult to explain. In part this is because standard models of social learning as well as Durkheimian notions of sacrificial behavior are inadequate in the face of the actions of human bombers. In addition, the importance of organizational structures and practices in reinforcing commitment on the part of suicide recruits is an under-explored factor in many analyses. This essay examines the potential applicability of evolutionary models of altruism to the understanding of commitment to suicide on the part of terrorist organizational recruits. Three evolutionary models of sacrificial behavior in nonhuman species and many categories of human behavior are explored cross-organizationally: reciprocity, inclusive fitness theory, and induced altruism. Reciprocal altruism is unlikely to be a major motivator in suicide attacks because the costs exhibited by attackers are too high to be adequately compensated. However, the role of evolved self-deception in perceptions of personal death, and thus of rewards in the afterlife, is potentially illuminating. Inclusive fitness theory can help explain the motivations of attackers because rewards to kin often are offered by organizations to suicide recruits. However, suicide bombers also often act out of revenge for the loss of or injury to relatives, and inclusive fitness theory generally, as well as more specific theoretical models of retaliatory aggression, may not adequately account for the bombers' actions. Predictions from induced altruism theory appear to be well supported because suicide terror organizations tend to be tightly structured around practices intended to maintain and reinforce commitment though the manipulation of kinship-recognition cues.