Limitations to the capacity to love

This paper is a meditation on the potential and problems of establishing and maintaining loving and passionate relationships, drawn from a lifetime of struggling with these issues in the course of doing analysis. It describes interferences with the capacity for mature sexual love as reflecting various psychopathological conditions. These limitations include a variety of psychological restrictions determined most frequently by masochistic, narcissistic and paranoid personality features. Clinical case material illustrates both mature and disturbed capability for love relations.     

Nodal structure and stimulus relatedness in equivalence classes: post-class formation preference tests

Three experiments used postclass formation within-class preference test performances to evaluate the effects of nodal distance on the relatedness of stimuli in equivalence classes. In Experiment 1, two 2-node four-member equivalence classes were established using the simultaneous protocol in which all of the baseline relations were trained together, after which all emergent relations probes were presented together. All training and testing was done using match-to-sample trials that contained two comparisons. After class formation, the effects of nodal distance were evaluated using within-class preference tests that contained samples and both comparisons from the same class. These tests yielded inconsistent performances for most participants. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, but a third null comparison was used on all trials during class formation. Thereafter, virtually all of the within-class probes, for all participants, evoked performances that were consistent with the predicted effects of nodal distance, that is, the selection of comparisons that were nodally closer to the samples. It appears, then, that the establishment of the equivalence classes with a third null comparison induced control by nodal structure of the classes. Experiment 3 demonstrated the generality of these findings with larger classes that contained more nodal separations, that is, three-node five-member classes. Emergent-relations tests conducted immediately after the within-class tests showed the classes to be intact. Thus, the differential relatedness of stimuli in a class or their interchangeability depended on the content of a test trial: within-class probes occasioned responding indicative of differential strength among the stimuli in the class, while cross-class tests occasioned responding indicative of interchangeability of stimuli in the same class.     

The Gendered Nature of Family Structure and Group-Based Anti-Egalitarianism: A Cross-National Analysis

Abstract

Using 4 samples of adolescents from 3 nations (Australia, Sweden, and the United States), the authors explored whether the gendered nature of the family socialization environment affected young people's level of group-based social egalitarianism. It was hypothesized that the greater the father's influence in the family, the greater the children's level of group-based social anti-egalitarianism. The results were consistent with the authors' expectations. Children from father-headed households had the highest level of group-based social anti-egalitarianism; children from mother-headed households had the lowest level of group-based anti-egalitarianism; and children from dual-parent households were in between. Similarly, children from homes in which the father had the greatest decision-making power tended to exhibit the highest levels of anti-egalitarianism, whereas children from homes in which the mother had the greatest decision-making power displayed the lowest levels of social anti-egalitarianism. Family structure did not interact with either the nationality or gender of the child.     

Attributions in the Evaluation of Alternative Solutions to Social Problems

Abstract

The influence of causal attributions in decision making was studied in two samples (one of grade- and high-school teachers and one of first-year university students in Santiago, Chile) who answered a two-part questionnaire about the relative importance of eight different causes of alcohol problems and the potential value of eight possible solutions to the problem. The evaluation of the probable effectiveness of each solution was used as the criterion variable in a multiple regression analysis that included, as regressors, the evaluation of the importance of the different causes and sex of the respondent. Results showed that the importance attributed to the cause it eliminated was always the best predictor of the value given to any solution in the student sample and most frequently among the members of the teacher sample, although the importance of other causes and sex of respondent also influenced it in most cases.     

The structure of acute stress disorder among Chinese adults exposed to an earthquake: Is dysphoric arousal a unique construct of acute posttraumatic responses?

Wang, R., Wang, L., Zhang, J., Liu, Z. & Wu, K. (2012). The structure of acute stress disorder among Chinese adults exposed to an earthquake: Is dysphoric arousal a unique construct of acute posttraumatic responses? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 430–436. As a diagnosis organized mainly on the basis of theoretical conceptualization, acute stress disorder (ASD) has been widely criticized for lack of empirical support since it was introduced into the DSM system. To address this issue, the present study investigated the latent structure of ASD symptoms measured by the Acute Stress Disorder Scale (ASDS). A total of 350 adults with a mean age of 32.9 years (SD = 14.0, range: 16–85) took part in this study 12 to 15 days after an earthquake. The results of confirmatory factor analyses showed that a five‐factor intercorrelated model (dissociation, reexperiencing, avoidance, dysphoric arousal, and anxious arousal) demonstrated the best data fit. The findings provide preliminary empirical evidence in favor of a new reconceptualization of ASD symptoms, and are informative for the impending DSM‐5.     

Prominence vs. aboutness in sequencing: A functional distinction within the left inferior frontal gyrus

Prior research on the neural bases of syntactic comprehension suggests that activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (lIFG) correlates with the processing of word order variations. However, there are inconsistencies with respect to the specific subregion within the IFG that is implicated by these findings: the pars opercularis or the pars triangularis. Here, we examined the hypothesis that the dissociation between pars opercularis and pars triangularis activation may reflect functional differences between clause-medial and clause-initial word order permutations, respectively. To this end, we directly compared clause-medial and clause-initial object-before-subject orders in German in a within-participants, event-related fMRI design. Our results showed increased activation for object-initial sentences in a bilateral network of frontal, temporal and subcortical regions. Within the lIFG, posterior and inferior subregions showed only a main effect of word order, whereas more anterior and superior subregions showed effects of word order and sentence type, with higher activation for sentences with an argument in the clause-initial position. These findings are interpreted as evidence for a functional gradation of sequence processing within the left IFG: posterior subportions correlate with argument prominence-based (local) aspects of sequencing, while anterior subportions correlate with aboutness-based aspects of sequencing, which are crucial in linking the current sentence to the wider discourse. This proposal appears compatible with more general hypotheses about information processing gradients in prefrontal cortex (Koechlin & Summerfield, 2007).     

Migrants' Integration in Western Europe: Bridging Social Psychology and Political Science

This article presents the possibilities and advantages of integrating social psychology and political science in the study of intergroup relations in diverse societies in Western Europe. Social psychology provides interesting insights in understanding the emotional and cognitive consequences of increased diversity. However, this literature tends to overlook the role of institutional discourses and correlated practices in stimulating or constraining positive intergroup relations. In order to fill these lacunae, the article suggests the integration of social psychology and a ‘political opportunity structure’ approach. This article maintains that the political opportunity structures operating in a context are not only important for understanding actors' mobilisation, as usually maintained in the literature, but also for studying the extent to which change at the micro‐level of social interaction can be stimulated or constrained. We illustrate the arguments of the article with an analysis of the narrative constructions and the correlated practices of integration as adopted by the city councils of Malmö and Bologna. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

结构限制和信息干扰对双重作业绩效的影响

研究通过改变双重任务呈现的间隔时间来探讨结构限制与信息干扰对双重任务操作绩效的影响。实验结果表明：(1)两种作业呈现的间隔时间对双重任务操作绩效有明显的影响。间隔时间越大,双重任务的作业绩效越高。(2)信息干扰对双重任务的操作有明显的影响。信息干扰越大,双重任务的操作绩效越差。(3)两个作业呈现的间隔时间不同并不影响信息干扰对双重任务操作绩效的作用。根据实验结果,该研究提出了三因素假设：结构限制、信息干扰和资源竞争是影响双重任务操作绩效的三个主要因素。     

生命性信息在语言加工中的作用

生命性的范畴化从多个方面影响了语言的加工.名词的生命性信息不仅影响了句法形态标记和句法位置等句法线索的使用,而且在题元角色的分配中发挥一定的作用.较早的研究主要采用反应时和眼动技术,发现生命性信息促进了歧义句和句法复杂句的加工.近年来,随着认知神经科学技术的发展,研究者进一步探讨了生命性信息在题元角色分配中的神经机制.对于生命性作用机制的深入研究,促使新的语言加工模型的出现,这些模型对语言加工中句法和语义的关系,进行了越来越详尽的阐释.未来该领域的研究应重点关注生命性的即时性加工、题元角色分配中生命性信息与句法信息的交互作用以及汉语和其他语言的跨语言比较研究等,以进一步揭示语言加工的认知机制.     

心理健康素质及其结构的访谈研究

以心理学专家、大学教师、中学教师、小学教师、大学生、中学生和小学生为被试,采用访谈法,研究他们对心理健康素质及其结构问题的看法。结果发现：多数人都认为心理健康素质就是心理素质;心理健康素质是健康的人的心理素质;认为心理健康素质就是在思想、情绪、认识和行为方式上符合正常标准;是维护人的心理健康所需要的内在心理特点。人们普遍认为能力和性格是心理健康素质的核心组成部分。