Cradling side preference is associated with lateralized processing of baby facial expressions in females

Women’s cradling side preference has been related to contralateral hemispheric specialization of processing emotional signals; but not of processing baby’s facial expression. Therefore, 46 nulliparous female volunteers were characterized as left or non-left holders (HG) during a doll holding task. During a signal detection task they were then asked to detect the emotional baby faces in a series of baby portraits with neutral and emotional facial expressions, presented either to the left or the right visual field (VFP). ANOVA revealed a significant HG × VFP interaction on response bias data (p < .05). Response bias was lowest when emotional baby faces were presented in the visual field of cradling side preference, suggesting that women’s cradling side preference may have evolved to save cognitive resources during monitoring emotional baby face signals.     

Hindsight bias redefined: It’s about time

Four experiments introduced a new conceptual and methodological approach to hindsight bias, traditionally defined as the tendency to exaggerate the a priori predictability of outcomes after they become known. By examining likelihood estimates rooted to specific time points during an unfolding event sequence (videos and short text stories), judged both in foresight and hindsight, we conceptualized hindsight bias as a contrast between two “inevitability curves,” which plotted likelihood against time. Taking timing into account, we defined three new indicators of accuracy: linear accuracy (how well hindsight judgments capture the linear trend of foresight judgments over time), rate accuracy (how well hindsight judgments reflect the slope of foresight judgments over time), and temporal accuracy (how well hindsight judgments specify the overall timing of the full envelope of foresight judgments). Results demonstrated that hindsight judgments showed linear and rate accuracy, but were biased only in terms of lack of temporal accuracy. The oft-used catchphrase “knew it all along effect” was found to be a misnomer, in that participants were well aware in hindsight that their earlier foresight judgments reflected uncertainty. The current research therefore points to one way in which retrospective judgments can be considered biased, yet simultaneously suggests that considerable accuracy exists when people render such judgments.     

Which Societies Provide a Strong Religious Socialization Context? Explanations Beyond the Effects of National Religiosity

Religious socialization occurs within the immediate family as well as in the broader social context. Previous research has shown that parents’ religiosity matters less for the transmission of religious beliefs in devout than in secular nations, implying smaller costs of religious socialization. In this article we test which other societal factors affect the transmission of religious beliefs: anti‐religious policies in formerly socialist countries, economic development, and income inequality. Our results indicate that societies with high levels of income inequality seem to provide the most favorable context for religious socialization. Individuals develop strong religious beliefs even if they only received little religious socialization within the family. Formerly socialist nations increased socialization costs through the overall suppression of religious practice. Economic development has no impact on socialization effects, suggesting that inequality is a more important driver of religious change than previously thought.     

社交焦虑个体对正性面孔刺激的解释偏差

本研究分别在短时（60ms）和长时（无时间限制）条件下呈现匹配的正性和中性面孔,要求高、低社交焦虑被试选择更具威胁性的面孔,以验证两者对正性刺激是否存在主观解释偏差,并考察该偏差产生于认知加工的哪一阶段。结果发现,长时条件下,高焦虑组选择正性面孔的比例显著高于低焦虑组;短时条件下无显著差异。提示高社交焦虑个体对正性刺激存在主观、外显的解释偏差,他们更倾向于对正性刺激做出消极解释,并且这种偏差产生于认知加工的后期。     

暴力媒体接触程度对攻击行为的影响——规范信念和移情的作用

研究引入攻击行为的规范信念和移情两个概念,使用攻击性发展稳定的大学生为被试,探讨暴力媒体对攻击行为的作用机制。采用问卷调查法,使用Anderson等人编写的暴力媒体接触程度问卷、攻击行为规范信念量表（NOBAG）、攻击问卷（AQ）和人际活动指标问卷（IRI）对来自北京、福州和成都三地的680名被试进行实地调查,了解其暴力媒体接触程度、攻击行为规范信念、攻击行为和移情能力间的关系,并在此基础上构建了暴力媒体接触程度、移情、规范信念和攻击行为的结构方程模型。研究结果表明：（1）不同性别的攻击性差异显著,男性更经常使用暴力媒体,具有更高的攻击行为规范信念,且倾向于出现攻击行为;（2）暴力媒体对攻击行为的预测作用显著,且不同媒体形式间存在差异,暴力视频游戏的作用显著强于暴力电视和暴力电影/视频;（3）规范信念可以有效预测攻击行为,在暴力媒体接触程度和攻击行为间、移情和攻击行为间起中介作用。     

PTSD青少年对威胁图片注意偏向的时程特点及习惯化倾向

探讨创伤后应激障碍(post-traumatic stress disorder,PTSD)青少年(n=20)与创伤控制组(n=20)对威胁图片注意偏向的时间进程特点以及习惯化倾向.在线索提示任务中,图片的呈现时间为100ms、500ms和1250ms.研究表明:(1)在时间进程上,当图片呈现100ms时,创伤控制组对地震图存在注意警觉;当呈现时间为500ms时,两组被试对负性图和地震图存在注意回避;当呈现时间为1250ms时,PTSD组对负性图仍存在注意回避、对地震图的注意偏向消失,创伤控制组对负性图和地震图的注意偏向均消失.(2)在习惯化倾向上,当第六次呈现威胁图片时,PTSD组对负性图和地震图的注意偏向消失,而创伤控制组对负性图和地震图的注意回避仍未消失.     

Experiential Tasks and Therapist Bias Awareness

All therapists have values, assumptions, and beliefs about groups of people who are different from the dominant culture. How the therapeutic process is shadowed by therapists' assumptions and attitudes toward ethnic minorities is discussed. The author provides experiential techniques such as visualization, role playing, role reversal, family sculpturing, and a written assignment as a vehicle to heighten a family therapists' awareness of underlying assumptions and biases toward clients of an ethnic minority.     

Effects of Interpersonal Affect Upon Fairness Judgment

We examined the effect of interpersonal affect on fairness judgment. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to write down fair and unfair behaviors that positive and negative persons performed, giving as many examples as possible within 5 minutes. Participants wrote more fair behaviors for the positive person than for the negative, and wrote more unfair behaviors for the negative person than for the positive. In Experiments 2 and 3, subjects rated the perceived frequency of 60 behaviors (30 fair and 30 unfair). In both experiments, they evaluated fair behaviors by the positive person to be more frequent than those of the negative, and unfair behaviors by the negative person to be more frequent than those of the positive. The results indicate that fairness judgment is influenced by the participant's positive and negative affect toward the judged object. The effects of positive and negative interpersonal affect on fairness judgment are discussed.     

Ethnicity/race, paranoia, and psychiatric diagnoses: Clinician bias versus sociocultural differences

Two contradictory assumptions underlie research on race differences in psychiatric diagnoses: (1) the clinician bias (CB) hypothesis, which assumes that Blacks and Whites exhibit symptomatology similarly, but diagnosticians mistakenly judge them differently; and (2) the cultural relativity (CR) hypothesis, which assumes that Blacks and Whites have different modes of expressing psychopathology but diagnosticians are unaware of or insensitive to such cultural differences. The purpose of the present study is to conduct a comparative test of the CB and CR hypotheses focusing on paranoid symptoms. The study examines race differences on the scales of Distrust (DST), Perceived Hostility of Others (PHO), and False Beliefs and Perceptions (FBP) from the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview (PERI), which measure different types of symptoms ranging from relatively ordinary suspiciousness (i.e., mild paranoia) to the severe kind of paranoia often observed in schizophrenia, in relation to rigorous research diagnoses of depression and schizophrenia-like disorders. In effect, the CB and CR hypotheses become the null and alternative hypotheses, respectively, under conditions where the diagnoses are made according to research criteria. The present findings support the CR hypothesis over the CB hypothesis. The implications of these results for the psychiatric misdiagnosis of Black individuals are discussed.