Humor and the coronary-prone behavior pattern

The belief is widely held that humor is related to recovery from, and perhaps an increased resistance to, coronary and other stress-related diseases. Such generalizations do not typically distinguish between benign and hostile humor. In the present research, the relationship between a measure of proneness to coronary heart disease (CHD) and appreciation of hostile and nonhostile humor is examined. In two studies, one with college students and one with patients suffering from CHD, the relationship between humor preferences and the coronary-prone (Type A) behavior pattern was examined. Each subject was given the Jenkins Activity Survey as a measure of the coronary-prone personality type, and aggressive and nonaggressive jokes to rate for funniness. Hostile humor was preferred to nonhostile humor by all groups, but among those suffering from CHD, those who could be classified as “Type B’s” preferred nonhostile humor. The results indicate that those less prone to CHD appreciate both hostile and nonhostile humor, while Type A’s seem to enjoy hostile humor only.     

Diversifying experiences enhance cognitive flexibility

Past research has linked creativity to unusual and unexpected experiences, such as early parental loss or living abroad. However, few studies have investigated the underlying cognitive processes. We propose that these experiences have in common a “diversifying” aspect and an active involvement, which together enhance cognitive flexibility (i.e., creative cognitive processing). In the first experiment, participants experienced complex unusual and unexpected events happening in a virtual reality. In the second experiment, participants were confronted with schema-violations. In both experiments, comparisons with various control groups showed that a diversifying experience – defined as the active (but not vicarious) involvement in an unusual event – increased cognitive flexibility more than active (or vicarious) involvement in normal experiences. Our findings bridge several lines of research and shed light on a basic cognitive mechanism responsible for creativity.     

Lifestyle Risk Factors for Breast Cancer in BRCA1/2-Mutation Carriers Around Childbearing Age

BRCA1/2-mutation carriers are at high risk of breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer. Physical inactivity, overweight (body mass index ≥25, BMI), smoking, and alcohol consumption are jointly responsible for about 1 in 4 postmenopausal BC cases in the general population. Limited evidence suggests physical activity also increases BC risk in BRCA1/2-mutation carriers. Women who have children often reduce physical activity and have weight gain, which increases BC risk. We assessed aforementioned lifestyle factors in a cohort of 268 BRCA1/2-mutation carriers around childbearing age (born between 1968 and 1983, median age 33 years, range 21–44). Furthermore, we evaluated the effect of having children on physical inactivity and overweight. Carriers were asked about lifestyle 4–6 weeks after genetic diagnosis at the Familial Cancer Clinic Nijmegen. Physical inactivity was defined as sports activity fewer than once a week. Carriers were categorized according to the age of their youngest child (no children, age 0–3 years and ≥4 years). In total, 48% of carriers were physically inactive, 41% were overweight, 27% smoked, and 70% consumed alcohol (3% ≥8 beverages/week). Physical inactivity was 4–5 times more likely in carriers with children. Overweight was not associated with having children. Carriers with children are a subgroup that may specifically benefit from lifestyle support to reduce BC risk.     

Bayesian inference for psychology. Part II: Example applications with JASP

Bayesian hypothesis testing presents an attractive alternative to p value hypothesis testing. Part I of this series outlined several advantages of Bayesian hypothesis testing, including the ability to quantify evidence and the ability to monitor and update this evidence as data come in, without the need to know the intention with which the data were collected. Despite these and other practical advantages, Bayesian hypothesis tests are still reported relatively rarely. An important impediment to the widespread adoption of Bayesian tests is arguably the lack of user-friendly software for the run-of-the-mill statistical problems that confront psychologists for the analysis of almost every experiment: the t-test, ANOVA, correlation, regression, and contingency tables. In Part II of this series we introduce JASP (http://www.jasp-stats.org), an open-source, cross-platform, user-friendly graphical software package that allows users to carry out Bayesian hypothesis tests for standard statistical problems. JASP is based in part on the Bayesian analyses implemented in Morey and Rouder’s BayesFactor package for R. Armed with JASP, the practical advantages of Bayesian hypothesis testing are only a mouse click away.     

Early maternal deprivation retards neurodevelopment in Wistar rats

A single 24 h period of maternal deprivation (MD) in rats has been shown to induce, in adulthood, a number of abnormalities in brain and behaviour that also occur in patients with schizophrenia. However, the short-term behavioural effects of MD have not been studied in detail. Since patients with schizophrenia are characterized by a retardation of normal development, we aimed in the present study to investigate the development of control rats and rats that were exposed to MD on postnatal day 9. Compared to control animals, MD rats showed (1) a reduction in body weight, (2) an increased in reversal latency in negative geotaxis, (3) a delayed eye opening, (4) a delayed emergence of walking and rearing; and (5) a delayed emergence of the behavioural response to amphetamine (amph). On the other hand, MD and control rats responded similarly to the non-competitive NMDA antagonist MK801. These data clearly show that early MD delays development, especially of the dopaminergic system and confirm our hypothesis that MD may represent an interesting animal model for the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia.     

Distancing from a stigmatized social identity: State of the art and future research agenda on self-group distancing

Despite equal rights, minority groups such as ethnic minorities, LGBTQ + people, and people with mental or physical disabilities face discrimination on a day-to-day basis in subtle and hard-to-recognize forms. As discrimination slips beneath the surface, it becomes difficult to fight the stigma using collective social identity coping mechanisms. Instead, individual mobility responses such as distancing the self from the stigmatized identity (“self-group distancing”) become more viable as a way to improve one's individual standing. In this overview of the state of the art, we take a social identity lens to reflect on the current empirical knowledge base on self-group distancing as a coping mechanism and provide a framework on what self-group distancing is; when, where and why self-group distancing likely occurs; and what its consequences are at the individual and the collective level. The contributions in this special issue provide novel insights into how these processes unfold, and serve as a basis to set a future research agenda, for example on what can be done to prevent self-group distancing (i.e., interventions). Together, the insights highlight that while self-group distancing may seem effective to (strategically and temporarily) alleviate discomfort or to improve one's own position, on a broader collective level and over time self-group distancing tends to keep the current unequal social hierarchy in place.     

Under the Spell of the Ring

Among orthodox reformed Christians in the Netherlands fierce debates have occurred on moral aspects of Christian life. This essay discusses three major controversial moral issues that are related to conceptions of sex, gender, and sexuality: divorce/remarriage, women’s ordination, and homosexuality. By analysing several contributions to debates on these issues, it proposes and explores a hypothesis that concerns the role of a particular understanding of marriage as characterized by a hermeneutical construct: a communal, deeply rooted and subconscious normative principle that drives our interpretations of texts and practices. This essay illustrates the problems of both the dominance of marriage within Christian communities and lived faith, as well as the modern, romantic aspects of this particular understanding of marriage.