Deprivation in the early mother-daughter relationship: A factor in the development of the narcissistic personality

Depriving mother-child relationships at an early age lay the foundation for narcissistic disturbances. Here, the specific focus is on mother-daughter relationships and the lack of appropriate maternal recognition and admiration of the infant. The particular treatment modality combines individual psychotherapy with a female therapist and group therapy in an all-women's group. The transferential phenomena to the various women found in this treatment situation are instrumental in helping the female patient achieve a significant change in her narcissistic personality.     

Depression and the soul

Clergy are often confronted by challenges in dealing with the depressed congregant. This paper addresses the interface between psychology, psychiatry, and religion in a discussion of two cases. Models are suggested for dealing with the issues raised by the depressed congregant. The paper developed from a symposium on “The Depressed Congregant: Three Pastoral Responses to a Case Vignette” presented at a conference for cleargy onDepression and The Soul, at Temple Sholom in Chicago.     

Cognitive-behavioral treatment for professional sexual misconduct among the clergy

Inappropriate sexual behavior by professionals has been reported in increasing numbers. This article focuses on the cognitive-behavioral treatment of clergy who have acted out sexually. Case studies are used to identify the various issues and facets of treatment. The article concludes with a program designed to return previously offending clergy to active roles within their denominations is described.     

The Big-Five, sense of control, mental health and fear of crime as contributory factors to attitudes towards punishment

Low sense of control (SoC), mental health problems and fear of crime (FoC) have separately and previously been linked to the Big-Five personality dimensions, but no study to date has sought to integrate these constructs simultaneously in relation to overall punitiveness. These constructs were assessed in 232 participants using an online survey to examine hypothesised relations between FoC and SoC, poorer mental health, Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E) and Conscientiousness (C), and any resultant punitiveness. Measures were highly correlated, and an exploratory factor analysis summarised these as ‘instability’ and ‘crime attitude’ dimensions. A structural equation model found that high levels of N and poor mental health, as well as low levels of C, E and SoC were related to a latent variable of ‘distress’, which fed into heightened FoC. High levels of C further influenced FoC, which subsequently had an effect on individuals’ greater punitiveness. The current study supports the previous literature regarding variables that influence FoC and attitudes to punishment, and establishes novel associations involving personality.     

Exposure to Product Placement in Text Can Influence Consumer Judgments

Five experiments explored the consequences of exposure to product placement in text. In each experiment, participants read three short stories containing the names of several brand‐name products. When given a surprise judgment task asking them to rate their likelihood of purchasing a number of brands—some of which were placed and some of which were not placed—participants rated placed brands significantly higher than non‐placed brands. This effect of product placement was observed even when participants were warned about product placement prior to reading the stories, and even when participants reported having a negative opinion about product placement as a form of advertisement. Under some conditions, however, the effect did interact with brand familiarity, such that judgments of familiar brands were affected less by product placement than were judgments of unfamiliar brands. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is!’: Effects of Streaks on Confidence and Betting in a Binary Choice Task

Human choice under uncertainty is influenced by erroneous beliefs about randomness. In simple binary choice tasks, such as red/black predictions in roulette, long outcome runs (e.g. red, red, red) typically increase the tendency to predict the other outcome (i.e. black), an effect labeled the “gambler's fallacy.” In these settings, participants may also attend to streaks in their predictive performance. Winning and losing streaks are thought to affect decision confidence, although prior work indicates conflicting directions. Over three laboratory experiments involving red/black predictions in a sequential roulette task, we sought to identify the effects of outcome runs and winning/losing streaks upon color predictions, decision confidence and betting behavior. Experiments 1 (n = 40) and 3 (n = 40) obtained trial‐by‐trial confidence ratings, with a win/no win payoff and a no loss/loss payoff, respectively. Experiment 2 (n = 39) obtained a trial‐by‐trial bet amount on an equivalent scale. In each experiment, the gambler's fallacy was observed on choice behavior after color runs and, in experiment 2, on betting behavior after color runs. Feedback streaks exerted no reliable influence on confidence ratings, in either payoff condition. Betting behavior, on the other hand, increased as a function of losing streaks. The increase in betting on losing streaks is interpreted as a manifestation of loss chasing; these data help clarify the psychological mechanisms underlying loss chasing and caution against the use of betting measures (“post‐decision wagering”) as a straightforward index of decision confidence. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

With the future behind them: convergent evidence from aymara language and gesture in the crosslinguistic comparison of spatial construals of time

Cognitive research on metaphoric concepts of time has focused on differences between moving Ego and moving time models, but even more basic is the contrast between Ego‐ and temporal‐reference‐point models. Dynamic models appear to be quasi‐universal cross‐culturally, as does the generalization that in Ego‐reference‐point models, FUTURE IS IN FRONT OF EGO and PAST IS IN BACK OF EGO. The Aymara language instead has a major static model of time wherein FUTURE IS BEHIND EGO and PAST IS IN FRONT OF EGO; linguistic and gestural data give strong confirmation of this unusual culture‐specific cognitive pattern. Gestural data provide crucial information unavailable to purely linguistic analysis, suggesting that when investigating conceptual systems both forms of expression should be analyzed complementarily. Important issues in embodied cognition are raised: how fully shared are bodily grounded motivations for universal cognitive patterns, what makes a rare pattern emerge, and what are the cultural entailments of such patterns?