Genuine and drug-induced synesthesia: A comparison

Despite some principal similarities, there is no systematic comparison between the different types of synesthesia (genuine, acquired and drug-induced). This comprehensive review compares the three principal types of synesthesia and focuses on their phenomenological features and their relation to different etiological models. Implications of this comparison for the validity of the different etiological models are discussed. Comparison of the three forms of synesthesia show many more differences than similarities. This is in contrast to their representation in the literature, where they are discussed in many respects as being virtually similar. Noteworthy is the much broader spectrum and intensity with the typical drug-induced synesthesias compared to genuine and acquired synesthesias. A major implication of the phenomenological comparison in regard to the etiological models is that genuine and acquired synesthesias point to morphological substrates, while drug-induced synesthesia appears to be based on functional changes of brain activity.     

Value From Adversity: How We Deal With Adversity Matters

Participants in our study worked on an anagram task to win a prize while aversive noise played in the background. They were instructed to deal with the noise either by "opposing" it as an interference or by "coping" with the unpleasant feelings it created. The strength of attention to the opposing or coping response to adversity was measured by poorer recognition of the content of the background noise. For the "opposing" participants, it was predicted that the more they attended to opposing the interference, they stronger they would engage in solving the anagrams to win the prize, which would increase the prize's value. For the "coping" participants, it was predicted that the more they attended to coping with their unpleasant feelings, the weaker they would engage in solving the anagrams to win the prize, which would decrease the prize's value. The results supported both predictions.     

Switching in the cocktail party: exploring intentional control of auditory selective attention

Using a novel variant of dichotic selective listening, we examined the control of auditory selective attention. In our task, subjects had to respond selectively to one of two simultaneously presented auditory stimuli (number words), always spoken by a female and a male speaker, by performing a numerical size categorization. The gender of the task-relevant speaker could change, as indicated by a visual cue prior to auditory stimulus onset. Three experiments show clear performance costs with instructed attention switches. Experiment 2 varied the cuing interval to examine advance preparation for an attention switch. Experiment 3 additionally isolated auditory switch costs from visual cue priming by using two cues for each gender, so that gender repetition could be indicated by a changed cue. Experiment 2 showed that switch costs decreased with prolonged cuing intervals, but Experiment 3 revealed that preparation did not affect auditory switch costs but only visual cue priming. Moreover, incongruent numerical categories in competing auditory stimuli produced interference and substantially increased error rates, suggesting continued processing of task-relevant information that often leads to responding to the incorrect auditory source. Together, the data show clear limitations in advance preparation of auditory attention switches and suggest a considerable degree of inertia in intentional control of auditory selection criteria.     

Ambivalent Sexism and Religion: Connected Through Values

Sexist attitudes do not exist in a limbo; they are embedded in larger belief systems associated with specific hierarchies of values. In particular, manifestations of benevolent sexism (Glick and Fiske 1996, 1997, 2001) can be perceived as a social boon, not a social ill, both because they are experienced as positive, and because they reward behaviors that maintain social stability. One of the strongest social institutions that create and justify specific hierarchies of values is religion. In this paper, we examine how the values inherent in religious beliefs (perhaps inadvertently) propagate an unequal status quo between men and women through endorsement of ideologies linked to benevolent sexism. In a survey with a convenience sample of train passengers in Southern and Eastern Poland (N?=?180), we investigated the relationship between Catholic religiosity and sexist attitudes. In line with previous findings (Gaunt 2012; Glick et al. 2002a; Ta?demir and Sakall?-U?urlu 2010), results suggest that religiosity can be linked to endorsement of benevolent sexism. This relationship was mediated in our study by the values of conservatism and openness to change (Schwartz 1992): religious individuals appear to value the societal status quo, tradition, and conformity, which leads them to perceive women through the lens of traditional social roles. Adhering to the teachings of a religion that promotes family values in general seems to have as its byproduct an espousal of prejudicial attitudes toward specific members of the family.     

Perspective of Islamic Self: Rethinking Ibn al-Qayyim’s Three-Heart Model from the Scope of Dynamical Social Psychology

The present article proposes the perspective of Islamic self (PIS), which is guided by three core principles. First, the Islamic self is shaped by the God’s predicament: The life test. Second, the structure of the self and its spiritual virtues represent means to succeed the life test. Third, the complex dynamics of the self can be mathematically formalized into a parsimonious framework. Specifically, the PIS considers the self as a dynamical system characterized by the emergence of self-organized stable and unstable patterns taking the form of positive (“illuminating heart”) or negative (“darkened heart”) dynamics.     

Novelty Categorization Theory

Novelty Categorization Theory (NCT) attempts to predict when people perceive events as novel and how they process novel events across different domains. It is predicted that broad mental categories reduce the perception of an event being novel via inclusion processes, whereas narrow categories increase it via exclusion processes. Furthermore, based on a ‘motive to know’, when preparing for novel events, people broaden both perception and mental categories, because to understand novel information, it is essential to integrate it into pre-existing knowledge structures that are sufficiently broad. Over time, a ‘when-novel-then-process-globally’ routine develops that is automatically elicited when novelty is encountered. Self-protective motives can, however, counteract such processing styles so that threatening novelty leads to local processing. Relations to construal level theory and action identification theory and implications for future research are discussed.     

Wahrscheinlichkeit und Schlu? aus Teilpr?missen:

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Impression mismanagement: People as inept self‐presenters

People routinely manage the impressions they make on others, attempting to project a favorable self‐image. The bulk of the literature has portrayed people as savvy self‐presenters who typically succeed at conveying a desired impression. When people fail at making a favorable impression, such as when they come across as braggers, regulatory resource depletion is to blame. Recent research, however, has identified antecedents and strategies that foster systematic impression management failures (independently of regulatory resource depletion), suggesting that self‐presenters are far from savvy. In fact, they commonly mismanage their impressions without recognizing it. We review failed perspective taking and narcissism as two prominent antecedents of impression mismanagement. Further, we argue that failed perspective taking, exacerbated by narcissism, contributes to suboptimal impression management strategies, such as hubris, humblebragging, hypocrisy, and backhanded compliments. We conclude by discussing how self‐presenters might overcome some of the common traps of impression mismanagement.     

Wahrfcheinlichkeit:

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Vergleich zweier diagnostischer Ans?tze zur Erfassung der Sexualfantasien p?dophiler M?nner

Two diagnostic approaches to measure sexual fantasies, the Wilson Sexual Fantasy Questionnaire (WSFQ; Wilson 1988, Sex Marital Ther 3:45) as a quantitative self-report measure and the qualitative content analysis categories for the fantasy content, have been examined regarding their quality and capability for identifying pedophilic fantasies. For this purpose 33 men from the general community were selected and compared with 24 adult men from the project ??Kein Täter werden?? (avoid being a perpetrator) at the Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine, Charité Clinical Center, Berlin, all fulfilling diagnostic criteria of pedophilia according to DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision) (American Psychiatric Association 2000, Washington). The examination revealed that the reliability of the WSFQ scales (Cronbach??s ??) varied between moderate and good. The interrater reliability coefficients of content analysis categories ranged between moderate and predominantly good and very good. The WSFQ identified a generalized impersonal character only as a main feature of pedophilic fantasies and proved to have limited capability for identification of specific contents of sexual fantasies of persons with these diagnoses. In contrast, content analysis categories allowed identification of a set of specific features of the fantasized partners, pedophilic men and the sexual contacts in addition to the age and prepubertal body of a preferential partner which might be traced back to the preference for prepubertal age. Replication studies are necessary for evaluation of the current findings on the basis of a representative sample of men with pedophilia. These findings might be of primary use for the diagnosis of pedophilia.