Changes in desire for control over time: Gender differences in a ten-year longitudinal study

Undergraduate students from a predominantly white middle class student body who were administered the Desirability of Control Scale in 1980 completed the scale again in 1990. Males scored significantly higher on the scale than females, indicating a higher desire for control, in the initial sample. The males' scores did not differ significantly over the ten-year period. However, the female subjects' scores increased over the course of the decade to a point not significantly different from that of the males. Possible explanations of this effect concern changes in gender role expectations in the 1980's and changes in the women's preference for control following school and career experiences.Some of the data reported in this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, 1991.Reprint requests should be addressed to either Jerry M. Burger at Department of Psychology, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, or Cecilia H. Solano at Department of Psychology, Box 7778, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109.     

Effect of arousal increase in predictable and random task switching: evidence for the involvement of the anterior attentional network in random but not in predictable task switching

Switch cost does not disappear as more preparation time for the next task is allowed. Tornay and Milán showed that the residual cost is smaller when tasks switch randomly than when they alternate in predictable sequences. They proposed that the difference was due to control mechanisms (anterior attentional network) being activated in the random condition because of its overall difficulty. Besides, it has been shown that increasing arousal levels inhibits the anterior attentional network. Therefore, Tornay and Milán's account predicts that high arousal should result in switch cost for the random condition increasing to the levels of predictable switching. In this work, this prediction was tested by assessing the interaction between increased arousal and switch cost with both predictable and random-task switching. The results may help to solve the ongoing controversy about the causes of switch cost.     

Expression and processing of emotions: Relationships with cd4+ levels in 42 hiv-positive asymptomatic individuals

Abstract

Background: The study investigated the relationship between CD4+ levels and two emotion-related measures, one of expressed emotion (Hostility directed Inwards, Hdl) and one of capacity for emotional processing (Referential Activity, RA).

Method42 HIV-1 positive asymptomatic subjects, under AZT treatment, underwent CD4+ assessment immediately after a brief interview. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using the Gottschalk-Gleser and Referential Activity scales. Of the Gottschalk-Gleser scales, only Hdl was considered.

ResultsAs hypothesized, the regression of emotion-related scores on CD4 + levels showed a curvilinearrelationship with Hdl scores, and a linearrelationship with RA scores. Subjects with the best immune status therefore showed intermediate levels of expressed emotion and a high capacity for emotional processing.

ConclusionThe findings support the usefulness of working through, rather than releasing emotion. Previous negative findings in the field might be explained by the unjustified assumption of linear relationships between expressed emotion and health.     

Character strengths: a study of Argentinean soldiers

The primary objective of this research was to study the differences in positive traits between military and civilian college students and between cadets in their first and final years at a military academy. Second, the research aimed to study the relations between positive traits and the academic and military performance of cadets in their first and final years, according to the classification of positive traits by Peterson and Seligman (2004). To accomplish these objectives, a sample of university students from a military educational institution and a sample of civilian university students were studied. The instruments used were a 24-item self-report measure of positive traits, a measure of social desirability, and objective scores of academic and military performance. The results generally showed that when age and career stage were held constant, the scores of the military students were higher than the scores of the civilian students across various strengths. Military students reported higher levels of the character strength of spirituality than did civilian students. The relationships between strengths and performance differed for students in their first and final years at the military academy. In particular, cadets with the higher levels of academic or military performance in their last year, i.e., the cadets best adapted to the academy, reported higher levels of the character strength of persistence when compared to low-performing cadets in the same year of study.     

Mate preferences in Argentinean transgender people: An evolutionary perspective

Transgender people provide a unique opportunity to examine the effect of biological sex versus gender identity on mating preferences. This study aimed at identifying the mate characteristics that are most and least valued by transgender people and at examining to what extent their biological sex or their gender identity determined their mate preferences. A convenience sample of 134 male‐to‐female (MTF) and 94 female‐to‐male (FTM) individuals from Argentina rated Buss's list of 18 mate attributes. Compared to FTM, MTF individuals placed significantly more emphasis on attractiveness and socioeconomic status, whereas FTM, more than MTF individuals, valued partners with a dependable character. Although biological sex differences were present in both groups, providing support to the evolutionary theory, MTF individuals valued the same characteristics as both biological male and female individuals do.     

Some thoughts between body and mind in the light of Wilma Bucci's multiple code theory

The author proposes the usefulness of Wilma Bucci's Multiple Code Theory in clarifying some controversial issues in psychoanalytically inspired psychosomatics. Definition of a dialectic among different entities may appear difficult in an unitarian view of the organism, where body and mind are seen as having no kind of intrinsic existence, which may be differentiated from the organism as a whole, but as two categories having to do with the perspective of the observer. This aporia may find a solution in a redefinition of the body-mind relationship as that between symbolic systems and the subsymbolic system, both of which may be viewed as mind or as body depending on the point of observation. Similarly, somatic pathology, if we accept an unitary paradigm, need no longer be viewed as due to an influence of 'mind' on 'body': a definition of pathology as linked to a disconnection between different systems, as found in Bucci's theory, is proposed as a possible solution. Emergence of somatic symptoms, however, besides being witness to disconnection, may be seen as the subsymbolic first expression of an item of content, an attempt at reconnection, as already proposed, in a way, by Winnicott in 1949. This attempt has much better opportunities to succeed when it finds an adequate container, as in analysis. A clinical situation of this kind is presented.     

On the strategic modulation of the time course of facilitation and inhibition of return

In studies of exogenous attentional orienting, response times for targets at previously cued locations are often longer than those for targets at previously uncued locations. This effect is known widely as inhibition of return (IOR). There has been debate as to whether IOR can be observed in discrimination as well as detection tasks. The experiments reported here confirm that IOR can be observed when target discrimination is required and that the cue-target interval at which IOR is observed is often longer in discrimination than in detection tasks. The results also demonstrate that the later emergence of IOR is related to perceptual discrimination rather than to response selection differences between discrimination and detection tasks. More difficult discrimination tasks lengthen the SOA at which IOR emerges. In contrast, increasing task difficulty by adding a distractor to the location opposite the target shortens the SOA at which IOR emerges. Together, the results reveal an adaptive interaction between exogenous and endogenous attentional systems, in which the action of the orienting (exogenous) system is modulated endogenously in accord with task demands.     

Anxiety in eating disorders: a comparative study

Scientific literature shows that anxiety is an important factor in eating disorders. The aim of this case-control study was to compare the anxiety manifestations obtained by means of the Anxiety Situations and Responses Inventory of in a clinical sample of 74 females (46, anorexia nervosa; 28, bulimia) to those obtained by a control group (130 girls without disorders). The between-group ANOVA results showed higher anxiety scores in the clinical group with a medium effect size for the anxiety trait, finding a flat profile (within-group ANOVA) for the three response systems (cognitive, physiological and motor) and the four specific anxiety traits (test, interpersonal, phobic, and daily life situations). Moreover, high scores in anxiety involved a greater risk of being diagnosed with an eating disorder in the 8 bivariate comparisons. The estimations were more precise for cognitive anxiety and for the specific interpersonal anxiety trait.     

THE METAPHOR OF THE ARCHITECT IN DARWIN: CHANCE AND FREE WILL

In The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, published in 1868, Darwin used the metaphor of the architect to argue in favor of natural autonomy and to clarify the role of chance in his theory of adaptive change by variation and natural selection. In this article, I trace the history of this important heuristic instrument in Darwin's writings and letters and suggest that this metaphor was important to Darwin because it helps him to explain the role of chance, and gives an argument in favor of the free will.