The symbolic self in evolutionary context

Structure, network analysis, psychometric properties and clinical utility of the self-absorption scale in China

BACKGROUND

Self-absorption refers an excessive, persistent, and rigid preoccupation with information regarding the self. This study aims to introduce the Self-Absorption Scale (SAS) into China with an assessment of its latent variable structure, network structure, psychometric properties, and clinical utility in a nonclinical Chinese sample.

METHODS

209 participants completed the translated SAS as well as the Short General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), rumination subscale of the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire (RRQ), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), the Private Self-Consciousness Scale (PrSCS), the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) and the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II). In addition, 30 respondents completed the Chinese version of the SAS and retested it 2 weeks later.

RESULTS

The Chinese version of the SAS (CH-SAS) had a desirable two-correlated-factor structure with the reverse scored item removed, which was invariant across different genders. The core items in the network structure of the CH-SAS were related to excessive self-immersion, uncontrollability and anxiety aspects of self-absorption. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the CH-SAS was 0.903 while the McDonald's omega coefficient was 0.916 and the test-retest reliability was 0.908. The CH-SAS and its two subscales had moderate positive correlations with the rumination subscale of the RRQ (ranging from 0.474 to 0.616; p < .001) and the GHQ-12 (ranging from 0.479 to 0.538; p < .001), and moderate negative correlations with the MAAS (ranging from - 0.413 to - 0.360; p < .001). The PrSCS has almost no correlation with the CH-SAS and PrSAS (p > .05), and its correlation with the PubSAS was significant at the 0.05 level, with a remarkably low correlation coefficient (r = .157). The hierarchical regression analysis suggested that the CH-SAS can significantly predict the severity of OCD beyond factors such as depression, anxiety, rumination, dissociation, and mindful attention awareness.

CONCLUSIONS

The CH-SAS demonstrates excellent reliability, including internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Additionally, it exhibits favorable structural validity, as well as strong evidence of convergent and divergent validity. Furthermore, the self-absorption measured using the CH-SAS contributed significantly to the prediction of OCD beyond other relevant psychological factors, suggesting its clinical utility.

The effect of approach and avoidance motivation on self-perception

This work addresses the link between motivation and self-perception by systematically studying visual self-representations. We propose that the way individuals perceive themselves may be associated with dispositional and situationally induced approach and avoidance motivation. First, we investigate how dispositional differences in approach/avoidance motivation and self-esteem relate to self-perception. Second, we investigate how state differences in approach/avoidance motivation relate to self-perception. Based on motivation literature, we predicted that self-perception would reflect psychological equanimity at the dispositional level (seeing the self in a favorable light), and motivational flexibility at the situational level (situational avoidance motivation results in a more realistic view of one's qualities). We use up-to-date face modeling methods to measure individuals' self-perceptions in a systematic, nuanced, and implicit way: Participants are repeatedly asked to indicate which of two portrait versions better represents themselves. Then we relate distortions in self-perceptions to agency and communion dimensions. We demonstrate that (1) participants low in self-esteem show more communion enhancement than participants high in self-esteem; (2) participants in an avoidance state show less agency enhancement (i.e., more realistic self-perceptions) than participants in an approach state. This research is first to demonstrate regularities in visual self-perception that are linked to approach and avoidance motivation.

The differential roles of shame and guilt in the relationship between self-discrepancy and psychological maladjustment

The self-discrepancy theory proposes that having inconsistent self-representations can trigger feelings of shame and guilt, leading to experiences of depression and anxiety. The aim of this study was to determine the distinct characteristics of each shame and guilt in relation to the connection between actual/ideal self-discrepancy and depression, as well as actual/ought self-discrepancy and anxiety. A total of 403 participants completed an online questionnaire assessing their self-discrepancy, shame, guilt, depression, and anxiety. Correlational analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis were used to assess the goodness of fit of the proposed model and the structural relationships between the variables. The key findings were as follows: (1) There were positive correlations among actual/ideal self-discrepancy, actual/ought self-discrepancy, shame, guilt, depression, and anxiety; (2) Shame partially mediated the association between actual/ideal self-discrepancy and depression; and (3) Guilt fully mediated the association between actual/ought self-discrepancy and anxiety. These outcomes uphold the self-discrepancy theory by confirming a distinct intra-psychological process involving shame and guilt. Each type of self-discrepancy was related to experiences of depression and anxiety. Our data suggest that researchers and practitioners should prioritize shame and guilt when examining individuals' self-discrepancy and related mental health challenges.

Retirement is not the end of the road: Essentialist beliefs about aging moderate the association between future time perspective and retirement adjustment

Objective: The present study aims to investigate whether changes in future time perspective could influence individual's retirement process and adjustment. Moreover, we would also like to test moderation effect of essentialist beliefs about aging on the association between changes in future time perspective and retirement adjustment. Method: 201 participants were recruited 3 months before retirement and followed for 6 months. Future time perspective was measured before and after retirement. Essentialist beliefs about aging was measured before retirement. Other demographics as well as life satisfaction were also measured as covariates. Results: Multiple regressions were conducted, and the results revealed that (1) retirement could lead to limited future time perspective, but individual differences regarding the influence of retirement on future time perspective also exists; (2) increase in future time perspective was positively associated with retirement adjustment; and moreover, (3) such association was moderated by fixed views of essentialist beliefs, such that retirees holding a more fixed view of essentialist beliefs about aging exhibited a stronger association between future time perspective change and retirement adjustment, while those who held less fixed view of essentialist beliefs about aging did not show such association. Discussion: The present study contributes to the literature by showing that future time perspective could be influence by retirement, and such changes could in turn further impact adjustment. And the association between changes in future time perspective and retirement adjustment was only effective among retirees holding more fixed views of essentialist beliefs about aging. Findings would also provide important practical implications to improve retirement adjustment.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04731-w.

Self-Continuity

Self-continuity is the subjective sense of connection between one's past and present selves (past-present self-continuity), between one's present and future selves (present-future self-continuity), or among one's past, present, and future selves (global self-continuity). We consider the motivational character of the three forms of self-continuity, their regulatory properties, and the internal or external factors that consolidate them. We also review their consequences for attitudes and judgments or decisions, motivation, intentions and behavior, and psychological and physical health. We further detail the psychological and behavioral benefits of self-discontinuity (i.e., a sense of disconnect among temporal selves). We next turn to the brain regions that are activated synchronously with self-continuity. We consider developmental perspectives on self-continuity, discuss collective self-continuity (along with its consequences and regulatory properties), and elaborate on cultural differences in self-continuity. This inaugural Annual Reviews chapter demonstrates the breadth, excitement, and sense of synergy among self-continuity researchers and points to promising research directions.

A New Perspective on "Drinking" Self: A Network Approach to Characterizing Drinking-Related Changes in Personality

BACKGROUND

Previous research suggests that self-knowledge, particularly perceptions of oneself as a "drinker," may influence the development and progression of alcohol use and related problems, such as binge drinking. While existing studies have provided empirical evidence for the importance of assessing drinking self-perception within the five-factor model of personality framework, further examination with novel analytic methods, such as network analyses, could improve understanding of the drinker self-concept. Methods: Five factor traits of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability were assessed among a large sample of young adults (n = 423) across "general" and "drinking" contexts. Features of the personality networks were investigated, including topology, network centrality, stability of the network across "general" and "drinking" assessments, as well as differences in the network across the two assessments. Results: Individual personality items were more related to other items within the same trait than to other traits. There was no most central item in the networks, but item strength was uncorrelated to mean-level of the item. The network structure was stable across both assessments, although the overall strength of item relationships significantly increased in the drinking personality network. Conclusions: Examining drinking personality using a network analytic framework provided novel insights into drinker self-concept and the role drinking contexts might play in self-perception of personality in those contexts.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2022.2034874 .

The nature of the self: Neural analyses and heritability estimates of self-evaluations in middle childhood

How neural correlates of self-concept are influenced by environmental versus genetic factors is currently not fully understood. We investigated heritability estimates of behavioral and neural correlates of self-concept in middle childhood since this phase is an important time window for taking on new social roles in academic and social contexts. To do so, a validated self-concept fMRI task was applied in a twin sample of 345 participants aged between 7 and 9 years. In the self-concept condition, participants were asked to indicate whether academic and social traits applied to them whereas the control condition required trait categorization. The self-processing activation analyses (n = 234) revealed stronger medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation for self than for control conditions. This effect was more pronounced for social-self than academic self-traits, whereas stronger dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation was observed for academic versus social self-evaluations. Behavioral genetic modeling (166 complete twin pairs) revealed that 25-52% of the variation in academic self-evaluations was explained by genetic factors, whereas 16-49% of the variation in social self-evaluations was explained by shared environmental factors. Neural genetic modeling (91 complete twin pairs) for variation in mPFC and anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation for academic self-evaluations confirmed genetic and unique environmental influences, whereas anterior PFC activation for social self-evaluations was additionally influenced by shared environmental influences. This indicates that environmental context possibly has a larger impact on the behavioral and neural correlates of social self-concept at a young age. This is the first study demonstrating in a young twin sample that self-concept depends on both genetic and environmental factors, depending on the specific domain.

The divided brain: Functional brain asymmetry underlying self-construal

Self-construal (orientations of independence and interdependence) is a fundamental concept that guides human behaviour, and it is linked to a large number of brain regions. However, understanding the connectivity of these regions and the critical principles underlying these self-functions are lacking. Because brain activity linked to self-related processes are intrinsic, the resting-state method has received substantial attention. Here, we focused on resting-state functional connectivity matrices based on brain asymmetry as indexed by the differential partition of the connectivity located in mirrored positions of the two hemispheres, hemispheric specialization measured using the intra-hemispheric (left or right) connectivity, brain communication via inter-hemispheric interactions, and global connectivity as the sum of the two intra-hemispheric connectivity. Combining machine learning techniques with hypothesis-driven network mapping approaches, we demonstrated that orientations of independence and interdependence were best predicted by the asymmetric matrix compared to brain communication, hemispheric specialization, and global connectivity matrices. The network results revealed that there were distinct asymmetric connections between the default mode network, the salience network and the executive control network which characterise independence and interdependence. These analyses shed light on the importance of brain asymmetry in understanding how complex self-functions are optimally represented in the brain networks.

The role of metacognition, type of feedback, and kind of incentives for motivation to learn

BACKGROUND

Two experiments were designed to investigate the motivational role of the metacognitive self (MCS, meaning self-awareness of biases) and kind of feedback (success vs. failure vs. control group) in willingness to learn. We predict that the condition of failure enhances motivation to learn. Predictions relate to the first experiment and social incentives, not to spatial ones.

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE

Three hundred ninety-eight participants were individually (in front of a computer with E-Prime) and randomly assigned to experiment 1 of a social task or experiment 2 of a spatial task. Each experiment included three groups: success, failure, and control. The independent variables were metacognitive self (MCS) and type of feedback (success vs. failure vs. control). The dependent variable was the willingness to learn. Logistic regression was applied to investigate the hypothesis that the higher the level of MCS is, the more likely it is that the participants will try to learn.

RESULTS

As predicted, MCS was positively related to searching for self-diagnostic information in the first experiment. Furthermore, according to expectations, the experiment with a social task showed the main effects of both MCS and type of feedback. The spatial experiment did not reveal significant effects.

CONCLUSIONS

MCS is positively related to motivation to search for self-diagnostic information, and students are more willing to learn in the face of failure. According to expectations, the experiment with a social task substantiated the motivational role of MCS and the role of negative feedback in willingness to learn.

Exploring the Relationship between Disease Awareness and Outcomes in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

BACKGROUND

Disease awareness is a challenge in the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this analysis was to explore the association between COPD optimal and suboptimal awareness, clinical parameters, and the following patient-reported outcomes: modified Medical Research Council (mMRC), Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (TSQM-9), COPD Assessment Test (CAT), Morisky Medication-Taking Adherence Scale (MMAS-4), and Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ).

METHODS

This post hoc analysis of the SAT study included all enrolled patients for whom awareness (Disease Awareness in COPD Questionnaire - DACQ) was assessed at baseline and 12 months. DACQ scores ≥80 were considered an indicator of an optimal awareness.

RESULTS

367 patients (25.8% women, median age 72 years) were included in the analysis. At enrollment, 74 patients (20.2%) had a DACQ score ≥80. Patients with suboptimal awareness, compared to those in which awareness was optimal, had higher median scores for CAT (p = 0.0001) and mMRC (p = 0.0031), a lower median TSQM-9 global score (p < 0.0001), and higher median B-IPQ score (p < 0.0001). The proportion of patients who had exacerbations during the previous year was higher in patients with suboptimal COPD awareness than in those with DACQ score ≥80 (42.8 vs. 21.4%, p = 0.0009). During the 12-month observation period, illness perception, adherence, and treatment satisfaction were found to be independent factors significantly associated with level of disease awareness.

CONCLUSION

The results of our post hoc analysis suggest that patients' awareness of their COPD disease is related to both clinical outcomes and how they perceive and manage their condition.

Self-esteem effect on recall and recognition in episodic memory, in young and older adults

The effect of age on episodic memory has recently been shown to be modulated by individual characteristics such as psycho-emotional status. We investigated the combined effects of age and a psycho-emotional variable, Self-Esteem, on episodic memory (Cued-recall and recognition). We also examined the contribution of anxiety level on the influence of Self-Esteem on episodic memory during aging. This study revealed different patterns of the Self-Esteem effect according to age group. The effect on cued-recall was accounted for by Anxiety in the younger adults, although Self-Esteem and Anxiety seem to be overlapping dimensions for this age group. By contrast, in the older adults, the two factors influenced memory performance (recognition) independently, suggesting that older adults are particularly sensitive to the factors associated with the Self. We also postulate that there is a zone of optimal executive control by the Self (region of proximal executive control), corresponding to task difficulty linked to the individual's feeling of self-efficacy.

The Role of Subjective and Objective Social Status in the Generation of Envy

Envy is a negative emotion experienced in response to another person’s higher status. However, little is known about the composition of its most important element: status. The present research investigates the two main forms of social status (objective and subjective) in the generation of envy. In Study 1, participants recounted real-life situations when they felt envious; in Study 2 we examined whether the effect was the same in a controlled situation. We consistently found that those who were the most respected in the eyes of others were envied more than the richest ones. Furthermore, perceived deservingness of the superior other’s success differentiated between benign and malicious envy. Although previous studies focused on material comparisons when investigating envy, our results indicate that envy is rather a subjective social status related emotion. Not material, but social advantage of the superior other causes the most painful envy and future studies should put more emphasis on this type of social comparison in envy research.

Self‐esteem: a behavioural genetic perspective

Self‐esteem, the affective or evaluative appraisal of one's self, is linked with adaptive personality functioning: high self‐esteem is associated with psychological health benefits (e.g. subjective well‐being, absence of depression and anxiety), effective coping with illness, and satisfactory social relationships. Although several pathways have been hypothesized to effect within‐family transmission of self‐esteem (e.g. parenting style, family relationship patterns), we focus in this article on genetic influences. Genetic studies on both global and domain‐specific self‐esteem and on both level and stability of self‐esteem converge in showing that (i) genetic influences on self‐esteem are substantial, (ii) shared environmental influences are minimal, and (iii) non‐shared environmental influences explain the largest amount of variance in self‐esteem. We advocate that understanding of current issues in self‐esteem research will be enriched by including behavioural genetic approaches. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Psychotherapy for the 21st century: An integrative, evolutionary, contextual, biopsychosocial approach

Fragmentation of processes and interventions plague the psychotherapies (Gilbert & Kirby, ). Part of the problem is that we have not agreed on a framework that could be the basis for integrating knowledge and the scientific enquiry of processes and interventions. This paper outlines an approach that brings together a variety of different disciplines in the service of consilience (Wilson, , Consilience: The unity of knowledge, Vintage, New York, NY; Siegel, ). It presents the importance of an evolutionary framework for understanding the proclivities and dispositions for mental suffering and antisocial behaviour, and how they are choreographed in different sociodevelopmental contexts. Building on earlier models (Gilbert, , Human nature and suffering, Routledge, London, UK; Gilbert, , Clin. Psychol. Psychother., 2, 135; Gilbert, , Br. J. Med. Psychol., 71, 353; Gilbert, , Case formulation in cognitive behaviour therapy: The treatment of challenging cases, Wiley, Chichester, UK, pp. 50-89) the call is for an integrative, evolutionary, contextual, biopsychosocial approach to psychology and psychotherapy. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Evolutionary functional analysis is part of an evolutionary, contextual, biopsychosocial approach to mental health that can serve as a scientific platform for the future developments of psychotherapy. Therapist skills and training will increasing need to focus on the multidimensional textures of mental states especially the context-social-body linkages. Therapies of the future will also focus more on the moral aspects of therapy and address the need to promote prosocial and ethical behaviour to self and others.

The Influence of Face Inversion and Spatial Frequency on the Self-Positive Expression Processing Advantage

Previous research has examined the impact of late self-evaluation, ignoring the impact of the early visual coding stage and the extraction of facial identity information and expression information on the self-positive expression processing advantage. From the perspective of the processing course, this study examined the stability of the self-positive expression processing advantage and revealed its generation mechanism. In Experiment 1, inverted self-expression and others’ expressive pictures were used to influence early structural coding. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we used expression pictures of high and low spatial frequency, thereby affecting the extraction of facial identity information or expression information in the mid-term stage. The visual search paradigm was adopted in three experiments, asking subjects to respond to the target expression. We found that under the above experimental conditions, the search speed for self-faces was always faster than that for self-angry expressions and others’ faces. These results showed that, compared with others’ expressions and self-angry expressions, self-positive expressions were more prominent and more attractive. These findings suggest that self-expression recognition combines with conceptual self-knowledge to form an abstract and constant processing pattern. Therefore, the processing of self-expression recognition was not affected by the facial orientation and spatial frequencies.

Individual self > relational self > collective self-But why? Processes driving the self-hierarchy in self- and person perception

OBJECTIVE

The self has three parts: individual, relational, and collective. Typically, people personally value their individual self most, their relational self less, and their collective self least. This self-hierarchy is consequential, but underlying processes have remained unknown. Here, we propose two process accounts. The content account draws upon selves' agentic-communal content, explaining why the individual self is preferred most. The teleology account draws upon selves' instrumentality for becoming one's personal ideal, explaining why the collective self is preferred least.

METHOD

In Study 1 (N = 200, 45% female, M_age  = 32.9 years, 79% Caucasian), participants listed characteristics of their three selves (individual, relational, collective) and evaluated those characteristics in seven preference tasks. Additionally, we analyzed the characteristics' agentic-communal content, and participants rated their characteristics' teleological instrumentality. Study 2 (N = 396, 55% female, M_age  = 34.5 years, 76% Caucasian) used identical methodology and featured an additional condition, where participants evaluated the selves of a friend.

RESULTS

Study 1 reconfirmed the self-hierarchy and supported both process accounts. Study 2 replicated and extended findings. As hypothesized, when people evaluate others' selves, a different self-hierarchy emerges (relational > individual > collective).

CONCLUSIONS

This research pioneers process-driven explanations for the self-hierarchy, establishing why people prefer different self-parts in themselves than in others.

State Authenticity as Fit to Environment: The Implications of Social Identity for Fit, Authenticity, and Self-Segregation

People seek out situations that "fit," but the concept of fit is not well understood. We introduce State Authenticity as Fit to the Environment (SAFE), a conceptual framework for understanding how social identities motivate the situations that people approach or avoid. Drawing from but expanding the authenticity literature, we first outline three types of person-environment fit: self-concept fit, goal fit, and social fit. Each type of fit, we argue, facilitates cognitive fluency, motivational fluency, and social fluency that promote state authenticity and drive approach or avoidance behaviors. Using this model, we assert that contexts subtly signal social identities in ways that implicate each type of fit, eliciting state authenticity for advantaged groups but state inauthenticity for disadvantaged groups. Given that people strive to be authentic, these processes cascade down to self-segregation among social groups, reinforcing social inequalities. We conclude by mapping out directions for research on relevant mechanisms and boundary conditions.

The Evolution of Truly Social Cognition: The Core Configurations Model

This article introduces a vocabulary suitable for evolutionary analyses in the human cognitive, social, and behavioral sciences. The vocabulary carves a middle way between advocates and critics of evolutionary perspectives by substituting the concept of repeated assembly for nature-nurture dualism. A model of core configurations-based on human morphology and ecology in human evolutionary history-is presented, and I argue that these configurations offace-to-face groups are the selective context for uniquely human mental systems. Hence, human cognition is “truly social,” specialized for group living. The relevance of the core configuration model is illustrated with respect to two areas of interest to social psychologists: the self and social identity, and distributed cognition and shared reality. A final section illustrates the integrative power of the core configuration model with a brief comparison of the social and cognitive tasks faced by scientists and foragers.

Effect of Private Self-Awareness on Negative Affect and Self-Referent Attribution: A Quantitative Review

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the effect of private self-awareness on negative affect and attributions of responsibility to the self. Results of studies manipulating self-awareness using stimuli such as a mirror and studies employing the private subscale of the Self-Consciousness Scale (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975) as a measure of self-consciousness were summarized and compared. A small effect size was found for the effect of private self-awareness for both negative affect and self-referent attribution; the effect was equivalent across mirror and self-report operationalizations of private self-awareness. Moderator analyses revealed that these effects were stronger for women, particularly for studies that used the self-report operationalization and those that investigated self-referent attribution.

On Bridging the Gap Between Social-Personality Psychology and Neuropsychology

Although cognitive psychology has learned much from the study of patients with neuropsychological impairments, social and personality psychologists have been slow to do the same. In this article we argue that the domain of clinical neuropsychology holds considerable untapped potential for formulating and testing models within social and personality psychology and describe some of the ways in which questions of interest to social and personality psychologists can be addressed with neuropsychological data. Examples are drawn from a variety of neuropsychological syndromes, including amnesia, autism, anosognosia, commissurotomy, frontal lobe damage, and prosopagnosia. We conclude that consideration of the personal and social lives of patients with neuropsychological impairments ultimately will lead to a richer understanding of the person, one that bridges the gap between social and cognitive levels of analysis.

Strangers With Benefits: Attraction to Outgroup Men Increases as Fertility Increases Across the Menstrual Cycle

Research typically reveals that outgroups are regarded with disinterest at best and hatred and enmity at worst. Working from an evolutionary framework, we identify a unique pattern of outgroup attraction. The small-group lifestyle of pre-human ancestors plausibly limited access to genetically diverse mates. Ancestral females may have solved the inbreeding dilemma while balancing parental investment pressures by mating with outgroup males either via converting to an outgroup or cuckolding the ingroup. A vestige of those mating strategies might manifest in human women as a cyclic pattern of attraction across the menstrual cycle, such that attraction to outgroup men increases as fertility increases across the cycle. Two studies, one using a longitudinal method and the other an experimental method, evidenced the hypothesized linear relationship between attraction to outgroup men and fertility in naturally cycling women.

Bringing the "self" into focus: conceptualising the role of self-experience for understanding and working with distressing voices

A primary goal of cognitive behavior therapy for psychosis (CBTp) is to reduce distress and disability, not to change the positive symptoms of psychosis, such as hearing voices. Despite demonstrated associations between beliefs about voices and distress, the effects of CBTp on reducing voice distress are disappointing. Research has begun to explore the role that the psychological construct of "self" (which includes numerous facets such as self-reflection, self-schema and self-concept) might play in causing and maintaining distress and disability in voice hearers. However, attempts to clarify and integrate these different perspectives within the voice hearing literature, or to explore their clinical implications, are still in their infancy. This paper outlines how the self has been conceptualised in the psychosis and CBT literatures, followed by a review of the evidence regarding the proposed role of this construct in the etiology of and adaptation to voice hearing experiences. We go on to discuss some of the specific intervention methods that aim to target these aspects of self-experience and end by identifying key research questions in this area. Notably, we suggest that interventions specifically targeting aspects of self-experience, including self-affection, self-reflection, self-schema and self-concept, may be sufficient to reduce distress and disruption in the context of hearing voices, a suggestion that now requires further empirical investigation.

The embodiment of success and failure as forward versus backward movements

People often speak of success (e.g., "advance") and failure (e.g., "setback") as if they were forward versus backward movements through space. Two experiments sought to examine whether grounded associations of this type influence motor behavior. In Experiment 1, participants categorized success versus failure words by moving a joystick forward or backward. Failure categorizations were faster when moving backward, whereas success categorizations were faster when moving forward. Experiment 2 removed the requirement to categorize stimuli and used a word rehearsal task instead. Even without Experiment 1's response procedures, a similar cross-over interaction was obtained (e.g., failure memorizations sped backward movements relative to forward ones). The findings are novel yet consistent with theories of embodied cognition and self-regulation.

Self-affirmation and nonclinical paranoia

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

This experiment examined whether reflecting on a core value-value-affirmation-was effective in attenuating state paranoia in students.

METHODS

University students (N = 55) were randomised to either a value-affirmation or non-affirmation control condition before exposure to a paranoia-induction manipulation (high self-awareness plus failure feedback). Paranoid cognitions were measured before (T1) and after (T2) the value-affirmation task and after the paranoia-induction task (T3). Depressive cognitions were also measured at T3.

RESULTS

Affirming a valued domain had a direct and significant effect on reducing state paranoia prior to the paranoia-induction task (T2), such that the overall impact of the paranoia-induction on state paranoia was not significantly different from baseline. This effect was not attributable to differential changes in depression across groups.

LIMITATIONS

Use of a nonclinical sample limits generalisation to clinical groups. Repeat testing of key variables is a limitation, although this was necessary to assess change over time, and use of randomisation increased the internal validity of the study.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that self-affirmation is effective in reducing state paranoia in a nonclinical sample.

The self's symbolic role in implicit approach/avoidance: movement time evidence

Theories of self-regulation emphasize the special role that the symbolic self may play in approach and avoidance movements, but experimental evidence is lacking. In two experiments (total N = 157), participants moved either a self-relevant (e.g., "me") or non-self (e.g., "not me") agent to one of two locations, one occupied by a positive word and the other occupied by a negative word. In both experiments, the movement agent interacted with the destination valence such that it was only the symbolic self that moved more quickly to positive rather than negative locations. These results established a role for the symbolic self in approach/avoidance that had been questioned, thereby supporting both classic and contemporary self-related theories of approach and avoidance.

Age-related changes in insula cortical thickness and impulsivity: significance for emotional development and decision-making

Insula function has been associated with emotional regulation, adjusting to changing outcomes under risk, reward and loss anticipation, discounting of future rewards, and self-rated impulsivity. The role of the insula in these processes may be fundamentally related to prospective thinking, a trait that increases with age. There is evidence that insular cortical thickness shows age related decreases that parallel age related increases in future orientation and planning. We tested the hypothesis that nonplanning decreases with age and that insula thickness is related to both age and nonplanning impulsivity. Fifty-nine male and female participants, ranging in age from 10 to 22 years old, underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedures and were assessed using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). We observed that anterior insula thickness and nonplanning impulsivity show an inverse relationship with age and that there is a significant positive linear relationship between anterior insula thickness and nonplanning.

Leaving a legacy neutralizes negative effects of death anxiety on creativity

Mortality salience (MS) can lead to a paralyzing terror, and to cope with this, people strive for literal or symbolic immortality. As MS leads to conformity and narrow-mindedness, we predicted that MS would lead to lower creativity, unless creativity itself could lead to leaving a legacy and thus symbolic immortality. We show that this pattern holds (Experiment 1), but only when creativity is socially valued (Experiment 2). Finally, especially individualistic people are more creative under MS when they can leave a legacy than when they cannot, and high originality predicts subsequent accessibility of death thoughts (Experiment 3). Implications are discussed.

Perceiving one's nation: entitativity, agency and security in the international arena

The perception of groups as real entities rather than mere aggregates of individuals has important consequences on intergroup relations. Social psychological research, in fact, shows that it affects stereotyping, identification process, and intergroup bias. Previous research has also shown that group entitativity is not a positive or negative group attribute per se; rather, it depends on the context and the relationship between the perceiver and the group. While enhancing entitativity leads to worse expectations about the out-group actions, high entitativity is a valued characteristic when associated with an ally or with the in-group. Indeed, enhancing in-group entitativity leads to stronger in-group identification. The specific reasons for why this is the case, however, remain to be ascertained. What is good about in-group entitativity? In the present contribution we propose that in-group entitativity may lead to perceive the group as a real entity provided with intentions and capacity for planned actions, notably ensuring the safety of its members by protecting them against external threats. We report two correlational studies conducted with American citizens (Study 1) and Italian citizens (Study 2), showing that in-group entitativity is associated with a higher level of identification, attribution of intentionality, and perceived security provided by the in-group. These findings were replicated in a third study-conducted with a role-play method on a fictitious scenario-in which entitativity was manipulated rather than measured. Study 3 also shows that artificially increasing the perception of in-group entitativity enhances perceived safety in an international context and reduces the perception of threat from an out-group. Findings are discussed in terms of possible implications for intergroup and international relations.

A meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies of self- and other judgments reveals a spatial gradient for mentalizing in medial prefrontal cortex

The distinction between processes used to perceive and understand the self and others has received considerable attention in psychology and neuroscience. Brain findings highlight a role for various regions, in particular the medial PFC (mPFC), in supporting judgments about both the self and others. We performed a meta-analysis of 107 neuroimaging studies of self- and other-related judgments using multilevel kernel density analysis [Kober, H., & Wager, T. D. Meta-analyses of neuroimaging data. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews, 1, 293-300, 2010]. We sought to determine what brain regions are reliably involved in each judgment type and, in particular, what the spatial and functional organization of mPFC is with respect to them. Relative to nonmentalizing judgments, both self- and other judgments were associated with activity in mPFC, ranging from ventral to dorsal extents, as well as common activation of the left TPJ and posterior cingulate. A direct comparison between self- and other judgments revealed that ventral mPFC as well as left ventrolateral PFC and left insula were more frequently activated by self-related judgments, whereas dorsal mPFC, in addition to bilateral TPJ and cuneus, was more frequently activated by other-related judgments. Logistic regression analyses revealed that ventral and dorsal mPFC lay at opposite ends of a functional gradient: The z coordinates reported in individual studies predicted whether the study involved self- or other-related judgments, which were associated with increasingly ventral or dorsal portions of mPFC, respectively. These results argue for a distributed rather than localizationist account of mPFC organization and support an emerging view on the functional heterogeneity of mPFC.

Four Models of Basic Emotions: A Review of Ekman and Cordaro, Izard, Levenson, and Panksepp and Watt

In this special section, Ekman and Cordaro (2011); Izard (2011); Levenson (2011); and Panksepp and Watt (2011) have each outlined the latest instantiation of each lead author’s theoretical model of basic emotions. We identify four themes emerging from these models, and discuss areas of agreement and disagreement. We then briefly evaluate the models’ usefulness by examining how they would account for an emotion that has received considerable empirical attention but does not fit clearly within or outside of the basic emotion category: pride. Finally, we compare the central themes covered by the four models with themes emerging from current emotion research, to conclude that, for the most part, the models are comprehensive; they largely converge with the current state of affective science research.