Responses to social rejection: the role of borderline personality disorder traits

The present study examined how people with BPD traits respond to social rejection, using a reliving task as the manipulation of social rejection. In addition, this study examined how rejection sensitivity and BPD traits differentially influence responses to social rejection. One hundred forty-seven undergraduate participants completed questionnaires that assessed BPD traits and mood. In addition, all participants wrote about a previous social rejection or acceptance experience. Results showed the all participants, regardless of level of BPD traits, felt the recalled rejection experience was very negative. In addition, results demonstrated that compared to participants lower in BPD traits, participants higher in BPD traits reported significantly higher anger-hostility, depression-dejection, and overall negative mood after reliving a rejection experience than an acceptance experience. This suggests that the reliving task as a type of social manipulation can influence the ability to detect differences between participants higher in BPD traits and participants lower in BPD traits. Finally, results demonstrated that compared to participants lower in BPD traits, participants higher in BPD traits reported significantly higher tension-anxiety, anger-hostility, depression-dejection, and overall negative mood after reliving a rejection experience than an acceptance experience after partialling out the variance explained by rejection sensitivity. These results suggest that there are characteristics over and above rejection sensitivity that are unique to BPD that contribute to the responses to social rejection

You hurt me, i'll hurt you: the prediction of aggression based on the interaction between an ego threat, fragile high self-esteem, and narcissistic traits

Previous research has produced inconsistent findings in terms of how self-esteem relates to aggressive behavior. Some studies have found that high self-esteem predicts aggression while others have found that low self-esteem predicts aggression. The present study sought to clarify the discrepancies in the literature. It was hypothesized that the interaction between an ego threat and fragile high self-esteem would account for significant variance in aggressive behavior over-and-above the component main effect. Additionally, it was hypothesized that the interaction of high explicit and low implicit self-esteem would account for significant variance in narcissistic traits over-and-above the component main effects. Finally, it was hypothesized that the interaction between an ego threat and narcissistic traits would account for significant variance in aggressive behavior over-and-above the component main effect. One hundred eighteen undergraduate participants completed questionnaires and the other aspects of the study that assessed self-esteem, narcissistic traits, and aggression. Results failed to support the hypotheses regarding the interactions between an ego-threat, fragile high self-esteem, and narcissistic traits. However, consistent with previous research, main effects results indicated that participants with high levels of explicit self-esteem were more aggressive and reported more narcissistic traits than participants with low explicit self-esteem. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for future research

Enrichment Influences Social Preference Behavior In Older Female And Male Adolescent Rats

Rats engage in novelty-seeking behaviors in adolescence. Environmental enrichment (EE) allows rats to experience novelty through physical environments and interaction with conspecifics. The effects of EE on adolescent rats’ behavior during a social preference task was investigated along with EE’s effects on neural activation in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and cornu ammonis 2 (CA2). Adolescent Long-Evans rats (n=12) experienced EE between postnatal days (pnd) 23 and 48; controls (n=18) were not enriched. On pnd 49, a two-trial social preference task occurred. Proportion of time spent and proportion of contact initiated with the novel rat was measured. After the task, brain tissue was processed to identify neural activity in the BLA and CA2. A significant interaction of EE and sex on proportion of time spent with the novel rat was found; no-EE males displayed a larger proportion than no-EE females (p = .007). A significant interaction of EE and sex on proportion of contact initiations was observed; EE males showed a larger proportion than EE females (p = .004). Histology indicated 60% less neural activation in the BLA and CA2 of EE rats (p = .001). Behavioral and neural data indicate that EE and maturity differences impacted rats’ responses to novelty

A study of the adequacy of clothing storage provided in thirty similar three-bedroom houses built for sale

For years, houses with three bedrooms have been built for sale by contractors -Kith concern for adequate family clothing storage being secondary, if considered at all, to those specifications established by the Federal Housing Administration, organized in June, 1934. 1 The occupants of these houses had little or no part in planning their storage facilities. The contractor, having had no basis for change; and the purchasing occupants, arriving too late upon the scene to offer constructive recommendations for changes, have been unable to utilize their abilities and needs to benefit both parties. No record of a previous study was found which would support the contentions of either builders or occupants concerning the amount and type of planned storage

Conceptual instruction in developmental algebra and its effect on student achievement and affect

The primary purpose of this research was to investigate differences in achievement of students of developmental algebra who received two different methods of instruction. The method of instruction for the experimental group was conceptual instruction; the method of instruction for the control group was procedural instruction. A secondary purpose of the research was to investigate the link between method of instruction and two affective issues: self confidence in learning mathematics and effectance motivation. The sample for the study consisted of 65 community college students (36 students in the experimental classes and 29 in the control classes). The experimental period of instruction was four weeks in length, 5 hours per week. Post-instruction achievement was measured at the end of approximately two weeks of instruction and again at the end of four weeks of instruction. Each content test consisted of two subtests: (a) a skill-based test and (b) a transfer of knowledge test. The Assessment and Placement Test (APT) was given as the pretest. ANCOVAs using the APT score as the covariate showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the post-test scores of the students from the two groups. In addition, a t-test did not indicate statistically significant differences between groups for either of the two affective variables. For these two particular groups of community college developmental algebra students who were taught by alternative means for a four-week period, instructional style did not affect posttest scores. Additionally, method of instruction for these two groups did not have a bearing on the affective measures

The visual rhetoric of narrative

In her essay “On Narrativity in the Visual Field: A Psychoanalytic View of Velázquez’s Las Meninas,” Efrat Biberman asks: “Does narrativity by definition contradict visuality, and if so, why is it so prevalent in the context of painting?” (Narrative 14.3 (2006): 237-253, at 237) As one of the primary objectives of my painting is eliciting narrative potential through my images, the question of whether a visual experience is compatible with narrativity—something typically associated with the more temporal tradition of literature—is particularly relevant to my work and thus forms the subject of my critical essay. My initial investigations into narratology and the theories of Roland Barthes and Gerald Prince make clear that the concepts of narrativity are applicable not solely to the written word, but also to the visual arena. As Marie-Laure Ryan writes in her essay “The Modes of Narrativity and Their Visual Metaphors,” “reconstructing the plot is as fundamental to the understanding of the narrative text as identifying the depicted object is to the mental processing of a representational artwork.” (Style 26.3, (1992): 368-387 at 370) Concepts such as the micro-narrative and the macro-narrative, as discussed in Ryan’s piece, speak to the subjectivity by which viewers decipher narratives found in a work of art and touch upon one of the foundational impulses behind the art-making process throughout human history. As a painter, the act of painting is integral to the process of discovery that occurs as I find my way to a finished composition. My recent body of work is primarily figurative, though the figures exist in an ambiguous picture plane along with abstract patterns, scrawled text and gestural marks that trace the evolution of the final image. I often work in the diptych format, echoing the panels found in comics and graphic novels and referencing both the passage of time and a binary narrative relationship. The figures that inhabit my paintings are based on personal and historical photographs and, recently, video stills taken with my phone. The relationship between photography and painting as exemplified by artists such as Luc Tuymans, Gehardt Richter, and Peter Doig has opened a direction for experimentation:. by enlarging images found in photographs and rendering them in paint on canvas, the photographed moment is re-contextualized as a work of art directly linked to the figurative tradition of painting, and quite literally given new life through the act of painting, divorced from mechanical methods. The image has been transformed through the artist’s particular handling of paint, and given meaning through the simple fact of having been selected from innumerable choices. The images that I arrive at in my paintings suggest narratives that touch on themes of memory, history, masculinity, alienation, fatherhood, and our complex relationship with the natural world

Kinetic and Kinematic Analysis of the Squat with and Without Supportive Equipment

The most common type of supportive equipment utilized in powerlifting is the squat suit (SS). The SS has the same fit and relative design of a singlet used in weightlifting, composed of various materials that stretch and then contract during the lift to possibly aid in increasing force, power and velocity. However, no previous investigation has examined the effect of a SS on squat performance. Thus, the purpose of this investigation was to investigate various kinetic and kinematic variables associated with squats with and without supportive equipment (i.e. SS)

The effects of gamelike features and test location on cognitive test performance and participant enjoyment

ArticleComputerised cognitive assessments are a vital tool in the behavioural sciences, but participants often view them as effortful and unengaging. One potential solution is to add gamelike elements to these tasks in order to make them more intrinsically enjoyable, and some researchers have posited that a more engaging task might produce higher quality data. This assumption, however, remains largely untested. We investigated the effects of gamelike features and test location on the data and enjoyment ratings from a simple cognitive task. We tested three gamified variants of the Go-No-Go task, delivered both in the laboratory and online. In the first version of the task participants were rewarded with points for performing optimally. The second version of the task was framed as a cowboy shootout. The third version was a standard Go-No-Go task, used as a control condition. We compared reaction time, accuracy and subjective measures of enjoyment and engagement between task variants and study location. We found points to be a highly suitable game mechanic for gamified cognitive testing because they did not disrupt the validity of the data collected but increased participant enjoyment. However, we found no evidence that gamelike features could increase engagement to the point where participant performance improved. We also found that while participants enjoyed the cowboy themed task, the difficulty of categorising the gamelike stimuli adversely affected participant performance, increasing No-Go error rates by 28% compared to the non-game control. Responses collected online vs. in the laboratory had slightly longer reaction times but were otherwise very similar, supporting other findings that online crowdsourcing is an acceptable method of data collection for this type of research.The authors are members of the United Kingdom Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, a UKCRC Public Health Research: Centre of Excellence which receives funding from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, and the National Institute for Health Research, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration. This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12013/6) and a PhD studentship to JL funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Cambridge Cognition Limited. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

The Influence Of Amicus Curiae Briefs On Dissents From Denial And The Opinion Of The Court

This research demonstrates the influence amicus curiae briefs have on dissents from denial and opinions of the Court. Further, I aim to discover if dissents from denials are influenced by amicus curiae briefs more than opinions of the Court. Amicus curiae briefs are filed when those who are not a party to a case feel strongly about it and would like to offer their expertise. This expertise is often used by the justices when crafting their opinions. While justices are most known for the opinions of the Court, they also write dissents from denials when they believe that a case should be granted certiorari but the Court has decided not to hear it. This research builds on existing literature to determine the extent of the influence amicus briefs have using similarity reports comparing amicus briefs to dissents from denial and opinions of the Court. My findings show that amicus curiae briefs do, in fact, influence both dissents from denial and opinions of the Court, and that dissents from denial have, on average, more unique matches to amicus curiae briefs per word than opinions of the Court. The difference between the two, however, is not statistically significant

Designing for the future from the past : a modern demonstration of nostalgia through domestic interior product design

The goal of this thesis was to create a unique design process, specifically intended for the production of nostalgic domestic interior products. Nostalgia has been studied for hundreds of years and was once believed to be a disease or illness of the mind (Routledge 2015), however more recent studies show nostalgia to be a positive reaction to sentimental longing for the past (Sedikides & Wildschut 2018). Though the final interior products alone may not invoke a pure nostalgic response from its’ viewers, the ultimate goal of this thesis was to create a process in which physical elements of nostalgia could be filtered through and condensed into an equation that outputs fresh product design. This design process has been informed by the publics’ understanding of personal nostalgia within their own homes. This information was gathered through surveying, which consisted of 100 participants. These participants supplied image references of nostalgic items within their home, which I have used to assemble a list of physical properties that characterize nostalgia. Out of all the physical properties mentioned on the survey – texture, function, pattern, color, and material – function was the most popular selection when asked what characteristic gave their referenced object nostalgic value. Among analyzing each referenced object, wood was the most reoccurring material at 34% of entries. Metal was the next most common material at 21%, with plastic and glass both occurring in 10% of entries. With this information, I concluded the best material to work with for product composition was wood. Participants were also asked where their referenced object was located in the home. The living room was the most common at 37% of entries, the kitchen was runner-up at 21%, and the bedroom was the third most surveyed at 17% (see Appendix B). In totality, two objects were designed and created to demonstrate evidence of the working design process: a bar cabinet and a nightstan