Individual Differences in Performance Speed Are Associated With a Positivity/Negativity Bias. An ERP and Behavioral Study

There is a current dispute over the origins, incidence, and development of Positivity Bias, i.e., preferential processing of positive relative to negative information. We addressed this question using a multi-method technique of behavioral, psychometric and event-related potential (ERP) measures in a lexical decision task (LDT). Twenty-four university students (11 female) participated (age range 18–26), but four were omitted owing to data issues. Participants were classified as Positivity Biased (PB) if their LDT responses to positive words were faster than negative words, and vice versa for those classified as Negativity Biased (NB), leading to a group of 11 PB participants and a group of 9 NB participants. Interestingly, the PB group was significantly faster overall than the NB group and had significantly shorter P2 component ERP latencies in the left occipital region. Furthermore, the PB group had significantly higher scores for expressive suppression (ES), together with higher scores for Crystallized Knowledge and for cognitive reappraisal (CR). These results suggest that around 55% of the students had Positivity Bias, and these were more efficient in processing information and had better emotion regulation abilities than those with a Negativity Bias

Sleep-related attentional bias for faces depicting tiredness in insomnia: evidence from an eye-tracking study

Study Objectives: To date, evidence of an attentional bias in insomnia has mostly been obtained through reaction time tasks, with a limited number of studies using eye tracking. Here, using an eye-tracking paradigm, this study sought to determine whether individuals with insomnia display an attentional bias for novel faces depicting tiredness. Methods: Individuals with insomnia (n = 20) and normal sleepers (n = 20) viewed a series of face pairs depicting neutral and tired expressions each for periods of 4000 milliseconds. Eye movements were recorded using eye tracking, and first fixation onset, first fixation duration, total fixation duration, and total gaze duration were examined for three interest regions (eyes, nose, mouth). Results: Significant group × face interactions for total fixation duration and total gaze duration indicated that, regardless of interest-region, participants with insomnia spent more time fixating on and observing tired faces relative to neutral faces when compared with normal sleepers. Additionally, significant group × face × interest-region interactions for total fixation duration and total gaze duration indicated that participants with insomnia spent more time observing the eye region of the tired faces than the eye region of the neutral faces when compared with normal sleepers. Conclusions: Individuals with insomnia display an attentional bias toward tired faces, more specifically for the eye region compared to normal sleepers. These findings contribute to our understanding of face perception in insomnia and provide more objective support for cognitive models of insomnia, suggesting that individuals with insomnia selectively attend to faces for tiredness cues

Self-disgust as a potential mechanism explaining the association between loneliness and depression

Background: Loneliness and self-disgust have been considered as independent predictors of depressive symptoms. In the present study, we hypothesized that self-disgust can explain the association between loneliness and depression, and that emotion regulation strategies interact with self-disgust in predicting depressive symptoms. Methods: Three hundred and seventeen participants (M = 29.29 years, SD = 14.11; 76.9% females) completed structured anonymous self-reported measures of loneliness, self-disgust, emotion regulation strategies, and depressive symptoms. Results: One-way MANOVA showed that participants in the high-loneliness group reported significantly higher behavioural and physical self-disgust, compared to those in the middle and low-loneliness groups. Bootstrapped hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that self-disgust significantly improved predicted variance in depressive symptoms, after controlling for the effects of loneliness. Regression-based mediation modelling showed that both physical and behavioural self-disgust significantly mediated the association between loneliness and depression. Finally, moderated regression analysis showed that expressive suppression interacted with self-disgust in predicting depressive symptoms. Limitations: A cross-sectional design was used, and our study focused on expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal but not on other aspects of emotion regulation or the modulation of emotional arousal and responses. Conclusions: We demonstrated, for the first time, that self-disgust plays an important role in the association between loneliness and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, variations in emotion regulation strategies can explain the association between self-disgust and depressive symptoms

The roles of impulsivity, self-regulation, and emotion regulation in the experience of self-disgust

Self-disgust is a distinct self-conscious emotion schema that is characterized by disgust appraisals directed towards the self. Recent studies have demonstrated an association between self-disgust and a range of psychological disorders, but there is a paucity of research on the psychological phenomena and processes that may elicit self-disgust experiences. The present study assessed the direct and indirect effects of impulsivity, self-regulation, and emotion regulation on self-disgust. Overall, 294 participants (M age = 21.84 years, SD = 4.56) completed structured and anonymous measures of trait impulsivity, self-regulation, emotion regulation strategies, and self-disgust. Path analysis showed that non-planning impulsivity and expressive suppression (positively) and cognitive reappraisal and self-regulation (negatively) predicted self-disgust. Mediation analysis further showed that emotional regulation strategies and self-regulation mediated the association between attentional and non-planning impulsivity and self-disgust. Our findings provide, for the first time, evidence about the association between self-disgust and individual differences in impulsivity, self-regulation, and emotion regulation, and have implications for the psychological phenomena that may lead to self-disgust experiences in non-clinical populations

Loneliness is not a homogeneous experience: An empirical analysis of adaptive and maladaptive forms of loneliness in the UK

Understanding loneliness is pivotal to informing relevant evidence-based preventive interventions. The present study examined the prevalence of loneliness in the UK, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the association between loneliness, mental health outcomes, and risk and protective factors for loneliness, after controlling for the effects of social isolation. It was estimated that 18.1% of the population in our study experienced moderately high to very high loneliness. We also found that loneliness was positively associated with self-disgust and social inhibition, and negatively associated with trait optimism and hope. Cluster analysis indicated that two distinct groups emerged among those experiencing higher levels of loneliness: “adaptive” and “maladaptive” loneliness groups. The maladaptive loneliness group displayed psychological characteristics like self-disgust and social inhibition including symptoms of depression and anxiety that can potentially undermine their ability to connect with others and form meaningful social relationships. These findings suggest that not all people experience loneliness in the same way. It is possible that a one-size-fit-all approach to reducing loneliness, may be less effective because it does not take into account the differential psychological profiles and characteristics of lonely people, relevant to their capacity to connect with others

Ηθικά ερωτήματα στην πρακτική των στοχευμένων ανθρωποκτονιών ως μέσων πολέμου & τρομοκρατίας. Ένας διάλογος μεταξύ των Michael Walzer & Jeff Mcmahan.

H εργασία πραγματεύεται τις στοχευμένες ανθρωποκτονίες στο πλαίσιο του πολέμου και της τρομοκρατίας από τη μεριά της κλασσικής θεωρίας του πολέμου, που υπερασπίζεται ο Michael Walzer σε αντιπαράθεση με την αντίστοιχη θεωρία του Jeff Mcmahan. H ηθική και νομική ισότητα των στρατιωτών κατά τη διάρκεια του πολέμου αμφισβητείται στη βάση της ηθικής ατομικής ευθύνης. Η μεταβατικότητα του αδίκου υπεισέρχεται στους βασικούς κανόνες του ανθρωπιστικού δικαίου, όπως είναι οι αρχές της αναλογικότητας και της διάκρισης. Η αρχή της αναγκαιότητας απομακρύνεται από το επιχειρησιακό, στρατιωτικό πλεονέκτημα και εγγίζει πλέον ίδιας φύσεως όρους, συναρτάται με τη ζωή και το θάνατο των ίδιων των στρατιωτών σε συνάρτηση με τον άμαχο πληθυσμό. Οι κανόνες τοθ ius in bello μεταλλάσσονται στο όνομα της ακριβοδίκαιης απόδοσης ευθυνών και εξαίρουν ένα ηθικό status προτεραιότητας των μαχητών και αμάχων της εμπόλεμης πλευράς που διεξάγει τον «δίκαιο» πόλεμο. Ο κανόνας «ου φονεύσεις» στο πλαίσιο εμπλοκής σε πόλεμο του κράτους στο οποίο ανήκουμε, ενεργοποιείται αντίρροπα. Ο αρνητικός πόλος του, μετάγεται στο θετικό πεδίο των δυνατοτήτων, «φονεύσεις» εμπλουτισμένου με κάποιες εξαιρέσεις του «ου φονεύσεις» και έτσι προάγεται στην έννοια της «στοχευμένης ανθρωποκτονίας». Η «ηθική» αυτή της πρότασης παραβλέποντας τυχόν υπερβατικές, θρησκευτικές προελεύσεις, δοκιμάζεται συνειδησιακά, εν μέσω των οριακών καταστάσεων του πολέμου καθώς καλούμαστε να πολεμήσουμε βάσει σχεδιαγράμματος και οδηγιών, εντολών των άλλων τρίτων, ήτοι της κρατικής μηχανής. Σε ποιο σημείο ως μετέχοντες (αλλά ενίοτε και ως ενεχόμενα θύματα) θα επιτρέψουμε τις ηθικές ρωγμές του πολέμου να κενώσουν και να αμβλύνουν τα ηθικά μας συναισθήματα, εξαρτάται από τη συνείδησή μας. « Εάν το διακύβευμα είναι ο φόνος, το επιχείρημα δεν θα ήταν ότι ο κόσμος θα ήταν καλύτερος χωρίς να έχει γίνει ο φόνος, αλλά η απροθυμία να ζήσουμε με ένα δολοφόνο» Και καθώς η εγκυρότητά του επιχειρήματος δε δύναται να επαληθευτεί πάντα με νομικές διαδικασίες, είναι εντελώς υποκειμενικό και απευθυντέο σε ανθρώπους που έχουν συνείδηση και που τολμούν να σκέφτονται κριτικά και να αναψηλαφούν «τις αρχές της ανθρωπότητας και τις επιταγές της κοινής συνείδησης» θεμελιώνοντάς τες σε ένα συνεχές ηθικής-δικαίου-πολιτικής όπου το διακύβευμα είναι το ηθικό κύρος και όχι η συμβατική νομιμότητα.The essay addresses the common sense beliefs about the morality of killing in war, which is the prevailing nowadays, presented by Michael Walzer in comparison with Jeff Mcmahan’ s view, called by him as “deep morality”. The last one reject walzer’s endorsement that once a war has begun, all combatants are moral equals, both the fighters for the just defending side and the fighters for the unjust aggressing side. He refutes the doctrine of moral equality using the domestic analogy οf criminal law. The criterion of one’s ability to be attacked in war, according to classical just war theory, is that one poses a threat to others. Mcmahan shows that the criterion is the moral responsibility for an objectively unjustified threat of harm to innocent people. This mean that the just defender retains the human right not to be harmed while the unjust aggressor forfeits the human right not to be harmed. It is the same for the civilians too. The liability to be attacked is based to the individual responsibility which involves acting and it’s not relied on belonging in a community or part. In Mcmahan’s view, the requirement of discrimination and proportionality, contrary to the walzer’ s classical just war theory, are not separable from and independent of the jus ad bellum norm. Given all these, in nowadays assymetric war, where the distinction between civilians and combatants is claudy, and the aggressors seem like defenders, the targeted killing bear usually a disturbing resemblance to assassination or extrajudicial execution, and the war, in situations of supreme emergency involves methods of terrorism. The name killing lists is questionable and targending killing demands reassessing . The legal, conventional and political practice faced to moral doctrines, coerce us to obscure decisions as a means to surpass dilemmas. The key to the dilemma between legal, political necessities and the absolute, exceptionlesss moral principles and values is the conceptual and moral deliberation, the “reflective equilibrium”

Self-Disgust Is Associated With Loneliness, Mental Health Difficulties, and Eye-Gaze Avoidance in War Veterans With PTSD

In the present study, we examined, for the first time, the association between self-disgust, loneliness, and mental health difficulties in war veterans diagnosed with PTSD. For this purpose, we used a mixed methods design, incorporating surveys and a novel eye-tracking paradigm, and compared the findings from the PTSD veteran group (n = 19) to those from a general population group (n = 22). Our results showed that the PTSD veteran group reported almost three times higher scores in self-disgust, and significantly higher scores in loneliness and mental health difficulties (anxiety and depression), compared to the general population. Furthermore, self-disgust mediated the association between loneliness and anxiety symptoms in both groups. The results from the eye-tracking paradigm further showed that veterans with PTSD displayed a self-avoidance gaze pattern, by looking significantly more toward pictures of faces of unknown others and away from their own face—a pattern that was not replicated in the general population group. Higher self-disgust scores were significantly associated with longer total gaze to the pictures of others (vs. the self). Our findings have implications for the role of self-disgust in the mental health of war veterans