Current research in behavioral sciences最新文献

In an fMRI passive viewing task made in a 7T scanner, Harvey et al (2013) asked adult participants to passively view dots on a screen and reported a topographical map of quantities in the human intraparietal sulcus (IPS), suggesting that quantities are directly perceived, and their cortical organization may be fundamental to human abilities in mathematics. This paper, which was published in Science, got lots of attention and was cited 469 times since. In a later Neuroimage paper (2017), the authors analyzed the response to the visual features of the stimuli and suggested that the neural responses do not reflect the processing of visual features. I raise several reasons to restrict these conclusions. (1) the study design emphasized quantity over continuous magnitudes such as density and area. This may be problematic since neural activity can be influenced by attending to a specific dimension. (2) Poor control over continuous magnitudes. (3) The conclusions should be restricted to small quantities. (4) Task context influences neural activity, and (5) When the analysis is restricted to a specific cortical area, the conclusion should be restricted as well.

UK-based national surveys and international longitudinal studies have shown that around a third of parents experience chronic or persistent loneliness. There is limited research about the experience of loneliness in parenthood, however blogs authored by parents, sharing their personal experiences about loneliness offer a potential rich data source. The purpose of this study was to identify and analyse blog narratives written by parents who had experienced loneliness to increase understanding of their experiences. One hundred and ninety-six relevant blog posts were identified, of which 157 had contact details to request permission to use the blog post in the study. Twenty-two parent bloggers gave their permission. Thematic network analysis was used to open code the blogs and 4 organising themes and subthemes emerged, which centred on a global theme of disconnection. Disconnection underpinned themes relating to a sense that being a parent was overwhelming, changes in identity linked to becoming a parent, difficulties in sharing feelings of loneliness with others, and a need for social connection. Findings point to parents being unprepared for the transition to parenthood, with implications for perinatal education and support, including further opportunities for parents to connect to reduce social isolation.

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a trait associated with enhanced responsivity to environmental stimuli and the tendency to pause before acting. However, qualitative data suggest that some who are high in SPS may also be high in sensation seeking (SS), a trait characterized by the seeking of novel and intense experiences. Thus, this online study examined SPS and SS among 214 individuals (mean age, 30), using the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (the standard SPS measure), a standard measure of sensation seeking (ZKA-PQ); and the newly developed Sensation-Seeking Scale for Highly Sensitive Persons (SSS/HSP). We also measured risk-taking, impulsivity, and neuroticism, as control variables. Results showed that SPS (controlling or not controlling for neuroticism) was moderately negatively correlated with the ZKA-PQ, risk-taking and impulsivity; but positively associated with negative urgency—the tendency to act impulsively due to negative affect. Also, the validity of the SSS/HSP was supported, as it showed a strong positive correlation with standard measures of SS and risk-taking, a moderate association with impulsivity, and (as it was designed to do) a near zero correlation with SPS. In conclusion, although some individuals with SPS may express high SS, the two traits are largely separate; and the SSS/HSP is a reliable measure of SS, having items better-suited for the highly sensitive.

Loneliness is associated with poor mental and physical health in the general population. It is thought to be prevalent among international students, but few studies have investigated this. To capture what loneliness means in the everyday lives of international students we analysed data from 521 international students aged 16–40 years who participated online in the 2018 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Loneliness Experiment. Using the approach of thematic analysis of free‐text responses to a question probing the perceived meaning of loneliness, we identified six main themes: (1) Negative psychological and social aspects of loneliness; (2) The distressing experience of being alone; (3) Disrupted ability to make meaningful connections; (4) Sense of entrapment in a state of loneliness; (5) Awareness of others’ stigmatizing perceptions of oneself as lonely; (6) Perceptions of positive aspects of loneliness. These findings identified a range of negative social and psychological dimensions of loneliness in international students in relation to their well-being, emotional health, and social functioning, hampering the benefits to be gained from their overseas study. Higher education teaching staff, pastoral staff, and mental health professionals need to be more aware of the prevalence and impacts of loneliness and should tackle it in culturally appropriate ways.

In the pursuit of healthy eating, as with many other health goals, most benefits for one's health are not realized immediately, but instead occur after a person engages in consistent patterns of healthy eating across many weeks, months, and years. Thus, being able to represent temporally distant benefits when making seemingly trivial daily eating decisions (e.g., choosing fruit salad rather than ice cream for dessert) should be a key determinant of healthy eating. Here, we tested a priori, preregistered hypotheses in a large online sample of adults (N = 360) by examining the role of self-continuity in people's daily eating behaviors, as well as the relationship between self-continuity and motivational factors behind people's decisions to eat healthy. We also examined the moderating influence of self-continuity on training in self-regulatory strategies intended to promote healthy eating. Overall, we garnered support for our hypotheses, as there were links between self-continuity measures, autonomous motivation levels, and daily eating of healthy and unhealthy foods, with participants’ ability to consider future consequences associated with unhealthy eating measures, and participants’ connectedness to their future selves associated with healthy eating measures. Taken together, the present findings suggest that continuity with one's future self is an important factor underlying daily eating decisions and successful goal pursuit in the eating domain.

The aim of the present study was to examine whether loneliness and friendship quality are bidirectionally associated with one another over time. Based on the Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness (Cacioppo & Cacioppo, 2018) and the classical definition of loneliness (Peplau & Perlman, 1982), such a bidirectional association would be expected, but empirical research in this regard is limited. We used data from 615 adolescents (M_age = 10.77 years at Wave 1; 53.5% girls) in a three-wave longitudinal study with one-year intervals between successive measurement waves. Loneliness was measured using the peer-related loneliness subscale of the Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents. Friendship quality was measured using the help and closeness subscales of the Friendship Qualities Scale. To test our hypothesis we estimated a cross-lagged panel model. Higher friendship quality was associated with lower levels of concurrent loneliness, which is in line with findings of previous research. However, no significant across-time predictions were found between the two constructs. Hence, using a sample of early adolescents, we could not provide evidence supporting important aspects of the aforementioned loneliness theories.

Two studies were performed to determine whether political orientations were related to loci-of-hope, which are where one acquires or sustains one's hope that one's goals may be achieved. Study 1 employed a nationally representative sample of Canadian English-speaking adults (N = 866), who completed the Locus-of-Hope Scale (Bernardo, 2010) that measures the extent to which trait hope comes from four different sources: from oneself as an individual; from one's family; from peers; and from one's sense of spirituality or religious faith. The results indicate that the peer locus-of-hope was associated with liberalism, while the spiritual and family loci were related to conservatism. The participants in Study 2 were Canadian university students (N = 555) who completed the Locus-of-Hope Scale as well as a related measure that treats hope as an emotional state rather than a trait. In this sample, there were again significant associations between political orientations and loci-of-hope at the peer and family loci such that greater reliance on peers predicted more liberal orientations, and greater dependence on family was associated with more conservative outlooks. The implications of these findings for three established theoretical paradigms that purport to explain the acquisition of political orientations are explored.

Suicide bereavement is a risk factor for suicide and psychiatric illness. Its lifetime prevalence in the general population is estimated at 22%, and in one (US) veteran sample as 47%, but no estimates exist for a UK veteran sample. We aimed to measure the lifetime prevalence of suicide bereavement in a clinical sample of UK veterans to inform service provision for this group. Our secondary aim was to measure the prevalence of loneliness and investigate the association between suicide bereavement and loneliness. We searched the routine electronic clinical records of all veterans treated in a London veterans’ crisis care service over the period September 2021 to June 2022 (n=69), capturing data on their sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, including the proportions recorded as having experienced the suicide of a friend or relative and as experiencing loneliness. We used multivariable logistic regression models to test for an association of suicide bereavement with loneliness. The lifetime prevalence of suicide bereavement was 30% (predominantly of friends) and the period prevalence of loneliness was 57%. There was no association of suicide bereavement with loneliness. This work highlights the high proportion of veterans in this clinical sample with two specific suicide risk factors, and their likely needs for specific support to address the psychological consequences of suicide loss.