Humans possess explicit, rule-based, and culturally determined systems for identifying kin, but kinship inferences are also influenced implicitly by cue-based mechanisms found commonly across the animal kingdom. These mechanisms are fallible. An evolutionarily informed signal-detection analysis suggests that (a) cue-based kin recognition may sometimes be biased in favor of false-positive errors, resulting in implicit kinship inferences even in the presence of nonkin, and (b) the tendency toward this inferential error may vary predictably in response to specific developmental and contextual circumstances. This analysis has important implications for a wide variety of psychological phenomena (especially in the realms of person perception, interpersonal attraction, and prosocial behavior) and leads to the deduction of many novel hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

Data from psychological experiments pose a causal generalization paradox. Unless the experimental results have some generality, they contribute little to scientific knowledge. Yet, because most experiments use convenience samples rather than probability-based samples, there is almost never a formal justification, or set of rigorous guidelines, for generalizing the study's findings to other populations. This article discusses the causal generalization paradox in the context of outcome findings from experimental evaluations of psychological treatment programs and services. In grappling with the generalization paradox, researchers often make misleading (or at least oversimplified) assumptions. The article analyzes 10 such assumptions, including the belief that a significant experimental treatment effect is likely to be causally generalizable and the belief that the magnitude of a significant experimental effect provides a sound effect size estimate for causal generalization. The article then outlines 10 constructive strategies for assessing and enhancing causal generality. They include strategies involving the scaling level of outcome measures, variable treatment dosages, effectiveness designs, multiple measures, corroboration from observational designs, and the synthesis of multiple studies. Finally, the article's discussion section reviews the conditions under which causal generalizations are justified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

This study aimed to determine how often Chinese people dream ancestral sex symbols and to examine the association between dreaming sexual experiences and the Chinese sex symbols. The modified Typical Dreams Questionnaire with 10 additional items about the Chinese sex symbols was administered to a sample of 107 male and 241 female university students in Hong Kong. Both the prevalence and frequency rates indicated that most ancestral Chinese sex symbols do not constitute prominent dream themes in contemporary Chinese people's dreams. The Chinese genital symbols, caves and towers, were found to be relatively prominent in dreams. However, both symbols were neither positively nor negatively associated with the dream theme sexual experiences and the classical psychoanalytic sex symbols, such as snakes. In contrast, the Chinese symbols of sexual activity, such as birds eating fish, had mild, negative correlations with the dream theme sexual experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

The theory of flow argues that subjective well-being results from absorption in an activity that strikes a good balance between challenges and skills. This absorption has been termed flow. Such absorption is often reported in combat situations, in which it contributes both to the subjective well-being and to the efficiency of soldiers. This article suggests that combat flow may have been central to military training and military performance throughout history. The study of combat flow could therefore shed new light on military history and form the basis for the development of new training techniques. The article simultaneously probes the ethical and political implications of manipulating the subjective well-being of soldiers in such a way. It cautions scholars of flow and subjective well-being that they should be aware of the ethical and political implications of their studies and warns against the dangerous political results of equating subjective well-being with happiness. The article further calls for greater cooperation between psychologists and historians in the study of well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

Cooperation among nonrelatives can be puzzling because cooperation often involves incurring costs to confer benefits on unrelated others. Punishment of noncooperators can sustain otherwise fragile cooperation, but the provision of punishment suffers from a "second-order" free-riding problem because nonpunishers can free ride on the benefits from costly punishment provided by others. One suggested solution to this problem is second-order punishment of nonpunishers; more generally, the threat or promise of higher order sanctions might maintain the lower order sanctions that enforce cooperation in collective action problems. Here the authors report on 3 experiments testing people's willingness to provide second-order sanctions by having participants play a cooperative game with opportunities to punish and reward each other. The authors found that people supported those who rewarded cooperators either by rewarding them or by punishing nonrewarders, but people did not support those who punished noncooperators--they did not reward punishers or punish nonpunishers. Furthermore, people did not approve of punishers more than they did nonpunishers, even when nonpunishers were clearly unwilling to use sanctions to support cooperation. The results suggest that people will much more readily support positive sanctions than they will support negative sanctions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

Critical thinking in psychology has traditionally focused on method-centered tasks such as the assessment of method use, data analysis, and research evidence. Although helpful in some ways, this form of critical thinking fails to provide resources for critically examining the scientific analytic foundation on which it rests and, when used exclusively, prohibits sufficiently critical analysis of theory and research. An alternative view of critical thinking--that emphasizes the identification and evaluation of implicit theoretical assumptions--is advocated. It is suggested that this alternative approach improves on method-centered approaches by addressing not only implicit assumptions but also rule-following concerns. This approach is intended to facilitate innovation and the production of scholarly work in ways that incorporate relational values such as dialogue, care, and respect. Finally, this alternative form of critical thinking is described as a theoretically situated, open, and evolving conception of critique that should itself be continually reanalyzed and refined, particularly in response to the evolving nature and needs of the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

The present study was designed to investigate whether memory processes play a role in why some persons say their dreams are black and white. The findings indicate that the percentages of black and white dreams are related negatively to color memory and dream recall frequency. When colors were recorded immediately after the dream was recorded, the percentage of black and white dream elements dropped to 2.7%. When participants were presented the option that dream colors might not be remembered, the percentage of explicit black and white dreams became very small, and the findings are thus in line with the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. Future studies might use extensive training of color memory and dream recall in order to investigate whether highly trained persons still have some dreams or dream elements that are in black and white. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

Based on Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT) and a series of experimental and correlational studies, Dijksterhuis and his colleagues conclude that when making complex choices/decisions, conscious thought--deliberation while attention is directed at the problem--leads to poorer choices/decisions than "unconscious thought"--deliberation in the absence of conscious attention directed at the problem. UTT comprises six principles said to apply to decision making, impression formation, attitude formation and change, problem solving, and creativity. Because the implications of UTT for psychological research and theory are considerable, the authors critically examined these six principles (and the studies used to support them) in light of the extant scholarship on unconscious processes, memory, attention, and social cognition. Our examination reveals that UTT is a theory of the unconscious that fails to take into account important work in cognitive psychology, particularly in the judgment and decision making area. Moreover, established literatures in social psychology that contradict fundamental tenets of UTT and its empirical basis are ignored. The authors conclude that theoretical and experimental deficiencies undermine the claims of the superiority of unconscious thinking as portrayed by UTT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

It is well established that increasing attitude certainty makes attitudes more resistant to attack and more predictive of behavior. This finding has been interpreted as indicating that attitude certainty crystallizes attitudes, making them more durable and impactful. The current research challenges this crystallization hypothesis and proposes an amplification hypothesis, which suggests that instead of invariably strengthening an attitude, attitude certainty amplifies the dominant effect of the attitude on thought, judgment, and behavior. In 3 experiments, the authors test these competing hypotheses by comparing the effects of attitude certainty manipulations on univalent versus ambivalent attitudes. Across experiments, it is demonstrated that increasing attitude certainty strengthens attitudes (e.g., increases their resistance to persuasion) when attitudes are univalent but weakens attitudes (e.g., decreases their resistance to persuasion) when attitudes are ambivalent. These results are consistent with the amplification hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

Seven studies provide evidence that representations of the self at a distant-future time point are more abstract and structured than are representations of the self at a near-future time point and that distant-future behaviors are more strongly related to general self-conceptions. Distant-future self-representations incorporate broader, more superordinate identities than do near-future self-representations (Study 1) and are characterized by less complexity (Study 2), more cross-situational consistency (Study 3), and a greater degree of schematicity (Study 4). Furthermore, people's behavioral predictions of their distant-future (vs. near-future) behavior are more strongly related to their general self-characteristics (Study 5), distant-future behaviors are seen as more self-expressive (Study 6), and distant-future behaviors that do not match up with acknowledged self-characteristics are more strongly rejected as reflections of the self (Study 7). Implications for understanding both the nature of the self-concept and the way in which distance may influence a range of self-processes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

A study of the links among the memory sources of dreams can be carried out by means of an automatic analysis of text files including dream reports and associations. Heuristic criteria can provide plausible explanations for the existence of these links, which generally present a logical and at the same time emotional significance. The aim of this paper is to support the idea that the study of the link patterns among dream sources, in addition to being interesting from the cognitive viewpoint can be also useful for the therapeutic process. An interaction schema is described including four operators: the dreamer (patient), the therapist, the detector of possible links, and the proposer of plausible explanations. Two examples are given of application of this schema. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

Ambivalence researchers often collapse separate measures of positivity and negativity into a single numerical index of ambivalence and refer to it as objective, operative, or potential ambivalence. The authors argue that this univariate approach to ambivalence models undermines the validity of subsequent statistical analyses because it confounds the effects of the index and its components. To remedy this situation, they demonstrate how the assumptions underlying the indices derived from the conflicting reactions model and similarity-intensity model can be tested using a multivariate approach to ambivalence models. On the basis of computer simulations and reanalyses of published moderator effects, the authors show that the frequently reported moderating influence of ambivalence on attitude effects may be a statistical artifact resulting from unmodeled correlations of positivity and negativity with attitude and the dependent variable. On the basis of extensive power analyses, they conclude that it may be extremely difficult to detect moderator effects of ambivalence in observational data. Therefore, they encourage ambivalence researchers to take an experimental approach to study design and a multivariate approach to data analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

To the natives of the Caribbean island of Dominica, the dream is proclaimed la konpanyi la nuit (the companion of the night). Belief in dreams is grounded in diverse cultural influences, including those of the French, West African, British, and the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. In this richly imaginative dream world, myths and truths are finely interwoven to create an unwritten glossary of dream symbol interpretation. Although these interpretations have not enjoyed scientific validation, practical, historical, and psychological data are found to resonate with these traditional Dominican interpretations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

In interpersonal interactions ranging from job interviews to romantic dates, it is common for people to tell each other about what they care about and value. Six experiments explored the general hypothesis that people view their disclosures about what they value as more revealing of themselves than do others. This effect is demonstrated across a variety of contexts, ranging from the brief and anonymous to the more in-depth and social. A source of it is explored in actors' feeling that their most important values are especially important to them. Studies suggest that this feeling involves actors' sense of the intensity with which they hold their values, as opposed to their beliefs about the uniqueness of those values. Studies also show that actors' tendency to view value disclosures as more revealing than do observers is somewhat specific to value disclosures--that is, actors do not view their relatively off-the-cuff responses (Study 4) or their disclosures of their nonvalues (Study 6) as more revealing. Implications of this research for self-other differences and for interpersonal intimacy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)

This study examined the nighttime dream experiences of animal rights activists. The sample consisted of 284 activists who attended the Animal Rights 2004 conference. Participants completed the C. S. Hall and R. Van de Castle (1966) Most Recent Dream Survey (as cited in Domhoff, 1996). The data on dreams were compared with statistical norms on dream content developed by C. S. Hall and R. Van de Castle (as cited in Domhoff, 1996). Results indicated that activists reported animal dream characters at a much higher rate than the general population. Activists also overwhelmingly had more friendly animal dreams than did the general public. Examples of dream reports, as well as the variety of animal species, are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)