Evidence of an Indirect Effect of Generativity on Fear of Death Through Ego-Integrity Considering Social Desirability

Recent research has shown an indirect effect of generativity on fear of death through ego-integrity in older adults. The present paper aims at demonstrating that the indirect effect is valid even when controlling for social desirability. For that purpose, participants ( N = 260 German adults) in study 1 provided self-reports on generativity, ego-integrity, fear of death, and social desirability. Analyses confirmed the indirect effect when the tendency for socially desirable responding was statistically controlled. In study 2, participants ( N = 133 German adults) also reported on their generativity and ego-integrity. Fear of death, however, was assessed with a reaction time-based measure (i.e., the Implicit Associations Test). Again, the indirect effect could be confirmed. Taken together, the studies lend further credibility to the extant findings on the indirect effect of generativity on fear of death through ego-integrity.

Harsh is large: nonlinear vocal phenomena lower voice pitch and exaggerate body size

A lion's roar, a dog's bark, an angry yell in a pub brawl: what do these vocalizations have in common? They all sound harsh due to nonlinear vocal phenomena (NLP)—deviations from regular voice production, hypothesized to lower perceived voice pitch and thereby exaggerate the apparent body size of the vocalizer. To test this yet uncorroborated hypothesis, we synthesized human nonverbal vocalizations, such as roars, groans and screams, with and without NLP (amplitude modulation, subharmonics and chaos). We then measured their effects on nearly 700 listeners' perceptions of three psychoacoustic (pitch, timbre, roughness) and three ecological (body size, formidability, aggression) characteristics. In an explicit rating task, all NLP lowered perceived voice pitch, increased voice darkness and roughness, and caused vocalizers to sound larger, more formidable and more aggressive. Key results were replicated in an implicit associations test, suggesting that the ‘harsh is large’ bias will arise in ecologically relevant confrontational contexts that involve a rapid, and largely implicit, evaluation of the opponent's size. In sum, nonlinearities in human vocalizations can flexibly communicate both formidability and intention to attack, suggesting they are not a mere byproduct of loud vocalizing, but rather an informative acoustic signal well suited for intimidating potential opponents.

THE USE OF IMPLICIT ASSOCIATIONS TEST FOR DIAGNOSING ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE

Alcohol dependence syndrome is a severe disease that affects not only the health but also the social functioning of a person and leads to dangerous consequences. Early diagnosis of this disease will help to minimize the damage. Objectives. To develop a method for diagnosing alcohol dependence syndrome by means of implicit associations test. Material and methods. The indices of passing the implicit associations test by 152 patients with the diagnosis «Alcohol dependence syndrome», who made up the control group, and those of 189 practically healthy volunteers were investigated. The statistical analysis was made in R 4.0.3 format. To build the model, multiple logistic regression was used, the quality of which was assessed using ROC analysis. The differences were considered statistically significant at p-value <0.05. Results. These values were used to build a logistic regression model. The resulting model has a high predictive power - sensitivity and specificity made up 90.32% and 67.74%, respectively, AUC (area under the curve) and Fmes (general characteristics of predictive power) were 88.06% and 83.17%, correspondingly. Conclusions. As a result of the work carried out, a highly sensitive method for diagnosing alcohol dependence syndrome using an implicit associations test has been developed, which can be used for screening and diagnosing, as well as for dynamic observation of patients with alcohol dependence syndrome.

The Influence of Implicit Math Anxiety on Math Achievement

Previous work has noted that math anxiety may have a profound effect on math performance; however extant research has relied on measures that explicitly assess math anxiety. This study examined the effects of implicit math anxiety on the performance of a math achievement task. We hypothesized that combined measure of implicit anxiety and explicit anxiety would better predict math achievement than measures of explicit math anxiety alone. In addition, we hypothesized that an individuals’ measured implicit anxiety and measured explicit anxiety would share only a modest correlation. To test these hypotheses, 175 participants completed measures of explicit anxiety, an implicit associations test designed to measure implicit anxiety, and a measure of math achievement. As expected, math achievement was better predicted when implicit anxiety was combined with explicit anxiety. Furthermore, scores on the implicit and explicit anxiety measures were not significantly correlated. These results suggest that implicit and explicit math anxiety are two distinct constructs, thus traditional methods for helping students deal with math anxiety may not be entirely successful if the implicit component is ignored.

Implicit Attitudes Toward Robots

This study explores employing a measurement of implicit attitudes to better understand attitudes and trust levels towards robots. This work builds upon an existing implicit measure (Implicit Associations Test) to compare attitudes toward humans with attitudes toward robots. Results are compared with explicit self-report measures, and future directions for this work are discussed.

Problem of suicide risk diagnostics and possibility to use implicit association test

If we make a search for the term suicide in the database PsycARTICLES, we will find 1732 articles published from 1898 till 2013. The dynamics of the scientific interest towards the problem is following: 127 articles were published from 1981 till 1991, 596 articles were published from 1992 till 2002; finally, 830 articles were published from 2003 till 2013. The rise of the research interest is obvious. The more detailed analysis of the articles showed that there are different models explaining suicide (for example: medical, philosophical, psychological and sociological). The different interacting predictors of suicide were revealed in the numerous studies: sociocultural, psychosocial, and biological ones. The preventive measures are already worked out and the new ones are in the process of validation. Having such a rich and complex scientific knowledge and practical tools to handle the problem the statistics say that the number of suicides continues to grow. The brief literature review is focused on the problem of the diagnostics of suicide risk. The potential of the implicit associations test for the diagnostics of suicide risk is discussed in this paper.