SAGE Journal Articles

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Article 1: Chen, S. Y., Urminsky, O., & Bartels, D. M. (2016). Beliefs about the causal structure of the self-concept determine which changes disrupt personal identity. Psychological Science, 27(10), 1398–1406. doi:10.1177/0956797616656800

URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797616656800

Learning Objective: 1

Summary: Abstract: Personal identity is an important determinant of behavior, yet how people mentally represent their self-concepts and their concepts of other people is not well understood. In the current studies, we examined the age-old question of what makes people who they are. We propose a novel approach to identity that suggests that the answer lies in people’s beliefs about how the features of identity (e.g., memories, moral qualities, personality traits) are causally related to each other. We examined the impact of the causal centrality of a feature, a key determinant of the extent to which a feature defines a concept, on judgments of identity continuity. We found support for this approach in three experiments using both measured and manipulated causal centrality. For judgments both of one’s self and of others, we found that some features are perceived to be more causally central than others and that changes in such causally central features are believed to be more disruptive to identity.

Questions to Consider:

1. In particular, a sense of ______ in one’s identity provides motivation for making far-sighted choices. Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

  1. confidence
  2. continuity
  3. clarity
  4. charisma

2. Discuss and explain what the authors meant by, “People’s representations of themselves and others are not simply a list of features or social categories.” Cognitive Domain: Analysis

3. People reason about their self-concepts and concepts of other people in much the same way that they reason about concepts in general. Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

True

False
 

Article 2: An exchange with Thomas Nagel: The mind-body problem and psychoanalysis. (2016). Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 64(2), 389–403. doi:10.1177/0003065116647053

URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003065116647053

Learning Objective: 1

Summary: Abstract: The history of psychoanalytic theorizing has from the start been entangled with the mind-body problem. Freud’s famous patients all had somatic complaints that led Freud to revolutionary discoveries about the mind. Freud himself attempted to bridge the mind/body problem with his “Project for a Scientific Psychology,” an effort he abandoned given the primitive level of neuroscience in his day. In abandoning neuroscience, Freud opted instead for a meaning-based theory in which he became a cryptographer struggling to decipher the meaning of his patients’ somatic and behavioral symptoms.

Questions to Consider:

1. The mind-body problem took its modern form only in the 17th century, essentially with ______, and it took that form at the birth of modern physical science. Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

  1. Plato
  2. Aristotle
  3. Descartes
  4. Bacon

2. ______ qualities describe how things are in themselves. Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

  1. tertiary
  2. ancillary
  3. primary
  4. secondary

3. Define the following statement from the article and discuss the ramifications: “Materialism is the currently dominant form of reductionism, and it reduces the mental to the physical via the reduction of the mental to the biological.” Cognitive Domain: Application
 

Article 3: Meule, A., & Blechert, J. (2016). Trait impulsivity and body mass index: A cross-sectional investigation in 3073 individuals reveals positive, but very small relationships. Health Psychology Open, 3(2). doi:10.1177/2055102916659164

URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2055102916659164

Learning Objective: 1

Summary: Abstract: Impulsivity has been suggested to be associated with obesity. However, findings are fairly inconsistent and it appears that only specific facets of impulsivity are related to overeating and body mass. In this study, relationships between scores on a short form of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and body mass index were examined in a heterogeneous sample (N = 3073). After controlling for age and sex, only scores on attentional and motor impulsivity, but not non-planning impulsivity, were predictive of higher body mass index. The magnitude of these relationships, however, was very small. Thus, future research needs to address possible mediators and moderators of the relationship between impulsivity and body mass in order to explain why only specific facets of impulsivity appear to play a role in obesity and under which circumstances heightened impulsivity levels are associated with higher body weight.

Questions to Consider:

1. ______ refers to a predisposition toward rapid, unplanned reactions to internal or external stimuli without regard to the negative consequences of these reactions. Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

  1. Propensity
  2. Impulsivity
  3. Compulsiveness
  4. Obsessiveness

2. Explain how impulsivity has been associated with obesity in this study. Cognitive Domain: Analysis

3. The results of this study reported a strong correlation between impulsivity and obesity, and recommend this to be added to the DSM-5. Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

True

False