Alexandra M. Columbus (Editor)

Series: Advances in Psychology Research
BISAC: PSY000000

After many centuries of study, social scientific researchers in many fields, such as those of human emotion, are still at a loss for even definitions of constructs on which to base explicit theories. In this book, human emotion factors were assessed for a sample of 291 Yoruba-speaking students with a questionnaire administered in Ibadan metropolis. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for uplifting individual happiness, collective identity and sense of connection to others, as well as theoretical implications of these findings for the nature of attitudes, emotions and intergroup relations are explored.

Next, the authors show that heuristics and biases are most likely a heritage from our evolutionary past as they are also detected in non-human primates and observed early in children. The results obtained by running a similar food gambling task with children and individuals of 6 different species of non-human primates are presented, and observed gambling rates were analysed in the different sets of individuals and estimations of different choice theories parameters were run. Risk aversion and loss aversion were detected and measured at various levels in non-human primates and children. The key finding is that cognitive processes in the context of risk are not uniquely human and are based on biologically measurable foundations.

Following this, this book reviews problems that researchers face when trying to establish the aggressiveness of computer gamers who engage with violent content during gameplay. When conducting media comparisons, the comparisons are only valid within “zones of comparability.” Either the level of participants’ interactivity has to be constant across the media type compared, while the media content varies; or the content of specific media should be kept constant, whereas the level of interactivity with the content then varies.
Afterwards, the authors discuss the mushrooming of self-help groups of patients in Germany in the 1970’s. Today, these groups are seen as complementary resources for the health care system, in contrast to their perception at the time. In this chapter, the socio-political background for the integration of self-help into the healthcare system is presented, along with a short history of the research on collaboration in Germany before the concept of self-help friendliness emerged. Additionally research on and practice of the methodical approach of self-help friendliness is presented.

The authors go on to present the results of a systematic review of the recent literature regarding the association between birth order and the development of personality. Whether ordinal position between siblings has a further impact on human lives is a question that has interested the scientific community and the general public for decades. The so-called “birth order theory” was formulated by the Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler in 1947. He argued that birth order has a profound and lasting effect on psychological development.

The objective of the following chapter was to analyze the profile of the sexual aggressor of children and adolescents, according to manifestations of the violence and link with the victims, in a decade (2007-2016). The authors used a cross-sectional study, based on data from the “Police Inquiry Reports; Occurrence Bulletins and Circumstantial Terms” to maintain the importance of raising awareness among adolescents and young people and to determine the role of interpersonal relationships, social formation and ties with family members, acquaintances, boyfriends, friends and colleagues. The central goal is to halt the repetition of violent models and prevent the generational transmission of the cycle of victimization-aggression.

The findings of an additional study on sexual violence against children and adolescents, whose perpetrators are familiar and some known from the social environment of the victims, point to the need for prevention measures and support to family and social centers. This book reinforces the importance of protection and prevention to encourage anonymous complaints.

Next, the authors suggest that examining sexual behavior that differs between men and women is often difficult because treating men and women as different is as much of a problem as treating men and women as being the same. Thus, the authors will present data from multiple studies conducted with groups of college women primarily in the United States over the past 20 years. The studies were published from 1989 to 2010. Beyond documenting that women use a range of tactics that includes coercion and physical force to obtain sex from unwilling men (or men unable to give consent), these studies demonstrate differences in personality, demographics, cultural setting, beliefs, and personal history between women who aggress and those who do not.

In the concluding chapter, adults (ages 19-72, M = 47.05 years, n = 235) were given the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form (GDS-SF, n = 171 scoring 0-5 (normal); n = 27 scoring 6-9 (suggesting depression), and n = 37 scoring 10-15 (almost always indicative of depression) and Palmore’s (2001) 20-item Ageism Survey. Neither age, gender nor education were related to Ageism Survey items. Increases in probable depression lead to more Ageism Survey items endorsed once or more than once.