Extending the search for folk personality constructs: The dimensionality of the personality-relevant proverb domain.

College students (95 men and 264 women) rated how well 211 familiar proverbs described their behavior and beliefs. A factor analysis of these data yielded 7 major dimensions; many of the factors were similar to recognized lexical personality factors. Big Five Conscientiousness and Neuroticism were each strongly associated with a single proverb dimension (interpreted as Restraint and Enjoys Life, respectively). Big Five Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Intellect/Imagination were all associated with several proverb dimensions. Agreeableness was most strongly associated with proverb dimensions representing Machiavellian behavior and strong Group Ties, and both Extraversion and Intellect showed particularly notable associations with an Achievement Striving dimension. The 2 remaining proverb dimensions, which represented a belief that Life is Fair and an attitude of Cynicism, could not be accounted for by the Big Five. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proverbs and psychoanalysis

Proverbs have much to teach the psychoanalyst. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the clinical usefulness of viewing certain proverbs as analogous to typical dreams, to discuss some implications of the affinities between proverbs, riddles, and typical dreams in the context of applied psychoanalysis, and to view the proverb as stemming from the same common matrix as dreams, myths, symptoms, and folklore.     

Metaphor: Theoretical and empirical research.

Metaphor plays a major role in our understanding of language and of the world we use language to talk about. Traditional definitions and theories of metaphor are reviewed, and it is suggested that many definitions err in equating metaphors with comparisons rather than merely implicating comparisons. Empirical research is reviewed that reveals serious problems, particularly in the developmental research. These problems often relate to inadequate underlying theories about the nature of metaphor, inadequate controls over preexisting knowledge, and conclusions that children cannot understand metaphors. Related research on the comprehension of proverbs and analogies is discussed. It is suggested that metaphor be redefined and an investigative approach be employed that will permit adequate controls of preexisting knowledge, surface structure, and meaning. This approach could emphasize and takes advantage of the context-dependent nature of metaphors. Finally, the role of comparisons is reexamined. (69 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of enriched input on schizophrenic abstraction.

Closed ward, openward, and former schizophrenic patients were compared with nonschizophrenic patients. Ss gave abstract interpretations for single proverbs and for sets of 3 proverbs, the proverb sets providing an enriched input condition. Schizophrenics with mild and medium degrees of psychosis showed improvement in abstract responses with enriched input. Nonschizophrenic and severely schizophrenic Ss showed no improvement. When input was adequate, deficit in abstract responses disappeared entirely for the mildly schizophrenic Ss. Severely schizophrenic Ss showed deficit on all tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proverb word counts as a measure of overinclusiveness in delusional schizophrenics.

A partial replication was conducted of Payne's (1964) report concerning the relationship between delusions and overinclusive thinking as measured by proverbs word counts. Word counts were made of Gorham Proverbs Test responses given by age and intelligence-matched groups of 21 delusional schizophrenics, 21 nondelusional schizophrenics, and 21 nonschizophrenic, nondelusional psychiatric in-patients. 23 paranoid, 23 nonparanoid, and 23 nonschizophrenic control Ss, similarly matched, from the same population, were also compared. No significant differences in proverb word counts were found among the groups. Although the possibility of increased irrelevant side remarks could not be excluded, paranoid or delusional schizophrenics do not produce higher proverb relevant word counts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Idiom literality judgments in younger and older adults: Age-related effects in resolving semantic interference.

To study age effects in the resolution of idiomatic semantic ambiguity, we focus on decomposability, the extent to which a literal reading of an idiom's words shares meaning with its figurative interpretation. Younger and older adults judged whether decomposable and nondecomposable idioms and nonidioms had a literal interpretation. Older adults were slower at making literality judgments and more sensitive to conflicts between literal and figurative meanings. The results support claims of decompositional analysis of idioms during later processing stages and of obligatory activation of figurative meanings. They also lend support to research that has shown age-related effects in ambiguity resolution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

How to limit clinical errors in interpretation of data

We all assume that we can understand and correctly interpret what we read. However, interpretation is a collection of subtle processes that are easily influenced by poor presentation or wording of information. This article examines how evidence-based principles of information design can be applied to medical records to enhance clinical understanding and accuracy in interpretation of the detailed data that they contain.     

Distinguishing lies from jokes: theory of mind deficits and discourse interpretation in right hemisphere brain-damaged patients

Right-hemisphere brain damaged (RHD) patients and a normal control group were tested for their ability to infer first- and second-order mental states and to understand the communicative intentions underlying ironic jokes and lies. Subjects listened to stories involving a character who had either a true or a false belief about another character's knowledge. Stories ended either with an ironic joke or a lie by this character. In the joke stories, the speaker knew that the listener knew the truth (a true second-order belief) and did not expect the listener to believe what was said; in the lie stories, the speaker did not know that the listener actually knew the truth (a false second-order belief) and thus did expect the listener to believe what was said. RHD patients performed significantly worse than control subjects on one of two measures of second-order belief, which suggests that the ability to make second-order mental state attributions is fragile and unreliable following right-hemisphere damage. RHD patients in addition performed worse than controls when asked to distinguish lies from jokes, confirming their known difficulties with discourse interpretation. For both groups, the ability to distinguish lies from jokes was strongly correlated with two measures of the ability to attribute correctly second-order beliefs. These results suggest that the fragility of RHD patients' understanding of second-order mental states underlies a portion of their difficulties in discourse comprehension, but that the underlying impairment is not restricted to right hemisphere dysfunction.     

Social class, child age, and parental socialization values.

Upper-, middle-, and lower-class parents were asked to explain a proverb which had both "growth" and "stability" interpretations to their 11- and 16-yr-old sons. The growth interpretation was overwhelmingly endorsed by most parents. With 16-yr-olds, lower-middle-class parents continued to endorse the growth interpretation; most upper-class parents endorsed the stability interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Converging methods for understanding reading and dyslexia.

Reviews the book, Converging methods for understanding reading and dyslexia edited by Raymond M. Klein and Patricia A. McMullen (see record 2000-07104-000). In the preface to this volume, the editors Raymond Klein and Patricia McMullen promise a book that will "illustrate different approaches used by scientists to understand the complex skill of reading and its breakdown" (p. xi). As long as readers of this volume understand that Klein and McMullen are referring to "the reading of single words" (p. 1), and not the reading of sentences or paragraphs or whole texts, they will not be disappointed by this book. Indeed, Klein and McMullen have put together an impressive collection of state-of-the-art chapters by scientists who address the issue of single-word reading from a variety of standpoints and disciplines. The coverage is both extensive and intensive, and the quality of the contributions is uniformly high. Klein and McMullen have lived up to their promise of delivering a book that illustrates different approaches to understanding single-word reading and its breakdown. But have they succeeded in putting together a volume "to stimulate thought about how converging evidence from these approaches can lead to new insights and advances" (p. xi)? Of course, it is too early to tell whether researchers will be able to draw on the converging evidence in a positive way. However, I think the editors could have done more to facilitate such a process. Most readers will be struck by the fact that the volume reveals as many divergences of evidence and opinion as it does convergences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A scoring manual for literalness in proverb interpretation.

Presents a scoring system for literalness of proverb interpretation as an alternative to scoring concreteness. For 115 schizophrenics (mean age 37.3 yrs) and normal Ss, literalness and D. R. Gorham's (1956) measure of concreteness were equivalent on coefficient alpha (.85 for literalness and .84 for concreteness). Interrater reliability was .90 for both scoring systems. Nevertheless, abstraction correlated lower with literalness than with concreteness. For 77 schizophrenics, Verbal IQ correlated significantly with concreteness but not with literalness. Thus, literalness is less affected by intelligence and by ability to respond abstractly than is Gorham's concreteness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The processing of metonymy: Evidence from eye movements.

The authors investigated the time course of the processing of metonymic expressions in comparison with literal ones in 2 eye-tracking experiments. Experiment 1 considered the processing of sentences containing place-for-institution metonymies such as the convent in That blasphemous woman had to answer to the convent; it was found that such expressions were of similar difficulty to sentences containing literal interpretations of the same expressions. In contrast, expressions without a relevant metonymic interpretation caused immediate difficulty. Experiment 2 found similar results for place-for-event metonymies such as A lot of Americans protested during Vietnam, except that the difficulty with expressions without a relevant metonymic interpretation was somewhat delayed. The authors argue that these findings are incompatible with models of figurative language processing in which either the literal sense is accessed first or the figurative sense is accessed first. Instead, they support an account in which both senses can be accessed immediately, perhaps through a single under specified representation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the "Music of Thought": The Use of Metaphor in Poetry and in Psychoanalysis.

The author considers the clinical use of metaphor--when psychoanalytic psychotherapists move intentionally to figurative and comparative language in talking with their patients--by comparing it to the use of metaphor in poetry. Both poets and psychoanalysts, despite the differences in the aims of their arts, rely on this way of speaking in order to evoke, discover, and create meaning. A consideration of the way therapists use metaphors sheds some light on essential clinical processes--and on the current debate between "classical" and "post-modern" ways of understanding what psychoanalysts do. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adhesion in development: an historical overview

My purpose here is to provide brief historical overviews of three related subjects conceptually fundamental to the broader subject of "cell adhesion in development." These subjects are (1) the evolution of our present understanding of how animal cells cohere; (2) the question of what principles underlie the ability of embryonic cell populations to organize themselves into anatomically correct structures; and (3) the ongoing effort to understand the origins of the "recognition specificity" evinced in the latter phenomenon. Because this review must be brief, it is not possible to mention all of the significant advances, many of which will be referenced in a recent more detailed review of this subject (Grunwald, 1991). For the same reason, the important work on cell adhesion in nonvertebrate systems is not included.     

In search of realistic optimism: Meaning, knowledge, and warm fuzziness.

Is it better to be realistic or optimistic? A realistic outlook improves chances to negotiate the environment successfully, whereas an optimistic outlook places priority on feeling good. But are realistic and optimistic outlook necessarily in conflict? The author suggests that the fuzzy nature of accuracy typically places only loose boundaries on what it means to be realistic. As a result, there are many forms of optimism that do not, in principle, yield unrealistic assessments. Nevertheless, there remain numerous "optimistic biases" that do involve self-deception, or convincing oneself of desired beliefs without appropriate reality checks. The author describes several ways that realistic and unrealistic optimism can be differentiated and explore the impact of this distinction for current views of optimism. This critique reveals how positive psychology may benefit from a focus on personal meaning and knowledge as they relate to making the most of life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What lies beyond interpretation, and is that the right question?

Some think that current theory breaks new ground by challenging the dogma that interpretation is the sole force in treatment. The author argues that there never was such a belief at any time in the history of psychoanalysis, and that the current challenge is better understood as denying the analyst's ability to control his thinking, intention, and action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What Folklore Tells Us about Risk and Risk Taking: Cross-Cultural Comparisons of American, German, and Chinese Proverbs

Two studies attempted to discriminate between a situational-economic and a cultural explanation for the recently reported finding that Chinese from the People's Republic of China (PRC) are more risk-seeking than Americans. Both studies compared American and Chinese proverbs related to risk and risk-taking. The first study added Germany as a control group for its socioeconomic similarity to the United States but its closer resemblance to the PRC in its social safety-net and cultural collectivism. Members of each culture rated American, Chinese, and German risk-related proverbs, respectively, on implied advice (to take or avoid risk) and applicability to financial or social risks. Results were consistent with the cultural explanation of national differences in risk taking: (a) Chinese and German proverbs were judged to provide more risk-seeking advice than American proverbs; (b) American proverbs were judged less applicable to risks in the social domain than Chinese and German proverbs; (c) regardless of national origin of proverbs, Chinese perceived proverbs to advocate greater risk-seeking than American raters, but only for financial and not for social risks. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.