Postscript to the Special Issue on Gossip.

It is tempting to ask about the origins and functions of gossip, but this temptation should be resisted. From a psychological perspective, gossip is likely to be an arbitrary and unnatural category. The articles in this issue demonstrate how scientifically rich the study of gossip is, but this is not because gossip is a natural kind: it is instead because it is a domain where the most interesting aspects of mental life are laid bare. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Social Comparison Account of Gossip.

The central thesis of this article is that all gossip involves social comparison. Research on social comparison is applied toward understanding motivations for gossip. In addition, the authors address why gossip tends to be negative and make predictions about factors that trigger especially negative talk about others. Factors such as need for moral information, powerlessness, formation and maintenance of in-groups and out-groups, and situations that bring on perceptions of injustice or feelings of jealousy, envy, and resentment all contribute to malicious gossip. Finally, the morality of gossip is considered, especially as it relates to the misuse or overuse of social comparison. Gossip is purposeful and, perhaps, necessary for healthy social functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editor's Comment.

Comments on the current issue of Review of General Psychology, which will focus on the topic of gossip. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

About This Special Issue.

When the idea for a special issue of the American Psychologist was discussed among members of the International Affairs Committee of the Association, the major hope of the members was to obtain contributions that would provide the Association with fresh perspectives on psychology, basic and applied. The guest editor discusses lessons learned from the papers in this special issue, and highlights several articles in detail. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gossip in Evolutionary Perspective.

Conversation is a uniquely human phenomenon. Analyses of freely forming conversations indicate that approximately two thirds of conversation time is devoted to social topics, most of which can be given the generic label gossip. This article first explores the origins of gossip as a mechanism for bonding social groups, tracing these origins back to social grooming among primates. It then asks why social gossip in this sense should form so important a component of human interaction and presents evidence to suggest that, aside from servicing social networks, a key function may be related explicitly to controlling free riders. Finally, the author reviews briefly the role of social cognition in facilitating conversations of this kind. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gossip as Cultural Learning.

To complement views of gossip as essentially a means of gaining information about individuals, cementing social bonds, and engaging in indirect aggression, the authors propose that gossip serves to help people learn about how to live in their cultural society. Gossip anecdotes communicate rules in narrative form, such as by describing how someone else came to grief by violating social norms. Gossip is thus an extension of observational learning, allowing one to learn from the triumphs and misadventures of people beyond one's immediate perceptual sphere. This perspective helps to explain some empirical findings about gossip, such as that gossip is not always derogatory and that people sometimes gossip about strangers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special issue: Integrating personality and social psychology.

The purpose of this Special Issue is not to mark one approach as superior to others but rather to present a wide variety of approaches to the problem of integrating personality and social psychology. This introductory essay seeks to underscore some of the integrative aspects of the articles collected here and to help point the direction for future activity along the same lines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Models of addiction: Introduction to the Special Issue.

This Special Issue contains articles that highlight empirical approaches to addiction that have clear theoretical relevance as well as articles that present significant theoretical perspectives on addiction. This collection reflects the implicit assumption that types of addiction are more similar than dissimilar. The characteristics of drug exposure that promote physical dependence, the occurrence of tolerance, the associative elicitation of tolerance, the time course of relapse to drug use, the phenomenology of drug urges or cravings, the precipitants of relapse, the obsessive concern with securing and using drugs are all commonalities among addictive disorders that underscore the fact that addiction is expressed through universal motivational mechanisms and processes. Diverse addictive disorders are phenotypically similar because their motivational bases are similar; if not in particular, then in principle. The selections in this Special Issue reflect a set of assumptions that can be seen as promising areas for future research and theorizing. The first area concerns the application of traditional motivational models and concepts to addictive disorders. The second area for future research and theorizing deals with cognitive or information processing models of addiction. The third area covered in this Special Issue concerns interpersonal/social context. The final area covered in this issue deals with genetics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preface to the Special Issue on Informal Reasoning.

Preface that in part comments that the motivation for this issue came from a growing concern with the way in which the study of formal reasoning has been developing. Forty years ago, when the cognitive study of reasoning began in earnest, it was done under the assumption that the ability to make logically valid inferences was a cornerstone of rational thought. This assumption dominated research in the field to such an extent that it persevered for decades, despite overwhelming evidence to suggest that intelligent college students repeatedly failed to reason logically on relatively simple problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Advances in research with sexual minority people: Introduction to the special issue.

Presents an introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Counseling Psychology. This editorial discusses advances in research with sexual minority people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to special issue.

This article serves as a brief introduction to this special issue of the Review of General Psychology. The editor of this Special Issue and the authors presented put forth ideas and data on how we may better understand the people who make and interpret science. They hope that their work will serve to establish the "psychology of science" as a recognizable and useful field of study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research methods for profile analysis: Introduction to the special issue.

The five articles that make up the bulk of this special issue collectively illustrate new methods for examining the utility of sub-test and scale-level profile analysis. By necessity they are preliminary, but they illustrate methods that may indeed prove useful and may help resolve this divide between research and practice. This special issue grew out of a symposium conceived and organized by Cecil Reynolds at the American Psychological Association in 1998. The articles and one of the commentaries in this special issue are extensions of that symposium. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special issue on developing flexible and adaptable leaders for an age of uncertainty.

It is no secret that today's hyper-competitive, fast-paced, and rapidly changing global economy puts a premium on adaptable organizations and flexible leaders. Even advertising campaigns celebrate the “agile enterprise” and channel the spirit of “constant self-reinvention.” However, what can consulting psychologists do to help managers become more flexible and adaptable leaders? In this introduction to the special issue I provide an overview of the 5 focal articles and the capstone summary article. The articles in this issue are written by respected scholars and experienced practitioners who provide evidence-based guidance to practical questions such as: Why is flexibility so important, especially in tough economic times plagued by crisis and uncertainty?; how can practitioners predict and assess a manager's degree of flexibility?; and, how can leadership training and development interventions promote greater flexibility and adaptability? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research on Gossip: Taxonomy, Methods, and Future Directions.

A half century of gossip research from multiple disciplines is reviewed. Discussed are definitions of the construct: social, evolutionary, and personal functions of the practice; and data collection methods. Though people engage in the practice frequently, there has been relatively little psychological research on gossip. The layperson's understanding of the term is included in, but insufficient to encompass, definitions used by researchers. Most data are ethnographic and discursive, and few parametric data exist. The area could benefit from better experimental methods and instruments. Neurobiological and social network analysis methods are promising foundations for further study. There are real-world implications for understanding gossip. Strengthening gossip theory and research methods will beneficially inform the way we view the practice in context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Methodology in Family Science: Introduction to the Special Issue.

Methodology influences every facet of scientific inquiry including the processes of framing questions, operationalizing constructs, sampling individuals within populations and observations within persons, analyzing data, and bringing meaning to the results. This introduction to the special issue on methodology emphasizes the recursive interaction of research methodology and theories underlying family science. Because the science of family psychology is richly complex, so too must the methods for examining couple and family phenomena be equally diverse. Articles comprising this special issue vary in their emphasis on research design versus data-analytic techniques and on confirmatory versus discovery-oriented strategies. The special issue is intended to advance not only the conduct of family science but also the understanding and integration of an increasingly complex research literature by those engaged in education and clinical interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special series.

This special issue of the Psychology of Addictive Behaviors includes papers that were presented the second annual symposium of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors (SPAB), held in New Orleans in August 1989. The symposium offerings sampled several significant addiction treatment and research issues, including new treatment populations and new treatment interventions, biogenetic factors in chemical dependency, and the impact of AIDS on the addiction field and on psychologists' roles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology of addictive behaviors: 1990s: The future of the psychology of addictive behaviors: Introduction.

It is no surprise that the beginning of the last decade of the century should stimulate thought about the future. Caught up in this spirit, I asked a number of experts in the field of addictive behaviors to consider the next 10 years. What, I asked, do you think will happen in the decade of the 1990s? Making this task even more challenging, the authors were limited in the length of their responses to what amounts to a short essay. They have risen to the task and have provided views of different aspects of the field of addictive behaviors and the result is this special issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relevant issues in developmental science: Introduction to the special issue.

Introduces a special issue of the American Psychologist that focuses on selected socially relevant issues of interest to developmental scientists. Some of the topics addressed are long-standing concerns in developmental science, such as the development of aggression and antisocial behavior; depression; and competent, socially constructive behaviors. Although some of the positions taken by authors in this special issue are controversial, it is hoped that they will serve a heuristic function by promoting constructive discourse and research to resolve these disputes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)