Alle Publikationen
2019
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(2019): Understanding others: Emotion recognition in humans and other animals. In: Genes, brain, and behavior 18 (1). DOI: 10.1111/gbb.12544
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12544 Abstract: Emotion recognition represents the ability to encode an ensemble of sensory stimuli providing information about the emotional state of another individual. This ability is not unique to humans. An increasing number of studies suggest that many aspects of higher order social functions, including emotion recognition, might be present in species ranging from primates to rodents, indicating a conserved role in social animals. The aim of this review is to examine and compare how emotions are communicated and perceived in humans and other animals, with the intent to highlight possible new behavioral approaches and research perspectives. We summarize the evidence from human emotion recognition, and latest advances in the development of nonhuman animal behavioral tests, using or implying the use of this cognitive function. The differential implication of sensory modalities used by animals to communicate and decipher emotional states is also discussed. The opportunity to measure emotion recognition abilities in rodents may allow us to better identify the neural mechanisms mediating this complex function, thus promoting the development of new intervention strategies for several neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by social cognitive dysfunctions.
2018
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(2018) : The model of moral motives: A map of the moral domain. In: Gray, Kurt James; Graham, Jesse (Hg.): Atlas of moral psychology: What do we evaluate when we evaluate moral character? - Helzer, Erik G.; Critcher, Clayton R.: New York, NY: The Guilford Press
Abstract: Motivation is fundamental to morality, which involves both an understanding of right and wrong—of what we should or should not do—and the activation or inhibition of these behaviors. The model of moral motives (MMM) has its roots in the most basic motivational processes recognized in psychology: approach and avoidance. The MMM crosses approach and avoidance processes with distinct levels of analysis reflecting the focus of one’s moral behavior: oneself (intrapersonal), another person (interpersonal), or the group (collective). As evident in this chapter, this produces six cells with unique moral motives, each reflecting how to be moral in that context. Our model explains these two innate processes that are generic from a psychological perspective and culturally uniform in their social function, with a special focus on how these processes manifest in different social contexts. However, it is important to clarify that our model does not try to explain the many ways in which c ultures elaborate on these basic processes. Learned cultural innovations, including everything from rituals and tradition, gossip and reputation, the rule of law, religion, governmental institutions, penal systems, leadership, and various forms of tribalism, are woven into moral behavior in different ways from culture to culture. These cultural elaborations on the two basic processes of moral behavior lead to unique societies that emphasize differing moral motives with differing levels of effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
2017
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(2017): Adaptive social robot for sustaining social engagement during long-term Children–Robot Interaction. In: International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 33 (12), S. 943-962. DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2017.1300750
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2017.1300750 Abstract: One of the known challenges in Children–Robot Interaction (cHRI) is to sustain children’s engagement during long-term interactions with robots. Researchers have hypothesized that robots that can adapt to children’s affective states and can also learn from the environment can result in sustaining engagement during cHRI. Recently, researchers have conducted a range of studies where robots portray different social capabilities and have shown that it has positively influenced children’s engagement. However, despite an immense body of research on implementation of different adaptive social robots, a pivotal question remains unanswered: Which adaptations portrayed by a robot can result in maintaining long-term social engagement during cHRI? In other words, what are the appropriate and effective adaptations portrayed by a robot that will sustain social engagement for an extended number of interactions? In this article, we report on a study conducted with three groups of children who played a snakes and ladders game with the NAO robot to address the aforementioned question. The NAO performed 1) game-based adaptations, 2) emotion-based adaptations, and 3) memory-based adaptation. Our results showed that emotion-based adaptations were found out to be most effective, followed by memory-based adaptations. Game adaptation didn’t result in sustaining long-term social engagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)
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(2017): Social distance influences the outcome evaluation of cooperation and conflict. Evidence from event-related potentials. In: Neuroscience letters 647, S. 78-84. DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.03.018
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28315726 Abstract: Previous research shows that social distance plays an important role in promoting cooperation and that subtle cues that reduce social distance increase the tendency to cooperate. However, it is unclear how social distance influences our outcome evaluation of cooperative and conflict feedback. The present study investigated the influence of social distance on cooperative and conflict behavior and the evaluation process of the cooperative and conflict outcomes, using the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique. We recorded ERPs from 14 normal adults playing a social game task against a friend and a stranger. The results showed that the FRN (Feedback Related Negativity) and P300 were affected by the opponent's choice to cooperate or aggress; however, only the P300 was affected by social distance. Specifically, when the opponent chose to cooperate, the feedback elicited a smaller FRN and a larger P300 amplitude; and compared with playing against friends, the P300 had a larger amplitude when participants gaming with strangers. Our results indicate that at the early stage of the evaluation of cooperation and conflict outcomes, individuals may initially and quickly encode the valence of outcomes, judging whether an outcome is consistent with their expectations. However, at the late stage, which involves a top-down cognitive appraisal process, some social factors, such as social distance, may moderate processing of attention resource allocation of feedback about outcomes, and of higher-level motivation/affective appraisal. zitiert von 1
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(2017): Altruistic behavior in cohesive social groups. The role of target identifiability. In: PLoS one 12 (11). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187903
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29161282 Abstract: People's tendency to be more generous toward identifiable victims than toward unidentifiable or statistical victims is known as the Identifiable Victim Effect. Recent research has called the generality of this effect into question, showing that in cross-national contexts, identifiability mostly affects willingness to help victims of one's own "in-group." Furthermore, in inter-group conflict situations, identifiability increased generosity toward a member of the adversary group, but decreased generosity toward a member of one's own group. In the present research we examine the role of group-cohesiveness as an underlying factor accounting for these divergent findings. In particular, we examined novel groups generated in the lab, using the minimal group paradigm, as well as natural groups of students in regular exercise sections. Allocation decisions in dictator games revealed that a group's cohesiveness affects generosity toward in-group and out-group recipients differently, depending on their identifiability. In particular, in cohesive groups the identification of an in-group recipient decreased, rather than increased generosity.
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(2017): TERESA: Socially intelligent robot as window to the world. In: Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 20 (5). DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2017.29072.ceu
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2017.29072.ceu Abstract: This column aims to describe the characteristics of current cyberpsychology research in Europe. In particular, CyberEurope aims at describing the leading research groups and projects running on the other side of the Ocean. The researchers have developed methods that enable the robots to perform social functions automatically, so that the human controller never needs to make decisions about how the robot should move around or what postures it should adopt. TERESA robots are able to navigate semi-autonomously, maintaining face-to-face contact during conversations, and displaying appropriate body-pose behavior—in a similar way to human beings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
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(2017): A lesion model of envy and Schadenfreude. Legal, deservingness and moral dimensions as revealed by neurodegeneration. In: Brain : a journal of neurology 140 (12), S. 3357-3377. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awx269
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29112719 Abstract: The study of moral emotions (i.e. Schadenfreude and envy) is critical to understand the ecological complexity of everyday interactions between cognitive, affective, and social cognition processes. Most previous studies in this area have used correlational imaging techniques and framed Schadenfreude and envy as unified and monolithic emotional domains. Here, we profit from a relevant neurodegeneration model to disentangle the brain regions engaged in three dimensions of Schadenfreude and envy: deservingness, morality, and legality. We tested a group of patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), patients with Alzheimer's disease, as a contrastive neurodegeneration model, and healthy controls on a novel task highlighting each of these dimensions in scenarios eliciting Schadenfreude and envy. Compared with the Alzheimer's disease and control groups, patients with bvFTD obtained significantly higher scores on all dimensions for both emotions. Correlational analyses revealed an association between envy and Schadenfreude scores and greater deficits in social cognition, inhibitory control, and behaviour disturbances in bvFTD patients. Brain anatomy findings (restricted to bvFTD and controls) confirmed the partially dissociable nature of the moral emotions' experiences and highlighted the importance of socio-moral brain areas in processing those emotions. In all subjects, an association emerged between Schadenfreude and the ventral striatum, and between envy and the anterior cingulate cortex. In addition, the results supported an association between scores for moral and legal transgression and the morphology of areas implicated in emotional appraisal, including the amygdala and the parahippocampus. By contrast, bvFTD patients exhibited a negative association between increased Schadenfreude and envy across dimensions and critical regions supporting social-value rewards and social-moral processes (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, angular gyrus and precuneus). Together, this study provides lesion-based evidence for the multidimensional nature of the emotional experiences of envy and Schadenfreude. Our results offer new insights into the mechanisms subsuming complex emotions and moral cognition in neurodegeneration. Moreover, this study presents the exacerbation of envy and Schadenfreude as a new potential hallmark of bvFTD that could impact in diagnosis and progression. zitiert von: 3
Keywords: Aged, Alzheimer’s Disease, Amygdala, BRAIN, Case-Control Studies, Diagnostic Imaging, Emotions, Emotionsforschung, Female, Gyrus Cinguli, Hippocampus, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Moral, Morals, Neurowissenschaften, Parietal Lobe, Physiopathology, Prefrontal Cortex, PSYCHOLOGY, Social Behavior, Ventral Striatum -
(2017): Inferences about moral character moderate the impact of consequences on blame and praise. In: Cognition 167, S. 201-211. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.05.004
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28527671 Abstract: Moral psychology research has highlighted several factors critical for evaluating the morality of another's choice, including the detection of norm-violating outcomes, the extent to which an agent caused an outcome, and the extent to which the agent intended good or bad consequences, as inferred from observing their decisions. However, person-centered accounts of moral judgment suggest that a motivation to infer the moral character of others can itself impact on an evaluation of their choices. Building on this person-centered account, we examine whether inferences about agents' moral character shape the sensitivity of moral judgments to the consequences of agents' choices, and agents' role in the causation of those consequences. Participants observed and judged sequences of decisions made by agents who were either bad or good, where each decision entailed a trade-off between personal profit and pain for an anonymous victim. Across trials we manipulated the magnitude of profit and pain resulting from the agent's decision (consequences), and whether the outcome was caused via action or inaction (causation). Consistent with previous findings, we found that moral judgments were sensitive to consequences and causation. Furthermore, we show that the inferred character of an agent moderated the extent to which people were sensitive to consequences in their moral judgments. Specifically, participants were more sensitive to the magnitude of consequences in judgments of bad agents' choices relative to good agents' choices. We discuss and interpret these findings within a theoretical framework that views moral judgment as a dynamic process at the intersection of attention and social cognition.
Keywords: Choice Behavior, Female, Humans, Judgment, Kognitionswissenschaften, Male, Moral, Morals, science direct, Social Behavior, Social Perception -
(2017): Self-Interest and the Design of Rules. In: Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) 28 (4), S. 457-480. DOI: 10.1007/s12110-017-9298-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-017-9298-7 Abstract: Rules regulating social behavior raise challenging questions about cultural evolution in part because they frequently confer group-level benefits. Current multilevel selection theories contend that between-group processes interact with within-group processes to produce norms and institutions, but within-group processes have remained underspecified, leading to a recent emphasis on cultural group selection as the primary driver of cultural design. Here we present the self-interested enforcement (SIE) hypothesis, which proposes that the design of rules importantly reflects the relative enforcement capacities of competing parties. We show that, in addition to explaining patterns in cultural change and stability, SIE can account for the emergence of much group-functional culture. We outline how this process can stifle or accelerate cultural group selection, depending on various social conditions. Self-interested enforcement has important bearings on the emergence, stability, and change of rules. zitiert von 5
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(2017): How "ought" exceeds but implies "can". Description and encouragement in moral judgment. In: Cognition 168, S. 267-275. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.07.008
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28755538 Abstract: This paper tests a theory about the relationship between two important topics in moral philosophy and psychology. One topic is the function of normative language, specifically claims that one "ought" to do something. Do these claims function to describe moral responsibilities, encourage specific behavior, or both? The other topic is the relationship between saying that one "ought" to do something and one's ability to do it. In what respect, if any, does what one "ought" to do exceed what one "can" do? The theory tested here has two parts: (1) "ought" claims function to both describe responsibilities and encourage people to fulfill them (the dual-function hypothesis); (2) the two functions relate differently to ability, because the encouragement function is limited by the person's ability, but the descriptive function is not (the interaction hypothesis). If this theory is correct, then in one respect "ought implies can" is false because people have responsibilities that exceed their abilities. But in another respect "ought implies can" is legitimate because it is not worthwhile to encourage people to do things that exceed their ability. Results from two behavioral experiments support the theory that "ought" exceeds but implies "can." Results from a third experiment provide further evidence regarding an "ought" claim's primary function and how contextual features can affect the interpretation of its functions.
Keywords: Adult, Aged, Female, Humans, Judgment, Kognitionswissenschaften, Male, Middle Aged, Moral, Morals, science direct, Social Behavior, Social Norms, Sprachwissenschaften, Young Adult -
(2017): Whether power holders construe their power as responsibility or opportunity influences their tendency to take advice from others. In: Journal of Organizational Behavior 38 (7), S. 923-949. DOI: 10.1002/job.2171
Abstract: Investigated different responses that power holders demonstrate in their tendency to take advice depending on the construal of power. A field study was conducted with 49 supervisors (mean age 42 years) and 54 of their subordinates (mean age 36 years) representing a wide range of organizations and industries in Australia, Malaysia, and Israel. A second field study was conducted with 217 individuals (mean age 42 years) in high-power positions in Chile and the Netherlands. A final experiment was performed with 75 Western Europeans (mean age 21 years), in which participants were assigned to a more or less powerful role. Across all three investigations, higher tendencies to take advice were observed among individuals who construed their power as a responsibility as opposed to an opportunity. Furthermore, the impact of construal of power on advice-taking was moderated by a heightened perceived value of advice, but not by decreased confidence in personal judgments or personal sense of power. As a result, openness to advice-taking when power was construed as a responsibility occurred regardless of whether advice was offered by subordinates, expert advisors, or a less powerful person. Future research imperatives include an examination of possible gender differences in the observed effects.
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(2017): Individual Differences in Good Manners Rather Than Compassion Predict Fair Allocations of Wealth in the Dictator Game. In: Journal of personality 85 (2), S. 244-256. DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12237
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26691600 Abstract: One of the most common tools for studying pro-sociality is the dictator game, in which allocations to one's partner are often described in terms of altruism. However, the motivations driving these allocations may represent either emotional concern for others (compassion), adherence to social norms regarding fairness (politeness), or both. In this article, we apply personality psychology to the study of behavior in the dictator game, in which we examine the discriminant validity of distinct pro-social constructs from the Big Five and HEXACO models in relation to allocations of wealth. Across four studies (Study 1: N = 192; Study 2: N = 212; Study 3: N = 304; Study 4: N = 90) utilizing both hypothetical and incentivized designs, we found that the politeness-but not compassion-aspect of Big Five Agreeableness, as well as HEXACO Honesty-Humility, uniquely predicted dictator allocations within their respective personality models. These findings contribute to a growing literature indicating that the standard dictator game measures "good manners" or adherence to norms concerning fairness, rather than pure emotional concern or compassionate motives, and have important implications for how this paradigm is used and interpreted in psychological research.
Keywords: Adolescent, Adult, Dictator Game, Disziplin, Empathy/physiology, Entwicklungspsychologie, Female, Games, Experimental, Good manners, HEXACO, Humans, Individuality, Male, Middle Aged, Personality/physiology, Postkasten, Psychologie, Social Behavior, Social Conformity, Soziale Angemessenheit, Spieltheorie, Umgangsformen, Young Adult 2016
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(2016) : The role of culture in online behaviour. In: Attrill, A.: Applied Cyberpsychology: Practical Applications of Cyberpsychological Theory and Research: London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, S. 39-57
Abstract: Why think about the role of culture in the applied aspects of online behavior? In order to answer this question, take a look around you. What do you see? You may be in your own living room, in an office, on a train or a bus. Take a moment to think about these surroundings and other locations in which you live your life. This is the society and culture within which you currently exist. These surroundings and the people in them influence and are imparted upon by the ways in which you carry out your life, both online and offline. The Internet has become such an integral part of our daily lives that many use it without even thinking of it as representing an applied aspect of modern life. By considering cultural differences in online behaviour, we can show that not everyone the world over is reliant on the Internet, nor does everyone the world over use it in the same applied manner. There are both intra- and inter-cultural differences in the applied aspects of online behaviour . Hopefu lly, on reading this chapter, the reader is inspired to consider and explore further areas of cross-cultural research in online behaviour. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
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(2016): Mirroring and beyond: coupled dynamics as a generalized framework for modelling social interactions. In: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 371 (1693). DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0366
DOI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4843605 Abstract: When people observe one another, behavioural alignment can be detected at many levels, from the physical to the mental. Likewise, when people process the same highly complex stimulus sequences, such as films and stories, alignment is detected in the elicited brain activity. In early sensory areas, shared neural patterns are coupled to the low-level properties of the stimulus (shape, motion, volume, etc.), while in high-order brain areas, shared neural patterns are coupled to high-levels aspects of the stimulus, such as meaning. Successful social interactions require such alignments (both behavioural and neural), as communication cannot occur without shared understanding. However, we need to go beyond simple, symmetric (mirror) alignment once we start interacting. Interactions are dynamic processes, which involve continuous mutual adaptation, development of complementary behaviour and division of labour such as leader-follower roles. Here, we argue that interacting individuals are dynamically coupled rather than simply aligned. This broader framework for understanding interactions can encompass both processes by which behaviour and brain activity mirror each other (neural alignment), and situations in which behaviour and brain activity in one participant are coupled (but not mirrored) to the dynamics in the other participant. To apply these more sophisticated accounts of social interactions to the study of the underlying neural processes we need to develop new experimental paradigms and novel methods of data analysis.
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(2016): Does children's moral compass waver under social pressure? Using the conformity paradigm to test preschoolers' moral and social-conventional judgments. In: Journal of experimental child psychology 150, S. 241-251. DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2016.06.006
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27367300 Abstract: The current study tested whether preschoolers' moral and social-conventional judgments change under social pressure using Asch's conformity paradigm. A sample of 132 preschoolers (Mage=3.83years, SD=0.85) rated the acceptability of moral and social-conventional events and also completed a visual judgment task (i.e., comparing line length) both independently and after having viewed two peers who consistently made immoral, unconventional, or visually inaccurate judgments. Results showed evidence of conformity on all three tasks, but conformity was stronger on the social-conventional task than on the moral and visual tasks. Older children were less susceptible to pressure for social conformity for the moral and visual tasks but not for the conventional task. zitiert von: 6
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(2016): The Everyday Moral Judge - Autobiographical Recollections of Moral Emotions. In: PLoS one 11 (12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167224
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167224 Abstract: Moral emotions are typically elicited in everyday social interactions and regulate social behavior. Previous research in the field of attribution theory identified ought (the moral standard of a given situation or intended goal), goal-attainment (a goal can be attained vs. not attained) and effort (high vs. low effort expenditure) as cognitive antecedents of moral emotions. In contrast to earlier studies, mainly relying on thought experiments, we investigated autobiographical recollections of N = 312 participants by means of an online study. We analyzed a diverse range of moral emotions, i.e., admiration, anger, contempt, indignation, pride, respect, schadenfreude, and sympathy, by using a mixed-method approach. Qualitative and quantitative methods clearly corroborate the important role of ought, goal-attainment, and effort as eliciting conditions of moral emotions. Furthermore, we built categorical systems based on our participants' descriptions of real-life situations, allowing for more fine-grained distinctions between seemingly similar moral emotions. We thus identify additional prerequisites explaining more subtle differences between moral emotion clusters as they emerge from our analyses (i.e., cluster 1: admiration, pride, and respect; cluster 2: anger, contempt, and indignation; cluster 3: schadenfreude and sympathy). Results are discussed in the light of attributional theories of moral emotions, and implications for future research are derived.
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(2016): Gene-culture interaction and the evolution of the human sense of fairness. In: Scientific reports 6. DOI: 10.1038/srep32483
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27562008 Abstract: How Darwinian evolution would produce creatures with the proclivity of Darwinian generosity, most of them voluntarily giving up the immediate benefit for themselves or their genes, remains a puzzle. This study targets a problem, the origin of human sense of fairness, and uses fairness-related genes and the social manipulation of Darwinian generosity as the key variables underlying the human sense of fairness, inequity aversion, as well as their relationships within cooperation, and the anticipation foresight of the way relationships are affected by resource division, given the assumption of randomly matched partners. Here we suggest a model in which phenotype will gradually converge towards the perfect sense of fairness along with the prospect of cooperation. Later, the sense of fairness will decrease but it is never extinct. Where social manipulation of Darwinian generosity overshadows genetics, the sense of fairness could be acute to the degree of social manipulation. Above all, there still exists a threshold in the degree of social manipulation, beyond which altruism dominates selfishness in human cooperation. Finally, we propose three new directions toward more realistic scenarios stimulated by recent development of the synergy between statistical physics, network science and evolutionary game theory.
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(2016): Young Children See a Single Action and Infer a Social Norm. In: Psychological science 27 (10), S. 1360-1370. DOI: 10.1177/0956797616661182
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27634004 Abstract: Human social life depends heavily on social norms that prescribe and proscribe specific actions. Typically, young children learn social norms from adult instruction. In the work reported here, we showed that this is not the whole story: Three-year-old children are promiscuous normativists. In other words, they spontaneously inferred the presence of social norms even when an adult had done nothing to indicate such a norm in either language or behavior. And children of this age even went so far as to enforce these self-inferred norms when third parties "broke" them. These results suggest that children do not just passively acquire social norms from adult behavior and instruction; rather, they have a natural and proactive tendency to go from "is" to "ought." That is, children go from observed actions to prescribed actions and do not perceive them simply as guidelines for their own behavior but rather as objective normative rules applying to everyone equally.
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(2016): Wie du mir, so ich dir? Die Entwicklung von prosozialem Verhalten und der Zusammenhang mit externalisierenden und internalisierenden Auffälligkeiten. In: Zeitschrift fur Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie 44 (1), S. 31-38. DOI: 10.1024/1422-4917/a000396
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26864225 Abstract: Supporting other human beings is a fundamental aspect of human societies. Such so-called prosocial behavior is expressed in helping others, cooperating and sharing with them. This article gives an overview both of the development of prosocial behavior across childhood and of the relationship between prosociality and externalizing and internalizing problems. Especially externalizing problems are negatively associated with prosocial behavior, whereas the relationships with prosocial behavior are more heterogeneous for internalizing problems. Studies investigating developmental trajectories demonstrate that prosocial behavior and externalizing problems are not opposite ends of a continuum. Rather, they are two independent dimensions that may also co-occur in development. The same applies to internalizing problems, which can co-occur with pronounced prosociality as well as with low prosociality.
2015
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(2015): The role of functional affordances in socializing robots. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 7 (4), S. 421-438. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-015-0281-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-015-0281-3 Abstract: Just as humans behave according to the social norms of their groups, autonomous systems that become part of these groups also need to behave in socially-expected and accepted ways. For humans these social norms are learned through interaction with members of the group. In this work, we propose that the functional affordances of objects, what objects are meant to be used for, provide us with a starting point for the socialization of such agents. We model these functional affordances in description logics and show how this enables the socially-expected human behavior of substituting objects as needed to achieve a goal. In addition, we propose to combine these affordances with conceptual similarity and proximity in order to make more complex substitutions, which are socially acceptable in their given context. Finally, we describe how their use would allow the agent to take advantage of opportunities and how they are modified and extended through interaction with humans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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(2015): The cue is the key. The relevance of cues and contextual information in the social understanding tasks of the Magdeburg Test of Social Intelligence. In: European Journal of Psychological Assessment 31 (1), S. 38-44. DOI: 10.1027/1015-5759/a000204
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000204 Abstract: In contrast to former tests, the Magdeburg Test of Social Intelligence measures social understanding with a scenario approach. Each scenario is based on one real target person and includes both social cues and contextual information about this person in different realistic situations. The subjects' task is to understand the given social cues and to judge the target persons' cognitions, emotions, and relationships to other people. However, subjects can potentially use only contextual information instead of social cues or base their judgments equally on both. The present study was aimed at examining the relative contribution of social cues and contextual information. In an experiment (N = 126), the following conditions were manipulated: Participants were given (1) only social cues, (2) only contextual information, or (3) both components. Results showed that social cues played a more important role in this social understanding task than the contextual information.
Keywords: Contextual Associations, Cues, empirical examination, Hinweisreize, importance of social cues & contextual information, Intelligence, Intelligenz, Kontextgebundene Assoziationen, Magdeburg Test of Social Intelligence (MTSI-2), MTSI, only social cues vs only contextual information vs social cues plus contextual information, Personality Measures, Personality Scales & Inventories, Persönlichkeitstests, scenario approach during testing, Social Behavior, social psychology, Soziale Intelligenz, soziales Verhalten, Sozialpsychologie, Test Construction, Testkonstruktion, Tests & Testing, Tests und Testen -
(2015): Has the World Changed?. My Neighbor Might Know: Effects of Social Context on Routine Deviation. In: Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 28 (1), S. 50-66. DOI: 10.1002/bdm.1828
Abstract: Investigated the effects of social context on deviations from routines. 94 students (mean age 21 years) were asked to repeatedly choose among four gambles that were represented by four decks of cards. After the routine acquisition phase, unbeknownst to the participants, the underlying payoff structure of the game was altered so that the routine choice no longer yielded a profit. In addition, a confederate served as a behavioral model who made the normative choice most of the time in the acquisition phase, the test phase, in both phases, or in no phase at all (baseline). Results showed that participants were influenced by prior success of a routine; however, they were not immune to new counterevidence. The new evidence had to compensate prior knowledge before individuals decided to abandon their routine. Participants were most likely to adapt if the confederate served as a behavioral model in both the acquisition and test phases. It is concluded that participants could detect a lasting change in the environment and trustworthy behavioral models helped participants overcome a previously adaptive routine. zitiert von 5
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(2015): Vocative intonation preferences are sensitive to politeness factors. In: Language and speech 58 (1), S. 68-83. DOI: 10.1177/0023830914565441
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830914565441 Abstract: Although intonation has been traditionally associated with the expression of attitudes and intentions on the part of the speaker, little is known about whether sociopragmatic factors, such as power or social distance, or situational ones, like physical distance or insistence, can constrain the use and felicity of pitch contours. This article investigates the felicity conditions underlying the choice of three vocative pitch contours in Central Catalan by means of two experiments, namely a production experiment based on the Discourse Completion Task (320 vocative contours produced by 20 speakers), and an acceptability judgment task in which 72 listeners were asked to rate the appropriateness match between a set of vocative contours and a previous discourse context (3,456 responses). The results from the two experiments show that both situational and social politeness factors govern the choice of vocative intonation. Finally, the results are discussed in line with the traditional classification of politeness strategies defined by Brown and Levinson, in the sense that the three intonation contours can be linked to negative, positive, and bald on-record politeness strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
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(2015): Freie Beiträge. Gemeinschaftsgefühl – (k)ein Geheimnis mit neun Siegeln. In: Zeitschrift für Individualpsychologie 40 (4), S. pp. 368-385.. Online verfügbar unter http://www.v-r.de/de/zeitschrift, zuletzt geprüft am 16.03.2018
Abstract: In his theory of Individual Psychology Adler attached central importance to the concept of social interest. In the community of Individual Psychologists, however, the concept led to a good deal of controversy. In order to bridge this discrepancy, we present in this paper a model of social adaptation using the concept of System Theory. In this model, human thought, action and feeling are related to perception, adaption and experience and then applied to the perspectives, »Me«, »You« and »Us«. Thus, in all, nine aspects of community-oriented social behaviour are derived, which are then combined to make a »Social Matrix«. In the course of children's unconscious learning processes, when they are living in the family where they grow up, only a part of the inherent social potential of an individual can be developed. This shows up as differences in the patterns on the Social Matrix. In this article the author illustrates ways in which the Social Matrix can be correlated to the A dlerian concepts of life-tasks, lifestyle and social interest. By taking specific steps to vary the significance of the fiactors that influence social learning, a new learning process can be initiated with a more balanced and personalised Social Matrix. In this process, social interest can be developed and strengthened. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
Keywords: Entwicklungspsychologie, Individual Psychology, Individualpsychologie, Lernen, Lerntheorien, Lifestyle, life-tasks, Psychologists, Social Behavior, social behaviour, social interest, social interest,lifestyle,life-tasks,social behaviour,Social Matrix, social learning, Social Matrix, Theories -
(2015): Being modest makes you feel bad. Effects of the modesty norm and mortality salience on self-esteem in a collectivistic culture. In: Scandinavian journal of psychology 56 (1), S. 86-98. DOI: 10.1111/sjop.12175
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25346396 Abstract: Terror management research shows that existential terror motivates people to live up to social norms. According to terror management theory (TMT), people can achieve a sense of self-worth through compliance with social norms. However, this has not yet been empirically tested. Modesty has long been known as an important social norm in Eastern cultures, such as China, Japan, and Korea. The current research examined whether conforming to the modesty norm in response to reminders of death concerns increases self-esteem for Chinese. In Study 1, following the modesty norm (i.e., explicit self-effacement) led to decreased implicit self-esteem, however, this was only the case if mortality was salient. In Study 2, violating the modesty norm (i.e., explicit self-enhancement) increased implicit self-esteem - however - again, this was only the case when mortality was salient. These findings indicate that self-esteem cannot be maintained through compliance with the modesty norm. Implications of this research for understanding the interplay between self-esteem and social norms in terror management processes are discussed.
Keywords: Adolescent, China, Culture, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Motivation, Normen, Psychological Theory, Self Concept, Social Behavior, Verhaltensforschung, Young Adult