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This article explores the concept of contingent self-definition, whereby place brands employ flexible self-definitional approaches in constructing their place brand architecture. Adopting a view of regions as social constructs, the article builds on and extends previous work on place brand architecture by identifying the underlying factors that drive contingent self-definition decisions. Based on an empirical study of professionals tasked with managing region brands in the Netherlands, 11 factors are identified as drivers of contingent self-definition by place brands. These factors are grouped into four thematic categories: (i) external perceptions, (ii) proximity, (iii) brand relationships, and (iv) politics and power. A dynamic approach to place brand architecture is advocated, foregrounding the amorphous character of regions as social constructs that defy reification solely as fixed territorial-administrative spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of self-regulation, the capacity to voluntarily modulate thoughts, emotions and actions is strongly related to the maturation of the dopamine-mediated executive attention network (EAN). The attention control processes associated with the EAN greatly overlap with efficiency of the executive functions and are correlated with measures of effortful control. Regulation of dopamine levels within the EAN, particularly in the basal ganglia is carried out by the action of dopamine transporters. In humans, the SLC6A3/DAT1 gene carries out the synthesis of the DAT protein. The 10-repeat allele has been associated with an enhanced expression of the gene and has been related to ADHD symptoms. Little is known about the impact of DAT1 variations on children's capacity to self-regulate in contexts that impose particular demands of regulatory control such as the school or home. This study defines a multi-domain phenotype of self-regulation and examines whether variations of the DAT1 gene accounts for individual differences in performance in 4-5 year old children. Results show that presence of the 10r allele is related to a diminished ability to exert voluntary regulation of reactivity. These findings shed light on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying individual differences in self-regulation during childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore recovery for those who ring psychic hotlines excessively. Participants were self-selected and were predominantly female, educated, employed and single. The cohort is retrieved from the Psychic Junkie website, which is the only online support place for these people recovering from ringing psychics excessively. Recovery was defined as attempts to stop or to cut down ringing psychics. Recovery included abstinence or harm reduction strategies to control the amount of spending on psychics. A popular attempt to remain abstinence from psychic hotline ringing was within a spiritual context, which included strategies such as prayer, meditation, and attending 12 step groups. Other strategies included blocking psychic hotlines on their phone, cutting up credit cards, counselling, and medication. Harm reduction strategies included setting a budget to decrease the time spent talking to psychics. These attempts resonated with similar recovery strategies for other excessive behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Evidence in the literature suggests peculiar personality traits for fibromyalgic (FM) patients, and it has been suggested that personality characteristics may be involved in patients' different symptomatic events and responses to treatment. The aim of the study is to investigate the personality characteristics of Italian FM patients and to explore the possibility of clustering them considering both personality traits and clinical characteristics. Design: The study used a cross-sectional methodology and involved a control group. A self-assessment procedure was used for data gathering. The study included 87 female FM patients and 83 healthy females. Patients were approached and interviewed in person during a psychiatric consultation. Healthy people were recruited from general practices with previous telephone contact. Main Outcome Measures: Participants responded to the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Temperament and Character Inventory, the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire and the Short-Form-36 Health Survey. Results: FM patients scored significantly different from healthy participants on the Harm avoidance (HA), Novelty seeking (NS) and Self-directedness (SD). Two clusters were identified: patients in Cluster1 (n = 37) had higher scores on HA and lower scores on RD, SD, and Cooperativeness and reported more serious fibromyalgia and more severe anxious-depressive symptomatology than did patients in Cluster2 (n = 46). Conclusion: This study confirms the presence of certain personality traits in the FM population. In particular, high levels of HA and low levels of SD characterize a subgroup of FM patients with more severe anxious-depressive symptomatology. According to these findings, personality assessment could be useful in the diagnostic process to tailor therapeutic interventions to the personality characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we explore dilemmas with interpreting mid-range scores on Big Five personality traits. Using dialogical self theory, we hypothesized that mid-trait individuals would report more conflict between I-positions congruent with the trait domain concerned, for example, conflict between I-as-bold and I-as-reserved in the domain of Extraversion. A community sample of 147 participants completed a Big Five trait measure, theNEO Personality Inventory(NEO PI-R), and theI-Position Inventory(IPI). The IPI contains 88 I-position statements generated from previous research and clinical assessments. Fifty-two of the statements form 26 opposing pairs (e.g., I-as-optimist vs. I-as-pessimist). To measure the most salient I-position conflicts, respondents were asked to rank these pairs (only the top five pairs were ranked). In support of the conflict hypothesis, for three of the Big Five traits, individuals who scored mid-range reported more conflict between I-positions congruent with the trait than did respondents in the upper and lower quartiles of the distribution (significant for Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Agreeableness). We argue the findings highlight problems of interpretation for mid-range trait scores that arise from the limitations of aggregation methods, but also from a compromised theoretical foundation. Trait theory masks dynamic processes as well as social contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation examines how personal self-regulation (presage variable) and regulatory teaching (process variable of teaching) relate to learning approaches, strategies for coping with stress, and self-regulated learning (process variables of learning) and, finally, how they relate to performance and satisfaction with the learning process (product variables). The objective was to clarify the associative and predictive relations between these variables, as contextualized in two different models that use the presage-process-product paradigm (the Biggs and DEDEPRO models). A total of 1101 university students participated in the study. The design was cross-sectional and retrospective with attributional (or selection) variables, using correlations and structural analysis. The results provide consistent and significant empirical evidence for the relationships hypothesized, incorporating variables that are part of and influence the teaching--learning process in Higher Education. Findings confirm the importance of interactive relationships within the teaching--learning process, where personal self-regulation is assumed to take place in connection with regulatory teaching. Variables that are involved in the relationships validated here reinforce the idea that both personal factors and teaching and learning factors should be taken into consideration when dealing with a formal teaching--learning context at university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares brain activation during causal attribution to three different loci, the self, another person and the situation; and further explores correlations with clinical scales (i.e. depression, anxiety and autism) in a typical population. While they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging, 20 participants read short sentences about another person (‘someone’) who engaged in behaviors with the participant or made comments about the participant. The participants then attributed these behaviors to three attribution loci: themselves, the other person or the situation. The results revealed common activation across the three attribution loci in the bilateral temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), left posterior superior temporal sulcus, precuneus and right temporal pole (TP). Comparisons between the attribution loci revealed very little differences, except for increased activation of the right TP while making attributions to the situation compared with the self. In addition, when making attributions to the situation or other persons for negative events, there were reliable correlations between low activity in the left TPJ and high levels of anxiety and problematic social interaction in autism. The results indicate that attributions to different loci are based on the same underlying brain process, which might be atypical among persons with anxiety or autism symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the relationship between adult attachment styles and generalized negativistic social beliefs (i.e. pessimistic expectations concerning human nature and interpersonal relations). Two general dimensions of attachment styles, avoidance and anxiety, are considered to be manifestations of an individual's image of other people and of the self, respectively. We suggest that both dimensions may be a substantial basis for formulating negative beliefs about the social world. Firstly, we believe that a high level of negativistic social beliefs can be positively predicted by the growth of avoidance (negative image of others) and anxiety (negative image of self). Secondly, we formulate an expected interaction effect. Although the nature of such an interaction is ambiguous, it may be argued as having a synergistic as well as antagonistic pattern. These hypotheses were tested and supported (in favor of an antagonistic pattern of interaction in the case of the second hypothesis) on a representative sample of adult Poles (N = 853). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her article "Translation and Self-Translation in Today's (Im)migration Literature" Anastasija Gjurčinova discusses contemporary (im)migration literature in Europe as a phenomenon that offers new opportunities for comparative literary research especially as related to the issue of the translation and reception of literary works. Gjurčinova considers (im)migrant authors who write in their native tongue and then translate their works -- or have them translated -- into the adopted language and others who prefer writing their literary works directly in the latter language. Through references to the work of relevant scholars of comparative and world literature Gjurčinova elaborates on these issues by identifying the tradition and context for studying these works and through illustrations of actual practices with examples from three Italian (im)migrant authors: Amara Lakhous, Gëzim Hajdari, and Božidar Stanišić. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]