In deze scriptie wordt de relatie tussen het eeuwenoude Pyrronistisch Scepticisme en gemoedsrust onderzocht. Aan de hand van Sextus Empiricus worden we meegenomen in de zoektocht naar ataraxia....Show moreIn deze scriptie wordt de relatie tussen het eeuwenoude Pyrronistisch Scepticisme en gemoedsrust onderzocht. Aan de hand van Sextus Empiricus worden we meegenomen in de zoektocht naar ataraxia. Ataraxia oftewel gemoedsrust, is een staat waarin men vrij is van zorgen en angsten. Volgens Sextus is het bereiken van gemoedsrust niet alleen een therapeutische vaardigheid, maar ook een manier van leven. Deze Pyrronistische manier van leven houdt in dat overtuigingen ten aanzien van non-evidente zaken worden opgeschort om zo gemoedsrust te bereiken. In dit onderzoek is onderzocht of de filosofie van het Pyrronisme ons kan helpen in ons dagelijks leven met onze angsten en stress. Om Pyrronisme te meten is er een vragenlijst opgesteld met non-evidente stellingen (NE-Q). Voor het meten van angst is de GAD-7 gebruikt en voor het meten van stress is de PSS gebruikt. De eerste hypothese was dat sterkere overtuigingen een negatieve relatie hebben met gemoedsrust. De tweede hypothese was dat de relatie tussen sterkere overtuigingen en gemoedsrust verzwakt wanneer men aan mindfulness doet. De hoofdrelatie was niet significant met zowel de GAD-7 als de PSS als afhankelijke variabele. Ook was de moderatieanalyse in beider gevallen niet significant. Wel bleek bij verdere visuele inspectie dat het doen van mindfulness leidde tot meer angst en stress, in tegenstelling tot wanneer men niet aan mindfulness deed. Dit onderzoek wijst uit dat de filosofische stroming van het Pyrronisme als psychotherapie niet toepasbaar is voor de behandeling van angsten en stress in de hedendaagse tijd. Ook kan geconcludeerd worden dat mindfulness de relatie tussen het hebben van sterkere overtuigingen en gemoedsrust niet beïnvloedt.Show less
While honesty itself is a widely researched topic, most research has been done on human-human interactions. This laid the foundation for many similar studies and a rapidly expanding literature on...Show moreWhile honesty itself is a widely researched topic, most research has been done on human-human interactions. This laid the foundation for many similar studies and a rapidly expanding literature on honesty for human-avatar and human-robot interaction studies. This experiment builds on such research. In the current study, we intended to determine how much (dis)honest behavior participants would display during a coin-toss game with three agents: a robot, an avatar, and a human confederate. In all three conditions, the agents’ pupil size had been manipulated to be either dilated or constricted form. There were three blocks, with 18 trials each. The trials were counterbalanced. We hypothesized that the participants would be more honest with the agents with dilated pupils compared to constricted pupils, as previous studies have shown that people with dilated pupils are perceived more positively. Additionally, we hypothesized that overall, the participants would show more honest behavior when interacting with the confederate because human-to-human contact is familiar and not (yet) comparable to human-AI (Artificial Intelligence) contact. Curiously, results show that our first hypothesis is not met, as pupil size did not have a significant effect (p = .171). Our second hypothesis is partly met as there was a significant difference between the human condition and robot condition (p = .007), but not between human condition and avatar condition.Show less
Suicide is a pressing, global concern, with a growing number of adolescents affected. Present research tends to focus on external factors, for example, stressful life events. Internal factors, like...Show moreSuicide is a pressing, global concern, with a growing number of adolescents affected. Present research tends to focus on external factors, for example, stressful life events. Internal factors, like defence mechanisms, remain understudied. This investigation aimed to explore variations between categories of defense mechanisms used by university students in the Netherlands, with respect to their suicidal ideation scores. A total of 115 participants engaged in the cross-sectional research design. The questionnaires used were the Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale (SIDAS) and Defence Mechanisms Rating Scale-Self Report-30 Items (DMRS-SR-30). To assess these variations, a one-way ANOVA with a Bonferroni Correction was applied. The expectation was differences being present between used defensive categories, regarding varying scores of suicidal ideation. Gender was acknowledged as a potential influential factor. Significant differences were found within Category 1: Mature and Category 2: Neurotic in relation to the SIDAS scores (p < 0.001, p = 0.002), indicating differing scores of suicidal ideation within these groups. Category 3: Immature, as well as the subgroups Non-Depressive and Depressive, did not exhibit any significant variations within the SIDAS scores (p = 0.341, p = 0.882, p = 0.406), suggesting lack of differences in suicidal ideation scores among individuals in these categories. Gender was found to play a role in the association between suicidal ideation scores and each defensive category (all p < 0.05). The analysis revealed variations within the categories, due to the unavailability of finding the differences between them. Consequently, although the research question and hypothesis were not entirely validated, valuable information and findings were obtained pertaining to this subject. Implications of this research regard both practical aspects, such as new prevention strategies being designed, and theoretical factors, including further comprehension on psychological mechanisms of defence.Show less
This research paper aims to investigate the safety and efficacy of the newly emerging online approach to psychedelic ceremonies as well as explore the impact set and setting have on the experience....Show moreThis research paper aims to investigate the safety and efficacy of the newly emerging online approach to psychedelic ceremonies as well as explore the impact set and setting have on the experience. Previous research has demonstrated and explored the benefits of psychedelics and their impact on mental health. Nonetheless, no study has yet investigated the potential benefits of psychedelics in an online setting. Therefore, this study recorded the experiences of average people who participated in Spinoza’s online psychedelic ceremonies by means of a voluntary questionnaire. Results showed a significant increase in mental health, compared to baseline, for almost all participants. Additionally, individual differences and setting seemingly had no significant impact on the trip experience. This study provides an insight into the potential experiences of virtual psychedelic ceremonies, contributing to the growing research within the field of psychedelics.Show less
Sexual minority individuals (SMI) are at high risk of developing mental health problems. Building upon the concepts of the minority stress and minority strength models, this cross-sectional...Show moreSexual minority individuals (SMI) are at high risk of developing mental health problems. Building upon the concepts of the minority stress and minority strength models, this cross-sectional secondary data analysis aimed to identify further factors that impact the mental health of SMI. The following hypotheses were tested: (1) the higher the parental acceptance (PA), the lower the internalized homonegativity (IH), (2) the higher the parental acceptance, the higher the self-respect (SR), (3) the higher the IH, the lower the SR, and (4) the relationship between PA and SR will be mediated by IH. Self-identified SMI respondents - mainly young, educated, Western European women - filled out an online survey consisting of the Parental Acceptance of Sexual Minority Identity questionnaire, the Internalized Homonegativity scale, and the Self-Respect scale (n = 249; nbisexual = 131; ngay = 59; nother = 59; Mage = 21.6). Hypothesis one was rejected as there was no significant correlation between PA and IH (r(247) = -.06, p = .38). In contrast, there was a moderate positive correlation between PA and SR (r(247) = .34, p < .001) confirming hypothesis two, and a weak negative correlation between IH and SR (r(247) = -.17, p = .008) confirming hypothesis three. The conditions for a mediation analysis were not satisfied and therefore hypothesis four was not tested. These results provide preliminary support for relationships between different constructs that implicate mental health in SMI. Future research should investigate the causal relationship between these constructs before any interventions can be applied.Show less
This study aimed to investigate the link between reinforcement learning and structure learning. Reinforcement learning is a framework where humans learn to make decisions by interacting with their...Show moreThis study aimed to investigate the link between reinforcement learning and structure learning. Reinforcement learning is a framework where humans learn to make decisions by interacting with their environment, receiving rewards or punishments based on their actions, with the goal of maximizing cumulative reward over time. While structure learning is the cognitive process by which individuals acquire and internalize the underlying organizational principles or structures of information. It enables individuals to perceive patterns, rules, and relationships, allowing for effective organization and comprehension of knowledge. In the context of the environment, structure learning involves the representation and understanding of stimulus or action-outcome associations within one's surroundings. By recognizing and learning the environmental structure, individuals can better navigate, anticipate, and respond to stimuli, optimizing their interactions and adapting their behaviours accordingly. The link could be shown by the presence of a cognitive module, between reinforcement and structure learning. The cognitive module refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring, processing, and using information. Participants completed three tasks, as they are a good representation of reinforcement learning and structure learning, as well as, learning and decision-making, and have been shown to be reliably linked to e.g., specific neural correlates. The tasks are the two-stage bandit task, the weather prediction task, and the credit assignment task, Participants performed above chance in all three tasks. Interestingly, we found significant correlations between central (performance) metrics between tasks. The main analysis using Pearson correlation revealed significant correlations between the credit assignment task and the two-stage bandit task, as well as between the credit assignment task and the weather prediction task. There was only a marginal correlation between the weather prediction task and the two-stage bandit task, which disappeared after controlling for shared variance with the credit assignment task using partial correlation. The findings indicate that reinforcement learning and structure learning share common variances and behavioural metrics, such as reaction time, accuracy, performance, and outcome, suggesting a link between the two forms of learning and supporting the presence of a shared cognitive module underlying these processes. This has implications that structure learning seems to be a promising link between different learning tasks, highlighting its importance for understanding learning and decision-making across different contexts and across individuals.Show less
There is an ongoing debate about whether and how to communicate the epistemic uncertainty of scientific findings. In this debate, skeptics that shy away from communicating uncertainty measures of...Show moreThere is an ongoing debate about whether and how to communicate the epistemic uncertainty of scientific findings. In this debate, skeptics that shy away from communicating uncertainty measures of their work, commonly name loss of trust in scientists and the information they produce as important arguments. Efforts to provide clarity in this discussion, generated insight on many aspects of epistemic uncertainty but the effect of different magnitudes, or sizes of epistemic uncertainty has rarely been the subject of studies. To collect evidence on the nature of the relationship between different magnitudes of communicated uncertainty in science and the trust scientific laymen have in the source of information, this study presents respondents to a survey (N = 235) with one of three magnitudes of uncertainty (no uncertainty, low uncertainty, or high uncertainty) across three different formats (verbal, numerical, and visual) and measures their trust in the source of information. No association was found between magnitude and trust in the source. Furthermore, exploration of the data revealed no interaction between the format and the magnitude of epistemic uncertainty on trust in the source. This study’s limitations in representability and validity restrict strong conclusions. Future research should ensure that participants comprehend what high or low magnitudes of uncertainty are in the context of scientific findings, so participants’ comprehension of the magnitudes is increased and hence also the meaningfulness of judgments they make based on them.Show less
Aangezien de helft van de Nederlanders onvoldoende beweegt, is het van belang om nieuwe manieren te vinden om plezier te vinden in het sporten, waardoor de sportmotivatie vergroot. Het gebruik van...Show moreAangezien de helft van de Nederlanders onvoldoende beweegt, is het van belang om nieuwe manieren te vinden om plezier te vinden in het sporten, waardoor de sportmotivatie vergroot. Het gebruik van Playful Sport Design (PSD) (Verwijmeren et al., 2023) biedt nieuwe mogelijkheden in het speels inrichten van sporttrainingen, en het gebruik van fantasie tijdens sporten is een belangrijk element van PSD waar nog nauwelijks onderzoek naar gedaan is. In dit onderzoek werd daarom gekeken naar (1) of er onderliggende thema’s te vinden zijn in het gebruik van fantasie tijdens sporten, (2) of het gebruik van fantasie het sportplezier en hierdoor de motivatie vergroot, en (3) of het gebruik van fantasie voor meer sportplezier en -motivatie zorgt wanneer iemand al fantasievol is vergeleken met iemand die niet fantasievol is. Dit werd gedaan met behulp van een dagboekstudie, waarbij door de respondenten (die minstens twee keer per week sportten) gedurende één maand elke week een vragenlijst over hun sportervaringen ingevuld diende te worden. De onderliggende thema´s werden geanalyseerd met behulp van inductieve analyse, en uit de resultaten bleek dat variatie/creativiteit, visualisatie met competitieve elementen en visualisatie van doelen de grootste thema’s waren in het gebruik van fantasie. Verder werd het voorgestelde gemodereerde mediatiemodel (gebruikt voor het testen van hypothese 2 en 3) door regressieanalyses in PROCESS (model 7) (Hayes, 2013) niet bevestigd, maar er werd wel aangetoond dat het gebruik van fantasie (1) direct leidt tot meer sportmotivatie en (2) leidt tot meer trainingsplezier wanneer iemand fantasievol is. Het speels gebruik maken van fantasie binnen sporttrainingen is daarom een mogelijke manier om plezier en sportmotivatie te vergroten. Binnen de sportpsychologie heeft dit onderwerp veel potentie, en meer onderzoek zou moeten volgen.Show less
This research paper aimed to investigate the effect of a novel environment on memory consolidation in healthy participants. Using virtual reality, the study exposed participants to two distinct...Show moreThis research paper aimed to investigate the effect of a novel environment on memory consolidation in healthy participants. Using virtual reality, the study exposed participants to two distinct environments and assessed their performance on a subsequent word-learning tasks. The goal was to determine if exploring a novel environment would lead to better memory outcomes compared to a familiar environment. The results of the study failed to support two of the three hypotheses and found no statistically significant differences in memory performance between the prior exposure to novel and familiar environment in the free recall, recognition, or delayed memory tasks. These results suggest that the environment in which information is learned does not have a significant impact on memory consolidation. The literature on the relationship between novelty and memory consolidation is mixed, some studies have found that a novel environment improves memory consolidation, while others have found no significant effect. The results of the study may be influenced by the type of novelty manipulated, the memory tasks used, the duration of the that further research is needed to fully understand the relationship between these variables. Additional studies can help to clarify the mechanism of how novelty affects memory and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon.Show less
Conflict is a part of our daily lives because our interests can clash with other people’s interests. Decision-making processes can get affected by countless various factors such as gender, age,...Show moreConflict is a part of our daily lives because our interests can clash with other people’s interests. Decision-making processes can get affected by countless various factors such as gender, age, personality traits, empathy… However, what still remains unclear about decision-making is how these various factors affect the decision-making process and each other especially in a conflict scenario. This paper investigates decision-making in an asymmetric conflict scenario, specifically Machiavellianism and its relationship with aggression. Our hypothesis proposed that the relationship between Machiavellianism and Attacker’s Aggression would be positively correlated. The relationship between these variables was tested in an online decision-making experiment called the Attacker and Defender Contest. In the experiment; both sides had to decide how much to invest in either attacking or defending based on their role. Both the attacker and defender’s decisions at the end affected the reward amount that they would receive. After running the experiment, the data was analyzed. The alternative hypothesis was rejected due to insignificant results and negligibly small effect sizes. The null-findings’ possible reasons were discussed under the topics of publication bias, confirmation bias, external distractions, confounding variables. The paper concluded that a laboratory setting, controlling external distractions and taking confounding variables into consideration is important for future research.Show less
Appeasement has been both beneficial and risky in asymmetrical conflicts. Appeasement as a response to the threat of aggression can be a successful strategy by containing aggression but can also be...Show moreAppeasement has been both beneficial and risky in asymmetrical conflicts. Appeasement as a response to the threat of aggression can be a successful strategy by containing aggression but can also be exploited by the opposing party. However, research is lacking in the field of whether gender differences influence behaviour towards appeasement. Males have been shown to be more risk-taking and use more costly aggression compared to females. Gender may therefore be influential to behaviour in conflicts involving appeasing effects. This paper explores the behaviour of male and female attackers' aggression in asymmetrical conflict through a transfer attacker-defender contest (TAD-C). We hypothesized that aggression would decrease with increasing levels of transfer, and that males would respond more aggressively to increasing levels of transfer than females. The strategy method was used where 279 participants were assigned an attacker or defender role. Attackers first received a transfer of Monetary Units (MU) at seven different levels from the defender, in addition to the initial 30 MU. Based on this, they decided on a conflict investment toward the defender. Lastly, attackers declared their expected investment from defenders. Attackers’ aggression was measured based on their conflict investment to seven levels of transfer. The repeated measures analysis of variance conveyed there were no significant differences between male and female attacker aggression toward increasing levels of transfers from the defending party. In conclusion, no significant gender differences in behaviour towards appeasement were found. Thus, the study questions whether gender differences exist in appeasement conflicts and decision making practices.Show less
