Who’s to blame? How narcissists and ex-partners of narcissists make sense of romantic breakup

Objective: past research has shown relationship problems associated with narcissists’ excessive self-centeredness and lacking concern for others. Using romantic relationships as opportunities to self-enhance rather than caring about intimacy, narcissists are sensitive to shortcomings in their partners and quick to withdraw investment once relationships turn out to be less than perfect. Our research aimed to reveal whether narcissists are aware of their destructive relationship behavior or tend to put the blame for a failed relationship on their ex-partners. Conversely, do ex-partners of narcissists take the blame and feel responsible for the breakup or walk away convinced their narcissistic ex-partners’ behavior was just too unbearable? Method: 120 participants (19-59 yrs) who reported a recent romantic breakup completed a battery of questionnaires online, including measures of narcissism and self-esteem, as well as newly created scales assessing attributions for breakup. In addition to self-reports, participants retrospectively rated their ex-partners on adapted versions of the same measures. Results: narcissists made attributions to lacking relationship investment mostly in themselves and to a lesser extent in their partners. However, this pattern was reversed when self-esteem was controlled, with attributions to partner shortcomings outnumbering aspects of own destructive behavior. Narcissism perceived in the ex-partner was related to reports of lacking investment in oneself as well as the ex-partner, but controlling for self-esteem reduced the number of attributions to own shortcomings. Conclusion: our analyses revealed that narcissists do show some awareness of their contribution to a failed relationship, although controlling for self-esteem increased their blame of the ex-partner. In contrast, associations between perceived partner-narcissism and aspects of own lacking relationship investment became fewer when self-esteem was controlled for.

Reconciling Perspectives on Blame Avoidance Behaviour

Blame avoidance behaviour (BAB) has become an increasingly popular topic in political science. However, the preconditions of BAB, its presence and consequences in various areas and in different political systems largely remain a black box. In order to generate a better understanding of BAB and its importance for the workings of democratic political systems, the scattered literature on BAB needs to be assessed and structured. This article offers a comprehensive review of the literature on blame avoidance. It departs from Weaver’s concept of blame avoidance and subsequently differentiates between work on BAB in comparative welfare state research and work on BAB in public policy and administration. It is argued that between these two strands of literature a bifurcation exists since both perspectives rarely draw on each other to create a more general understanding of BAB. Advantages from existing approaches must be combined to assess the phenomenon of blame avoidance in a more comprehensive way.

Anticipatory and reactive forms of blame avoidance: of foxes and lions

Blame avoidance behavior (BAB) encompasses all kinds of integrity-protecting activities by officeholders in the face of potentially blame-attracting events. Although considered essential for a realistic understanding of politics and policymaking, a general understanding of this multi-faceted behavioral phenomenon and its implications has been lacking to date. We argue that this is due to the lack of careful conceptualization of various forms of BAB. Crucially, the difference between anticipatory and reactive forms of BAB is largely neglected in the literature. This paper links anticipatory and reactive forms of BAB as two consecutive decision situations. It exposes dependence relationships between the situations that trigger BAB, the rationalities at work, the resources and strategies applied by blame-avoiding actors, and the various consequences thereof. The paper concludes that anticipatory and reactive BAB are distinct phenomena that require specific research approaches to assess their relevance for the workings of polities.

Sanitation in developing countries: A review through a gender lens

Sanitation has evolved from a purely technical discipline to one that includes social, environmental, economic and, increasingly, gender considerations. However, blurry notions of gender are frequently offered in the sanitation literature. Although it has been recognized that gender-responsive sanitation does not mean ‘toilets for women’, substantial alternatives are rarely debated. We structure our review of sanitation in developing countries along three lines: we start by fine-tuning the concept of gender both from the academic and the practitioner's perspective, analyse relevant developments in gender-specific policies and programming, and finally review the most appropriate toilet room and menstrual hygiene technologies. We argue that strategies to make technologies gender-responsive need to be based upon a thorough analysis of the social arrangements of the intimate, and how these are negotiated and institutionalized in a specific context. A lack of robust gender-segregated data on sanitation policies and technologies, along with reductionist framings of gender are to blame for limited progress in verifying the need for, and impact of, gender-responsive sanitation. Technology and policy development and implementation would benefit from gender-considerate interpretations of shame, dignity, safety and status. Further progress could be achieved by improving the translation process between different academic framings of the sanitation crisis. Keywords: appropriate technology; development; gender; menstrual hygiene management (MHM); sanitation

Effectiveness of integrated cognitive remediartion therapy for schizophrenia outpatients: Early versus long-term course of illness – results from an international RCT

Background Nowadays there is extensive evidence available showing the efficacy of cognitive remediation therapies. Integrative approaches seem superior regarding the maintenance of proximal outcome at follow-up as well as generalization to other areas of functioning. To date, only limited evidence about the efficacy of CRT is available concerning elder schizophrenia patients. The Integrated Neurocognitive Therapy (INT) represents a new developed cognitive remediation approach. It is a manualized group therapy approach targeting all 11 NIMH-MATRICS dimensions within one therapy concept. In this study we compared the effects of INT on an early course group (duration of disease<5 years) to a long-term group of schizophrenia outpatients (duration of disease>15 years). Methods An international multicenter study carried out in Germany, Switzerland and Austria with a total of 90 outpatients diagnosed with Schizophrenia (DSM-IV-TR) were randomly assigned either to an INT-Therapy or to Treatment-As-Usual (TAU). 50 of the 90 Patients were an Early-Course (EC) group, suffering from schizophrenia for less than 5 years (Mean age=29 years, Mean duration of illness=3.3 years). The other 40 were a Long-term Course (LC) group, suffering from schizophrenia longer than 15 years (Mean age= 45 years, Mean duration of illness=22 years). Treatment comprised of 15 biweekly sessions. An extensive assessment battery was conducted before and after treatment and at follow up (1 year). Multivariate General Linear Models (GLM) (duration of illness x treatment x time) examined our hypothesis, if an EC group of schizophrenia outpatients differ in proximal and distal outcome from a LC group. Results Irrespective of the duration of illness, both groups (EC & LC) were able to benefit from the INT. INT was superior compared to TAU in most of the assessed domains. Dropout rate of EC group was much higher (21.4%) than LC group (8%) during therapy phase. However, interaction effects show that the LC group revealed significantly higher effects in the neurocognitive domains of speed of processing (F>3.6) and vigilance (F>2.4). In social cognition the EC group showed significantly higher effects in social schema (F>2.5) and social attribution (blame; F>6.0) compared to the LC group. Regarding more distal outcome, patients treated with INT obtained reduced general symptoms unaffected by the duration of illness during therapy phase and at follow-up (F>4.3). Discussion Results suggest that INT is a valid goal-oriented treatment to improve cognitive functions in schizophrenia outpatients. Irrespective of the duration of illness significant treatment, effects were evident. Against common expectations, long-term, more chronic patients showed higher effects in basal cognitive functions compared to younger patients and patients without any active therapy (TAU). Consequently, more integrated therapy offers are also recommended for long-term course schizophrenia patients.

Punitive reactions to completed crimes versus accidentally uncompleted crimes

Previous studies have shown that the harm caused by crime affects punitive reactions even if differences in the degree of harm are merely accidental. However, it remains unclear whether the effect is direct or whether it is mediated by attributed responsibility or blame. Participants were 303 university students who listened to 4 case vignettes (between-subjects design). Half received information about a completed crime and half about an accidentally uncompleted crime. Crime type was either fraud or rape. The results suggest that individuals consider the actual harm to a significantly greater extent than attribution theory would predict. Moreover, the link between harm and punishment was virtually not mediated by attributed blame and not moderated by individual differences in morality. Future studies should investigate whether the harm-punishment link is a result of an automatic act of retaliation or a desire to compensate for the harm done to the victim (restorative justice).

Music Piracy on Peer-to-Peer Networks

Content providers from the music industry argue that peer-to-peer (P2P) networks such as KaZaA, Morpheus, iMesh, or Audiogalaxy are an enormous threat to their business. They furthermore blame these networks for their recent decline in sales figures. For this reason, an empirical investigation was conducted during a period of 6 weeks on one of the most popular files-sharing systems, in order to determine the quantity and quality of pirated music songs shared. We present empirical evidence as to what extent and in which quality music songs are being shared. A number of hypotheses are outlined and were tested. We studied, among other things, the number of users online and the number of flies accessible on such networks, the free riding problem, and the duration per search request. We further tested to see if there are any differences in the accessibility of songs based on the nationality of the artist, the language of the song, and the corresponding chart position. Finally, we outline the main hurdles users may face when downloading illegal music and the probability of obtaining high quality music tracks on such peer-to-peer networks.