There is considerable evidence that ToM is impaired in people with schizophrenia. However, this is perhaps the only unequivocal finding on the topic to date. Issues that demand further clarification include: Is the deficit a state or a trait? How to measure ToM in schizophrenia research, and whether certain symptoms or groups of symptoms are associated with the ToM deficit. These issues are considered and the evidence evaluated. Some priorities for future research are suggested.

This study represents only the third demonstration of a specific link between paranoid delusions and ToM impairment. Reasons why previous findings on this issue have been so inconsistent are considered. Further research is needed to explore the relationships among paranoia, ToM, and length of illness.

Individualism, collectivism, self-enhancing biases, and attitudes toward tall poppies were investigated in New Zealand European and Maori students. Two hundred and eighty (215 women, 65 men) New Zealand European and 88 (55 women, 33 men) Maori students at Victoria University of Wellington participated in the study. Whereas Maori exhibited a stronger orientation to the collective, they also showed higher selfesteem. Group-oriented Maori displayed slightly higher levels of self-enhancement and were more likely to favor the rewarding of high achievers (tall poppies). Both groups displayed high levels of self-enhancement and favored the reward of high achievers, with both self-enhancement on the Self-Attributes Questionnaire and attitudes toward tall poppies being correlated with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Results are discussed in the context of a bicultural nation of both Maori and European origins, and consideration is given to a bicultural rather than categorical perspective on independence and interdependence.

This paper investigates the rapport management (Spencer-Oatey 2005) that collections agents at a UK-based utilities company call centre are expected to perform during debt collection telephone interactions. It examines the rapport-relevant information communicated in the textual materials, including training manuals, through which a prescribed debt collection style is implemented. The analysis reveals that there are tensions in the rapport-concerns that collectors must attend to when using the style. Collectors are instructed to perform potentially face-threatening behaviours in order to collect debt, whilst simultaneously engaging in linguistic behaviour that may be interpreted as face-enhancing and which functions to develop rapport with the debtor. It is suggested that the local deployment of this contradictory “helping you to pay us” philosophy is problematic on multiple levels and may give rise to relational tensions between collectors and debtors who have conflicting expectations about rapport management entitlements. In turn, this may contribute to a culture of sanctioned face-attacks in call centres (Archer and Jagodziński 2015). Therefore, I suggest that call centres may need to loosen the synecdochical hold they have over their employees, thereby affording them the flexibility and volition to cope with the complex face demands, unpredictability and potential volatility of debt collection encounters.

No abstract