Effects of consent form information on self-disclosure

When researchers encounter preexisting psychological distress in participants, ethical codes provide little guidance on how to balance issues of beneficence and autonomy. Although researchers may inform participants what will occur given responses indicating distress, this information may lead to biased self-reports. This important issue was addressed in this study by manipulating consent form information regarding the type of psychopathology to be assessed and various levels of possible follow-up. In comparing responses on self-report measures of anxiety, depression, and general psychological distress, men who believed depression was the focus of the study reported fewer symptoms of depression and less trait anxiety as intrusiveness of experimenter follow-up increased. These results are discussed within the framework of socialization theory. Given that half of the sample did not correctly answer questions regarding information contained in the consent form, guidelines to improve consent form comprehension are offered.     

Ethical practices and beliefs of psychopathology researchers

Ethical guidelines are vague concerning how situations should be handled when researchers encounter participants in preexisting psychological distress. Ethical issues of beneficence, autonomy, and the nature of informed consent may arise in these situations. This study investigated the ethical practices and beliefs of 84 psychopathology researchers when confronting research participants in distress. Results indicated that psychopathology researchers in general engaged in diverse ethical practices in providing debriefing, treatment referrals, and providing for distressed participants. Characteristics of the designated studies and of the researchers accounted for significant differences in ethical practices. In addition, the type of psychopathology being assessed accounted for significant differences in ethical practices and beliefs. Guidelines are offered to aid researchers who encounter participants in preexisting distress.     

Ethical Practices and Beliefs of Psychopathology Researchers

Ethical guidelines are vague concerning how situations should be handled when researchers encounter participants in preexisting psychological distress. Ethical issues of beneficence, autonomy, and the nature of informed consent may arise in these situations. This study investigated the ethical practices and beliefs of 84 psychopathology researchers when confronting research participants in distress. Results indicated that psychopathology researchers in general engaged in diverse ethical practices in providing debriefing, treatment referrals, and providing for distressed participants. Characteristics of the designated studies and of the researchers accounted for significant differences in ethical practices. In addition, the type of psychopathology being assessed accounted for significant differences in ethical practices and beliefs. Guidelines are offered to aid researchers who encounter participants in preexisting distress.     

Systematic 24-hr behavioral observations of sleep and wakefulness in a skilled-care nursing facility

Sleep patterns of aged, infirm, demented, chronically institutionalized residents of a skilled-care nursing facility were studied. The purpose of this naturalistic study was to describe sleep and wakefulness (S/W) within the limits afforded by brief behavioral observations and to examine homeostasis and diurnal rhythmicity of S/W as a function of psychoactive drug intake. Observers noted S/W every 15 min, 24 hr a day for 10 days in 24 Ss. Results indicated substantial individual variation in daytime hours. Daily and weekly variation within Ss was minimal. Sleep was least likely near sunset. Ss on psychoactive drugs showed dampened diurnal variation in S/W rhythms. In Ss not on such drugs, there was a suggestion of homeostasis of S/W between sleep during the morning and evening hours. Results are discussed methodologically (viability of approach), theoretically (age-related change in sleep), and practically (potential treatments).     

Overvaluation of shape and weight in binge eating disorder and overweight controls: refinement of a diagnostic construct

Debate continues regarding the nosological status of binge eating disorder (BED) as a diagnosis as opposed to simply reflecting a useful marker for psychopathology. Contention also exists regarding the specific criteria for the BED diagnosis, including whether, like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, it should be characterized by overvaluation of shape/weight. The authors compared features of eating disorders, psychological distress, and weight among overweight BED participants who overvalue their shape/weight (n=92), BED participants with subclinical levels of overvaluation (n=73), and participants in an overweight comparison group without BED (n=45). BED participants categorized with clinical overvaluation reported greater eating-related psychopathology and depression levels than those with subclinical overvaluation. Both BED groups reported greater overall eating pathology and depression levels than the overweight comparison group. Group differences existed despite similar levels of overweight across the 3 groups, as well as when controlling for group differences in depression levels. These findings provide further support for the research diagnostic construct and make a case for the importance of shape/weight overvaluation as a diagnostic specifier.     

Don't ask,don't tell: a systematic review of the extent to which participant characteristics are reported in social anxiety treatment studies

Background and Objectives: This study examined the extent to which social anxiety treatment studies report the demographic characteristics of their participants. One hundred and 56 treatment studies published in English between 2001 and 2012 articles were collected. Methods: Each study was evaluated on whether or not it reported information on gender, age, race, relationship status, education, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and disability and also the extent to which the racial composition of the sample was described. Results: The majority of studies reported information on age (96.2%) and gender (94.2%), but the percentage of studies that reported anything else is much lower: race (50.0%), education (42.3%), relationship status (37.8%), socioeconomic status (5.1%), disability (2.6%), and sexual orientation (1.3%). One third (34.0%) of studies reported the race of all participants in their samples, while the remaining reported no information or information for only a subset of participants (e.g. “mostly white”). Conclusions: Participants of social anxiety disorder treatment studies generally are not described beyond their age and gender. Standards for reporting participant characteristics of treatment studies (similar to standards for reporting the methodology of treatment studies) could improve clinical researchers’ and clinicians’ ability to evaluate the external validity of this body of work.     

Reactions to Receiving Assumptive Help: The Moderating Effects of Group Membership and Perceived Need for Help1

The present study examined how group membership and need for help, variables that can operate independently or in combination, can affect reactions to receiving help. Arab participants (n = 164) received or did not receive help from an in‐group member (Arab helper) or from an out‐group high‐status member (Jewish helper) when the task was described as easy or difficult, or when no information was given. As predicted, Arab participants who received assistance from a Jewish helper or received assistance on an easy task showed more negative reactions than did those who received assistance from an Arab helper or on a difficult task. The theoretical implications for disentangling intergroup and interpersonal influences on reactions to receiving help are considered.     

Reactions to and Desire for Prognostic Testing in Choroidal Melanoma Patients

To determine if choroidal melanoma patients want cytogenetic prognostic information. Ninety-nine choroidal melanoma patients completed a questionnaire regarding their opinions about receiving prognostic information. The perceived usefulness of prognostic information was evaluated in patients who had undergone cytogenetic testing. Depressive symptoms, quality of life, and interest in supportive counseling during test receipt were assessed. Ninety-seven percent of respondents reported that they would have wanted prognostic information at the time of their treatment and 98% of respondents reported that supportive counseling should be offered when prognostic information is given. Patients who had received a more favorable prognostic result were more likely to endorse the usefulness of cytogenetic testing than were patients who had received a less favorable prognostic result. Psychological status did not vary significantly as a function of cytogenetic test result. Prognostic information was important to patients with choroidal melanoma, even in the absence of prophylactic measures which might improve prognosis.     

Testing Informant Discrepancies as Predictors of Early Adolescent Psychopathology: Why Difference Scores Cannot Tell You What You Want to Know and How Polynomial Regression May

Multiple informants commonly disagree when reporting child and family behavior. In many studies of informant discrepancies, researchers take the difference between two informants’ reports and seek to examine the link between this difference score and external constructs (e.g., child maladjustment). In this paper, we review two reasons why difference scores cannot serve as unambiguous predictors of outcomes. Further, we use polynomial regression analyses to both test the validity of difference scores and provide a more direct test of the hypothesis that discrepancies in parent and child reports predict child psychopathology. Data from 218 parent-adolescent dyads (M adolescent age?=?11.5 years, 51 % female; 49 % European American, 47 % African American) were used to predict adolescent-reported antisocial behavior and depression from parent and adolescent reports of parent-adolescent conflict, parental knowledge, parental acceptance, adolescent rule-breaking behavior, and adolescent pubertal development. Results demonstrate that analyses using difference scores do not provide valid tests of the utility of informant discrepancies in predicting adolescent psychosocial maladjustment. However, interaction terms in polynomial regression analyses provide evidence that informant discrepancies predict child psychopathology. Parent-adolescent informant discrepancies predict adolescent psychopathology but researchers should avoid using difference scores to measure informant discrepancies. Polynomial regression analyses provide more comprehensive and accurate tests of whether informant discrepancies predict child and adolescent psychopathology.     

Psychological distress and resilience as risk and protective factors of psychoactive substance use among Chinese nonengaged youth

Nonengaged youth (NEY) are those who have neither been working nor studying for a prolonged period of time. They are at risk of psychoactive substance use, but relevant studies are scarce. Based on a population‐based telephone survey and referrals, we anonymously interviewed 479 Hong Kong Chinese NEY aged 15–24 years. Of them, 14.8–23.7% reported moderate to severe depression, anxiety, and stress. Moreover, one fourth of the participants (24.8%; n = 119) had used psychoactive substances. Adjusted analyses showed that these three psychological distress variables were positively associated with, while resilience was negatively associated with, both ever‐use of psychoactive substances and intention to use such substances in the next 12 months. Loneliness was associated only with intention to use psychoactive substances. The mediating role of psychological distress was shown: Anxiety significantly mediated the association between resilience and ever‐use of psychoactive substances, whereas depression mediated that between resilience and behavioural intention. Resilience was not a significant moderator on the relationship between psychological distress and ever‐use of psychoactive substance use or behavioural intention to use those substances. The findings suggest that anti‐drug interventions should outreach NEY and should include mental health support as well as building up resilience, as NEY are prone to psychological distress that increases risk of substance use.     

Effects of active information processing on the understanding of risk information

Two experiments investigated effects of active processing of risk information on participants' understanding and judgments. It was hypothesized that more active processing would lead to better understanding and differences in affective judgments (e.g. increased satisfaction and reduced perceived risk to health). In both experiments participants were given a written scenario about their being prescribed a fictitious medication. This medication was said to cause side effects in 2% of people who took it. Before answering a series of written questions, participants in the active conditions of both experiments were asked to carry out a reflective task (portraying the size of risk on a bar chart in Experiment 1 and answering a reflective question in Experiment 2). The results showed that active participants rated the likelihood of experiencing possible side effects significantly lower than passive participants (Experiment 1), and that active participants were significantly more satisfied with the information and judged perceived risk to health from taking the medication significantly lower than passive participants (Experiment 2). In both experiments, active participants were significantly more correct in their probability and frequency estimates. The studies demonstrate that active processing of risk information leads to improved understanding of the information given. This has important implications for risk communication. In the context of health, better understanding should lead to improved decision‐making and health outcomes. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Health Beliefs and Behaviors of Women Who Have Received Genetic Counseling For Breast Cancer

There are both genetic and behavioral risk factors for breast cancer, but the interaction between these factors is not clear. Little is known about the impact of receiving genetic risk information for breast cancer on behaviors such as diet and physical activity. Seven focus groups were conducted with 23 women who had recently received genetic counseling for breast cancer, in order to explore health beliefs and behaviors following genetic counseling. Findings revealed that there was much confusion and uncertainty about the associations between health behaviors and breast cancer risk, and participants reported that receiving genetic counseling had little impact on health protective behaviors. Further research is required to understand variation in response to genetic risk information, and to assess the impact of providing additional information regarding lifestyle factors.     

Investigating the effect of stimulus range on attribute weight

Classic economic theories of choice assume that trade-offs are made consistently and are not swayed by irrelevant contextual variables. One possible source of trade-off inconsistency is investigated by asking whether attribute weights are affected by variations in the range of the stimuli presented. Ss should be influenced by the range of the stimuli only when distributional characteristics provide information about the value of the stimuli. In six experiments, Ss made judgments when the range (a) did not provide information about the value of the scores on the scales, (b) might provide such information, and (c) certainly provided this information. In Experiments 1-5, Ss were not influenced by the range of the stimuli. The only exception was Experiment 6, which required Ss to judge hypothetical job candidates on the basis of stimulus scales with which the Ss had no previous experience. In this experiment the meaning of the scales was determined entirely by the location of each stimulus within the presented distribution. In general, the results support the classical view of decision making: that attribute weights exist independent of situational demands, and that Ss' judgments are not influenced by irrelevant stimuli.     

心理学研究中社会阶层的操作化界定及其衍生问题

个体的社会阶层反映了其所掌控的客观社会资源(即客观社会阶层)和其主观上所感知到的自身社会地位(即主观社会阶层)的水平。收入(或财产)、职业、受教育程度是研究中常用来反映客观社会阶层的操作化指标。而主观社会阶层的操作化界定既包括对主观阶层进行问卷测量,也包括对其加以实验操纵。心理学研究要基于研究目的以及要考察的具体效应与机制对不同的操作化界定加以取舍,有时也要综合兼顾多种操作化方式。通过选取典型群体来代表不同阶层,这种做法宜慎重采用。同时研究的信效度问题有必要更多加以重视。未来研究应加强关注阶层认同偏差与阶层纵向流动等基础问题,以及因取样偏差而带来的阶层效应被简化的现象,并结合跨文化视角分析不同文化下社会阶层的内涵差异。     

Amalgamations of memories: intrusion of information from one event into reports of another

Numerous researchers have reported that exposure to misleading postevent information (MPI) regarding details in a witnessed event can lead people to report false details from the MPI when asked to report the witnessed event. In such studies, the MPI is presented to participants in the context of information about the witnessed event. This experiment tests the hypothesis that postevent exposure to information that participants know is not about the witnessed event can, nonetheless, affect performance on tests of memory for that event. As predicted, when asked to report details of an event depicted in a slide show, participants tended to intrude details mentioned in a recent postevent narrative that described a different event. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of auditory shadowing on recognition of information received visually

When Ss attend to one auditory message, they have no permanent memory for a second auditory message received simultaneously. Generally, it has been argued that a similar effect would occur crossmodally. This hypothesis was tested in the present experiment for messages presented to visual and auditory modalities. All Ss were tested for recognition of information presented either while shadowing or while hearing but not shadowing a passage of prose presented to one ear. One group heard a list of concrete nouns in their other ear. Three other groups received (1) printed words. (2) pictures of objects easily labeled, or (3) pictures of objects difficult to label. The shadowing task produced a decrement m recognition scores for the first three groups but not for the group receiving pictures of objects difficult to label. Further, the shadowing task interfered more with information received auditorily than with any form of visual information. These results suggest that information received visually is stored in a long-term modality-specific memory that may operate independently of the auditory modality.     

Asymmetry of doubt in medical self-diagnosis: the ambiguity of "uncertain wellness".

In 2 studies Ss received a clear or an unclear diagnosis, indicating either disease or no disease. In Experiment 1, Ss responded to a hypothetical bacteria test. In Experiment 2, Ss performed 2 saliva tests purportedly measuring risk for pancreatic disorders. Responses to the unclear well diagnosis were unique in several ways. Ss thought the test more invalid, inferred a greater likelihood of illness from a 2nd identical result, saw the disorder as more pernicious, and held no self-protective beliefs about the test or the disease. Moreover, desire for treatment among these Ss was as great as among those receiving a clear diagnosis of illness. Possible mechanisms are discussed, as are potential applications to clinical issues and to the development and maintenance of hypochondriacal health concerns.     

Pilot Study of Psychopathology Among Roman Catholic Secular Clergy

This pilot study gathered information regarding overall levels of psychopathology in a nationally selected, random sample of U.S. Roman Catholic secular (i.e., diocesan) priests using the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 2004). The study yielded a response rate of 45%. One-half of the participants reported marked psychological problems, with interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, and depression most strongly correlated with the instrument’s overall index of psychopathology. Four dimensional scales were elevated (i.e., obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, psychoticism), as were two indices (i.e., GSI, PST). Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Applied Relaxation for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Time Series Analysis of Change in Worry and Somatic Anxiety

The present study examined symptom change profiles in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) receiving either cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or applied relaxation (AR). It was hypothesized that (a) changes in worry would uniquely predict changes in somatic anxiety for most participants receiving CBT and (b) changes in somatic anxiety would uniquely predict changes in worry for most participants in the AR condition. Twenty participants (CBT n = 10; AR n = 10) completed daily ratings of worry and somatic anxiety during therapy, and multivariate time series analysis was used to assess the causal impact of each variable on the other. The hypotheses were not supported because we found no evidence of a match between individual symptom change profiles and treatment condition. Rather, a bidirectional relationship between worry and somatic anxiety was observed in 80% of participants receiving CBT and 70% of participants receiving AR. When only treatment responders were considered, 83% of participants receiving CBT and 86% of those receiving AR had such a bidirectional effect. The findings are discussed in terms of models of psychopathology that posit dynamic interactions between symptom clusters and in terms of the value of examining treatment mechanisms at the individual level.