Preference for Same‐ Versus Cross‐Sex Friendships1

How is preferring same‐ vs. cross‐sex friendships related to one's perceptions of these friendships? In Phase 1, college students (N = 122) listed qualities they valued in their same‐ and cross‐sex friends. In Phase 2, survey items constructed from the responses were administered to 231 students who indicated a preference for same‐ vs. cross‐sex friendship. Those who reported a preference for opposite‐sex friends rated these friendships as higher in closeness, trust, caring, having common interests, and providing narcissistic benefits, compared to those who reported a preference for same‐sex friends. Results demonstrate that gender differences often associated with close friendships are greatly attenuated and sometimes reversed when preference for same‐ vs. cross‐sex friendship is included as a moderating variable.     

Personalizing Behavioral Interventions Through Single‐Patient (N‐of‐1) Trials

Behavioral interventions are typically studied with the use of a conventional between‐subject randomized controlled trial (RCT) design. In this design, the effect of an intervention on one group of patients is compared with the effect of a control condition on another group of patients, such that a between‐subject change is tested. A between‐subject design has an underlying assumption that there is a homogenous treatment effect for a behavioral intervention, drug, or psychotherapy and that the way the intervention operates in the study will tend to operate in the same way in many other patients. We review some of the philosophical and practical problems with the use of this design when a clinician is attempting to decide on a course of behavioral treatment aimed at within‐subject change in patients who are likely to have heterogeneous or unique responses to behavioral treatment. We also review the biases inherent in our current clinical practice model, which does not use any empirical data collection or design for testing if a treatment is useful, and also in the conventional between‐subject personalized medicine RCT designs. We propose increased use of single‐patient (also known as N‐of‐1) trials that employ within‐subject designs, in cases where treatment response is heterogeneous – as is the case for most psychological and behavioral treatments. Limitations of such designs include that they can only be used when the treatment is potentially reversible, the patient can act as their own control, and the outcome can be measured repeatedly. Increased use of within‐subject trials may address in many more instances the more clinically relevant question of how a specific patient will respond to a specific treatment and could introduce a more harmonious scientific approach into the way we treat our patients. We have incorporated a case presentation that illustrates the complexities of applying evidence drawn from these different designs to selecting and evaluating treatments for the behavioral issues commonly faced by clinicians and patients.     

A Laboratory Demonstration of the Fraudulent Telemarketers’ 1‐in‐5 Prize Tactic1

Two laboratory experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the 1‐in‐5 prize tactic for perpetrating telemarketing fraud crimes. Across these experiments, the 1‐in‐5 prize tactic (securing acquiescence to a request by misleading a person to believe that he or she has won a valuable prize) resulted in a 5‐fold increase in compliance, including 100% yielding in conditions most similar to those used by fraudulent telemarketers. Possible psychological mechanisms underlying the tactic (including phantom fixation) are discussed.     

Properties of bootstrap tests for N‐of‐1 studies

N‐of‐1 study designs involve the collection and analysis of repeated measures data from an individual not using an intervention and using an intervention. This study explores the use of semi‐parametric and parametric bootstrap tests in the analysis of N‐of‐1 studies under a single time series framework in the presence of autocorrelation. When the Type I error rates of bootstrap tests are compared to Wald tests, our results show that the bootstrap tests have more desirable properties. We compare the results for normally distributed errors with those for contaminated normally distributed errors and find that, except when there is relatively large autocorrelation, there is little difference between the power of the parametric and semi‐parametric bootstrap tests. We also experiment with two intervention designs: ABAB and AB, and show the ABAB design has more power. The results provide guidelines for designing N‐of‐1 studies, in the sense of how many observations and how many intervention changes are needed to achieve a certain level of power and which test should be performed.     

The Caring‐Killing Paradox: Euthanasia‐Related Strain Among Animal‐Shelter Workers1

The current study represents the first quantitative investigation of the psychological ramifications of euthanasia‐related work. Results indicate that perceived euthanasia‐related strain is prevalent among shelter employees and is associated with increased levels of general job stress, work‐to‐family conflict, somatic complaints, and substance use; and with lower levels of job satisfaction. Analyses provide evidence that euthanasia‐related work has a significant negative relation with employee well‐being independent of its relation with generalized job stress. Exploratory analyses also suggest that individual, work, and organizational differences may influence the level of perceived stress and appear to be associated with certain aspects of employee well‐being. The need for future research of this topic and its relevance to a wide range of applied psychologists is discussed.     

At‐one‐ment,intuition and ‘suchness’1

Many senses exist for perceiving sensory experience; there are in turn others which make it possible to perceive emotional experience: intuition is one of these. The author, using W. R. Bion's work, studies intuition psychoanalytically, considering it to be a powerful ‘sense’ in clinical work. He describes the metapsychology of intuition, and proposes models that make it possible to think—from different perspectives— about how to make use of it in an analysis. To this end, he examines a series of useful processes and concepts: growth, tolerance, ‘suchness’, suffering and courage. The author defi nes the intuitive mechanism as a derivation of the renunciation of memory, desire and understanding; such a renunciation, learning from the experience of suffering the pain of facing the Truth in at‐one‐ment, makes it possible to tolerate the frustrations associated with observing the analysand ‘such‐as‐he‐is’. Finally, once immersed in the intelligence of intuition, the author considers ways in which intuition might be linked with concepts, with a view to interpreting the facts that must be transformed in the analysis.     

Credibility of Self‐Report for Ethnic‐Minority Pregnant Smokers1

Two independent samples of pregnant smokers were interviewed about their cigarette smoking and were tested with biochemical markers at the beginning and end of their pregnancies. Participants were mainly unmarried, racial minorities (chiefly Hispanic), and residents of the inner city. Phi coefficients between self‐reported and chemical indicators ranged from .42 to .74. Contrary to expectations, the self‐report/biochemical‐measure correlations were higher at the end than at the beginning of the pregnancy term. The higher end‐of‐term correspondence between self‐report and chemical indicators likely reflected better reliability of the measures, when taken at term. The results are in accord with earlier research with other populations, indicating adequate validity for self‐reported smoking.     

Predicting Breast Self‐Examination: A Test of the Information‐Motivation‐Behavioral Skills Model1

The present research utilizes the information‐motivation‐behavioral skills (IMB) model (Fisher & Fisher, 1992, 2000) to predict breast self‐examination (BSE) and related behaviors in women. Results from a cross‐sectional survey study of 166 women found deficiencies in BSE‐related information, motivation, and behavioral skills, as well as insufficient rates of BSE‐related behaviors. Structural equation modeling indicated that IMB model variables account for significant variance in BSE and BSE‐related behaviors, and that the predicted relationships between the constructs of the 1MB model were supported. The present research extends the utility of the IMB model beyond preventive behaviors such as HIV prevention into the domain of detection behaviors such as BSE.     

Self‐Categorization and Bystander Non‐intervention: Two Experimental Studies1

This paper outlines a new approach to the study of bystander intervention. Using insights derived from self‐categorization theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987), we explore the social category relations among those present in the context of physical violence. The paper describes two experiments that manipulate the social category relations between (a) bystander and fellow bystanders, and (b) bystander and victim. Analysis indicates that fellow bystanders are only influential when they are in‐group rather than out‐group members. Furthermore, bystanders are more likely to help victims who are described as in‐group as opposed to out‐group members. Overall, the findings suggest an important role for a self‐categorization perspective in developing strategies to promote bystander intervention.     

Prejudice as Self‐Control Failure1

Research has suggested that whereas stereotypical attitudes may be automatically activated, the response to these stereotypes can be controlled. Anything that interferes with self‐control may result in more biased behavior. The ego strength model hypothesizes that after exerting self‐control, subsequent self‐control performance will suffer. Hence, depletion of ego strength may lead to increased prejudice. In 2 studies, depletion was found only to affect individuals who normally try to control their prejudicial responses. Participants who do not normally try to control their use of stereotypes were equally prejudiced, regardless of their level of ego strength. The results have implications for prejudice and stereotyping, as well as models of self‐control.     

Secondary Qualities and Self‐Location1

There is a strong pull to the idea that there is some metaphysically interesting distinction between the fully real, objective, observer‐independent qualities of things as they are in themselves, and the less‐than‐fully‐real, subjective, observer‐dependent qualities of things as they are for us. Call this (putative) distinction the primary/secondary quality distinction. The distinction between primary and secondary qualities is philosophically interesting because it is (a) often quite attractive to draw such a distinction, and (b) incredibly hard to spell it out in any kind of satisfying and sensible way. I attempt such a spelling‐out after first trying to pin down in more detail what we want from the primary/secondary quality distinction, and saying a bit about why that is such a hard thing to get.     

Nine‐ to 11‐month‐old infants' reasoning about causality in anomalous human movements1

Two habituation experiments investigated 9–11‐month‐old infants' reasoning about causality in anomalous human movements. During habituation, infants saw an event in which a person walked toward a stationary person behind an occluder who fell down after an interval. Then, the infants were tested with two events without the occluder: the contact event in which the first person pushed the second one to fall down and the no‐contact event in which the second person fell down without any contact. In Experiment 1, in which the persons were face‐to‐back, infants looked at the no‐contact event for a longer time, whereas in Experiment 2, in which the persons were face‐to‐face, they looked at both the events for equal duration. Thus, infants considered it unnatural when a person fell down without external force in the absence of any action from a distance (e.g. communication). Infants seem to apply the physical contact principles to human movements in certain cases.