The Relationship Between Generalized Community Satisfaction and Residential Social Status

Abstract

Three sets of suburbs in the metropolitan region of Adelaide, South Australia, differing widely in socioeconomic status, were compared with respect to the satisfaction residents felt with their suburb. Contrary to adaptation theory, in each of the four age groups, mean satisfaction, as assessed by the General Community Satisfaction Scale (Vreugdenhil & Rigby, 1986), was significantly greater for residents in the higher status suburbs. In addition, variability in community satisfaction tended to be greater in the lower status suburbs. Generally, occupational status and age of the residents were unrelated to community satisfaction; the exception was in the lowest status set in which the younger residents were significantly less satisfied with their suburb.     

Baseline Client Interpersonal Agency Moderates the Indirect Effect of Treatment on Long-term Worry in Variants of CBT for Generalized Anxiety Disorder

In a recent trial for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) integrated with motivational interviewing (MI) promoted more long-term worry reduction than CBT alone (Westra, Constantino, & Antony, 2016). A follow-up analysis found that CBT vs. MI-CBT clients evidenced greater increases in friendly submissiveness (FS) across treatment, which in turn promoted lower long-term worry (Constantino, Romano, Coyne, Westra, & Antony, 2018). It was unsurprising that traditional directive CBT promoted more FS than when person-centered MI was integrated; however, given that problematic low agency characterizes GAD, that greater FS promoted better outcome was unexpected. To further unpack this unexpected result, we tested the following moderated mediation hypothesis: for clients with more vs. less problematic low agency at baseline, CBT would still promote more in-session FS than MI-CBT, but this increase would in turn predict increased worry over follow-up. Clients receiving CBT (n = 43) or MI-CBT (n = 42) rated their interpersonal problems at baseline and their worry after treatment and across 12-month follow-up. Therapists rated clients’ in-session FS multiple times. As predicted, multilevel modeling revealed that for clients with more problematic low agency, CBT vs. MI-CBT facilitated greater FS, which in turn related to increased worry across follow-up. For clients with more problematic high agency, CBT’s facilitation of greater FS related to reduced worry across follow-up. A baseline interpersonal problem characteristic of GAD may have implications for treatment matching and for appreciating different pathways to long-term improvement, or deterioration, for different GAD subgroups.     

Rethinking the Role of Worry in Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Evidence Supporting a Model of Emotional Contrast Avoidance

The Contrast Avoidance model (Newman & Llera, 2011) proposes that individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are hypersensitive to sharp upward shifts in negative emotion that typically accompany negative events, and use worry to maintain sustained intrapersonal negativity in an attempt to avoid these shifts. Although research shows that worry increases negative emotionality and mutes further emotional reactivity to a stressor when compared to the worry period (e.g., Llera & Newman, 2010), no study has tracked changes in negative emotionality from baseline to worry inductions followed by a range of emotional exposures. Further, no study has yet assessed participants’ subjective appraisals of prior worry on helping to cope with such exposures. The present study tested the main tenets of the Contrast Avoidance model by randomly assigning participants with GAD (n = 48) and nonanxious controls (n = 47) to experience worry, relaxation, and neutral inductions prior to sequential exposure to fearful, sad, and humorous film clips. Both physiological (nonspecific skin conductance responses [NS-SCRs]) and self-reported emotional changes were observed. Results indicated that worry boosted negative emotionality from baseline, which was sustained across negative exposures, whereas low negative emotionality during relaxation and neutral inductions allowed for sharp increases in response to exposures. Furthermore, GAD participants found worry to be more helpful than other conditions in coping with exposures, whereas control participants reported the opposite pattern. Results provide preliminary support for the Contrast Avoidance model. This suggests that treatment should focus on underlying avoidance patterns before attempting to reduce worry behavior.     

The Role of Anger in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Little is known about the role of anger in the context of anxiety disorders, particularly with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The aim of study was to examine the relationship between specific dimensions of anger and GAD. Participants (N = 381) completed a series of questionnaires, including the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-Q-IV; Newman et al., 2002, Behavior Therapy, 33, 215–233), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-2; Spielberger 1999, State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2: STAXI-2 professional manual, Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources) and the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ; Buss & Perry 1992, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 452–459). The GAD-Q-IV identifies individuals who meet diagnostic criteria for GAD (i.e. GAD analogues) and those who do not (non-GAD). The STAXI-2 includes subscales for trait anger, externalized anger expression, internalized anger expression, externalized anger control and internalized anger control. The AQ includes subscales for physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility. The GAD-Q-IV significantly correlated with all STAXI-2 and AQ subscales (r's ranging from .10 to .46). Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that GAD analogues significantly differed from non-GAD participants on the combined STAXI-2 subscales (η² = .098); high levels of trait anger and internalized anger expression contributed the most to GAD group membership. GAD analogue participants also significantly differed from non-GAD participants on the combined AQ subscales (η² = .156); high levels of anger (affective component of aggression) and hostility contributed the most to GAD group membership. Within the GAD analogue group, the STAXI-2 and AQ subscales significantly predicted GAD symptom severity (R ² = .124 and .198, respectively). Elevated levels of multiple dimensions of anger characterize individuals who meet diagnostic criteria for GAD.     

The Nature of Generalized Anxiety in Older Primary Care Patients: Preliminary Findings

Clinical features of older primary care patients with GAD (PC-GAD; n = 22) were examined relative to older patients with GAD recruited for two academic clinical trials (M. A. Stanley, J. G. Beck, et al., 2003; J. L. Wetherell, M. Gatz, & M. G, Craske, 2003) and to a sample of older primary care patients without psychiatric diagnoses (No Dx; n = 10). Comparisons revealed similar levels of worry, anxiety, depressive symptoms, quality of life, and functional status between the PC-GAD subsample and patients recruited for academic trials, although primary care patients were older, less well educated, and more ethnically diverse. The PC-GAD subgroup, however, reported greater symptom severity, reduced quality of life, and poorer perceived general health, mental health, and vitality than the No Dx subgroup (² = .23–.43). Service utilization was not different between PC-GAD and No Dx subgroups, with the exception of psychotropic medication use. The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and an abbreviated version of this measure may be useful for identifying late-life GAD in primary care. Cutoff scores of 50 and 22 on the full and abbreviated versions of the PSWQ, respectively, demonstrated excellent specificity, sensitivity, and positive predictive value. Negative predictive value was less impressive, probably as a result of high base rates for GAD in this sample.     

Increasing Behavioral Skills and Level of Understanding in Adults: A Brief Method Integrating Dennison's Brain Gym & #x00AE; Balance with Piaget's Reflective Processes

A single session intervention was given individually to 4 adults in order to assist them in achieving their personal goals by improving their behavioral skills for achieving the goals and their conceptual understanding of & #x201C;how to & #x201D; attain these goals. The method was based on a brain-ability analysis of understanding & #x201C;conservation & #x201D; on Jean Piaget's conservation tasks combined with Paul and Gail Dennison's Brain Gym & #x201C;balance & #x201D; procedure. My & #x201C;whole brain understanding & #x201D; model (C. A. Wolfsont, 1999, 2000) and M. L. Commons et al.'s Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System manual were used to analyze the verbal protocols (M. L. Commons et al., 1992; Commons, Danaher, & Meaney, 2000). Increases were found in the participants' conceptual understanding and in the complexity of their performance.     

Generalized concordance

Based on a simple nonparametric procedure for comparing two proximity matrices, a measure of concordance is introduced that is appropriate whenK independent proximity matrices are available. In addition to the development of a general concept of concordance and specific techniques for its evaluation within and between the subsets of a partition of theK matrices, several methods are also suggested for comparing and/or for fitting a particular structure to the given data. Finally, brief indications are provided as to how the well-known notion of concordance forK rank orders can be included within the more general framework.Partial support for this research was supplied by the National Science Foundation through SOC-77-28227.     

Vacation (after-) effects on employee health and well-being, and the role of vacation activities, experiences and sleep

Most vacations seem to have strong, but rather short-lived effects on health and well-being (H&W). However, the recovery-potential of relatively long vacations and the underlying processes have been disregarded. Therefore, our study focused on vacations longer than 14 days and on the psychological processes associated with such a long respite from work. In the present study, we investigated (1) how health and well-being (H&W) develop during and after a long summer vacation, (2) whether changes in H&W during and after vacation relate to vacation activities and experiences and (3) whether changes in H&W during and after vacation relate to sleep. Fifty-four employees reported their H&W before, three or four times during and five times after vacation. Vacations lasted 23 days on average. Information on vacation experiences, work-related activities and sleep was collected during vacation. Vacation activities were assessed immediately after vacation. H&W increased quickly during vacation, peaked on the eighth vacation day and had rapidly returned to baseline level within the first week of work resumption. Vacation duration and most vacation activities were only weakly associated with H&W changes during and after vacation. Engagement in passive activities, savoring, pleasure derived from activities, relaxation, control and sleep showed strong relations with improved H&W during and to a lesser degree after vacation. In conclusion, H&W improved during long summer vacations, but this positive effect was short-lived. Vacation experiences, especially pleasure, relaxation, savoring and control, seem to be especially important for the strength and persistence of vacation (after-) effects.     

Going beyond ethnoracial discrimination and social support in accounting for psychological adjustment: Evidence for the importance of hope as a positive psychological construct in multiethnoracial adults

ABSTRACT

In the present study, we examined the role of ethnoracial discrimination, social support (viz., family & friends), and hope (viz., agency & pathways) in accounting for negative psychological adjustment (viz., worry & depressive symptoms) and positive psychological adjustment (viz., vitality & life satisfaction) in a sample of 203 (164 females & 39 males) multiethnoracial adults. Results of conducting a series of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that beyond ethnoracial discrimination and social support, the inclusion of hope was found to augment the prediction model of psychological adjustment. Within the hope set, agency was found to be uniquely associated with adjustment. Pathways was found to be uniquely associated with positive indices of psychological adjustment. The present findings are the first to highlight the significance of hope in multiethnoracial adults. Some implications of the present findings for understanding psychological adjustment in multiethnoracial adults are discussed.     

Disordered Eating Attitudes and Self-Objectification Among Physically Active and Sedentary Female College Students

The authors' purpose in this study was to examine objectification theory (B. L. Fredrickson & T. A. Roberts, 1997) among physically active (n = 115) and sedentary (n = 70) women. The women completed the Self-Objectification Questionnaire (Noll & Fredrickson, 1998), the Body Surveillance and Body Shame subscales of the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale (McKinley & Hyde, 1996), the Appearance Anxiety Scale (Dion, Dion, & J. Keelan, 1990), a flow experiences measure (Tiggemann & Slater, 2001), and the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (Garner, Olmsted, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982). Self-objectification directly and indirectly (via body shame and appearance anxiety) predicted disordered eating in both groups of women. Physically active women reported more frequent flow experiences than sedentary women. Women high in self-objectification reported higher levels of body surveillance, body shame, appearance anxiety, and self-reported disordered eating attitudes. Body surveillance was related to disordered eating only among women with high self-objectification. Appearance anxiety was negatively associated with flow experiences among sedentary women. Objectification theory provides a useful framework for understanding factors related to disordered eating attitudes among active and sedentary college women.     

Assessing Generalized Community Satisfaction

Abstract

The assessment of community satisfaction as a global concept has until now been based on measures that in various ways have been inadequate. In the present study, alternative approaches to devising community satisfaction scales were reviewed and a new General Community Satisfaction Scale (GCSS) was presented. Results from factor analyses of data obtained in two divergent communities, with sample sizes of 622 and 385, respectively, vindicated the measure in the context of a diversity of other measures assessing more specific community attributes. The GCSS was shown to be highly reliable with an alpha coefficient value of .97 in each community and to have a high degree of concurrent validity.     

Benefits of response time-extended multinomial processing tree models: A reply to Starns (2018)

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - In his comment on Heck and Erdfelder (2016, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23, 1440–1465), Starns (2018, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25,...     

How to use the diffusion model: Parameter recovery of three methods: EZ, fast-dm, and DMAT

Parameter recovery of three different implementations of the Ratcliff diffusion model was investigated: the EZ model (Wagenmakers, van der Maas, & Grasman, 2007), fast-dm (Voss & Voss, 2007), and DMAT (Vandekerckhove & Tuerlinckx, 2007). Their capacity to recover both the mean structure and individual differences in parameter values was explored. The three methods were applied to simulated data generated by the diffusion model, by the leaky, competing accumulator (LCA) model (Usher & McClelland, 2001) and by the linear ballistic accumulator (LBA) model (Brown & Heathcote, 2008). Results show that EZ and DMAT are better capable than fast-dm in recovering experimental effects on parameters. EZ was best in recovering individual differences in parameter values. When data were generated by the LCA model, the diffusion model estimates obtained with all three methods correlated well with corresponding LCA model parameters. No such one-on-one correspondence could be established between parameters of the LBA model and the diffusion model.     

Factor Structure of the Private Self-Consciousness Scale

Several issues concerning the factors of the Private Self-Consciousness Scale (PRSC) of Fenigstein et al. (1975) are examined, including possible artifactuality and appropriate conceptualization. Findings confirm the existence of the 2 factors reported in previous research (Burnkrant & Page, 1984; Lennox, Welch, Wolfe, Zimmerman, & Dixon, 1987; Mittal & Balasubramanian, 1987; Piliavin & Charng, 1988) and suggest that these factors are substantive, not artifactual, in nature. One factor was found to be associated with mild levels of psychopathology, whereas the other was not. In addition to providing a clearer conception of the nature of these factors, our results may help to resolve apparently contradictory findings in the PRSC literature. Implications for research on self-focused attention are also discussed.     

Relationships among Athletic Identity,Coping Skills,Social Support,and the Psychological Impact of Injury in Recreational Participants

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine athletic identity, coping skills, and social support as moderators of mood disturbance and physical self-esteem with the occurrence of injury in recreational participants. Thirty participants, who sustained an injury that prohibited physical activity for at least 6 weeks, completed a battery of questionnaires including measures of social support (Sarason, Levine, Basham, & Sarason, 1983), coping skills (Smith, Smoll, & Ptacek, 1990), athletic identity (Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993), mood state (McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1971), and physical self-esteem (Fox & Corbin, 1989). Results from multiple regression analysis revealed that individuals' satisfaction with their social support network was significantly related to mood disturbance with increased satisfaction leading to lower levels of mood disturbance. No other relationships were significant. Results are discussed within the context of cognitive appraisal models of adjustment in order to better understand the injury process.     

Anxiety and Depression in Brazilian Orthopaedics Inpatients: A Cross Sectional Study with a Clinical Sample Comparison

There are few studies on the development of anxiety and depression in orthopaedics and trauma (O&T) inpatients. We designed a cross-sectional study aimed at comparing the prevalence of depression and anxiety in 100 O&T inpatients and 100 clinical inpatients in the same hospital. O&T patients were divided into subgroups: trauma and non-trauma (arthroplasty, tumour, and infection sub grouping). We measured anxiety and depression by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and co-morbidities by the Charlson age-adjusted comorbidity index (CCI). For the trauma subgroup, AO/OTA fracture classification and Gustillo and Anderson grade of open fractures classification was applied. The prevalence of anxiety and depression was 35% and 28%, respectively for the clinical sample, and 44% and 33% for the O&T sample. Compared with the clinical sample, anxiety scores were higher in the O&T sample (p = .047), and in arthroplasty (p = .020) and trauma subgroups (p = .031). In the O&T sample, high CCI scores were associated with high anxiety scores (p = .033).     

Food-related stimuli increase desire to eat in hungry and satiated human subjects

In the present study, the effect of food-related cues on the desire to eat chocolate in hungry and satiated subjects was investigated. Subjects (n=46) were randomly assigned to either a hungry or satiated group and then assigned to a group receiving one of the following stimuli: taste (2 M&Ms), sight (a photograph of M&Ms), cognition (a passage describin M&Ms), or control (no stimulus). In each testing session, subjects rated their desire to eat chocolate before and after the 90-s presentation of the particular stimulus. Each subject was then given a half pound of M&Ms so that actual consumption could also be measured. Results indicated that, following the presentation of the sight and taste stimuli, the subjects’ desire to eat chocolate was significantly increased. Furthermore, no differences in chocolate consumption due to state of hunger or type of food-related stimulus presented were found.     

Food-related stimuli increase desire to eat in hungry and satiated human subjects

In the present study, the effect of food-related cues on the desire to eat chocolate in hungry and satiated subjects was investigated. Subjects (n=46) were randomly assigned to either a hungry or satiated group and then assigned to a group receiving one of the following stimuli: taste (2 M&Ms), sight (a photograph of M&Ms), cognition (a passage describin M&Ms), or control (no stimulus). In each testing session, subjects rated their desire to eat chocolate before and after the 90-s presentation of the particular stimulus. Each subject was then given a half pound of M&Ms so that actual consumption could also be measured. Results indicated that, following the presentation of the sight and taste stimuli, the subjects’ desire to eat chocolate was significantly increased. Furthermore, no differences in chocolate consumption due to state of hunger or type of food-related stimulus presented were found.     

Individual differences in attitude structure: Variance in the chronic reliance on affective and cognitive information

Two studies examined the proclivity of individual differences in attitude structure. Study 1 found considerable variation across individuals in the degree to which their attitudes were correlated with the favorability of their affective and cognitive responses. Study 1 also revealed that such variation was associated with individual differences in the Need for Affect (Maio & Esses, 2001) and the Need to Evaluate (Jarvis & Petty, 1996). Study 2 explored one outcome associated with individual differences in attitude structure. This study found that an affect-based appeal was more persuasive among individuals with affective (as compared to cognitive) attitudes, and that individuals with cognitive attitudes were more persuaded by a cognitive (as compared to affective) appeal. The findings are discussed in relation to the important roles of affective and cognitive information in guiding attitudes (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Zanna & Rempel, 1988).     

Gender-related inequalities in the division of family work in close relationships: A social psychological perspective

We offer a social psychological perspective on gender-related inequalities in close relationships and integrate two lines of research that have focused on the intrapersonal perceptions and interpersonal consequences respectively of the gendered division of labour. We start with a brief summary of research on gender-related inequalities in the division of labour and discuss prior explanations and paradigms. We then address the extent to which spouses consider the division of labour as fair and the factors that contribute to perceptions of (un)fairness. Central to our argument is the distributive justice framework (<citeref rid="b76">Major, 1987</citeref>, <citeref rid="b77">1993</citeref>; <citeref rid="b113">Thompson, 1991</citeref>) which claims that fairness judgements are affected by people's wants and values, comparison standards, and justifications. In the following section, we address the question of whether dissatisfaction over the division of labour causes relationship conflict and how couples manage these conflicts. The main argument is that conflict over the division of labour generally comprises an asymmetrical conflict structure (with wives as complainants and husbands as defenders of the status quo), which elicits asymmetrical conflict interaction patterns (i.e., demand/withdraw interaction) that result in asymmetrical outcomes (i.e., status quo maintenance). Finally, we summarise the main conclusions and address contributions to theory and research as well as directions for further research.