Bipolar disorder and family communication: effects of a psychoeducational treatment program

Family psychoeducational programs are efficacious adjuncts to pharmacotherapy for patients with schizophrenic and bipolar disorders, but little is known about what these programs change about families. The authors assessed changes in face-to-face interactional behavior over 1 year among families of bipolar patients who received a 9-month family-focused psychoeducational therapy (FFT; n = 22) or crisis management with naturalistic follow-up (CMNF; n = 22), both administered with maintenance pharmacotherapy. Members of families who received FFT showed more positive nonverbal interactional behavior during a 1-year posttreatment problem-solving assessment than families who received CMNF, although no corresponding decreases were seen in negative interactional behaviors. The positive effect of family treatment on patients' symptom trajectories over 1 year was partially mediated by increases in patients' positive nonverbal interactional behaviors during this same interval.     

Orthographic directionality and thematic role illustration in English and Arabic

This study tested the hypotheses that people had a bias for drawing agents on the left of a picture when given a verb stimulus targeting an active or passive event (e.g., "kicked" or "is kicked") and that orthographic directionality would influence the way events were illustrated. Monolingual English speakers, who read and write left-to-right, and Arabic speakers, who read and write right-to-left, drew agents and patients in response to verb stimuli. We found no significant orthographic directionality effects and no preference for positioning agents on the left of pictures in either group or sentence type. Instead, participants drew agents on the right regardless of language or sentence type, and this was exaggerated in English speakers illustrating passive verbs. These findings support the existence of a preference for placing agents in the right hemispace that may result from asymmetrical hemispheric (i.e., left>right) activation induced by language processing. Our results are consistent with findings that people prefer pictures in which focus is on the right, a preference strongest in pictures with no implicit directionality of movement. This suggests that the methodology of the current study encouraged a static rather than dynamic interpretation of the verb in most participants.     

Muslim Americans’ Responses to Social Identity Threats: Effects of Media Representations and Experiences of Discrimination

ABSTRACT

Direct and indirect social identity threats can influence stigmatized individuals to seek identity management strategies that restore a positive sense of social identity. The current study examined the effects of media representations and self-reported experiences of discrimination on Muslim American students’ identity management strategies. Results revealed that Muslim American students who viewed negative media representations of their religious ingroup, relative to a control video, were less likely to desire acceptance by other Americans and more likely to avoid interactions with majority members. Additionally, self-reported experiences of discrimination significantly and positively influenced a desire for collective action. These results reveal the powerful effects of media representations and discrimination in threatening minority group members’ social identity and exacerbating negative intergroup relations between majority and minority groups.     

A novel in vivo measure of cyberaggression

Cyberaggression (CA), or the use of information communication technologies to inflict harm on others, is an emerging public health crisis. Unfortunately, our current ability to assess CA in a research context remains limited, curtailing efforts to address this important issue. We sought to fill this gap in the literature by developing an adapted “chat” version of the Taylor aggression paradigm (TAP) that would more closely resemble a social gaming format (hereafter referred to as the TAP-Chat). In the TAP-Chat, participants have a chat function available to communicate with their (fictitious) co-player. Following loss trials in a competitive reaction time task, they receive a “mean chat” from their co-player. Participant messages to their (fictitious) co-player are then coded for aggressive content by a team of trained research assistants, and via automated linguistic analysis software (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count). The current study evaluated the predictive utility of the TAP-Chat task in independent discovery and replication samples (N = 843 and N = 350, respectively). Participants’ publicly available tweets served as an important external criterion variable, along with a handful of self-report questionnaires assessing CA and related constructs. Analyses suggest that, although it can be completed in ∼13 min, the TAP-Chat predicts CA on Twitter and, to a lesser extent, as reported on questionnaires. Although there are still several issues to address, it is our hope that the research community will benefit from this straightforward behavioral assessment of CA.     

Illuminating the nomological network of digital aggression: Results from two studies

We examined the nomological network surrounding digital aggression (DA), in regards to other forms of aggression/antisocial behavior and individual difference variables commonly associated with other forms of aggression/antisocial behavior. Two large samples of university students (N = 713 and 633, respectively) completed a series of questionnaires and in some cases, an additional experience sampling study. Results revealed that, in emerging adulthood, DA appears to have a unique demographic profile relative to the other forms of aggression and antisocial behavior. Results further suggested that, when examined simultaneously, only social aggression and non‐aggressive rule‐breaking evidenced independent associations with DA. These associations persisted even in the absence of social media use. Unique associations with most individual difference variables dissipated once we controlled for social aggression and rule‐breaking, although DA was independently associated with extraversion and alcohol use problems. Such findings begin to embed DA in its broader nomological network and suggest clear functional links with both social aggression and non‐aggressive rule‐breaking.

     

Religiosity and Death Anxiety: A Study of Muslim Dars Attendees

Journal of Religion and Health - Dars is usually considered a religious lecture or activity where attendees spend much time in search of Islamic information, which often keeps the attendees away...     

Exploring the motivations of Facebook use in Taiwan

The current study explored the motivations of online social network use among a sample of the general population in Taiwan (N=4,346). It investigated how seven different motivations to use Facebook predicted the intensity of Facebook use and content-generation behaviors on Facebook. Results showed that the motivation to use Facebook for posting and viewing status updates was the strongest predictor of Facebook intensity, while the motivation to view and share photographs was the strongest predictor of content-generation behavior on the site. Results are discussed in terms of expanding motivations to use Facebook to the study of social networking sites and other new and social media.     

Pathways to Virality: Psychophysiological Responses Preceding Likes,Shares, Comments,and Status Updates on Facebook

ABSTRACT

Facebook use has become habitual to social network site (SNS) users, yet little is known about the psychological processes at play while using this platform. This study explored how psychophysiological responses vary as a function of liking, commenting, sharing, or posting status updates interactions on Facebook’s newsfeeds. Participants were instructed to enact common Facebook activities or viral behaviors (like, share, comment, and update a status) in brief segments, while their psychophysiological responses were recorded. Our results showcase different approaches to dealing with psychophysiological responses for undefined, uncontrolled (organic) stimuli. We contrasted Facebook organic use segments that ended with pressing on the like button to those that did not end with liking the Facebook post. In the second method of data analysis, we analyzed psychophysiological data at the participant level using the 10 sec preceding the enactment of the 4 viral behaviors. Our findings showed that, indeed, the pathways leading up to performing online behaviors are diverse, thus indicating different underlying psychological processes. Findings’ theoretical and practical implications are discussed within the broader context of understanding social media behaviors.