Assessing “Clutter” and Related Constructs with a Non-White,Urban Sample

How does the clutter in people’s lives affect their sense of home and well-being? Why do some people (specifically non-white individuals) have too much clutter, and too many possessions, and is clutter related to procrastination? We examined the relation of clutter to psychological sense of home, subjective well-being, procrastination (both decisional and routine), and the need for cognition. Our participants (n = 192) were predominantly non-White, urban college students. Results confirmed prior research indicting negative relations between clutter and both the psychological sense of home and subjective well-being, plus a negative relation between clutter and need for cognition. Clutter was positively related to both forms of procrastination examined. The two forms of procrastination differed in their relation to need for cognition, supporting the view of decisional and routine procrastination as two distinct sub-types of procrastination.     

Beyond words: Sensory properties of depressive thoughts

Verbal thoughts (such as negative cognitions) and sensory phenomena (such as visual mental imagery) are usually conceptualised as distinct mental experiences. The present study examined to what extent depressive thoughts are accompanied by sensory experiences and how this is associated with symptom severity, insight of illness and quality of life. A large sample of mildly to moderately depressed patients (N = 356) was recruited from multiple sources and asked about sensory properties of their depressive thoughts in an online study. Diagnostic status and symptom severity were established over a telephone interview with trained raters. Sensory properties of negative thoughts were reported by 56.5% of the sample (i.e., sensation in at least one sensory modality). The highest prevalence was seen for bodily (39.6%) followed by auditory (30.6%) and visual (27.2%) sensations. Patients reporting sensory properties of thoughts showed more severe psychopathological symptoms than those who did not. The degree of perceptuality was marginally associated with quality of life. The findings support the notion that depressive thoughts are not only verbal but commonly accompanied by sensory experiences. The perceptuality of depressive thoughts and the resulting sense of authenticity may contribute to the emotional impact and pervasiveness of such thoughts, making them difficult to dismiss for their holder.     

Executive functions and extraversion

Executive functions and extraversion have been linked to similar neurological substrates. Participants were tested on a variety of tasks that assessed performance on three components of executive functioning (i.e., shifting, updating, and inhibition) and two measures of extraversion (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised and Carver and White’s BIS/BAS scales). More extraverted participants showed different patterns of executive function performance than the more introverted participants. Extraverts performed best on more difficult tasks and on updating tasks. Conversely, introverts performed best on set shifting tasks. These results suggest that executive functioning strengths differ based on degree of extraversion.     

Delineating the construct network of the Personnel Reaction Blank: associations with externalizing tendencies and normal personality

Integrity testing has long been utilized in personnel selection to screen for tendencies toward counterproductive workplace behaviors. The construct of externalizing from the psychopathology literature represents a coherent spectrum marked by disinhibitory traits and behaviors. The present study drew on a sample of male and female undergraduates to examine the construct network of the Personnel Reaction Blank (PRB; H. G. Gough, R. D. Arvey, & P. Bradley, 2004), a measure of integrity, in relation to externalizing as well as normal-range personality constructs assessed by the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen & N. G. Waller, 2008). Results revealed moderate to strong associations between several PRB scales and externalizing, which were largely accounted for by MPQ traits subsumed by Negative Emotionality and Constraint. After accounting for MPQ traits in the prediction of externalizing, a modest predictive increment was achieved when adding the PRB scales, particularly biographical indicators from the Prosocial Background subscale. The findings highlight externalizing as a focal criterion for scale development in the integrity testing literature and help delineate the construct network of the PRB within the domains of personality and psychopathology.     

The Attention Training Technique as an Attempt to Decrease Intrusive Thoughts in Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder (OCD): From Cognitive Theory to Practice and Back

The attention training technique (ATT) is a cognitive treatment method that is aimed at ameliorating intrusive thoughts in anxiety disorders. To the best of our knowledge, no randomized controlled study has yet been conducted on individuals with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). For the present study, we recruited 80 participants with OCD over the internet and allocated them to an experimental (ATT implemented as bibliotherapy) or a wait-list condition. Assessments were made at baseline and four weeks later. Groups performed similar at both time points on the self-report version of the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-revised (OCI-R). The present study speaks against the effectiveness of ATT as a stand-alone bibliotherapeutical approach for OCD. From our data and increasing evidence that OCD patients do not suffer from severe attention or executive deficits we consider an approach targeting attentional biases for certain OCD-related events more useful than a generic (i.e., OCD-unspecific) cognitive remediation approach.     

Teaching Ethics to Engineers: Ethical Decision Making Parallels the Engineering Design Process

In order to fulfill ABET requirements, Northern Arizona University’s Civil and Environmental engineering programs incorporate professional ethics in several of its engineering courses. This paper discusses an ethics module in a 3rd year engineering design course that focuses on the design process and technical writing. Engineering students early in their student careers generally possess good black/white critical thinking skills on technical issues. Engineering design is the first time students are exposed to “grey” or multiple possible solution technical problems. To identify and solve these problems, the engineering design process is used. Ethical problems are also “grey” problems and present similar challenges to students. Students need a practical tool for solving these ethical problems. The step-wise engineering design process was used as a model to demonstrate a similar process for ethical situations. The ethical decision making process of Martin and Schinzinger was adapted for parallelism to the design process and presented to students as a step-wise technique for identification of the pertinent ethical issues, relevant moral theories, possible outcomes and a final decision. Students had greatest difficulty identifying the broader, global issues presented in an ethical situation, but by the end of the module, were better able to not only identify the broader issues, but also to more comprehensively assess specific issues, generate solutions and a desired response to the issue.     

Characteristics and organization of the worst moment of trauma memories in posttraumatic stress disorder

It has been proposed that the organization of the worst moment in traumatic memories (“hotspots”) is of particular importance for the development of PTSD. However, current knowledge regarding the organization and content of worst moments is incomplete.In the present study, trauma survivors with (n = 25) and without PTSD (n = 54) were asked to indicate the worst moment of their trauma and to give a detailed narrative of the traumatic event. The worst moment and the remaining narrative were analyzed separately with regard to organization and emotional content.Results indicated that worst moments of trauma survivors with PTSD differed from the remaining narrative and from worst moments described by trauma survivors without PTSD in that they were characterized by more unfinished thoughts, more use of the present tense and lower levels of cognitive processing. However, hypotheses regarding differentiating emotional content were not supported. Implications for our theoretical understanding of PTSD and potential therapeutic interventions are discussed.     

The effects of body‐worn camera footage and eyewitness race on jurors' perceptions of police use of force

Police use of body‐worn cameras (BWCs) is increasingly common in the USA. This article reports the results of one of the first experimental examinations of the effects of three BWC status conditions (absent, transcribed, viewed) and eyewitness race (Black, White) on mock jurors' case judgments, in a case in which a community member (defendant) was charged with resisting arrest but where the officer's use of force in conducting the arrest was controversial. Results provide evidence of significant main effects of both eyewitness race and BWC status. When the eyewitness supporting the defendant was White, mock jurors were less likely to vote the defendant guilty of resisting arrest, as well as more likely to consider the defendant credible and the officer culpable for the incident. In addition, when BWC footage of the arrest was viewed, compared with transcribed or absent, participants were less likely to vote the defendant guilty of resisting arrest, and also rated the officer's use of force less justifiable, and the officer more culpable and less credible. Follow‐up analyses demonstrated that these relationships between BWC condition and case judgments were all mediated by moral outrage toward the officer.     

Deceiving suspects about their alibi is equally harmful to the innocent and guilty

A common belief in police officers is that guilty suspects' statements are less consistent than innocent suspects'. This could leave guilty suspects more vulnerable to missing inconsistencies externally induced into their alibis. Source monitoring and cognitive load approaches suggest that untruthfulness rather than guilt should predict proneness to such deception. Manipulating both guilt and truthfulness, we tested these opposing hypotheses. One hundred twenty‐six participants were accused of stealing gift vouchers after wandering about a building. When interviewed several days later, participants rarely detected alterations in their alibi (23–29%). Unexpectedly, for one of three detection measures, untruthful participants detected more manipulations than did truthful participants. Guilt did not moderate detection rates. Manipulations were equally harmful for guilty and innocent suspects, and blindness to the alibi manipulations was not useful for discriminating innocent from guilty suspects. Because blindness effects are easy to elicit in the legal context, techniques that externally induce inconsistencies should be avoided.     

“Phobie à deux” and other reasons why clinicians do not apply exposure with response prevention in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder

Meta-analyses suggest that exposure with response prevention (ERP) is the most efficacious treatment for obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and treatment guidelines for the disorder accordingly recommend ERP. Despite this, many therapists, including those with a cognitive-behavioral therapeutic background, do not perform ERP in patients with OCD. The present study aimed to elucidate the reasons why. German therapists (N = 216) completed an anonymous online survey, the newly developed Reasons for Not Performing Exposure in OCD Scale (REPEX), that inquired whether, to what extent, and how they perform ERP in the treatment of OCD. We also asked their reasons for not applying ERP in the past. Most therapists considered ERP an efficient treatment for OCD. Marked differences emerged between physicians and psychologists, however. The former used exposure less often and for a shorter period, preferred in sensu to in vivo exposure, and conducted exposure less often in the personal environment of the patient than did psychologists. Both groups were familiar with clinical guidelines to a similar extent. A factor analysis of the REPEX scale revealed five factors. Patient lack of motivation, preference for exposure to be self-help as well as alleged organizational difficulties were endorsed most often. The latter was correlated with the age of the therapist and was far more often affirmed by physicians. Fear of side effects was named by a subgroup of clinicians; in the context of patient ambivalence, this may foster “phobie à deux”. Unlike prior research, lack of expertise was rarely identified as a reason not to use ERP. Recommendations for improving adherence to guidelines are discussed.