The Lived Experiences of Addiction Counselors After Marijuana Legalization

This qualitative study examines the perceptions of counselors who work with populations with addictions in states where marijuana has been legalized. Findings include themes related to client experiences, counselor experiences, specific interventions, and lack of understanding.     

Expectation Biases and Context Management with Negative Polar Questions

Journal of Philosophical Logic - This paper examines distinctive discourse properties of preposed negative yes/no questions (NPQs), such as Isn’t Jane coming too?. Unlike with other yes/no...     

“They've Put Nothing in the Pot!”: Brexit and the Key Psychological Motivations Behind Voting 'Remain' and 'Leave'

In June 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. Voting followed a general trend: disadvantaged areas of the United Kingdom tended to vote “leave,” and more affluent areas tended to vote “remain.” This project investigates the psychological variables underlying this overall trend by distinguishing four psychological motivations: the need for justice, threat reduction needs, need to belong, and the need for control. Participants were recruited from different areas across Greater Manchester (N = 158). A survey assessed voting preference, socioeconomic status, collective relative deprivation (CRD), perceptions of threat from immigration, European and British identification, sense of control in life, and relative gratification. Discriminant function analysis showed that leave voting was characterized by greater realistic threat, symbolic threat, CRD, and British identification. Remain voting was characterized by strong European identification. Findings highlight that a need for justice, threat-reduction needs, and identity needs were key predictors of voting behavior.     

Sex differences on the serial color-word test

The Serial Color-Word Test was administered to nonclinical volunteers of three age strata (17-29, 30-45, 46-65 yr.). Sex differences on the 17 variables of the test were explored for each age stratum. Only six significant intersex differences were found. In all age strata women scored significantly higher on linear regression of reading times in one of the last two subtests, i.e., R4 or R5.     

Arousal and the Relationship Between Positive and Negative Affect: An Analysis of the Data of Ito,Cacioppo, and Lang (1998)

Research on positive and negative emotional states has supported several models of how those states relate to each other. Many studies suggest that they are independent, the bivariate view, while others suggest that they are inversely correlated, the bipolar view. Other research has shown that stress is a major moderator of the relationship; the affects become coupled under conditions of high stress, a contextual model, but are relatively independent otherwise. To expand the range of tests of this dynamic model of affect, we reanalyzed a data set initially reported by Ito, Cacioppo, and Lang (1998) on affect-eliciting picture stimuli. In that study, arousal was assessed separately from positive and negative affect, allowing investigation of a source of interaffect relationships different from stress, per se. Arousal interacted with positive and negative affect, showing both bivariate and bipolar relationships, and effects similar to stress. Affective reactions to the stimuli became more inversely correlated when the affects were high and interacting with higher arousal. The data supported the dynamic model of affect and suggest the need for further analyses of the linkages between stress, arousal, and reduced levels of emotional complexity.     

The accuracy of abstracts in psychology journals

This article provides an empirically supported reminder of the importance of accuracy in scientific communication. The authors identify common types of inaccuracies in research abstracts and offer suggestions to improve abstract-article agreement. Abstracts accompanying 13% of a random sample of 400 research articles published in 8 American Psychological Association journals during 1997 and 1998 contained data or claims inconsistent with or missing from the body of the article. Error rates ranged from 8% to 18%, although between-journal differences were not significant. Many errors (63%) were unlikely to cause substantive misinterpretations. Unfortunately, 37% of errors found could be seriously misleading with respect to the data or claims presented in the associated article. Although deficient abstracts may be less common in psychology journals than in major medical journals (R. M. Pitkin, M. A. Branagan, & L. F. Burmeister, 1999), there is still cause for concern and need for improvement.