Effects of chronic non-clinical depression on the use of positive and negative words in language contexts

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of chronic non-clinical depression (ChD) on the use of ambiguous and unambiguous emotional words in language contexts. Participants with ChD and normal non-depressed (ND) participants' responses to positive and negative stimulus words on a free association word test were compared using the Hyperspace Analogue to Language (HAL) model of memory's context density metric, a measure of the range of contexts in which a word is used in language. ChD participants generated negative words that were used in more restricted contexts than ND participants. However, ND and ChD participants used positive words in a similar range of contexts. The results suggest that people with ChD tend to use negative words that are probably more negative in connotation, yet they are not impaired with respect to using words in contexts where positive words are required.     

Therapist perspectives on working with fears,blocks and resistances to compassion in compassion focused therapy

Objective

A core aspect of compassion focused therapy (CFT) is addressing fears, blocks, and resistances (FBRs) to compassion. How CFT therapists do this with clients remains unclear. This study aims to explore the perspectives of well-trained, experienced CFT therapists regarding how they work with FBRs in the context of CFT.

Methods

A qualitative study was conducted. Participants were asked five open-ended questions regarding (a) their experiences of working with FBRs to compassion, (b) how they understand and formulate FBRs, (c) specific ways they address FBRs, (d) how other therapists might learn about working with FBRs, and (e) their top recommendations. A total of 64 participants completed the online questionnaire, and the qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results

The analysis produced four interrelated superordinate themes: (a) Getting “alongside” and “behind”: The central role of formulation, (b) “It's not your fault”: Psychoeducation, (c) “Get experiential”: An emphasis on experiential interventions, and (d) “Respect the wisdom”: The importance of therapeutic process.

Conclusions

Working with FBRs to compassion is critical in CFT. Understanding the wisdom in the client's FBRs, and validating and de-shaming the client's FBRs are crucial. We provide clinical recommendations regarding working with FBRs as part of CFT.     

GRADSCOPE: An Analysis of the Item Structure and a Survey of Usage

Two studies of GRADSCOPE, the most widely-used system for computer-assisted careers guidance in higher education in Britain, are reported. The first is an item analysis of the GRADSCOPE questionnaire. The six-factor solution from this factor analysis suggests that, with the exception of the Artistic theme, the content domain of the GRADSCOPE questionnaire covers Holland's occupational themes, and that GRADSCOPE is primarily concerned with the motivational component rather than the performance requirements of jobs. The second study, a postal survey of careers services and careers advisers about their experiences of using the interactive version of GRADSCOPE, aimed to examine the potential of interactive systems to effect change in careers work.     

Development of the Correspondence Between Real and Imagined Fine and Gross Motor Actions

The development of the correspondence between real and imagined motor actions was investigated in 2 experiments. Experiment 1 evaluated whether children imagine body position judgments of fine motor actions in the same way as they perform them. Thirty-two 8-year-old children completed a task in which an object was presented in different orientations, and children were asked to indicate the position of their hand as they grasped and imagined grasping the object. Children’s hand position was almost identical for the imagined- and real-grasping trials. Experiment 2 replicated this result with 8-year-olds as well as 6-year-olds and also assessed the development of the correspondence of the chronometry of real and imagined gross motor actions. Sixteen 6-year-old children and seventeen 8-year-old children participated in the fine motor grasping task from Experiment 1 and a gross motor task that measured the time it took for children to walk and imagine walking different distances. Six-year-olds showed more of a difference between real and imagined walking than did 8-year-olds. However, there were strong correlations between real and imagined grasping and walking for both 6- and 8-year-old children, suggesting that by at least 6 years of age, motor imagery and real action may involve common internal representations and that motor imagery is important for motor control and planning.     

Leader trustworthy behavior and organizational trust: the role of the immediate manager for cultivating trust

Drawing from both trust‐building theory and interpersonal trust literature, we investigate how trust between a leader and follower may be leveraged to influence organizational trust. We also explore the mediating mechanisms of this link and test a potential moderator. A cross‐sectional, multifoci design was adopted and participants were 201 employees within a public sector organization. Leader trustworthy behavior was found to predict organizational trust, mediated by trustworthiness perceptions and trust in the leader. Support for the boundary condition was found; namely, when leaders were more senior, the relationship between trustworthy behavior and organizational trust was stronger. The findings suggest that leaders can meaningfully influence organizational trust perceptions through the enactment of trustworthy behavior, although the strength of this effect varied as a function of their position.     

Science, conservation, and stewardship: Evolving codes of conduct in archaeology

The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) has developed an extensive body of ethics guidelines for its members, most actively in the last two decades. This coincides with the period in which the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has taken a strong stand on the need for its affiliates to develop clear. enforceable codes of conduct. The ethics guidelines instituted by the SAA now realize the central recommendations of the AAAS, and in this they illustrate both the importance and the limitations of these recommendations. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a symposium entitled “Ethics in Science: Special Problems in Anthropology and Archacology” held at the 1998 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Philadelphia, PA, 15 February, 1998.     

Stimulus display geometry and colour discrimination learning by pigeons

Pigeons learned a successive conditional visual discrimination on vertically and horizontally arranged pairs of stimulus-response keys. When the discriminanda were two similar hues the pigeons' performance was significantly better on the vertical than on the horizontal task. This was also found in an experiment in which the subjects could see only monocularly. When, however, the discriminative stimuli were patterns of different orientation or markedly dissimilar hues then the performance on the horizontal task had an advantage over that on the vertical one. A horizontal advantage also obtained when similar hues were discriminated on keys clustered closely together. Pigeons thus seem more adept at solving successive conditional discriminations on horizontal than on vertical pairs of keys except when similar hues are displayed on widely separated keys where the reverse is true. It is hypothesized that colour vision inequalities due to regional retinal differentiations are responsible for this latter effect.