The impact of motivation on temporal comparisons: coping with traumatic events by perceiving personal growth

Four studies were conducted to investigate the impact of self-enhancement motivation on the temporal comparisons of victims of stressful life events. Study 1 revealed that (a) victims were more likely than acquaintances of victims to report greater improvement in their personal attributes after traumatic life events than after mild negative life events and (b) victims perceived improvement by derogating their pre-event attributes. In Studies 2 and 3, an experimental approach was used to study the impact of threatening experiences on perceptions of personal growth, and similar findings were obtained. Study 4 confirmed that threatening self-relevant feelings play a causal role in prompting self-enhancing temporal comparisons. Taken together, the findings of these studies support the view that perceptions of personal improvement reflect, at least in part, motivated illusions that are designed to help people cope with threatening life experiences.     

A case study of mediated learning, delayed auditory feedback, and motor repatterning to reduce stuttering

A case study of DW, an 11-yr. old monolingual, English-speaking boy who exhibits stuttering, language delay, and ADHD is presented. DW experienced only limited improvement during stuttering therapy received in public schools, according to parents and the public school clinician. The purpose of this case study was to assess whether fluency treatment which incorporated Mediated Learning, Delayed Auditory Feedback, and Speech Motor Repatterning would enhance progress. Therapy was delivered in two treatments, with each treatment being 5 wk. of intense therapy, separated by one year. Treatment 1 of combined Mediated Learning and Delayed Auditory Feedback yielded improvement in fluency, judged by parents and the teacher to be clinically significant. The improved fluency was maintained for one year when DW was pretested for participation in Treatment 2, which combined Mediated Learning, Delayed Auditory Feedback, and Speech Motor Repatterning Exercises. As no conclusions are possible, further study is needed.     

Changes in executive control across the life span: examination of task-switching performance

A study was conducted to examine changes in executive control processes over the life span. More specifically, changes in processes responsible for preparation and interference control that underlie the ability to flexibly alternate between two different tasks were examined. Individuals (N = 152) ranging in age from 7 to 82 years participated in the study. A U-shaped function was obtained for switch costs (i.e., the time required to switch between tasks compared with a repeated-task baseline), with larger costs found for young children and older adults. Switch costs were reduced with practice, particularly for children. All age groups benefited from increased preparation time, with larger benefits observed for children and older adults. Adults benefited to a greater extent than children when the interval between the response to one task and the cue indicating which task to perform next was lengthened, which suggested faster decay of interference from the old task set for adults than for children. A series of hierarchical analyses indicated that the age-related variance in task-switching performance is independent, at least in part, from the age-related variance in other cognitive processes such as perceptual speed and working memory. The results are discussed in terms of the development and decline of executive control processes across the life span.     

Correction to gonzalez (2012)

Reports an error in "Association of solitary binge drinking and suicidal behavior among emerging adult college students" by Vivian M. Gonzalez (Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, Advanced Online Publication, Jan 30, 2012, np). In the article, there is an error in the introductory paragraph. The number of students who had seriously considered attempting suicide in the Barrios, Everett, Simon, & Brener (2000) study should have been reported as 11.4%, not 1.4%. Additionally, in the Participants section, data for the study were collected from March 2009 to September 2010, not March 2009 to January 2010 as reported. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2012-02608-001.) Emerging adult college students who binge drink in solitary contexts (i.e., while alone) experience greater depression and suicidal ideation than do students who only binge drink in social contexts, suggesting that they may be at greater risk for suicidal behavior. This study examined the association of a previous suicide attempt, one of the best predictors of future suicide attempts and suicide, and severity of recent suicidal ideation with drinking in solitary and social contexts. Participants were binge drinking, emerging adult (18- to 25-year-old) college students (N = 182) drawn from two studies of college drinkers. A logistic regression analysis revealed that both suicide attempt history and severity of suicidal ideation were significantly associated with a greater likelihood of being a solitary binge drinker as opposed to only a social binge drinker. Students with a previous suicide attempt were nearly four times more likely to be solitary binge drinkers. Multiple regression analyses revealed that suicide attempt history was significantly associated with greater frequency and quantity of drinking in solitary, but not social contexts. Suicidal ideation was significantly associated with drinks per solitary drinking day, but not frequency of solitary drinking once suicide attempt history was accounted for. Given the associations found between solitary binge drinking and a history of suicide attempts, as well as greater severity of recent suicidal ideation, it appears that these students are in need of suicide prevention efforts, including treatment efforts aimed at reducing binge drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Anger and postcombat mental health: Validation of a brief anger measure with U.S. Soldiers postdeployed from Iraq and Afghanistan

The involvement of anger in the psychological adjustment of current war veterans, particularly in conjunction with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), warrants greater research focus than it has received. The present study concerns a brief anger measure, Dimensions of Anger Reactions (DAR), intended for use in large sample studies and as a screening tool. The concurrent validity, discriminant validity, and incremental validity of the instrument were examined in conjunction with behavioral health data for 3,528 treatment-seeking soldiers who had been in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Criterion indices included multiple self-rated measures of psychological distress (including PTSD, depression, and anxiety), functional difficulties (relationships, daily activities, work problems, and substance use), and violence risk. Concurrent validity was established by strong correlations with single anger items on 4 other scales, and discriminant validity was found against anxiety and depression measures. Pertinent to the construct of anger, the DAR was significantly associated with psychosocial functional difficulties and with several indices of harm to self and to others. Hierarchical regression performed on a self/others harm index found incremental validity for the DAR, controlling for age, education, military component, officer rank, combat exposure, PTSD, and depression. The ability to efficiently assess anger in at-risk military populations can provide an indicator of many undesirable behavioral health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Deconstructing the age-prevalence curve of alcohol dependence: why "maturing out" is only a small piece of the puzzle

Epidemiological studies have consistently demonstrated that heavy alcohol use and alcohol dependence (AD) tend to increase in adolescence and emerging adulthood and then show a large decline in the late 20s, a phenomenon called maturing out. This decline has been explained as an effect of "role incompatibility" in which involvement in new roles and activities interferes with a heavy drinking lifestyle. However, maturing out has been conceived mostly as a decrease in offset, with little attention paid to reductions in new onset or recurrence across decades of life. Moreover, although role incompatibility processes have been studied with young samples, little is known about the effect of life transitions (e.g., marriage, parenthood, changes in employment status) on AD later in life and whether similar effects are observed. Using longitudinal data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, a nationally representative epidemiologic survey, we examined the patterns of stability and change in AD across the life span and the differential effect of life transitions on AD across different age strata. Results showed that persistence of AD tended to increase with age, although not dramatically, and that onset and recurrence tended to decrease with age. Moreover, the effects of life transitions on the course of AD varied across the life span and were different for men and women. These results indicate that life transitions differentially affect the patterns of stability and change in younger versus older people, have a different impact for men and women, and highlight the need to consider the unique aspects of each stage of adult development on the course of AD.     

Agentic and Communal Personality Traits: Their Associations with Depression and Resilience among Transgender Women

Research reports the perpetuation of communal traits by transgender women, possibly to affirm their core gender identity. Transgender women in the United States are nearly 6 times more likely than the general population to experience significant depressive symptoms. Studies among non-transgender individuals in the United States demonstrate that agentic traits are associated with less depressive symptoms, while studies on communal traits are more inconsistent in their association with indicators of depression. Our study’s central objective was to examine the associations of agency and communion with depression and resilience (i.e., personal competence and acceptance of self and life) among transgender women living part-time and full-time in the female gender role. Participants in the United States were recruited through online and offline purposive sampling. One hundred and twenty-two transgender women (primarily Caucasian; ages ranging from 22 to 75) completed a web-based questionnaire. Results indicated that agentic and communal traits were significantly associated with decreased symptoms of depression and increased levels of resilience. One component of resilience – acceptance of self and life – mediated the relationship between agentic/communal traits and depression, however, for communal traits this pattern was only found for transgender women living in the female role full-time. There were no significant differences on depressive symptoms and one component of resilience - personal competence – among transgender women living full-time compared to transgender women living in the female role part-time. Transgender women living full-time in the female gender role reported higher levels of agentic/communal traits and acceptance of self and life compared to those living part-time in the female gender role. Our findings are discussed in the context of mental health among transgender women.     

Instance-based learning: integrating sampling and repeated decisions from experience

In decisions from experience, there are 2 experimental paradigms: sampling and repeated-choice. In the sampling paradigm, participants sample between 2 options as many times as they want (i.e., the stopping point is variable), observe the outcome with no real consequences each time, and finally select 1 of the 2 options that cause them to earn or lose money. In the repeated-choice paradigm, participants select 1 of the 2 options for a fixed number of times and receive immediate outcome feedback that affects their earnings. These 2 experimental paradigms have been studied independently, and different cognitive processes have often been assumed to take place in each, as represented in widely diverse computational models. We demonstrate that behavior in these 2 paradigms relies upon common cognitive processes proposed by the instance-based learning theory (IBLT; Gonzalez, Lerch, & Lebiere, 2003) and that the stopping point is the only difference between the 2 paradigms. A single cognitive model based on IBLT (with an added stopping point rule in the sampling paradigm) captures human choices and predicts the sequence of choice selections across both paradigms. We integrate the paradigms through quantitative model comparison, where IBLT outperforms the best models created for each paradigm separately. We discuss the implications for the psychology of decision making.     

Spatial biases in peripersonal space in sighted and blind individuals revealed by a haptic line bisection paradigm

Our representation of peripersonal space does not always accurately reflect the physical world. An example of this is pseudoneglect, a phenomenon in which neurologically normal individuals bisect to the left of the veridical midpoint, reflecting an overrepresentation of the left portion of space compared with the right one. Consistent biases have also been observed in the vertical and radial planes. It is an open question whether these biases depend on normal visual experience for their occurrence. Here we systematically investigated this issue by testing blindfolded sighted and early blind individuals in a haptic line bisection task. Critically, we found a robust leftward bias in all participants. In the vertical and radial planes, sighted participants showed a consistent downward and proximal bias. Conversely, the directional bias in blind participants was dependent on the final movement direction; thus, there was no general bias in either direction. These findings are discussed in terms of different reference frames adopted by sighted and blind participants when encoding space.     

Collaborative Measurement Development as a Tool in CBPR: Measurement Development and Adaptation within the Cultures of Communities

This paper describes the processes we engaged into develop a measurement protocol used to assess the outcomes in a community based suicide and alcohol abuse prevention project with two Alaska Native communities. While the literature on community-based participatory research (CBPR) is substantial regarding the importance of collaborations, few studies have reported on this collaboration in the process of developing measures to assess CBPR projects. We first tell a story of the processes around the standard issues of doing cross-cultural work on measurement development related to areas of equivalence. A second story is provided that highlights how community differences within the same cultural group can affect both the process and content of culturally relevant measurement selection, adaptation, and development.