Participation and Attrition in a Coping Skills Intervention for Adolescent Girls with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

The current study examined factors associated with adolescent and parent participation in a coping skills intervention for adolescent girls with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and examined factors associated with attrition related to intermittent missing data. Thirty-one adolescent girls with IBD and their parents enrolled in the intervention. Psychosocial and disease factors related to participation in the 6-week web component of the coping skills intervention were examined as were baseline group differences between those who provided post-treatment data and those who did not. Adolescents experiencing more difficulties related to their disease and psychosocial functioning participated less in the web component of the treatment intervention. Families who attrited had higher baseline levels of parental catastrophic thoughts, parenting stress, and adolescent depression. Families experiencing greater levels of psychological and disease-related difficulties may be at risk for low participation and eventual dropout from pediatric IBD psychological treatment interventions.     

Seeing What We Know, Knowing What We See: Challenging the Limits of Visual Acuity

Ageism has resulted in overstated expectations regarding the inevitable deterioration in human capabilities, such as visual perception, with age (Rowe and Kahn in Science, 237, 143?C149, 1987; Grant in Health and Social Work, 21, 9?C15, 1996). Human visual perception, however, is of a largely constructive nature, evidenced in the complementary interactions between top-down inputs (e.g., expectations) and bottom-up stimuli (Engel et al. in National Review of Neuroscience, 2(10), 704?C716, 2001; Miller and Cohen in, Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24, 167-202, 2001). Based on this constructive nature, we hypothesized that visual perception may be better than is typically expected. In three experiments, we demonstrated the malleability of visual acuity using a conditioning procedure involving manipulations in bottom-up stimuli. Experimental groups read a book excerpt with one letter in decreased font size, while the control groups read the same book excerpt with all letters in the same font size. Experiment 1 (N?=?112) examined whether visual acuity could be enhanced for a specific letter. Experiment 2 (N?=?70) assessed whether visual acuity could be enhanced for a non-conditioned letter, while Experiment 3 (N?=?108) evaluated whether the visual conditioning effects would transfer to all non-conditioned letters. Visual acuity for experimental groups was significantly better than that in the control groups, speaking to the general malleability of our visual sense.     

Autobiographical Memory in Emerging Adulthood: Relationship with Self-Concept Clarity

Autobiographical memory research documents increased access in the number of memories recalled by emerging adults (ages 18–25) with stable, clearly defined self-concepts. Very little research has examined the relationship between self-concept clarity and the episodic and semantic components of emerging adults’ autobiographical recollections. This study examined the relationship between episodic and semantic autobiographical memory and self-concept clarity in 100 undergraduate students. Contrary to previous findings, which indicated that stable self-beliefs may be used to facilitate access to episodic memories, the results suggested that self-concept clarity may not be associated with memory specificity. Instead, self-concept clarity was associated with recall of events involving cooperative social interactions. Results further showed that older age was associated with higher SCC. The implications of these results are discussed within the context of the theoretical literature concerning the relation between autobiographical memory and the development of the self-concept during emerging adulthood.     

Teaching Religion in Indonesia: A Report on Graduate Studies in Java

Established in 2000–2001, the Center for Religious and Cross‐cultural Studies (CRCS) is the only master's level religious studies program at a non‐religiously affiliated university in Indonesia. In many respects, the program is experimental, operating within the dynamic political and religious environment of the Muslim world's youngest and largest democracy. Like other large democracies such as India or the United States, the Indonesian government and courts have their challenges and opportunities in navigating a multiplicity of religions. In Indonesia, this took on particular urgency in the context of religiously‐charged conflict in the 1990's and early 2000's which helped lead to the establishment of the CRCS. This paper seeks to explore how students and key faculty relate to the program's mission and approach to the study of religion while tracing the development of religious studies as a discipline in Indonesia. Special attention is paid to the political and, at times, controversial aspects of approaching religion with secular and pluralistic frameworks and language. It was informed by interviews and surveys conducted between January and May of 2010.     

Testing the theory underlying the success of point-of-choice prompts: A multi-component stair climbing intervention

Objectives

Point-of-choice prompts consistently increase stair climbing in public access settings. This study investigated the single and combined effects of a volitional and motivational component of a stair climbing intervention to test the theory underlying the success of point-of-choice prompts.

Design

Quasi-experimental, interrupted time series cross-over design.

Methods

Ascending stair/escalator choices were observed in a UK tram station (n = 38,187). Baseline observations (2 weeks; stage 1) preceded a 2-week point-of-choice prompt positioned alone (stage 2) followed by an additional message positioned at the top of each climb (6 weeks; stage 3). Four weeks after message removal, another baseline (2 weeks; stage 4) preceded installation of the intervention components in reverse order. Thus, the message positioned alone at the top of each climb (4 weeks, stage 5) was supplemented with the point-of-choice prompt (2 weeks, stage 6). Logistic regression analyses of stair/escalator choice included the independent variables of intervention components, gender, time of morning and pedestrian traffic volume.

Results

There was no change in stair climbing percentages when only one intervention component was used, i.e. only the point-of-choice or the message at the top of each climb. In contrast, stair climbing increased when both components of the intervention were installed. Additionally, men took the stairs more than women and stair climbing was more common earlier in the morning and at higher pedestrian traffic volumes.

Conclusions

A motivational component targeting intentions increased the effectiveness of a volitional point-of-choice prompt for stair climbing in a setting where choice of the stairs incurred a time penalty for pedestrians due to the site layout.     

Exploring the positive and negative implications of facial feedback

The facial feedback effect (e.g., Strack et al., 1988) is explored in three experiments. It was found that when someone lowers their eyebrows, following instructions, their mood becomes more negative. If, however, they are instructed to raise their eyebrows they become more surprised by facts. Finally, if people are instructed to wrinkle their noses, then odors are evaluated as more unpleasant. While providing further diverse evidence for facial feedback, the experiments are also considered in the context of facial muscular paralysis induced as part of cosmetic treatments using botulinum toxin. The research presented here supports the previously suggested idea that such treatments could reduce depression, but other possible psychological impacts of such treatments are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The Slip Induction Task: Creating a window into cognitive control failures

Regardless of age, education, or social status, we all experience moments where we ask ourselves, "what was I thinking?!?" Typically, we experience errors of this sort, or slips of action, during routine tasks that require a whole sequence of movements. However, most action slip research has focused on creating response conflict within single movements. The Slip Induction Task (SIT) is a step toward creating response conflict within truer to life action routines. As such, the SIT attempts to induce action slips in a well-learned movement routine through the occasional presentation of unexpected cues. We find that the SIT is able to reliably induce action slips, especially when the unexpected cue necessitates a movement to an unexpected target location. Furthermore, when participants are able to avoid an action slip, these changes in movement routine are accompanied by a cost in speed.     

Discrete emotions elucidate the effects of crossed-categorization on prejudice

Three studies integrated crossed-categorization and discrete emotion approaches to prejudice and prejudice reduction. Study 1 made salient crossed-categorization using naturally occurring groups and examined the ability of emotions to account for prejudiced evaluations. Study 2 constructed novel crossed-categorizations in the laboratory to examine the role of appraisal-based emotions in evaluations of crossed-categories. Study 3 crossed gender and sexual orientation, for which elicited discrete emotions predict different evaluative responses than do shared and unshared group memberships alone. In all three studies, discrete emotions were able to account for the effects of crossed-categorization on evaluative measures of prejudice and revealed emotional paths to prejudice reduction which would be obscured by the evaluative measures alone. In Study 3, a discrete emotions approach better predicted evaluations than did shared and unshared group membership alone. These results converge to highlight the importance of discrete emotions in understanding the evaluative implications of crossed-categorization, especially for prejudice reduction.     

Hierarchical integration of agency and communion: a study of influential moral figures

The purpose of this research is to (a) identify which of recent history's influential figures did and which did not personify moral excellence, and (b) to examine the motives that drove these individuals along such divergent paths. In Study 1, 102 social scientists evaluated the moral qualities of influential figures from Time Magazine's lists. In Study 2, we selected the 15 top ranking of these figures to comprise a moral exemplar group and the bottom 15 to comprise a comparison group of similarly influential people. We measured the motivational aspects of their personality (agency and communion) by content-analyzing extant speeches and interviews. Moral exemplars exhibited the hierarchical integration of agency and communion by treating agentic motives as a means to an end of communal motives. Comparison subjects, by contrast, personified unmitigated agency by treating motives of agency as both a means to an end and an end unto itself. These results imply that both the strength and structure of a person's motives account for moral behavior.     

A method to monitor upper limb movement direction encoding in the corticomotor pathway

ABSTRACT Abnormal shoulder and elbow muscle coactivation patterns, or muscle synergies, are commonly present following stroke and may arise through dysfunctional descending neural control from the cortex. The authors evaluated a novel technique for examining corticomotor movement encoding of the upper limb in three dimensions. A 6-degree-of-freedom loadcell recorded arm twitch responses in healthy adults following stimulation over the cortex or over Erb's point in the periphery. Stimuli were delivered while the arm generated a 5 N preload in each of the 6 axial directions. The initial force twitch response to stimulation was used to construct twitch direction vectors for each preload direction. General linear mixed model analyses were used to determine the influence of stimulation location, preload direction, posture, and stimulation intensity on twitch direction. Cortical stimulation gave rise to arm twitch responses that were predictably modified by preload direction. Peripheral stimulation elicited stereotypical twitches that were not influenced by preload. Our stimulation, recording, and analysis techniques were able to capture movement encoding of the upper limb in three dimensions. Such techniques could be utilized in the stroke population to determine and monitor the presence of upper limb synergies during muscle activation.