Comparing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Systemic Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder: Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial (SOPHO-CBT/ST)

This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed to pilot the newly developed manualized and monitored systemic therapy (ST) for social anxiety disorder (SAD), as compared to manualized and monitored cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). We conducted a prospective multicenter, assessor-blind pilot RCT on 38 outpatients (ICD F40.1; Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID); Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, LSAS-SR >30). The primary outcome was level of social anxiety (LSAS-SR) at the end of treatment. A total of 252 persons were screened, and 38 patients were randomized and started therapy (CBT: 20 patients; ST: 18 patients; age: M = 36 years, SD = 14). Within-group, simple-effect intent-to-treat analyses (ITT) showed significant reduction in LSAS-SR (CBT:d = 1.04; ST:d = 1.67), while ITT mixed-design ANOVA demonstrated the advantage of ST (d = 0.81). Per-protocol analyses supported these results. Remission based on reliable change indices also demonstrated significant difference (LSAS-SR: 15% in CBT; 39% in ST;h: 0.550), supported by blind diagnosticians’ ratings of those who completed therapy (SCID; 45% in CBT, 78% in ST,p = .083). No adverse events were reported. CBT and ST both reduced social anxiety, supporting patient improvement with the newly developed ST for SAD; this has yet to be verified in a subsequent confirmatory RCT.     

The association between in-class cultural diversity with empathy and bullying in adolescence: A multilevel mediation analysis

Little is known about the associations between cultural class composition, teacher support for diversity (TSD), cognitive and affective empathy, and bullying and victimisation. Research shows that empathy is negatively associated with bullying and victimisation; and support for diversity and classroom cultural diversity are positively linked to social skills. The present study examines whether cultural diversity and perceived TSD are protective factors against bullying and victimisation, either directly or mediated by empathy. Participants were 897 students from Grades 7 to 10 (M_age = 13.45, SD_age = 1.07, 51.3% girls, 46.7% boys) in 36 classes. Multilevel mediation analyses were conducted. Age and gender were controlled for. More perceived TSD and affective empathy were associated with less bullying. Moreover, the effect of perceived TSD on bullying was partly indirect through affective empathy. Victimisation was not predicted by the study variables. The class level showed no effects. Bullying and victimisation are complex phenomena, which seem to be linked more to individual than to class characteristics. The result that higher perceived TSD was linked to empathy and bullying provides a promising starting point for measures of competence enhancement and bullying prevention.     

Object permanence in lemurs

Object permanence, the ability to mentally represent objects that have disappeared from view, should be advantageous to animals in their interaction with the natural world. The objective of this study was to examine whether lemurs possess object permanence. Thirteen adult subjects representing four species of diurnal lemur (Eulemur fulvus rufus, Eulemur mongoz, Lemur catta and Hapalemur griseus) were presented with seven standard Piagetian visible and invisible object displacement tests, plus one single visible test where the subject had to wait predetermined times before allowed to search, and two invisible tests where each hiding place was made visually unique. In all visible tests lemurs were able to find an object that had been in clear view before being hidden. However, when lemurs were not allowed to search for up to 25-s, performance declined with increasing time-delay. Subjects did not outperform chance on any invisible displacements regardless of whether hiding places were visually uniform or unique, therefore the upper limit of object permanence observed was Stage 5b. Lemur species in this study eat stationary foods and are not subject to stalking predators, thus Stage 5 object permanence is probably sufficient to solve most problems encountered in the wild.     

Using the World-Wide Web to obtain large-scale word norms: 190,212 ratings on a set of 2,654 German nouns

This article presents a new database of 2,654 German nouns rated by a sample of 3,907 subjects on three psycholinguistic attributes: concreteness, valence, and arousal. As a new means of data collection in the field of psycholinguistic research, all ratings were obtained via the Internet, using a tailored Web application. Analysis of the obtained word norms showed good agreement with two existing norm sets. A cluster analysis revealed a plausible set of four classes of nouns: abstract concepts, aversive events, pleasant activities, and physical objects. In an additional application example, we demonstrate the usefulness of the database for creating parallel word lists whose elements match as closely as possible. The complete database is available for free from ftp://ftp.uni-duesseldorf.de/ pub/psycho/lahl/WWN. Moreover, the Web application used for data collection is inherently capable of collecting word norms in any language and is going to be released for public use as well.     

Building and managing an online panel with phpPanelAdmin

Online data collection within social and behavioral research is burgeoning. For surveying individuals online, researchers are increasingly relying on online panels and similar subject pools. phpPanelAdmin is a Web-based platform that is intended to assist researchers in quickly setting up and managing an online panel. phpPanelAdmin solves many problems that can arise when one is collecting data in online panels. As an open-source program placed under GNU General Public License, phpPanelAdmin (www.goeritz.net/panelware) is not only free of charge but free of restrictions on its use, modification, and distribution. Building a new online panel—which before required weeks and special skills—is now possible within minutes and at no cost. Furthermore, phpPanelAdmin can be connected to an existing online panel or even be used for managing offline subject pools. Functions include creating a panel sign-up form; automatically unfolding the panel database; searching for panelists; viewing, modifying, and deleting panelists’ data; deleting and cloning variables; drawing samples; sending e-mail to panelists; exporting data; displaying panel statistics at a glance; identifying duplicates; creating and managing e-mail templates; executing user-defined SQL statements; and obtaining help.     

How to support learning from multiple hypertext sources

In the present study, we investigated three factors that were assumed to have a significant influence on the success of learning from multiple hypertexts, and on the construction of a documents model in particular. These factors were task (argumentative vs. narrative), available text material (with vs. without primary sources), and presentation format (active vs. static). The study was conducted with the help of the combination of three tools (DEWEX, Chemnitz LogAnalyzer, and SummTool) developed for Web-based experimenting. The results show that the task is the most important factor for successful learning from multiple hypertexts. Depending on the task, the participants were either able or unable to apply adequate strategies, such as considering the source information. It was also observed that argumentative tasks were supported by an active hypertext presentation format, whereas performance on narrative tasks increased with a passive presentation format. No effect was shown for the type of texts available.     

Dimensional weighting of primary and secondary target-defining dimensions in visual search for singleton conjunction targets

Two experiments investigated dimension-based attentional processing in a complex singleton conjunction search task. In Experiment 1, observers had to discern the presence of a singleton target defined by a conjunction of size (fixed primary dimension) with either color or motion direction (secondary dimension). Similar to findings in singleton feature search, changes (vs. repetitions) of the secondary dimension across trials resulted in reaction time (RT) costs—which were, however, increased by a factor of 3–5 compared to singleton feature search. In Experiment 2, the coding of search-critical, dimensional saliency signals was investigated by additionally presenting targets redundantly defined in both secondary dimensions, with redundant-target signals being either spatially coincident or separate (i.e., one vs. two target items). Redundant-target RTs significantly violated Miller’s (Cognit Psychol 14:247–279, 1982) race model inequality only when redundant signals were spatially coincident (i.e., bound to a single object), indicating coactive processing of target information in the two secondary dimensions. These findings suggest that the coding and combining of signals from different visual dimensions operates in parallel. Increased change costs in singleton conjunction search are likely to reflect a reduced amount of weight available for processing the secondary target-defining dimensions, due to a large amount of weight being bound by the primary dimension.

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DEWEX: A system for designing and conducting Web-based experiments

DEWEX is a server-based environment for developing Web-based experiments. It provides many features for creating and running complex experimental designs on a local server. It is freeware and allows for both using default features, for which only text input is necessary, and easy configurations that can be set up by the experimenter. The tool also provides log files on the local server that can be interpreted and analyzed very easily. As an illustration of how DEWEX can be used, a recent study is presented that demonstrates the system’s most important features. This study investigated learning from multiple hypertext sources and shows the influences of task, source of information, and hypertext presentation format on the construction of mental representations of a hypertext about a historical event.     

Körperbeschwerden bei niedergelassenen Psychologischen Psychotherapeuten

From June until August 2004 we asked 488 freely practising psychological psychotherapists in selected German federal states for the frequency of somatic complaints using the short version of the Gießener Beschwerdebogen (GBB-)24. It turned out that the psychotherapists suffered most from exhaustion and pain. Their somatic complaints were remarkably less influenced by sociodemographic characteristics like age, gender and location of practising (East/West). In comparison to the overall population the psychotherapists in total reported quantitatively the same frequencies of somatic complaints. Qualitatively the psychotherapists reported less problems concerning gastric and heart complaints but more problems concerning exhaustion than the overall population. Compared with a sample of saxonian general practitioners, the psychotherapists suffered from slightly less somatic complaints.