The associations between adult attachment,posttraumatic symptoms,and posttraumatic growth

Background and Objectives: Individual differences after trauma vary considerably and can range from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to posttraumatic growth (PTG). Current theoretical models cannot fully explain this variability. Therefore, we integrated attachment theory with Ehlers and Clark's model of PTSD to understand whether attachment style is associated with negative appraisals of a traumatic event(s), posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS), and PTG. Our aim was to test this integrated model PTSD in an analog sample who had experienced at least one traumatic event. Design: We used structural equation modeling to test the association of adult attachment and posttraumatic cognitions (self and world/others) with PTS and PTG using a cross-sectional, correlational design. Methods: The sample comprised 393 university staff and students (Range_Age= 18–49, 85% females) who completed online measures. Results: Attachment anxiety and negative posttraumatic self-cognitions were positively associated. Negative posttraumatic self-cognitions were positively associated with PTS. Attachment anxiety had an indirect effect (via negative posttraumatic self-cognitions) on PTS, whereas attachment avoidance predicted more negative posttraumatic world cognitions and lower perceived PTG. Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of considering how attachment styles influence posttraumatic emotion regulation and cognitive processing of the trauma to determine posttraumatic mental health.     

Task set determines the amount of crowding

The present study deals with the question of how crowding effects, which are interactions among adjacent features or characters, emerges automatically or by so-called higher level controlled processing. Two experiments are presented comparing performances during detecting, localizing, and identifying a flanked target in same strings when the target was defined on the basis of either its form or its category. Detection and localization performances were better for form- relative to category-defined targets whereas the reverse was observed for identification performance. This shows that the interacting information is indeed high level in that it is affected by task settings like the defining target feature and the observers’ task set. The results suggest that crowding effects do not emerge due to processes depending on the parameters of stimulus presentation, but due to processes activated by certain task sets.     

Helping to overcome intervention inertia in bystander’s dilemmas: Behavioral disinhibition can improve the greater good

Conventional wisdom holds that behavioral disinhibition has negative effects on what humans do. Behavioral disinhibition may indeed frequently have negative effects, but in the present paper we reveal some positive consequences as well: the disinhibition hypothesis proposed here states that people may feel inhibited to intervene in situations in which non-intervening bystanders are present and that, therefore, behavioral disinhibition may help to overcome the bystander effect. Findings presented here provide evidence supporting this prediction both inside and outside the psychology laboratory: in both real-life and controlled bystander situations, people were more likely and faster to provide help when (unrelated to the bystander situations) they had (vs. had not) been reminded about having acted with no inhibitions. These findings suggest that, in contrast with what various theories and worldviews dictate, behavioral disinhibition may have positive effects on helping behavior and hence can be conducive for the greater good.     

Questions versus statements: challenging an assumption about semantic illusions

In previous semantic-illusion research the tacit assumption has been that questions and statements-to-be-verified of similar semantic content lead to a similar proportion of semantic illusions. This assumption was made despite the fact that questions are thought to have different processing demands from those of statements. This paper presents empirical evidence that questions tend to lead to more semantic illusions than do statements-to-be-verified. Two experiments were carried out to provide a direct comparison between the semantic-illusion rates for statements and for questions. In Experiment 1, open-ended questions led to significantly more semantic illusions than did true/false statements. Experiment 2 replicated this effect using multiple-choice response options in the question condition. It is concluded that the syntactic form of a sentence affects the way in which semantic information is processed, and the implications of the findings are discussed.     

Examining the Factor Structure of the Self-Compassion Scale in Four Distinct Populations: Is the Use of a Total Scale Score Justified?

This study examined the factor structure of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) using a bifactor model, a higher order model, a 6-factor correlated model, a 2-factor correlated model, and a 1-factor model in 4 distinct populations: college undergraduates (N = 222), community adults (N = 1,394), individuals practicing Buddhist meditation (N = 215), and a clinical sample of individuals with a history of recurrent depression (N = 390). The 6-factor correlated model demonstrated the best fit across samples, whereas the 1- and 2-factor models had poor fit. The higher order model also showed relatively poor fit across samples, suggesting it is not representative of the relationship between subscale factors and a general self-compassion factor. The bifactor model, however, had acceptable fit in the student, community, and meditator samples. Although fit was suboptimal in the clinical sample, results suggested an overall self-compassion factor could still be interpreted with some confidence. Moreover, estimates suggested a general self-compassion factor accounted for at least 90% of the reliable variance in SCS scores across samples, and item factor loadings and intercepts were equivalent across samples. Results suggest that a total SCS score can be used as an overall mesure of self-compassion.     

Interfaith Spiritual Care: A Systematic Review

Journal of Religion and Health - Although knowledge on spiritual care provision in an interfaith context is essential for addressing the diversity of patients’ religious and spiritual needs,...     

Boys Don’t Work? On the Psychological Benefits of Showing Low Effort in High School

Male students show less academic effort and lower academic achievement than do female students. The present study aimed to shed more light on the reasons for why male students show low academic effort despite the finding that this undermines their academic achievement. We explored whether students experience psychological benefits from showing low effort or “effortless” achievement in school and whether these benefits are greater for male than for female students. In two experimental vignette studies with independent samples of German ninth graders (N?=?210) and teachers (N?=?176), we systematically varied student targets’ gender, effort, and achievement and tested for effects on targets’ ascribed intelligence, popularity, likeability, masculinity, femininity, and gender-typicality. The “effortless” achiever was rated as more popular than students showing high effort. Teachers perceived the effortless achiever as the most intelligent target. Academic effort further increased students’ ratings of a low-achieving target’s likeability and students’ and teachers’ ratings of all targets’ femininity as well as decreased students’ ratings of all targets’ masculinity. Students and teachers perceived targets showing low (vs. high) effort as more similar to a typical boy, whereas teachers perceived targets showing high (vs. low) effort as more similar to a typical girl. Results indicate a need to understand the psychological benefits of low academic engagement, especially for male students, and to address the feminine stereotyping of (academic) effort.