Erratum to: Reducing the Floor Effect in the SF-6D: A Feasibility Study

Applied Research in Quality of Life -     

Exploring the Relationship Between Self-Isolation and Distress Among People with Gastrointestinal Disorders During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - This study aimed to explore the association between perceived isolation and symptoms of distress in people with GI disorders at the time of the...     

Is prospective memory enhanced by cue-action semantic relatedness and enactment at encoding?

Benefits and costs on prospective memory performance, of enactment at encoding and a semantic association between a cue-action word pair, were investigated in two experiments. Findings revealed superior performance for both younger and older adults following enactment, in contrast to verbal encoding, and when cue-action semantic relatedness was high. Although younger adults outperformed older adults, age did not moderate benefits of cue-action relatedness or enactment. Findings from a second experiment revealed that the inclusion of an instruction to perform a prospective memory task led to increments in response latency to items from the ongoing activity in which that task was embedded, relative to latencies when the ongoing task only was performed. However, this task interference 'cost' did not differ as a function of either cue-action relatedness or enactment. We argue that the high number of cue-action pairs employed here influenced meta-cognitive consciousness, hence determining attention allocation, in all experimental conditions.     

A planner agent that tries its best in presence of nondeterminism

In many nondeterministic planning domains, an agent whose goal is to achieve φ may not succeed in finding a policy that can guarantee that all paths from the initial state lead to a final state where φ holds (strong solution). Nevertheless, if the agent is trying its best to achieve φ, it cannot give up. Instead, it may be inclined to accept weaker guarantees, such as having a path leading to φ from any intermediate state reached by the policy (strong-cyclic solution), or even less, such as having at least one path leading to φ from the initial state (weak solution). But the agent should choose among such different options based on their availability in each situation. Although the specification of this type of goal has been addressed before, in this paper we show how a planner based on the branching time temporal logic α-ctl can be used to plan for intuitive and useful goals of the form “try your best to achieve φ”.     

Portuguese Validation of FACES-IV in Adult Children Caregivers Facing Parental Cancer

The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the FACES-IV in Portuguese caregivers of cancer patients. In this cross-sectional study, a sample of 214 adult children caregivers of cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, completed FACES-IV, Family Communication Scale (FCS), Family Satisfaction Scale (FSS), and Satisfaction with Social Support Scale (SSSS). Internal consistencies above .70 were found for all FACES-IV scales, except for Enmeshed and Rigid scales, as well as for the FCS, FSS, and SSSS (except for Intimacy). Strong correlations between FACES-IV and the validation scales FCS and FSS were found except for the Enmeshed and Rigid scales. Confirmatory analysis yielded an acceptable model for the six theoretical subscales. The discriminant analysis between problematic and non-problematic family systems showed results similar to the original study. These findings suggest that FACES-IV is a valid measure of family functioning in oncological family caregiving’s contexts.     

Topological instability and electronegativity effects on the glass-forming ability of metallic alloys

The glass-forming ability (GFA) of metallic alloys is associated with a topological instability criterion combined with a new parameter based on the average electronegativity difference of an element and its surrounding neighbours. In this model, we assume that during solidification the glassy phase competes directly with the supersaturated solid solution having the lowest topological instability factor for a given composition. This criterion is combined with the average electronegativity difference among the elements in the alloy, which reflects the strength of the liquid. The GFA is successfully correlated with this combined criterion in several binary glass-forming systems.     

Antismoking norm and smokers' antismoking attitudes: The interplay between personal and group‐based self‐esteem

Scientific discoveries about the dangers of smoking and antismoking actions carried out in Western countries over recent decades have progressively helped create an antismoking social norm. Nevertheless, many smokers still refuse to quit. We conducted two studies to investigate smokers' resistance to this norm as a function of their personal self‐esteem (PSE) and group‐based self‐esteem (GBSE). An initial correlational study assessed smokers' perception of the antismoking social norm, their PSE, and their antismoking attitudes. Smokers with low PSE had lower antismoking attitudes than those with high PSE when the antismoking norm was strong. The second study assessed GBSE (i.e., smokers' satisfaction as smokers) and manipulated both the strength of the antismoking norm and PSE (i.e., focus on personal weaknesses or strengths). Smokers with low PSE displayed the lowest antismoking attitudes when the antismoking norm was strong and their GBSE was high. These results show that the antismoking norm can produce paradoxical effects and suggest that the way individuals cope with stigmatization is affected by the interplay between PSE and GBSE. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How positive and negative contact relate to attitudes towards Roma: Comparing majority and high‐status minority perspectives

Intergroup contact scholars have recently called for analyzing the effects of negative intergroup contact. In response to this call, we examined the correlates of positive and negative contact with one of the most stigmatized ethnic minorities, that is, Roma. We conducted a study in Bulgaria considering the point of view of the ethnic Bulgarian majority (n = 516) and of Bulgarian Turks (n = 274), an ethnic minority with higher status compared to Roma. Regression analyses showed that positive contact was associated with reduced prejudice and more support for pro‐Roma policies, while negative contact revealed the opposite pattern. These associations did not differ between ethnic Bulgarians and Bulgarian Turks. Moreover, positive and negative intergroup emotions mediated the relationships between positive and negative contact on the one hand and prejudice and policy support on the other. Our study highlights the importance of emotional processes involved in positive and negative intergroup contact experiences and encourages future research to analyze how absolute versus relative status differences shape the effects of positive and negative contact in complex hierarchical societies.     

Capturing the biases of socially anxious people by addressing partner effects and situational parameters

To expose biases in self-perceptions of people high in social anxiety, information is needed on actual and perceived informant reports following social situations. We measured trait social anxiety (SA) in 90 college students arranged in pairs for “getting acquainted” conversations. Half participated in a small-talk task, where they took turns answering superficial questions; half participated in a closeness-generating task, where questions required gradual increases in self-disclosure. Afterward, students rated themselves and their partner on positive and negative attributes and how they think their partner viewed them. People with high SA judged themselves more negatively and less positively than their partner did (accuracy); when interacting with a partner endorsing low SA, they possessed enhanced negativity biases about how they expected to be viewed (meta-accuracy), and believed their partner's judgments were less positive than their own low self-judgments (perceived dissent). Conversely, people with low SA showed evidence of a self-enhancement bias about the impression they made on low SA strangers. Other moderators of the social cognitions of people with high SA included gender and the social situation (distortions being amplified in men and small-talk conversations). Our findings suggest that the study of SA cannot be understood using decontextualized approaches, instead requiring consideration of the synergy among the person, partner, and situation.     

Effects of social anxiety and depressive symptoms on the frequency and quality of sexual activity: a daily process approach

Diminished positive experiences and events might be part of the phenomenology of social anxiety; however, much of this research is cross-sectional by design, limiting our understanding of the everyday lives of socially anxious people. Sexuality is a primary source of positive experiences. We theorized that people with elevated social anxiety would have relatively less satisfying sexual experiences compared to those who were not anxious. For 21 days, 150 college students described their daily sexual episodes. Social anxiety was negatively related to the pleasure and feelings of connectedness experienced when sexually intimate. The relationship between social anxiety and the amount of sexual contact differed between men and women—it was negative for women and negligible for men. Being in a close, intimate relationship enhanced the feelings of connectedness during sexual episodes for only individuals low in social anxiety. Depressive symptoms were negatively related to the amount of sexual contact, and the pleasure and feelings of connectedness experienced when sexually intimate. Controlling for depressive symptoms did not meaningfully change the social anxiety effects on daily sexuality. Our findings suggest that fulfilling sexual activity is often compromised by social anxiety.