Evaluating increased effort for item disposal to improve recycling at a university

An evaluation of increased response effort to dispose of items was conducted to improve recycling at a university. Signs prompting individuals to recycle and notifying them of the location of trash and recycling receptacles were posted in each phase. During the intervention, trashcans were removed from the classrooms, and one large trashcan was available in the hallway next to the recycling receptacles. Results showed that correct recycling increased, and trash left in classrooms increased initially during the second intervention phase before returning to baseline levels.     

Can pictures promote the acquisition of sight‐word reading? An evaluation of two potential instructional strategies

Sight‐word instruction can be a useful supplement to phonics‐based methods under some circumstances. Nonetheless, few studies have evaluated the conditions under which pictures may be used successfully to teach sight‐word reading. In this study, we extended prior research by examining two potential strategies for reducing the effects of overshadowing when using picture prompts. Five children with developmental disabilities and two typically developing children participated. In the first experiment, the therapist embedded sight words within pictures but gradually faded in the pictures as needed using a least‐to‐most prompting hierarchy. In the second experiment, the therapist embedded text‐to‐picture matching within the sight‐word reading sessions. Results suggested that these strategies reduced the interference typically observed with picture prompts and enhanced performance during teaching sessions for the majority of participants. Text‐to‐picture matching also accelerated mastery of the sight words relative to a condition under which the therapist presented text without pictures.     

People Wait Longer when the Alternative is Risky: The Relation Between Preferences in Risky and Inter‐temporal Choice

In two experiments, we demonstrate that despite indicating indifference when probed about risk or delay in isolation, when forced to explicitly trade‐off between the two, participants prefer delayed over risky rewards. This pattern of findings sets a boundary condition for any common utility‐based comparison process involving both risk and delay. Furthermore, this change from indifference‐in‐isolation to delay‐preference‐in‐a‐trade‐off strengthens as reward amount increases. Exploratory modeling results suggest that the shift in preference can be explained by allowing for different discount rates for delay‐only choices compared with when delay is in competition with risk. This explanation is better than one in which probability weighting is different between risk‐only choices and risks considered in the presence of a delay. Together, the empirical and modeling work lays a path for future investigations of why and when people's evaluation of the properties of risky and delayed choices vary as a function of the alternatives on offer. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Youth Athletes' Interpretations of Punitive Coaching Practices

This study examined the use of punitive coaching strategies in youth sport and the nature of these experiences for youth athletes. Semistructured interviews and concept maps were conducted with 12 competitive male and female hockey athletes 11–13 years of age. Data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Results revealed that punishments occurred in competitive youth hockey, in the forms of benching, yelling, exercises, cleaning up equipment, and alternating positions. Findings are interpreted to suggest that punishments hindered developmental needs of youth athletes, including a positive sense of self and positive relationships with others. Implications for healthy youth development are discussed.     

Effects of gender role self-discrepancies and self-perceived attractiveness on social anxiety for women across social situations

Background and objectives: Psychosocial factors, such as gender role norms, may impact how social anxiety disorder (SAD) is experienced and expressed in different social contexts for women. However to date, these factors have not been examined via experimental methodology. Design: This was a cross-sectional, quasi-experimental controlled study. Methods: The current study included 48 highly socially anxious (HSA) women (70.9% meeting criteria for SAD) and examined the relationships among psychosocial factors (i.e. gender role self-discrepancies and self-perceived physical attractiveness), self-perceived social performance, and state anxiety, across two in vivo social tasks (i.e. conversation and opinion speech). Results: On average, participants reported belief that they ought to be less feminine for the speech task and more masculine for both the conversation and speech tasks. Also, for the conversation task, only lower self-rated attractiveness predicted poorer self-perceived performance and greater post-task state anxiety, above gender role self-discrepancies and confederate gender. For the speech task, only greater self-discrepancy in prototypical masculine traits predicted poorer performance ratings, and it was related to greater state anxiety in anticipation of the task. Conclusion: For HSA women, psychosocial factors may play different roles in social anxiety across social contexts.     

The role of stress mindset in shaping cognitive,emotional, and physiological responses to challenging and threatening stress

Background and objectives: Prior research suggests that altering situation-specific evaluations of stress as challenging versus threatening can improve responses to stress. The aim of the current study was to explore whether cognitive, physiological and affective stress responses can be altered independent of situation-specific evaluations by changing individuals’ mindsets about the nature of stress in general.

Design: Using a 2?×?2 design, we experimentally manipulated stress mindset using multi-media film clips orienting participants (N?=?113) to either the enhancing or debilitating nature of stress. We also manipulated challenge and threat evaluations by providing positive or negative feedback to participants during a social stress test.

Results: Results revealed that under both threat and challenge stress evaluations, a stress-is-enhancing mindset produced sharper increases in anabolic (“growth”) hormones relative to a stress-is-debilitating mindset. Furthermore, when the stress was evaluated as a challenge, a stress-is-enhancing mindset produced sharper increases in positive affect, heightened attentional bias towards positive stimuli, and greater cognitive flexibility, whereas a stress-is-debilitating mindset produced worse cognitive and affective outcomes.

Conclusions: These findings advance stress management theory and practice by demonstrating that a short manipulation designed to generate a stress-is-enhancing mindset can improve responses to both challenging and threatening stress.     

The BUFFET Program: Development of a Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Selective Eating in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Selective eating (often referred to as “picky” eating) is common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across the lifespan. Behavioral interventions are widely used to treat selective eating; however, most of these programs are time intensive, have not been evaluated for use in outpatient settings, and do not typically include youth beyond early childhood. Despite the functional impact and risk for negative outcomes associated with selective eating, there are no empirically supported treatments available for older children, adolescents, or adults, either with or without ASD. To address this treatment gap, we developed BUFFET: the Building Up Food Flexibility and Exposure Treatment program. BUFFET is a 14-week, multi-family group cognitive behavioral treatment for selective eating in children (8–12 years) with ASD. In this paper, we will (1) discuss the theoretical conceptualization of BUFFET, (2) describe the treatment content and structure, (3) present feasibility data from the initial pilot trial, and (4) consider next steps in treatment development.     

Inferring Social Disposition by Sound and Surface Appearance in Infancy

Adults automatically infer a person’s social disposition and future behavior based on the many properties they observe about how they look and sound. The goal of the current study is to explore the developmental origins of this bias. We tested whether 12-month-old infants automatically infer a character’s social disposition (e.g., whether they are likely to “help” or “hinder” another character’s goal) based on the sounds and visual features those characters display. Infants were habituated to 2 characters, 1 that possessed more positive properties (e.g., a soft, fluffy appearance and a happy-sounding laugh) or more negative properties (e.g., a sharp, pointy appearance and a deep, ominous laugh). During test trials, we observed that infants looked longer at events that involved characters engaging in social actions toward another that were inconsistent rather than consistent with the valence of how they looked and sounded during habituation. Two control conditions support the interpretation that infants’ responses were based on an inferred causal relationship between a character’s features and its disposition rather than on some noncausal associations between the positive and negative valences of the characteristics and actions. Together, these studies suggest that infants are biased to connect an agent’s audiovisual features to their social behavior.     

Creative Supervision for Counselors Working in a Hospice Setting

The number of individuals receiving hospice care in the United States is on the rise. Many individuals who suffer from debilitating health issues use the care of helping professionals in a hospice environment. Supervision approaches for counselors who encounter grief, loss, death, and bereavement issues in hospice settings are needed. The authors introduce three creative interventions for use with supervisees in one of the four stages of the integrative developmental model of supervision. One intervention, the “Rock Talk,” is more thoroughly explained and then demonstrated in a case illustration of a supervisee using the intervention to say goodbye to a hospice client.     

The relationship between bilingualism and selective attention in young adults: Evidence from an ambiguous figures task

Previous research has shown that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on a variety of tasks that have been described as involving executive functioning, but the precise mechanism for those effects or a clear definition for “executive function” is unknown. This uncertainty has led to a number of studies for which no performance difference between monolingual and bilingual adults has been detected. One approach to clarifying these issues comes from research with children showing that bilinguals were more able than their monolingual peers to perceive both interpretations of an ambiguous figure, an ability that is more tied to a conception of selective attention than to specific components of executive function. The present study extends this notion to adults by assessing their ability to see the alternative image in an ambiguous figure. Bilinguals performed this task more efficiently than monolinguals by requiring fewer cues to identify the second image. This finding has implications for the role of selective attention in performance differences between monolinguals and bilinguals.