Screening for Psychotherapy by an Open-Ended Group

A developmental model of conducting a time-limited, short-term inpatient psychotherapy group is described. The therapist's primary goal in this model is to promote members' awareness of their dysfunctional interpersonal behaviors and the conflicts underlying these behaviors. The therapist pursues this goal by facilitating the group in resolving the conflicts of the four phases through which the group passes. In Phase I, the group addresses conflicts related to the establishment of trust. In Phase II, issues related to dependency wishes focused upon authority figures occupy the group's attention. In Phase III, conflicts within peer relation-ships become focal. In Phase IV as the group approaches termination, group members explore feelings related to the acceptance of loss. For each phase, optimal therapist interventions are described.     

What lies beneath: How the distance between truth and lie drives dishonesty

Based on the assumption that dishonesty poses a threat to one's self view, recent research has put forward the notion that people avoid major lies. However, existing empirical work has not tested this notion conclusively, given that studies have associated larger degrees of dishonesty with larger payoffs. It thus remains unclear whether people actually do avoid major lies or rather shy away from large (unjustified) payoffs, e.g. since the latter are generally more likely to trigger suspicion. Thus, we critically tested the hypothesis that the probability of dishonesty is a decreasing function of the distance between the actual truth and the lie that is necessary to increase ones gains. In a modified dice-game paradigm, a highly specific behavioral pattern was predicted by this hypothesis and results from a large (N = 765), incentivized and fully anonymous study confirmed the latter, thus corroborating that people indeed avoid major lies.     

Calibration and Alignment are Separable: Evidence From Prism Adaptation

In 2 prism adaptation experiments, the authors investigated the effects of limb starting position visibility (visible or not visible) and visual feedback availability (early or late in target pointing movements). Thirty-two students participated in Experiment 1 and 24 students participated in Experiment 2. Independent of visual feedback availability, constant error was larger and variable error was smaller for target pointing when limb starting position was visible during prism exposure. Independent of limb starting position visibility, aftereffects of prism exposure were determined by visual feedback availability. Those results support the hypothesis that calibration is determined by limb starting position visibility, whereas alignment is determined separately by visual feedback availability.     

A Confirmatory Factor Analytic Investigation of the TAS–20: Corroboration of a Five-Factor Model and Suggestions for Improvement

Two studies conducted around 1950 provided aggregate data on college students' attribution of characteristics to men or women (sex-role stereotype). Seeman (1950) provided data for three attributes clearly sex-role identified. Fernberger (1948) used a “story” with 16 blank spaces for response of “men” or “women” to assess sex-role stereotypes. Replications of these studies were conducted in undergraduate psychology classes during the 1970–71 school year to assess changes in sex-role stereotypes and in personal preferences. Results for stereotypes indicated either no change for the Seeman data or even more polarized stereotypes for the Fernberger data. No evidence for role convergence was found for stereotypes. Ss personal preferences were markedly discrepant from their stereotypic responses, as the literature would predict.     

Synergistic Effects of Expectancy and Value on Homework Engagement: The Case for a Within-Person Perspective

Historically, expectancy–value models of motivation assumed a synergistic relation between expectancy and value: motivation is high only when both expectancy and value are high. Motivational processes were studied from a within-person perspective, with expectancies and values being assessed or experimentally manipulated across multiple domains and the focus being placed on intraindividual differences. In contrast, contemporary expectancy–value models in educational psychology concentrate almost exclusively on linear effects of expectancy and value on motivational outcomes, with a focus on between-person differences. Recent advances in latent variable methodology allow both issues to be addressed in observational studies. Using the expectancy–value model of homework motivation as a theoretical framework, this study estimated multilevel structural equation models with latent interactions in a sample of 511 secondary school students and found synergistic effects between domain-specific homework expectancy and homework value in predicting homework engagement in 6 subjects. This approach not only brings the “×” back into expectancy–value theory but also reestablishes the within-person perspective as the appropriate level of analysis for latent expectancy–value models.     

Explanation by induction?

Philosophers of mathematics commonly distinguish between explanatory and non-explanatory proofs. An important subclass of mathematical proofs are proofs by induction. Are they explanatory? This paper addresses the question, based on general principles about explanation. First, a recent argument for a negative answer is discussed and rebutted. Second, a case is made for a qualified positive take on the issue.     

Cognitive Vulnerabilities as Predictors of Stress Generation in Early Adolescence: Pathway to Depressive Symptoms

Although individuals with depression have been found to experience a higher rate of stress in their lives, it remains unclear to what extent other personal characteristics may contribute to stress generation. The current study extended past research by examining the effects of two theoretically and empirically supported cognitive vulnerabilities to depression (negative cognitive style and rumination) as predictors of dependent interpersonal and achievement events, independent events, and relational peer victimization. In a diverse sample of 301 early adolescents (56 % female; M_age?=?12.82 years), we found that negative cognitive style prospectively predicted the experience of dependent interpersonal stress and relational victimization, and that rumination did not predict stress in any of the domains. Furthermore, the occurrence of intervening stress mediated the associations between negative cognitive style and subsequent depressive symptoms. Additionally, whereas negative cognitive style predicted relational victimization among both boys and girls, girls were particularly vulnerable to developing depressive symptoms following the occurrence of relational victimization. Thus, a negative cognitive style may contribute to the occurrence of stressful events, which in turn increases depressive symptoms. Girls may be particularly reactive to relational victimization, representing one pathway through which sex differences in depression may emerge.