Mortality salience and evaluations of in‐group versus out‐group critics: The role of criticism legitimacy and perceived threat

Significant terror management research has examined the impact of mortality salience on evaluations toward in‐group versus out‐group and attitudinally similar versus dissimilar others. However, relatively little research has examined evaluations when group membership is disentangled from attitude similarity. The current research examined the impact of mortality salience on evaluations toward in‐group and out‐group critics when people are less likely to rely on group membership as a heuristic. In Experiment 1, the results showed that in the control condition, participants rated an in‐group member who provided unjustified criticism more positively than an out‐group member who provided the same criticism. Under mortality salience, the reverse occurred: An in‐group member who provided unjustified criticism was rated more negatively than an out‐group member. Experiment 2 showed that under mortality salience, the derogation of an in‐group critic who provided unjustified criticism was mediated by perceptions of threat. Implications for reactions to group‐directed criticism as well as mortality salience effects are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Different Perspectives Regarding Quality of Life in Chronically ill and Healthy Individuals

The areas that were suggested as most important with regard to Quality of Life (QoL) were examined in groups of individuals who were healthy, and those with a chronic condition. An electronic survey was completed by 892 participants (261 healthy and 631 with a chronic condition). They answered three questions relating to QoL: what is most important to you; what areas most impact your QoL; and an open question what does QoL mean to you. Across the three questions both groups highlighted physical functioning, independence and mobility as key areas for QoL. However, the group with a chronic condition tended to find issues of functioning such as pain, fatigue, and sleep as more important to their QoL than the healthy participants. In contrast, the healthy participants tended to note the importance of relationships and family as more important than the group with a chronic condition. That there were such differences between the groups might suggest that different aspects of QoL could be rated as more important when examining this issue with samples with a chronic condition and those without such a condition.     

Defining Nano,Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine: Why Should It Matter?

Nanotechnology, which involves manipulation of matter on a ‘nano’ scale, is considered to be a key enabling technology. Medical applications of nanotechnology (commonly known as nanomedicine) are expected to significantly improve disease diagnostic and therapeutic modalities and subsequently reduce health care costs. However, there is no consensus on the definition of nanotechnology or nanomedicine, and this stems from the underlying debate on defining ‘nano’. This paper aims to present the diversity in the definition of nanomedicine and its impact on the translation of basic science research in nanotechnology into clinical applications. We present the insights obtained from exploratory qualitative interviews with 46 stakeholders involved in translational nanomedicine from Europe and North America. The definition of nanomedicine has implications for many aspects of translational research including: fund allocation, patents, drug regulatory review processes and approvals, ethical review processes, clinical trials and public acceptance. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the field and common interest in developing effective clinical applications, it is important to have honest and transparent communication about nanomedicine, its benefits and potential harm. A clear and consistent definition of nanomedicine would significantly facilitate trust among various stakeholders including the general public while minimizing the risk of miscommunication and undue fear of nanotechnology and nanomedicine.     

Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Women With Generalized Anxiety Disorder in the Perinatal Period: Impact on Problematic Behaviors

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the most frequently diagnosed anxiety disorder among women in the perinatal period (pregnancy to one year postpartum). Recent studies have examined the relationship between problematic behaviors and GAD symptoms. Studies in nonperinatal samples indicate that adults with GAD engage in avoidance and safety behaviors and these behaviors are associated with greater symptom severity. Little research has examined the use of problematic behaviors among pregnant or postpartum women. However, preliminary research suggests that these behaviors may have a negative impact on both anxious women and their children. Our aim was to examine the extent to which women with GAD in pregnancy or the postpartum engage in problematic behaviors and whether cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in reducing these behaviors. Fifty-eight women with GAD in pregnancy or postpartum were recruited from a larger clinical trial (Clinicaltrials.gov ID NCT02850523) evaluating the effectiveness of group-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBGT) for perinatal anxiety disorders. The results indicated that women with perinatal GAD reported high levels of avoidance and safety behaviors and greater engagement in these behaviors was associated with higher levels of worry and related symptoms. CBGT was effective in reducing GAD symptoms and problematic behaviors and a bidirectional relationship was found between changes in worry and problematic behaviors during treatment. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Sport-Related Concussions: A Review of Epidemiology, Challenges in Diagnosis, and Potential Risk Factors

Sport-related concussion (SRC) is a common mild traumatic brain injury among young, active individuals, affecting approximately 300,000 young American adults annually. In this review of the epidemiology of SRC, we describe the challenges in identifying concussion occurrence and review the studies describing concussion incidence in various sports. In high risk contact sports, American football, soccer (European football), hockey, lacrosse, and basketball athletes experience concussion unintentionally during the course of play. Among these, football concussion incidence is reviewed in greatest detail because it has the highest incidence among the contact sports, and some studies have shown long-term neurophysiologic and neurodegenerative outcomes. Mechanisms of injury differ significantly by sport and can be potential targets for concussion risk mitigation. Despite the apparent high incidence of SRC, risk factors determining initial concussion, recovery periods, recurrence, and long-term outcomes remain poorly understood and warrant further study exploring the influence of age, sex, genetics, and athletic factors.     

Work and Rest Variables in the Acquisition of Psychomotor Tracking Skill

College students (75 men, 75 women) matched in preliminary performance of 100 sec on the rotary pursuit apparatus were randomly assigned to five experimental groups. Their work/rest ratios, measured in seconds, were: 20/20, 30/30, 60/60, 90/90,120/120. All subjects received 30 min of total practice time after the matching trial. There was a significant practice effect and a significant practice x conditions interaction, but no main effect due to the cycles’ length or number. The decay rate of reactive inhibition (lr) is probably independent of its prior growth level; hence postrest residual lr is proportional to prerest accumulation. Partly because they generated lr in hypothetically greater amounts, women were significantly less proficient on the average than men, and sex interacted with practice. Although males had higher initial and final levels of ability than females, the two sexes’ acquisition curves showed the same rate parameters in our mathematical model.     

Exploring Adolescents’ Talk About Bullying on an Online Message Board: Broadening and Complicating Understandings of Victimization

Current definitions of bullying, crafted by policymakers and researchers, raise questions about the ways in which adult constructions of bullying reflect, or fail to reflect, the lived realities of adolescents. In particular, the narrow scope of “bullying,” as currently defined, may over-simplify adolescents’ experiences with relational aggression, which often sit in the space between bullying, discrimination, and harassment. This study investigates adolescents’ talk about bullying on an online message board, as one effort to better understand whether adolescents’ constructions of bullying are aligned with those of researchers and policymakers, and where these youth constructions may overlap with ideas about discrimination and harassment. Conducting a content analysis of data from an online, teen message board, we find that participants frequently use the term bullying to describe adult or familial aggression, and often describe bullying behaviors in ways that reflect elements of discrimination and harassment. We conclude with suggestions for future research and practical approaches that might better bridge gaps between research and practice.     

Comprehension of argument structure and semantic roles: evidence from English-learning children and the forced-choice pointing paradigm

Research using the intermodal preferential looking paradigm (IPLP) has consistently shown that English-learning children aged 2 can associate transitive argument structure with causal events. However, studies using the same methodology investigating 2-year-old children's knowledge of the conjoined agent intransitive and semantic role assignment have reported inconsistent findings. The aim of the present study was to establish at what age English-learning children have verb-general knowledge of both transitive and intransitive argument structure using a new method: the forced-choice pointing paradigm. The results suggest that young 2-year-olds can associate transitive structures with causal (or externally caused) events and can use transitive structure to assign agent and patient roles correctly. However, the children were unable to associate the conjoined agent intransitive with noncausal events until aged 3;4. The results confirm the pattern from previous IPLP studies and indicate that children may develop the ability to comprehend different aspects of argument structure at different ages. The implications for theories of language acquisition and the nature of the language acquisition mechanism are discussed.     

Hope as a Mediator and Moderator of Multidimensional Perfectionism and Depression in Middle School Students

The authors examined the relationship of perfectionism, hope, and depression in a sample of 153 middle school students. Adaptive perfectionists differed significantly from both maladaptive perfectionists and nonperfectionists on their levels of hope and depression. Hope mediated the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depression and supported an indirect effects model for hope and the relationship between adaptive perfectionism and depression. No evidence was found for hope as a moderator in the relationship between perfectionism and depression.     

School climate is associated with cortical thickness and executive function in children and adolescents

A positive school climate has been found to support mental and physical health, academic achievement and social adjustment among youth. However, links between school climate and brain structure have not been investigated to date. In this study, we investigated whether school climate was associated with executive function (EF) and brain structure (cortical thickness and surface area) in children and adolescents. We further examined whether these links varied as a function of socioeconomic background. Participants who ranged from 9 to 18 years of age (N = 108) completed EF tasks and a high‐resolution, 3‐Tesla, T1‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Overall school climate, academic support, and family socioeconomic background were assessed using questionnaires. Higher academic support was associated with greater EF task performance and increased global cortical thickness. Additionally, academic support moderated the association between family income and EF, such that children from lower income families performed similarly to their more advantaged peers on EF tasks in the context of positive academic support. This work is the first to link school climate to brain structure and contributes to the growing body of evidence suggesting that academic support may be an important protective factor in the context of socioeconomic disadvantage.