Staff-patient relationships and outcomes in schizophrenia: the role of staff attributions

We investigated associations between staff-patient relationships and outcomes in a randomised controlled trial of motivational interventions for drug and alcohol misuse in schizophrenia. Participants were 204 patients and their care co-ordinators. We assessed relationship status (positive versus neutral) and staff attributions of control using Five Minute Speech Samples collected at baseline. We examined associations between this baseline data and symptoms at 12-months follow-up. We found that dyads with positive relationships at baseline had significantly less symptoms at 12-months compared to those dyads with neutral relationships. As predicted, care co-ordinators with positive relationships were less likely to attribute patients' problems as being within their control. The findings highlight the potentially important role of positive staff-patient relationships in outcomes. Our findings are also in line with the hypothesis that staff attributions may contribute to the development of more positive relationships.     

Conciliatory gestures facilitate forgiveness and feelings of friendship by making transgressors appear more agreeable

The authors examined how conciliatory gestures exhibited in response to interpersonal transgressions influence forgiveness and feelings of friendship with the transgressor. In Study 1, 163 undergraduates who had recently been harmed were examined longitudinally. Conciliatory gestures exhibited by transgressors predicted higher rates of forgiveness over 21 days, and this relationship was mediated by victims' perceptions of their transgressors' Agreeableness. Study 2 was an experiment including 145 undergraduates who experienced a breach in trust from an anonymous partner during an iterated prisoner's dilemma. When transgressors apologized and offered financial compensation, participants reported higher levels of forgiveness and feelings of friendship when compared to a control condition and an aggravating condition. The effects of apology/compensation on forgiveness and perceived friendship were mediated by victims' perceptions of their transgressors' Agreeableness. Results suggest that conciliatory gestures promote forgiveness in part by depicting transgressors as more sympathetic, considerate, fair, and just (i.e., agreeable).     

Cognitive Remediation as an Adjunct Treatment for Substance Use Disorders: A Systematic Review

Neuropsychology Review - Substance use disorders are associated with diverse neuropsychological impairments, with deficits in memory and executive functioning commonly observed. Cognitive...     

Skilled Observation and Change Blindness: A Comparison of Law Enforcement and Student Samples

Some evidence suggests that expertise and observational skills training can reduce attentional errors, such as change blindness. Laypeople typically assume that law enforcement officers possess acute observational skills, but no research to date has compared law enforcement and lay samples on their susceptibility to change blindness. In the present study, student and law enforcement samples completed a change blindness task and attempted to identify the target(s) from four line‐ups. Law enforcement officers and students were equally susceptible to change blindness regarding the switch in the target's identity, but students were more likely than officers to detect changes in the target's clothing. Students also performed better on the line‐up task, overall, than officers. Additionally, whereas students' confidence was positively correlated with identification accuracy under some circumstances, officers' confidence was either uncorrelated or negatively correlated with accuracy. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest some factors accounting for law enforcement officers' relatively poor performance on these tasks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estilo nomádico y estilo cognitivo

RESUMEN

El autor trata el desarrollo de la conducta en función del ambiente ecológico y cultural en que vive un grupo de personas, prestando atención especial a la adaptación ecológica denominada “estilo nomádico” y a las conductas llamadas “estilos cognitivos”. La investigación tiene como objetivo comprender las relaciones sistemáticas entre ambos, repasando estos conceptos teóricos y exponiendo el modelo que la guía. La hipótesis es que tanto factores ecológicos como culturales (y de socialización) posibilitan hacer predicciones a nivel conductual. A continuación se describen cinco de las tareas examinadas, las muestras y los resultados del estudio. En la discusión el autor considera éstos desde diversas perspectivas, afirmando que el estilo cognitivo de un individuo está claramente en función del estilo nomádico del grupo en que ha crecido. Por último concluye que las diferencias entre grupos probablemente se han desarrollado en función de una adaptación cultural a largo plazo a las presiones ecológicas, y en menor término como respuesta a una adapatación a corto plazo a la aculturación; también destaca que el único criterio de inteligencia es el de la utilidad o valor adapatativo para un conjunto de problemas vitales, no siendo posibles criterios generales o universales.     

Impact of alcohol on sexual decision making: Intentions to have unprotected sex

The impact of alcohol on intentions to have sex with a new partner and the antecedents of intentions were investigated in three studies (N = 139, 60, and 218, respectively). In all three studies, respondents were intoxicated or not intoxicated with alcohol and completed measures based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour in relation to having sex whilst imagining him- or her-self in the scenario. The scenario described unprotected sex between two individuals not in an existing relationship. Consistently across studies, intoxication had a significant effect on intentions for men but not for women. Also consistently across studies, affective attitudes were significantly stronger determinants of intentions for women than for men. Alcohol intoxication consistently moderated the impact of affective attitudes on intentions in women but not men, with greater intoxication associated with stronger impacts (Studies 1, 2, and 3). Implications for understanding the impacts of alcohol intoxication on sexual decision making in men and women are discussed.