Information Seeking Beyond Initial Interaction.

This essay extends previous work on uncertainty and information seeking within close relationships by considering how relationship parameters correspond with the directness of people's information‐seeking strategies. Because we believe that assumptions of uncertainty reduction theory (Berger & Calabrese, 1975) have been translated into the context of close relationships without attention to the unique features of that domain, we begin by reframing questions about uncertainty to reflect issues relevant to intimate associations. In particular, we reconsider the focus of uncertainty, the function of uncertainty reduction, and the nature of information seeking. We then discuss how relationship intimacy, power dynamics, and information expectancies correspond with information‐seeking behavior within close relationships. In doing so, we highlight how the negotiation of relational uncertainty may function to sustain intimate associations.     

Toward an Integration of Interpersonal Risk Models of Depression and Cognitive‐Behaviour Therapy

Empirical research has increasingly focused on interpersonal variables associated with the development and maintenance of depression. This article outlines some key interpersonal risk factors for depression, including anxious attachment, sociotropy, excessive reassurance seeking, interpersonal stress generation, reduced social support, social skills deficits, and social avoidance. Recommendations are made for how cognitive‐behavioural therapy may be adapted to address such factors. Specifically, suggestions are offered for how cognitive and behavioural interventions, such as cognitive restructuring, behavioural activation, behavioural experiments, and skills training, may be used with depressed clients to promote positive relationships and reduce maladaptive interpersonal behaviours.     

What is a philosophical stance? Paradigms,policies and perspectives

Since van Fraassen first put forward the suggestive idea that many philosophical positions should be construed as ‘stances’ rather than factual beliefs, there have been various attempts to spell out precisely what a philosophical stance might be, and on what basis one should be adopted. In this paper I defend a particular account of stances, the view that they are pragmatically justified perspectives or ways of seeing the world, and compare it to some other accounts that have been offered. In Sect. 2 I consider van Fraassen’s argument for construing empiricism as a stance, and look at some responses to it. In Sect. 3 I outline my conception of stances as perspectives or ways of seeing, and explain how stances so understood may be justified. I illustrate this conception by way of a discussion of the model pluralist position with respect to the units of selection debate in biology, and suggest that on the model pluralist view different perspectives on the units of selection, such as the gene’s eye view, are in fact van Fraassian stances. In Sect. 4 I discuss the view put forward by Teller and Chakravartty among others that stances should be understood as epistemic policies, and argue that it is consistent with the conception of stances as perspectives. In the final section I criticise Rowbottom’s attempt to assimilate stances to Kuhnian paradigms. I argue that he has overlooked some important disanalogies between stances and paradigms, so that the comparison obscures more than it reveals.     

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Cognitive-Behavioral Avoidance Scale in Women with Major Depressive Disorder

The Cognitive-Behavioral Avoidance Scale (CBAS; Ottenbreit & Dobson, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 292–313; 2004) is a multidimensional self-report measure designed to assess the construct of dispositional avoidance. Although findings to date support the reliability and validity of the CBAS within student samples, no study has yet evaluated the psychometric properties of the CBAS in a clinical sample of depressed individuals. The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the CBAS within a sample of 60 women diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. Results supported the internal consistency and 4-month test-retest reliability of the scale. As predicted, the CBAS total scale and subscales were correlated with convergent measures of avoidance as well as depressive symptoms. The results of this study provide support for the psychometric properties of the CBAS in samples of clinically depressed individuals. Study limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

Invited Article: The Construct of Suspicion and How It Can Benefit Theories and Models in Organizational Science

This article introduces the construct of suspicion to researchers in business and applied psychology, provides a literature-based definition of state suspicion and an initial self-report measure of that construct, and encourages research on this important topic. The construct of suspicion is under-researched in business and applied psychology, yet has wide application for both researchers and practitioners. These applications occur across many content domains (e.g., consumer psychology, leadership), as well as at varying levels of analysis (e.g., individual, group, organizational). To motivate research on this construct, possible studies are delineated/suggested by way of example and a Call for Papers also appears. The organizational sciences will benefit from the incorporation of suspicion-based constructs in theoretical and explanatory models. Organizations might also function more efficiently because of these efforts —as decision makers assess, understand, and better manage appropriate levels of suspicion in their employees and work groups.     

Assessing the Clinical Competence of Psychology Students Through Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs): Student and Staff Views

Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are a well‐known, reliable, and valid assessment method used across the healthcare sector. In the present study, we applied OSCEs in three units within professional postgraduate psychology courses, with the broad aims of identifying staff and student perceptions of the assessment. At the conclusion of each OSCE, staff and students completed a feedback questionnaire that contained both scaled and open‐ended questions. Results suggest that clinical psychology OSCEs can be stressful for students, but are also well regarded. Both staff and students felt that the OSCEs were realistic, valid, and aligned well with professional practice. Students reported differences in the way in which they prepared for the OSCEs compared with a written exam or other form of assessment, while staff noted that models of OSCE development must be flexible, to adequately assess the objectives of individual units. Further, because they can be a costly exercise, OSCEs need to be applied judiciously within the tertiary sector.     

Reappraising Past and Future Transitional Events: The Effects of Mental Focus on Present Perceptions of Personal Impact and Self‐Relevance

This research examined how instructions to focus on the concrete details (experience focus) versus broader life significance (coherence focus) influence present perceptions of transitional impact and self‐relevance for past and future transitional events. Participants (Study 1, N = 119; Study 2, N = 251) selected a past or future transition and wrote about it using either an experiential or coherence focus. Participants then rated the event on transitional impact, self‐relevance, and other phenomenological characteristics. Individuals instructed to use a coherence focus on a past transition reported higher levels of material and psychological impact and rated the event as more self‐relevant, compared to those instructed to use an experiential focus. The manipulation did not influence ratings for future events. Controlling for temporal distance and emotional valence did not alter the findings. Future transitions were regarded as more personally important than past transitions. Appraisals of the impact and self‐relevance of transformative past events (but not future events) are affected by the mental focus adopted at retrieval. The findings are considered in light of essential differences between remembering and forecasting and support the notion that a coherence focus promotes adaptive self‐reflection by affording people the cognitive means with which to reconcile transitional experiences.     

Youthful Arrest and Parental Support: Gendered Effects in Straining the Parent–Child Relationship

Much research confirms the importance of the quality of the parent–child relationship on youth involvement in delinquency. Yet, few have examined this in reverse order, that is, how an arrest for delinquency impacts the parent–child relationship. This article explores the effects of arrest on the child’s perceived level of parental support using youth survey data for the nation. Among non-arrested youth, parental support experiences a gradual decline during the early teen years, and a considerable rebound in the late teen years. Among arrested youth, support shows sharper drops and recoveries over the teen years. Controlling for a set of social, legal, and demographic items, we examine the effects of the number of arrests on parental support with multinomial logistic regression, noting several gender effects. First, we find that arrests predict lower levels of support for mothers, but not for fathers. An equally noteworthy finding is that boys report more parental support than girls do, regardless of parent gender.     

Effects of personality and gender on self–other agreement in ratings of leadership

We explore the role of leader personality (i.e., the Big 5 traits: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism) and gender in self–other (dis)agreement (SOA) in ratings of leadership. We contend that certain aspects of the leader's persona may be more or less related to self‐ or other‐ratings of the leader's behaviour if those aspects are (1) more or less observable by others, (2) more or less related to internal thoughts versus external behaviours, (3) more or less prone to self‐enhancement or self‐denigrating biases, or (4) more or less socially desirable. We utilize statistical methodologies that capture fully the effects of multiple independent variables on the congruence between two dependent variables (Edwards, 1995 , Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 64, 307), which previously have not been applied to this area of research. Our results support hypotheses predicting less SOA as leader Conscientiousness increases and greater SOA as Agreeableness and Neuroticism increase. Additionally, we found gender to be an important factor in SOA; female leaders exhibited greater SOA than did their male counterparts. We discuss the implications of these findings, limitations, and future research directions.

Practitioner points

• Popular practices such as 360‐degree feedback may reveal discrepancies between a person's self‐ratings and other's ratings.
• Although often attributed to a lack of self‐awareness, these discrepancies also may be explained by factors such as the personality and gender of the focal individual.