Childhood Cancer and Brain Tumor Late Effects: Relationships with Family Burden and Survivor Psychological Outcomes

This study examines illness-specific family burden as a mediator of the association between late effects of childhood cancer and survivors’ emotional and behavioral outcomes. Childhood cancer survivors (n?=?65; ages 10–17) two or more years off-treatment completed measures assessing internalizing and PTSD symptoms. Parents reported on illness-specific family burden, late effects severity, and survivor internalizing/externalizing problems. Providers documented the number of late effects. Illness-specific family burden was correlated with provider-reported late effects (r?=?.29, p?<?.05) and parent report of severe late effects (r?=?.56, p?<?.01). Results supported an indirect effect of illness-specific family burden on number of late effects and parent-reported survivor internalizing problems, p?<?.05. Indirect effects were not found in models predicting PTSD and externalizing problems. Illness-specific family burden is an important intervention target for reducing internalizing problems in childhood cancer survivors with late effects.     

Worry in imagery and verbal form: effect on residual working memory capacity

Worry-prone individuals have less residual working memory capacity during worry compared to low-worriers (Hayes, Hirsch, & Mathews, 2008). People typically worry in verbal form, and the present study investigated whether verbal worry depletes working memory capacity more than worry in imagery-based form. High and low-worriers performed a working memory task, random interval generation, whilst thinking about a worry in verbal or imagery form. High (but not low) worriers had less available working memory capacity when worrying in verbal compared to imagery-based form. The findings could not be accounted for by general attentional control, amount of negatively-valenced thought, or appraisals participants made about worry topics. The findings indicate that the verbal nature of worry is implicated in the depletion of working memory resources during worry among high-worriers, and point to the potential value of imagery-based techniques in cognitive-behavioural treatments for problematic worry.     

Maternal sensitivity and language in early childhood: a test of the transactional model

This study examined the relation between mothers' sensitive responsiveness to their children and the children's expressive language skills during early childhood. Reciprocal effects were tested with dyads of mothers and their children participating in the National Institute of Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Sensitive maternal interactions positively affected children's later expressive language in the second and third years of life. Although maternal sensitivity predicted later language skills in children, children's language did not affect later maternal sensitivity as indicated in a structural equation model. These results do not support the 1975 transactional model of child development of Sameroff and Chandler. A consistent pattern of sensitivity throughout infancy and early childhood indicates the importance of fostering maternal sensitivity in infancy for prevention or remediation of expressive language problems in young children.     

Error correction in discrimination training for children with autism

Three procedures for correcting errors made during discrimination training were examined: error statement (saying ‘no’), modeling the correct response, and No Feedback. Six children with autism (age 3–7 years) were taught to match words to pictures with each of the three procedures, and the number of trials to mastery was compared across conditions. Results varied across participants. Two participants performed as well with no feedback as they did with an error correction procedure; two acquired skills slightly more quickly with an error correction procedure than with no feedback, but showed no difference between error correction procedures; one did best with error statement; and one did best with modeling. Results indicate that the choice of error correction procedure can have a large effect on rate of skill acquisition but that the optimal procedure may vary across individuals. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fidelity Failures in Brief Strategic Family Therapy for Adolescent Drug Abuse: A Clinical Analysis

As evidence‐based family treatments for adolescent substance use and conduct problems gain traction, cutting edge research moves beyond randomized efficacy trials to address questions such as how these treatments work and how best to disseminate them to community settings. A key factor in effective dissemination is treatment fidelity, which refers to implementing an intervention in a manner consistent with an established manual. While most fidelity research is quantitative, this study offers a qualitative clinical analysis of fidelity failures in a large, multisite effectiveness trial of Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) for adolescent drug abuse, where BSFT developers trained community therapists to administer this intervention in their own agencies. Using case notes and video recordings of therapy sessions, an independent expert panel first rated 103 cases on quantitative fidelity scales grounded in the BSFT manual and the broader structural‐strategic framework that informs BSFT intervention. Because fidelity was generally low, the panel reviewed all cases qualitatively to identify emergent types or categories of fidelity failure. Ten categories of failures emerged, characterized by therapist omissions (e.g., failure to engage key family members, failure to think in threes) and commissions (e.g., off‐model, nonsystemic formulations/interventions). Of these, “failure to think in threes” appeared basic and particularly problematic, reflecting the central place of this idea in structural theory and therapy. Although subject to possible bias, our observations highlight likely stumbling blocks in exporting a complex family treatment like BSFT to community settings. These findings also underscore the importance of treatment fidelity in family therapy research.     

Openness to Experience and regulatory focus: Evidence of motivation from fit

Regulatory fit occurs when one’s strategies of goal pursuit sustain one’s interests in an activity, which can enhance motivation [e.g., Higgins, E. T. (2005). Value from regulatory fit. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 209–213]. Because the strategic inclinations of people high (low) in Openness are similar to those of people in a promotion (prevention) focus, regulatory fit should be possible. We found that people higher in Openness were more motivated to pursue promotion-related goals (hopes/aspirations in Study 1 and a gain-framed goal in Study 2) and less motivated to pursue prevention-related goals (duties/obligations in Study 1 and a loss-framed goal in Study 2). We discuss how other traits might relate to motivation to pursue promotion- and prevention-related goals as well as other future research directions for regulatory focus and Openness.     

Effects of Helper and Recipient Sex on the Experience and Outcomes of Comforting Messages: An Experimental Investigation

The purpose of this experimental study was to examine whether and in what ways the sex of the helper and the recipient moderate the effects of comforting messages in face-to-face interactions. A total of 216 participants disclosed an emotionally upsetting event to a confederate trained to display different levels of nonverbal immediacy and verbal person centeredness. Men and women responded very similarly to comforting messages that exhibited different levels of verbal person centeredness and nonverbal immediacy, and this response similarity was not moderated by the sex of the helper. Both men and women were most comforted by messages that exhibited high levels of person centeredness and nonverbal immediacy, and they were least comforted by messages that exhibited low levels of these qualities. Moreover, both sexes viewed highly person-centered and immediate messages as exhibiting the highest comforting quality, and, with one minor exception, both sexes viewed helpers who used these messages as the most competent.     

Dyadic processes of disclosure and reciprocity in bargaining with communication

We offer a study revealing the mechanisms through which communication helps actual bargaining behavior outperform economic predictions. The possibility of individually strategic behavior in the presence of private information leads to game‐theoretic predictions of less than full efficiency. We present a one‐stage, simultaneous offers bargaining game in which buyers and sellers have independent, privately held valuations for the item being sold (i.e. a bilateral auction with two‐sided private information). In three communication treatments, parties are: (a) allowed face‐to‐face communication prior to submitting offers; (b) allowed written communication prior to submitting offers; or (c) allowed no‐communication prior to submitting offers. When parties are allowed pre‐play communication, we find nearly full efficiency (98%). We examine two systematically predictable aspects of dyadic interaction—disclosure and reciprocity—to explain how negotiators achieve this efficiency. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reversing the Gender Gap in Negotiations: An Exploration of Stereotype Regeneration

We examine how gender stereotypes affect performance in mixed-gender negotiations. We extend recent work demonstrating that stereotype activation leads to a male advantage and a complementary female disadvantage at the bargaining table (Kray, Thompson, & Galinsky, 2001). In the present investigation, we regenerate the stereotype of effective negotiators by associating stereotypically feminine skills with negotiation success. In Experiment 1, women performed better in mixed-gender negotiations when stereotypically feminine traits were linked to successful negotiating, but not when gender-neutral traits were linked to negotiation success. Gender differences were mediated by the performance expectations and goals set by negotiators. In Experiment 2, we regenerated the stereotype of effective negotiators by linking stereotypically masculine or feminine traits with negotiation ineffectiveness. Women outperformed men in mixed-gender negotiations when stereotypically masculine traits were linked to poor negotiation performance, but men outperformed women when stereotypically feminine traits were linked to poor negotiation performance. Implications for stereotype threat theory and negotiations are discussed.