Estimated Intelligence Moderates Cognitive Processing Therapy Outcome for Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

Although patient intelligence may be an important determinant of the degree to which individuals may comprehend, comply with, and ultimately benefit from trauma-focused treatment, no prior studies have examined the impact of patient intelligence on benefit from psychotherapies for PTSD. We investigated the degree to which educational achievement, often used as a proxy for intelligence, and estimated full scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) scores themselves moderated treatment outcomes for two effective psychotherapies for PTSD: Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Written Exposure Therapy (WET). Participants, 126 treatment-seeking adults with PTSD (52% male; mean age = 43.9, SD = 14.6), were equally randomized to CPT and WET; PTSD symptom severity was measured at baseline and 6-, 12-, 24-, 36-, and 60-weeks following the first treatment session. Multilevel models revealed that participants with higher FSIQ scores experienced significantly greater PTSD symptom reduction through the 24-week assessment in CPT but not WET; this effect did not persist through the 60-week assessment. Educational achievement did not moderate symptom change through either 24- or 60-weeks. Individuals with higher FSIQ who are treated with CPT may experience greater symptom improvement in the early stages of recovery.     

General vs health‐specific consideration of immediate and future consequences to explain eating and exercise behavior in a Norwegian student population: A randomized survey experiment

Over several decades, the consideration of future consequences (CFC) construct has been used to explain and predict health behaviors. However, the reported associations between CFC and health behaviors are relatively weak, leading to the low explanatory power of the models. Recent research suggests that CFC can be a domain‐specific construct. In this study, we explored the psychometric properties of the Norwegian CFC‐general and CFC‐health questionnaires in terms of factor structure and discriminant and convergent validity and tested the association between the general and domain‐specific CFC and exercise and eating behaviors. In a randomized survey experiment, 1,001 university students were assigned to either a CFC‐general or a CFC‐health questionnaire. In the tested models, two dimensions of CFC, consideration of immediate consequences (CFC‐I) and consideration of future consequences (CFC‐F), were independent variables. The exercise and eating behaviors, measured both as self‐evaluated behaviors and self‐reported frequency measures, were dependent variables. The results showed that in both CFC‐general and CFC‐health, CFC‐I and CFC‐F are distinct dimensions that differentially explain variance in health behaviors. A domain‐specific CFC‐health explained a significantly higher amount of variance in self‐reported eating and exercising behaviors than a general CFC. Self‐evaluated health behaviors were better explained by CFC than self‐reported behavioral frequencies. Practical implications of the findings and avenues for future research are discussed.     

Doxing Racists

The Journal of Value Inquiry -     

Medical Education for What?: Neoliberal Fascism Versus Social Justice

Journal of Medical Humanities - In her 2018 book, What the Eyes Don’t See, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha wrote that it is the duty of doctors to speak out against injustice. In fact, no other...     

Splitting the affective atom: Divergence of valence and approach-avoidance motivation during a dynamic emotional experience

Current Psychology - Valence and approach-avoidance motivation are two distinct but closely related components of affect. However, little is known about how these two processes evolve and covary in...     

Regression II. Development through regression

As shown in our previous paper (‘Regression I. Experimental approaches to regression’, JAP, 65, 2, 345-65), the common mechanism of regression can be described as reversible dedifferentiation, which is understood as a relative increase of the proportion of low-differentiated (older) systems in actualized experience. Experimental data show that regression following disease (chronic tension headache) is followed by adaptation and an increase in system differentiation in that experience domain which contains systems responsible for that adaptation. The results of mathematical modelling support the idea that reversible dedifferentiation can be one of the mechanisms for increasing the effectiveness of adaptation through learning. Reversible dedifferentiation, which is phenomenologically described as regression, is a general mechanism for restructuring the organism-environment interactions in situations where behaviours that were effective in the past become ineffective. Reversible dedifferentiation has evolved as a component of adaptation when new behaviours are formed and large-scale modifications in the existing behaviours are required in the face of changes in the external and/or internal environment. Thus, the authors believe that this article provides evidence for Jung’s view that regression is not only a ‘return’ to past forms of thinking, affects and behaviour, but that regressive processes provide a significant impetus for psychological growth and development.     

Examining generalization of motorist yielding at an adjacent crosswalk with variations of the gateway sign configuration

The gateway sign configuration has been effective at increasing motorist yielding and reducing speeds at crosswalks. A gateway configuration uses in-street signs at a crosswalk on each edge of the roadway and on each lane line. Although this intervention is effective at increasing motorist yielding at uncontrolled crosswalks, the limits of the intervention have yet to be tested. The present study examined if 1) the effects of the gateway intervention on one crosswalk would generalize to an untreated adjacent crosswalk, and 2) if the effects of an offset configuration of signs which partially treated each crosswalk could maximize the effects of that generalization. Experiment 1 showed that less yielding occurred at the untreated crosswalk than at the treated crosswalk, though yielding was higher than baseline. In Experiment 2, results showed that an offset gateway configuration could produce comparable levels of yielding at both crosswalks.     

Aging Affects the Ability to Process the Optic Flow Stimulations: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectrometry Study

Abstract

Optic flow (OF) has been utilized to investigate the sensory integration of visual stimuli during postural control. It is little known how the OF speed affects the aging brain during the sensory integration process of postural control. This study was to examine the effect of OF speeds on the brain activation using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and postural sway between younger and older adults. Eleven healthy younger adults (5M/6F, age 22?±?1-year-old) and ten healthy older adults (4M/6F, age 71?±?5-year-old) participated in this study. A virtual reality headset was used to provide the OF stimulus at different speeds. A forceplate was used to record the center-of-pressure to compute the amplitude of postural sway (peak-to-peak). Compared with younger adults, older adults showed significantly increased activation in the OF speed of 10?m/s and decreased activation in the OF speed of 20?m/s in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Older adults also showed decreased activation in the left temporoparietal region (VEST) in the OF speed of 20?m/s. A significant difference in peak-to-peak was found between groups. Our results indicated that age might be associated with the ability to process fast OF stimulation.