What happens in a psychoanalysis?

A group of experienced analysts has developed scales and a coding manual illustrated with clinical examples to evaluate recorded analyses and psychodynamic therapies. The analytic process scales (APS) assesses three dimensions: (1) the contribution of the analyst: helping to develop a relationship in which the analyst can provide clarification and interpretation of transference and resistance; (2) the contribution of the patient: the communication of experience and the expression of feeling in ways which provide information about needs, wishes and conflicts, accompanied by self-reflection; and (3) interactional characteristics of the emerging relationship, explored by studying sessions divided into psychoanalytically coherent segments. A preliminary study of nine sessions has established that the variables assessed by the APS can be rated reliably. Study of the analysts' contributions illuminated their varied and complexstructure. Important differences emerged among the three patient-analyst pairs studied, and changes in scores over time tracked developments in the analytic work which would imply different treatment outcomes. The APS appears to be a reliable tool facilitating the systematic study of psychoanalyses.     

Learning new faces in typically developing children and children on the autistic spectrum

As faces become familiar, recognition becomes easier but the style of processing also changes. Here, twenty-one typically developing (TD) children and twenty-one children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were familiarised with 6 identities over 3 days. Next, they completed a 4-alternative forced-choice matching test in which targets were the 6 familiarised faces and 6 unfamiliar faces. The TD group showed a significant advantage for familiarised faces when matching whole faces and both internal and external facial regions. The ASD group showed similar familiarisation effects for whole and external faces, but not for internal regions. The ASD group was also impaired at matching eyes and mouths of familiarised faces. Results suggest the process of acquiring familiarity with faces differs from ASD and TD children.     

The Glasgow Face Matching Test

We describe a new test for unfamiliar face matching, the Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT). Viewers are shown pairs of faces, photographed in full-face view but with different cameras, and are asked to make same/different judgments. The full version of the test comprises 168 face pairs, and we also describe a shortened version with 40 pairs. We provide normative data for these tests derived from large subject samples. We also describe associations between the GFMT and other tests of matching and memory. The new test correlates moderately with face memory but more strongly with object matching, a result that is consistent with previous research highlighting a link between object and face matching, specific to unfamiliar faces. The test is available free for scientific use.     

Psychological group memberships as outcomes of resource distributions

We propose that people can and will infer group memberships from resource distributions, and that these distributions have implications for people's understandings of the groups themselves and their own associations with these groups. We derive hypotheses from social identity and self‐categorization theories, and test them in three experiments. In Experiment 1, participants systematically rated specific patterns of group memberships as more likely than others in light of specific resource distributions in a manner consistent with our predictions. In Experiment 2, intragroup distributive fairness led to greater perceived self‐in‐group similarity than intra‐group distributive unfairness, while distributively unfair, in‐group favouritism led to greater perceived self‐in‐group similarity than intergroup fairness. In Experiment 3, social identification dropped following unfair, out‐group favouritism and intragroup unfairness, but not unfair, in‐group favouritism, or intragroup and intergroup fairness. The current data provide support for our hypotheses and clear evidence that resource distributions can be providers of group membership information. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A prospective test of cognitive vulnerability models of depression with adolescent girls

This study sought to provide a more rigorous prospective test of two cognitive vulnerability models of depression with longitudinal data from 496 adolescent girls. Results supported the cognitive vulnerability model in that stressors predicted future increases in depressive symptoms and onset of clinically significant major depression for individuals with a negative attributional style, but not for those with a positive attributional style, although these effects were small. This model appeared to be specific to depression, in that it did not predict future increases in bulimia nervosa or substance abuse symptoms. In contrast, results did not support the integrated cognitive vulnerability self-esteem model that asserts stressors should only predict increased depression for individuals with a confluence of negative attributional style and low self-esteem, and this model did not appear to be specific to depression.     

Attention capture by faces

We report three experiments that investigate whether faces are capable of capturing attention when in competition with other non-face objects. In Experiment 1a participants took longer to decide that an array of objects contained a butterfly target when a face appeared as one of the distracting items than when the face did not appear in the array. This irrelevant face effect was eliminated when the items in the arrays were inverted in Experiment 1b ruling out an explanation based on some low-level image-based properties of the faces. Experiment 2 replicated and extended the results of Experiment 1a. Irrelevant faces once again interfered with search for butterflies but, when the roles of faces and butterflies were reversed, irrelevant butterflies no longer interfered with search for faces. This suggests that the irrelevant face effect is unlikely to have been caused by the relative novelty of the faces or arises because butterflies and faces were the only animate items in the arrays. We conclude that these experiments offer evidence of a stimulus-driven capture of attention by faces.     

Clinical Effectiveness of the LE<Superscript>3</Superscript>AN Program: A Military Healthy Lifestyle Program

For several decades, obesity has been a major health concern within the general population of the United States as well as within the unique military population. Unlike the civilian sector, military service requires individuals to meet weight and body fat standards. In order to assist overweight military personnel return to standards, Tripler Army Medical Center initiated the LE³AN Program. LE³AN is a one-week, day-treatment, cognitive-behavioral weight management program coupled with 12 months of weekly follow-up. Baseline data was collected on 387 consecutive participants. Despite physical fitness training and required standards in each military service, the average BMIs for men and women were in the obese range, with male participants’ BMIs significantly higher than women’s (34.3 vs 31.9, p<.005). One year outcome data was collected from 167 participants, i.e. 43.2% of treatment initiators. Among participants who completed treatment, men maintained a 6.56% loss of their initial weight while women maintained a 7.35% loss. Over a quarter, 26.6%, of those who started the program (but did not complete it) maintained at least a 5% weight loss at one year, while 61.6% of treatment completers maintained 5% weight losses. The opinions expressed in this article reflect the views of the authors and not those of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Army.     

Effects of classroom context on university students’ judgments about cheating: mediating and moderating processes

Hypothetical vignettes were used to examine the effects of classroom context variables (pedagogical quality and classroom goal structure) on undergraduate (study 1) and graduate (study 2) students’ judgments about cheating. Consistent with attribution theory and previous findings, poor (versus good) pedagogy and performance (versus mastery) goals structures resulted in more teacher blame and less student blame for cheating, and cheating was rated as more acceptable and more likely in these situations. Participants’ own prior cheating history but not their experience as a classroom teacher also affected these judgments. Relations between classroom context variables and assigned blame for cheating were mediated by students’ assessments of the fairness of the classroom situation.     

Provision of Genetic Services for Hearing Loss: Results from a National Survey and Comparison to Insights Obtained from Previous Focus Group Discussions

Hearing loss is a common sensory deficit and more than 50% of affected individuals have a genetic etiology. The discovery of 40 genes and more than 100 loci involved in hearing loss has made genetic testing for some of these genes widely available. Genetic services for deafness are also being sought more often due to the early identification of hearing loss through newborn screening services. The motivations for pursuing genetic testing, and how genetic services are provided to the client may differ among individuals. Additionally, information obtained through genetic testing can be perceived and used in different ways by parents of deaf children and deaf adults. This study aimed to follow up on focus group studies published earlier with a quantitative survey instrument and assess the preference of consumers for provision of genetic services. We conducted a national survey of hearing and deaf parents of children with hearing loss and of deaf adults. Data was compared and analyzed by hearing status of the participant, their community affiliation and the genetic testing status using nominal logistic regression. Consistent with our focus group results, the survey participants thought that a genetic counselor/geneticist would be the most appropriate professional to provide genetics services. Statistically significant differences were noted in the preferred choice of provider based on the genetic testing status. Parents preferred that genetic evaluation, including testing, occur either immediately at or a few months after the audiologic diagnosis of hearing loss. This data should help providers in clinical genetics keep patient preferences at the helm and provide culturally competent services.