Effects of pain acceptance and pain control strategies on physical impairment in individuals with chronic low back pain

Psychosocial treatments for chronic pain are effective. There is a need, however, to understand the processes involved in determining how these treatments contribute to behavior change. Control and acceptance strategies represent two potentially important processes involved in treatment, although they differ significantly in approach. Results from laboratory-based studies suggest that acceptance-oriented strategies significantly enhance pain tolerance and behavioral persistence, compared with control-oriented strategies. There is a need, however, to investigate processes of acceptance and control directly in clinical settings. The present study investigated the effects of three brief instructional sets (pain control, pain acceptance, continued practice) on demonstrated physical impairment in 74 individuals with chronic low back pain using an analogue experimental design. After controlling for baseline performance, the pain acceptance group demonstrated greater overall functioning on a set of 7 standardized physical tasks relative to the other two groups, which did not differ from one another. Further, the acceptance group exhibited a 16.3% improvement in impairment, whereas the pain control group worsened by 8.3% and the continued practice group improved by 2.5%. These results suggest that acceptance may be a key process involved in behavior change in individuals with chronic pain.     

How, When, and Why to Use Digital Experimental Virtual Environments to Study Social Behavior

Over the last decade, researchers have begun using immersive virtual environment technology (IVET; commonly known as virtual reality) to create digital experimental virtual environments (DEVEs) to investigate social psychological processes. Researchers increasingly recognize that IVET provides powerful and cost-effective ways to manipulate theoretical variables and to measure a host of outcome variables, while providing a remarkable level of experimental control and ecological realism. In this article, we discuss IVET, the nature of social influence within DEVEs, and the use of DEVEs to study social behavior.     

Axiomatic Quantum Theory

The basis of a rigorous formal axiomatization of quantum mechanics is constructed, built upon Dirac's bra–ket notation. The system is three-sorted, with separate variables for scalars, vectors and operators. First-order quantification over all three types of variable is permitted. Economy in the axioms is effected by, e.g., assigning a single logical function * to transform (i) a scalar into its complex conjugate, (ii) a ket vector into a bra and a bra into a ket, (iii) an operator into its adjoint. The system is accompanied by a formal semantics. Further papers will deal with vector subspaces and projection operators, operators with continuous spectra, tensor products, observables, and quantum mechanical probabilities.     

Carding for the Purchase of Alcohol: I'm Tougher Than Other Clerks Are1

The present research examined whether clerks believed themselves to be more likely to card customers than “other” clerks. Store clerks (N= 121) from 23 stores of a major grocery chain rated 4 person‐product profiles of hypothetical shoppers each representing distinctive lifestyle groups. Embedded within a series of items were key questions that asked how likely it was that they and other clerks would ask for identification from the shopper for the purchase of alcohol. Across all conditions, data revealed a significant positivity bias suggesting that the clerks felt that they were much better than other clerks at determining who should be asked for identification. The data are discussed in terms of their motivational implications for the false uniqueness bias.