Ideal antecedent criteria variables in psychotherapy: A proposed solution to the irregular effects phenomenon

The concept of antecedent criteria variables is introduced as a means of understanding the conditions necessary for the development of psychotherapy. Previous psychotherapy research is criticized for its failure to define the criteria variables essential for the evolution of the necessary and sufficient factors that would determine if psychotherapy is occurring. In order to test the hypothesis that antecedent criteria variables are important, a questionnaire was mailed to 1600 practicing psychotherapists. From the 545 questionnaires returned, the data indicates that psychotherapists consider the concept important, although the application of the criteria is somewhat irregular. Findings are discussed in terms of the implications for future clinical research.     

The outlook for policy-making: An epistemological perspective

Improving the quality of public policy-making is a matter of great importance for nearly everyone. Significant improvements, however, require major (and unlikely?) changes in the epistemological foundations accepted by social inquirers—changes that make possible a conception of “policy” that can be used to achieve real world purposes reliably. A theory of knowledge adequate for that purpose is outlined, and some of its major implications for inquiry (and for policy-making) are explored very briefly.     

Factor and cluster analyses with the Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study.

The Rosenzweig Picture Frustration (P-F) Study data of 104 psychiatric hospital patients, 56 males and 48 females, were subjected first to a Factor Analysis and then to a Cluster Analysis. In the former, five factors were extracted which showed some similarity to other Factor Analyses reported in the literature. The Cluster Analysis turned up one very large group (42% of the sample) characterized by depression and P-F profiles with elevated i and very low E scores. Seven other clusters are described in the article. The factors and clusters found are clinically meaningful and can provide assistance in interpreting P-F profiles. Recommendations for a revised P-F manual to enhance the usefulness of the test are made.     

Simple drawing and pattern completion techniques for studying visualization and long-term visual knowledge

Simple and efficient drawing and completion tasks for studying visual memory are developed. In Experiment I subjects reproduced a series of matrix patterns by filling empty matrices. The serial position function was fiat, except that accuracy was much higher for final patterns. In Experiment 2 this recency effect was removed by an interpolated pattern classification task. Experiments 3 and 4 examined the effect of counting backward during intervals of from 3 to 15 sec on the recall of single patterns. Drawings were much less accurate after filled intervals but the duration of the interval had no effect. Experiment 5 tested retention of series of patterns using a completion task. On immediate test the serial position function was the same as in Experiments 1 and 2. On a final test accuracy was unchanged except for final items, which then showed a small negative recency effect. It is argued that performance is so similar in the drawing, completion, and previously reported recognition tasks because in all it is based upon the use of general-purpose knowledge accessible to voluntary processing. Visualization in these tasks is analogous to but different from verbal STM. One main difference is that there is no sign of temporary storage of visualized information after attention has turned to other things.     

Generalization of Habituation and Intrinsic Sensitization in the Leech

Using the shortening reflex of the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis we examined stimulus generalization of habituation learning. Preparations received mechanosensory stimulus at two positions on the leech body wall, one site used to carry out habituation training and a second novel site to test for generalization of habituation. After training, the specific mechanosensory neurons activated by each stimulus were assessed using intracellular recordings. As expected, the closer the two sites were to each other, the greater the degree of generalization of habituation at the novel site and the more sensory cells were shared. However, a form of behavioral facilitation was observed at the trained site that resembled behavioral sensitization, but differed from the standard sensitization process in several respects. (1) Facilitation was induced by stimulation of the novel site before habituation training at the trained site, although the stimulus intensity at the novel site was equivalent to the training stimuli and was not the strong, noxious stimuli that normally induce sensitization. (2) The magnitude of the facilitating effect was proportional to the proximity of the novel and trained stimulation sites. (3) Although behavior at the trained site was facilitated, behavior at the novel site was habituated, indicating that the induced behavioral facilitation did not generalize throughout the animal, as normally occurs during sensitization, but was limited to a single stimulus–response pathway.     

More than "just a joke": the prejudice-releasing function of sexist humor

The results of two experiments supported the hypothesis that, for sexist men, exposure to sexist humor can promote the behavioral release of prejudice against women. Experiment 1 demonstrated that hostile sexism predicted the amount of money participants were willing to donate to a women's organization after reading sexist jokes but not after reading nonhumorous sexist statements or neutral jokes. Experiment 2 showed that hostile sexism predicted the amount of money participants cut from the budget of a women's organization relative to four other student organizations upon exposure to sexist comedy skits but not neutral comedy skits. A perceived local norm of approval of funding cuts for the women's organization mediated the relationship between hostile sexism and discrimination against the women's organization.     

Positivity and the Construction of Life Satisfaction Judgments: Global Happiness is not the Sum of its Parts

The present study investigated how reports of satisfaction with specific versus global domains can be used to assess a disposition towards positivity in subjective well-being reports. College students from 41 societies (N = 7167) completed measures of life satisfaction and ratings of global and specific aspects of their lives. For example, participants rated satisfaction with their education (global) and satisfaction with their professors, textbooks, and lectures (specific). It was hypothesized that global measures would more strongly reflect individual differences in dispositional positivity, that is, a propensity to evaluate aspects of life in general as good. At both the individual and national levels, positivity predicted life satisfaction beyond objective measures. Also, positivity was associated with norms about ideal life satisfaction such that countries and individuals who highly valued positive emotions were more likely to display positivity. The difference between more global versus more concrete measures of satisfaction can be used as an indirect and subtle measure of positivity.     

Social Information Processing Skills in Children with Histories of Heavy Prenatal Alcohol Exposure

Based on caregiver report, children with prenatal alcohol exposure have difficulty with social functioning, but little is known about their social cognition. The current study assessed the social information processing patterns of school-age children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure using a paradigm based on Crick and Dodge’s reformulated six-stage model. Fifty-two children (aged 7–11) with and without heavy prenatal alcohol exposure were tested using a structured interview measure of social information processing involving 18 videotaped vignettes of children in group entry and provocation situations. Alcohol-exposed children displayed maladaptive processing patterns on the goal, response generation, and response evaluation steps in group entry situations, and encoding, attribution, response evaluation, and enactment steps during provocation situations. Children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure also had difficulty on the Test of Problem Solving, and performance correlated with social information processing measures. Such difficulties may lead to problems in social functioning and warrant early intervention.     

The Role of Ideal Affect in the Experience and Memory of Emotions

According to Affect Valuation Theory (Tsai et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1031–1039), culture influences how people want to feel (ideal affect). Integrating Affect Valuation Theory with the Time-sequential Framework of Subjective Well-being (Kim-Prieto et al. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 261–300), we proposed that cultural norms influence the memory, but not the experience, of emotion. The present study examined the role of ideal affect in relation to experience sampling and retrospective reports of emotion. Ideal affect correlated with retrospective reports but not experience sampling reports. Extraversion and neuroticism were more strongly related to experience sampling reports than to ideal levels of emotion. Results suggest that retrospective reports of emotion involve a dynamic process that incorporates cultural information into the reconstruction whereas on-line emotions are more constrained by temperament.