Positive and problematic dissertation experiences: The faculty perspective

We interviewed 14 clinical and counseling psychology faculty regarding their experiences chairing positive and problematic dissertations. Data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research (CQR). Participants reported that advisors’ roles involved guiding/facilitating dissertations and helping students shape research ideas; students’ roles included taking responsibility, working independently, and maintaining good relationships with the chair/committee. With positive dissertation experiences, chairs and students collaborated before the dissertation, worked together well during the dissertation, and students began the dissertation feeling competent and motivated; such dissertations positively affected participants. Problematic dissertation experiences evinced difficult relationships between chair and student, and students’ low research capability; such dissertations negatively affected participants.     

Pragmatic difficulties in children with specific language impairment. The role of mentalistic tasks

Several subjects with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show communicative and pragmatic problems. In this study, we suggested that mentalistic comprehension tasks would help us to find a deteriorated pragmatic profile among the population with SLI. To achieve this goal, a group of participants with conventional SLI (n=11) was compared to a group of SLI with more pragmatic problems (n=9) and their respective control group with typically developed language (n=13), of ages between 4 and 7 years. Results revealed that all the groups were able to attribute mental states in tasks where the context was structured. However, the subjects with predominant pragmatic SLI showed poorer performance than those with conventional SLI when tasks were communicative-oriented and they needed to process non-explicit information from the context. These findings suggest that it is possible to isolate a SLI subtype with more pragmatic problems and also that we can use mentalistic tasks to assess these difficulties more accurately.     

Audiovisual bounce-inducing effect: When sound congruence affects grouping in vision

Two disks moving from opposite points in space, overlapping, and stopping at one another’s starting point can be seen as either bouncing off one another or streaming through one another. With silent displays, observers report streaming, whereas, if a sound is played when the disks are in the overlap region, observers report bouncing. The change in perception is thought to be modulated by a lack of attention that inhibits the integration of the motion signal when disks overlap and by the sound that increases the congruence of the display, in comparison with a real elastic bounce. Here, we accompanied the disks’ motion with either a bounce-congruent sound (a billiard ball) or with bounce-incongruent sounds (a water drop, a firework). When the sound was switched on 200 msec before the disks’ overlap, (1) all the audiovisual displays induced more bounce responses than did the silent display, but (2) the bounce-congruent sound induced more bounce responses than did the bounceincongruent sounds. However, when the sound was switched on at the disks’ overlap, only the first result was observed. These results highlight both the role of attention and that of sound congruence.     

Focusing on the bodily self: The influence of endogenous attention on visual body processing

The present study explores whether endogenous attention can modulate body perception. A modified version of the Posner paradigm was used to direct participants' attention toward the appearance of distinct body images, which differed only in detailed idiosyncratic features: one's own and another person's hands. Hand stimuli were preceded by symbolic cues that predicted their identity with high probability, which made it possible to compare the processing of expected (valid) and unexpected (invalid) targets. Results revealed that endogenous attention influenced the processing of participants' own hands by speeding participants' responses to valid in contrast to invalid trials. Crucially, no validity effect was found for the hands of another person. These findings cannot be explained in terms of perceptual familiarity, since an optimization of the processing for both familiar and unfamiliar faces by symbolic cues was observed. In light of these results, it is suggested that participants are able to anticipate particular stimuli within the same perceptual category as long as these stimuli appear to be remarkably distinct to them, which is probably the case for particular faces and their own bodies, in contrast to other people's bodies.     

Dwelling on the hill: Impressions of residents of two favelas in Rio de Janeiro regarding religion and public space

Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with residents in two favelas in Rio de Janeiro, this paper argues that the concept of ‘the divided city’ (fixed and nomadic, planned and negotiated, rich and poor) allows us to make sense of these residents' views of religion and public space. Life ‘on the hill’ is characterised by a greater degree of negotiation and improvisation in all its social relations than is life below in ‘the asphalt’. This offers important insights into the success of Evangelicals [Apart from here in the abstract, references to ‘evangelicals’ in the text follow Brazilian usage, i.e., a broad term including three groups of Protestants: mainstream historical churches or “evangélicos de missão” (Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc); Pentecostals (Assembléia de Deus, Congregação Cristã, Deus é Amor, etc.); and Neo-pentecostals (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, Igreja da Graça de Deus, Igreja Apostólica Renascer em Cristo, etc).(S.E./C.M.)] and Pentecostals, and the relative lack of success by Catholics, in taking a lead in public activities within the community. This finding may well have broader application. However, the paper makes a theoretical and methodological qualification: because the place of religion depends on the particular history and context of the location studied, the most pressing need is for more local studies.     

Factors influencing the temporal relationship between alcohol consumption and experiences with aggression among college women.

The authors assessed temporal relationships among alcohol use, aggression, and mood using daily data from 179 college women. Participants called an interactive voice response system over an 8-week period. The odds of experiencing verbal, sexual, and physical aggression (odd ratios = 2.25, 19.44, and 11.84, respectively) were significantly higher on heavy drinking days (M = 7.46 drinks) compared to nondrinking days. Both a history of victimization and greater psychological symptom severity influenced the odds of involvement in verbal aggression. The odds of alcohol consumption were 3 times higher during the 24 hr following verbal aggression compared with days in which verbal aggression did not occur. On the day immediately following involvement in either verbal or physical aggression, positive mood decreased and negative mood increased. During the week (2-7 days) following sexual aggression, women's positive mood was decreased. These findings reinforce the need for interventions aimed at reducing heavy episodic drinking on college campuses.     

Short-Term Inpatient DBT Combined with Metacognitive Interventions for Personality Disorders: A Pilot Acceptability and Effectiveness Study

This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of an intensive 1-month residential treatment course in an Italian psychiatric unit for patients meeting criteria for personality disorders (PD). This study involved 189 patients consecutively admitted to the unit and assessed at admission and discharge. The inpatient program was based on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) combined with Metacognitive interventions. Primary outcome was a reduction of general symptom severity (as measured by SCL-90-R). Secondary outcomes were reduction in depression (BDI), interpersonal problems (IIP-47). Other outcomes were impulsivity (BIS-11), aggressiveness (AQ), and dissociation (DES). We found a significant reduction in symptom severity, as well as in depression, interpersonal problems, dissociation, impulsivity and aggressiveness. The size of this benefit was predicted mostly by number of criteria met at SCID-II and intake scores mostly for impulsiveness and dissociation. In conclusion, intensive 1-month residential DBT combined with metacognitive interventions can be effective in treating patients with any PD presenting with severe global suffering, prominent self-harm and suicidal risk.

     

Health Beliefs and Behaviors of Women Who Have Received Genetic Counseling For Breast Cancer

There are both genetic and behavioral risk factors for breast cancer, but the interaction between these factors is not clear. Little is known about the impact of receiving genetic risk information for breast cancer on behaviors such as diet and physical activity. Seven focus groups were conducted with 23 women who had recently received genetic counseling for breast cancer, in order to explore health beliefs and behaviors following genetic counseling. Findings revealed that there was much confusion and uncertainty about the associations between health behaviors and breast cancer risk, and participants reported that receiving genetic counseling had little impact on health protective behaviors. Further research is required to understand variation in response to genetic risk information, and to assess the impact of providing additional information regarding lifestyle factors.