Group versus individual cognitive-behavioural treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder: a controlled trial

The efficacy of group cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has received relatively little research attention compared with the large number of studies that have investigated individual CBT. The current study is the first controlled study to compare an identical CBT protocol, containing both cognitive and behavioural elements, delivered either individually or in a group. Participants were randomly assigned to either 10 weeks of individual CBT, 10 weeks of group CBT or a 10 week wait-list. Participants with significant rates of secondary comorbidity were included in the study to enhance the generalisability of results. Intention-to-treat and completer analyses were carried out and indicated no differences between the group and individual treatments on outcome measures. Large effect sizes were found for both conditions. Analysis of clinically significant change indicated that the individual treatment was associated with a more rapid response but that both treatments had equivalent rates of recovered participants by brief follow-up. The importance of further investigations of the efficacy of group CBT for OCD is discussed.     

Police interviewing and psychological vulnerabilities: predicting the likelihood of a confession

This paper is concerned with examining the differences between people who confess and those who deny offences during a police interview. The main hypothesis under investigation is that psychologically vulnerable suspects are particularly likely to confess. This paper is also concerned with identifying variables that might be related to the confession process. One hundred and sixty suspects detained at two London police stations were assessed psychologically prior to being interviewed by the police. The results of this assessment, an analysis of the interview procedure and biographic details were subjected to a logistic regression analysis. There was no evidence to support our main hypothesis. However, suspects were more likely to confess if they reported having consumed an illicit (non-prescribed) drug in the previous 24-hour period, and less likely to confess when interviewed in the presence of a legal adviser or if they had experience of prison or custodial remand. In this study younger suspects were also more likely to confess. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Career Happiness Among Asian Americans: The Interplay Between Individualism and Interdependence

Career happiness is reexamined for relevance to non‐Western cultures. Joseph Campbell's (1968, 1972, 1988) interpretations of myth are reviewed for individualistic vs. interdependent themes and critiqued in light of Asian American vocational concerns, with examples from Chinese culture. Counselors are encouraged to reflect cultural sensitivity and understanding through collectivist interpretations of mythological archetypes and metaphors. La felicidad de la carrera se reconsidera para la aplicabilidad a culturas no‐occidentales. Las interpretaciones de Joseph Campbell (1968, 1972, 1988) del mito se revisan para individualista vs. temas interdependientes y critican en relación a Asiático Americano preocupación vocacional, con ejemplos de la cultura china. Los consejeros son alentados a reflejar la sensibilidad cultural y el entendimiento por interpretaciones colectivistas de arquetipos y metáforas mitológicos.     

Secrecy and suggestibility: are children's memories for secrets less suggestible than other memories?

Adult secrecy research has found a memory‐enhancing effect for information kept secret as the secret is mentally rehearsed each time the adult is required to prevent it being reported (e.g. Lane & Wegner, 1994). The present study examined possible memory‐enhancing effects of children keeping information secret. Two hundred and thirty two five to eight year olds took part in a puppet‐making task. During the task the puppet‐maker sprayed glitter onto the puppets. Half the children were told to keep a secret (that the spray had been taken from Disneyland) and the other half (the control group) were merely told the spray was from Disneyland. One week later the children were interviewed either by the puppet‐maker (the secret‐giver) or by the puppet‐maker's friend (the secret‐novice). The five to six year olds showed no effect of the secret condition, whereas the seven to eight year olds made significantly less errors in their free recall in the secret condition compared to the control condition. There was no effect of the secret condition on children's suggestibility to leading questions. However, both age groups were significantly more suggestible when interviewed by the secret‐giver. Finally, both age groups showed a recall deficit in the secret condition. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Combining advice: the weight of a dissenting opinion in the consensus

We present two studies that evaluate how people combine advice and how they respond to outlying opinions. In a preliminary study, we found that individuals use discounting strategies when they encounter an extreme opinion in a small sample of opinions taken only once (a one‐shot advice‐taking situation). The main study examines the influence of outlying opinions (which may or may not be accurate) within a learning paradigm with feedback. This study shows that it is easy to reinforce a discounting strategy (with feedback) whereas it is more difficult to counteract this default strategy. In the discussion we consider cognitive, statistical, and strategic justifications for discounting opinions, from both theoretical and practical points of view. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence analysis of ranking data

This paper develops diagnostic measures to identify those observations in Thurstonian models for ranking data which unduly influence parameter estimates that are obtained by the partition maximum likelihood approach of Chan and Bentler (1998). Diagnostic measures are constructed by employing the local influence approach that uses geometric techniques to assess the effect of small perturbations on a postulated statistical model. Very little additional effort is required to compute the proposed diagnostic measures, because all of the necessary building blocks are readily available after a usual fit of the model. The work described in this paper was partially supported by the grants from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (RGC Ref. No. CUHK4186/98P and RGC Direct Grant ID2060178). The authors are grateful to the Editor and four anonymous referees for their helpful comments.     

Exceptional intelligence and easygoingness may hurt your prospects: Threshold effects for rated mate characteristics

Prospective mate characteristics such as kindness, intelligence, easygoingness, and physical attraction are ranked consistently highly by both men and women. However, rank measurement does not allow for determinations of what level of a mate characteristic is rated most desirable. Based on a more informative percentile scale measurement approach, it was reported recently that mean desirability ratings of IQ in a prospective partner peaked at the 90th percentile, with a statistically significant reduction from the 90th to the 99th percentiles. The purpose of this investigation was to replicate the recently reported non‐linear desirability effect associated with IQ, in addition to the evaluation of three other valued mate characteristics: easygoing, kindness, and physical attraction. Based on a sample of 214 young adults, it was found that all four mate characteristics peaked at the 90th percentile. However, the IQ and easygoing mean desirability ratings evidenced statistically significant mean reductions across the 90th to the 99th percentiles, whereas kindness and physical attraction did not. Finally, the objectively and subjectively assessed intelligence of the participants was not found to be associated with the participants’ desirability ratings of IQ. We interpreted the results to be consistent with a broadly conceptualized threshold hypothesis, which states that the perceived benefits of valued mate characteristics may not extend beyond a certain point. However, mate characteristics such as intelligence and easygoing become somewhat less attractive at very elevated levels, at least based on preference ratings, for reasons that may be biological and/or psycho‐social in nature.     

Gender differences on laugh‐related traits: A cross‐sectional study

People have different responses to being laughed at, including fear of being laughed at, joy from being laughed at and joy from hearing others laugh. Previous studies have indicated that men have a higher tendency of laughing at others, but there were no gender differences on terms of the other two responses. Socioemotional selectivity theory indicates that individuals pay less attention to negative stimuli as they get older. It is worth investigating whether the gender differences of gelotophobia and gelotophilia occur in certain developmental stages. The present study is a cross‐sectional study, with a sample size of 1247 participants; we collected information regarding laugh‐related traits among participants 11–66 years old, and we particularly focused on the moderation effect of age on gender differences on gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism. The results showed that men had a stronger tendency for laughing at others, but there were no significant gender differences on terms of gelotophobia and gelotophilia; age not only moderated the relationship between gender and gelotophobia but also the relationship between gender and katagelasticism. Male adolescents had higher incidences of gelotophobia and katagelasticism than female adolescents, but this finding was not consistent in the middle adulthood sample. The present study found age to be a moderator between gender and laugh‐related traits, and it indicated the influence of age on the fear of being laughed at during early adolescence, but there was no gender difference with respect to katagelasticism in middle adulthood.     

Paradoxical Associations of Masculine Ideology and Casual Sex Among Heterosexual Male Geosocial Networking App Users in China

Momo, the most popular geosocial networking app in China, is used as a common platform to seek casual sex. The present study, which is based on the social constructionist view of gender, examines how the endorsement of masculinity among heterosexual male Momo users is associated with the number of casual sex partners they meet on the app. The study also explores the mediating role of the sex motive for using Momo. Analyses of survey data from 125 heterosexual male Momo users showed that the endorsement of masculinity had an indirect positive relationship with the number of sex partners mediated by the sex motive; at the same time, it had a direct but negative association with the number of sex partners. These paradoxical associations were explained by different patterns across the individual dimensions of masculinity ideology. Specifically, the dimension of the Importance of Sex was responsible for the positive indirect association whereas the dimension of Avoidance of Femininity was responsible for the negative direct association. These findings are discussed in relation to the wen-wu dyad of Chinese masculinity. Because unsafe sex has been found to be associated with the use of geosocial networking apps, my study also calls for integrating the concept of practicing safer sex with the cultural ideal of masculinity.