Predictors of Social Anxiety in Children and Adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease

The aim of this study was to examine the potential moderating effect of age on the child-reported pain–social anxiety relationship in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD). Participants were children and adolescents (ages 8–17; 33 girls, 25 boys) diagnosed with SCD who completed measures of social anxiety and severity of usual pain. Caregivers provided demographic information, and mean hemoglobin levels were computed as a measure of objective disease severity. Ratings of more severe pain were associated with greater social anxiety, including fear of negative evaluation, for older children and adolescents only, revealing a moderating effect of age. Increased relevancy of peer relationships in adolescence, limited social contacts due to SCD complications, and misreading of social cues (e.g., maladaptive coping response to pain) may explain why older children and adolescents reported greater social anxiety in the presence of a stressor such as pain.     

Responding to persons with mental illnesses: police perspectives on specialized and traditional practices

Persons with mental illnesses increasingly come into contact with police in the community due to changes in local and national policies and police responsibility for maintaining order. Recently, specialized intervention strategies have been advanced to ensure that persons with mental illnesses are not inappropriately arrested and moved into the criminal justice system. This study builds on previous research undertaken on police perceptions of dealing with persons with mental illnesses in the community and effectiveness of response (see Borum et al., 1998). A subsample of 182 officers from the Newark, NJ, Police Department was surveyed and added to a sample of 452 officers from three agencies with specialized responses to persons with mental illnesses. The authors conclude that, despite a non-specialized response to this population, the actual and perceived effectiveness of Newark's strategy is similar to (and in some cases better than) that which is observed in the agencies with specialized response programs. Implications for implementing specialized responses for persons with mental illnesses are discussed.     

Preliminary evaluation of a 10-wk. resistance and cardiovascular exercise protocol on physiological and psychological measures for a sample of older women

A preliminary 10-wk. study was conducted to determine the effect a combined strength and cardiovascular exercise protocol had on both physiological and psychological change in 17 older (M age = 66.8 yr.), formerly sedentary women. The protocol was associated with better adherence than typically found for new and returning exercisers. Significant improvements over 10 wk. were found on Body Mass Index, body fat, resting heart rate, and balance. Significant, positive changes in mean ratings were also found on Physical Self-concept, Total Mood Disturbance, Depression, and Fatigue (small to moderate treatment effect sizes). Although no significant changes were found for rated Tension, Vigor, Anger, and Confusion, mean changes were in the desired direction and rated Tension showed a moderate effect size. The need for replication, including a control group and follow-up, plus continued research on exercise protocols both well-tolerated and effective for older individuals and other specific groups, were discussed.     

Defensive copers show a deficit in passive avoidance learning on Newman's go/no-go task: implications for self-deception and socialization

The present study investigated whether passive avoidance learning was retarded by defensive coping strategies designed to minimize exposure to negatively valenced stimuli. High-anxious individuals, low-anxious individuals, and defensive copers completed a computerized go/no-go task, in which they learned when to press or not to press a button, in response to contingent positive and negative feedback. The duration that feedback remained onscreen was self-regulated. Defensive copers showed preferential reflection away from negative feedback, committed more passive-avoidance errors, and were characterized by impaired learning, overall. Further, the ratio of reflection on negative feedback to reflection on positive feedback directly mediated both passive-avoidance errors and overall learning. Defensive coping strategies, therefore, appear to interfere with passive avoidance learning, thereby fostering perseverative, dysfunctional action patterns by reducing knowledge gained from previous mistakes. Implications for the learning of effective socialization strategies, and for psychopathy-which is commonly characterized by similar passive-avoidance deficits-are subsequently considered.     

The influence of belief that a car crashed on witnesses' estimates of civilian and police car speed

The authors performed 2 experiments investigating the influence of the belief that a vehicle crashed on witnesses' estimates of the vehicle's speed. In Experiment 1, participants saw a video of a civilian car being driven, after which they were assigned to 1 of 2 conditions. The 1st group was told that the vehicle subsequently crashed; the 2nd group was not told that the vehicle crashed. The results indicted no differences between the 2 groups on a number of factors, including estimates of the vehicle's speed. Experiment 2 was identical except that the video showed a police car using flashing lights and sirens. Participants who had been told that the car had crashed overestimated speed, the likelihood of a crash, and the likelihood of someone being killed. Participants who were not told that the vehicle crashed estimated the speed of the vehicle accurately. Confidence in their estimates of speed was not significantly different between the 2 groups. Results are discussed with regard to police investigations of road accidents.     

Finding the "genuine" schizotype: a model and method for resolving heterogeneity in performance on laboratory measures in experimental psychopathology research

Heterogeneity in the performance of persons affected with schizophrenia or schizotypic psychopathology on various laboratory tasks has long been recognized, both for its consistency across tasks and studies and for the massive methodological and substantive challenges it poses for experimental psychopathology, genetic, and other investigations. Traditional multivariate techniques, such as factor analysis, discriminant function analysis, and cluster analysis, have all been deemed inadequate for resolving heterogeneity, because of one or another statistical limitation. Here, an objective statistical approach based on a formal statistical model that uses the ubiquitous and well-developed expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm (A. P. Dempster, N. M. Laird, & D. B. Rubin, 1977) is presented, which enables one effectively to partition a group of experimental subjects, in this case identified initially using the well-known Perceptual Aberration Scale (L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, & M. L. Raulin, 1978), in a manner that reduces heterogeneity and allows for the separation of what are termed genuine and false-positive schizotypes. The validity of the parsing strategy was supported by reference to other laboratory indexes of relevance to schizophrenia and schizotypy that were not included in the initial EM-based analyses. The potential utility of this approach is discussed with reference to future schizophrenia and schizotypy research.     

Examining college students' food security coping strategies and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

College students' food situations may have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have affected their health and well-being. However, little is known about how the pandemic impacted students' food experiences and how students coped with food-related disruptions, particularly from the student's own perspective. This study reviews data from 571 undergraduates who attended public colleges during Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 and wrote a narrative about the pandemic's impact on their food experiences. Most students indicated they experienced a wide range of food difficulties and adapted new food practices. Despite these challenges, students emphasized proactive coping strategies and positive pandemic outcomes rather than difficulties and negative outcomes. These findings have implications for students' long-term health and well-being.     

Gender and Truthfulness in Daily Life Situations

To determine the extent to which perceivedgender enters into judgments of credibility indaily-life situations, 46 raters (23 males and 23females matched for age and education) read a set ofaccusations and rated synthetic speakers' audiotapedresponses to the accusations on how believable the maleand female synthetic speakers were. The results suggestthat on the daily-life scenarios posed, both male and female speakers are equally likely to judgefemale speakers to be more credible than male speakers,whether the accusation is deemed to reflect anintentional or negligent act.     

An Applied Mereology of the City: Unifying Science and Philosophy for Urban Planning

Based on their research showing that growing cities follow basic principles, two theoretical physicists, Luis Bettencourt and Geoffrey West, call for researchers and professionals to contribute to a grand theory of urban sustainability. In their research, they develop a ‘science of the city’ to help urban planners address problems that arise from population increases. Although they provide valuable insights for understanding urban sustainability issues, they do not give planners a manageable way to approach such problems. I argue that developing an applied mereology to understand the concept of ‘city identity’ gives planners a theoretical device for addressing urban affairs, including ethical concerns. In turn, I devise a model of city identity to show how a ‘philosophy of the city’ contributes to a grand theory of urban sustainability.