Zoonotic and non-zoonotic diseases in relation to human personality and societal values: Support for the parasite-stress model

The parasite-stress model of human sociality proposes that humans' ontogenetic experiences with infectious diseases as well as their evolutionary historical interactions with these diseases exert causal influences on human psychology and social behavior. This model has been supported by cross-national relationships between parasite prevalence and human personality traits, and between parasite prevalence and societal values. Importantly, the parasite-stress model emphasizes the causal role of non-zoonotic parasites (which have the capacity for human-to-human transmission), rather than zoonotic parasites (which do not), but previous studies failed to distinguish between these conceptually distinct cate- gories. The present investigation directly tested the differential predictive effects of zoonotic and non-zoonotic (both human-specific and multihost) parasite prevalence on personality traits and societal values. Supporting the parasite-stress model, cross-national differences in personality traits (unrestricted sexuality, extraversion, openness to experi- ences) and in societal values (individualism, collectivism, gender equality, democratiza- tion) are predicted specifically by non-zoonotic parasite prevalence.     

Bisexual Health: A Daily Diary Analysis of Stress and Anxiety

The current study aimed to develop a more complete picture of the day-to-day experience of mental health for bisexual people, including the relationships between social interactions and mental health. Specifically, the relationships between the occurrence of microaggressions and positive and negative identity events and reports of stress and anxiety within individuals were observed. Feelings of self-esteem, positive and negative affect, social belonging, and sexual identity certainty and centrality were also investigated as between-subject factors. Positive identity events were negatively associated with reports of stress and anxiety, whereas negative identity events were positively associated with stress and microaggressions positively associated with anxiety.     

Dysphoria and memory for emotional material: A diffusion-model analysis

Depression-related differences in memory for emotional material are well established, but recognition memory and lexical decision tasks often fail to produce consistent results. The null results from these tasks could be due to inadequacies in traditional analyses rather than the absence of effects. In particular, analyses of accuracy or mean reaction times rely on only a fraction of the behavioural data and are sensitive to individual differences in response biases. The diffusion model addresses these limitations by incorporating all of the behavioural data and separating out response biases. We applied the diffusion model to data from lexical decision and recognition memory tasks and showed consistent effects, specifically a positive emotional bias in non-dysphoric subjects and even-handedness in dysphoric subjects. This pattern was not apparent with comparisons of reaction times or accuracy, consistent with previous null findings. These results suggest a relationship between dysphoria and the internal representation of emotional information.     

Roofies,Mickies and Cautionary Tales: Examining the Persistence of the “Date-Rape Drug” Crime Narrative

This article examines the origins and persistence of the “roofies” story, a crime narrative that emerged during the mid 1990s, warning women to guard their drinks against lurking predators seeking to incapacitate and rape them. The article explores both the construction of this crime story as a panic over club drugs and its persistence as a women's cautionary tale. We argue that the roofies narrative has endured long beyond the typical crime story because it has been reified as an institutionalized and protected rape narrative that is oft-repeated and rarely challenged.     

Bridging Science to Practice: Achieving Prevention Program Implementation Fidelity in the Community Youth Development Study

This paper describes the development, application, and results of an implementation monitoring component of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention framework used in the Community Youth Development Study (CYDS) to ensure high-fidelity prevention program implementation. This system was created based on research that community-based implementation of evidence-based prevention programs often includes adaptations in program design, content, or manner of delivery (Gottfredson and Gottfredson, Journal of research in crime and delinquency, 39, 3-35, 2002; Hallfors and Godette, Health Education Research, 17, 461-470, 2002; Wandersman and Florin, American Psychologist, 58, 441-448, 2003). A lack of fidelity to the implementation standards delineated by program designers is one indicator of a gap between prevention science and practice which can lessen the likelihood that communities will realize the positive participant effects demonstrated in research trials. By using the CTC model to select and monitor the quality of prevention activities, the 12 CYDS communities replicated 13 prevention programs with high rates of adherence to the programs' core components and in accordance with dosage requirements regarding the number, length, and frequency of sessions. This success indicates the potential of the CTC program implementation monitoring system to enhance community Prevention Delivery Systems (Wandersman et al. American Journal of Community Psychology, this issue) and improve the likelihood of desired participant changes.     

Motor maps, seizures, and behaviour

Atypically organised motor maps have been described in some people with epilepsy and we have modelled this in rats. Our goal is to more fully understand the mechanisms responsible for seizure-induced functional brain reorganisation and to reverse their effects. Here we present an overview of the relationship between neocortical motor maps, seizures, and interictal behaviour. To begin we summarise the observations of atypical motor maps with epilepsy and in animal models following experimentally induced seizures. Our novel experiments have established that motor map expansion is linked to a functional alteration of motor behaviour. Evidence for some of the putative brain mechanisms responsible for motor map size is discussed. Our successes reversing seizure-induced map expansion by two different methods are also briefly reviewed. Lastly, unanswered questions for possible future experimentation are posed.     

An Adaptation and Extension of the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale1

Despite its utility, several conceptual and methodological concerns are raised regarding Fischer and Turner's (1970) Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPHS). These concerns were addressed in an adaptation and extension of the ATSPPHS using 208 adult volunteers. The new Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS) consists of 24 items and 3 internally consistent factors: psychological openness, help‐seeking propensity, and indifference to stigma. We replicated this 3‐factor model with 293 university undergraduates, and established test‐retest reliability with 23 student volunteers. Validity was demonstrated by the ability of the IASMHS to distinguish between those who had and had not used mental health services in the past, and those who would and would not use these services in the future. It also discriminated between participants’ intentions to use professional and nonprofessional help. Finally, expected gender differences in help‐seeking attitudes were demonstrated.     

An overview and analysis of journal operations, journal publication patterns, and journal impact in school psychology and related fields

This article describes the results of three studies designed to understand better the journal operations, publishing practices, and impact of school psychology journals in recent years. The first study presents the results of a survey focusing on journal operations and peer-review practices that was completed by 61 journal editors of school psychology and aligned journals. The second study presents the results of review and classification of all articles appearing in one volume year for nine school psychology journals (i.e., The California School Psychologist, Canadian Journal of School Psychology, Journal of Applied School Psychology, Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Forum, School Psychology International, School Psychology Quarterly, and School Psychology Review). The third study employed multilevel modeling to investigate differences in the longitudinal trends of impact factor data for five school psychology journals listed in the Web of Science (i.e., Journal of School Psychology, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology International, School Psychology Quarterly, and School Psychology Review). The article addresses implications for authors, editors, and journal editorial teams as well as the status and impact of school psychology journals.     

Diffusion models of the flanker task: discrete versus gradual attentional selection

The present study tested diffusion models of processing in the flanker task, in which participants identify a target that is flanked by items that indicate the same (congruent) or opposite response (incongruent). Single- and dual-process flanker models were implemented in a diffusion-model framework and tested against data from experiments that manipulated response bias, speed/accuracy tradeoffs, attentional focus, and stimulus configuration. There was strong mimcry among the models, and each captured the main trends in the data for the standard conditions. However, when more complex conditions were used, a single-process spotlight model captured qualitative and quantitative patterns that the dual-process models could not. Since the single-process model provided the best balance of fit quality and parsimony, the results indicate that processing in the simple versions of the flanker task is better described by gradual rather than discrete narrowing of attention.