Violent behavior in schizophrenic patients: relationship with clinical symptoms

Considerable evidence suggests that violent behavior observed in schizophrenic patients is motivated by psychotic symptomatology. The understanding of violence in schizophrenic patients requires consideration of psychiatric symptomatology. Objective: This study investigated the relationship between violent behavior and psychiatric symptomatology in schizophrenic patients. Method: One hundred and thirteen patients were recruited. Thirteen patients were excluded due to concomitant substance abuse six months prior to the assessment. Diagnoses were based on the SCID‐I. Psychotic symptom severity was assessed with the PANSS. Violent behaviors were assessed with the OAS. Results: Violent behaviors were associated with more severe psychotic symptomatology including hallucinations, delusions, excitement, poor impulse control, and thinking disturbances. Conclusions: Patients with exacerbation of psychotic symptomatology have an increased risk of violent behavior. It is necessary to determine which subtypes of hallucinations and delusions are implicated in the association of schizophrenia and violent behavior. Violent behavior in schizophrenic patients is a heterogeneous phenomenon best explained in the context of specific symptoms associated with violence and course of illness. The retrospective assessment of the variables raises methodological questions concerning the reliability of measurement of the impact of psychotic symptoms on violence. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–10, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

A Survey of Challenges Experienced by New Learners Coding the Rorschach

Learning to code the imagery, communication, and behavior associated with Rorschach responding is challenging. Although there is some survey research on graduate students' impressions of their Rorschach training, research has not identified which coding decisions students find to be the most problematic and time-consuming. We surveyed students to identify what they struggled with most when learning coding and to quantify how difficult it is to learn how to code. Participants (n = 191) from the United States, Brazil, Denmark, Israel, and Italy rated 57 aspects of coding using a 4-point scale that encompassed both the time required to code and the subjective difficulty of doing so. Mean ratings for coding in general indicated that students considered the overall task challenging. Ratings also revealed that students struggled most with Cognitive Special Scores, Determinants, and extrapolating from the tables to code Form Quality for objects that were not specifically listed. The findings offer suggestions about how to improve the guidelines for some of the more difficult variables and where it is most necessary to focus teaching time. Taking these steps might help new students in learning the Rorschach.     

Relationship between inner dialog and ideas of reference and the mediating role of dissociation

Recent lines of research have begun to concentrate on internal dialogue and its relationship to a diversity of psychopathological phenomena present in psychotic disorders. This study was intended as a preliminary exploration of the relationship of internal dialogue, dissociation and ideas of reference. To do this, a sample of 318 students filled in an internal dialogue scale (the VISQ, McCarthy‐Jones & Fernyhough), one for dissociation (DES‐II, Carlson & Putnam) and another for ideas of reference (REF, Lenzenweger, Bennett & Lilenfeld). The results confirm the hypothesis posed in the sense that internal dialogue was positively associated with dissociation and with ideas of reference. A partial mediation effect of dissociation was also found between inner speech and ideas of reference. Lines of future research this study opens and its possible integration in a model on ideas of reference are discussed.     

An Account of Earned Forgiveness through Apology

Philosophia - I start by presenting an intuitively appealing account of forgiveness, ‘the insult account’, which nicely explains the cycle from wrongdoing to forgiveness. We need to...     

Occupational gender stereotypes and problem-solving in Italian adolescents

The first purpose of the study was to establish how Italian adolescents perceive jobs in the newly emerging economy sectors as well as more traditional jobs from gender-stereotyped and gender-segregated perspectives. The second purpose was to verify the role of problem-solving and gender in gender-role stereotyping. A total of 217 Italian high school students were involved. A questionnaire developed by Miller and Hayward was used to examine the students’ occupational gender-role stereotyping, segregation and interests. The Problem-Solving Inventory was administered to examine problem-solving. Adolescents perceived most jobs as being gender-stereotyped and -segregated. Female gender and problem-solving ability were associated with a reduced tendency to perceive jobs as gender-stereotyped.     

The impact of an implementation intention to improve mealtimes and reduce jet lag in long-haul cabin crew

Objective: Jet lag is common place amongst long-haul cabin crew. Timed food has been shown to reset the circadian rhythm in rodents. Implementation intentions have been used to change eating behaviour. Mealtimes could therefore be used as a countermeasure to reduce jet lag and improve alertness in long-haul cabin crew through forming an implementation intention to improve the regularity of meals on days off.

Design: Sixty long-haul crew took part in a randomised controlled trial, with two conditions: forming an implementation intention to eat regular meals on days off vs. no implementation intention. Pre-intervention measurements were taken at baseline (before a long-haul trip) and post-intervention measures were taken on the first and second days off post-trip.

Main outcome measures: Subjective jet lag (unidimensional and multidimensional) and objective alertness (Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT)).

Results: Mixed ANOVA showed a significant condition x time interaction for unidimensional jet lag but not for multidimensional jet lag and objective alertness. In particular, the formation of an implementation intention to alter mealtimes resulted in a reduction of unidimensional jet lag.

Conclusion: Implementation intentions can be used to alleviate jet lag in long-haul crew through promoting a change in mealtimes.     

Predicting jet lag in long-haul cabin crew: The role of illness cognitions and behaviour

Objective: Established risk factors for jet lag are mostly physiological including circadian preference, age, gender, the number of flight zones crossed and to some extent direction of travel. Some research has also highlighted a role for psychosocial factors including sleep, diet and ‘circadian’ health behaviours and illness cognitions although this remains relatively untested. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of sleep, diet and illness cognitions in predicting perceived jet lag amongst long-haul crew.

Design: Sixty long-haul crew took part in a longitudinal study. Profile characteristics (including chronotype), preparation strategies (sleep, eating and ‘circadian’ behaviours) and illness cognitions were measured at baseline (before a trip).

Main outcome measures: Subjective jet lag (unidimensional and multidimensional) was measured on the crews’ second day off (post-trip).

Results: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that unidimensional jet lag was predicted by the belief in a cyclical timeline, whereas multidimensional jet lag was predicted by multidimensional jet lag at baseline and to a lesser extent by identity. No role was found for profile characteristics and preparation strategies.

Conclusion: Illness cognitions partly explain the experience of perceived jet lag in long-haul cabin crew indicating that jet lag is in part a psycho-social construct, not just a biological one.     

Act Expediently,with Autonomy: Vicarious Learning,Empowered Behaviors,and Performance

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to investigate how organizations can best facilitate an empowered workforce that makes autonomous decisions and acts expediently, which the literature on high performing organizations posits will increase the likelihood of sustained performance and retaining competitive advantages. We introduce a novel mechanism for encouraging such behaviors and pursuant outcomes: vicarious learning from a supervisor who demonstrates autonomy and expediency.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We drew experimental data from a sample of participants who underwent a managerial simulation, and used these data to investigate relationships between the vicarious learning of empowered behaviors and individual task performance (n = 100).

Findings

Results indicate that when supervisors behave with autonomy and expediency this both increases the extent to which individuals behave similarly, and is associated with enhanced individual performance. Further, we find that expedient behavior fully mediates the relationship between empowered supervisor behavior and performance.

Implications

Findings show that supervisors need not necessarily engage directly in empowering others. Rather, by modeling behaviors, supervisors can craft a context where employees may act with autonomy and efficiency. This provides an opportunity for empowerment that is both actionable and cost-effective.

Originality/Value

This is the first study to consider empowerment as a managerial phenomenon that can be vicariously learned, integrating theories of social learning and empowerment, and extending existing empowerment constructs (including psychological and structural) to develop an indirect, yet potent means of encouraging empowered behavior.

     

A Kid-Friendly Tool to Assess Rumination in Children and Early Adolescents: Relationships with Mother Psychopathology and Family Functioning

The early identification of ruminative processes in children and early adolescents is particularly important to prevent the development of a stable ruminative style in later stages of development. The present study first aimed at validating a child-friendly tool, Kid Rumination Interview (KRI), to be used in a sample aged 7–12 years (n?=?100; 50% females). Second, we hypothesized that maternal depression, family functioning and participants’ emotion regulation skills would be associated with children’ levels of rumination. Factor analysis on KRI scores yielded two main factors: personal life-related rumination and school-related rumination. Older and female participants showed higher tendencies to ruminate about school issues compared to their younger and male counterparts. A low-to-moderate correlation emerged between school-related rumination and child/early adolescent’s emotion regulation capacities. Mothers’ depressive rumination and mothers’ depressive symptoms were positively associated with children/early adolescents’ rumination about personal life and rumination about school issues. Conversely, an adequate and positive family functioning was negatively correlated with both school-related rumination and rumination about personal life. Hierarchical regression analyses pointed to a crucial role of maternal rumination and familiar rigidity in both types of rumination. Personal life-related rumination was also specifically predicted by maternal depression and family enmeshment, whereas school-related rumination was significantly associated with children/early adolescents’ emotional control and gender. Overall, the KRI appears as a promising tool to assess rumination in children/early adolescents. Results suggests partially different pathways to specific forms of ruminative thoughts.     

Common region wins the competition between extrinsic grouping cues: Evidence from a task without explicit attention to grouping

The competition between perceptual grouping factors is a relatively ignored topic, especially in the case of extrinsic grouping cues (e.g., common region or connectedness). Recent studies have examined the integration of extrinsic cues using tasks that induce selective attention to groups based on different grouping cues. However, this procedure could generate alternative strategies for task performance, which are non-related to the perceptual grouping operations. In the current work, we used an indirect task, i.e. repetition discrimination task, without explicit attention to grouping cues to further examine the rules that govern dominance between competing extrinsic grouping factors. This procedure allowed us to obtain an unbiased measure of the competition between common region and connectedness cues acting within the same display. The results corroborate previous data showing that grouping by common region dominated the perceived organization of the display, even though the phenomenological strength of the grouping cues was equated for each participant by means of a preliminary scaling task. Our results highlight the relevance of using indirect tasks as an essential tool for the systematic study of the integration of extrinsic grouping cues.