The use of commitment techniques to support weight loss maintenance in obese adolescents

Objectives: Obesity is a rising problem in adolescents related to unhealthy behaviours. Commitment devises are one type of behavioural intervention that may help people change their behaviours. The current pilot trial tests whether commitment devices delivered via text message help adolescents maintain their recent weight loss.

Methods: During a 12-week pilot trial, adolescents who attended a weight loss camp were randomly assigned to either received text messages that contained only information, i.e. advice, about weight loss management (n = 13) or asked for them to commit to following the same advise (n = 14).

Results: The BMI of the adolescents in the commitment group did not change. In contrast, the BMI of adolescents in the information group increased. A linear regression revealed that group was a significant predictor of BMI change. A logistic regression revealed that adolescents in the information group were nearly eight times more likely to regain weight than those in the commitment group.

Conclusions: This is the first study with adolescents to show weight maintenance using a commitment device. The results suggest that commitment devices can help adolescents maintain their recent weight loss.     

False recognition of instruction-set lures

False remembering has been examined using a variety of procedures, including the Deese-Roediger-McDermott procedure, the false fame procedure and the two-list recognition procedure. We present six experiments in a different empirical framework examining false recognition of words included in the experimental instructions (instruction-set lures). The data show that participants' false alarm rate to instruction-set lures was twice their false alarm rate to standard lures. That result was statistically robust even when (1) the relative strength of targets to instruction-set lures was increased, (2) participants were warned about the instruction-set lures, (3) the instruction-set lures were camouflaged in the study instructions and (4) the instruction-set lures were presented verbally at study but visually at test. False recognition of instruction-set lures was only mitigated when participants were distracted between encountering the instruction-set lures and studying the training list. The results confirm the ease with which recognition succumbs to familiarity and demonstrate the robustness of false recognition.     

Changing people’s views of outgroups through individual-to-group generalisation: meta-analytic reviews and theoretical considerations

Through individual-to-group generalisation, information about individual members of stigmatised social groups changes the outgroup judgment. This article reports meta-analytic reviews of over 30 years of experimental, lab-based research on individual-to-group generalisation (107 independent tests; 5393 participants). In a first meta-analysis, a positive, medium-size generalisation effect was detected (r = .28, p < .001), reflecting significant generalisation of outgroup exemplar information to the outgroup judgment. This effect was moderated by the number of exemplars and exemplar typicality, with more moderately atypical exemplars maximising generalisation effects. Several other design parameters—including type of control condition, generalisation measures, mode of information provision, type of target outgroup and origin of study—did not moderate the positive generalisation effect. A second meta-analysis investigated the interplay between metacognitions and generalisation and found assimilation effects with metacognitive triggers encouraging exemplar inclusion, and contrast effects with metacognitive cues encouraging exemplar exclusion. These results demonstrate that the same outgroup exemplar can lead to bias reduction or bias exacerbation, depending on available meta-cognitive cues. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for intergroup psychology, generalisation theory and bias reduction interventions.     

Looking to relate: teacher gaze and culture in student-rated teacher interpersonal behaviour

Mobile eye-tracking was used to investigate the link between teacher gaze and student-rated teacher interpersonal behaviour. Teacher gaze was recorded for 10 min during a teacher-centred part...     

Cognitive Style as an Antecedent to Adaptiveness,Customer Orientation,and Self-Perceived Selling Performance

Data from 396 real estate salespeople offer structural model evidence of the antecedence of salesperson cognitive style (Jung, 1971) to adaptive selling behavior, and to sales orientation-customer orientation and self-perceived selling performance. Four hypotheses were supported: Salespeople who prefer information intake by intuiting (rather than sensing) and information processing/decision-making by thinking (rather than feeling) were found to be more likely to practice adaptive selling; the more adaptive selling was practiced, the greater customer orientation became; and the greater the customer orientation, the better the self-perceived selling performance. Implications exist for salesperson training, management, and motivation research.     

Reviews: Books Photography

RELATIONAL PSYCHOANALYSIS: THE EMERGENCE OF A TRADITION. Edited by Stephen A. Mitchell and Lewis Aron. 514 pp. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 1999. $39.95. D.H. LAWRENCE AND THE PARADOXES OF PSYCHIC LIFE. By Barbara Ann Schapiro. 155 pp. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. $17.95. TECHNOLOGY AS MAGIC: THE TRIUMPH OF THE IRRATIONAL. By Richard Stivers. 240 pp. New York: Continuum Press. 1999. $24. REFLECTIONS ON A RAVAGED CENTURY. By Robert Conquest. 317 pp. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, $27.95. THE MYSTERIES WITHIN A SURGEON REFLECTS ON MEDICAL MYTHS. By Sherwin B. Nuland. 274 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000, $24.00. DISEASE, PAIN, AND SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR. By Elisabeth Stenager and Egon Stenager. 127 pp. New York: The Haworth Medical Press, 1998. $17.95. TRAUMA ASSESSMENTS: A CLINICIAN'S GUIDE. By E. B. Carlson. 307 pp. New York: The Guilford Press, 1997. $30. ON INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD: AN ELEMENTARY TEXTBOOK. By David A. Freedman, M.D. 247 pp. Madison: International Universities Press, Inc., 1999. $27.95. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. By Mitch Albom. 192 pp. New York: Doubleday, 1997. $21. THE SORROWS OF THE QUAKER JESUS; JAMES NAYLER AND THE PURITAN CRACKDOWN ON THE FREE SPIRIT. By Leo Damrosch. 322 pp. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996, $39.95. THE PASTORAL CARE OF DEPRESSION: A GUIDEBOOK. By Binford W. Gilbert. 127 pp. New York: The Haworth Pastoral Press, 1998. $19.95. LEARNING DISABILITIES AND PSYCHIC CONFLICT: A PSYCHOANALYTIC CASEBOOK. By Arden Aibel Rothstein, Ph.D., and Jules Glenn, M.D. 504 pp. Madison: International Universities Press, Inc., 1999. $78. HAUNTED CHILDREN: RETHINKING MEDICATION OF COMMON PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS. By Arthur F. Roemmelt, MD. 196 pp. New York: State University of New York Press, 1998. $17.95. NAVIGATING THE DEEP RIVER: SPIRITUALITY IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES. By Archie Smith, Jr. 181 pp. Cleveland, Ohio: United Church Press, 1997. $15.95. AL-JUNUN: MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD. Edited by Ihsan Al-Issa. 382 pp. Madison: International Universities Press, 2000. $48. Witnessing the Lack of Sanctuary     

On the diphasic nature of vasovagal fainting associated with blood-injury-illness phobia

A detailed psychophysiologic analysis of a vasovagal faint occurring in a “blood-injury-illness” phobic demonstrated that the syncopal episode consisted of a diphasic response. This lends support to the hypothesis that vasovagal fainting in these patients is caused by an overcompensating rebound parasympathetic activation following sympathetic arousal. Treatment and research implications of this finding are discussed.     

INTELLIGENCE TESTING,COGNITION, AND INSTRUCTION*

This paper examines the implications of recent theory and research in cognitive psychology for the understanding and assessment of intelligence. Three major themes are developed. The first has to do with how changes in the social and educational climate for testing can influence the conception of intellectual competence and the technology of testing. The second theme concerns the ways that cognitive psychology, with its emphases on memory, problem-solving, and knowledge acquisition, has begun to provide a new framework for viewing differences in intellectual functioning. Finally, it is argued that study of the kinds of performances required for success in school suggests ways in which intelligence testing can be made more responsive to current social and educational needs.