Typing versus thinking aloud when reading: Implications for computer-based assessment and training tools

The goal of this study was to assess the impact of modality of production of think-aloud protocols on reading strategies. Readers in two studies spoke or typed protocols for narrative or science texts and completed comprehension tests for each text. Human judges identified the presence of paraphrasing, bridging inferences, and elaborating within the protocols. Reading comprehension skill was assessed with the Nelson-Denny test. With respect to narrative texts, paraphrasing and bridging were less frequent when readers were typing than when they were thinking aloud. With respect to science texts, less-skilled readers made bridging inferences more frequently when typing than when speaking. Conversely, skilled readers generated more paraphrases than bridges when typing thoughts but not when speaking. These results have implications for computer-based tools for reading assessment and intervention.     

Life before and after quitting smoking: an electronic diary study

This article describes a multidimensional, multivariate, and multilevel approach to the assessment of nicotine withdrawal. In this prospective study, 70 adult smokers assigned to an active or placebo nicotine patch condition completed multiple daily assessments using an electronic diary. Average and individual growth curves were estimated for affective and nonaffective withdrawal symptoms. All symptoms but hunger increased significantly on the quit day and remained elevated for three weeks. Variability in symptom experiences across individuals increased from pre- to post-quit. Relations between symptom reports (e.g., negative affect or craving) and episodic events (e.g., stressful events or seeing someone smoke) changed from pre-quit to post-quit. Pre-quit increases in negative affect and quit-day increases in craving were inversely related to abstinence three months after the quit day, suggesting that anticipatory and immediate reactions to quitting influence success.     

Relations of Parenting and Negative Life Events to Cognitive Diatheses for Depression in Children

In a sample of 299 children (grades 2, 4, and 6), we examined parenting and negative life events as predictors of depressive cognitions, specifically low self-perceived competence, depressive cognitive schemas, and depressogenic attributional style. We also examined developmental trends in these relations. Children completed measures of parenting, negative life events, and depressive cognitions. Parents also completed measures of parenting and negative life events. Consistent with our hypotheses, negative parenting and negative life events corresponded with higher levels of depressive cognitions, whereas positive parenting corresponded with lower levels of depressive cognitions. The relations between negative parenting and negative automatic thoughts were stronger for older children. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Mediators of aggression among young adult offspring of depressed mothers

The current article explores the connection between maternal depression and offspring aggression during the transition to adulthood, expanding the scope of prior research on this topic. Both family-level factors (including parent-child relationship quality and maternal romantic relationship quality) and youth factors (including depression history and social functioning in midadolescence) were tested as potential mediators in a longitudinal community sample of 710 youth at ages 15 and 20. The results suggest that maternal depression confers a risk for higher levels of aggressive behavior by offspring at age 20. Structural equation models suggested that the association between maternal depression and youth aggression is fully mediated by youth history of depression by midadolescence, even when accounting for the stability of aggression between ages 15 and 20. Parent-child relationship quality, youth social functioning, and maternal relationship quality were not unique mediators of this association. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Alone Together: Solitude and the Creative Encounter in Art and Psychoanalysis

This paper examines aspects of solitude in relation to creativity and personal transformation, especially as it pertains to artists and their objects. It argues that solitude is a core feature of the human condition and that it is inseparable from relatedness. Both solitude and relationship are layered and dynamically interactive states. The paper also considers the relational needs that art objects serve for their creators and specifically addresses the uniqueness of women's solitude. Finally, a clinical case is presented to illustrate the interplay between solitude and relatedness in psychoanalysis.     

Shakespeare,Psychoanalysis and Creativity: Commentary on Paper by Lauren Levine

This discussion speaks to the creative dimension in the clinical encounter described by Levine in her paper. In particular, it addresses the creativity necessary to move beyond impasses in the treatment. The positive and negative associations to enactments are discussed as well as the creative possibilities offered in dreamwork and the analytic relationship.     

Perspectives of Adults Living With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Psychosocial and Occupational Implications

The incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has increased over the past decade suggesting a need for further research. This article describes a two phase phenomenological study which explored the lived experience of ASD and its psychosocial effects on relationships, socialization, and occupational participation. Phenomenological interviews were given to three women and three men with high functioning ASD. Phase two of the research included two additional individual interviews and four focus groups. Results indicated themes regarding participants' desires to engage in social occupations, and barriers caused by the nature of the ASD which may successfully be addressed by occupational therapy.     

Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation in a Canadian Military Sample

The Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ) was administered to 1,060 male and 305 female soldiers from combat support and combat service support units in the U.S. Army. Eighty-four percent of women and 74% of men experienced at least 1 of the behaviors listed in the SEQ during the previous year. However, only 30% of women and 8% of men acknowledged having been sexually harassed in the same time period. Men who experienced SEQ behaviors were less likely to acknowledge harassment than women who experienced these behaviors. The 3 SEQ subscales—gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and coercion—were examined as predictors of organizational commitment, turnover wish, the perception of sexual harassment as a personal and work-unit problem, and as predictors of acknowledged harassment. The more serious behaviors were more likely to be acknowledged as harassment than the milder behaviors when the type of behavior was defined as either present or absent. On the other hand, when milder behaviors occurred frequently, they were the main predictors of the perception of sexual harassment as a personal and work-unit problem. Sexual harassment predicted turnover wish and Army commitment for male soldiers only.     

Perfectionism and health: A mediational analysis of the roles of stress,social support and health-related behaviours

This study tested a model derived from personality theory in which perceived stress, perceived social support, health-risk and health-promotion behaviours mediate the relationship between perfectionism and perceived physical health. A sample of 538 undergraduate students completed a web-based survey assessing multi-dimensional perfectionism, perceived stress, perceived social support, health behaviours, physical health and a scale tapping elements of the five-factor model of personality. Analyses that account for the effects of traits from the five-factor model (e.g., neuroticism, conscientiousness and extraversion) indicated that socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with poorer physical health and this association was fully mediated by higher levels of perceived stress and lower levels of perceived social support. Self-oriented perfectionism was related complexly to health such that it was related to poorer health via higher levels of perceived stress, but was also related to better health via higher levels of perceived social support. Our findings illustrate the need for considering key mediators of the link between perfectionism and poor health outcomes.