The Shedler–Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP): Making Personality Diagnosis Clinically Meaningful

A group of 38 severe anxiety patients and a group of 36 acute schizophrenic patients produced series of afterimages (AIs) of a simple, red stimulus. It was predicted that projective tendencies in these patients would be revealed by lack of stable congruence between AI color and stimulus. Symptoms of sensitivity together with results from the MCT (Meta-Contrast Technique) served as criteria in the anxiety group and symptoms of paranoia in the schizophrenic group. The hypothesis was affirmed: despite the unicolored stimulation, sensitive and paranoid subjects tended to report variegated A1s or A1s shifting from one color to another. It was concluded that, in case this plastic type of perception remains more or less permanent, it would serve as a fruitful breeding-ground for projective defenses.     

The Holtzman Inkblot Technique as a Measure of Perceptual Development in Mental Retardation

To investigate the relationships between mental age and scores from the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT), 96 mentally retarded and normal Ss comprising four criterion IQ-groups ranging in IQ from 34 to 106 were tested. Each group was matched for sex and chronological age. Results revealed consistent monotonic changes with IQ level for six HIT variables, including four that previously had proved to be reliable and meaningful indices of perceptual development. These results provide strong support for these HIT variables as indices of perceptual development and confirm the nature and direction of this development.     

RATS,We Should Have Used Clinton: Subliminal Priming in Political Campaigns

Political strategists decide daily how to market their candidates. Growing recognition of the importance of implicit processes (processes occurring outside of awareness) suggests limitations to focus groups and polling, which rely on conscious self‐report. Two experiments, inspired by national political campaigns, employed Internet‐presented subliminal primes to study evaluations of politicians. In Experiment 1, the subliminal word “RATS” increased negative ratings of an unknown politician. In Experiment 2, conducted during former California Governor Gray Davis's recall referendum, a subliminal photo of Clinton affected ratings of Davis, primarily among Independents. Results showed that subliminal stimuli can affect ratings of well‐known as well as unknown politicians. Further, subliminal studies can be conducted in a mass media outlet (the Internet) in real time and supplement voter self‐report, supporting the potential utility of implicit measures for campaign decision making.     

A novel assessment of behaviors associated with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating

The purpose of the present study was to compare response rates to questions assessing behaviors associated with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating on a standard self-report questionnaire that was nominally anonymous to an unmatched count questionnaire that allowed for true response anonymity. Five hundred sixty-seven undergraduate students were asked about disordered eating and body image-related behaviors using one of two response formats; either a conventional true-false questionnaire or an unmatched count questionnaire that did not require participants to directly respond to any sensitive questions. Both men and women had significantly different rates of endorsement between the two methods of assessment on the majority of the questions, suggesting that degree of anonymity and format of response may affect endorsements of these potentially sensitive topics. These results contribute to the existing literature highlighting the necessity of understanding self-report bias in determining accurate rates of sensitive behaviors.     

Psychoeducational Interventions with Pediatric Cancer Patients: Part I. Patient Information and Knowledge

We present a systematic review of published research on psychoeducational interventions for children with cancer. The current lack of an organizational model for this literature makes it difficult to form a coherent picture of the scattered literature and draw nomothetic conclusions. A model is described that is based on functional concepts from the literature on learning and instructional design. It is argued that it makes sense conceptually to analyze psychoeducational interventions in terms of psychoeducational principles, especially if the purpose is to illuminate the learning processes involved. Three categories of intervention are distinguished and the first of these, informational interventions to influence patient knowledge, is considered in this paper, and the other two categories will be reviewed in a subsequent paper. This review is organized by categories of information needs, intervention modes, and major types of independent variables. We concluded that the research supports few generalizable conclusions at this time, except that development of health-related knowledge in children is best accomplished by information transfer methods that are highly interactive and individualized. Interactive multimedia formats such as video games are seen as having the best potential, but further research is required.     

Rethinking therapeutic action

Like other core psychoanalytic constructs, the theory of therapeutic action is currently in flux, as theorists of differing persuasions propose different mechanisms. In this article, the authors attempt to integrate developments within and without psychoanalysis to provide a working model of the multifaceted processes involved in producing change in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. A theory of therapeutic action must describe both what changes (the aims of treatment) and what strategies are likely to be useful in facilitating those changes (technique). The authors believe that single-mechanism theories of therapeutic action, no matter how complex, are unlikely to prove useful at this point because of the variety of targets of change and the variety of methods useful in effecting change in those targets (such as techniques aimed at altering different kinds of conscious and unconscious processes). Interventions that facilitate change may be classified into one of three categories: those that foster insight, those that make use of various mutative aspects of the treatment relationship and a variety of secondary strategies that can be of tremendous importance. They propose that, in all forms of psychoanalytic treatment, we would be more accurate to speak of the therapeutic actions , rather than action .     

Using baseline to diagnose internal states? Listen closely

Little is known about the mechanisms underlying how interviewers establish and monitor baselines of respondent behaviour. This study addresses this knowledge gap by characterising the practice of establishing baselines and measuring the accuracy of interviewer judgements based on assessments of baseline and departure behaviours. Eighteen professional interviewers viewed two videos of naturalistic interviews, reported the cues they perceived as informative for establishing and assessing a baseline, and diagnosed respondents' internal states. Participants reported multiple cue types as informative, but predominantly relied on non‐verbal cues. Overall, participants were sensitive to 27% of respondents' identified internal states but showed improvement over time. They achieved a hit rate of 20% during early interview stages and a hit rate of 33% during late stages. Although non‐verbal cues dominated reports, attending to verbal cues afforded participants greater efficiency in identifying respondent internal states. Implications and recommendations for practice are discussed.     

The Role of Social Context During Television Viewing on Children’s Moral Judgments About Social Exclusion and Stigmatization of Others

Research has considered how exposure to prosocial television narratives influences children’s social inclusion behaviors (e.g., Mares & Acosta, 2010). In these experiments, children typically view a stimulus episode alone; however, we know that children often watch with others at home (Chandler, 1997). Thus, in this study we examined how children’s proximal social context during viewing influenced effects. Using data collected from a 3-condition experiment (control, view-alone, coview with close friend) with Dutch children ages 5 and 6 (N = 80), we found that exposure largely did not influence children’s inclusion judgments or stigmatization beliefs. There was, however, an age × condition interaction, such that 6-year-old children in the coview condition demonstrated greater stigmatization beliefs toward other children, compared to 5-year-olds in the same condition, or all children in the other conditions. We discuss the implications of these findings while considering previous work on learning inclusion from prosocial television shows, reality judgments, and the bystander effect.     

Acculturation Attitudes and the Ethnic and Host-Country Identification of Immigrants

This study assessed a number of potential predictors of host-country and ethnic-group identification of members of immigrant groups to Australia. The study included 281 adult participants from Vietnam, Hong Kong, and New Zealand, who responded to questions relating to their acculturation attitudes, host-culture and ethnic-group identification, and experiences in their new country. Results showed that the predictors of host country (Australian) identification were the immigrants' acculturation attitude of wanting to live according to host standards and values, lower ethnic versus Australian social involvement, lower ethnic prejudice, higher job status, and acceptance by Australians. The major predictors of ethnic-group identification were an acculturation attitude of wanting to live according to ethnic-group standards, higher ethnic versus Australian social involvement, lower self-esteem, fewer Australian friends, lower ability to speak English, higher education, lower self-efficacy, and number of ethnic friends. The implications for the acculturation of immigrants are discussed.