Mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias

The status of mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals was evaluated following incidental encoding of target words. Individuals with high and low levels of trait anxiety completed a modified Stroop task, which revealed an attentional bias for threat-related stimuli in anxious individuals. This group was significantly slower in naming the colour in which threat-related words were displayed compared to neutral words. In a subsequent free recall test for the words used in the modified Stroop task, anxious individuals recalled more threat-related words compared to low-anxious people. This difference was significant even when controlling for the false recall of items that had not been presented during study. These results support the view put forward by Russo, Fox, Bellinger, and Nguyen-Van-Tam (2001) that mood-congruent free recall bias in anxious individuals can be observed if the target material is encoded at a relatively shallow level. Moreover, contrary to Dowens and Calvo (2003), the current results show that the memory advantage for threat-related information in anxious individuals is not a consequence of response bias.     

Experience in Developing a Combined Activity and Verbal Group Therapy Program with Latency-Age Boys

Ten fundamental principles are outlined for the practice of brief, dynamic group therapy within a 10- to 20-session time limit. They include: group composition and screening; contracting for appropriate goals: facilitating rapid cohesiveness; stages of group development; building a work group atmosphere; leadership style; structural levels of focus; transference and countertransference considerations; the cotherapy relationship; and curative factors. This approach integrates recent formulations from the practice of short-term individual therapies as well as brief group approaches. Each brief group principle is contrasted with its long-term analytic group counterpart. Relevant research literature, historical roots, as well as other types of brief therapy groups are reviewed. The recent and experimental nature of these techniques is critically discussed.     

Self-regulation,health, and behavior: A perceptual-cognitive approach

Abstract

Self-regulation systems are designed to adapt to threats via coping procedures that make efficient use of resources based upon valid representations of the environment. We discuss two components of the common-sense model of health threats: illness representations (e.g., content and organization) and coping procedures (e.g., classes of procedure and their attributes - outcome expectancies, time-lines, dose-efficacy beliefs, etc.). Characteristics of each of these domains, and the connection between the two, are critical to understanding human adaptation to problems of physical health. Rather than posing a barrier to factors outside the person that control behavior, an emphasis on subjective construal involves a view of the person as an active problem-solver embedded in a bidirectional system of sensitivity and responsiveness vis á vis the social, physical, and institutional environments in which health threats occur and through which intervention efforts may be directed.     

Numeracy as a Predictor of Adaptive Risky Decision Making

Numeracy or one's ability to appropriately process and use numerical information has been shown to be an important individual difference factor in decision making. The current study utilized a risky decision‐making task (called the “cups task”) in which choices are made to both earn and avoid losing hypothetical money. Critically, this design allowed investigators to examine numeracy‐related differences in adaptive decision‐making as measured by sensitivity to expected value (EV) differences over 54 paired‐choice trials—some in which it was advantageous to take a risk and some in which it was not. Results showed that in an undergraduate sample of 114 individuals, the less numerate took more risks and were less sensitive to varying EV levels than the more numerate, especially when it was disadvantageous to take a risk and when the choice involved a potential loss (rather than a gain). These results are consistent with a dual processing account in which the more numerate are much better than the less numerate at extracting the precise affective “gist” of the numerical information, which is then used to determine the goodness or badness of a particular choice. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Immediate Effect of Training at the Onset of Reaching in Preterm Infants: Randomized Clinical Trial

The authors' aim was to investigate the immediate effect of a single specific training session (serial varied practice), of short duration on the kinematic parameters of reaching, in the period of the emergence of the skill in preterm and low birth weight infants. The study included 16 infants of both sexes, born at a mean gestational age of 32.13 (±1.36) weeks and mean birth weight of 1720.94 (±358.46) g. The infants were randomly divided into 2 groups: experimental and control. The experimental group was given a 5-min training session in reaching, while the control group received no training. The results showed significant differences in peak velocity in the intra (Z = –2.10, p = .036) and intergroup (U = 9.00, p = .016) evaluations, which decreased in the experimental group after training. Cohen's d test for clinical relevance suggested that the specific, short duration training proved effective in promoting slower reaches, with greater adjustment and lower number of units of movement. These results are positive for preterm infants given that these parameters more closely resemble the typical development of mature reaching behaviors in term infants, which suggests that this protocol of reaching training (serial varied practice) could be used as an evidence-based intervention strategy.     

Family Sessions as Part of Child Psychological Assessment: Goals,Techniques, Clinical Utility,and Therapeutic Value

Including a family session in a child assessment can significantly advance the assessor's and parents' understanding of the child's problems and enhance the likelihood that parents will follow through on recommendations after the assessment. A family session allows the assessor to observe the child in the family context, test systemic hypotheses, better understand the meaning of individual test results, and try out possible interventions. A family session may also help parents see systemic aspects of their child's problems, help the child feel less blamed, foster positive experiences among family members, and offer the family a glimpse of family therapy. We describe methods and techniques for structuring family sessions and offer guidance on preparing for and conducting such sessions depending on one's case conceptualization. Detailed case examples illustrate each technique and demonstrate the immediate and subsequent impact of family sessions as well as their therapeutic value. We also address common clinical and pragmatic issues.     

The Personalization of Postmodern Post-mortem Rituals

This article lays out the roots of the wish for personalized post-mortem rituals (funerals, memorial services, etc.) in postmodern culture and explains why many twentieth-century American, white Protestant funerals had become strikingly impersonal. It discusses the way in which the desire for personalized ritual is linked in American minds with the desire for “celebrative” ritual with an upbeat emotional tone. It describes ways to personalize traditional or nontraditional rituals and explores how personalization may make the rituals more able to meet some of the most important needs of grieving people.     

It could have been better: The effects of counterfactual communication on impression formation

While research on counterfactuals has closely examined the psychological antecedents and consequences of thinking counterfactually (imagining alternatives to past events), little is known about the effects of counterfactual communication, and in particular, how such thoughts are interpreted by others. In this paper, I argue that counterfactual communication differentially affects impressions formed of speakers by receivers depending on the general content of the counterfactual. Findings from an archival study and a scenario study demonstrated convergent results: Individuals who communicated upward counterfactuals (thoughts of how things could have been better) were more positively perceived by receivers than were individuals who communicated downward counterfactuals (thoughts of how things could have been worse). This difference stemmed from an enhancement effect of upward counterfactuals. Further analysis revealed that the relationship between counterfactual communication and impression formation was mediated by receivers' perceptions of the extent to which speakers took responsibility for their actions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sexual Motives: Cultural,Evolutionary, and Social Psychological Perspectives

Recently, scholars from a variety of disciplines have begun to investigate passionate love, sexual desire, and sexual behavior. Specifically, they have started to ask such questions as: “Why do young men and women engage in sexual liaisons?” “Why do they avoid such encounters?” Unfortunately, in attempting to answer such questions, scholars have generally focused on surveys and experiments within their own disciplines and have accorded scant attention to the discoveries of other disciplines. In this paper, we will begin by discussing three theoretical perspectives that have had the most to say about why young people seek out (or avoid) sex—cultural psychology, evolutionary psychology, and social psychology (where theorists often take a biopsychosocial approach). Then, we will (1) describe the many scales that have been used to assess sexual motives, and (2) review the multidisciplinary data which has been assembled in an attempt to answer the questions as to why people seek out (or avoid) sexual activity. Unfortunately, almost all this research was conducted by Western researchers, investigating the attitudes and behavior of young American men and women, who were heterosexual. (Alas, the wider-ranging data one would wish to consider is as yet only rarely available.) Through this multi-disciplinary synthesis, we hope to demonstrate the impact of culture, social experience, and biological imperatives in shaping young men’s and women’s motives for engaging in sexual encounters and provide a sort of “encyclopedia” of sexual motives measures and research for future scholars.