On Measuring and Modeling Physiological Synchrony in Dyads

Physiological synchrony within a dyad, or the degree of temporal correspondence between two individuals' physiological systems, has become a focal area of psychological research. Multiple methods have been used for measuring and modeling physiological synchrony. Each method extracts and analyzes different types of physiological synchrony, where ‘type’ refers to a specific manner through which two different physiological signals may correlate. Yet, to our knowledge, there is no documentation of the different methods, how each method corresponds to a specific type of synchrony, and the statistical assumptions embedded within each method. Hence, this article outlines several approaches for measuring and modeling physiological synchrony, connects each type of synchrony to a specific method, and identifies the assumptions that need to be satisfied for each method to appropriately extract each type of synchrony. Furthermore, this article demonstrates how to test for between-dyad differences of synchrony via inclusion of dyad-level (i.e., time-invariant) covariates. Finally, we complement each method with an empirical demonstration, as well as online supplemental material that contains Mplus code.     

Plural Agents

Genuine agents are able to engage in activity because they find it worth pursuing—because they care about it. In this respect, they differ from what might be called “mere intentional systems”: systems like chess‐playing computers that exhibit merely goal‐directed behavior mediated by instrumental rationality, without caring. A parallel distinction can be made in the domain of social activity: plural agents must be distinguished from plural intentional systems in that plural agents have cares and engage in activity because of those cares. In this paper, I sketch an account of what it is for an individual to care about things in terms of her exhibiting a certain pattern of emotions. After extending this account to make sense of an individual's caring about other agents, I then show how a certain sort of emotional connectedness among a group of people can make intelligible the group's having cares and thereby constitute that group as a plural agent. Alternative accounts of social action, by ignoring the difference between mere intentional systems and genuine agents, and so by leaving out these emotional entanglements from their accounts of social action, thereby fail to capture a whole range of social phenomena involving plural agents.     

The Relationship Between African American Enculturation and Racial Identity

This study investigated how predictive the Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS; B. J. Vandiver, W. E. Cross, F. C. Worrell, & P. Fhagen‐Smith, 2002), a measure of Black racial identity, was of African American cultural practices, beliefs, and attitudes (i.e., enculturation) as measured by the African American Acculturation scale‐33 (H. Landrine & E. Klonoff, 1995). Findings revealed that all but 1 of the CRIS subscales significantly predicted enculturation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Este estudio investigó hasta qué punto la Escala Cross de Identidad Racial (CRIS, por sus siglas en inglés; B. J. Vandiver, W. E. Cross, F. C. Worrell, & P. Fhagen‐Smith, 2002), una medida de la identidad racial Negra, podría predecir prácticas culturales, creencias y actitudes Afroamericanas (p. ej, la endoculturación) medidas por la Escala de Aculturación Afroamericana‐33 (H. Landrine & E. Klonoff, 1995). Los hallazgos revelaron que todas, a excepción de una, de las subescalas CRIS predijeron la endoculturación de una manera significativa. Se discuten implicaciones teóricas y prácticas.     

An evaluation of in situ training to teach sexual abuse prevention skills to women with mental retardation

The current study evaluated a behavioral skills training (BST) program in combination with in situ training to teach sexual abuse prevention skills to five women with mild to moderate mental retardation. In situ assessments were conducted following BST and in situ training sessions were conducted for those who were unable to demonstrate the skills in the natural setting. The results showed that generalization of the safety skills to the natural setting occurred for three of the five participants following one to two in situ training sessions. One participant required 12 in situ training sessions and three booster training sessions to reach criterion level. Three of four participants assessed 1 month following training maintained the skills. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Religious Fundamentalism and Gender Differences

The role of religious fundamentalism and its relationship to shame and guilt was evaluated in 107 students who attend a church-sponsored university. A number of personality measures were given and gender differences were analyzed. The role of externalization was similar for males in this sample to that of earlier studies. However, it was found that females showed positive correlations between externalization and both shame and guilt. For females, more fundamentalistic religious training may help to contribute to an external orientation at the expense of identifying with a personal religion, and appropriate guilt.     

Welche Rolle spielt die Diagnostik in der systemischen Psychotherapie?

Diagnostic procedures in systemic psychotherapy are bound to raise questions: These procedures are indebted to a medical model which is pathology- and deficit-oriented and which requires that diagnosis precedes therapy. Yet diagnostic procedures in systemic psychotherapy are mainly geared to assessing the psychic and social domains rather than the domain of medicine proper. The article takes up some of the issues and problems deriving from this state of affairs.