Assessment of vocational guidance: the Berufsbilder test

The object of this study is to assess informative possibilities of some technical indicators of the Test of Photos of Professions (BBT--Berufsbilder test), a projective method to clarify professional inclination, proposed by Martin Achtnich. This psychological evaluation technique is composed of 96 photos of professionals, performing various types of activities. The test subject classifies the photos into three groups: positive (agreeable), negative (disagreeable) and indifferent (neutral). Among those chosen positively, five preferences are chosen and a story is developed that includes them, an activity that is requested two times during the Vocational Guidance process: in the beginning (or middle) and at the end of the intervention. In this study, 160 stories were created by 80 youths, between 15 and 20 years of age, in public and private schools in a mid-sized Brazilian city. The stories were compared in three analytical categories: protagonist, professional conflict and resolution. The results were submitted to Wilcoxon nonparametric statistical analysis (p < .05), significant and relevant indicators of resolution being found in the process of occupational choice. This technical resource was shown, from this empirical evidence, to be promising for use in evaluation of intervention processes of Vocational Guidance.     

Beyond the double-jeopardy hypothesis: Assessing emotion on the faces of multiply-categorizable targets of prejudice

Prior research has shown that race influences perceptions of facial expressions, with hostility detected earlier on young male Black than White faces. This study examined whether the interplay of race and age would moderate perceptions of hostility by having participants evaluate facial expressions of multiply-categorizable targets. Using a facial emotion change-detection task, we assessed evaluations of onset/offset of anger and happiness on faces of young and old Black and White men. Significant age by race interactions were observed: while participants perceived anger as lasting longer and appearing sooner on old compared to young White faces, this relationship was reversed for Black faces, with participants perceiving anger lasting longer and appearing sooner on young compared to old Black faces. Similar results were found for perceived happiness. These results suggest that perception during cross-categorization may be more complex than the simple additive function proposed by the double-jeopardy hypothesis, such that co-activation of other stereotypes may sometimes confer a protective benefit against bias.     

Abstraction and perceptual individuation in primed word identification are modulated by distortion and repetition: a dissociation

One experiment investigated the effects of distortion and multiple prime repetition (super-repetition) on repetition priming using divided-visual-field word identification at test and mixed-case words (e.g., goAT). The experiment measured form-specificity (the effect of matching lettercase at study and test) for two non-conceptual study tasks. For an ideal typeface, super-repetition increased form-independent priming leaving form-specificity constant. The opposite pattern was found for a distorted typeface; super-repetition increased form-specificity, leaving form-independent priming constant. These priming effects did not depend on the study task or test hemifield for either typeface. An additional finding was that only the ideal typeface showed the usual advantage of right hemifield presentation. These results demonstrate that super-repetition produced abstraction for the ideal typeface and perceptual individuation for the distorted typeface; abstraction and perceptual individuation dissociated. We suggest that there is a fundamental duality between perceptual individuation and abstraction consistent with Tulving's (1984) distinction between episodic and semantic memory. This could reflect a duality of system or process.     

Stressful life events in countries of differing economic development: Nicaragua, Chile, and Spain

the aim was to describe a study involving 481 psychology students in the last courses of their degrees (M age = 21.9 yr., SD=4.2; 94 men and 386 women) from Nicaragua, Chile, and Spain. The study examined the potential risk of experiencing certain stressful life events, the number of stressors, and their characteristics. Also were analyzed the strength of their relation to social class and stressful life events experienced. Greater presence of stressful life events were reported among people from less developed countries, Chile and Nicaragua, and among people belonging to lower social class.     

XS-DIF: program for analysis of Differential Item Functioning in Excel

XS-DIF is a program for detection of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) using Item Response Theory (IRT). It calculates Lords Chi-Square, Raju's Signed Area and Unsigned Area, and Kim and Cohen's Closed-interval signed area and Closed-interval unsigned area. XS-DIF was designed to be executed in Excel 2000 and it has a capacity of analysis of up to 100 items. It is useful to support data analysis of research projects and in detection and teaching processes in DIF.     

Contributions of the dorsal hippocampus and the dorsal subiculum to processing of idiothetic information and spatial memory

It is well established that the dorsal hippocampal formation is crucial for spatial memory in rats. However, little is known about the distinct functions of the dorsal hippocampus and the dorsal subiculum. To examine the role of the dorsal hippocampus and the dorsal subiculum, Long-Evans rats with excitotoxic lesions (NMDA) of the dorsal hippocampus (DH), the dorsal subiculum (DS), or both (DHDS), and controls were trained on a nonmatching-to-place task. Then, to identify the strategy used by each group, they were tested on the same task in the dark with the T-maze being rotated between the sample and the test runs. In the light, rats with combined lesions were impaired. In the dark, groups DH, DS, and controls performed near chance level except in trials without rotation, suggesting the use of a sense of direction. The same rats were trained on a radial-arm maze task. In the light, where proximal visual cues were accessible, combined lesions affected performance whereas in the dark, it was impaired by all lesions. This experiment demonstrated that the dorsal subiculum and the dorsal hippocampus play a crucial role in processing idiothetic information and/or in maintenance of this information in memory.     

Neurocognitive mechanisms of anxiety: an integrative account

Anxiety can be hugely disruptive to everyday life. Anxious individuals show increased attentional capture by potential signs of danger, and interpret expressions, comments and events in a negative manner. These cognitive biases have been widely explored in human anxiety research. By contrast, animal models have focused upon the mechanisms underlying acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear, guiding exposure-based therapies for anxiety disorders. Recent neuroimaging studies of conditioned fear, attention to threat and interpretation of emotionally ambiguous stimuli indicate common amygdala-prefrontal circuitry underlying these processes, and suggest that the balance of activity within this circuitry is altered in anxiety, creating a bias towards threat-related responses. This provides a focus for future translational research, and targeted pharmacological and cognitive interventions.     

Comparison of Allocations by Individuals and Interacting Groups in an Escalation of Commitment Situation1

In this study, individuals and interacting 3‐person groups were asked to make a series of allocation decisions using a modified version of the A&S decision case (Staw, 1976). Based on the choice‐shift effect, it was hypothesized that groups would allocate more to a failing course of action than would individuals, and that these differences would emerge only after repeated sequential decisions. Both hypotheses were supported. These findings suggest that processes unique to groups account for the greater allocations of groups, relative to individuals in escalation situations. The implications of these findings in applied settings are discussed.     

Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy Improves Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapies in a Man with a Severe Personality Disorder: A Case Report

Treatment adherence by patients with HIV ensures they gain the full benefit of antiretroviral medications and extend their lives. One problem which may contribute to poor adherence is deficits in metacognition or the capacity to make sense of mental states. In particular, persons who struggle to notice and think about their thoughts and feelings may be less able to direct their own recovery by taking advantage of effective treatments. This raises the possibility that treatments which lead to improved metacognitive function may enhance treatment adherence. We describe the case of a man in an advanced stage of AIDS with Kaposi’s sarcoma. The patient was treated with Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy combined with psychoeducation about pharmacological treatment for HIV. Primary medical outcomes were suppression of viral load, increase of CD4 count and control of AIDS related conditions such as Kaposi’s sarcoma. The primary psychological outcome was reduction of personality disorders criteria. The patient was able to understand what led him to discontinue medication and then later regain full adherence. He achieved suppression of viral load and restore of CD4 count. As regard severity of personality disorder, he achieved reliable change. Interventions such as Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy may assist patients with HIV to gain the metacognitive capacities to make sense of their medical and psychological challenges and adhere to antiretroviral therapies leading to enhanced levels of health. Future studies are needed to explore these findings in larger controlled studies.