Increase in counselling communication skills after basic and advanced microskills training

Background Mastering counselling communication skills is one of the requirements that lead to the diploma of a registered European psychologist. The microcounseling method proves to be effective in training these skills. Aim Research into the effectiveness of the microcounseling method often reports overall effect sizes only. The aim of this study was to investigate the adequate use of separate counselling communication skills (seven basic skills: minimal encouragements; asking questions; paraphrasing; reflection of feeling; concreteness; summarizing; and situation clarification and five advanced skills: advanced accurate empathy; confrontation; positive relabelling; examples of one's own; and directness) after respectively a basic and an advanced training in these skills. Sample Participants were 583 first year or second year bachelor students in psychology who took the counselling communication skills progress test (CSPT). The participants are divided in a group of freshmen, who had not received any training in counselling communication skills; first year students, who had received a training in basic skills; second year students who had followed a training in advanced skills and a control group. Method A between‐subject design, a within‐subject design and a pre‐test–post‐test‐control group design were used to examine the scores on these skills. Results Seven basic skills and four advanced skills had large effect sizes. One advanced skill had a moderate effect size. Conclusio The microcounseling method is very effective on the level of separate microskills. However, students perform better on the basic skills than on the advanced skills. More training seems to be needed in the latter to achieve the same level of mastery.     

Bootstrap confidence intervals in multi‐level simultaneous component analysis

Multi‐level simultaneous component analysis (MLSCA) was designed for the exploratory analysis of hierarchically ordered data. MLSCA specifies a component model for each level in the data, where appropriate constraints express possible similarities between groups of objects at a certain level, yielding four MLSCA variants. The present paper discusses different bootstrap strategies for estimating confidence intervals (CIs) on the individual parameters. In selecting a proper strategy, the main issues to address are the resampling scheme and the non‐uniqueness of the parameters. The resampling scheme depends on which level(s) in the hierarchy are considered random, and which fixed. The degree of non‐uniqueness depends on the MLSCA variant, and, in two variants, the extent to which the user exploits the transformational freedom. A comparative simulation study examines the quality of bootstrap CIs of different MLSCA parameters. Generally, the quality of bootstrap CIs appears to be good, provided the sample sizes are sufficient at each level that is considered to be random. The latter implies that if more than a single level is considered random, the total number of observations necessary to obtain reliable inferential information increases dramatically. An empirical example illustrates the use of bootstrap CIs in MLSCA.     

Oblique rotation in correspondence analysis: A step forward in the search for the simplest interpretation

Correspondence analysis (CA) is a popular method that can be used to analyse relationships between categorical variables. It is closely related to several popular multivariate analysis methods such as canonical correlation analysis and principal component analysis. Like principal component analysis, CA solutions can be rotated orthogonally as well as obliquely into a simple structure without affecting the total amount of explained inertia. However, some specific aspects of CA prevent standard rotation procedures from being applied in a straightforward fashion. In particular, the role played by weights assigned to points and dimensions and the duality of CA solutions are unique to CA. For orthogonal simple structure rotation, procedures recently have been proposed. In this paper, we construct oblique rotation methods for CA that take into account these specific difficulties. We illustrate the benefits of our oblique rotation procedure by means of two illustrative examples.     

The LMPCA program: A graphical user interface for fitting the linked-mode PARAFAC-PCA model to coupled real-valued data

In behavioral research, PARAFAC analysis, a three-mode generalization of standard principal component analysis (PCA), is often used to disclose the structure of three-way three-mode data. To get insight into the underlying mechanisms, one often wants to relate the component matrices resulting from such a PARAFAC analysis to external (two-way two-mode) information, regarding one of the modes of the three-way data. To this end, linked-mode PARAFAC-PCA analysis can be used, in which the three-way and the two-way data set, which have one mode in common, are simultaneously analyzed. More specifically, a PARAFAC and a PCA model are fitted to the three-way and the two-way data, respectively, restricting the component matrix for the common mode to be equal in both models. Until now, however, no software program has been publicly available to perform such an analysis. Therefore, in this article, the LMPCA program, a free and easy-to-use MATLAB graphical user interface, is presented to perform a linked-mode PARAFAC-PCA analysis. The LMPCA software can be obtained from the authors at http://ppw.kuleuven.be/okp/software/LMPCA. For users who do not have access to MATLAB, a stand-alone version is provided.     

Playing God in Frankenstein’s Footsteps: Synthetic Biology and the Meaning of Life

The emergent new science of synthetic biology is challenging entrenched distinctions between, amongst others, life and non-life, the natural and the artificial, the evolved and the designed, and even the material and the informational. Whenever such culturally sanctioned boundaries are breached, researchers are inevitably accused of playing God or treading in Frankenstein’s footsteps. Bioethicists, theologians and editors of scientific journals feel obliged to provide an authoritative answer to the ambiguous question of the ‘meaning’ of life, both as a scientific definition and as an explication with wider existential connotations. This article analyses the arguments mooted in the emerging societal debates on synthetic biology and the way its practitioners respond to criticism, mostly by assuming a defiant posture or professing humility. It explores the relationship between the ‘playing God’ theme and the Frankenstein motif and examines the doctrinal status of the ‘playing God’ argument. One particularly interesting finding is that liberal theologians generally deny the religious character of the ‘playing God’ argument—a response which fits in with the curious fact that this argument is used mainly by secular organizations. Synthetic biology, it is therefore maintained, does not offend so much the God of the Bible as a deified Nature. While syntheses of artificial life forms cause some vague uneasiness that life may lose its special meaning, most concerns turn out to be narrowly anthropocentric. As long as synthetic biology creates only new microbial life and does not directly affect human life, it will in all likelihood be considered acceptable.     

Further Evidence for Reliability and Validity of the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure in a Forensic Sample and a Community Sample

Psychopathy is often described as a constellation of personality characteristics encompassing features such as impulsivity and antisociality, and a lack of empathy and guilt. Although the use of self-reports to assess psychopathy is still debated, there are distinct advantages to such measures and recent research suggests that they may not be as problematic as previously thought. This study further examined the reliability and validity of the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM) in a community sample (N = 496) and forensic psychiatric patient sample (N = 217). Results indicated excellent internal consistencies. Additionally, the TriPM total and subscale scores related as expected to different subscales of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory –Revised (PPI-R) and to the Reactive and Proactive Aggression Questionnaire, reflecting good construct validity. Most importantly, ROC curve analyses showed that the TriPM evidenced better discrimination between the community sample and forensic psychiatric patients than the PPI-R. The current study extends the existent evidence demonstrating that the TriPM can be used as an efficient self-report instrument.     

Neuroticism and attachment insecurity as predictors of bereavement outcome

Adult attachment dimensions as well as the personality trait neuroticism have been shown to be related to psychological adjustment after bereavement. No investigations so far have studied the relative contribution of these constructs to grief and depression. In our study of 219 bereaved parents, the two adult attachment dimensions, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, were compared to the personality trait neuroticism in predicting psychological adjustment. The attachment dimensions explained a unique part over and above neuroticism, but contrary to expectations, neuroticism explained more variance than attachment dimensions. Implications are discussed.     

In search of the nonconscious sources of goal pursuit: Accessibility and positive affective valence of the goal state

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the mere priming of the representation of a goal state motivates people to pursue this state to the extent that it is associated with positive affect. In Experiment 1, all participants completed an affective priming task in which the goal concept of “socializing” was primed and tested for positive valence. Subsequently, they were given an instrumental task which provided the opportunity to pursue that state. It was established that participants put more effort in the task to attain the primed goal state when the implicitly assessed affective valence of the state was more positive. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these effects by showing that a stronger association of the goal state with positive affect—as assessed by the EAST—led to more effort to attain the state, but only when “socializing” was primed.     

Behavioral cues to others’ motivation and goal pursuits: The perception of effort facilitates goal inference and contagion

Recent research demonstrates that people spontaneously, i.e., without conscious intent, infer and pursue the goals perceived in others’ behavior, a phenomenon termed goal contagion [Aarts, H., Gollwitzer, P., & Hassin, R. R. (2004). Goal contagion: perceiving is for pursuing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 23-27]. Three experiments extend this work by studying the basic role of perceived behavioral effort in goal inference and pursuit. In an adaptation of the Animated Film Technique, participants were exposed to a movie featuring movements of a ball that implied the goal of helping. The amount of effort in pursuing the implied goal was experimentally varied. Results showed that an increase in perceived effort led to stronger inferences of the implied goal, as was established by enhanced accessibility of the goal representation in a word completion and lexical decision task. Furthermore, as a result of these inferences, participants more strongly pursued the inferred goal of helping. Implications for research on goal inferences and pursuit are briefly discussed.     

The role of automaticity in determining the inclination to forgive close others

Hitherto, the literature on forgiveness has almost exclusively focused on the role of deliberative processes (e.g., attribution processes) in determining forgiveness. However, in the present article, we argue that in the context of close relationships, the inclination to forgive can be relatively automatically evoked in response to an offense. Four studies provide evidence relevant to this general hypothesis. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that the subliminal presentation of close others (versus non-close others or a control word) induces a relatively strong inclination to forgive various offenses. Study 3 provides insight into the cognitive processes that underlie the closeness-forgiveness link, demonstrating that thinking of (a transgression of) a close other (compared to a non-close other) leads to enhanced accessibility of the construct of forgiveness. Finally, Study 4 demonstrates that forgiving responses toward a close offender are less dependent on cognitive resources than are forgiving responses toward a non-close offender, suggesting that, in close relationships, the inclination to forgive arises in a relatively effortless, habitual manner. Implications for theorizing on how people forgive are being discussed.