Tangible pictures: viewpoint effects and linear perspective in visually impaired people

Perception of raised-line pictures in blindfolded-sighted, congenitally blind, late-blind, and low-vision subjects was studied in a series of experiments. The major aim of the study was to examine the value of perspective drawings for haptic pictures and visually impaired individuals. In experiment 1, subjects felt two wooden boards joined at 45 degrees, 90 degrees, or 135 degrees, and were instructed to pick the correct perspective drawing from among four choices. The first experiment on perspective found a significant effect of visual status, with much higher performance by the low-vision subjects. Mean performance for the congenitally blind subjects was not significantly different from that of the late-blind and blindfolded-sighted subjects. In a further experiment, blindfolded subjects drew tangible pictures of three-dimensional (3-D) geometric solids, and then engaged in a matching task. Counter to expectations, performance was not impaired for the 3-D drawings as compared with the frontal viewpoints. Subjects were also especially fast and more accurate when matching top views. Experiment 5 showed that top views were easiest for all of the visually impaired subjects, including those who were congenitally blind. Experiment 5 yielded higher performance for 3-D than frontal viewpoints. The results of all of the experiments were consistent with the idea that visual experience is not necessary for understanding perspective drawings of geometrical objects.     

Effects of social media use on desire for cosmetic surgery among young women

Current Psychology - A large body of research has documented the influence of traditional media formats (e.g. television programs, adverts) on young women’s consideration of cosmetic surgery....     

Therapist Self-Efficacy in Delivering Cognitive Processing Therapy in a Randomized Controlled Implementation Trial

Efforts to improve the implementation of evidence-based treatments (EBT) have recently made important strides. One such example is understanding the vital role that weekly consultation plays as therapists learn to deliver an EBT. Because mechanism-based research can further support EBT implementation, the present study sought to examine the potential relationship between therapist self-efficacy in relation to treatment fidelity and outcomes.We examined therapist self-efficacy ratings from 80 therapists working with 188 patients. These data were collected as part of a randomized controlled implementation trial testing cognitive processing therapy (CPT). Across post-workshop training conditions, we ran multilevel models to assess (1) changes in therapist self-efficacy, (2) therapist self-efficacy in relation to treatment fidelity, and (3) therapist-self-efficacy in relation to patient PTSD symptom outcomes.We found that therapist self-efficacy significantly improved over the course of 6 months of CPT training. Baseline therapist self-efficacy was differentially associated with client outcomes based on post-workshop training condition. Specifically, therapists with low self-efficacy that did not receive post-workshop consultation tended to have poorer outcomes than therapists with low self-efficacy that received consultation. In the present sample, therapist self-efficacy was not related to treatment fidelity.As this was the first study to examine therapist self-efficacy in the implementation of an evidence-based treatment, our findings suggest that self-efficacy may be an important implementation factor in treatment outcomes and worthy of ongoing research.     

Daily Parent-Adolescent Digital Exchanges

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - The present study tracked adolescents via mobile phones to describe how parents and their adolescent children are using digital technologies in...     

The externalist challenge to conceptual engineering

Unlike conceptual analysis, conceptual engineering does not aim to identify the content that our current concepts do have, but the content which these concepts should have. For this method to show the results that its practitioners typically aim for, being able to change meanings seems to be a crucial presupposition. However, certain branches of semantic externalism raise doubts about whether this presupposition can be met. To the extent that meanings are determined by external factors such as causal histories or microphysical structures, it seems that they cannot be changed intentionally. This paper gives an extended discussion of this ‘externalist challenge’. Pace Herman Cappelen’s recent take on this issue, it argues that the viability of conceptual engineering crucially depends on our ability to bring about meaning change. Furthermore, it argues that, contrary to first appearance, causal theories of reference do allow for a sufficient degree of meaning control. To this purpose, it argues that there is a sense of what is called ‘collective long-range control’, and that popular versions of the causal theory of reference imply that people have this kind of control over meanings.

     

(Re)Conceptualizing Sleep Among Children with Anxiety Disorders: Where to Next?

Children with anxiety disorders (AD) characteristically complain of sleep problems and the extent to which cognitive behavioral treatments (CBT) for childhood anxiety produce sleep-based improvements is a topic of increasing interest. The current paper reviews available evidence for subjective sleep complaints and objective sleep alterations in children and adolescents with AD, including investigations of potential changes in sleep following anxiety-focused CBT. Despite pervasive complaints of poor sleep, the empirical literature provides minimal evidence for actual sleep–wake alterations in this population of youth and evidence for sleep-based changes following treatment for anxiety is minimal. In line with calls for more comprehensive models of the role of sleep in developmental psychopathology, several fundamental gaps in understanding are described and highlighted as essential avenues for clarifying the nature and consequences of poor quality sleep among youth with clinical levels of anxiety. In a second section of the paper, an emerging body of novel, translational research investigating more intricate sleep–anxiety relationships is introduced with potential implications for both etiological models and treatment design and delivery.     

What Are the Nutrition Education Needs of Refugees: Assessment of Food Choices,Shopping and Spending Practices of South-Asian Refugees in the USA

This study was designed to assess food choices, shopping, and spending practices among the Southeast Asian refugee group of “Montagnards” resettled in the USA. A convenience sample of 12 Montagnard refugee women, fluent in Rhade and/or Jarai, was recruited and asked to provide all the grocery food receipts for a 1-month period. At the end of the 1-month period, participants were interviewed to collect information on socio-demographics and general food shopping practices. On average, participants had lived in the USA for 6 years, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly known as Food Stamps) benefits accounted for approximately 55% of total grocery food purchases. The analyses of food receipts showed that a major proportion of the food budget was spent on rice and meat. The lowest proportion of the food budget was spent on dairy or dairy products. Making a grocery list or the use of coupons was not common among participants. Nutrition education for refugees upon resettlement is vital. In particular, topics such as food budgeting and the importance of a well-balanced diet should be covered to promote a healthy lifestyle among resettled refugees.     

Insomnia and eating expectancies among college students: the role of emotion dysregulation

There is limited understanding of the relation between insomnia and aspects of eating among college students though available data suggest salient clinical relationships. The present study explored a potential transdiagnostic mechanism in the relation between insomnia symptoms and eating expectancies. Participants were a racially/ethnically diverse sample of 1589 college students (80.4% females; Mage = 22.2 years, SD = 5.27) from an urban university. Primary analysis included three regression-based models of eating expectancies. Insomnia symptoms served as the predictor, and emotion dysregulation served as the indirect (mediator) variable in all models. Results indicated that insomnia symptoms yielded a significant indirect effect through emotion dysregulation on expectancies of eating to help manage negative affect, alleviate boredom, and lead to feeling out of control. Students experiencing insomnia symptoms may be at higher risk for experiencing dysregulated emotions and consequently maladaptive eating expectancies compared to good sleepers.     

Linking Job Work Hours to Women’s Physical Health: The Role of Perceived Unfairness and Household Work Hours

Although the relationship between job work hours and women’s physical health has been examined, limited empirical research examines the family demand conditions that explain this relationship. Given the challenge of integrating work and family demands, we examine the boundary conditions under which job hours relate to women’s physical health by integrating the influences of household work hours, perceived unfairness of division of household labor, and traditional gender ideology. Using a large, multi-national archival dataset, our results show that women working long job hours are more likely to report decreased physical health and that this relationship is moderated by the hours and fairness perceptions of household labor: The lowest physical health was observed at high job hours and high household hours and also when women felt that they did less than their fair share of household labor. However, looking at the slopes of these relationships, the negative relationship between job hours and physical health was stronger when women worked lower household hours or felt that they contributed less than their fair share of household labor—suggesting that maintaining a contribution to household labor might be important for working women. Furthermore, these results suggest that policy and organizational interventions aimed at supporting women’s physical health could take their household labor contributions and fairness perceptions into account when assessing the negative impact of high job work hours.