Optimizing the alliance in couple therapy

The complexity of the relation between alliance and outcome in couple therapy was investigated in a study of 47 couples in brief therapy. Self-rated alliance was measured after the first and third sessions using the couple version of the Working Alliance Inventory. The results indicated that the correlation between alliance and outcome was significantly stronger when the partners agreed about the strength of the alliance, when the male partner's alliance was stronger than the female's, and when the strength of both partners' alliance increased as therapy progressed. The authors suggest that a unique feature of couple therapy is that the partners have both a preexisting relationship with each other (allegiance) and an alliance with the therapist to balance.     

Reducing women’s lack of fit with leadership positions? Effects of the wording of job advertisements

Linguistic forms which refer to individuals impact mental representations of these individuals: When masculine generics are used, women tend to be cognitively underrepresented, whereas feminine–masculine word pairs are associated with a higher cognitive inclusion of women. The present research investigates whether linguistic forms affect women’s perceived lack of fit with leadership positions, which is particularly pronounced for high-status leadership positions. In a hiring-simulation experiment (N = 363), we tested the effects of different linguistic forms used in German-language job advertisements: (1) masculine forms (e.g., Geschäftsführer, ‘CEO, masc.’); (2) masculine forms with (m/f) (e.g., Geschäftsführer (m/w), ‘CEO, masc. (m/f)’); and (3) word pairs (e.g., Geschäftsführerin/Geschäftsführer, ‘CEO, fem./CEO, masc.’). The job ads announced either a high- or low-status leadership position. Results showed that female applicants were perceived to fit less well with the high-status position than male applicants when either the masculine or the masculine form with (m/f) was used––even though they were perceived to be equally competent. However, female and male applicants were perceived as fitting the high-status leadership position similarly well when word pairs were used.     

新生儿情绪性语音加工的正性偏向——来自事件相关电位的证据

准确解码语音中的情绪信息能让个体更好地适应社会环境, 此能力对新生儿和婴儿尤其重要, 因为人类刚出生时听觉系统远比视觉系统发育得完善。虽然已有研究表明5~7月龄的婴儿能分辨不同情绪种类的语音, 但目前对新生儿的研究还非常少。人类是否在出生时即具有分辨不同种类情绪性语音的能力?新生儿对情绪的加工是否存在正性或负性偏向?本文选用odd-ball范式考察高兴、恐惧、愤怒三种韵律性语音在1~6天龄新生儿大脑中诱发的事件相关电位。实验1直接对比三种情绪性条件, 发现新生儿大脑的额区(F3和F4电极点)可以区分情绪性语音的正负性, 正性(高兴)语音诱发的“失匹配反应”幅度明显大于负性(愤怒和恐惧)语音。实验2采用偏差和标准刺激反转的odd-ball范式, 证实了实验1的结果并非源于三种情绪语音物理属性的差异。本文的结果提示, 新生儿大脑可自动辨别正性与负性情绪语音, 但尚不能将愤怒和恐惧两种负性语音区分开来。更重要的是, 高兴语音比两种负性语音诱发了更大的失匹配反应, 这一结果首次从神经学层面(电生理指标)为新生儿情绪性语音加工的正性偏向提供了证据。     

“Lights on at the end of the party”: Are lads’ mags mainstreaming dangerous sexism?

Research has suggested that some magazines targeted at young men –lads’ mags– are normalizing extreme sexist views by presenting those views in a mainstream context. Consistent with this view, young men in Study 1 (n = 90) identified more with derogatory quotes about women drawn from recent lads’ mags, and from interviews with convicted rapists, when those quotes were attributed to lads’ mags, than when they were attributed to convicted rapists. In Study 2, 40 young women and men could not reliably judge the source of those same quotes. While these participants sometimes voiced the belief that the content of lads’ mags was ‘normal’ while rapists’ talk was ‘extreme’, they categorized quotes from both sources as derogatory with equal frequency. Jointly, the two studies show an overlap in the content of convicted rapists’ talk and the contents of contemporary lads’ mags, and suggest that the framing of such content within lads’ mags may normalize it for young men.     

Affirmative Action Policies in Academic Job Advertisements: Do They Facilitate or Hinder Gender Discrimination in Hiring Processes for Professorships?

Evidence of female-favoring hiring preferences for assistant professorships suggests that universities can implement affirmative action programs successfully. However, research on the role of applicant gender and the actual use of affirmative action policies in hiring processes for high-level professorships remain scarce. A web-based experiment with 481 economic university members assessed whether evaluators perceived a female applicant as less qualified than a male applicant for an associate professorship position when the job advertisement highlighted the university’s commitment to affirmative action (gender-based preferential selection) but not when it solely highlighted its commitment to excellence (non-gender-based selection). Contrary to previous experimental findings that affirmative action would adversely affect female applicants, evaluators perceived the female applicant as more hirable and ranked her first for the job significantly more often than the male candidate. Furthermore, male evaluators had a stronger preference for the female candidate in the gender-based condition than in the non-gender-based condition and a stronger preference for the male candidate in the non-gender-based condition than in the gender-based condition. Overall, the results provide evidence that gender-based preferential selection policies can evoke their intended effect to bring highly qualified women to high-level professorships, especially when being evaluated by non-beneficiaries of these policies, such as men.

     

医学基本功与临床决策

医学的基本理论、基本知识和基本技能,是临床医生的基本功底,是医疗实践的基础.任何疾病的发生、发展和治疗,都不能背离人体的生理病理规律.所提供的10个病例,充分地指明,掌握医学的基本功和对病情直接、全面、充分、持续的了解,是十分重要的.     

Drug‐assisted rape and sexual assault: definitional,conceptual and methodological developments

This paper reviews the limited literature on drug‐assisted rape (DAR) and develops definitions and constructs. A novel data gathering method, the multiple sorting task, was adopted to explore lay understanding of DAR. Participants (N = 8) were drawn from the general public. Each of the 21 stimulus cards used had the name of one sexual or romantic encounter printed on it. Participants completed one fixed sort in terms of the motivation of the male involved in the encounter. Data were analysed by means of multiple scalogram analysis (MSA). Findings show that the key factors for distinguishing sexual and romantic encounters are whether the behaviour is: consensual, contracted or forced; planned or impulsive; motivated primarily by the desire for sex or for a relationship. When motivation of the offender is considered, drug‐assisted rape and sexual assault is distinguishable from other consensual sexual behaviours but not from other types of rape. Findings are discussed in terms of the limitations of the present study, the need for further research and practical applications for assisting police enquiries. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Influence of Explanations for Selection Test Use, Outcome Favorability, and Self-Efficacy on Test-Taker Perceptions

Previous research has shown that an explanation for an event can affect reactions to that event. This study examined this effect within a selection context by varying the type of explanation (causal, ideological, referential) and outcome favorability. A sample of 202 undergraduates completed a selection test and reported their perceptions of that test both before and after the outcome was known. Both the type of explanation and outcome favorability interacted with participants' self-efficacy in determining perceptions of validity and fairness. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.