A transdisciplinary model integrating genetic, physiological, and psychological correlates of voluntary exercise.

OBJECTIVE: Physical inactivity contributes to as many as 250,000 premature deaths per year (R. R. Pate et al., 1995). The authors' objective was to test a transdisciplinary model of the ways in which genetic variants, physiological factors, and psychological factors are thought to influence exercise with 64 healthy, regular exercisers. DESIGN: In a within-subjects design, psychological and physiological responses to exercise were compared with responses to a sedentary activity. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The authors measured affective state, perceived exertion, heart rate, and temperature change in response to moderate exercise versus sedentary activity. They also quantified genotypes on a single nucleotide polymorphism in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The data show a relation between increases in positive affective states and acute exercise behavior, as opposed to a sedentary control. The BDNF gene moderated the effect of exercise on mood, heart rate, and perceived exertion. Physiological factors were, in turn, related to mood response, and mood response was a significant correlate of motivation to exercise in the future and of current exercise behavior. The model has potential as a framework for the basic study of the genetic, physiological, and psychological processes involved with voluntary exercise and as a tool for the applied examination of tailored exercise interventions and their efficacy for different subsets of individuals.     

A Cross‐Cultural Comparison of U.S. and Japanese Trainees’ Emotion‐Recognition Ability

This study investigated the ability of non‐Hispanic White U.S. counseling psychology trainees and Japanese clinical psychology trainees to recognize facially expressed emotions. Researchers proposed that an in‐group advantage for emotion recognition would occur, women would have higher emotion‐recognition accuracy than men, and participants would vary in their emotion‐intensity ratings. Sixty White U.S. students and 60 Japanese students viewed photographs of non‐Hispanic White U.S. and Japanese individuals expressing emotions and completed a survey assessing emotion‐recognition ability and emotion‐intensity ratings. Two four‐way mixed‐factor analyses of variance were performed, examining effects of participant nationality/race, participant gender, poser nationality/race, and poser gender on emotion‐recognition accuracy scores and intensity ratings. Results did not support the in‐group advantage hypothesis, rather, U.S. participants had higher accuracy rates than Japanese trainees overall. No gender differences in accuracy were found. However, respondents varied in their intensity ratings across gender and nationality. Implications for training applied psychology students and for future research are presented.     

The (un)reliability of item-level semantic priming effects

Many researchers have tried to predict semantic priming effects using a myriad of variables (e.g., prime–target associative strength or co-occurrence frequency). The idea is that relatedness varies across prime–target pairs, which should be reflected in the size of the priming effect (e.g., cat should prime dog more than animal does). However, it is only insightful to predict item-level priming effects if they can be measured reliably. Thus, in the present study we examined the split-half and test–retest reliabilities of item-level priming effects under conditions that should discourage the use of strategies. The resulting priming effects proved extremely unreliable, and reanalyses of three published priming datasets revealed similar cases of low reliability. These results imply that previous attempts to predict semantic priming were unlikely to be successful. However, one study with an unusually large sample size yielded more favorable reliability estimates, suggesting that big data, in terms of items and participants, should be the future for semantic priming research.     

Age-related differences in guessing on free and forced recall tests

This study examined possible age-related differences in recall, guessing, and metacognition on free recall tests and forced recall tests. Participants studied categorised and unrelated word lists and were asked to recall the items under one of the following test conditions: standard free recall, free recall with a penalty for guessing, free recall with no penalty for guessing, or forced recall. The results demonstrated interesting age differences regarding the impact of liberal test instructions (i.e., forced recall and no penalty) relative to more conservative test instructions (i.e., standard free recall and penalty) on memory performance. Specifically, once guessing was controlled, younger adults' recall of categorised lists varied in accordance with test instructions while older adults' recall of categorised lists did not differ between conservative and liberal test instructions, presumably because older adults approach standard free recall tests of categorised lists with a greater propensity towards guessing than young adults.     

Counseling in the Czech Republic: History,Status, and Future

This article reviews the history and current status of counseling in the Czech Republic. Recommendations for advancement of the profession in a postcommunist era are offered, including the incorporation of social justice principals for the benefit of Gypsies and immigrants, collaboration between Czech and non‐Czech counselors, and counseling research with the Czech people.     

Protecting threatened identity: sticking with the group by emphasizing ingroup heterogeneity

In two studies (Ns=163, 164), the authors tested the prediction that perceptions of group variability can steer and guide the way that loyalty is expressed in times of identity threat. In both studies, participants were classified as lower or higher identifiers on the basis of their scores on a group identification measure, and manipulations involved group variability perceptions (homogeneous ingroup vs. heterogeneous ingroup) and threat to the ingroup. Higher identifiers presented with a homogeneous ingroup perceived more ingroup homogeneity under threat than when there was no threat. In contrast, higher identifiers who perceived the ingroup initially as heterogeneous perceived more ingroup heterogeneity under threat than in no threat conditions. Lower identifiers perceived more ingroup heterogeneity under threat (vs. no threat) irrespective of manipulated group variability perceptions. Discussion focuses on different ways that group loyalty can be expressed in times of identity threat.     

Psychometric comparison of Chinese and English versions of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire with bilingual Hong Kong Chinese students

The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003) assesses two emotion regulation (ER) strategies: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Researchers have used the ERQ in cross-national studies, such as with participants in Hong Kong. There is inconsistency in psychometric equivalence data for the ERQ in Chinese among adults, and prior research in Hong Kong contradicted the ERQ's original factor structure (Matsumoto et al., 2008). The present study examined the factor structure, reliability and validity of a translated Traditional Chinese-ERQ and the English-ERQ with Hong Kong college students. Results revealed that both versions replicated the original two-factor structure of the ERQ (Gross & John, 2003). Evidence of the measure's convergent, discriminant and predictive validity was obtained as well. Implications for cross-cultural scale validation particularly with Hong Kong Chinese students are discussed.