A Psychometric Evaluation of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire in a Non-Clinical Sample of Israeli Children and Adolescents

This study examined the psychometric properties of a Hebrew version of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire (BIQ) in a non-clinical sample of Israeli children and adolescents. We produced a Hebrew translation of the BIQ and collected 227 responses to it from parents of children aged 4–15. Some respondents in the larger sample also completed the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) questionnaire (n?=?91) and the Conners’ Abbreviated Parent-Teacher (CONNERS) questionnaire (n?=?39), in addition to the BIQ. Lastly, 21 children of BIQ respondents (aged 8–14) completed a self-report version of the questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to assess how well the established six correlated factor model of the BIQ applied to the sample data. The Hebrew BIQ demonstrated good internal consistency (Chronbach’s α?=?.94, n?=?227) and 3 month test–retest reliability, (r?=?.95, p?<?.001, n?=?21). It also showed both convergent validity, as scores on the BIQ were correlated with the SCARED (r?=?.66, p?<?.01. n?=?91), and discriminant validity, as BIQ scores were not correlated with the CONNERS (r?=?.24, n?=?39). Finally, mother reports of BI were significantly correlated to child reports of BI via the BIQ (r?=?.60, p?<?.01, n?=?21). Thus, through this preliminary study we demonstrated that the Hebrew version of the BIQ is an effective tool for screening for BI among Israeli children, making it a useful instrument for future research.     

The Motherhood of the Church in Henri de Lubac and John Calvin

Both Henri de Lubac and John Calvin described the Church as ‘mother’. From the patristic tradition, the motherhood of the Church had two dimensions: (i) the Mother Church as an institution delimited by the episcopacy of which inclusion was a necessity for salvation; and (ii) the Church as the mother of believers through whose ‘motherly’ care of bringing to life, nourishing and teaching through the sacraments God makes provision for his children. Both de Lubac and Calvin stress the maternal functions of the Church, but differ over how the Church’s motherhood relates to its visible identity and why inclusion in the Church is necessary for salvation. This article argues that this connection represents a rich theme for ecumenical ecclesiology. Despite divergent ecclesiological grammars and themes, Catholic and Reformed traditions are drawing from a shared patristic inheritance which gives good ground for dialogue for respective ecclesial self-understandings.     

Suggestion reduces the stroop effect

We examined the effects of suggestion on Stroop interference in highly suggestible individuals. Participants completed the Stroop task with and without a suggestion to perceive Stroop words as meaningless symbols. Half the participants were given this suggestion in hypnosis, and half were given the suggestion without the induction of hypnosis. Suggestion produced a significant reduction in Stroop inhibition, accounting for about 45% of the variance in Stroop responding, regardless of whether hypnosis had been induced. These findings indicate that suggestion can at least partially overcome the automaticity associated with the Stroop effect.     

Conditioning, expectancy, and the placebo effect: comment on Stewart-Williams and Podd (2004)

Classical conditioning is included as a component in the response expectancy model of placebo responding. Though introspectable when attention is drawn to them, expectancies need not be in awareness while guiding behavior. Most placebo effects are linked to expectancies, and classical conditioning is one factor (but not the only factor) by which these expectancies can be produced and altered. Conditioned placebo effects without expectancies exist but are relatively rare in humans. The adaptive advantage of cognition is increased response flexibility. For it to convey that benefit, however, it must be capable of overriding the influence of simpler automatic processes. Thus, the higher up the phylogenetic scale, the smaller the role of nonconscious conditioning processes and the larger the role of cognition.     

Outcome additivity and outcome maximality influence cue competition in human causal learning

Recent research suggests that outcome additivity pretraining modulates blocking in human causal learning. However, the existing evidence confounds outcome additivity and outcome maximality. Here the authors present evidence for the influence of presenting information about outcome maximality (Experiment 1) and outcome additivity (Experiment 2) on subsequent forward blocking. The results of Experiment 3 confirm that, with outcome maximality controlled, outcome additivity affects backward blocking but not release from overshadowing. Finally, the results of Experiment 4 demonstrate that information about outcome additivity has a similar effect on forward blocking if presented after the blocking training instead of before. The results are compatible with the idea that blocking results from inferential processes at the time of testing and not from a failure to acquire associative strength during training.     

The shifting sands of a professional identity

I decided while an undergraduate that I wanted to be a psychologist. Beyond that, I'm still not sure what I'll do when I grow up. This brief autobiography maps the shifting sands of my professional identity: from psychotherapist to developmental psychopathologist and then to primary concerns with education and training, from psychologist to academic administrator and then back again, to forensic psychologist and on to whatever may come next. Through all of these shifts in focus, however, there has been one recurring theme--the appeal of being an assessment psychologist. The events that kept bringing me back to assessment, whatever else my focus at the time, are recorded in the story that follows.     

Why are therapists indifferent to research?

In counselling and psychotherapy there is a serious research—practice gap. Why should research on the therapeutic process have such little impact? Five related factors are considered: (i) epistemology—reliance on experiential/personal knowledge; (ii) preciousness—reliance on nonaxiomatic truths; (iii) lack of theoretical rigour—looseness with which constructs are construed; (iv) non-Popperian logic—tendency to work within a theory and defend it; and (v) personalisation of theory—evaluation seen as criticism. The result is a proliferation of therapies rather than a refinement of therapy.     

Hope and Coping with Cancer by College Women

The relations of dispositional hope to various self-reported cancer-related coping activities were examined in 115 college women. Dispositionally high- as compared to low-hope women were more knowledgeable about cancer, and this relationship remained when the shared variances due to previous academic achievement, experience with cancer among family or friends, and positive and negative affectivity were removed. Additionally, high- as compared to low-hope women reported more hope-related coping responses in four separate imagined phases of cancer (prevention/risk, detection, temporal course, and impact), and these relationships remained when shared variances related to previous academic achievement, knowledge about cancer, experience with cancer, and negative affectivity were removed. Hope is discussed as means of maintaining a "fighting spirit" for coping with cancer.     

Speeded recognition of ungrammaticality: Double violations

A model of sentence comprehension postulating that Subject-Verb-Object relations are specified prior to Noun-Adjective relations received support from a study of the speed at which sentences with various kinds of violations could be rejected. Compatible with the sequential model was the finding that Noun-Verb and Adjective-Noun double violations did not result in shorter RTs than Noun-Verb single violations — even though sentences with double violations were judged to be less acceptable.