Beneficial factors in family discussion groups of a psychiatric day clinic: perceptions by the therapeutic team and the families of the therapeutic process

This paper reports a pilot investigation of the perception of helpful events by the therapeutic team and the families in two family discussion groups (FDGs) of a psychiatric day clinic. All participants of the FDG, including therapists and observers, filled in questionnaires measuring events helpful for the individual, for the family and for the group after each FDG session. The results showed that the therapeutic team and the families diverged in their overall perception of which factors were important in family discussion group therapy. The therapeutic team saw the relational climate and the structural aspects of the group (including group involvement and support from the group), and specific therapeutic interventions as more helpful than the families. The process aspects in the group members (including the experiencing of communality and gaining insight) were, on the other hand, more frequently mentioned by the families than by the therapeutic team. The clinical implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Work Sample Testing

The general evidence supporting the use of work sample tests (good criterion — related validity, positive applicant reaction and job preview capability) is reviewed, limitations are also noted. The extent to which work sample tests may be used to limit adverse impact in selection is reviewed and the extent to which work sample tests may be used to complement other selection instruments, in particular, cognitive ability tests, is discussed. Work sample tests are based on attempts to embody key tasks within the job in a selection instrument. Five distinctive (though not mutually exclusive) types of work sample tests are identified and validity evidence is reviewed. Key dimensions (bandwidth, fidelity, task specificity, necessary experience, type of tasks and mode of presentation and response) are identified and used to compare different types of work sample tests.     

Is the victim Max (Planck) or Moritz? How victim type and social value orientation affect dishonest behavior

Does the potential victim of dishonest behavior—a family or a bank, a pensioner or an insurance firm—affect the propensity to engage in such behavior? We investigate the effect of victim type—an individual person or an impersonal institution—on dishonest behavior and test whether it interacts with potential perpetrators' social value orientation (prosocial or proself). In a between‐subjects design, we allowed experimental participants (N = 368) to misreport private information in order to increase (decrease) their profit (loss) at the expense of either another participant or the experimenter's budget. Both prosocials and proselfs engaged in dishonesty, but proselfs did so much more. Furthermore, prosocials reduced their dishonesty when the victim was another person, rather than an institution, but proselfs did not. A direct implication is that the dishonesty of prosocials may be curbed by increasing the salience of the adverse effect their dishonesty has on other individual people but that such interventions will not be effective for proselfs. In contrast with recent results, we did not find a general effect of increased dishonesty under a loss (vs. gain) frame.     

Effects of Psychological Distance and Need for Cognitive Closure on Impression Formation

Based on theoretical and empirical similarities between Construal level theory of psychological distance and the Need for cognitive closure (NFC) theory, it could be hypothesized that psychological distance and NFC represent constructs that overlap to some degree. Since both theories describe judgmental behavior in terms of schematic processing, we hypothesized that primacy effect, a schema-driven phenomenon, is strengthened under the heightened NFC and psychological distance. We tested this hypothesis in an impression formation experiment while manipulating psychological distance and measuring NFC. Low NFC and psychological closeness reflect preference for situationally specific, contextually rich information, and therefore their joint effect resulted in reliance on all available information regardless of their position in a sequence. High NFC and psychological distance produced a preference for clear, schematic, stable knowledge, and therefore weighed first information more, which resulted in the primacy effect.     

Mapping the interplay among cognitive biases,emotion regulation,and depressive symptoms

Cognitive biases and emotion regulation (ER) difficulties have been instrumental in understanding hallmark features of depression. However, little is known about the interplay among these important risk factors to depression. This cross-sectional study investigated how multiple cognitive biases modulate the habitual use of ER processes and how ER habits subsequently regulate depressive symptoms. All participants first executed a computerised version of the scrambled sentences test (interpretation bias measure) while their eye movements were registered (attention bias measure) and then completed questionnaires assessing positive reappraisal, brooding, and depressive symptoms. Path and bootstrapping analyses supported both direct effects of cognitive biases on depressive symptoms and indirect effects via the use of brooding and via the use of reappraisal that was in turn related to the use of brooding. These findings help to formulate a better understanding of how cognitive biases and ER habits interact to maintain depressive symptoms.     

Individual differences in cognitive control over emotional material modulate cognitive biases linked to depressive symptoms

Deficient cognitive control over emotional material and cognitive biases are important mechanisms underlying depression, but the interplay between these emotionally distorted cognitive processes in relation to depressive symptoms is not well understood. This study investigated the relations among deficient cognitive control of emotional information (i.e. inhibition, shifting, and updating difficulties), cognitive biases (i.e. negative attention and interpretation biases), and depressive symptoms. Theory-driven indirect effect models were constructed, hypothesising that deficient cognitive control over emotional material predicts depressive symptoms through negative attention and interpretation biases. Bootstrapping analyses demonstrated that deficient inhibitory control over negative material was related to negative attention bias which in turn predicted a congruent bias in interpretation and subsequently depressive symptoms. Both shifting and updating impairments in response to negative material had an indirect effect on depression severity through negative interpretation bias. No evidence was found for direct effects of deficient cognitive control over emotional material on depressive symptoms. These findings may help to formulate an integrated understanding of the cognitive foundations of depressive symptoms.     

Age differences in personality traits across cultures: self‐report and observer perspectives

Using self‐report measures, longitudinal studies in the US and cross‐sectional studies from many cultures suggest that the broad factors of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience decline from adolescence to adulthood, whereas Agreeableness and Conscientiousness increase. Data are inconsistent on the rate of change during adulthood, and on the generalizability of self‐report findings to informant ratings. We analysed cross‐sectional data from self‐reports and informant ratings on the Revised NEO Personality Inventory in Czech (N = 705) and Russian (N = 800) samples. Some curvilinear effects were found, chiefly in the Czech sample; informant data generally replicated self‐reports, although the effects were weaker. Although many of the details are not yet clear, there appear to be pan‐cultural trends in personality development that are consistent with the hypothesis of intrinsic maturation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.