Women pastors and the idealization of suffering

Many women entering the Christian ministry are justifiably angry at the rejection, resentment, and condescension they often experience. What to do? Neither denial nor repression is the answer. Anger must be seen rather as a logical outcome of pioneer effort, a spiritual testing. To minister is to identify with Jesus in the role of suffering servant, and feel the pain of the hungry, while to reject suffering is to narcotize life. When suffering is part of fulfilling God's purpose, it can reach its highest idealization.     

Early family context and development of adolescent ruminative style: moderation by temperament

We know very little about the development of rumination, the tendency to passively brood about negative feelings. Because rumination is a risk factor for many forms of psychopathology, especially depression, such knowledge could prove important for preventing negative mental health outcomes in youth. This study examined developmental origins of rumination in a longitudinal sample (N=337; 51% girls) studied in preschool (ages 3? and 4? years) and early adolescence (ages 13 and 15 years). Results indicated that family context and child temperament, assessed during the preschool period, were risk factors for a ruminative style in adolescence. Specifically, early family contexts characterised by over-controlling parenting and a family style of negative-submissive expressivity predicted higher levels of later rumination. These associations were moderated by children's temperamental characteristics of negative affect and effortful control. Further, the interaction of these temperament factors exerted an additional influence on later rumination. Implications for prevention and intervention efforts are discussed.     

Initial development and validation of the checklist of risk behaviours for youth (CORBY)

The purpose of this study was to develop and begin to validate a brief self-report measure, the checklist of risk behaviours for youth (CORBY). This 15-item measure was designed to assess, over a 30-day period, multiple youth risk behaviours associated with mental health and well-being concerns. Early research provides initial support for the reliability and validity of the CORBY, but further research is warranted. The present study is the first to describe a brief survey addressing multiple youth risk behaviours, examining both the severity of health risk and number of behaviours in which youth are engaged. Such a measure may have important implications for both research and clinical applications.     

SOS! An algorithm and software for the stochastic optimization of stimuli

The characteristics of the stimuli used in an experiment critically determine the theoretical questions the experiment can address. Yet there is relatively little methodological support for selecting optimal sets of items, and most researchers still carry out this process by hand. In this research, we present SOS, an algorithm and software package for the stochastic optimization of stimuli. SOS takes its inspiration from a simple manual stimulus selection heuristic that has been formalized and refined as a stochastic relaxation search. The algorithm rapidly and reliably selects a subset of possible stimuli that optimally satisfy the constraints imposed by an experimenter. This allows the experimenter to focus on selecting an optimization problem that suits his or her theoretical question and to avoid the tedious task of manually selecting stimuli. We detail how this optimization algorithm, combined with a vocabulary of constraints that define optimal sets, allows for the quick and rigorous assessment and maximization of the internal and external validity of experimental items. In doing so, the algorithm facilitates research using factorial, multiple/mixed-effects regression, and other experimental designs. We demonstrate the use of SOS with a case study and discuss other research situations that could benefit from this tool. Support for the generality of the algorithm is demonstrated through Monte Carlo simulations on a range of optimization problems faced by psychologists. The software implementation of SOS and a user manual are provided free of charge for academic purposes as precompiled binaries and MATLAB source files at http://sos.cnbc.cmu.edu.     

eDom: Norming software and relative meaning frequencies for 544 English homonyms

Words that are homonyms??that is, for which a single written and spoken form is associated with multiple, unrelated interpretations, such as COMPOUND, which can denote an <?enclosure?> or a <?composite?> meaning??are an invaluable class of items for studying word and discourse comprehension. When using homonyms as stimuli, it is critical to control for the relative frequencies of each interpretation, because this variable can drastically alter the empirical effects of homonymy. Currently, the standard method for estimating these frequencies is based on the classification of free associates generated for a homonym, but this approach is both assumption-laden and resource-demanding. Here, we outline an alternative norming methodology based on explicit ratings of the relative meaning frequencies of dictionary definitions. To evaluate this method, we collected and analyzed data in a norming study involving 544 English homonyms, using the eDom norming software that we developed for this purpose. Dictionary definitions were generally sufficient to exhaustively cover word meanings, and the methods converged on stable norms with fewer data and less effort on the part of the experimenter. The predictive validity of the norms was demonstrated in analyses of lexical decision data from the English Lexicon Project (Balota et al., Behavior Research Methods, 39, 445?C459, 2007), and from Armstrong and Plaut (Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 2223?C2228, 2011). On the basis of these results, our norming method obviates relying on the unsubstantiated assumptions involved in estimating relative meaning frequencies on the basis of classification of free associates. Additional details of the norming procedure, the meaning frequency norms, and the source code, standalone binaries, and user manual for the software are available at http://edom.cnbc.cmu.edu.     

Are we documenting performance validity testing in pediatric neuropsychological assessments? A brief report

A 2016 survey of pediatric neuropsychologists found that 92% of clinicians reported use of “at least one” performance validity test (PVT) in each assessment. The present investigation sought to verify documented PVT use among clinicians by review of actual reports. A convenience sample of pediatric neuropsychological reports of children ages 6–17 were reviewed over an 24-month period (January 2015–January 2017); reports were those seen as part of our routine practice, including reports on children we were reevaluating, cases that we consulted on, or cases evaluated elsewhere presenting to our centers that required record review for clinical decision making (e.g., presurgical epilepsy evaluations). A total of 131 reports, from 102 unique neuropsychologists were reviewed. PVT usage was documented in only six reports, from six unique clinicians, representing only 4.58% of the reports (or 5.88% of clinicians), far below expectations recent survey results. Though sampling differences and documentation factors may account for some of this disparity, a “social desirability bias” on surveys is likely a major factor in explaining these discordant findings.