Predicting problematic Internet use in men and women: the contributions of psychological distress, coping style, and body esteem

Problematic Internet use (PIU) is becoming a prevalent and serious problem among college students. Rates of PIU are higher in men, which may be due to psychological variables, such as comorbid psychological disorders and beliefs about one's body. We examined the ability of psychological distress, coping style, and body esteem to predict levels of PIU in men and women in a sample of 425 undergraduate students (46.8 percent male; mean age?=?19.0, SD?=?1.7). For men, phobic anxiety, wishful thinking, and overweight preoccupation were significant predictors of increased PIU. For women, depression, keeping to oneself, and decreased tension reduction were associated with increased PIU. The findings suggest that men and women may have different psychological reasons for excessive Internet use, including different types of psychological distress and coping styles. Unlike women, men may use the Internet because of weight concerns.     

Veterans’ Offspring’s Personality Traits and the Intergenerational Transmission of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

Following war and war captivity, many combat veterans and former prisoners of war (ex-POWs) may suffer from posttraumatic psychopathologies, and these may be transmitted to their offspring. Though there are considerable individual differences between offspring in this respect, the mechanisms underlying such differences remain unclear. The current longitudinal study examined the role that veterans’ offspring’s Big Five personality traits may play within this intergenerational transmission. One hundred and twenty-three dyads consisting of veterans (79 ex-POWs and 44 combat veterans) and their adult offspring were examined. Fathers’ posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and global psychiatric distress (GD) were assessed 30 and 35 years after the war, and offspring’s PTSS, GD, and Big Five personality traits were assessed 40 years after the war. Findings indicate that veterans’ psychopathologies were associated with those of their offspring. Furthermore, analyses revealed significant positive associations between offspring’s psychopathologies and their Neuroticism, and negative associations with their Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Finally, a mediation effect was found wherein the fathers’ PTSS and GD were related to their offspring’s Neuroticism levels, and the offspring’s Neuroticism was related to their PTSS and GD levels. These findings suggest that offspring’s personality traits may indeed play a role in the transmission of posttraumatic psychopathologies from veterans to their offspring, and may explain individual differences in this respect. Specifically, high levels of Neuroticism may place offspring at risk for secondary traumatization. Possible explanations and limitations are discussed, and future research directions are suggested.     

Pigeons (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Columba livia</Emphasis>) show change blindness in a color-change detection task

Change blindness is a phenomenon whereby changes to a stimulus are more likely go unnoticed under certain circumstances. Pigeons learned a change detection task, in which they observed sequential stimulus displays consisting of individual colors back-projected onto three response keys. The color of one response key changed during each sequence and pecks to the key that displayed the change were reinforced. Pigeons showed a change blindness effect, in that change detection accuracy was worse when there was an inter-stimulus interval interrupting the transition between consecutive stimulus displays. Birds successfully transferred to stimulus displays involving novel colors, indicating that pigeons learned a general change detection rule. Furthermore, analysis of responses to specific color combinations showed that pigeons could detect changes involving both spectral and non-spectral colors and that accuracy was better for changes involving greater differences in wavelength. These results build upon previous investigations of change blindness in both humans and pigeons and suggest that change blindness may be a general consequence of selective visual attention relevant to multiple species and stimulus dimensions.     

Normative Sample of the PEAK Relational Training System: Generalization Module with Comparison to Individuals with Autism

With the rising number of individuals diagnosed with autism and other developmental disabilities comes an increased need for effective assessment and treatment options. Previous research has indicated that applied behavior analytic techniques are among the most empirically supported and utilized treatments for this population; however, curriculum and assessment tools rooted in utilizing these techniques have very little empirical support for their reliability and validity. The current studies sought to assess the performance of both a normative sample and a sample with autism on one such assessment tool: The PEAK Generalization Module. Altogether, 183 typically developing children participated in study 1 and 84 children with a diagnosis of autism participated in study 2. The results indicated that the normative sample demonstrated a strong positive correlation between the PEAK Generalization Assessment and age, whereas the sample with autism demonstrated no significant relationship between the two. Further analysis indicates that the PEAK Generalization Assessment may be an appropriate tool for assessing individuals with autism across a wide range of ages, and provides a preliminary benchmark against which to measure both current functioning and progress in individuals with developmental disabilities.     

Aging and the discrimination of 3-D shape from motion and binocular disparity

Two experiments evaluated the ability of younger and older adults to visually discriminate 3-D shape as a function of surface coherence. The coherence was manipulated by embedding the 3-D surfaces in volumetric noise (e.g., for a 55?% coherent surface, 55?% of the stimulus points fell on a 3-D surface, while 45?% of the points occupied random locations within the same volume of space). The 3-D surfaces were defined by static binocular disparity, dynamic binocular disparity, and motion. The results of both experiments demonstrated significant effects of age: Older adults required more coherence (tolerated volumetric noise less) for reliable shape discrimination than did younger adults. Motion-defined and static-binocular-disparity-defined surfaces resulted in similar coherence thresholds. However, performance for dynamic-binocular-disparity-defined surfaces was superior (i.e., the observers?? surface coherence thresholds were lowest for these stimuli). The results of both experiments showed that younger and older adults possess considerable tolerance to the disrupting effects of volumetric noise; the observers could reliably discriminate 3-D surface shape even when 45?% of the stimulus points (or more) constituted noise.     

The development of early psychology of religion: a Dutch falsification of the received view

This article takes issue with the received view of the history of the psychology of religion. Contrary to the presentation of "the" psychology of religion by Beit-Hallahmi in JHBS (1974) as declining after 1913, this article (1) states that the psychology of religion has never been a homogeneous enterprise, but rather a multiform one, with very different developments in different countries, and (2) presents the history of the Dutch Godsdienstpsychologische Studievereeniging [Study Association for the Psychology of Religion; GPSV] as one of the falsifications of the received view. The GPSV existed in the 1920s and as one of its most notable activities, it organized in 1926 the first international conference for the psychology of religion, an event described in some detail.