“I Believe in Cusk”: The Effect of Explicit Belief Statements on Children’s Reality Status Judgments and Beliefs about Consensus

Children learn about the world through others’ testimony, and much of this knowledge likely comes from parents. Furthermore, parents may sometimes want children to share their beliefs about topics on which there is no universal consensus. In discussing such topics, parents may use explicit belief statements (e.g., “Evolution is real”) or implicit belief statements (e.g., “Evolution happened over millions of years”). But little research has investigated how such statements affect children’s beliefs. In the current study, 4- to 7-year-olds (N = 102) were shown videos of their parent providing either Explicit (“Cusk is real”) or Implicit (“I know about cusk”) belief testimony about novel entities. Then, children heard another speaker provide either Denial (“Cusk isn’t real”) or Neutral (“I’ve heard of cusk”) testimony. Children made reality status judgments and consensus judgments (i.e., whether people agree about the entity’s existence). Results showed that explicit and implicit belief statements differentially influenced children’s beliefs about societal consensus when followed by a denial: explicit belief statements prevented children from drawing the conclusion that there is societal consensus that the entity does not exist. This effect was not related to age, indicating that children as young as 4 use these cues to inform consensus judgments. On the reality status task, there was an interaction with age, showing that only 4-year-olds were more likely to believe in an entity after hearing explicit belief statements. These findings suggest that explicit belief statements may serve as important sources of both children’s beliefs about novel entities and societal consensus.     

The Relationship Between Dropout and Outcome in Naturalistic Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Dropout from psychotherapy is frequent and limits the benefits patients can receive from treatment. The study of factors associated with dropout has the potential to yield strategies to reduce it. This study analyzed data from a large sample of adults (N = 1,092) receiving naturalistic cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to test the hypotheses that dropouts, as compared to completers, had (1) higher symptom severity at treatment termination, (2) a slower rate of symptom change during treatment, and (3) a higher odds that the therapist rated treatment as ending for reasons related to poor outcome. Results showed that although dropouts ended treatment with higher symptom severity than completers, dropouts and completers did not differ in their rate of symptom change during treatment, suggesting that dropouts had higher symptom severity at termination because they received fewer sessions of treatment, not because their symptoms changed at a slower rate. Dropout was also associated with a higher odds of having a therapist-rated termination reason indicating a poor outcome, suggesting that dropout is more likely if patients are dissatisfied with some aspect of the therapy outcome or process. These findings suggest that strategies for monitoring and enhancing patient satisfaction with the process and outcome of treatment may help patients stay in treatment longer and end treatment with fewer symptoms than if they had dropped out.     

Changes in affect during treatment for depression and anxiety

We tested the hypothesis that the tripartite model [Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1991). Tripartite model of anxiety and depression: Psychometric evidence and psychometric implications. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 316-336] can be extended to account for change during treatment for anxiety and depression. Forty-one patients treated naturalistically in private practice with cognitive behavior therapy completed weekly measures of depression, anxiety, negative affect (NA), positive affect (PA), and anxious arousal (AA). Consistent with the model, NA was associated with anxiety and depression during treatment, PA was more strongly related to depression than to anxiety, and AA was more strongly related to anxiety than to depression. As predicted, symptoms of depression and anxiety and NA all decreased during treatment. As predicted, AA also decreased, particularly for patients with panic disorder. PA increased during treatment, but only for patients who showed a significant decline in depression and only over an extended period of treatment. Nearly two-thirds of the variance in anxiety change was accounted for by changes in depression and NA, and just over three-fourths of the variance in depression change was accounted for by changes in anxiety and NA, indicating that much of the change in anxiety and depression across the course of treatment is shared in common.     

Forgiving the September 11th terrorists: associations with coping, psychological distress, and religiosity

Two studies examined how non-interpersonal forgiveness (when there is no social relationship between the transgressor and forgiver) related to coping and involuntary responses to stress, psychological distress, and religiosity. Three to six weeks after September 11th, 2001, forgiveness had non-linear associations with other responses to the terrorist attacks. Among college students (N=488), those who were trying or had forgiven (pro-forgiveness) the terrorists reported less involuntary engagement, more primary and secondary control coping, and more meaning finding than those who were unsure about forgiveness (ambivalent) and those who did not believe the perpetrators should be forgiven (anti-forgiveness). Ambivalent students reported the most distress, even after controlling for religion. Anti-forgiveness students reported less religiosity than ambivalent and pro-forgiveness students. Most findings were consistent among middle schoolers (N=154), particularly regarding psychological distress and responses to stress. Also, forgiveness of strangers for acts against one's community functioned separately from religion.     

A terminal diagnosis: The carers’ perspective

This qualitative study explored the views of spouse carers in relation to the emotional impact of caring for a partner with a chronic or terminal illness. The study population consisted of nine full‐time spouse carers, recruited using a snowball sampling strategy. Semi‐structured interviews took place in the carers’ homes. These were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were then analysed using constant comparative analysis. Themes identified included the emotional and physical health of the carer, personality changes in the spouse, relationship issues, denial, anticipating death, accessing support and coping strategies. Findings indicate that these carers experienced a whole range of feelings and emotions, which impacted on their health and well‐being. They included fatigue, stress, distress, anxiety, depression, feelings of isolation and suicidal thoughts. These were particularly profound around the time of diagnosis, end of treatment, during a relapse and most particularly around the time of death. An increasing number of terminally ill people are now expressing a preference to be cared for at home. The potential risks to the health of caregivers therefore need to be taken into account. This study highlights the importance of assessing the needs of carers in order to identify those at risk of compromised health, which would then allow those requiring support to be offered prompt referral to specialist services.     

Interpersonal perception and personality disorders: Utilization of a thin slice approach

Study 1 expands upon previous research by looking at the ability of untrained raters to detect pathological traits within a normal population of college students. In Study 1, 30-s video clips of 81 target persons were shown to 42 raters. Ratings of traits of personality disorders made by thin slice raters reliably predicted scores on the personality pathology measures obtained from the targets themselves and from close peers. Study 2 is a preliminary examination of how pathological rater traits impacts thin slice accuracy. In Study 2, peer and self-report data were examined regarding 87 thin slice raters. Raters who exhibited traits of narcissistic personality disorder were significantly less accurate in making personality predictions regarding targets. Three clusters of personality items were identified based on rater characteristics related to accuracy in predicting behavior.     

The regression trunk approach to discover treatment covariate interaction

The regression trunk approach (RTA) is an integration of regression trees and multiple linear regression analysis. In this paper RTA is used to discover treatment covariate interactions, in the regression of one continuous variable on a treatment variable withmultiple covariates. The performance of RTA is compared to the classical method of forward stepwise regression. The results of two simulation studies, in which the true interactions are modeled as threshold interactions, show that RTA detects the interactions in a higher number of cases (82.3% in the first simulation study, and 52.3% in the second) than stepwise regression (56.5% and 20.5%). In a real data example the final RTA model has a higher cross-validated variance-accounted-for (29.8%) than the stepwise regression model (12.5%). All of these results indicate that RTA is a promising alternative method for demonstrating differential effectiveness of treatments. Supported by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), grant 030-56403 to Jacqueline Meulman for the Pioneer project “Subject-Oriented Multivariate Analysis,” and grant 451-02-058 to Elise Dusseldorp for the Veni project “Modeling interaction effects as small trees in regression and classification.” We thank Bram Bakker for making the data of his doctoral dissertation available, and David Hand, Jerome Friedman, Bart Jan van Os, Philip Spinhoven, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. Special thanks are due to Lawrence Hubert.     

Warm and homely or cold and beautiful? Sex differences in trading off traits in mate selection

Prior research and theory suggest that people use three main sets of criteria in mate selection: warmth/trustworthiness, attractiveness/vitality, and status/resources. In two studies, men and women made mating choices between pairs of hypothetical potential partners and were forced to make trade-offs among these three criteria (e.g., warm and homely vs. cold and attractive). As predicted, women (relative to men) placed greater importance on warmth/trustworthiness and status/resources in a potential mate but less importance on attractiveness/vitality. In addition, as expected (a) ratings of ideal standards partly mediated the link between sex and mate choices, (b) ideal standards declined in importance from long-term to short-term relationships, with the exception of attractiveness/vitality, and unexpectedly, (c) sex differences were higher for long-term (compared to short-term) mate choice. Explanations and implications are discussed.     

Short- and Long-Term Impact of Receiving Genetic Mutation Results in Women at Increased Risk for Hereditary Breast Cancer

Forty-seven unaffected women from high-risk breast cancer families who had received results for hereditary breast/ovarian predisposition genes between 1 month and 5 years ago were interviewed regarding their experiences. Women responded to open-ended questions. The initial emotional turmoil reported by most was generally short lived. However, the impact of genetic testing went beyond the individual to the extended family and social context, particularly in the short-term. A common theme was the difficulty associated with divulging a result to family members, who were also adjusting to their own result. The majority of carriers reported advantages that were both physical (options for surveillance programs and prophylactic surgery) and emotional (reduced uncertainty, increased awareness of options and knowledge about risk, preparation time). Most carriers reported no change in lifestyle although some reported discovering their mutation status as a positive life-changing experience. Implications for genetic counseling and further research are discussed.     

A visit from the Candy Witch: factors influencing young children's belief in a novel fantastical being

Factors hypothesized to affect beliefs in fantastical beings were examined by introducing children to a novel fantastical entity, the Candy Witch. Results revealed that among older preschoolers, children who were visited by the Candy Witch exhibited stronger beliefs in the Candy Witch than did those who were not. Among children who were visited, older children had stronger beliefs than did younger children. Among children who were not visited, those with a high Fantasy Orientation believed more strongly than did those with a low Fantasy Orientation. Belief remained high one year later. At both time points, the number of other fantastical beings in which a child believed was significantly related to belief in the Candy Witch.