Batterer men in prison and in court-referred treatment programmes: what is the difference?

This paper describes the demographic, gender violence and psychopathological characteristics of 399 men in a specialized treatment programme for gender violence. Furthermore, a comparison of all the variables studied among the subjects referred by the court to the treatment programme (n = 276) and those who were imprisoned (n = 123) was conducted. The results showed the existence of numerous statistically significant differences between groups, primarily in psychopathological variables and in cognitive bias about women and violence use. In general, imprisoned batterers showed more irrational beliefs both about women and about violence as a strategy to cope with everyday difficulties. Moreover, batterers in prison had significantly higher scores on all psychopathological symptoms as assessed by SCL-90-R, as well as in most of STAXI-2 subscales. According to these results, batterers in prison showed a higher severity in variables studied than those who were referred by the court to the treatment programme. Implications of these results for further research and clinical practice are also commented on.     

A fresh look at the predictors of naming accuracy and errors in Alzheimer's disease

In recent years, a considerable number of studies have tried to establish which characteristics of objects and their names predict the responses of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the picture-naming task. The frequency of use of words and their age of acquisition (AoA) have been implicated as two of the most influential variables, with naming being best preserved for objects with high-frequency, early-acquired names. The present study takes a fresh look at the predictors of naming success in Spanish and English AD patients using a range of measures of word frequency and AoA along with visual complexity, imageability, and word length as predictors. Analyses using generalized linear mixed modelling found that naming accuracy was better predicted by AoA ratings taken from older adults than conventional ratings from young adults. Older frequency measures based on written language samples predicted accuracy better than more modern measures based on the frequencies of words in film subtitles. Replacing adult frequency with an estimate of cumulative (lifespan) frequency did not reduce the impact of AoA. Semantic error rates were predicted by both written word frequency and senior AoA while null response errors were only predicted by frequency. Visual complexity, imageability, and word length did not predict naming accuracy or errors.     

Using the Implicit Association Test to Assess Risk Propensity Self‐concept: Analysis of its Predictive Validity on a Risk‐taking Behaviour in a Natural Setting

The present work analyses the predictive validity of measures provided by several available self‐report and indirect measurement instruments to assess risk propensity (RP) and proposes a measurement instrument using the Implicit Association Test: the IAT of Risk Propensity Self‐Concept (IAT‐RPSC), an adaptation of the prior IAT‐RP of Dislich et al. Study 1 analysed the relationship between IAT‐RPSC scores and several RP self‐report measures. Participants' risk‐taking behaviour in a natural setting was also assessed, analyzing the predictive validity of the IAT‐RPSC scores on risk‐taking behaviour compared with the self‐report measures. Study 2 analysed the predictive validity of the IAT‐RPSC scores in comparison with other indirect measures. Results of these studies showed that the IAT‐RPSC scores exhibited good reliability and were positively correlated to several self‐report and indirect measures, providing evidence for convergent validity. Most importantly, the IAT‐RPSC scores predicted risk‐taking behaviour in a natural setting with real consequences above and beyond all other self‐report and indirect measures analysed. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Making Common Sense of Vaccines: An Example of Discussing the Recombinant Attenuated Salmonella Vaccine with the Public

Researchers have iterated that the future of synthetic biology and biotechnology lies in novel consumer applications of crossing biology with engineering. However, if the new biology’s future is to be sustainable, early and serious efforts must be made towards social sustainability. Therefore, the crux of new applications of synthetic biology and biotechnology is public understanding and acceptance. The RASVaccine is a novel recombinant design not found in nature that re-engineers a common bacteria (Salmonella) to produce a strong immune response in humans. Synthesis of the RASVaccine has the potential to improve public health as an inexpensive, non-injectable product. But how can scientists move forward to create a dialogue of creating a ‘common sense’ of this new technology in order to promote social sustainability? This paper delves into public issues raised around these novel technologies and uses the RASVaccine as an example of meeting the public with a common sense of its possibilities and limitations.     

Heurísticos en la representación del conocimiento: Estrategias de clasificación de categorías difusas y bien definidas

Resumen

La hipótesis que establece que el sistema ajusta sus descripáones a una transformación lineal de las propiedades que resultan del análisis perceptivo no está justificada y es evidente que la formación de categorías o conceptos es posible, aun tratando con categorías que no aceptan un modelo monotónico de representación. En esta investigación se analizan en dos experimentos las estrategias que permiten describir un cierto dominio de conocimiento en términos de un sistema binario de categorías difusas o bien definidas. Las descripciones que los sujetos efectúan suponen la formación de un sistema no monotónico de reglas de inferencia que permite distribuir los estímulos en clases complementarias, según contribuyan al proceso de decisión. Esta distribución no lineal de los estímulos en términos de las alternativas de respuesta es la que determina frente a los modelos de categorización propuestos hasta la fecha del proceso de categorización.     

Mentalizing in psychotherapy: patients’ and therapists’ reflective functioning during the psychotherapeutic process / Mentalizando en psicoterapia: funcionamiento reflexivo de pacientes y terapeutas durante el proceso psicoterapéutico

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in mentalization in clinical research given its relationship with normal and psychopathological functioning and its explanatory potential as a mechanism of psychotherapeutic change. This study uses the Reflective Functioning Scale (RFS) to identify and characterize mentalization manifestations in psychotherapeutic interaction. Method: the RFS was applied to a sample of relevant episodes — 44 sessions from five different psychotherapy processes carried out with adult patients who had different diagnoses. Results: we observed a higher probability of reflective functioning (RF) passages in relevant events than in neutral segments. There were no differences in the RF passages according to episode or actor type, but there were in RF Failures, which is more likely in patients and during rupture episodes. Discussion: although certain modifications are necessary, the RFS can be applied to clinical material, and it is a promising strategy for the study of mentalization within psychotherapy.     

Indicatives at stake

Several authors have claimed that indicative conditionals are sensitive to the epistemic perspective of agents. According to this sort of view, the truth of an indicative conditional depends on the background evidence of some relevant agent or group of agents. In this paper, I argue that the context-dependence of indicative conditionals goes beyond this. Indicative conditionals are not only sensitive to the evidence of agents, but also to contextual factors that determine what is inferable from such background evidence (plus the antecedent of the conditional). More specifically, my proposal is that when the inference associated with a conditional is defeasible, the truth of that conditional is sensitive to practical stakes (in a similar way that knowledge claims are sensitive to practical stakes).