Rating Procedures for Improving Identification of Exposure to Potentially Traumatic Events When Using Checklist Measures

Research has shown peer victimization to have strong lasting effects on adolescents’ mental health. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among religiousness, forgiveness, and mental health in the context of peer victimization. We hypothesized that religiousness and forgiveness could be protective factors against negative effects of peer victimization on internalizing symptomatology and emotion regulation. Participants were 127 adolescents between 12 and 18 years old and their primary caregivers. Results of structural equation modeling analyses show that religiousness might not be a strong protective factor in the context of peer victimization and that certain dimensions of forgiveness (specifically benevolence motivations) might actually exacerbate the effects of peer victimization on internalizing symptomatology rather than acting as a protective factor.     

Verbal Sexual Coercion Experiences,Sexual Risk,and Substance Use in Women

Research has linked sexual assault, substance use, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk in women. Sexual assault by means of verbal sexual coercion (VSC) is more common than sexual assault by means of physical tactics, but VSC is rarely assessed independently. In addition, past work has established global connections among substance use, sexual assault history, and STI risk; however, assessing substance use during sexual behavior is less common. This study examined the relations among VSC, STI risk behavior, and substance use and attitudes. We hypothesized that women with larger numbers of VSC experiences would report more frequent sexual risk behaviors and substance use and attitudes. Participants with larger numbers of VSC experiences reported larger numbers of anal sex partners, more frequent penile–vaginal sex and sexual activity after substance use, and stronger sex-related alcohol expectancies. These findings suggest that VSC is associated with higher levels of STI risk in women.     

How I see me depends on how I see we: the role of attachment style in social comparison

The self-concept is a social, flexible construct that shifts in response to the salience of a relationship partner. Three related experiments found that the tendency to pursue closeness in relationships (as measured by attachment style) served as a moderator of the shift. Specifically, individuals who avoid closeness in relationships became less similar to salient friends via contrast effects, whereas those who pursued closeness in relationships became more similar to salient friends via assimilation effects. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the nature of the self-concept and the importance of friendships.     

Lexical ambiguity resolution across languages: a theoretical and empirical review

Words that involve completely different meanings across languages but possess significant overlap in form are referred to as homographic noncognates or interlexical homographs (e.g., red is a color word in English but means "net" in Spanish). An important question in the investigation of the processing of these words is whether or not both meaning and form are integral to their representation leading to language-specific processing of these items. In contrast, some theories have been put forth indicating that the processing of these words is nonselective with regards to language. Simply stated, when one of these words is encountered, all of the relevant meanings are accessed regardless of the specific demands of the task and the base language that is being used. In the present, critical review, evidence purported to favor each view is presented along with a discussion of the methodological and analytic constraints that moderate the reported findings. The data lead to the conclusion that there is a time course involved in the activation of multiple meanings such that a primary or dominant meaning (sometimes biased by frequency) is typically accessed more readily, followed by the opposite language meaning. These results indicated that studies should focus on manipulating the timing intervals between the presentation of these words and subsequent responses that are required by a particular task.     

Adding sound to lipread lists: The effects on serial recall of adding an auditory pulse train and a pure tone to silently lipread lists

These investigations examined subjects’ serial recall of lipread digit lists accompanied by an auditory pulse train. The pulse train indicated the pitch of voiced speech (buzz-speech) of the seen speaker as she was speaking. As a purely auditory signal, it could not support item identification. Such buzz-speech recall was compared with silent lipread list recall and with the recall of buzz-speech lists to which a pure tone had been added (buzz-and-beep lists). No significant difference in overall accuracy of recall emerged for the three types of lipread list; however, there were significant differences in the shape of the serial recall function for the three list types. Recency characterized the silent and the buzz-speech lists, and these lists differed in their varying susceptibilities to a range of speechlike suffixes. By contrast, adding a pure tone to a buzz-speech list (buzz-and-beep) produced little recency and no further recall loss as a function of suffix type. We discuss these effects with reference to the contrast betweensensory-similarity and speechlikeness accounts of auditory recency and suffix effects. Sensory similarity accounts cannot capture the effects reported here, but processing in a speech mode (buzz-and-beep) need not always lead to recency effects like those resulting from clearly heard or lipread lists.     

Hypnotic memory and confident reporting

The effect of hypnosis on the relationship between confidence and accuracy of memory reports is examined. Specifically, the article reviews experimental research that has measured subjects' confidence in their hypnotically influenced memory reports. The findings of this research are discussed in terms of the factors that increase confidence without affecting accuracy, and the factors that decrease accuracy without affecting confidence. The article argues that both the experiential and social factors associated with hypnosis potentially reduce the correspondence between confidence and accuracy of memory. Finally, the article specifies the major implications for further theoretical and empirical work on hypnotic memory and confident reporting.     

Counseling the Hispanic Client: Cuban Americans,Mexican Americans,and Puerto Ricans

This article describes a general framework that may be used when counseling Cuban American, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican clients. The psychological and sociocultural characteristics of these populations are described. Both differences and similarities among the 3 groups are reviewed. The identification of the client's worldview, cultural values, and family values provides a specific framework for counseling these clients. Specific and general guidelines are provided for the psychological assessment of Cuban American, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican clients.