Conceptualizing and testing random indirect effects and moderated mediation in multilevel models: new procedures and recommendations

The authors propose new procedures for evaluating direct, indirect, and total effects in multilevel models when all relevant variables are measured at Level 1 and all effects are random. Formulas are provided for the mean and variance of the indirect and total effects and for the sampling variances of the average indirect and total effects. Simulations show that the estimates are unbiased under most conditions. Confidence intervals based on a normal approximation or a simulated sampling distribution perform well when the random effects are normally distributed but less so when they are nonnormally distributed. These methods are further developed to address hypotheses of moderated mediation in the multilevel context. An example demonstrates the feasibility and usefulness of the proposed methods.     

Relationship between physical appearance, sense of belonging and exclusion, and racial/ethnic self-identification among multiracial Japanese European Americans

In this study the authors explored the relation of physical appearance, perception of group belonging, and perception of group exclusion to racial/ethnic identity in multiracial Japanese European Americans. Results indicate that physical appearance and social variables of sense of belonging and exclusion related to one monoracial racial/ethnic group significantly predicted self-identity with the corresponding monoracial group. There was also a significant relationship between Japanese American identity and multiracial appearance and social variables. Feelings of exclusion were shown to be the primary influence on all three racial/ethnic identities.     

Onkologisch Kranke als Patienten der psychotherapeutischen Praxis

Background

The high prevalence of cancer and the considerable psychological comorbidity is a challenge for psychotherapists. There are, however, relatively few patients in outpatient psychotherapy. Aim of the study was to survey outpatient psychotherapists concerning this issue and their attitudes towards the treatment of cancer patients.

Methods

All outpatient psychotherapists of an East-German city were surveyed using semi-structured interviews.

Methods

There are various reasons for the relatively rare visits of cancer patients in psychotherapeutic practices: For instance the subjective lack of specific competence, the fear of many psychotherapists to treat physically ill people, insufficient fitting of the relatively inflexible organization structure of psychotherapeutic settings with the vicissitudes of life among physically ill people, e.g. long waiting periods until the begin of treatment, furthermore the psychotherapeutic training focuses on psychosomatic and not so much on somatopsychic perspectives. A further problem is the widespread attitude about psychic causation of cancer, which is contradictory to scientific evidence.

Conclusions

Psychotherapists who want to treat cancer patients need specific and in-depth training in psychooncology.     

Recognizing face identity from natural and morphed smiles

It is easier to identify a degraded familiar face when it is shown moving (smiling, talking; nonrigid motion), than when it is displayed as a static image (Knight & Johnston, 1997; Lander, Christie, & Bruce, 1999). Here we explore the theoretical underpinnings of the moving face recognition advantage. In Experiment 1 we show that the identification of personally familiar faces when shown naturally smiling is significantly better than when the person is shown artificially smiling (morphed motion), as a single static neutral image or as a single static smiling image. In Experiment 2 we demonstrate that speeding up the motion significantly impairs the recognition of identity from natural smiles, but has little effect on morphed smiles. We conclude that the recognition advantage for face motion does not reflect a general benefit for motion, but suggests that, for familiar faces, information about their characteristic motion is stored in memory.     

Extracurricular involvement among affluent youth: a scapegoat for "ubiquitous achievement pressures"?

It has been suggested that over-scheduling of upper-class youth might underlie the high distress and substance use documented among them. This assumption was tested by considering suburban 8th graders' involvement in different activities along with their perceptions of parental attitudes toward achievement. Results indicated negligible evidence for deleterious effects of high extracurricular involvement per se. Far more strongly implicated was perceived parent criticism for both girls and boys as well as the absence of after-school supervision. Low parent expectations connoted significant vulnerability especially for boys. The findings indicate that at least among early adolescents, converging scientific and media reports may have scapegoated extracurricular involvements, to some degree, as an index of ubiquitous achievement pressures in affluent communities.     

Some tests of response membership in acquired equivalence classes

Pigeons were trained on many-to-one matching in which pairs of samples, each consisting of a visual stimulus and a distinctive pattern of center-key responding, occasioned the same reinforced comparison choice. Acquired equivalence between the visual and response samples then was evaluated by reinforcing new comparison choices to one set of samples, and examining generalization of these choices to the other samples. Three separate experiments found no evidence of such generalization, as indexed by performance on class-consistent versus class-inconsistent tests. Other tests showed that the pigeons' center-key response patterns during training had indeed served as a conditional cue for choice. These results do not support the hypothesis that different defined responses can become members of acquired equivalence classes.     

Spiritual Disposition and Understanding Illness

Although Dull and Skokan (1995) proposed a cognitive model of the effect of religion on health, they neglected to clearly identify the multi-dimensional nature of religion as a cognitive schema. The present paper identifies various aspects of spiritual disposition (defined as personality and beliefs) that can play a role in an individual’s adaptation to illness. Specifically, this paper reviews the factors of religious doctrine and affiliation, spiritual beliefs, religious orientation, God locus of control, faith and hope as aspects of a spiritual disposition and explores how they can function as resources and/or negative factors in the process of adjustment to illness. Implications for clinical health care (e.g., pastoral counsellors) are drawn from this review.