Bad Woman, Bad Victim? Disentangling the Effects of Victim Stereotypicality, Gender Stereotypicality and Benevolent Sexism on Acquaintance Rape Victim Blame

Based on the assertion that previous research may have inadvertently confounded two stereotypes, we considered the impact of benevolent sexism on rape victim blame in the context of independent manipulations of gender and the perceived genuineness (victim stereotypicality) of an acquaintance rape victim. We predicted that for blame, benevolent sexism may be independently positively associated with gender and victim counter-stereotypicality. Following pilot work, 120 Australian undergraduates read an acquaintance rape scenario. Results indicated that benevolent sexism was only positively associated with blame of the gender counter-stereotypical victim when that victim was also counter-stereotypical in terms of victim stereotypes. This result indicates a more moderate role than previously indicated for benevolent sexism in accounting for rape victim blame.     

Worry and the anxiety disorders: A meta-analytic synthesis of specificity to GAD

Although worry is central to the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), it is also commonly observed in other anxiety disorders. In this meta-analytic review, we empirically evaluated the extent to which worry is specific to GAD relative to patients with other anxiety disorders, those with other psychiatric disorders, and nonpsychiatric controls. A total of 47 published studies (N = 8,410) were included in the analysis. The results yielded a large effect size indicating greater severity/frequency of worry, meta-worry, and domains of worry among anxiety disorder patients v. nonpsychiatric controls (d = 1.64). In contrast to the many differences emerging from comparisons between anxiety disordered patients and nonpsychiatric controls, when anxiety disordered patients were compared to people with other psychiatric disorders they differed only on severity/frequency and not on meta-worry or domains of worry. A large effect size indicating greater severity/frequency of worry, meta-worry, and domains of worry among patients with GAD v. nonpsychiatric controls was also found (d = 2.05). However, differences between GAD and those with other psychiatric disorders also emerged for severity/frequency of worry. GAD was associated with greater worry difficulties than other anxiety disorders, which generally did not differ from those with other psychiatric disorders and each other. The implications of these findings for conceptualizing worry in GAD and other anxiety disorders, and the potentially moderating effects of age and gender are discussed.     

Subjective discriminability of invisibility: A framework for distinguishing perceptual and attentional failures of awareness

Conscious visual perception can fail in many circumstances. However, little is known about the causes and processes leading to failures of visual awareness. In this study, we introduce a new signal detection measure termed subjective discriminability of invisibility (SDI) that allows one to distinguish between subjective blindness due to reduction of sensory signals or to lack of attentional access to sensory signals. The SDI is computed based upon subjective confidence in reporting the absence of a target (i.e., miss and correct rejection trials). Using this new measure, we found that target misses were subjectively indistinguishable from physical absence when contrast reduction, backward masking and flash suppression were used, whereas confidence was appropriately modulated when dual task, attentional blink and spatial uncertainty methods were employed. These results show that failure of visual perception can be identified as either a result of perceptual or attentional blindness depending on the circumstances under which visual awareness was impaired.     

LGB-Affirmative Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Social Anxiety: A Case Study Applying Evidence-Based Practice Principles

Guided by the American Psychological Association's principles of evidence-based practice, this article reviews a single-case treatment outcome study whereby a client characteristic, sexual identity, was integrated into the assessment and treatment of social anxiety symptoms. The case involved a young adult European-American male who presented to a training clinic with a primary diagnosis of social anxiety disorder as well as secondary symptoms of excessive worry and concerns of sexual identity confusion. Recent evidence suggests that gay men report more symptoms of social anxiety when compared to heterosexual men, and those who make more efforts to conceal their sexual identity experience increased anxiety and have greater difficulty committing to a personal identity. Further, it has been hypothesized that fear of rejection from heterosexual individuals underlies this anxiety. The client attended 50 sessions over the course of 18 months. Treatment progress was assessed via self-report questionnaires assessing social anxiety and worry. Consistent with principles of evidence-based practice, a cognitive behavioral treatment protocol was employed at the outset of therapy and resulted in a decline in the client's social anxiety scores. However, once the case conceptualization and treatment focus shifted to focus on sexual identity, his scores continued to decline at an even steeper rate. He ultimately came to identify himself as having a same-sex sexual orientation, began living his life in a manner consistent with that identification, and reported a number of positive outcomes at termination of therapy. Implications for treatment of social anxiety in sexual minorities are discussed.     

Tits use amodal completion in predator recognition: a field experiment

Amodal completion enables an animal to perceive partly concealed objects as an entirety, and to interact with them appropriately. Several studies, based upon either operant conditioning or filial imprinting techniques, have shown that various animals (both mammals and birds) can perform amodal completion. Before this study, the use of amodal completion by untrained animals in the recognition of objects had not been considered. Using two feeders, we observed in a field experiment the reaction of tits to the torso of a sparrowhawk (partly occluded or an ‘amputated’ dummy) in two different treatments (sparrowhawk torso vs. complete dummy pigeon; and torso vs. complete dummy sparrowhawk). It is clear that the birds considered the two torso variants as predators and kept away from both of them when the second feeder offered a ‘pigeon’ instead. On the other hand, when a ‘complete sparrowhawk’ was present on the second feeder, the number of visits to the occluded torso remained low; while the number of visits to the amputated one increased threefold. Birds risked perching near what was clearly an amputated torso; while the fear of a “hiding” (occluded) torso remained unchanged, when the second feeder did not provide a safe alternative. Such discrimination between torsos requires the ability for amodal completion. Our results demonstrate that in their recognition process, the birds not only use simple sign stimuli, but also complex cognitive functions.     

Examining autobiographical memory content in patients with depression and anxiety disorders

The purpose of this study was to move beyond the traditional specificity model of autobiographical memory (ABM) and to examine the content of memories with a focus on disorder and schema-relevant content. The sample (N = 82) included 25 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), 24 with social phobia (SP), and 33 with panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA) who were referred to a large outpatient clinic for group treatment of depression or anxiety. Participants completed the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) and Beck Depression Inventory-II as part of the clinical intake process. Responses to the AMT were coded for disorder-specific content based on diagnostic criteria for each disorder as well as for schema-relevant (sociotropy vs. autonomy) content. A repeated measures multiple analysis of variance demonstrated significant differences in disorder-specific content, with patients in the MDD group reporting more depressotypic ABMs than those in the PDA group but not the SP group. Similarly, in the analysis of schema-relevant content, significant differences were found between MDD and PDA regarding the presence of autonomy-based ABM ratings. Study results provide partial support for the cognitive specificity hypothesis with ABM content. The results are discussed in relation to the cognitive models of depression and anxiety.     

Stories of the young and the old: personal continuity and narrative identity

This study examined narrative identity in 2 groups of participants who were younger (ages ranging from late adolescence through young adulthood) and older (over the age of 65 years). Participants completed an extensive interview in which they reported three self-defining memories. Interviews were coded for several characteristics of autobiographical reasoning: self-event connections representing self-stability or self-change, event-event connections, reflective processing, and thematic coherence. Results showed that the older and younger groups were not different in terms of the frequencies of self-event connections or the levels of reflective processing. However, in comparison with the younger group, the older group had more thematic coherence and more stories representing stability, whereas the younger group had more stories representing change. Gender differences also emerged, suggesting that females may have an advantage in the development of narrative identity. Results are discussed in terms of the different ways to represent narrative identity at 2 ends of the life span.     

Invariance and convergent and discriminant validity between mothers' and fathers' ratings of oppositional defiant disorder toward adults, ADHD-HI, ADHD-IN, and academic competence factors within Brazilian, Thai, and American children

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the invariance of an oppositional defiant disorder toward adults, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-hyperactivity/impulsivity, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-inattention, and an Academic Competence factor model between mothers' and fathers' ratings within Brazilian (n = 894), Thai (n = 2,075), and American (n = 817) children with the Child and Adolescent Disruptive Behavior Inventory (G. L. Burns, T. Taylor, & J. Rusby, 2001a, 2001b). The results showed invariance of item loadings, intercepts, and residuals, as well as factor variances, covariances, and means between mothers' and fathers' ratings within each sample. Convergent and discriminant validity was also observed for the between-parent factor correlations, thus providing additional support for the construct validity of the Child and Adolescent Disruptive Behavior Inventory. The confirmatory factor analysis invariance procedure provides a much better way to examine between-source ratings of behavior problems in children than do the simple correlation and raw discrepancy score procedures.     

Understanding emotional responses to breast/ovarian cancer genetic risk assessment: an applied test of a cognitive theory of emotion

This study explored whether Smith and Lazarus' (1990, 1993) cognitive theory of emotion could predict emotional responses to an emotionally ambiguous real-life situation. Questionnaire data were collected from 145 women upon referral for cancer genetic risk assessment. These indicated a mixed emotional reaction of both positive and negative emotions to the assessment. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the hypothesised models explained between 20% and 33% of the variance of anxiety, hope and gratitude scores, but only 10% of the variance for challenge scores. For the previously unmodelled emotion of relief, 31% of the variance was explained by appraisals and core relational themes. The findings help explain why emotional responses to cancer genetic risk assessment vary and suggest that improving the accuracy of individuals' beliefs and expectations about the assessment process may help subsequent adaptation to risk information.     

Go or no‐go? Developmental improvements in the efficiency of response inhibition in mid‐childhood

This experiment used a modified go/no‐go paradigm to investigate the processes by which response inhibition becomes more efficient during mid‐childhood. The novel task, which measured trials on which a response was initiated but not completed, was sensitive to developmental changes in response inhibition. The effect of inducing time pressure by narrowing allowable response time was also examined. While increasing time pressure did not reduce the inhibitory demands of the task for either age group, older children (aged 9 to 11 years) were able to inhibit their responses at an earlier stage of movement than younger children (aged 5 to 7 years). This shows that as children get older they become more efficient at controlling their behaviour which drives developmental improvements in response inhibition.