Understanding attention: 12- and 18-month-olds know what is new for other persons

Infants at 12 and 18 months of age played with 2 adults and 2 new toys. For a 3rd toy, however, 1 of the adults left the room while the child and the other adult played with it. This adult then returned, looked at all 3 toys aligned on a tray, showed great excitement ("Wow! Cool!"), and then asked, "Can you give it to me?' To retrieve the toy the adult wanted, infants had to (a) know that people attend to and get excited about new things and (b) identify what was new for the adult even though it was not new for them. Infants at both ages did this successfully, lending support to the hypothesis that 1-year-old infants possess a genuine understanding of other persons as intentional and attentional agents.     

Interpersonal orientation and the accuracy of personality judgments

Are those who are more invested in developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships able to provide more accurate judgments of others' personality characteristics? Previous research has produced mixed findings. In the present study, a conceptual framework was presented and methods were used that overcome many of the problems encountered in past research on judgmental accuracy. On four occasions, 102 judges watched a 12‐min videotaped dyadic interaction and described the personality of a designated target person. Judges' personality characteristics were described by self, parents, and friends. Results revealed that psychological communion was positively associated with judges' accuracy in rating targets' personality characteristics. In addition, whereas women were more communal and provided more accurate judgments than men, the relationship between communion and accuracy held after controlling for the effect of gender. Finally, preliminary findings suggested that interpersonally oriented individuals may sometimes draw on information about themselves and about stereotypical others to facilitate accurate judgments of others.     

Does morphology make the difference? Agrammatic sentence comprehension in German

This study examines the syntactic comprehension of seven German agrammatic speakers. The German language allows the study of the interaction of syntactic principles and morphological devices in the comprehension process. In addition, due to its relatively free word order, German allows the study of strictly minimal pairs of canonical and non-canonical sentences in addition to the rather controversial active-passive contrast. A central research question was whether the pattern of agrammatic comprehension predicted by the trace deletion hypothesis (TDH, Grodzinsky, 1990, 1995), relatively normal comprehension performance of canonical sentences and chance performance on non-canonical sentences, can be found in a language with richer morphology than English. The generalisability of the TDH-pattern to morphologically rich languages is not obvious, given that case morphology in particular can provide explicit cues to the detection of the agent and patient roles in a sentence. The results of this study indicate that morphology does not make a difference. Furthermore, the group results are in line with the TDH-predictions only for number marked sentences but not for case marked sentences. However, single case analysis reveals different patterns of syntactic comprehension in agrammatic patients, a spectrum that encompasses near-normal comprehension of canonical and non-canonical sentences, overall chance performance, and TDH-like profiles.     

Does zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) preference for the (familiar) father's song generalize to the songs of unfamiliar brothers?

Several studies have demonstrated that zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) prefer their fathers' songs over unfamiliar songs. Songs of tutors (i.e., fathers) and tutees (i.e., sons) resemble each other as a result of cultural transmission. Subjects (N = 18) with a previously established preference for the father's song could choose between the song of an unfamiliar brother or a random unfamiliar song in an operant task. Most subjects showed a significant preference for either category of song, but overall, the songs of unfamiliar brothers were not preferred, although they were more similar to the father's song than were the unfamiliar songs. This suggests that subjects did not generalize their learned preference for a song of a particular tutor to the songs of his tutees.     

A Novel Approach to the Assessment of Fidelity to a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for PTSD Using Clinical Worksheets: A Proof of Concept With Cognitive Processing Therapy

Fidelity monitoring is a critical indicator of psychotherapy quality and is central to successful implementation. A major barrier to fidelity in routine care is the lack of feasible, scalable, and valid measurement strategies. A reliable, low-burden fidelity assessment would promote sustained implementation of cognitive behavioral therapies (CBTs). The current study examined fidelity measurement for cognitive processing therapy (CPT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using clinical worksheets. External raters evaluated patient worksheets done as a part of treatment, both guided by the therapist and completed independently as homework. Results demonstrated that fidelity ratings from CPT session worksheets were feasible and efficient. Notably, they were strongly correlated with observer ratings of the fidelity of CPT strategies that were present on the worksheets. Agreement among ratings conducted by individuals with a range of experience with CPT was acceptable to high. There was not a main effect of therapist-guided, in-session worksheet ratings on PTSD symptom change. However, patient competence in completing worksheets independently was associated with greater PTSD symptom decline and in-session, therapist-guided worksheet completion was associated with larger symptom decreases among patients with high levels of competence. With further research and refinement, rating of worksheets may be an efficient way to examine therapist and patient skill in key CPT elements, and their interactions, compared to the gold standard of observer ratings of therapy video-recordings. Additional research is needed to determine if worksheets are an accurate and scalable alternative to gold standard observer ratings in settings in which time and resources are limited.     

Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action as Ethnic Behavior: Part 1. Construction of the Brunel Ethnic Behavior Inventory

This article reports the construction of a new survey—specifically, the Brunel Ethnic Behavior Inventory (BEBI)—designed to measure ethnic speech and ethnic action as separate, yet related, aspects of individuals’ ethnic behavior. Using Tajfel’s social identity theory as a conceptual frame of reference, this study sought an answer to the research question of how many factors actually are measured by the BEBI, and tested the hypothesis that a two-factor model (i.e., Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action as two correlated factors) would provide significantly better goodness of fit to the correlational data than would a one-factor model (i.e., Ethnic Behavior as one undifferentiated factor). Across one pilot sample (n = 101) and two main samples (n = 120 for Sample 1, n = 148 for Sample 2), the study found that not only did the BEBI measure two factors at most (i.e., Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action) but, consistent with the hypothesis, the two-factor model yielded better goodness of fit than did the one-factor model. Implications for the conceptualization and measurement of Verkuyten’s “ways of ethnicity” are discussed.     

Adolescents in conflict: Intercultural contact attitudes of immigrant mothers and adolescents as predictors of family conflicts

Recent research demonstrates that intergenerational differences in immigrant families' adaptation can be detrimental for family functioning. However, most of the findings originate from immigrant groups in North America who face different situations compared with European Diaspora returnees. This comparative study investigated whether ethnic German Diaspora immigrant adolescents' and mothers' disagreement about the desirability of adolescents' intercultural contact with native peers relates to more conflict in the family domain. In addition, we accounted for general developmental factors predicting family conflict by considering adolescents' background in terms of prosocial behaviour and hyperactivity. Participants comprised 185 Diaspora immigrant mother–adolescent dyads from the former Soviet Union living in Germany (adolescents: mean age 15.7 years, 60% female) and 197 native German mother–adolescent dyads (adolescents: mean age 14.7 years, 53% female). Results indicated a similar level of family conflict in immigrant and native families. However, conflict was elevated in those immigrant families disagreeing on intercultural contact attitudes, independent of the significant effects of adolescents' background of prosocial behaviour or hyperactivity. Our study highlights potential side effects in the family domain, if immigrant adolescents and parents disagree in their attitude regarding adaptation to the host culture's life domains, such as contact with native peers.     

Self-directedness and the susceptibility to distraction by saliency

People with low Self-directedness (SD) tend to explain their behaviour as being significantly influenced by events in the external environment. One important dimension of external cues is their level of salience: highly salient external stimuli are more likely to capture attention, even when such stimuli are not relevant to goals. We examined whether adults reporting low SD would exhibit greater susceptibility to distraction by highly salient external stimuli. Fifty-four (42 males) subjects completed the Attention Modulation by Salience Task (AMST) measuring reaction times to early- or late-onset auditory stimuli in the presence of high- or low-salience visual distractors. SD was assessed via self-report, and analyses tested the relationship between SD and performance on the AMST. Results showed a slowed early response to auditory cues during high salience compared to low salience. Indeed, individuals reporting low SD showed stronger salience interference, suggesting that external causality attribution is accompanied by a subconscious perceptual deficit.     

Aberrant Parasympathetic Stress Responsivity in Pure and Co-Occurring Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) are highly comorbid; we know little, however, about the shared physiological features of these disorders. In the present study, we examined whether aberrant parasympathetic stress responsivity represents a transdiagnostic process in MDD, GAD, and co-occurring MDD-GAD. Adult women diagnosed with MDD only, GAD only, and co-occurring MDD-GAD and never-disordered controls (CTLs) completed a standardized laboratory task that involved anticipating, confronting, and recovering from a social stressor. Participants’ levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were measured to index parasympathetic responses. The three clinical groups combined (participants with MDD only, GAD only, and co-occurring MDD-GAD) exhibited a similar pattern of RSA responsivity that differed significantly from that of the CTL group. Specifically, whereas CTL participants exhibited a sharp decrease in RSA when confronting the stressor and a sharp increase in RSA when recovering immediately following the stressor, the clinical participants exhibited a blunted response pattern that involved weaker fluctuations in RSA when confronting and recovering from the stressor. There were no significant differences among the three clinical groups in RSA responses. Interestingly, clinical and CTL participants did not differ in self-reported fluctuations in negative emotional arousal. Finally, for clinical participants patterns of RSA reactivity to the acute stressor were associated differentially with trait rumination and worry as maladaptive forms of emotion regulation. These findings support the formulation that aberrant parasympathetic stress responsivity is a shared feature of MDD, GAD, and co-occurring MDD-GAD that is characterized by diminished reactivity to and recovery from stress.     

The consequences of job crafting: a three-wave study

This longitudinal study examined the consequences of job crafting on two important employee outcomes: psychological capital (PsyCap) as a work-related personal resource and work engagement as an indicator of employee well-being. The study also tested the reverse causation effects of PsyCap and work engagement on job crafting. It used a three-wave, three-month panel design to survey 940 employees from three European countries working in a broad range of economic sectors and occupations. The results of the cross-lagged longitudinal structural equation modelling demonstrated that job crafting predicted PsyCap and work engagement over time. No reverse causation effects were found. Overall, this study shows that when individuals proactively build a resourceful and challenging work environment for themselves, it can lead to diverse positive outcomes that are crucial to employee health and well-being. Employees should therefore be encouraged and be given the opportunity to craft their own jobs.