Evaluations Versus Expectations: Children's Divergent Beliefs About Resource Distribution

Past research reveals a tension between children's preferences for egalitarianism and ingroup favoritism when distributing resources to others. Here we investigate how children's evaluations and expectations of others' behaviors compare. Four‐ to 10‐year‐old children viewed events where individuals from two different groups distributed resources to their own group, to the other group, or equally across groups. Groups were described within a context of intergroup competition over scarce resources. In the Evaluation condition, children were asked to evaluate which resource distribution actions were nicer. In the Expectation condition, children were asked to predict which events were more likely to occur. With age, children's evaluations and expectations of others' actions diverged: Children evaluated egalitarian actions as nicer yet expected others to behave in ways that benefit their own group. Thus, children's evaluations about the way human social actors should behave do not mirror their expectations concerning those individuals' actions.     

Spanning our differences: moral psychology,physician beliefs,and the practice of medicine

Moral pluralism is the norm in contemporary society. Even the best philosophical arguments rarely persuade moral opponents who differ at a foundational level. This has been vividly illustrated in contemporary debates in bioethics surrounding contentious issues such as abortion and euthanasia. It is readily apparent that bioethics discourse lacks an empirical explanation for the broad differences about various topics in bioethics and health policy. In recent years, social and cognitive psychology has generated novel approaches for defining basic differences in moral intuitions generally. We propose that if empirical research using social intuitionist theory explains why people disagree with one another over moral issues, then the results of such research might help people debate their moral differences in a more constructive and civil manner. We illustrate the utility of social intuitionism with data from a national physician survey.     

Age differences in overlapping-task performance: evidence for efficient parallel processing in older adults

Two psychological refractory period (PRP) experiments were conducted to examine overlapping processing in younger and older adults. A shape discrimination task (triangle or rectangle) for Task 1 (T1) and a lexical-decision task (word or nonword) for Task 2 (T2) were used. PRP effects, response time for T2 increasing as stimulus onset synchrony (SOA) decreased, were obtained for both age groups. The effect of word frequency on T2 was smaller at the short SOA than at the long SOA, reflecting slack effects, which were larger for older than younger adults in both experiments. These results suggest that older adults can perform lexical access of T2 in parallel with the processing of T1 at least as efficiently as younger adults.     

Using Community Partnerships to Better Understand the Barriers to Using an Evidence‐Based,Parent‐Mediated Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorder in a Medicaid System

Service use disparities have been noted to impede under‐resourced families' ability to access high‐quality services for their child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These disparities are particularly relevant for parent‐mediated interventions and may suggest a lack of fit between these interventions and the needs of under‐resourced community settings. This study used Roger's Diffusion of Innovations theory to guide community partnerships aimed at understanding the perceived compatibility, complexity, and relative advantage of using an evidence‐based, parent‐mediated intervention (Project ImPACT) within a Medicaid system. Three focus groups were conducted with 16 Medicaid‐eligible parents, and three focus groups were conducted with 16 ASD providers operating within a Medicaid system. Across all groups, parents and providers reported general interest in using Project ImPACT. However, primary themes emerged regarding the need to (a) reduce the complexity of written materials; (b) allow for a more flexible program delivery; (c) ensure a strong parent–therapist alliance; (d) involve the extended family; and (e) help families practice the intervention within their preexisting routines. Results are discussed as they relate to the design and fit of evidence‐based, parent‐mediated interventions for under‐resourced community settings.     

Experiences of Adults Who Identify as Primary Caregivers

The role of primary caregiver is unique. Understanding the role of the primary caregiver will better inform those in the counseling profession. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to gain a clearer perspective of the lived experiences of adults who identify as primary caregivers. The authors conducted semistructured interviews with 6 Caucasian female participants and analyzed the data using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings include personal perceptions and caregiver experiences pertaining to the caregiver role, caregiver mentality, professional identity, social and emotional responses, and self‐care among caregivers throughout the caregiving process. Implications for counselors and future research are presented.     

A Case Study of Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Within a Varsity Volleyball Team

This study used an instrumental case study approach to investigate the ways teammates within a female varsity volleyball team regulated one another's emotions, the factors that were perceived to influence interpersonal emotion regulation (IER), and athletes' preferences for regulating their own and others' emotions. Fourteen athletes participated in semistructured interviews and reported using a variety of emotion-improving and emotion-worsening IER strategies, in addition to occasionally choosing not to engage in IER, and several factors were found to influence IER (e.g., athletes' roles and interpersonal factors). This study has theoretical implications and applied implications for athletes, coaches, and sport psychology consultants.     

A psychometric comparison of anxiety-relevant attention measures

Background and Objectives: Preferential attention to threat, emotional response inhibition, and attentional control each purportedly play a key role in anxiety disorders. Divergent psychometric properties among attention measures may produce differential detection of anxiety-related associations and treatment-related changes. However, no studies have directly compared the psychometric properties of these attention measures in the same sample.

Design: Eighty-five young adults (M?=?19.41 years, SD?=?1.47, 48 Females) completed a cognitive task battery and a subset of 60 participants (M?=?19.42 years, SD?=?1.48, 33 Females) completed the task battery again approximately two weeks later.

Method: To assess preferential attention to threat, emotional response inhibition, and attentional control, the cognitive task battery included a dot-probe task, emotion and gender Stroop tasks, and a flanker task. Tasks varied in how attention was directed and if emotional stimuli were included. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were compared across measures.

Results: Within the same sample, internal consistency and reliability differed across attention measures. Explicit attention measures (emotional Stroop and flanker) exhibited stronger internal consistency and greater test-retest reliability compared to implicit measures (dot-probe and gender Stroop).

Conclusions: These results inform clinical research using attention measures to assess anxiety-related differences and treatment response.     

Looking forward: the effects of photographs on the qualities of future thinking

Future episodic thinking relies on the reconstruction of remembered experiences. Photographs provide one means of remembering, acting as a “cognitive springboard” for generating related memory qualities. We wondered whether photographs would also invite embellishment of future thought qualities, particularly in the presence (or absence) of associated memories. In two studies participants generated future events in familiar (associated memories) and novel (no associated memories) locations. Half of the participants viewed scene location photographs during event generation. All participants then imagined the events for one minute and completed a self-report measure of content qualities. Results of the current set of studies suggested that for novel locations, no differences in qualities emerged; however, for familiar locations, photographs did not enhance qualities and, in some cases, actually constrained perceptual (Experiments 1 and 2) and sensory (Experiment 1) detail ratings of future thoughts. Thus, photographs did not invite embellishment of future thought details.     

Does mediator use contribute to the spacing effect for cued recall? Critical tests of the mediator hypothesis

When study is spaced across sessions (versus massed within a single session), final performance is greater after spacing. This spacing effect may have multiple causes, and according to the mediator hypothesis, part of the effect can be explained by the use of mediator-based strategies. This hypothesis proposes that when study is spaced across sessions, rather than massed within a session, more mediators will be generated that are longer lasting and hence more mediators will be available to support criterion recall. In two experiments, participants were randomly assigned to study paired associates using either a spaced or massed schedule. They reported strategy use for each item during study trials and during the final test. Consistent with the mediator hypothesis, participants who had spaced (as compared to massed) practice reported using more mediators on the final test. This use of effective mediators also statistically accounted for some – but not all of – the spacing effect on final performance.