Development of the Crying Proneness Scale: Associations Among Crying Proneness,Empathy, Attachment,and Age

Crying is a unique form of human emotional expression that is associated with both positive and negative evocative antecedents. This article investigates the psychometric properties of a newly developed Crying Proneness Scale by examining the factor structure, test–retest reliability, and theoretically hypothesized relationships with empathy, attachment, age, and gender. Based on an analysis of data provided by a Dutch panel (Time 1: N = 4,916, Time 2: N = 4,874), exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggest that crying proneness is a multidimensional construct best characterized by four factors called attachment tears, societal tears, sentimental/moral tears, and compassionate tears. Test–retest reliability of the scale was adequate and associations with age, gender, empathy, and attachment demonstrated expected relations. Results suggest that this scale can be used to measure crying proneness, and that it will be useful in future studies that aim to gain a better understanding of normal and pathological socioemotional development.     

Partiality and prejudice in trusting

You can trust your friends. You should trust your friends. Not all of your friends all of the time: you can reasonably trust different friends to different degrees, and in different domains. Still, we often trust our friends, and it is often reasonable to do so. Why is this? In this paper I explore how and whether friendship gives us reasons to trust our friends, reasons which may outstrip or conflict with our epistemic reasons. In the final section, I will sketch some related questions concerning trust based on the trustee’s race, gender, or other social identity.     

The Still-Face Paradigm and bidirectionality: Associations with maternal sensitivity,self-esteem and infant emotional reactivity

The Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) is a structured stressful event within which researchers have investigated the influence of maternal psychological and behavioral characteristics on infant behavior. The present investigation contributes to this body of work by examining the joint contributions of maternal and child behavioral and affective characteristics on subsequent behaviors and affectations following the SFP. A sample of non-clinically depressed mothers and their infants (n = 31) engaged in a modified Still-Face Paradigm (SFP), followed by a period of toy play. These interactions were videotaped and behaviorally coded along the following dimensions: maternal sensitivity prior to the SFP and during toy play, infant negative emotional reactivity during the still-face, and infant resistance during the reunion phase. Additionally, mothers reported global self-esteem and this was examined as a predictor of infant behavior. Results revealed significant bidirectional influences such that maternal self-esteem predicted infant emotional reactivity, maternal sensitivity pre-SFP predicted infant resistance during the reunion phase, and infant resistance predicted subsequent levels of maternal sensitivity. Indirect effects were also examined, and provided additional support for bidirectionality in mother–infant interactions. Implications for clinical practice are discussed in light of these findings.     

An Exploration of Genetic Counselors’ Needs and Experiences with Prenatal Chromosomal Microarray Testing

Because of the higher yield over traditional chromosomal analysis, chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) is being used increasingly in prenatal diagnosis. Unfortunately, the clinical implication of many copy number variants found on prenatal CMA is uncertain, complicating genetic counseling. Recognizing that uncertain results will be encountered frequently as more of the genome is assayed prenatally, we set out to understand the experiences and needs of genetic counselors when counseling patients about uncertain prenatal microarray results, their comfort with various aspects of prenatal genetic counseling, and their interest in additional education and training about prenatal microarray testing. We first interviewed 10 genetic counselors about their experiences of providing pre- and post-test genetic counseling about prenatal CMA. Based on the findings from the counselor interviews, we developed items for a survey to assess the prevalence of genetic counselors’ attitudes towards, experience and comfort with, and educational needs regarding prenatal CMA. Based on surveys completed by 193 prenatal genetic counselors, we found that when there is an uncertain CMA result, only 59 % would be comfortable providing genetic counseling and only 43 % would be comfortable helping a patient make a decision about pregnancy termination. Being less comfortable was associated with seeing fewer patients having prenatal CMA testing. Respondents expressed a high degree of interest in additional education about prenatal CMA and counseling about uncertain results. Further genetic counselor education and training aimed at improving counselors’ personal comfort with uncertain results and communicating about them with patients is needed.     

Interprofessional Education: Current State in Psychology Training

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - Healthcare reform has led to the consideration of interprofessional team-based, collaborative care as a way to provide comprehensive,...     

My partner’s stories: relationships between personal and vicarious life stories within romantic couples

In this paper, we examined relationships and differences between personal and vicarious life stories, i.e., the life stories one knows of others. Personal and vicarious life stories of both members of 51 young couples (102 participants), based on McAdams’ Life Story Interview (2008), were collected. We found significant positive relationships between participants’ personal and vicarious life stories on agency and communion themes and redemption sequences. We also found significant positive relationships between participants’ vicarious life stories about their partners and those partners’ personal life stories on agency and communion, but not redemption. Furthermore, these relationships were not explained by similarity between couples’ two personal life stories, as no associations were found between couples’ personal stories on agency, communion and redemption. These results suggest that the way we construct the vicarious life stories of close others may reflect how we construct our personal life stories.