Co‐Witness Influence on Children's Memory Reports: The Difference is in the Details1

This study examined the effect of social influence on children's witness reports, with respect to a number of details varying in centrality. Children (N = 115; age = 10 years, 4 months to 13 years, 8 months) were interviewed about a personally experienced event. Half of the children were interviewed together with a confederate who answered the interview questions before the child did, while the other half were interviewed alone. Children were influenced by the confederate's answers to withhold some critical details observed (omission errors), but not to add details not observed (commission errors). When the children were asked to follow up on their reports, truthful reports contained more information than did false reports.     

Valuing clients' perspective and the effects on the therapeutic alliance: a randomized controlled study of an adjunctive instruction

The patterns of growth and development of the therapeutic alliance over the course of therapy have been of continued interest to psychotherapy researchers. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a simple institutional metacommunication intervention with clients had an effect on the development of the alliance. This adjunctive instruction involved inviting therapy clients to take a proactive role in their treatment by encouraging feedback to their therapist about various aspects of the therapy process. In this randomized controlled study (N = 94), clients were assigned to 1 of 2 conditions: (a) an institutional adjunctive instruction condition in which patients were contacted by clinic personnel at the beginning of the remediation phase (Session 5) and encouraged to take a proactive role in their treatment and (b) a control condition that contained no institutional adjunctive instruction. Between-condition differences in the alliance were tested, controlling for baseline influences and the early therapeutic alliance. Clients' postsession reports from Sessions 1 to 24 indicated that the adjunctive instruction increased the alliance over the course of therapy vis-à-vis the control condition. The adjunctive instruction appeared to have fostered clients' evaluation of their therapists' interest in their welfare. The results indicate that interventions, even brief or subtle, can produce lasting benefits in the alliance when targeted at specific psychological processes. Systematic metacommunication from the institutional level appeared to reinforce clients' therapeutic alliance with their therapists in individual treatment.     

Culture and the distinctiveness motive: constructing identity in individualistic and collectivistic contexts

The motive to attain a distinctive identity is sometimes thought to be stronger in, or even specific to, those socialized into individualistic cultures. Using data from 4,751 participants in 21 cultural groups (18 nations and 3 regions), we tested this prediction against our alternative view that culture would moderate the ways in which people achieve feelings of distinctiveness, rather than influence the strength of their motivation to do so. We measured the distinctiveness motive using an indirect technique to avoid cultural response biases. Analyses showed that the distinctiveness motive was not weaker-and, if anything, was stronger-in more collectivistic nations. However, individualism-collectivism was found to moderate the ways in which feelings of distinctiveness were constructed: Distinctiveness was associated more closely with difference and separateness in more individualistic cultures and was associated more closely with social position in more collectivistic cultures. Multilevel analysis confirmed that it is the prevailing beliefs and values in an individual's context, rather than the individual's own beliefs and values, that account for these differences.     

Eating-related problems among 13-15 year old Swedish adolescents: Frequency and stability over a one-year period

Viborg, N., Wångby‐Lundh, M., Lundh, L.‐G. & Johnsson P. (2012). Eating‐related problems among 13‐15 year old Swedish adolescents: Frequency and stability over a one‐year period. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 401–406. The frequency of eating‐related problems in young adolescents, and their stability over a one‐year period, was studied by the RiBED‐8 (Risk Behaviours related to Eating Disorders, 8 items) in a community sample of 13–15 year old adolescents who took part in a prospective study with a 2‐wave longitudinal design. The RiBED‐8 was found to have good reliability and construct validity among the girls, although it did not show equally convincing psychometric properties among boys. With a cut‐off of at least three critical answers on the RiBED‐8, 28.5–31.0% of the girls were seen as risk cases for the development of eating disorder. Of those girls who were risk cases at Time 1, a majority (68.8%) remained so at Time 2; of those girls who were not risk cases at Time 1, 16.1% became risk cases at Time 2. It is suggested that the RiBED‐8 is a brief, easily administered instrument that may be potentially useful in screening for eating‐related problems among girls.     

Are modern health worries associated with somatosensory amplification,environmental attribution style,and commitment to complementary and alternative medicine?

Relationship among modern health worries (MHWs), somatosensory amplification (SSA), and attributional styles was investigated in a cross-sectional questionnaire study. A total of 99 university students, 104 patients visiting their General Practitioners, and 102 future alternative therapists completed questionnaires assessing MHWs, SSA, negative affect (NA), and psychological, somatic and normalizing (environmental) attribution styles. Significant correlation between SSA and MHWs was found in all three samples. MHWs and psychological attribution style were significantly associated with Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)-orientation in the regression equation even after controlling for SSA, NA, and sociodemographic variables. MHWs were independent from any attribution styles in the student and patient samples, while significant correlations with all three styles were found in the CAM group. Previously described association between MHWs and SSA was replicated in three different samples. The connection between MHWs and CAM preference seems to be independent from SSA, NA or any particular attribution style.     

Trajectories of resilience, depression, and anxiety following spinal cord injury

Purpose/Objective: To investigate longitudinal trajectories of depression and anxiety symptoms following spinal cord injury (SCI) as well as the predictors of those trajectories. Research Method/Design: A longitudinal study of 233 participants assessed at 4 time points: within 6 weeks, 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years from the point of injury. Data were analyzed using latent growth mixture modeling to determine the best-fitting model of depression and anxiety trajectories. Covariates assessed during hospitalization were explored as predictors of the trajectories. Results: Analyses for depression and anxiety symptoms revealed 3 similar latent classes: a resilient pattern of stable low symptoms, a pattern of high symptoms followed by improvement (recovery), and delayed symptom elevations. A chronic high depression pattern also emerged but not a chronic high anxiety pattern. Analyses of predictors indicated that compared with other groups, resilient patients had fewer SCI-related quality of life problems, more challenge appraisals and fewer threat appraisals, greater acceptance and fighting spirit, and less coping through social reliance and behavioral disengagement. Conclusion/Implications: Overall, the majority of SCI patients demonstrated considerable psychological resilience. Models for depression and anxiety evidenced a pattern of elevated symptoms followed by improvement and a pattern of delayed symptoms. Chronic high depression was also observed but not chronic high anxiety. Analyses of predictors were consistent with the hypothesis that resilient individuals view major stressors as challenges to be accepted and met with active coping efforts. These results are comparable to other recent studies of major health stressors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

A feeling for the future: How does agency in time metaphors relate to feelings?

Most cultures have metaphors for time that involve movement, for example, ‘time passes’. Although time is objectively measured, it is subjectively understood, as we can perceive time as stationary, whereby we move towards future events, or we can perceive ourselves as stationary, with time moving past us and events moving towards us. This paper reports a series of studies that first examines whether people think about time in a metaphor‐consistent manner (Study 1) and then explores the relationship between ‘time perspective’, level of perceived personal agency, and time representations (Study 2), the relationship between emotional experiences and time representation (Study 3), and whether this relationship is bidirectional by manipulating either emotional experiences (Study 4) or time representation (Study 5). Results provide bidirectional evidence for an ego‐moving representation of time, with happiness eliciting more agentic control, and evidence for a time‐moving passivity associated with emotional experiences of anxiety and depression. This bidirectional relationship suggests that our representation of time is malleable, and therefore, current emotional experiences may change through modification of time representations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Different kinds of bilinguals: different kinds of brains: the neural organisation of two languages in one brain

The aim of this study was to determine whether the type of bilingualism affects neural organisation. We performed identification experiments and mismatch negativity (MMN) registrations in Finnish and Swedish language settings to see, whether behavioural identification and neurophysiological discrimination of vowels depend on the linguistic context, and whether there is a difference between two kinds of bilinguals. The stimuli were two vowels, which differentiate meaning in Finnish, but not in Swedish. The results indicate that Balanced Bilinguals are inconsistent in identification performance, and they have a longer MMN latency. Moreover, their MMN amplitude is context-independent, while Dominant Bilinguals show a larger MMN in the Finnish context. These results indicate that Dominant Bilinguals inhibit the preattentive discrimination of native contrast in a context where the distinction is non-phonemic, but this is not possible for Balanced Bilinguals. This implies that Dominant Bilinguals have separate systems, while Balanced Bilinguals have one inseparable system.     

Attention and semantic processing during speech: an fMRI study

This fMRI study was conducted to investigate whether language semantics is processed even when attention is not explicitly directed to word meanings. In the “unattended” condition, the subjects performed a visual detection task while hearing semantically related and unrelated word pairs. In the “phoneme” condition, the subjects made phoneme judgements between prime and target words, and in the “word” condition, they indicated whether the words in each word pair were semantically related or unrelated. In the word condition, stronger activity was obtained for unrelated than related words in the superior temporal gyrus/sulcus (STG/STS), lingual/fusiform gyri and cuneus, whereas in the phoneme condition no such effect was observed. However, during the unattended condition, stronger activity was found in the right STG. Our results suggest that both semantic judgement of word pairs and their passive hearing activate the same neural networks but this activation is more restricted in the passive hearing.     

Network approaches for expert decisions in sports

This paper focuses on a model comparison to explain choices based on gaze behavior via simulation procedures. We tested two classes of models, a parallel constraint satisfaction (PCS) artificial neuronal network model and an accumulator model in a handball decision-making task from a lab experiment. Both models predict action in an option-generation task in which options can be chosen from the perspective of a playmaker in handball (i.e., passing to another player or shooting at the goal). Model simulations are based on a dataset of generated options together with gaze behavior measurements from 74 expert handball players for 22 pieces of video footage. We implemented both classes of models as deterministic vs. probabilistic models including and excluding fitted parameters. Results indicated that both classes of models can fit and predict participants' initially generated options based on gaze behavior data, and that overall, the classes of models performed about equally well. Early fixations were thereby particularly predictive for choices. We conclude that the analyses of complex environments via network approaches can be successfully applied to the field of experts' decision making in sports and provide perspectives for further theoretical developments.