Group cohesion in cognitive-behavioral group therapy for social phobia

Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) for Social Phobia is effective in both group and individual formats. However, the impact of group processes on treatment efficacy remains relatively unexplored. In this study we examined group cohesion ratings made by individuals at the midpoint and endpoint of CBT groups for social phobia. Symptom measures were also completed at the beginning and end of treatment. We found that cohesion ratings significantly increased over the course of the group and were associated with improvement over time in social anxiety symptoms, as well as improvement on measures of general anxiety, depression, and functional impairment. In conclusion, findings are consistent with the idea that changes in group cohesion are related to social anxiety symptom reduction and, therefore, speak to the importance of nonspecific therapeutic factors in treatment outcome.     

Social phobia in youth: the diagnostic utility of feared social situations

The present study evaluated the utility of parent- and child-reported social fears for reaching a diagnosis of social phobia in youth. The diagnostic utility of (a) the number of fears and (b) specific feared social situations was examined. The sample included 140 youth and their parents: youth diagnosed with social phobia (n=50), youth diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder or separation anxiety disorder but not social phobia (n=49), and youth without an anxiety disorder (n=41). Youth and their parents were interviewed separately using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children and Parents. Analyses indicate that a cut score of 4 parent-endorsed social fears optimally distinguished youth with and without social phobia. Analyses of child-reported fears did not identify a meaningful cut score. Conditional probability and odds ratio analyses indicated that several specific social fears have high diagnostic efficiency, and others were found to have limited diagnostic efficiency. Results are discussed with regard to informing diagnostic interviews and diagnostic systems for social phobia in youth.     

Using Adult Learning Theory Concepts to Address Barriers to Cancer Genetic Risk Assessment in the African American Community

Utilization of cancer genetic risk assessment can be profoundly influenced by an individuals’ knowledge of risk assessment, attitudes regarding illness and healthcare, and affective reactions derived from social norms. Race and ethnicity play a powerful role in the development of an individual's attitudes and should be considered when attempting to understand a person's openness to cancer genetic risk assessment (Lannin et al., 1998). Until recently, however, cancer screening and prevention programs have been primarily based on data from studies conducted with the Caucasian population, yielding data that are not fully applicable to the African American community. In the last several years, research findings regarding African American's knowledge, attitudes, and feelings about genetic counseling and testing have grown (Matthews et al., 2000; Singer et al., 2004; Thompson et al., 2003). However, to the authors’ knowledge, these data have yet to be presented in a manner that both summarizes the barriers that African Americans have reported regarding cancer genetic risk assessment, while at the same time suggesting methods individual genetic counselors can utilize during community presentations to help address these barriers. This article will first summarize previous empirical findings regarding African Americans’ knowledge, attitudes, and feelings about cancer genetic risk assessment. The article will then apply adult learning theory to those findings to provide genetic counselors with practical, theory based techniques to apply toward community based educational programs with African American groups.     

Body image and body change strategies among adolescent males and females from Fiji, Tonga and Australia

The current study was designed to investigate the body image and body change strategies of adolescents from Fiji, Tonga and Australia. Participants were 628 Fijians, 463 Indo-Fijians, 598 Tongans and 535 European Australians. Adolescents completed measures of height, weight, body dissatisfaction, strategies to lose weight, increase weight and increase muscles. The results demonstrated that overweight adolescents were more dissatisfied with their bodies than those who were normal weight. Overweight Fijians and Tongans were more satisfied with their body than Indo-Fijian or Australian adolescents. Tongans, followed by Fijians and Indo-Fijians, were more likely to engage in strategies to lose weight, increase weight and increase muscles. These results are consistent with the focus in Fiji and Tonga on the value of the large body ideal, but may also reflect the recent focus on the attainment of a healthy body size.     

The influence of instructions and terminology on the accuracy of remember–know judgments

The remember–know paradigm is one of the most widely used procedures to examine the subjective experience associated with memory retrieval. We examined how the terminology and instructions used to describe the experiences of remembering and knowing affected remember–know judgments. In Experiment 1 we found that using neutral terms, i.e., Type A memory and Type B memory, to describe the experiences of remembering and knowing reduced remember false alarms for younger and older adults as compared to using the terms Remember and Know, thereby increasing overall memory accuracy in the neutral terminology condition. In Experiment 2 we found that using what we call source-specific remember–know instructions, which were intended to constrain remember judgments to recollective experiences arising only from the study context, reduced remember hits and false alarms, and increased know hits and false alarms. Based on these data and other considerations, we conclude that researchers should use neutral terminology and source-specific instructions to collect the most accurate reports of the experiences of remembering and knowing arising from the study context.     

Inadvertent plagiarism in young and older adults: The role of working memory capacity in reducing memory errors

Two experiments examined inadvertent plagiarism in young and older adults. Young and older adults took turns generating category exemplars in small groups, and after a short retention interval recall was tested and subjects were asked to generate new exemplars (i.e., exemplars not initially generated). When asked to generate new exemplars, older adults were more likely to repeat exemplars that had been generated earlier by others (i.e., generate-new plagiarism). When asked to recall the exemplars they had generated earlier, older adults were more likely to claim that they had generated exemplars that had been generated by others (i.e., recall-own plagiarism), and were also more likely to falsely recall exemplars that had not been generated at all. There were no age differences in confidence for items that were plagiarized on the generate-new task. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that age differences in generate-new plagiarism and false recall were entirely mediated by measures of episodic recall and working memory capacity. We conclude that inadvertent plagiarism errors result from the failure of systematic decision processes, and that controlled attention is important for avoiding memory errors.     

Am I the typical student? Perceived similarity to student prototypes predicts success

Two studies assessed the relationships between perceived similarity to the college student prototype and academic outcomes. In Study 1, students' similarity to the prototypical good student and their levels of depressed mood were assessed. A year later, students high in depressed mood who did not see themselves as similar to the good student prototype did worse academically. In Study 2, students' perceived favorability and similarity to the prototypical student at their university were assessed along with their levels of neuroticism. Enrollment at their university was then tracked for 5 semesters. Students high in neuroticism who perceived the typical student as both favorable and dissimilar to themselves were less likely to stay enrolled. These findings highlight the importance of perceived dissimilarity in prototype perception, particularly among those high in negative affect.     

Personality and antisocial behaviour: A long-term study

The relationship between the personality components of psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism, and levels of conduct disorder, delinquency and therapy responsiveness in children is investigated. A series of studies reporting short- and long-term results test Eysenck's (1970) argument that extraverts, because of their lower levels of conditionability, should feature more prominently in groups showing higher levels of conduct disorder or delinquency. The extension of that argument to include the role of psychoticism (Eysenck H.J. and Eysenck S.B.G., Psychoticism as a Dimension of Personality, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1976) is also subjected to experimental test. Two alternative conceptions of the part played by neuroticism, either that it acts as an amplifying device (high N) or as a filter against pressure to change (low N), are considered. The results support the importance of including personality factors in the study of antisocial behaviour in children.