Incremental validity of the Psychopathy Checklist facet scores: predicting release outcome in six samples

The incremental validity of the 4 facet scores (Interpersonal, Affective, Lifestyle, Antisocial) of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991, 2003) and the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; S. D. Hart, D. N. Cox, & R. D. Hare, 1995) was evaluated in 6 forensic/correctional samples with average follow-ups ranging from 20 weeks to 10 years. Results indicated that whereas Facet 4 (Antisocial) achieved incremental validity relative to the first 3 facets (Interpersonal, Affective, and Lifestyle) in predicting recidivism in all 6 samples, a block of the first 3 facets achieved incremental validity relative to the 4th facet in only 1 sample. Thus, although there was consistent support for the incremental validity of Facet 4 above and beyond the first 3 facets, there was minimal support for the incremental validity of Facets 1, 2, and 3 above and beyond Facet 4. The implications of these findings for the psychopathy construct in general and the PCL-R/SV in particular are discussed.     

Contextual Adult Life Span Theory for Adapting Psychotherapy with Older Adults

Our aging population is growing in size and diversity. To integrate different views on aging and make explicit the role of culture as a contextual factor, we modified Knight’s (Psychotherapy with older adults, 2004) Contextual, Cohort-based, Maturity, Specific Challenge (CCMSC) model of psychotherapy with older adults into the Contextual Adult Lifespan Theory for Adapting Psychotherapy (CALTAP). This article describes various components of the CALTAP, which serves as a meta-theoretical framework in guiding an integrated psychotherapy approach for the aging population. The interaction between environmental factors like cohort differences and socio-cultural contexts and individual factors such as maturation and age-related specific challenges not only shapes the experience and presentation of older adults in clinical settings, but also highlights special considerations in adapting psychotherapy for older adults.     

He's a Laker; She's a “Looker”: The Consequences of Gender-Stereotypical Portrayals of Male and Female Athletes by the Print Media

Although an extensive qualitative literature shows that coverage of women's sport often focuses on female athletes' attractiveness (to the exclusion of their athleticism), there is a dearth of quantitative research examining exactly what effect this coverage has on people's perceptions of athletes. As part of a 2 (Gender of the Athlete: Female or Male) × 2 (Gender of the Participant: Female or Male) × 2 (Focus of the Article: Physical Attractiveness or Athleticism) between-subjects design, 92 predominantly White undergraduates (40 men, 52 women) read a fictitious newspaper profile about an Olympic athlete in which the article focused on the athlete's attractiveness (as coverage of female athletes often does) or on the athlete's athleticism (as coverage of male athletes often does). Interestingly, participants neither had favorable impressions of nor liked articles about female and male athletes when attractiveness was the main focus of an article. These findings suggest that the media should be cognizant of the harmful and erroneous impressions that can result from portraying athletes in terms of their personal attributes rather than their athletic accomplishments.     

Factor Structure of the Burden Interview

Zarit's Burden Interview is the most commonly used measure of burden among family caregivers for demented older adults, but has been criticized for its diverse item content and lack of correspondence to theoretically based multidimensional burden scales. The factor structure of this measure of burden was examined in a sample of 220 family caregivers of demented elderly. The implied 1-factor model and a 2-factor model proposed in the literature were not good fits to the data. Fourteen of the 21 nonglobal items were found to tap three underlying factors of Embarrassment/Anger, Patient's Dependency, and Self-criticism. This factor structure was replicated in a second sample of 108 caregivers. The relationship of these factors to latent factors identified in other multifactorial burden scales suggests a greater degree of convergence across measures than has been assumed.     

Family and Neighborhood Fit or Misfit and the Adaptation of Mexican Americans

In this study, a person-environment fit model was used to understand the independent and combined roles of family and neighborhood characteristics on the adjustment of adults and children in a sample of 750 Mexican American families. Latent class analysis was used to identify six qualitatively distinct family types and three quantitatively distinct neighborhood types using socioeconomic and cultural indicators at each level. The results showed that members of single-parent Mexican American families may be particularly at-risk, members of the lowest-income immigrant families reported fewer adaptation problems if they lived in low-income neighborhoods dominated by immigrants, members of economically successful immigrant families may be more at-risk in integrated middle class neighborhoods than in low-income neighborhoods dominated by immigrants, and members of two-parent immigrant families appear to be rather resilient in most settings despite their low socioeconomic status.     

Stress in youth sport: A developmental investigation of tennis parents

ObjectiveThis study investigated the stage-specific stressors experienced by British tennis parents whose children were situated either in the sampling, specializing or investment stages of participation in the sport [Côtè, J. (1999). The influence of the family in the development of talent in sport. The Sport Psychologist, 13, 395–417].Design and methodA qualitative design was employed with semi-structured interviews conducted with twenty two British tennis parents; six parents representing each of the first two stages of sports participation and ten representing the investment stage. Data was analyzed through a process of inductive content analysis following the method proposed by Miles and Huberman [Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. London: Sage]. Data matrices were developed for each category of parent to allow for the comparison of the data between themes.Results and conclusionThree general dimensions of parental stressor emerged: Organizational, Competitive and Developmental. Organizational stressors included demands related to finance, time, training and coaching, and governing body systems; competitive stressors related to behavior, performance and morality-related issues associated with their child's matches; and developmental stressors centered on educational issues, uncertainty of tennis transitions, and future decision making. While sampling stage parents encountered few developmental stressors compared to later stage parents, a range of competitive stressors were highly prominent. Organizational stressors were particularly foremost for specializing and investment stage parents. Implications are discussed with reference to further research into the parental stress process and to the importance of stage-specific parent education initiatives.     

A video‐based procedure for the assessment of prospective memory

Prospective memory, or the everyday activity of remembering to remember, is frequently deficient in persons with brain injuries. However, few clinically useful measures of this ability are available. We report the results of three studies using student participants, conducted to examine the psychometric credentials of a video‐based method of assessing prospective remembering. This procedure requires participants to watch a video segment recorded moving through a shopping precinct and to recall preassigned instructions (e.g. ‘Buy a Big Mac at McDonald's’) in response to cues appearing on the videotape. Study 1 showed that the video procedure is reliable and easier to complete when the video footage is set in a familiar location. Study 2 confirmed that familiarity enhances recall and demonstrated that pre‐exposure to the unfamiliar video stimuli could partially attenuate this effect. In Study 3 it was found that performance on the video‐based task was correlated with performance on an equivalent real life memory task providing evidence for criterion validity. The findings from these studies demonstrate that clinical and experimental measures of prospective memory with high ecological validity can be constructed based on video recordings of everyday activities. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Part‐based representations of the body in early childhood: evidence from perceived distortions of tactile space across limb boundaries

Studies show that touch in adults is referenced to a representation of the body that is structured topologically according to body parts; the perceived distance between two stimuli crossing over a body part boundary is elongated relative to the perceived distance between two stimuli presented within one body part category. Here we investigate this influence of body parts on tactile space perception in children of 5, 6 and 7 years of age. We presented children with pairs of tactile stimuli on the left hand/arm, either within the hand, within the forearm, or over the wrist. With their eyes closed children were asked to adjust the distance between the thumb and forefinger of their right hand to represent the felt distance between the two tactile stimuli. Like adults, the children perceived the distance between two stimuli that cross the body part boundary to be further apart than those that were presented within the hand or arm. They also perceive tactile distance to be greater on the hand than the arm which is the first observation of Weber's illusion in young children. We propose that a topological mode of body representation is particularly advantageous during early life given that body part categories remain constant while the metric proportions of the body change substantially as the child grows.