Influence of Attachment Style on Sexual Abuse Survivors' Posttraumatic Growth

This study investigated the directional relationship between adults' (N = 292) attachment styles and perceived impact of child sexual abuse with their experience of posttraumatic growth (PTG). Structural equation modeling results identified that attachment style served as a partial mediator between trauma and PTG scores, with the mediating effect contributing to 8% of the variance in the presence of PTG (p < .05; standardized coefficient = ?.31).     

Comparison of longitudinal phenotypes based on alternate heavy drinking cut scores: a systematic comparison of trajectory approaches III.

The goal of the present study was to empirically determine the effect of employing different cut scores for frequency of heavy episodic drinking (HED; an often-used indicator of problematic alcohol involvement) within a longitudinal framework. Using data from a large prospective (9-wave) college student sample, the authors used latent class growth analyses to characterize developmental trajectories of HED based on alternate cut scores that varied in frequency of HED (defined by 5+ drinks per occasion), as well as to measure very heavy episodic drinking (12+ drinks per occasion). As cut score severity increased and base rates for HED correspondingly decreased, individuals were increasingly categorized into less severe classes. Concordance between trajectories ranged from small to moderate, with concordance using highly discrepant definitions of frequent HED being particularly low. HED trajectories based upon different cut scores were validated against a range of etiological and consequential correlates. No single cut score was superior to others in explaining variance in external validity indicators, suggesting that the choice of cut score should be based upon theoretical and clinical considerations. This study further extends the authors' prior work examining the effects of methodological factors that are critical to characterizing the developmental course of alcohol involvement.     

Letter search does not affect semantic priming in a probe naming task

The normally robust semantic priming effect observed in lexical decision is usually reduced to the point of being absent, when a letter search has to be performed on the prime. It has been argued that semantic activation is thus not an automatic process but rather cognitively controlled and therefore adaptable to task demands. We examined the effects of letter search priming on pronunciation times and found a reliable semantic priming effect, following letter search that was not affected at all relative to a standard condition, where participants silently read the prime. Thus the nature of the prime task did not seem to affect the processing mode employed, semantic access occurred even though attention was focused on surface properties of the prime.     

Egocentric and allocentric visual cues influence the specification of movement distance and direction

The authors investigated whether visuomotor transformations that support the computation of movement distance (i.e., extent) and movement direction rely differentially on integration of egocentric and allocentric visual information. To accomplish that objective, the authors factorially arranged 17 participants' open-loop reaching movements from 2 movement-start locations with mediolateral (ML) and anteroposterior (AP) variants of the induced Roelofs effect (IRE). The 2 movement-start locations in combination with the 2 IRE configurations enabled the authors to examine the impact of illusory movement pertaining to distance (i.e., AP-IRE) and direction (i.e., ML-IRE) information. AP-IRE and ML-IRE configurations across the 2 movement-start locations reliably influenced reaching endpoints in a direction consistent with the perceptual effects of the illusion. These findings suggest that unitary visual information involving interactive egocentric and allocentric visual cues supports the specification of both movement distance and movement direction.     

Domus Ecclesiae: Rethinking a Category of Ante-Pacem Christian Space

Historians of religion, art, and archaeology often invoke theterm domus ecclesiae (oo ) as a technical category to denotea house or building that had been materially adapted for Christianritual during the ante-pacem period. Most employ the term inthe belief that it is genuinely pre-Constantinian, and thatChristians in this period described their cult spaces as renovatedhouses. This essay demonstrates the inaccuracy of both assumptions,and shows that the first attested literary use of the term datesno earlier than 313 CE, when Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 339) usedit in his writings to designate a church building without anyindication of its architectural form or history. Following adiscussion of the term's modern history and an analysis of theancient literary evidence, the essay concludes with a brieflook at the material evidence for domus ecclesiae, which, withone exception (the complex at Dura-Europos), also dates to thepost-Constantinian period.     

Effects on WAIS-III performance IQ (PIQ) and full scale IQ (FSIQ) when object assembly is substituted for each standard performance scale subtest

According to the WAIS-III Administration and Scoring Manual, Object Assembly (OA) may be substituted for any spoiled Performance subtest. This assertion has not been evaluated in a clinical sample. The present investigation reports differences that resulted in Performance IQ (PIQ) and Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) when OA replaced each of the Performance subtests. Participants were 47 referrals for neuropsychological assessment (age M = 45.98 years, SD = 9.82; education M = 13.82 years, SD = 2.78). Results indicated that OA may replace any Performance subtest without seriously altering the summary scores. Differences between the standard IQs and OA-based composites were < 2 points for PIQ and < 1 point for FSIQ. More than 90% of the OA-based composites fell within the 90% confidence limits of the corresponding IQ.     

The role of part structure in the perceptual localization of a shape

The process of object localization may be accomplished with respect to a particular reference location, such as the center of gravity, COG (eg Vishwanath and Kowler, 2003 Vision Research 43 1637-1653). Here, we investigated how part structure affects an object's reference location. The reference location was evaluated with a measure of the illusory displacement of an internal target element embedded within a larger object (Morgan et al, 1990 Vision Research 30 1793-1810). To examine whether the reference location is different for shapes with part structure, two shapes were tested: circle (small and large; no part structure) and bell (shape with two parts, one larger than the other). Results were examined with respect to two predictions: either the location of an object is based on its shape as a whole, disregarding part structure (ie a single, overall COG), or the parts are processed separately (different COGs). With the circles, the results showed a systematic illusory displacement of the internal target toward the COG. With the bell, the illusion was significantly weaker than with both circles--even though the main part of the bell had the same size as the small circle, and its horizontal axis had the same extent as the large circle. Moreover, the distance judgments for the bell were consistent with a (weaker) reference point being located at the COG of the larger part, rather than at the COG of the entire bell. These results show that the part structure of a shape plays a role in the representation of its location, and that for complex shapes the perceived location of an embedded element depends more on the parts within which it is embedded, rather than on the whole shape.     

Three steps to open science for qualitative research in psychology

Principles and applications of open science (also referred to as open research or open scholarship) in psychology have emerged in response to growing concerns about the replicability, transparency, reproducibility, and robustness of psychological research alongside global moves to open science in many fields. Our objective in this paper is to inform ways of collectively constructing open science practices and systems that are appropriate to, and get the best out of, the full range of qualitative and mixed-method approaches used in psychology. We achieve this by describing three areas of open research practice (contributorship, pre-registration, and open data) and explore how and why qualitative researchers might consider engaging with these in ways that are compatible with a qualitative research paradigm. We argue it is crucial that open research practices do not (even inadvertently) exclude qualitative research, and that qualitative researchers reflect on how we can meaningfully engage with open science in psychology.     

Therapy for couples after an affair: A randomized-controlled trial

To examine the efficacy of a couples treatment approach for promoting recovery from a recently disclosed affair, 89 couples that disclosed an affair by one of the partners in the past 6 months were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 46) or to a control group that waited about 3 months for treatment (n = 43). The couples completed self-report measures (Beck Depression Inventory, Impact of Event Scale-Revised, Partnership Questionnaire) at pre- and post-treatment. Since about half of the couples dropped out for various reasons (e.g., ongoing affair, separation), we used multiple imputations to handle the missing data problem. We analyzed the dyadic data with hierarchical linear modeling in a two-level model. Significant improvements on scores of anxiety corresponded with large effect sizes for both partners. Yet significant improvements on depression scores were only found for the unfaithful partner with moderate effect size. Results suggest that the treatment can improve individual complaints, but not relationship satisfaction in a sufficient amount for both partners. Hence, future research should address how this intervention could encourage couples to maintain therapy, and how they might achieve more and sustained improvement in relationship satisfaction.