Countering negative country of origin effects using imagery processing

A favorable product country of origin (e.g., an automobile made in Germany) is often considered an asset by marketers. Yet a challenge in today's competitive environment is how marketers of products from less favorably regarded countries can counter negative country of origin perceptions. Three studies investigate how mental imagery can be used to reduce the effects of negative country of origin stereotypes. Study 1 reveals that participants exposed to country of origin information exhibit automatic stereotype activation. Study 2 shows that self‐focused counterstereotypical mental imagery (relative to other‐focused mental imagery) significantly inhibits the automatic activation of negative country of origin stereotypes. Study 3 shows that this lessening of automatic negative associations persists when measured one day later. The results offer important implications for marketing theory and practice. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anxiety-related Stroop interference in adolescents

A group of 16- to 18-year-old students was presented with threat-related and neutral Stroop stimuli on separate cards. Participants were assigned to anxiety groups on the basis of their scores on the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; A. T. Beck & R. A. Steer, 1990). It was found, as predicted, that the high-anxiety group took significantly longer to identify the color of the threat-related word than the neutral words, whereas there was no difference for the low-anxiety group. There was a significant linear relationship between interference on the task and BAI scores, showing that as anxiety increases there is a corresponding increase in interference produced by the threat-related stimuli when compared with the neutral stimuli. This study demonstrates an anxiety-related Stroop interference effect for adolescents consistent with that reported in the adult literature.     

Stages of change for health-related behaviours in 18 year-old Australians

Abstract This study investigated the validity of a Stages of Change algorithm with respect to independent measures of physical activity and fitness. dietary intake and alcohol consumption in 18 year-old Ausmlian men (n = 301) and women (n = 282). Stage of Change categories were related to fat and fibre intakes in men and fibre intake in women as well as hit and vegetable intakes in men and women. Physical activity and fitness for men and women also showed significant linear associations with Stage of Change categories. Alcohol consumption was significantly associated with Stage of Change categories for men but not for women although recorded alcohol consumption was very variable for women. However, the algorithm was valid for both men and women when drinking alcohol consistent with national guidelines on safe drinking was used. In summary, with reference to actual health behaviours, the Stages of Change algorithm was valid for young men and women for diet. physical activity and alcohol drinking. Independent behavioural data were not available for smoking behaviours. Using the algorithm, there were significant associations in men between prccontemplation status for diet and drinking and diet and physical activity, in women between diet and smoking and in both men and women between drinking and smoking. Covariance between precontemplation status for different health behaviours therefore suggests the need for multimodal interventions.     

Preference between onset predictable and unpredictable administrations of 20% carbon-dioxide-enriched air: implications for better understanding the etiology and treatment of panic disorder

Predictability of aversive events impacts the development and maintenance of anxiety, particularly panic disorder. Although animal studies typically have found a preference for signaled (predictable) over unsignaled (unpredictable) aversive events, results of research with human participants have been less clear. Using a panic-relevant paradigm, the authors examined predictability preference with humans as a function of anxiety sensitivity and gender during repeated administrations of 20% carbon-dioxide-enriched air. Participants preferred predictable administrations, with high-anxiety individuals showing greater preference than low-anxiety individuals and women showing greater preference than men. In addition to providing information to better understand human predictability preference for panic-related events, results also may aid in determining the applicability of predictability to the cognitive-behavioral treatment of panic disorder.     

The effect of personal relevance and approach-related action expectation on relative left frontal cortical activity

Past research using a variety of methods has suggested that the frontal cortex is asymmetrically involved in the experience and expression of positive (or approach motivational) and negative (or withdrawal motivational) affects, with the left frontal region being involved in positive affects (or approach) and the right frontal region being involved in negative affects (or withdrawal). However, some studies have failed to replicate these effects, leaving many scientists questioning the meaning of the past supportive findings. To examine these inconsistencies in results, we tested the hypothesis that increasing the personal relevance of the stimuli and approach motivational intensity would increase relative left frontal activation. Results supported the predictions. Moreover, by showing the predicted effects with anger-inducing stimuli, the results demonstrated that motivational direction, rather than affective valence, accounts for asymmetrical frontal cortical activity.     

Tinnitus Stages of Change Questionnaire: psychometric development and validation

This study describes the development of the Tinnitus Stages of Change Questionnaire (TSOCQ), which aims to assess the readiness of tinnitus patients to change their behaviors and attitudes in relation to tinnitus. Its ability to predict treatment outcome was also investigated. One hundred and fifty-one patients with tinnitus completed the questionnaire. Through repeated principal component analyses, together with judgments of the factors' theoretical relevance, empirically and clinically meaningful scales were derived. A factor solution in accordance with the transtheoretical model (TTM) and with acceptable psychometric properties was found with the five scales of the TSOCQ labeled Precontemplation (Medical Solution), Precontemplation (Helplessness), Contemplation, Preparation and Action/Maintenance. Participants scoring high on Precontemplation (Helplessness) and low on Action/Maintenance had better treatment outcomes. In conclusion, the TSOCQ had some ability to predict treatment success, but further research is required into the utility of the TTM for understanding the rehabilitation process in tinnitus patients.     

A cultural-contextual perspective on the validity of the MMPI-2 with American Indians

This study investigated the normative validity of the MMPI-2 with two distinct American Indian tribes. Differences occurred on 8 of the 13 basic validity and clinical scales (F, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) between the MMPI-2 norms and both tribal samples. Elevated MMPI-2 scores of American Indians may not only reflect the possibility of psychological distress spurred by historical oppression and present adversity, but also an expression of a divergent worldview. Considering the context of the historical and social production of knowledge about American Indians, it is argued that researchers and practitioners, when interpreting MMPI-2 results for American Indians, should seriously consider their interpretive points of reference, which may be impacted by dominant cultural belief systems.     

Effect of the difficulty of prior items on the magnitude of judgments of learning for subsequent items

Research on metacognition often uses various kinds of paired-associate items (e.g., foreign language translation equivalents) to investigate judgments of learning (JOLs) under the assumption that the JOLs are made independently of each other. We tested this assumption by exploring the effect of manipulating the difficulty of prior Swahili-English translation equivalents to determine whether there is a contrasting change in the magnitude of the JOLs assigned to subsequent Swahili-English translation equivalents (e.g., intermediate-difficulty items might receive lower JOLs when following easy items than when following difficult items). The magnitude of JOLs for the subsequent items did not vary as a function of the difficulty of the prior items, even when there were 10 prior items of homogeneous difficulty that differed from the difficulty of the subsequent to-be-judged items.     

Neuropsychological executive functions of adolescent sex offenders and nonsex offenders

A growing body of research now suggests that a substantial number of criminal offenders display neuropsychological deficits, especially frontal-executive dysfunctions. The present study investigated the possibility of similar deficits by comparing the performance of 60 adolescent sex offenders court-ordered to a residential treatment facility with the performance of 60 nonsexual delinquent offenders matched on several pertinent sociodemographic characteristics and scores on four neuropsychological tests: (1) the Trail Making Test, (2) the Controlled Oral Word Association test of the Multilingual Aphasia Examination, (3) the Tower of London, and (4) the Wisconsin Card-sorting Test. Analysis indicated a pattern of frontal-executive dysfunction in a subset of both groups of offenders; this pattern has both theoretical and treatment implications.     

Worry and Pathological Worry in Patients with Psoriasis: Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Analyses of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) in Four Samples of Patients

The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Penn state Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) in patients with psoriasis. A series of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies were undertaken to assess the reliability, stability and validity of the measure. Patients with psoriasis from four samples (consecutive attendees, anxious patients, depressed patients, and 6-month follow-up of consecutive attendees) completed the PSWQ and measures assessing related constructs of anxiety and depression (HADS) and coping (COPE). The clinical severity of patients psoriasis was also assessed by dermatologists using the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI). Exploratory factor analysis was undertaken and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to examine the clinical utility of the PSWQ cut-off score for normal and pathological worry. Exploratory factor analysis suggested that the PSWQ is essentially unidimensional in patients with psoriasis. Intraclass correlation demonstrated that, over a 6-month period, the reproducibility of the PSWQ total scale was good in patients with anxiety and moderate in patients with depression. ROC analysis suggested that the optimum cutoff differentiating pathological worry was > 60, which is commensurate with findings in adult mental health more generally. The PSWQ cutoff for pathological worry showed a lower specificity for depression than anxiety. The PSWQ is an appropriate measure of pathological worry in patients with psoriasis. The cutoff on the scale for pathological worry demonstrates appropriate conceptual overlap with subordinate distress categories of anxiety and depression.