A comparative outcome study of four cognitive therapies in the treatment of social anxiety

This clinical outcome study compared four separate cognitive behavioral and one behavioral treatment for reducing social anxiety with a waiting list control. Subjects were adults who responded to advertisements for treatment. In the cognitive-behavioral conditions, subjects were trained to modify their disruptive cognitions and/or emit adaptive cognitions relevant to interpersonal behavior with the specific content and techniques determined by the particular cognitive therapy. In the behavioral condition, subjects modeled and rehearsed appropriate social interpersonal behaviors. Subjects were assessed pre and post-treatment on self-report measures of social anxiety, measures of general anxiety, clinical scales of anxiety, depression and hostility, and behavioral, and physiological concomitants of social anxiety. Subjects in all active treatment conditions showed improvement on the measures of social anxiety and the behavioral measure. However, only those in the cognitive treatment conditions, demonstrated treatment effects on general anxiety and the clinical scales. The results indicate the efficacy of both cognitive and behavioral approaches to the reduction of social anxiety. However, they fail to demonstrate clear distinctions between the various cognitive therapies.     

Reconsidering ‘holy war’ (jihād) in Islam

‘Holy War’ does not exhaust, and often fails to explain, the semantic range of jihād in Arabic/Islamic contexts. A more fruitful approach to the culturally encoded nuances of jihād requires the prior delineation of ideology from religion. Only a few scholars, e.g., Michael Gilsenan, Hamid Enayat, Pierre Bourdieu and Bassam Tibi, have considered the value‐neutral use of ideology in the analysis of Islamic evidence. None has addressed jihād, none has reverted, or tried to revert, contemporary stereotypes derived from an essentialist notion of Islam and Muslims, power and piety clustered around the univocal reading of jihād as ‘holy war’. This essay suggests other interpretive options that merit consideration by all serious students of religion in the modern world.     

Custodial mothers' perceptions of visitation and payment of child support by noncustodial fathers in families with low and high levels of preseparation interparent conflict

The purposes of this study were (a) to compare families with low (n = 47) and high (n = 44) levels of preseparation interparent conflict on mothers' report of paternal involvement (frequency, regularity, and length of visitation as well as regular payment of child support), children's adjustment, and mothers' level of stress; (b) to intercorrelate the four dimensions of paternal involvement; and (c) to relate the four dimensions of paternal involvement to children's age, children's gender, length of parental separation, children's adjustment, mothers' stress, paternal investment in the children, degree of environmental change, and children's level of interpersonal understanding. Children's mean age was 10.24 years, and parents had been separated a mean of 13.15 months. Compared to fathers in low-conflict families, fathers in high-conflict families visited less regularly and were less regular in their payment of child support. Mothers reported more adjustment problems for children in high-conflict families. All four dimensions of paternal involvement were intercorrelated only for high-conflict families. For both low- and high-conflict families, paternal involvement was related to paternal investment in the child but was unrelated to children's age, children's gender, and length of separation. Paternal involvement was most frequently related to children's adjustment in high-conflict families. For low-conflict families, paternal involvement was related low environmental change and children's well-developed interpersonal understanding skills.     

Gender-role conflict scale: College men's fear of femininity

Gender-role conflict exists when gender roles have negative consequences for people. This research reports initial validity and reliability data on measures of gender-role conflict for men. Two measures, Gender Role Conflict Scale I and II (GRCS-I and GRCS-II) were constructed to assess patterns of gender-role conflict described in the literature. GRCS-I assesses men's personal gender-role attitudes, behaviors, and conflicts. GRCS-II assesses men's gender-role conflicts in specific gender-role conflict situations. Both GRCS measures and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) were administered to male college students (N=527). Initial factor-analytic data for GRCS-I and GRCS-II demonstrated eight meaningful factors. Acceptable test-retest and internal consistency reliabilities were found for both measures. MANOVA, ANOVA, and Tukey procedures indicated differences for subjects across the four PAQ categories. Significant gender-role conflict differences across the factors were found for men who were instrumental, expressive, or both instrumental and expressive. Results of these differences are reported, as well as implications for future development of both scales.The authors are indebted to Dr. Nancy Betz (Ohio State University) who generously gathered data for us during the Spring Semester, 1982. This research was supported by a grant from the General Research Fund of the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. This paper was presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Washington, DC, August 26, 1982.     

Job analysis for managerial selection: A guidelines-based approach

This research note describes a job analysis study which was conducted for the purpose of deriving selection standards for entry-level management jobs in a public utility. It is aimed toward practitioners with the responsibility of conducting legally-defensible job analyses. Each step of the study was guided by the legal and professional guidelines on testing and selection (viz.,Uniform Guidelines, 1978;Principles, 1986;Standards, 1985). Procedures employed to identify job content, job groups, the importance of various work behaviors, and a set of important knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics (KSAPs) are described.The authors would like to thank the following individuals for their help in the data collection phase of the study described here: Kimberly Clark, Lynn Clark, Gary Hayes, Candice Poole, Susan Rizhaupt, Phillip Randall, Sheri Elmore, and Ann Money.     

The Impact and Status of Carol Fowler's Supramodal Theory of Multisensory Speech Perception

ABSTRACT

One important contribution of Carol Fowler's direct approach to speech perception is its account of multisensory perception. This supramodal account proposes a speech function that detects supramodal information available across audition, vision, and touch. This detection allows for the recovery of articulatory primitives that provide the basis of a common currency shared between modalities as well as between perception and production. Common currency allows for perceptual experience to be shared between modalities and supports perceptually guided speaking as well as production-guided perception. In this report, we discuss the contribution and status of the supramodal approach relative to recent research in multisensory speech perception. We argue that the approach has helped motivate a multisensory revolution in perceptual psychology. We then review the new behavioral and neurophysiological research on (a) supramodal information, (b) cross-sensory sharing of experience, and (c) perceptually guided speaking as well as production guided speech perception. We conclude that Fowler's supramodal theory has fared quite well in light of this research.     

Understanding Young Adults’ Reports of Contact with their Parents in a Digital World: Psychological and Familial Relationship Factors

Continued involvement of parents in the lives of young adults is a topic of great interest to both scholars and the lay public. Although young adults’ astounding use of cell phones, texting, video chat, and social media in negotiating their social relationships is well documented, few studies have examined the role of different types of communications technology in facilitating young adults’ involvement with their parents. Researchers have begun to examine familial and psychological correlates of parental involvement for college students, but existing studies offer mixed results. The present study examined college students’ reports of frequency of contact with parents using different types of communications technology and examined familial relationship and individual well-being factors associated with young adults’ reports of frequent parental contact. College students (N = 326) completed measures of frequency of contact with mothers and fathers using seven types of communications technology, the quality of family relationships (felt obligation towards parents and family satisfaction) and individual well-being (self-esteem, depressed mood, and general psychological well-being). Phone calls and texting were the two most popular methods of parental contact reported by college students. Level of self-reported contact with parents was not significantly related to participants’ reports of self-esteem, depressed mood, or general well-being. Results of multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that higher levels of felt obligation and family satisfaction meaningfully distinguished between young adults who reported frequent and infrequent parental contact. Our results indicate the importance of understanding young adults’ reports of parental contact within the context of ongoing family relationships.     

Posttraumatic Growth After Motor Vehicle Crashes

The relationship between sub-dimensions of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and distress was investigated for survivors of motor vehicle crashes (MVC). PTG and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for 1045 MVC survivors who attended the Accident and Emergency Services were examined with the Chinese versions of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised 1 week after the experience of a MVC. A factor structure, which was different from both the original English version of the PTGI and the Chinese version of PTGI for cancer survivors, was identified. Factors extracted were: (1) Life and Self Appreciation; (2) New Commitments; (3) Enlightenment; and (4) Relating to Others. However, correlation analyses indicated a functional similarity between factors from this study and those from previous studies. Relations between PTG sub-dimensions and PTSD symptoms were identified. Results from hierarchical multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling show that there were different predictors for different PTG sub-dimensions. Findings suggest that different modes of relationship between PTSD symptoms and PTG sub-dimensions may co-exist.