Looking to happy tomorrows with friends: Best and close friendships as they predict happiness

Friendships are an important source of happiness. The present study (n = 280) investigated the role of friendship quality and conflict in happiness and examined the feature of friendship that best predicted happiness. Information was gathered about the quality and conflict of the best, first and second close friendships of the individual. Results revealed that best friendship quality was the only significant predictor of happiness; however, individuals were happier when they experienced high quality first close friendships in conjunction with a high quality best friendship. Results also revealed that first close friendship quality buffered the negative impact of first close friendship conflict. The companionship feature of the best and first close friendship appeared as the strongest predictor of happiness. Findings were discussed in light of the literature and suggestions for future research were made.     

Gender differences in subjective distress to emotional and sexual infidelity: Evolutionary or logical inference explanation?

Men and women were asked to imagine a romantic partner being sexually unfaithful and/or emotionally unfaithful. Three hypotheses regarding gender differences in subjective distress to sexual and emotional infidelity, and in the inferences linking the infidelities were tested. The results indicated that more men than women were distressed by imagining a partner enjoying passionate sexual intercourse with another person, and more women than men were distressed by imagining a partner forming a deep emotional attachment to another person. Asking another group of women and men to imagine a partner committing both infidelities at the same time, and then to indicate which component of the combined infidelity was the most distressing, produced the same sexual asymmetries. The prediction that men will infer from a partner's sexual infidelity the co-occurrence of emotional infidelity and that women will infer from a partner’s emotional infidelity the co-occurrence of sexual infidelity was not supported. An evolutionary perspective, rather than an alternative analysis emphasizing the different inferences men and women draw from sex and love, provided a satisfactory explanation of the sexual asymmetries in the cues to jealousy.     

Infant preference for female faces occurs for same‐ but not other‐race faces

There has been a recent surge of interest in the question of how infants respond to the social attributes of race and gender information in faces. This work has demonstrated that by 3 months of age, infants will respond preferentially to same‐race faces and faces depicting the gender of the primary caregiver. In the current study, we investigated emergence of the female face preference for same‐ versus other‐race faces to examine whether the determinants of preference for face gender and race are independent or interactive in young infants. In Expt 1, 3‐month‐old Caucasian infants displayed a preference for female over male faces when the faces were Caucasian, but not when the faces were Asian. In Expt 2, new‐born Caucasian infants did not demonstrate a preference for female over male faces for Caucasian faces. The results are discussed in terms of a face prototype that becomes progressively tuned as it is structured by the interaction of the gender and race of faces that are experienced during early development.     

STIVID: A VBSCRIPT-based program for adding visual and auditory stimuli on videotapes

Some psychological experiments require placement of visual and auditory stimuli on predefined frames in a videotape. We introduce STIVID (STImuli on VIDeo) as a method of performing this task. STIVID can add images, words, simple shapes, and audio tones to specific frames of existing video files created in AVI format. STIVID is written in Visual Basic and uses VBScripts to modify the AVI files. Three applications of this program are discussed: adding stimuli for reaction time experiments with couples watching a relational conflict, use of distractors in ADHD experiments, and placing eye masks on actors in existing videotapes to manipulate perceptibility of the target’s facial expression during the mind-reading process.     

Awareness is relative: dissociation as the organisation of meaning

This essay discusses how the organisation of mental material within the cognitive system can influence consciousness and awareness, and presents a theory of dissociation based on the premise that awareness is relative, contingent on the activated representation of the ongoing event being linked to the activated self-representation. It allows four possible variations of integration: (i) non-integrated experience--perceptions about an object/event are either not perceived or they remain at the sensory level: traditional dissociative states, amnesia, depersonalisation etc; (ii) variably integrated experience--activation of information of a specific valence about an object blocks activation of information of contrasting valence: splitting; (iii) alternatively integrated experience--experience is integrated into a specific, limited active self-representation: fugue and multiple identity states; (iv) dis-integrated experience-the ongoing experience of innate drives and needs is no longer consistently activated in the core self-representation: repression and isolation.     

Complementary and lateralized forms of processing in Bufo marinus for novel and familiar prey

Amphibian vision is one of the most comprehensively studied of all vertebrate sensory systems. However, the processes of object recognition and memory in anuran amphibians have resisted satisfactory explanation. Our research shows that insight to the issue of visual discrimination and recognition in toads may be gained by investigation of the specialized and complementary functions carried out by the left and right brain hemispheres. We report that specialized processes associated with the left eye (right hemisphere) of the Bufo marinus toad carry out decisions to view and strike at complex prey stimuli recognized as 'novel.' This was demonstrated in the toads' preferences when provided a choice between identical novel insect models presented simultaneously into the left and right lateral, monocular visual fields. In a second experiment, videotaped trials of toad groups competing in an open field for live crickets were analysed for lateralized prey-catching behaviour. Concomitant with a preference for directing agonistic strikes at conspecifics within the left visual hemifield, toads were found to possess a significant preference for directing predatory responses at the familiar prey viewed in the right visual hemifield. The preference for directing prey-catching responses at freely moving crickets in the right visual hemifield supports the earlier findings drawn from automated and familiar model insect prey. We present a hypothesis explaining differences in hemispheric processing in toads responding to 'novel' and 'familiar' prey types, utilizing a range of long-term memories found to be lateralized in other vertebrates.     

Survival with an asymmetrical brain: advantages and disadvantages of cerebral lateralization

Recent evidence in natural and semi-natural settings has revealed a variety of left-right perceptual asymmetries among vertebrates. These include preferential use of the left or right visual hemifield during activities such as searching for food, agonistic responses, or escape from predators in animals as different as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. There are obvious disadvantages in showing such directional asymmetries because relevant stimuli may be located to the animal's left or right at random; there is no a priori association between the meaning of a stimulus (e.g., its being a predator or a food item) and its being located to the animal's left or right. Moreover, other organisms (e.g., predators) could exploit the predictability of behavior that arises from population-level lateral biases. It might be argued that lateralization of function enhances cognitive capacity and efficiency of the brain, thus counteracting the ecological disadvantages of lateral biases in behavior. However, such an increase in brain efficiency could be obtained by each individual being lateralized without any need to align the direction of the asymmetry in the majority of the individuals of the population. Here we argue that the alignment of the direction of behavioral asymmetries at the population level arises as an "evolutionarily stable strategy" under "social" pressures occurring when individually asymmetrical organisms must coordinate their behavior with the behavior of other asymmetrical organisms of the same or different species.     

Intensive Home Based Services Within a Comprehensive System of Care for Youth

Within a comprehensive mental health service array for youth, Intensive Home Based Services (IHBS) are designed to meet the needs of youth with significant emotional and behavioral problems in their home communities, avoiding the need for out-of-home services, particularly residential care. We examined youth receiving IHBS as their first service in the state of Hawaii system of care (N = 163) to determine how successful IHBS were in preventing the need for more restrictive services within 12 months of intake. Subsequently, we investigated characteristics that might be predictive of a youth’s need for service intensification within 12 months. Logistic regression analyses found that greater age, level of service need, and functional impairment at intake predicted use of more restrictive services within 12 months of intake, whereas gender, ethnicity, diagnosis, service intensity, and clinician credentials did not. Overall, our findings suggested that IHBS were reasonably successful in preventing residential placements, and provided some basis for determining characteristics of youth likely to require more restrictive placements within a one year period.     

How do individuals with Williams syndrome learn a route in a real‐world environment?

Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) show a specific deficit in visuo‐spatial abilities. This finding, however, derives mainly from performance on small‐scale laboratory‐based tasks. This study investigated large‐scale route learning in individuals with WS and two matched control groups (moderate learning difficulty group [MLD], typically developing group [TD]). In a non‐labelling and a labelling (verbal information provided along the route) condition, participants were guided along one of two unfamiliar 1‐km routes with 20 junctions, and then retraced the route themselves (two trials). The WS participants performed less well than the other groups, but given verbal information and repeated experience they learnt nearly all of the turns along the route. The extent of improvement in route knowledge (correct turns) in WS was comparable to that of the control groups. Relational knowledge (correctly identifying spatial relationships between landmarks), compared with the TD group, remained poor for both the WS and the MLD group. Assessment of the relationship between performance on the large‐scale route‐learning task and that on three small‐scale tasks (maze learning, perspective taking, map use) showed no relationship for the TD controls, and only a few non‐specific associations in the MLD and WS groups.     

Counselling — Why not? A qualitative study of people's accounts of not taking up counselling appointments

The aim of this research was to explore the reasons behind people's decision not to take up a counselling referral. A qualitative study was carried out, using semi‐structured interviews and written responses. The investigation was based in NHS primary care counselling services in a GP practice in the North of England. People who had been referred for counselling by their GP, but did not attend any counselling appointments, were interviewed or invited to submit written comments. Many people talked about the courage it took to ask for help. The referral itself was sometimes therapeutic as it legitimised their distress. The GP's response affected people's decisions. Waiting time and what happened during waiting was important. Some people had their own resources, which they used actively, seeking other sources of help; others were more passive, their lives changed around them. Other factors that contributed to non‐engagement were being referred in a crisis; lack of knowledge about counselling and mental distress; and concern about stigma and its impact on work. Perceived waiting time was the most significant factor for participants in this study, but most people had a combination of reasons for not engaging. Support from the GP, information about the service and being given a realistic expectation of waiting times, may help people feel better able to access counselling services.