Clarifying the role of impulsivity in dietary restraint: A structural equation modeling approach

This study was designed to clarify the relationship between the four dimensions of impulsivity in Whiteside and Lynam’s (2001) model and the two aspects of dietary restraint (Concern for Dieting and Weight Fluctuation) in a non-clinical sample. Data were collected from a volunteer community sample (N = 216) of women who responded to two self-report instruments related to impulsivity (UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale, Whiteside & Lynam, 2001) and dietary restraint (Restraint Scale, Polivy, Herman, & Warsh, 1978). A structural equation model was tested. The model provided a good fit to the data (χ²/df = 1.64, p < .0001, RMSEA = 0.054, 90% CI = 0.050–0.058, p-value for test of close fit (RMSEA > 0.05) = .035) and revealed that Concern for Dieting was positively related to Urgency (standardized β = 0.25, p < .01). Weight Fluctuation was related to lack of Perseverance (standardized β = 0.25, p < .01) and tended to relate to Sensation Seeking (standardized β = 0.17, p = .056). Urgency and lack of Perseverance were found to play a significant role in predicting Concern for Dieting and Weight Fluctuation.     

Social Support in the Workplace and Training Transfer: A longitudinal analysis

Training transfer is crucial for workplace effectiveness, yet some of its social support antecedents are not well investigated. We examine the extent to which two forms of social support (from the organization and the supervisor) predict training transfer and propose several related processes explaining these influences. First, social support enhances training self‐efficacy, increases trainees' mastery (learning) goal orientation, and their motivation to transfer. In turn, we propose that these individual factors are positively related to training‐related cognitions. We test and confirm our model in a longitudinal study based on a sample of 111 employees. The results contribute to a better understanding of organization‐ and supervisor‐based social support as predictors of transfer, and clarify several important related mechanisms.     

Efficacy of a Manualized and Workbook-Driven Individual Treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder is a prevalent and impairing disorder for which viable cognitive-behavioral therapies exist. However, these treatments have not been easily packaged for dissemination and may be underutilized as a result. The current study reports on the findings of a randomized controlled trial of a manualized and workbook-driven individual cognitive-behavioral treatment for social anxiety disorder (Hope, Heimberg, Juster, & Turk, 2000; Hope, Heimberg, & Turk, 2006). This treatment package was derived from an empirically supported group treatment for social anxiety disorder and intended for broad dissemination, but it has not previously been subjected to empirical examination on its own. As a first step in that examination, 38 clients seeking treatment for social anxiety disorder at either the Adult Anxiety Clinic of Temple University or the Anxiety Disorders Clinic of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were randomly assigned to receive either immediate treatment with this cognitive-behavioral treatment package or treatment delayed for 20 weeks. Evaluation at the posttreatment/postdelay period revealed substantially greater improvements among immediate treatment clients on interviewer-rated and self-report measures of social anxiety and impairment. Three-month follow-up assessment revealed maintenance of gains. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Status of Guidance and Counseling in the Elementary School

This study investigated some aspects of elementary school guidance and counseling in the 50 states and the 4 American territories. Specifically, such matters as the number of counselors employed, their professional background, certification, and state standards were examined. Results of this study were as follows: 3,837 counselors are now working in elementary schools in 48 states; the majority of these counselors are former elementary school teachers. Over 70 per cent are supported in part by federal funds. To date, 14 states have developed certification requirements for elementary counselors that are discernibly different from secondary certification. For the most part, state standards for elementary school guidance lack specificity; in some cases such standards are non-existent     

Measurement of muscle reflex time in radicular disorders of the lumbosacral region]

The results of studies performed by the authors show that time measurements of proprioceptive muscular reflexes (triceps surae and tibialis posterior reflexes) may be considered a valuable addition to methods of topical diagnosis of radicular disturbances in the lumbosacral region. The reflexes were tested in twenty normal subjects. There were found an intraindividual constancy of the respective reflex time with a maximum deviation of 2 ms as well as a lateral variability up to 1.3 ms. Radicular compressions resulted in an increase in reflex time by 2 to 66 ms or failure of the reflex potential to be recorded. The pathological cases were compared with clinical and neurological studies, positive myelographies using radiopaque substances, and results of surgical operations. Compared with the results of surgical operations, changes in reflex time indicated damage to the reflex arc in ninety percent of the cases.     

When one-two-three beats two-one-three: Tracking the acquisition of the verbal number sequence

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Learning how to count is a crucial step in cognitive development, which progressively allows for more elaborate numerical processing. The existing body of...     

Time-course of attention for threatening pictures in high and low trait anxiety

Cognitive studies about anxiety suggest that the interplay between automatic and strategic biases in attention to threat is related to the persistence of fear. In the present study, the time-course of attention to pictures with varying threat levels was investigated in high trait anxious (HTA, n=21) and low trait anxious (LTA, n=22) students. In a visual probe detection task, high and mild threat pictures were presented at three durations: 100, 500, and 1250 ms. Results indicated that all individuals attended to the high threat pictures for the 100 ms condition. Differential responding between HTA and LTA individuals was found for the 500 ms condition: only HTA individuals showed an attentional bias for mild threatening stimuli. For the 1250 ms condition, the HTA individuals attended away from high and mild threat pictures. The observed pattern of differential attention to threatening pictures may explain the persistence of fear in HTA individuals.     

The unpacking effect in allocations of responsibility for group tasks

Individuals tend to overestimate their relative contributions to collaborative endeavors. Thus, the sum of group members’ estimates of the percentage they each contributed to a joint task typically exceeds the logically allowable 100%. We suggest that this tendency stems partly from individuals’ inclination to regard their fellow group members as a collective rather than as individuals, and that leading people to think about their collaborators as individuals should therefore reduce the perceived relative magnitude of their own contributions. Consistent with this thesis, four experiments demonstrate that people’s tendency to claim more than their fair share of the credit for a group task is attenuated when they “unpack” their collaborators, conceptualizing them as separate individuals, rather than as “the rest of the group.”