Non-psychological weakness of will: self-control,stereotypes, and consequences

Prior work on weakness of will has assumed that it is a thoroughly psychological phenomenon. At least, it has assumed that ordinary attributions of weakness of will are purely psychological attributions, keyed to the violation of practical commitments by the weak-willed agent. Debate has recently focused on which sort of practical commitment, intention or normative judgment, is more central to the ordinary concept of weakness of will. We report five experiments that significantly advance our understanding of weakness of will attributions by showing that the ordinary concept of weakness of will is less thoroughly psychological than the philosophical debate has assumed. We begin by showing that a sizable minority of people attribute weakness of will even in the absence of a violated commitment (Experiment 1). We then show that weakness of will attributions are sensitive to two important non-psychological factors. First, for actions stereotypically associated with weakness of will, the absence of certain commitments often triggers weakness of will attributions (Experiments 2–4). Second, the quality of an action’s outcome affects the extent to which an agent is viewed as weak-willed: actions with bad consequences are more likely to be viewed as weak-willed (Experiment 5). Our most important finding is that the ordinary concept of weakness of will is sensitive to two non-psychological factors and is thus much broader than philosophers have thus far imagined. We conclude by suggesting a two-tier model that unites our findings with traditional philosophical theorizing about weakness of will.     

Integrating cognitive bias modification into a standard cognitive behavioural treatment package for social phobia: A randomized controlled trial

ObjectiveThe aim of the current study was to integrate recent developments in the retraining of attentional biases towards threat into a standard cognitive behavioural treatment package for social phobia.Method134 participants (M age – 32.4: 53% female) meeting DSM-IV criteria for social phobia received a 12-week cognitive behavioural treatment program. They were randomly allocated to receive on a daily basis using home practice, either an additional computerised probe procedure designed to train attentional resource allocation away from threat, or a placebo variant of this procedure. Measures included diagnostic severity, social anxiety symptoms, life interference, and depression as well as state anxiety in response to a laboratory social threat.ResultsAt the end of treatment there were no significant differences between groups in attentional bias towards threat or in treatment response (all p's > 0.05). Both groups showed similar and highly significant reductions in diagnostic severity, social anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and life interference at post-treatment that was maintained and in most cases increased at 6 month follow-up (uncontrolled effect sizes ranged from d = 0.34 to d = 1.90).ConclusionsThe current results do not indicate that integration of information processing-derived attentional bias modification procedures into standard treatment packages as conducted in this study augments attentional change or enhances treatment efficacy. Further refinement of bias modification techniques, and better methods of integrating them with conventional approaches, may be needed to produce better effects.     

Poverty, Inequality, And Discrimination As Sources Of Depression Among U.S. Women

Poverty, inequality, and discrimination endanger women's well-being. Poverty is one of the most consistent predictors of depression in women, probably because it imposes considerable stress while attacking many potential sources of social support. Economic inequalities within societies are associated with reduced life expectancy and a variety of negative physical health outcomes. Parallel research on economic inequalities and depression has just begun. Discrimination maintains inequalities, condemns women to lives of lessened economic security, and exposes them to unmerited contempt. Although the mental health impact of poverty is documented and largely understood, the implications of inequality and discrimination are less well known. Much important work remains to be done, particularly research that connects individuals' mental health to ecological characteristics of the communities and societies in which they live.     

Does client self‐booking reduce ‘did not attends’ (DNAs) in a counselling service?

An important problem for our counselling service is the high number of clients who ‘did not attend’ (DNA) for their booked appointment. This paper aims to describe how we tackled this problem within our counselling service by using a Plan‐Do‐Study‐Act (PDSA) cycle (Langley, Nolan Norman and Provost, 1996). The results found that by devising a system whereby clients could self‐book their appointments we were able to reduce the DNA rate for first appointments from 31.70% to 2%. This has useful time and financial implications. We would expect that the self‐booking approach we have outlined here is adaptable for other counselling services.     

Adult Survivors of Child Abuse: An Application of John Gottman’s Sound Marital House Theory

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between child abuse and dysfunctional adult relationship patterns. John Gottman’s Sound Marital House Theory describes different dysfunctional adult relationship patterns including Negative Sentiment Override (NSO), Flooding, and the Distance and Isolation Cascade. In the present study, data analysis indicated that child abuse predicts the experiencing of NSO, NSO predicts the experiencing of flooding, and flooding predicts the experiencing of the distance and isolation cascade. Analysis showed that a subscale of child abuse, negative home environment predicts NSO, flooding, and the distance and isolation cascade.     

Bereavement counselling in Uganda and Northern Ireland: a comparison

Therapeutic interventions for bereavement in Northern Ireland and in the Sub-Saharan African country of Uganda are compared. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Ugandan (n?=?18) and Northern Irish (n?=?20) therapists. These were thematically analysed. The findings focused on: the counselling context, the characteristics of counsellors, the characteristics of clients and counselling practices. Whilst there were many similarities in practice, core differences arose from the demands of these regions’ predominately collectivist or individualist settings. Findings suggest that counselling interventions require adjustment to reflect cultural practices where there is less emphasis on an individualised ego, and where bereavement responses must concur with social norms.     

Gender differences in children's problem behaviours in competitive play with friends

Disruptive behaviour disorders are much more common in boys than girls ( Office of National Statistics, 1999 ); in contrast, gender differences in normative problem behaviours are poorly understood. To address this issue, 228 6‐year‐olds (134 boys, 94 girls) were each observed playing a board game with a same‐gender friend. Ratings of aggression, disruption, arousal and negativity were used to index problem behaviours. Multiple‐groups confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the latent factor had the same metric for boys and girls, but a mean that was approximately half a standard deviation higher for boys than girls. In addition, the association between the latent factor and teachers’ ratings of total difficulties was significantly stronger for boys than girls.     

Assessment of repeated relational patterns for individual cases using the SASB-based Intrex questionnaire

Repeated interpersonal patterns are central to case conceptualization and treatment planning in interpersonal and attachment-based approaches to therapy. In this study, raters (133 college students, 165 inpatients) provided data on the Intrex questionnaire (Benjamin, 2000) about self-treatment, relationship with a significant other, and remembered interactions with parents in childhood. Within-subject profiles were inspected for precise behavioral matches conforming to 3 "copy process" (CP) patterns: identification (behaving like an important other), recapitulation (behaving as if the other person is still present and in charge), and introjection (treating the self the way another did). We observed CP evidence in most individual ratings. Consistent with expectation, nonclinical raters tended to copy a securely attached pattern of affiliation, low hostility, and moderate degrees of enmeshment and differentiation. Only patients copied maladaptive behavior at greater than base rate expectation. We discuss implications and provide recommendations for use of Intrex in individual assessment of CP.