An R package for state-trace analysis

State-trace analysis (Bamber, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 19, 137-181, 1979) is a graphical analysis that can determine whether one or more than one latent variable mediates an apparent dissociation between the effects of two experimental manipulations. State-trace analysis makes only ordinal assumptions and so, is not confounded by range effects that plague alternative methods, especially when performance is measured on a bounded scale (such as accuracy). We describe and illustrate the application of a freely available GUI driven package, StateTrace, for the R language. StateTrace automates many aspects of a state-trace analysis of accuracy and other binary response data, including customizable graphics and the efficient management of computationally intensive Bayesian methods for quantifying evidence about the outcomes of a state-trace experiment, developed by Prince, Brown, and Heathcote (Psychological Methods, 17, 78-99, 2012).     

Aging Artists on the Creativity of Their Old Age

Eighty-eight graphic artists in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, nominated as creative by 154 prominent artists, completed an open-ended questionnaire about aging and its effect on their work. Four questions referred to changes in creativity in terms of the quality and quantity of work, sources of new ideas (originality), and approaches to art (style). The artists also were asked about the impact of physical and sensory losses on their work, and on their differences from younger artists. The artists also rated the quality and quantity of their past, present, and anticipated work. A content analysis of the artists' written comments to the 6 questions, and the ratings, gave a highly positive picture of aging's influence on art. Quality and quantity were reported as improving with age, as were the artists' ideas about, and approaches to, art. The presumed handicaps of aging largely were irrelevant or overcome. Few differences were reported with younger artists. Positive views of aging held equally for both men and women, and across the 3 age groups. The optimistic portrait of aging reflected by this sample of visual artists is discussed in terms of its relevance to other kinds of artists and nonartists; the consequences of early retirement; and the place of active older persons, especially artists, in studies of cognitive development.     

The Decision to Continue a Pregnancy Affected by Down Syndrome: Timing of Decision and Satisfaction with Receiving a Prenatal Diagnosis

In order to provide the best genetic counseling possible for women who learn of a diagnosis of Down syndrome prenatally, we sought to assess the timing of the decision to continue a pregnancy and the satisfaction these women had with learning this information. Fifty-six mothers of children with Down syndrome diagnosed prenatally between 2007 and 2010 completed a survey regarding their experience with decision-making after prenatal diagnosis. Approximately one third (17/56) of participants reported they knew before getting pregnant that they would not terminate for any reason, and almost half of the participants (24/56) reported they did not decide to continue their pregnancy until after the diagnosis. Many participants (82 %; 42/56) stated that learning the diagnosis during pregnancy increased their anxiety. The majority (88 %; 45/56) also reported that if they could do it over again, they would undergo prenatal testing for preparation purposes, despite increased anxiety. Religious and spiritual beliefs as well as feeling attached to the baby were the personal factors that had the greatest impact on most women’s decision-making. Despite increased anxiety caused by learning the diagnosis prenatally, most women favored prenatal diagnosis as it allowed them time to process the information and prepare for the birth of their child.     

Differentiation of Assaultive Delinquents with the Hand Test

The AOS score on the Hand Test significantly differentiated assaultive from non-assaultive delinquents, correctly categorizing 78 percent of the subjects.     

Longitudinal Predictors of Alcohol‐Related Harms During the Transition to Adulthood

While a range of factors have been found to increase the likelihood of alcohol‐related harms among young people, little is known about their relative importance. This article aimed to identify the risks for alcohol‐related harms at an age when alcohol use and problems tend to peak in Australia (19–20 years). A wide range of concurrent and antecedent factors from multiple domains were examined using path analysis, including individual characteristics, family environment, and externalising and internalising problems. The sample comprised of 941 individuals from the Australian Temperament Project, a large longitudinal community‐based study. The path model controlled for current risky drinking and revealed a number of variables that were significant longitudinal predictors of alcohol‐related harms within each of the domains, including adolescent antisocial behaviour and drinking behaviour, low agreeableness, impulsivity, and paternal drinking levels. The potential for developmental prevention approaches to reduce alcohol‐related harms by targeting externalising behaviour problems, interpersonal influences, and individual characteristics is discussed.     

How Has the Economic Downturn Affected Communities and Implementation of Science‐Based Prevention in the Randomized Trial of Communities That Care?

This study examined implications of the economic downturn that began in December 2007 for the Community Youth Development Study (CYDS), a longitudinal randomized controlled trial of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system. The downturn had the potential to affect the internal validity of the CYDS research design and implementation of science-based prevention in study communities. We used archival economic indicators and community key leader reports of economic conditions to assess the extent of the economic downturn in CYDS communities and potential internal validity threats. We also examined whether stronger economic downturn effects were associated with a decline in science-based prevention implementation. Economic indicators suggested the downturn affected CYDS communities to different degrees. We found no evidence of systematic differences in downturn effects in CTC compared to control communities that would threaten internal validity of the randomized trial. The Community Economic Problems scale was a reliable measure of community economic conditions, and it showed criterion validity in relation to several objective economic indicators. CTC coalitions continued to implement science-based prevention to a significantly greater degree than control coalitions 2 years after the downturn began. However, CTC implementation levels declined to some extent as unemployment, the percentage of students qualifying for free lunch, and community economic problems worsened. Control coalition implementation levels were not related to economic conditions before or after the downturn, but mean implementation levels of science-based prevention were also relatively low in both periods.     

Religions in the modern world: Traditions and transformations

The global trafficking in women and children (primarily girls) for prostitution and sex work has become a multi-billion dollar industry in recent decades, especially in parts of South and Southeast Asia. Despite their common goal to eliminate or diminish the sex trafficking industry and assist the victims, the various entities engaged in anti-sex trafficking efforts have sharply disagreed about a variety of issues, including a basic definition of sex trafficking and the appropriate strategies for combating it. In this article, I examine one central area of disagreement, which revolves around the issue of the morality of prostitution and other forms of commercial sex work. This issue brings with it divergent, even antithetical, views regarding women's gender roles, self-identity and moral agency in relation to sex work. I show how the religious dimensions of this issue have been inadequately attended to by demonstrating how anti-trafficking discourse is devoid of non-Western religious perspectives. Since Thailand has been the centre for sex trafficking and the commercial sex industry in the Asia-Pacific region, where the greatest percentage of sex trafficking takes place, this article will discuss Thai Buddhist perspectives to illustrate how the anti-sex trafficking discourse has ignored cultural differences in its analysis.     

Gamelike features might not improve data

Many psychological experiments require participants to complete lots of trials in a monotonous task, which often induces boredom. An increasingly popular approach to alleviate such boredom is to incorporate gamelike features into standard experimental tasks. Games are assumed to be interesting and, hence, motivating, and better motivated participants might produce better data (with fewer lapses in attention and greater accuracy). Despite its apparent prevalence, the assumption that gamelike features improve data is almost completely untested. We test this assumption by presenting a choice task and a change detection task in both gamelike and standard forms. Response latency, accuracy, and overall task performance were unchanged by gamelike features in both experiments. We present a novel cognitive model for the choice task, based on particle filtering, to decorrelate the dependent variables and measure performance in a more psychologically meaningful manner. The model-based analyses are consistent with the hypothesis that gamelike features did not alter cognition. A postexperimental questionnaire indicated that the gamelike version provided a more positive and enjoyable experience for participants than the standard task, even though this subjective experience did not translate into data effects. Although our results hold only for the two experiments examined, the gamelike features we incorporated into both tasks were typical of—and at least as salient and interesting as those usually used by—experimental psychologists. Our results suggest that modifying an experiment to include gamelike features, while leaving the basic task unchanged, may not improve the quality of the data collected, but it may provide participants with a better experimental experience.     

A Multi‐Family Group Intervention for Adolescent Depression: The BEST MOOD Program

Depression is the most common mental disorder for young people, and it is associated with educational underachievement, self‐harm, and suicidality. Current psychological therapies for adolescent depression are usually focused only on individual‐level change and often neglect family or contextual influences. The efficacy of interventions may be enhanced with a broader therapeutic focus on family factors such as communication, conflict, support, and cohesion. This article describes a structured multi‐family group approach to the treatment of adolescent depression: Behaviour Exchange Systems Therapy for adolescent depression (BEST MOOD). BEST MOOD is a manualized intervention that is designed to address both individual and family factors in the treatment of adolescent depression. BEST MOOD adopts a family systems approach that also incorporates psychoeducation and elements of attachment theories. The program consists of eight multifamily group therapy sessions delivered over 2 hours per week, where parents attend the first four sessions and young people and siblings join from week 5. The program design is specifically aimed to engage youth who are initially resistant to treatment and to optimize youth and family mental health outcomes. This article presents an overview of the theoretical model, session content, and evaluations to date, and provides a case study to illustrate the approach.     

What Are They Thinking? A National Study of Stability and Change in Divorce Ideation

This study reports on a nationally representative sample of married individuals ages 25–50 (N = 3,000) surveyed twice (1 year apart) to investigate the phenomenon of divorce ideation, or what people are thinking when they are thinking about divorce. Twenty‐eight percent of respondents had thought their marriage was in serious trouble in the past but not recently. Another 25% had thoughts about divorce in the last 6 months. Latent Class Analysis revealed three distinct groups among those thinking about divorce at Time 1: soft thinkers (49%), long‐term‐serious thinkers (45%), and conflicted thinkers (6%). Yet, divorce ideation was not static; 31% of Time 1 thinkers were not thinking about it 1 year later (and 36% of nonthinkers at Time 1 were thinking about it 1 year later). Also, Latent Transition Analysis revealed 49% of Time 1 long‐term‐serious thinkers, 56% of soft thinkers, and 51% of conflicted thinkers had shifted groups at Time 2, mostly in the direction of less and softer thinking about divorce. Overall, divorce ideation is common but dynamic, and it is not necessarily an indication of imminent marital dissolution.