An exploratory study of the relationship between diverse life events and specific personality disorders in a sample of suicide attempters

Personality disorder (PD) increases risk for suicidal behavior. Certain life events (LE) can precipitate suicidal behaviors in patients with PD. A fundamental question is whether specific combinations of LE and PD increase suicidal risk. Four hundred forty-six suicide attempters (SA) were recruited from emergency rooms. We used a healthy control group (n = 515) to identify the best cut-off point for the instrument used to diagnose PD. We used the DSM-IV version of the International Personality Disorder Questionnaire-Screening Questionnaire, the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, and the Social Adjustment Scale to assess PD, Axis I disorders, and LE, respectively. After controlling for Axis I disorders, we found that "Death of spouse" preceded suicidal acts in those with antisocial PD (FET p = 0.024) and patients with narcissistic PD attempted suicide after being Fired at work (FET p = 0.002), among others. Our data suggest the presence of particular LE-PD associations in suicide attempters. Some LE-PD relationships appear independent of Axis I disorders in suicide attempters. This may offer a basis for specific targeted therapies or prevention programs aimed at decreasing suicidal risk.     

The effects of ongoing activity on time estimation in prospective remembering

Two experiments examined whether time‐based prospective memory performance is influenced by the continuous or discontinuous nature of an ongoing activity. The first experiment demonstrated that prospective memory performance was not influenced by the engagement in continuous or discontinuous ongoing activity. The second experiment demonstrated that a discontinuous ongoing activity negatively affected prospective memory performance when participants had to execute two time‐based tasks for which the retention intervals partially overlapped. The results suggest that when individuals are engaged in multiple time‐based tasks, a general timing disruption occurs, with a proactive interference effect resulting in costs that are detrimental to prospective timing. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predicting occupational interests and choice aspirations in Portuguese high school students: A test of social cognitive career theory

The predictive utility of social cognitive career theory’s (SCCT) interest and choice models was examined in a sample of 600 Portuguese high school students. Participants completed measures of occupational self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, social supports and barriers, and choice consideration across the six Holland (1997) RIASEC types. The integrated interest-choice model fit the data well across Holland types and generally supported the hypotheses that self-efficacy and outcome expectations jointly predict interests, and that interests mediate the relations of self-efficacy and outcome expectations to choice consideration. Contrary to SCCT, however, social supports and barriers related to choice consideration indirectly, through self-efficacy, rather than directly. The implications of these findings for further research on the cross-cultural validity of SCCT are considered.     

Lazos que Atan: The Influence of Normative Gender Beliefs on Sexual Risk Behaviors of Latino Men and Women

Not all Latino men and women conform to proscribed gender roles. Nonetheless, their sexual risk taking may well be influenced by traditional beliefs concerning these roles. We explored the relationship between gender beliefs that are normative in Latino culture, and the sexual risk behaviors of 152 Latino men and women who participated in a behavioral rapid needs assessment survey in Houston, TX. Path—analytic results indicate that normative gender beliefs are influenced by respondents' sex and their levels of acculturation and that these 2 variables influence sexual risk behaviors, including unprotected sex and multi partnerism. Our results suggest that beliefs about gender influence sexual behavior and, therefore, are an important factor that should be considered in understanding sexual risk taking among Latinos.     

Gliding across the liminal space between counsellor and counselling researcher: Using collective biography practices in the teaching of counselling research methodologies

Aims: Drawing on their engagement in a specific collective biography research project, the co-authors aim to demonstrate how the weaving together of creative story-telling and the theory underlining collective biography practices resulted in an understanding of rhizomatic research methodologies from within the process. This paper aims to demonstrate one way in which research methodologies training can become more firmly embedded within counsellor training courses. Method: A collective of counselling students and a session tutor colleague used collective biography practices to research their memories of traversing the liminal space between ‘counsellor’ and ‘counselling researcher’. Alongside the resulting collective stories, a collaborative review of the research process examined our chosen ways of working within the project. Outcomes: Engaging in collective biography practices resulted in an experiential shift from ‘learning to do counselling research’ to ‘becoming counselling researchers’. Weaving together research processes and researcher reflexivity generated personal and professional learning. Ways in which these research methodologies complement core components of counselling training, within and beyond the teaching of research, were identified. Conclusions: Collective biography practices offer a way of introducing non-arboreal creative research methodologies into counsellor training. Careful consideration of potential challenges surrounding the introduction of these practices is required.     

Effects of accuracy motivation and need to evaluate on mode of attitude formation and attitude–behavior consistency

This study investigates the effects of accuracy motivation and need to evaluate on online vs. memory-based attitude formation and attitude–behavior consistency. Results show that online attitude formation is more likely when accuracy motivation or the need to evaluate is high. However, cognitive load disrupts online attitude formation even when accuracy motivation is high. Additionally, attitude relevance increases the likelihood of online attitude formation, but attitude accessibility does not. Furthermore, online (vs. memory-based) attitudes are more predictive of subsequent non-hypothetical choice.     

Risk and Distributive Justice: The Case of Regulating New Technologies

There are certain kinds of risk for which governments, rather than individual actors, are increasingly held responsible. This article discusses how regulatory institutions can ensure an equitable distribution of risk between various groups such as rich and poor, and present and future generations. It focuses on cases of risk associated with technological and biotechnological innovation. After discussing various possibilities and difficulties of distribution, this article proposes a non-welfarist understanding of risk as a burden of cooperation.     

On Interaction Analysis and Dialogical Perspective: Emergent Patterns of Order and Relational Agency

This essay proposes to contribute with a continuing discussion on Grossen’s paper (2010) establishing a link between the analysis of interactions and dialogical perspective using what I call simplication-for-approaching-complexity (SFAC). This approach conceives of dialogical dynamics as a dynamic system of relationship that construct patterns. Moreover, these emergent patterns allow inferring the features of dialogical partners as relational agencies. The specific characteristics of the relational agency at any moment in dialogue can be inferred from the analysis of the specific pattern of order achieved by the historical development of dialogue. This proposal is illustrated by the analysis of mother-infant interactions.     

Motivation to support a desired conclusion versus motivation to avoid an undesirable conclusion: The case of infra‐humanization

Social motivation has been shown to influence various cognitive processes. In the present paper, it is verified that people are motivated to view out‐groups as possessing a lesser degree of humanity than the in‐group (Leyens et al., 2000 ) and that this motivation influences logical processing in the Wason selection task. So far, studies on infra‐humanization have been shown to influence attribution of uniquely human characteristics to groups. Most of these studies focused on the attribution of secondary emotions. Results have shown that secondary emotions are preferentially attributed to in‐group members (Leyens et al., 2001 ). Also, people tend to react differently to in‐group and out‐group members displaying secondary emotions (Gaunt, Leyens, & Sindic, 2004 ; Vaes, Paladino, Castelli, Leyens, & Giovanazzi, 2003 ). In the present paper, it is argued that infra‐humanization is a two‐direction bias and that it does influence logical processing among perceivers. Specifically, infra‐humanization motivation impacts logical processing in two different directions. First, most motivation is spent to reach the desirable conclusion that the in‐group is uniquely human. Second, least motivation occurs to support the undesirable conclusion that the out‐group is uniquely human. These hypotheses are tested in four cross‐cultural studies that varied the status and the conflicting relations between groups. Results were in line with the predictions and further confirmed that infra‐humanization biases can be obtained independently of status and conflict (but see Cortes, Demoulin, Leyens, & de Renesse, 2005 ). The discussion relates these findings with in‐group favouritism and out‐group derogation (Brewer, 1999 ) and underlines the importance of infra‐humanization in counteracting system justification biases (Jost & Banaji, 1994 ).     

Using implicit goal priming to improve the quality of self-report data

We describe a methodology that uses implicit goal priming to influence self-reports. Participants completed a vocabulary task involving either neutral words or words related to the goal of being honest. In a subsequent, ostensibly unrelated questionnaire, participants responded to a series of questions about socially sensitive behaviors involving excessive alcohol consumption. Participants who were exposed to honesty-related words admitted to having engaged in more of these behaviors than did participants who were exposed to neutral words. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for assessing sensitive behaviors in particular and for improving the quality of self-report measures in psychological research more generally, and an agenda for future research is proposed.