Associations Between Participant Ratings of PREP for Strong Bonds and Marital Outcomes 1 Year Postintervention

After completing a relationship education program, collecting participant evaluations of the program is common practice. These are generally used as an index of “consumer satisfaction” with the program, with implications for feasibility and quality. Rarely have these ratings been used as predictors of changes in marital quality, although such feedback may be the only data providers collect or have immediate access to when considering the success of their efforts. To better understand the utility of such ratings to predict outcomes, we evaluated links between participant ratings and changes in self-reported marital satisfaction and communication scores 1 year later for a sample of 191 Army couples who had participated in a relationship education program delivered by Army chaplains (PREP for Strong Bonds). Overall ratings of general satisfaction with the program and the leader did not predict changes in marital outcomes 1 year later, whereas higher ratings of how much was learned, program helpfulness, increased similarity in outlook regarding Army life, and helpfulness of communication skills training predicted greater change in communication skills 1 year later. Higher ratings of items reflecting intent to invest more time in the relationship, and increased confidence in constructive communication and working as a team with the spouse predicted greater increases in both marital satisfaction and communication skills 1 year later. The constructs of intention and confidence (akin to perceived behavioral control) suggest that the Theory of Planned Behavior may be particularly useful when considering which Army couples will show ongoing benefit after relationship education.     

What is typical about the typicality effect in category-based induction?

Research on category-based induction has documented a consistent typicality effect: Typical exemplars promote stronger inferences about their broader category than atypical exemplars. This work has been largely confined to categories whose central tendencies are also the most typical members of the category. Does the typicality effect apply to the broad set of categories for which the ideal category member is considered most typical? In experiments with natural and artificial categories, typicality and induction-strength ratings were obtained for ideal and central-tendency exemplars. Induction strength was greatest for the central-tendency exemplars, regardless of whether the central tendency or the ideal was rated more typical. These results suggest that the so-called “typicality” effect is a special case of a more universal central-tendency effect in category-based induction.     

Couples Relationship Education and Couples Therapy: Healthy Marriage or Strange Bedfellows?

This paper focuses on issues sparked by the Couples Relationship Education (CRE) field moving toward a more clinical model to meet the needs of an increasing number of distressed couples coming to CRE programs. We review the concerns raised and recommendations made by Bradford, Hawkins, and Acker (2015), most of which push CRE toward a more clinical model. We address these recommendations and make suggestions for best practices that preserve the prevention/education model underlying research‐based CRE. The three main issues are couple screening, leader training, and service delivery models. Our suggested best practices include: conducting minimal screening including the assessment of dangerous levels of couple violence, training leaders with key skills to handle issues raised by distressed couples as well as other couples who may place additional burdens on leaders, providing referrals and choices of programs available to participants at intake and throughout the CRE program, and adding (rather than integrating) clinical services to CRE services for couples who desire additional intervention. Finally, throughout the paper, we review other key issues in the CRE field and make recommendations made for future research and practice.     

Determining transformation distance in similarity: Considerations for assessing representational changes a priori

The representational distortion (RD) approach to similarity (e.g., Hahn, Chater, & Richardson, 2003 Hahn, U., Chater, N. and Richardson, L. B. 2003. Similarity as transformation. Cognition, 87: 1–32.  [Google Scholar]) proposes that similarity is computed using the transformation distance between two entities. We argue that researchers who adopt this approach need to be concerned with how representational transformations can be determined a priori. We discuss several roadblocks to using this approach. Specifically we demonstrate the difficulties inherent in determining what transformations are psychologically salient and the importance of considering the directionality of transformations.     

Reviews

Abstract

Selected review of current books on sexuality and sex therapy, John P. Wincze, Brown University/V.A. Hospital, Providence

Becoming Orgasmic: A Program of Sexual Growth for Women. Heiman, J., LoPiccolo, L., and LoPiccolo, J. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1976.

Female and Male: Dimensions of Human Sexuality. Pierson, E. and D'Antonio, W. New York: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1974.

Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality. Lief, H.I. Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Co., 1975.

Sex After Sixty. Butler, R. and Lewis, M. New York: Harper and Row, 1976.

Sex Therapy at Home. Kass, D. and Stauss, F. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975.

SIECUS Study Guides. Sex Information and Education Council of the United States. New York, 1976 (6th printing).

Adulthood and aging: An interdisciplinary developmental view, Douglas Kimmel, New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1974, $12.50, 484 pages

Permanent weight control: A total solution to the dieter's dilemma, Michael J. Mahoney, Kathryn Mahoney, New York, W.W. Norton and Co., Inc., 1976, $7.95, 177 pages     

“It would have been worse under Saddam:” Implications of counterfactual thinking for beliefs regarding the ethical treatment of prisoners of war

In response to criticism following news of the mistreatment of Iraqis at the US prison in Abu Ghraib, some media personalities and politicians suggested that the treatment of these prisoners “would have been even worse” had former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein still been in power. It was hypothesized that the contemplation of this argument has undesirable consequences because counterfactual thinking can elicit both contrastive and assimilative effects. In the reported study, participants considered how the prisoners at Abu Ghraib would have been worse off under Saddam. The results revealed that generating downward counterfactuals made participants feel better about Abu Ghraib (thereby evidencing contrast), and also lowered ethical standards regarding how the US should treat prisoners of war in the future (thereby evidencing assimilation).     

Indirectly measuring evaluations of several attitude objects in relation to a neutral reference point

This article presents a new response time measure of evaluations, the Evaluative Movement Assessment (EMA). Two properties are verified for the first time in a response time measure: (a) mapping of multiple attitude objects to a single scale, and (b) centering that scale around a neutral point. Property (a) has implications when self-report and response time measures of attitudes have a low correlation. A study using EMA as an indirect measure revealed a low correlation with self-reported attitudes when the correlation reflected between-subjects differences in preferences for one attitude object to a second. Previously this result may have been interpreted as dissociation between two measures. However, when correlations from the same data reflected within-subject preference rank orders between multiple attitude objects, they were substantial (average r = .64). This result suggests that the presence of low correlations between self-report and response time measures in previous studies may be a reflection of methodological aspects of the response time measurement techniques. Property (b) has implications for exploring theoretical questions that require assessment of whether an evaluation is positive or negative (e.g., prejudice), because it allows such classifications in response time measurement to be made for the first time.     

Regulatory fit effects on stimulus identification

This article examines the effects of a fit between a person's global regulatory focus and the local task reward structure on perceptual processing and judgment. On each trial, participants were presented with one of two briefly presented stimuli and were asked to identify it. Participants were placed in a promotion focus (a situationally induced sensitivity to gains) or a prevention focus (a situationally induced sensitivity to losses) and were asked to maximize gains or minimize losses. An asymmetric payoff ratio biased the overall reward toward one identification response over the other. Two experiments tested the role of regulatory fit when internal familiarity and perceptual sensitivity were low or high. When familiarity and sensitivity were low, participants in a regulatory fit (promotion focus with gains or a prevention focus with losses) showed greater perceptual sensitivity but no response bias differences, relative to participants in a regulatory mismatch. When familiarity and sensitivity were high, participants in a regulatory fit showed a response bias toward the high-payoff stimulus but no differences in perceptual sensitivity. Speculations are offered on the neurobiological basis of this effect, as well as implications of this work for clinical disorders such as depression.     

Structure mapping in the comparison process

Carrying out similarity and analogy comparisons can be modeled as the alignment and mapping of structured representations. In this article we focus on three aspects of comparison that are central in structure-mapping theory. All three are controversial. First, comparison involves structured representations. Second, the comparison process is driven by a preference for connected relational structure. Third, the mapping between domains is rooted in semantic similarity between the relations that characterize the domains. For each of these points, we review supporting evidence and discuss some challenges raised by other researchers. We end with a discussion of the role of structure mapping in other cognitive processes.