Development and validation of the Smoking Expectancy Scale for Adolescents

This study assessed the factor structure, internal consistency, and concurrent validity of the Smoking Expectancies Scale for Adolescents (SESA) using 717 Australian adolescents (87% nonsmokers, 11% current smokers, and 2% ex-smokers). Exploratory factor analysis of SESA yielded 8 factors. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the 8-factor model, and also a 2nd-order cost-benefit model, fit the data significantly better than 4 alternatives. Validation analyses revealed the 8-factor model explained 26% to 32% of the variance in adolescent cigarette use, smoking intentions, smoking subjective norms, and peer smoking. The 2nd-order model explained 12% to 17% of the variance in these same variables.     

Religious Social Identity as an Explanatory Factor for Associations between More Frequent Formal Religious Participation and Psychological Well-Being

Guided by social identity theory, this study investigated having a closer identification as a member of one's religious group as an explanatory mechanism for linkages between more frequent formal religious participation and better subjective psychological well-being (more positive affect, less negative affect, and more life satisfaction). Multivariate regression models were estimated based on data from 3,032 participants, ages 25 to 74, in the 1995 National Survey of Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS). Results provided support for the mediating effect of religious social identity on the associations between more frequent religious service attendance and all three dimensions of psychological well-being examined. Given the lack of previous empirical attention to social identity within the literature on religiosity and mental health, these findings contribute to our understanding of self, religion, and health, while also pointing to the importance of continuing to draw on well developed social psychological theory in investigations of linkages between religion and health.     

Toward a Sociocultural Perspective on Means of Self-Destruction*

ABSTRACT: The relationship between an individual's intent to die and choice of method is examined. A sociocultural perspective is developed in an attempt to: explain the principle differences in choice of method by sex; to explain regional variations over time, by sex; and to differentiate between regional and/or cultural areas in their use of firearms as a means of self-destruction. The concept of availability is examined, and it is shown that it consists of, at least, two dimensions: the physical presence of a method, and the sociocultural acceptability of that method that results in the individual's selection of a particular method of self-destruction from a range of socially and culturally acceptable means of suicide. A concept of suicidal threshold is advanced as suggestive of a suicidal level that an individual must reach before a suicidal process develops and results in the person's self-inflicted death.     

Rectifying Misconceptions: A Comprehensive Response to “Some Concerns About the Psychological Implications of Mindfulness: A Critical Analysis”

The present article attempts to address misconceptions and mischaracterizations of mindfulness-based interventions found in the article “Some Concerns about the Psychological Implications of Mindfulness: A Critical Analysis,” written by Daniel David. The paper, we contended, suffers as a result of its reductive presentation of mindfulness, the relationship of mindfulness to Buddhist thought, the empirical support for mindfulness-based interventions, and the presumed mechanisms of change and clinical utility of those interventions. Such misconceptions and mischaracterizations can unfortunately have a powerful effect on both the literature base, and on those providing direct psychological services. As such, the purpose of this response article is to stimulate a clear and accurate discussion of the concepts and applications of mindfulness, so that practitioners have the information they need to make sound treatment decisions for their clientele.     

The Relationship Between Hostile Interpretation Bias and Symptoms of Depression and Social Anxiety: a Replication Across Two Samples

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - Cognitive models of social anxiety and depression posit that hostile interpretation bias may be a symptom of, and act as a maintenance factor...     

Extinction of goal tracking also eliminates the conditioned reinforcing effects of an appetitive conditioned stimulus

Previous studies have suggested that the effects of extinction are response-specific. The present study investigated whether an extinction treatment that eliminated goal tracking elicited by an appetitive conditioned stimulus (CS) would also eliminate the conditioned reinforcing effects of that CS. Rats were first trained on a goal-tracking procedure in which an auditory CS was paired with a food unconditioned stimulus. Animals learned to approach the location where the food was delivered. In a subsequent phase, rats in one group received extinction training that eliminated the goal-tracking elicited by the CS. Rats in the other group did not experience extinction of the food-paired CS. Then, both groups received a test for conditioned reinforcement in which leverpresses resulted in the brief presentation of the stimulus previously paired with food. This stimulus did not act as a conditioned reinforcer in the group that had been subjected to extinction training, but did serve as a conditioned reinforcer in the group that did not experience extinction. These results indicate that the effects of extinction generalize from the approach-eliciting to the conditioned reinforcing effects of an appetitive CS.     

Methods in Sales Research: A Psychometric Evaluation of the ADAPTS Scale: A Critique and Recommendations

This study outlines a method for improving the psychometric properties of the ADAPTS scale for measuring adaptive selling (Spiro and Weitz 1990). As originally presented, the ADAPTS scale suffered from a lack of unidimensionality. Subsequent research has demonstrated mixed results when using ADAPTS as a predictor of salesperson performance. Results from this study suggest that ADAPTS can be improved by addressing the unidimensionality issue. To do this, a series of confirmatory factor models are presented, resulting in a two-factor adaptive selling model. The two adaptive selling constructs, beliefs and behaviors, are psychometrically evaluated, concluding with tests of the predictive validity of the two-factor model using self-reported performance as the exogenous latent variable.     

Longitudinal Test of Forgiveness and Perceived Forgiveness as Mediators between Religiosity and Marital Satisfaction in Long-Term Marital Relationships

Abstract

Substantial research has found relations between religiosity and martial satisfaction. More longitudinal studies are needed to understand the inner-workings of this relationship. Over a four-year period, dyadic data from 331 married couples was used to test the longitudinal mediating effects of spousal forgiveness and partners’ perceptions of spousal forgiveness between religiosity and marital satisfaction. Husbands’ religiosity was associated with increases in wives’ marital satisfaction but the measures of forgiveness were not significant mediators in this relationship. Wives’ religiosity was predictive of lower levels of wives’ perceptions of spousal forgiveness, which led to decreases in both wives’ and husbands’ marital satisfaction.     

Pushing mom away: Embodied cognition and avoidant attachment

The objective of this research was to examine embodied psychological defense—the way in which defensive processes are manifest in basic motor responses. Forty-one participants were instructed to physically push or pull a lever in response to lexical stimuli presented on a computer display. Participants who were relatively avoidant with respect to attachment were faster to push the lever away from themselves when presented with the word “mom.” These results suggest that basic avoidant motives are automatically primed when attachment-related stimuli are processed, and that these tendencies manifest themselves in basic, motor-specific ways.     

The effects of mental contamination on the hindsight bias: Source confusion determines success in disregarding knowledge

We present data from eight experiments in which we explored the effects of source confusion on the hindsight bias; participants' success in disregarding information when they were instructed to do so was affected by participants' level of source confusion. In Experiment 1 we demonstrated participants' failure to disregard Revolutionary War information they recently learned while reading an essay; this failure to discount was not affected by participants' essay reading times (Experiment 1a). In Experiment 2 participants successfully discounted obscure War of 1812 information; this discounted information remained available in memory (Experiment 2a). In a direct test of source confusion (Experiment 3) we showed that participants discriminated between presented and not‐presented War of 1812 information better than they discriminated presented and not‐presented Revolutionary War information. In Experiments 4 and 4a we tested and rejected a motivational explanation for our findings, namely that subjects voluntarily withheld information when asked to disregard it. We tested a debiasing technique in Experiment 5 and found it was successful in helping participants discount familiar information. Results throughout are discussed as being attributable to source confusion. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.