Event frequency and children's suggestibility: a study of cued recall responses

Research examining the effect of repeated experience on children's suggestibility for particular kinds of information has produced differing results. In one study, responses to recognition questions revealed heightened suggestibility for variable details in children who repeatedly experienced an event compared to children who experienced an event once. In other studies, no such effect was found with cued recall. In this study, 4–5‐year old children engaged in one or four play sessions. Children were later given a biasing interview wherein half of the details were incorrectly represented. Children were then given a final memory test using free and cued recall prompts that was preceded by one of three instruction types: no special instructions, moderate instructions, or opposition instructions. Children in the repeated‐event condition were more suggestible than those in the single‐event condition, regardless of instructions. No significant differences in suggestibility were found across instructions conditions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bridging the Divide or Intensifying the Conflict? How Disagreement Affects Strong Predilections about Sexual Minorities

This study draws on a sample of participants in online groups that discussed legalization of same‐sex marriage, to examine whether exposure to perceived disagreement decreases—as the deliberative theorists hope—or rather increases—as the research on confirmation bias predicts—strongly held predilections. Overall, participants' views towards same‐sex marriage and sexual minority rights remained largely unchanged after deliberating, regardless of the ideological composition of their groups. Consistent with the confirmation bias model, those who strongly opposed same‐sex marriage and sexual minority rights prior to the discussions and who perceived that others disagreed with them became even more opposed, and this effect was not a short‐term shift. Strong proponents, on the other hand, did not polarize in their views, but instead became slightly less favorable towards same‐sex marriage and sexual minority rights as a result of disagreement. Implications of these findings for deliberation of contentious issues are discussed.     

When is peer rejection justifiable? Children's understanding across two cultures

This study investigated how Korean (N = 397) and U.S. (N = 333) children and adolescents (10 and 13 years of age) evaluated personality (aggression, shyness) and group (gender, nationality) characteristics as a basis for peer rejection in three contexts (friendship rejection, group exclusion, victimization). Overall, peer rejection based on group membership was viewed as more unfair than peer rejection based on personality traits. Children viewed friendship rejection as more legitimate than group exclusion or victimization and used more personal choice reasoning for friendship rejection than for rejection in any other context. Although there were a few cultural differences, overall, the findings provided support for the cultural generalizability of social reasoning about peer rejection.     

Linking cognitive avoidance and GAD symptoms: The mediating role of fear of emotion

Although cognitive avoidance has been linked to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), the mechanism that may account for this association has not been fully elucidated. The current study uses structural equation models to evaluate the relationship between cognitive avoidance and symptoms of GAD in a large unselected sample (n = 1220), and to examine whether subjective fear of emotion partially mediate this relationship. Results support partial mediation, and follow-up analyses suggest that the pattern of relations among fear of emotion, cognitive avoidance, and GAD symptoms is invariant for men and women. However, subsequent analysis revealed equivalence of meditational models where cognitive avoidance leads to GAD symptoms and vice versa. The implications of these findings for better understanding the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of GAD are discussed.     

Extinction of drug cue reactivity in methamphetamine-dependent individuals

Conditioned responses to drug-related environmental cues (such as craving) play a critical role in relapse to drug use. Animal models demonstrate that repeated exposure to drug-associated cues in the absence of drug administration leads to the extinction of conditioned responses, but the few existing clinical trials focused on extinction of conditioned responses to drug-related cues in drug-dependent individuals show equivocal results. The current study examined drug-related cue reactivity and response extinction in a laboratory setting in methamphetamine-dependent individuals. Methamphetamine cue-elicited craving was extinguished during two sessions of repeated (3) within-session exposures to multi-modal (picture, video, and in-vivo) cues, with no evidence of spontaneous recovery between sessions. A trend was noted for a greater attenuation of response in participants with longer (4-7 day) inter-session intervals. These results indicate that extinction of drug cue conditioned responding occurs in methamphetamine-dependent individuals, offering promise for the development of extinction- based treatment strategies.     

Being Hopeful and Continuing to Move Ahead: Religious Coping in Iranian Chemical Warfare Poisoned Veterans,a Qualitative Study

There is a substantial number of Iranian war veterans, exposed to sulfur mustard, who suffer from serious long term progressive health problems involving their respiratory organs, eyes, and skin. Little is known, however, about these casualties’ experiences of living with the consequences of sulfur mustard poisoning. This qualitative study aims to provide greater insight into how war veterans live with the consequences of the poisoning and involved 17 Iranian war veterans who had been poisoned by sulfur mustard during the Iran–Iraq conflict. Each participant was interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule and the data generated through this process was analyzed using constant comparative data analysis technique. Data analysis resulted in “religious beliefs and practices” as a main category, which included two sub-categories: religious value centered life and religious support. Findings suggest that religious belief assists veterans to accept the impact of poisoning on their lives and adapt their lifestyles accordingly, to participate in religious social activities and feel socially supported, and to be hopeful about the future and live their lives as fully as possible.     

The effect of embodied emotive states on cognitive categorization

Research has uncovered that positive affect broadens cognitive categorization. The motivational dimensional model, however, posits that positive affect is not a unitary construct with only one cognitive consequence. Instead, this model puts forth that there are different positive affects varying in approach motivational intensity. According to this model, only positive affects lower in motivational intensity should broaden cognitive processes, whereas positive affects higher in motivational intensity should narrow cognitive processes. Consistent with these predictions, high approach positive affect has been shown to narrow attention, whereas low approach positive affect has been shown to broaden it (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008). High approach positive affect, therefore, might narrow categorization. Two experiments investigated this possibility by having participants respond to cognitive categorization tasks in 3 body postures designed to elicit different levels of approach motivation: reclining backward, which should evoke low approach motivation; sitting upright, which should evoke moderate approach motivation; and leaning forward, which should evoke high approach motivation. Participants smiled while in each posture in order to experience positive affect. Experiment 1 provided initial support for the idea that high approach positive affect narrows categorization and low approach positive affect broadens categorization. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with improved smiling instructions. These results extend previous work by showing that the motivational model's predictions hold for basic attentional processes as well as higher level cognitive processes such as categorization.     

When the “U” is not Inverted: Trajectories of Expressed Emotional Arousal Predict Relationship Satisfaction

Maladaptive emotional reactivity and dysfunctional communication during couple conflict are both destructive to couple functioning, and observational research has elucidated how conflict escalates. However, much of the evidence is based on measures that combine content (i.e., what was said) and the emotion with which it was said, which are then examined using sequential analyses. Despite the general presumptions about underlying emotional reactivity and escalation in negative emotions as part of relationship distress and deterioration, little empirical data are available that directly examine these continuous shifts in emotions. The current study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between relationship satisfaction and trajectories of change in vocally expressed emotional arousal during couple conflict in 62 couples who participated in a relationship education program. Contrary to expectations and patterns found in distressed couples, trajectories followed a U‐shape rather than an inverted U‐shape curve, with steeper and more persistent decreases in emotional arousal predicting more stable relationship satisfaction over time. In addition, there were within‐couple effects. These results suggest that early signs for relationship deterioration may be less in the form of overt escalation as would be seen in distressed couples. Instead, couples who subsequently deteriorate more are less effective in calming emotional arousal. They also are less able to remain at lower emotional arousal. It is possible that the more pronounced escalation toward the end of the conversation in more at‐risk couples is a precursor of the greater escalation patterns seen in distressed couples; this should be examined empirically. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Heart of DARCness

We propose a valid core for the much-disputed thesis that Deliberation Crowds Out Prediction, and identify terminological causes for some of the apparent disputes.