A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects

A Monte Carlo study compared 14 methods to test the statistical significance of the intervening variable effect. An intervening variable (mediator) transmits the effect of an independent variable to a dependent variable. The commonly used R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986) approach has low statistical power. Two methods based on the distribution of the product and 2 difference-in-coefficients methods have the most accurate Type I error rates and greatest statistical power except in 1 important case in which Type I error rates are too high. The best balance of Type I error and statistical power across all cases is the test of the joint significance of the two effects comprising the intervening variable effect.     

Flank transparency: transparent filters seen in dynamic two-color displays

Flank transparency is the perception of a colored transparent filter evoked by apparent-motion displays containing as few as two colors. Displays of flank transparency contain a random array of line segments placed on a uniform background. Small flanks are added to the line segments if the segments fall in the interior of a moving virtual shape, such as a virtual disk. This leads to the perception of a colored transparent disk with well-defined boundaries moving over the array of lines. Current qualitative and quantitative models of luminance and color conditions for perceptual transparency do not account for flank transparency as they require displays containing at least three different colors.     

Perceptions of an old female eyewitness: is the older eyewitness believable?

Young adults rated an old female witness (82 years) to be less competent but more honest than a young female witness (28 years). The effect of age stereotyping on believability was assessed indirectly by using a variant of Loftus' misinformation paradigm. Regression analysis showed that the more competent a witness was perceived as being, the more influential was the misinformation she provided. This was true, however, only when the witness was young because the relatively lower competence of the old witness was associated with nonsignificant misinformation effects. These data suggest that negative beliefs associating incompetence with old age may compromise the believability of older eyewitnesses.     

Counseling and Values Publication Patterns From 1990 to 2009

The authors reviewed publication patterns for articles published from 1990 to 2009 in the journal Counseling and Values. Article content and author demographic characteristics (i.e., sex of authors, nation of domicile, employment setting of authors, frequently contributing individuals and universities) were analyzed by 5‐year periods for trends over time. Specific attention was given to periodic changes in characteristics of research articles, including types of research designs, quantitative/qualitative approach, participant types, random assignment, sample size, intervention/nonintervention focus, and statistical procedures used.     

Relations between risk perceptions and socio-political ideology are domain- and ideology- dependent

Public policy intended to address risks is largely determined by government officials who are typically elected by ‘the people’. Lay people presumably support political figures most likely to tackle the risks perceived as relevant. The present research investigated whether risk perceptions vary by risk domain and socio-political ideology. American community adults (N = 387) recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk completed measures of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), social dominance orientation (SDO), political conservatism, and perceived domain risks. Risk perceptions of conservatives versus liberals systematically differed by domain: Increases in political conservatism (vs. liberalism) and RWA were associated with perceiving “personal danger” hazards as more risky, whereas increases in SDO were associated with perceiving “competitive” hazards as less risky. A liberal-orientation was associated with heightened risk concerning collective (shared) hazards.     

Reaching for the (Product) Stars: Measuring Recognition and Approach Speed to Get Insights Into Consumer Choice

In three studies, an easy-to-apply response time task that differentiates between recognition and approach speed was applied. The results indicate that individuals recognized and approached positive stimuli faster than negative stimuli (Pilot Study). But, when the choice options differed less in valence, approach movement time was a better predictor of consumer choice and willingness to pay than recognition time (Study 1) and a better predictor of consumer choice than self-reports when the choice was made with an affective compared to a cognitive focus (Study 2). Moreover, approach movement time, but not recognition time correlated with other implicit measures.     

El papel de los procesos de atribución en la conformidad y el disentimiento: Reencontrando la situación de Asch

RESUMEN

El presente artículo reexamina la situación de los experimentos sobre conformidad de Asch. La situación experimental propuesta procura ser más representativa del modo en el que las presiones a la conformidad actúan fuera del laboratorio, definiendo tres condiciones que permiten distintas atribuciones. Los resultados apoyan las hipótesis de partida, destacando que la condición experimental que reproduce la situación de Asch permite menos inconformismo y menos confianza entre los disconformes que las otras dos, y entre éstas, la situación en la que debían postularse diferencias de prioridades en los evaluadores para explicar la propia disidencia era menos propicia para el inconformismo y la confianza en el criterio propio. Finalmente se discuten las implicaciones del experimento sobre las presiones a la conformidad y los procesos de atribución.     

Women–Focused Treatment Agencies and Process Improvement: Strategies to Increase Client Engagement

Behavioral health treatment agencies often struggle to keep clients engaged in treatment. Women clients often have additional factors such as family responsibilities, financial difficulties, or abuse histories that provide extra challenges to remaining in care. As part of a national initiative, four women-focused drug treatment agencies used process improvement to address treatment engagement. Interviews and focus groups with staff assessed the nature and extent of interventions. Women-focused drug treatment agencies selected relational-based interventions to engage clients in treatment and improved four-week treatment retention from 66% to 76%. Process improvement interventions in women-focused treatment may be useful to improve engagement.     

At Death's Door: Therapists and Patients as Agents

This paper explores the interrelationship between patients' exercise of will to make advances in an analysis and their readiness to forgive their analysts for their human limitations. There is a thin line between idealization of the analyst, probably a necessary component of the process, and resentment of the analyst for his or her privileged position in the world and in the analytic situation itself. The patient's “progress” emerges as a kind of reparative gift, one that implicitly overcomes the patient's tendency to withhold such change out a sense of chronic, malignant envy. Particularly poignant in terms of its potential to elicit the patient's reparative concern is the situation in which the analyst is struggling with his or her mortality because of aging or life-threatening illness. In this essay two clinical vignettes are presented to illustrate some of the issues that this situation poses. One begins with an elderly patient appearing at the door of the analyst's (the author's) home the day of his return from the hospital after coronary bypass surgery. The other begins with an analyst who is terminally ill appearing at the door of a patient who is threatening suicide. The two stories are compared in terms of their implications for human agency, the exercise of will, and the coconstruction of meaning in the face of mortality in the analytic process.     

Therapeutic Passion in the Countertransference

The place of the analyst's “influence” in psychoanalytic theory and practice is explored. There is a current in the literature in which it is welcomed as an aspect of “corrective experience,” although usually legitimized by being forced into the narrow channel of interpretation and understanding. A taboo on influence persists despite theoretical shifts that would seem to clear the way for greater acceptance of its importance. Among other factors, the aversion to influence is traced to its association with hypnotic “suggestion,” which implies little room for the patient's autonomy. Opening the door to embracing the possibility of influence goes hand in hand with, on one hand, the analyst respecting the patient as a competent free agent and, on the other hand, the analyst combining willingness to take a stand with willingness to reflect critically on his or her participation. In that context, and with those caveats, the analyst takes on the responsibility to combat destructive introjects and to become an inspiring, affirmative presence in the patient's life. The analyst's passion for the patient's well-being and for changes that entail the realization of dormant potentials now has its place. Different kinds of expression of therapeutic passion in the countertransference are described and illustrated.