Estimating linear effects in ANOVA designs: The easy way

Research in cognitive science has documented numerous phenomena that are approximated by linear relationships. In the domain of numerical cognition, the use of linear regression for estimating linear effects (e.g., distance and SNARC effects) became common following Fias, Brysbaert, Geypens, and d'Ydewalle's (1996) study on the SNARC effect. While their work has become the model for analyzing linear effects in the field, it requires statistical analysis of individual participants and does not provide measures of the proportions of variability accounted for (cf. Lorch & Myers, 1990). In the present methodological note, using both the distance and SNARC effects as examples, we demonstrate how linear effects can be estimated in a simple way within the framework of repeated measures analysis of variance. This method allows for estimating effect sizes in terms of both slope and proportions of variability accounted for. Finally, we show that our method can easily be extended to estimate linear interaction effects, not just linear effects calculated as main effects.     

POSTPARTUM BONDING DIFFICULTIES AND ADULT ATTACHMENT STYLES: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION AND CHILDBIRTH‐RELATED PTSD

Despite decades of research demonstrating the role of adult attachment styles and early mother–infant bonding in parenting behaviors and maternal mental health, these constructs have seldom been studied together. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between attachment styles and specific bonding difficulties of mothers. In addition, as postpartum depression and childbirth‐related posttraumatic stress symptoms have been associated with both constructs, we explored their possible mediation effect. One hundred fourteen mothers, 4 to 12 weeks’ postpartum, completed a demographic questionnaire, the Adult Attachment Style Questionnaire (M. Mikulincer, V. Florian, & A. Tolmacz, 1990), the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (L.F. Brockington, C. Fraser, & D. Wilson, 2006), the Modified Perinatal Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Questionnaire (J.L. Callahan, S.E. Borja, & M.T. Hynan, 2006), and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (J.L. Cox, G. Chapman, D. Murray, & P. Jones, 1996), using an online survey system. As predicted, insecure attachment styles were associated with bonding difficulties wherein anxious/ambivalent attachment was associated with greater infant‐focused anxiety, mediated by postpartum depression but not childbirth‐related PTSD symptoms. In contrast, greater avoidant attachment style was associated with greater rejection and anger, mediated by childbirth‐related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but not depression symptoms. The current study confirmed the association of different attachment styles with bonding as well as the mediating roles of childbirth‐related PTSD and postpartum depression symptoms. Future psychological interventions may utilize such evidence to target interventions for bonding disorders in accordance with individual differences.     

Group norms and excessive absenteeism: The role of peer referent others

Drawing from social identity and social influence theory, we propose that the absence-related norms of an individual’s work-based referent others will have a significant effect on the likelihood of excessive absence behavior. We then develop and test a model of the social mechanisms potentially underlying the relationship between referent absence norms and the likelihood of excessive absence behavior. Our findings indicate that referent group norms significantly explain excessive absence behavior, even when taking into account the absence norms associated with the formal organizational units within which these referent groups are often nested. They also indicate that permissive referent group norms are likely to have a greater impact on the probability of target excessive absence when the target has a more conformist disposition. Finally, post-hoc findings suggest that the more negative targets’ perceptions of the consequences of absenteeism, the more attenuated the impact of permissive group norms on excessive absence behavior.     

Perspective Taking and Intergroup Helping Intentions: The Moderating Role of Power Relations1

People are more willing to help those who belong to their own groups than to an out‐group. Research on perspective taking has shown that many forms of in‐group favoritism disappear when people are led to take the perspective of the other group. The current research explores the possibility of increasing the level of intergroup helping by a perspective‐taking manipulation. An experiment in a Polish‐Czech borderland community high school demonstrated that Polish students who were made to imagine that they became members of an out‐group (perspective‐taking manipulation) were more willing to help out‐group members. The moderating role of perceived power is discussed in the context of perspective‐taking theory.     

Variety‐Seeking and Perceived Expertise

People often infer expertise from the choice of unique, rare, or sophisticated options. But might mere variety‐seeking also serve as a signal of expertise, and if so, how? Six studies show that the relationship between variety‐seeking and perceived expertise is not unidirectional and depends on the perceiver's own level of expertise. Category experts perceive lower variety‐seeking as indicative of discernment, which in turn increases perceived expertise in that category. Consequently, experts choose less variety to portray themselves as experts. In contrast, novices perceive high variety‐seeking as indicative of category breadth knowledge, which in turn increases their perception of category expertise. Consequently, novices choose more variety to portray themselves as experts. The findings make novel theoretical contributions to research on variety‐seeking, consumer expertise, and social perception, as well as practical contributions for marketers of product assortments and bundles.     

Using rituals in couple therapy in cases of wife battering

This article describes the work of a unit specializing in helping couples where there is violence towards the woman. It focuses particularly on ritual, describing couple violence as a type of family ritual, and outlines a number of specific healing rituals which can be substituted for the destructive ritual of violence.     

Living Under the Threat of Relocation: Spouses' Perceptions of the Threat and Coping Resources

This study examined the contribution of couples, shared perceptions of the threat of relocation, and the buffering effect of personal and marital resources in coping with stress. The study was conducted with a random sample of 95 couples in the Golan Heights region in Israel, where a unique situation exists in which families live under a threat of relocation, due to the peace negotiations between Israel and Syria. Two resources were examined: potency and marital quality Results showed that potency made the greatest contribution to coping either with demands or stress, both in couples who had similar or different future scenarios, while marital quality was found to relieve the stress only in couples who shared the same future scenarios. The average level of stress was found to be higher but not significant among couples with different future scenarios.     

The emergence of personality: Dynamic foundations of individual variation

We conceptualize personality and individual variation from the perspective of dynamical systems. People’s thoughts, feelings, and predispositions for action are inherently dynamic, displaying constant change due to internal mechanisms and external forces, but over time the flow of thought and action converges on a narrow range of states—a fixed-point attractor—that provides cognitive, affective, and behavioral stability. An attractor for personal dynamics develops through two mechanisms: the synchronization of individuals’ internal states in social interaction, and the self-organization of thoughts and feelings with respect to a higher-order property (e.g., goal, self-concept). We present formal models of both processes and instantiate each in computer simulations. Discussion centers on the implications of interpersonal synchronization and self-organization dynamics for issues in personality psychology, including shared vs. non-shared environmental influences on personality development, the expression of personality in social interaction, personal stability vs. change, personal vs. situational causation, and the emergence of self-concept.