Perceptions of Social and Environmental Support for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity in Rural Southern Churches

The influence of church environments on healthy eating and physical activity was explored through in-depth interviews with rural adults aged 50-70 (n = 60). Data were analyzed using a constant comparative approach, with an emphasis on noting similarities and differences between African American and predominantly white churches. Findings suggest that church-based nutrition and exercise programs were rare, and existing recreational facilities were geared toward younger members. The majority of church leaders did not talk about nutrition or physical activity, but social support from church friends for healthy eating and physical activity was fairly common. Despite barriers to establishing healthy environments in church settings, churches are rich in social support that could be tapped to promote healthy behavior.     

Memory conformity for confidently recognized items: The power of social influence on memory reports

Memory conformity occurs when one person's memory report influences another's. Memory conformity is more likely to occur when the information comes from a credible source, and when internal evidence is weak. Here, we investigate whether there are situational variations in how heavily participants weigh internal cues to accuracy when confronted with conflicting information from a partner. The results show that even confidently held memories are subject to influence from external sources, and that social influence is exaggerated when the source is seen to be highly credible.     

A New Mixed View of Virtue Ethics, Based on Daniel Doviak’s New Virtue Calculus

In A New Form of Agent-Based Virtue Ethics, Daniel Doviak develops a novel agent-based theory of right action that treats the rightness (or deontic status) of an action as a matter of the action’s net intrinsic virtue value (net-IVV)—that is, its balance of virtue over vice. This view is designed to accommodate three basic tenets of commonsense morality: (i) the maxim that “ought” implies “can,” (ii) the idea that a person can do the right thing for the wrong reason, and (iii) the idea that a virtuous person can have “mixed motives.” In this paper, I argue that Doviak’s account makes an important contribution to agent-based virtue ethics, but it needs to be supplemented with a consequentialist account of the efficacy of well-motivated actions—that is, it should be transformed into a mixed (motives-consequences) account, while retaining its net-IVV calculus. This is because I believe that there are right-making properties external to an agent’s psychology which it is important to take into account, especially when an agent’s actions negatively affect other people. To incorporate this intuition, I add to Doviak’s net-IVV calculus a scale for outcomes. The result is a mixed view which accommodates tenets (ii) and (iii) above, but allows for (i) to fail in certain cases. I argue that, rather than being a defect, this allowance is an asset because our intuitions about ought-implies-can break down in cases where an agent is grossly misguided, and our theory should track these intuitions.     

The relation between parental influence, body image, and eating behaviors in a nonclinical female sample

The purpose of the current study is to create a comprehensive composite measure of parental influence based on previously developed measures to clarify the underlying dimensions of parental influence and to determine the degree to which parental influence relates to body image and dysfunctional weight concerns. Previously published literature was reviewed for measures of parental influence, and items from 22 measures were condensed and combined into a single questionnaire, which was completed by 367 female undergraduate psychology students. Two dimensions emerged from a principle components analysis: Direct Influence, which includes weight and eating related comments, and Modeling, which includes parental modeling of dieting and related behavior. Direct Influence and Modeling were significantly related to eating disturbance, such as drive for thinness and bulimic symptomatology. Overall, the results integrate the previous literature and clarify the underlying dimensions of parental influence. Further, this study provides directions for future research related to the development and maintenance of body image and eating disturbance.     

The attribution of value-based attentional priority in individuals with depressive symptoms

The capture of attention by stimuli previously associated with reward has been demonstrated across a wide range of studies. Such value-based attentional priority appears to be robust, and cases where reward feedback fails to modulate subsequent attention have not been reported. However, individuals differ in their sensitivity to external rewards, and such sensitivity is abnormally blunted in depression. Here, we show that depressive symptomology is accompanied by insensitivity to value-based attentional bias. We replicate attentional capture by stimuli previously associated with reward in a control sample and show that these same reward-related stimuli do not capture attention in individuals experiencing symptoms of depression. This sharp contrast in performance indicates that value-based attentional biases depend on the normal functioning of the brain's reward system and suggests that a failure to preferentially attend to reward-related information may play a role in the experience of depression.     

Classifying Married Adults Diagnosed With Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency Based on Spousal Communication Patterns Using Latent Class Analysis: Insights for Intervention

Married adults are increasingly exposed to test results that indicate an increased genetic risk for adult-onset conditions. For example, a SERPINA1 mutation, associated with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), predisposes affected individuals to diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cancer, which are often detected in adulthood. Married adults are likely to discuss genetic test results with their spouses, and interpersonal research suggests that spouses’ communication patterns differ. Latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of spousal communication patterns about AATD results from a sample of married adults in the Alpha-1 Research Registry (N?=?130). A five-class model was identified, and the subgroups were consistent with existing spousal-communication typologies. This study also showed that genetic beliefs (e.g., genetic stigma), emotions, and experiences (e.g., insurance difficulties) covaried with membership in particular subgroups. Understanding these differences can serve as the foundation for the creation of effective, targeted communications interventions to address the specific needs and conversational patterns of different kinds of couples.     

Regulatory mode orientations and well‐being in an organizational setting: the differential mediating roles of workaholism and work engagement

This paper examines the relationships between two independent regulatory mode orientations, locomotion and assessment, and well‐being in organizational contexts. Results from a sample of 320 employees revealed that locomotion was negatively associated with burnout and psychological strain whereas assessment was positively associated with burnout and strain. The effects of locomotion and assessment on burnout and strain were mediated by workaholism and work engagement. Both locomotion and assessment predicted greater workaholism; however, locomotion was positively associated whereas assessment was negatively associated with work engagement. In turn, workaholism predicted greater burnout and strain, and work engagement predicted less burnout and strain. Implications for employee health and organizational success are discussed.     

Carrying the Burden: Perspectives of African American Pastors on Peer Support for People with Cancer

For African Americans facing advanced cancer, churches are trusted sources of support and ideal settings to improve access to supportive care. The Support Team model enhances community support for practical, emotional, and spiritual caregiving. We report on focus groups with pastors of 23 Black Churches and explore their perspective on the Support Team model for church members with cancer. Pastors describe the needs of church members facing cancer from a holistic perspective and recognize opportunities for synergistic faith–health collaboration. The results of this study indicate potential benefits of the Support Team model in Black Churches to reduce silent suffering among individuals facing cancer.     

Intentional forgetting: Note-taking as a naturalistic example

In the present study, we examined whether note-taking as a memory aid may provide a naturalistic example of intentional forgetting. In the first experiment, participants played Concentration, a memory card game in which the identity and location of pairs of cards need to be remembered. Before the game started, half of the participants were allowed to study the cards, and the other half made notes that were then unexpectedly taken away. No significant differences emerged between the two groups for remembering identity information, but the study group remembered significantly more location information than did the note-taking group. In a second experiment, we examined whether note-takers would show signs of proactive interference while playing Concentration repeatedly. The results indicated that they did not. The findings suggest that participants adopted an intentional-forgetting strategy when using notes to store certain types of information.     

Generality of a congruity effect in judgements of relative order

The judgement of relative order (JOR) procedure is used to investigate serial-order memory. Measuring response times, the wording of the instructions (whether the earlier or the later item was designated as the target) reversed the direction of search in subspan lists (Chan, Ross, Earle, & Caplan Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(5), 945–951, 2009). If a similar congruity effect applied to above-span lists and, furthermore, with error rate as the measure, this could suggest how to model order memory across scales. Participants performed JORs on lists of nouns (Experiment 1: list lengths = 4, 6, 8, 10) or consonants (Experiment 2: list lengths = 4, 8). In addition to the usual distance, primacy, and recency effects, instructions interacted with serial position of the later probe in both experiments, not only in response time, but also in error rate, suggesting that availability, not just accessibility, is affected by instructions. The congruity effect challenges current memory models. We fitted Hacker’s (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 6(6), 651–675, 1980) self-terminating search model to our data and found that a switch in search direction could explain the congruity effect for short lists, but not longer lists. This suggests that JORs may need to be understood via direct-access models, adapted to produce a congruity effect, or a mix of mechanisms.