Intrusion, avoidance, and daily negative affect among couples coping with prostate cancer: a dyadic investigation

In the present study we examined how husbands' and wives' intrusive thoughts of prostate cancer (i.e., thinking about it when not meaning to) and avoidance (i.e., efforts to not think about cancer) related to their own and each other's average negative affect over a subsequent 14-day period. We examined whether congruence or similarity in intrusion about illness, but not avoidance, would be associated with less negative affect as this response to cancer could potentially facilitate adjustment. Fifty-nine husbands and wives completed measures of intrusion and avoidance after the diagnosis of prostate cancer and reported on their daily negative affect for 14 days. Using the actor-partner interdependence model, both patients and their wives who had high levels of intrusive thoughts experienced less negative affect when the other member of the couple also experienced high levels of intrusive thoughts. Those who had higher levels of avoidance had spouses who had higher levels of negative affect regardless of their own levels of avoidance. Congruence in responses to cancer may be adaptive for intrusion but not avoidance because the use of intrusive thoughts by both husbands and wives can allow couples to process the diagnosis of cancer, facilitating psychological adjustment, whereas avoidance does not. The current investigation adds to our understanding of how people within a marital dyad affect each other as they adjust to a cancer diagnosis.     

Agreeableness and Conscientiousness promote successful adaptation to the Covid-19 pandemic through effective internalization of public health guidelines

Motivation and Emotion - Social distancing (SD) was an effective way of reducing virus transmission during the deadly and highly infectious COVID-19 pandemic. Using a prospective longitudinal...     

Differential Item Functioning of the Symptoms of Major Depression by Race and Ethnicity: An Item Response Theory Analysis

This study examines the psychometric properties, and particularly differential item functioning (DIF) due to racial and ethnic group, of the criteria for a major depressive episode using a large sample (N?=?1,063) of outpatients seeking treatment for mood and anxiety disorders. DIF was evaluated using multiple group confirmatory factor analysis. Item thresholds fell along a continuum with the core features of depressed mood and anhedonia, along with fatigue, being endorsed at lower levels of depression, and change in appetite and suicidal ideation endorsed at more severe levels of depression. Item discriminations, reflecting an item’s ability to discriminate between lower and higher levels of depression, were highest for depressed mood and anhedonia, and lowest for change in appetite and suicidal ideation. When examining model fit among the racial groups we did not find differences in symptom functioning, providing support for the use of these symptoms across diverse groups. This is of particular importance given the paucity of studies examining this question using a semi-structured clinician administered instrument to a clinical sample.     

In my ‘Mind’s Eye’: introspectionism,detectivism, and the basis of authoritative self-knowledge

It is widely accepted that knowledge of certain of one’s own mental states is authoritative in being epistemically more secure than knowledge of the mental states of others, and theories of self-knowledge have largely appealed to one or the other of two sources to explain this special epistemic status. The first, ‘detectivist’, position, appeals to an inner perception-like basis, whereas the second, ‘constitutivist’, one, appeals to the view that the special security awarded to certain self-knowledge is a conceptual matter. I argue that there is a fundamental class of cases of authoritative self-knowledge, ones in which subjects are consciously thinking about their current, conscious intentional states, that is best accounted for in terms of a theory that is, broadly speaking, introspectionist and detectivist. The position developed has an intuitive plausibility that has inspired many who work in the Cartesian tradition, and the potential to yield a single treatment of the basis of authoritative self-knowledge for both intentional states and sensation states.     

Taking Our Place: Substitution,Human Agency,and Feminine Sin

Abstract

While acknowledging that church teachings about substitutionary atonement have served to disempower women, this article argues that a reconstrual of this doctrine can, in fact, promote human agency. Because Christ our Representative has taken our place in relation to that which incapacitates us, women are freed from the ‘feminine sins’ of self-deprecation and passivity to exercise power as agents. First, the author explains the importance of conceiving of substitution apart from understandings of satisfaction theory that perpetuate violence. Then she rehearses how feminist theologians have understood substitution to inhibit agency. Finally (in conversation with Dorothee Sölle and Karl Barth), she examines how a reconstrual of substitutionary atonement, understood within a representational framework, might contribute to an adequate feminist soteriology by championing women's ‘irreplaccability,’ thus ensuring their power.     

The Dimensional Structure of Asian American Acculturation: An Examination of Prototypes

This study investigated the dimensional structure of acculturation for three prototypic groups of Asian Americans: those who were more Asian identified, those who were more American identified, and those who were jointly Asian and American identified. Three-way multidimensional scaling revealed a two-dimensional structure in which the first dimension consisted of language and culture domains and the second dimension contained cultural identity and values domains. These findings are consistent with the theoretical literature that distinguishes between external and internal aspects of acculturation (e.g., Kwan & Sodowsky, 1997). The first dimension was salient for the American identified prototype group, the second dimension was salient for the Asian identified group, and both dimensions were salient for the Asian and American identified group. Implications of the dimensional structure are discussed with respect to the predominant models of acculturation and identity for Asian Americans (e.g., Berry, 1989; Sue & Sue, 2003; Suinn, Rickard-Figueroa, Lew, & Vigil, 1987), the role of sociocultural context, and Linville's (1987) theory of cognitive complexity. Recommendations are made for the assessment of acculturation among Asian Americans.     

Family Functioning in Pediatric Trichotillomania

Little is known about how pediatric trichotillomania (TTM), a clinically significant and functionally impairing disorder, is impacted by, and impacts, family functioning. We explored dimensions of family functioning and parental attitudes in a sample of children and adolescents who participated in an Internet-based survey and satisfied conservative diagnostic criteria for TTM (ages 10–17, n = 133). Analyses reveal trends toward higher levels of dysfunction in families of TTM youth relative to normative samples, although no differences achieved statistical significance. However, scores on the Family Assessment Measure and the Attitudes Toward My Child scales were similar to those in clinical samples of youth with cystic fibrosis, an eating disorder, or an anxiety disorder. While these results indicate that family functioning and parental attitudes in TTM were not generally or extremely problematic, family issues may nevertheless warrant particular clinical evaluation and attention in more severe TTM cases.     

Just how comparative are comparative judgments?

Three studies investigate the psychology of comparative judgment, examining the circumstances under which judgments tend to concentrate disproportionately on one of the two elements that underlie the comparison (i.e., focused comparisons). We examine these tendencies at the judgment formation and information retrieval stages by examining judgment content as well as the speed and efficiency with which people make comparisons. The results replicate prior findings of differential weighting, indicating that focusing occurs in the formation stage of comparative judgments. However, focusing is absent in the reaction time data, suggesting that both elements of the comparison are equally accessible when individuals retrieve comparison-relevant information. These findings clarify the process by which people arrive at comparative judgments and demonstrate precisely when focused comparisons occur.     

Goal gradient in helping behavior

People are more likely to pitch in as charitable campaigns approach their goals. Such “goal gradient helping” occurs in part because late-stage efforts provide donors with a heightened sense of personal impact, an influential source of satisfaction from prosocial acts. Using web robot technology in an Internet field study of micro-lending, Study 1 demonstrated that charity contribution rates increase as recipients approach their fundraising goals. Study 2, a large-scale field experiment, found that funds close to reaching campaign goals received more donations than did funds far from reaching campaign goals. Study 3 replicated the goal gradient helping effect in a controlled scenario experiment, and mediational analyses showed that increased perceived impact of late-stage contributions, and the resultant satisfaction from this impact, explain goal gradient helping. In conclusion, people are not charitable simply to be kind or to relieve negative emotions; they find satisfaction from having personal influence in solving a social problem.     

The Relationship Between Rorschach Responses and Attitudes Toward Parents

Effects of self-ideal discrepancy and favorability of content on subjects' acceptance of personality interpretations were studied. Subjects accepted more favorable than neutral statements and more neutral than unfavorable statements. A significant effect was found for self-ideal discrepancy and for the interaction between self-ideal discrepancy and content favorability. In contrast to moderate and low discrepancy subjects, high discrepancy subjects accepted more of the interpretations, accepted more unfavorable, and rejected more favorable interpretations. High discrepancy subjects also accepted more neutral interpretations than did low discrepancy subjects. High discrepancy subjects expected to receive more negative feedback than low discrepancy subjects, and also interpreted this feedback more negatively than did low discrepancy subjects, while scores for the moderate discrepancy subjects were consistently between these two groups.