Comparison of fundus autofluorescence and minimum-motion measurements of macular pigment distribution profiles derived from identical retinal areas

The optical density of macular pigment was measured at twelve retinal locations in ten subjects by minimum motion photometry, comparing 460 nm with 580 nm or 550 nm. Fundus autofluorescence images were obtained for the same subjects with a scanning laser ophthalmoscope. Optical density was computed from mean calibrated grey-scale values for a central circular field and for annular segments, identical to areas tested psychophysically, and for complete annuli. Psychophysical assessments of optical density were similar irrespective of whether 550 nm or 580 nm was used. Optical density values derived psychophysically showed a linear correlation with assessments based on identical sampled areas of annular segments (slope = 0.98, r2 = 0.97) or complete annuli (slope = 0.89, r2 = 0.96) in autofluorescence images.     

Some Implications of Life-Span Development for Counseling Psychology

Current models of personality and career development are criticized for their failure to recognize the developmental processes that occur throughout adulthood. Recent research in adult personality and social development suggests that adults experience a number of predictable transitional and stable periods, each of which is characterized by specific developmental tasks. The implications of this research for counseling psychologists' work with adult clients are discussed. Counseling psychologists are encouraged to adopt a more positive view of the roles that crises play in adult personality and career growth.     

“When Will Your Program Be Available in Spanish?” Adapting an Early Parenting Intervention for Latino Families

This paper describes the Spanish adaptation of PACE—Parenting Our Children to Excellence. Successfully offered in preschools and daycare centers since 2002, PACE is a research-based preventive intervention to support families in their parenting task through discussions and activities that address practical childrearing issues and promote child coping-competence. Developed in response to community calls, the new program is known as CANNE –Criando a Nuestros Niños hacia el Éxito. The paper makes the processes linking original and adapted versions explicit by accounting for the conceptual and practical decisions that were made as CANNE was being developed. We begin by summarizing the challenges of adapting and translating a behavioral intervention, and by describing the coping-competence model that informs both versions of the program. We turn then to a detailed account of the adaptation itself and of its results. Specifically, we describe: (a) the consultation process at the origin of this adaptation, (b) the adaptation of the manual and the steps taken to establish the extent to which the English and Spanish versions correspond (adaptation fidelity), and (c) the translation of the manual and the cross-language comparison of measures to demonstrate that they yield comparable data when administered in English and Spanish.     

Evaluating Child Coping Competence: Theory and Measurement

Much of the research on children’s coping styles is based on a downward extension of adult coping theories. In a departure from this approach, coping competence theory seeks to account for children’s ability to cope with daily challenges on the basis of developmental research. The theory, which states that challenges call for distinct coping skills in the affective, social, and achievement domains, was evaluated with an ethnically diverse sample of preschoolers. The study relied on confirmatory factor analysis of a parent-completed measure of coping to test the 3-factor model underlying the theory, and related those factors to parent and teacher measures of child functioning. Results supported the 3-factor model of coping competence and showed that each domain of coping was negatively correlated with parent and teacher ratings of child disruptive behavior. Coping competence theory held across child sex and age. Findings provide support for a 3-factor model of coping competence in early childhood and for the validity of the new parent-completed measure of children’s coping styles refined in this study.     

Self-expectancies and reactions to evaluations of personal performance

A field study tested whether college students' reactions to evaluations of their performance on an important examination were based primarily on self-consistency or self-enhancement needs. All students (N= 166) completed two questionnaires, one a week before and the other a week after the examination. The first questionnaire measured general self-expectancies (self-esteem), as well as expectancies specific to the upcoming examination. The second questionnaire measured six separate phases of the students' reactions to their performance evaluations (cf. Shrauger, 1975), each phase being primarily cognitive or affective in nature. The results showed a strong general preference for positive rather than negative performance evaluations among the students, regardless of their self-expectancies. Self-enhancement effects emerged more clearly than did self-consistency effects, and most effects of both types tended to involve general rather than specific self-expectancies. Finally, there was some support for Shrauger's claim that cognitive reactions to performance evaluations are influenced by self-consistency needs, whereas affective reactions are influenced by self-enhancement needs.     

Measurement of delay of gratification

To determine if psychoanalytic and social learning theorists are referring to the same phenomenon when they speak of "delay of gratification", 26 college undergraduates were divided into high and low groups on the basis of their scores on a "money-spending" questionnaire (a social learning measure). The difference between these two groups with respect to Rorschach M responses (the psychoanalytic measure) was nonsignificant. It was suggested that psychoanalytic and social learning theorists are probably referring to different phenomena when they speak of "delay of gratification."     

Evolution of the empirical and theoretical foundations of eyewitness identification reform

Scientists in many disciplines have begun to raise questions about the evolution of research findings over time (Ioannidis in Epidemiology, 19, 640–648, 2008; Jennions & Møller in Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences, 269, 43–48, 2002; Mullen, Muellerleile, & Bryan in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1450–1462, 2001; Schooler in Nature, 470, 437, 2011), since many phenomena exhibit decline effects—reductions in the magnitudes of effect sizes as empirical evidence accumulates. The present article examines empirical and theoretical evolution in eyewitness identification research. For decades, the field has held that there are identification procedures that, if implemented by law enforcement, would increase eyewitness accuracy, either by reducing false identifications, with little or no change in correct identifications, or by increasing correct identifications, with little or no change in false identifications. Despite the durability of this no-cost view, it is unambiguously contradicted by data (Clark in Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 238–259, 2012a; Clark & Godfrey in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 22–42, 2009; Clark, Moreland, & Rush, 2013; Palmer & Brewer in Law and Human Behavior, 36, 247–255, 2012), raising questions as to how the no-cost view became well-accepted and endured for so long. Our analyses suggest that (1) seminal studies produced, or were interpreted as having produced, the no-cost pattern of results; (2) a compelling theory was developed that appeared to account for the no-cost pattern; (3) empirical results changed over the years, and subsequent studies did not reliably replicate the no-cost pattern; and (4) the no-cost view survived despite the accumulation of contradictory empirical evidence. Theories of memory that were ruled out by early data now appear to be supported by data, and the theory developed to account for early data now appears to be incorrect.