Can Cognitive‐Behavioral Therapy Be Optimized With Parent Psychoeducation? A Randomized Effectiveness Trial of Adolescents With Major Depression in Puerto Rico

This is a longitudinal randomized control trial on the impact of adding a parent psychoeducation intervention (TEPSI) as part of cognitive‐behavioral therapy (CBT) for adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in a Puerto Rican sample. We tested the efficacy of adding 8 group sessions of TEPSI to 12 sessions of individual CBT on reducing depressive symptoms, MDD diagnosis, and improving family functioning. Participants (n = 121) were randomized to individual CBT with or without TEPSI. No main group effects were found for most patient domains including depression symptoms, as well as presence of adolescent's MDD diagnosis at posttreatment. Results did show a main effect of CBT over time for depression symptoms, suicide ideation, family criticism, and the presence of MDD diagnosis decreasing from pre‐ to postintervention. A year post treatment, almost 70% of adolescents in both conditions (CBT and CBT + TEPSI) remained in remission. A main effect was obtained for treatment in the adolescent's perception of familism and family emotional involvement. The primary hypothesis that family psychoeducation would optimize CBT for depression in adolescents was not supported. Both conditions yielded similar clinical end points. The culturally adapted CBT was found effective with Latino/a adolescents showing clinically significant improvements from pretreatment to posttreatment and remained stable at a 1‐year follow‐up. Regarding family outcomes, adolescents in CBT + TEPSI remained stable from pretreatment to posttreatment on family emotional involvement, while adolescents in CBT‐alone showed an increase. The implication of these findings is discussed.     

Assimilation and contrast to group primes: The moderating role of ingroup identification

This research examined the conditions under which behavioral contrast would be observed in relation to ingroup and outgroup primes. The authors tested the hypothesis that differing levels of commitment to the ingroup would predict diverging behavioral responses to outgroup but not ingroup primes. Across two studies, featuring both age and gender groups, we found that ingroup identification predicted responses to outgroup primes with higher identifiers showing an increased tendency to contrast, that is, behave less like the outgroup, and more like the ingroup. Ingroup identification did not predict responses to ingroup primes. The implications of these findings for social comparison and social identity theories are discussed.     

Improving sixth-grade students perceptions of high-effort assignments by assigning more work: Interaction of additive interspersal and assignment effort on assignment choice

Sixth-grade students were exposed to two pairs of mathematics assignments. Assignment Pair A included a high-effort and a moderate-effort assignment, each containing 18 three-digit by two-digit (3×2) problems. Assignment Pair B was similar except the high-effort assignment contained six additional one-digit by one-digit (1×1) problems interspersed following every third 3×2 problem. After exposure to each pair of assignments, students ranked assignments and chose a new assignment for homework. Analysis of Assignment Pair A data showed students preferred the moderate-effort assignment. Analysis of interactions showed that interspersing the additional brief problems to the high-effort assignment caused significantly more students to choose the high-effort assignment for homework and rank it as requiring less effort and time to complete and as being less difficult than the moderate-effort assignment. Results support the hypothesis that a discrete task is a reinforcer and suggest that educators can increase the probability of students engaging in more challenging assignments that require more effort to complete by interspersing additional brief tasks. Applied and theoretical implications are discussed along with future research.     

Contrast effects in stereotype formation and change: the role of comparative context

Two experiments investigated the way in which the presence of a comparative or inter-group context during stereotype formation affects stereotype change, induced by subsequent disconfirming information. Participants learned about a focal group, after learning about one of the two context groups. After reporting their stereotypes about both groups, participants learned additional information about the focal group. This information described new group members who either confirmed or disconfirmed the group stereotype. Consistent with previous research, participants formed more extreme stereotypes about the focal group on dimensions that distinguished it from the context group (i.e., a contrast effect). In response to the subsequently presented disconfirming group members, a greater stereotype change was observed on dimensions that distinguished the focal group from the context group than on dimensions it did not. We argue that these effects are due to differences in perceived typicality of disconfirming group members.     

Confronting death before death: Between imminence and unpredictability. Francisco Varela's Neurophenomenology of Radical Embodiment

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences -     

Political ideology, exploration of novel stimuli, and attitude formation

In this study, the relations among political ideology, exploratory behavior, and the formation of attitudes toward novel stimuli were explored. Participants played a computer game that required learning whether these stimuli produced positive or negative outcomes. Learning was dependent on participants’ decisions to sample novel stimuli and discover the associated valence. Political ideology correlated with exploration during the game, with conservatives sampling fewer targets than liberals. Moreover, more conservative individuals exhibited a stronger learning asymmetry, such that they learned negative stimuli better than positive. Mediational analyses revealed that the differences in learning were due to the extent of exploratory behavior during the game. Relative to liberals, politically conservative individuals pursued a more avoidant strategy to the game, which led to their development of a more pronounced valence asymmetry in learning and attitude formation.     

Does cost–benefit analysis or self‐control predict involvement in bullying behavior by male prisoners?

The main aim of this study is to assess whether lack of self-control or the perceived costs and benefits of aggression provide the better predictors of bullying behavior and victimization, and direct aggression perpetration, in a sample of 122 male British prisoners. We also assessed whether bullying was associated with height and weight. Zero-order correlations showed that perceived benefits, self-control, and perceived costs were most closely associated with perpetration of bullying, and that lack of self-control was weakly associated with victimization. Height and weight were unrelated to bullying or victimization. In a standard regression analyses, perceived benefits was the strongest predictor of bullying perpetration, with lack of self-control contributing further; all three variables made a significant contribution when direct aggression was the criterion. Mediation analysis showed that a combined cost-benefit measure partially mediated the association between self-control and both bullying and direct aggression. The findings are discussed in relation to explanations of aggression based on impulse control or a cost-benefit analysis.     

Longitudinal associations between relational and sexual well-being in couples transitioning to parenthood

There is limited understanding of the dynamic between relational and sexual well-being as couples adjust to new parenthood, despite this being a vulnerable period for couples' relationships. This study was aimed at examining the bidirectional links between relationship quality and sexual well-being (i.e., sexual satisfaction, sexual distress) across the transition to parenthood. We assessed new parent couples (N = 257) across four time points (two prenatal) from mid-pregnancy through 6 months postpartum. Parallel dyadic latent growth curve modeling was employed to examine the associations between trajectories of perceived relationship quality, sexual satisfaction, and sexual distress. New parents' declines in relationship quality were associated with declines in own and partners' sexual satisfaction and with increases in own sexual distress. Mothers' prenatal relationship quality and sexual distress predicted subsequent changes in own sexual distress and fathers' relationship quality, respectively. Results indicate that changes to new parents' relational and sexual well-being mutually influence each other over time. Current results indicate that the impact of the transition on couples' relationships is partly determined by own and partners' prenatal factors, to which clinicians and researchers can attend to early on. Cross-domain links between relational and sexual well-being should be considered in research and clinical practice.