What’s the Harm in Asking About Suicidal Ideation?

Both researchers and oversight committees share concerns about patient safety in the study-related assessment of suicidality. However, concern about assessing suicidal thoughts can be a barrier to the development of empirical evidence that informs research on how to safely conduct these assessments. A question has been raised if asking about suicidal thoughts can result in iatrogenic increases of such thoughts, especially among at-risk samples. The current study repeatedly tested suicidal ideation at 6-month intervals for up to 2-years. Suicidal ideation was measured with the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire Junior, and administered to adolescents who had previously received inpatient psychiatric care. Change in suicidal ideation was tested using several analytic techniques, each of which pointed to a significant decline in suicidal ideation in the context of repeated assessment. This and previous study outcomes suggest that asking an at-risk population about suicidal ideation is not associated with subsequent increases in suicidal ideation.     

Skilled deaf readers have an enhanced perceptual span in reading

Recent evidence suggests that, compared with hearing people, deaf people have enhanced visual attention to simple stimuli viewed in the parafovea and periphery. Although a large part of reading involves processing the fixated words in foveal vision, readers also utilize information in parafoveal vision to preprocess upcoming words and decide where to look next. In the study reported here, we investigated whether auditory deprivation affects low-level visual processing during reading by comparing the perceptual span of deaf signers who were skilled and less-skilled readers with the perceptual span of skilled hearing readers. Compared with hearing readers, the two groups of deaf readers had a larger perceptual span than would be expected given their reading ability. These results provide the first evidence that deaf readers' enhanced attentional allocation to the parafovea is used during complex cognitive tasks, such as reading.     

Visuospatial processing in memory for word location in writing

Two experiments examined how visuospatial processing engaged during text composition intervenes in memory for word location. Experiment 1 showed that in contrast to participants who performed a spatial task concurrently with composing a text, participants who performed a concurrent visual task recalled fewer word locations after the composition. Consequently, it is hypothesized that writers process the written text in order to visually represent its physical layout, and that this representation is then used when locating words. Experiment 2 tested this hypothesis by comparing a standard composition condition (with the written trace) with a condition in which the written trace was suppressed during composition, and with a condition without written trace and with added visual noise. Memory for word location only decreased with visual noise, indicating that construction of the visual representation of the text does not rely on the written trace but involves visual working memory.     

Harcèlement moral au travail et pro/antisocialité du salarié victime : quels effets sur les jugements,les émotions et les intentions d’aide des témoins ?

Bullying at work is characterized by negative, repetitive and frequent acts towards a person, bearing reached with her physical and psychic health (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, & Cooper, 2003; Leymann, 1996). On the basis of research of Weiner (1996) and Rudolph, Roesch, Greitemeyer, and Weiner (2004), we postulated that the bullying acts, the behaviors of the bullied employee and it revictimisation would influence the judgments and the emotions of the witnesses. Research was carried out within the framework of the paradigm of the judges of 72 participants. The variance analyses show that the gravity of the acts decreases the feeling of equity, increases the attribution of responsibility towards the harcelor, decreases the attribution of responsibility to the victim and increases the help. The bullying acts always interact with the victim’s pro or antisocial behaviors. The emotions of the judges are mainly positive with regard to the victim and negative towards the harcelor except when bullied employee has emitted an antisocial behavior. The gravity of the bullying acts increases on the one hand sympathy, fear and sadness towards the victims, on the other hand, anger and dislike towards the harcelor.     

Beliefs about power and its relation to emotional experience: a comparison of Japan, France, Germany, and the United States

This research examined the concept of power in Japan, France, Germany, and the United States, as well as beliefs about the emotions persons in power tend to elicit in others and about powerful people's regulation (specifically, inhibition) of certain emotions. Definitions of power were assessed by examining the importance of two main components: control over self versus other and freedom of action vis-à-vis social norms. Beliefs about both positive (pride, admiration) and negative (jealousy, contempt) emotions were measured. Analyses revealed that the concept of power differed across countries and that the definitions of power as well as country of origin significantly predicted beliefs about the emotions that are elicited in others by powerful people and also the regulation of expression of emotion by powerful people.