Not self-focused attention but negative beliefs affect poor social performance in social anxiety: An investigation of pathways in the social anxiety-social rejection relationship

Patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) not only fear negative evaluation but are indeed less likeable than people without SAD. Previous research shows social performance to mediate this social anxiety-social rejection relationship. This study studied two pathways hypothesized to lead to poor social performance in social anxiety: increased self-focused attention and negative beliefs. State social anxiety was experimentally manipulated in high and low-blushing-fearful individuals by letting half of the participants believe that they blushed intensely during a 5 min getting-acquainted interaction with two confederates. Participants rated their state social anxiety, self-focused attention, and level of negative beliefs. Two confederates and two video-observers rated subsequently likeability (i.e., social rejection) and social performance of the participants. In both groups, the social anxiety-social rejection relationship was present. Although state social anxiety was related to heightened self-focused attention and negative beliefs, only negative beliefs were associated with relatively poor social performance. In contrast to current SAD models, self-focused attention did not play a key-role in poor social performance but seemed to function as a by-product of state social anxiety. Beliefs of being negatively evaluated seem to elicit changes in behavioral repertoire resulting in a poor social performance and subsequent rejection.     

Analysis of the gender variable in the EDTC using differential item functioning techniques

The aim of this work is to analyze the gender differences in the scales of a recently constructed test: the so-called EDTC. This test measures the following traits: sensation seeking, fearlessness, and impulsivity. Gender differences will be studied using Differential Item Functioning (DIF) techniques, in order to determine whether these differences are true differences in the assessed dimensions or if, on the contrary, they are the result of a mere artefact of the measuring instrument used. The methods used to study DIF are standardization, SIBTEST, logistic regression, Lord's chi 2 test, and indices based on the DFIT model. Despite the fact that some items with DIF exist, the gender differences observed seem to be the result of true differences in the measured personality constructs and they don't seem to be artificially produced by a bias in the test items.     

Subtypes of drug-addicts in treatment: empirical support for a distinction between Type A and Type B

This study examines the possibility of replicating and generalizing a multidimensional typology of drug-addicts by means of the evaluation of 320 participants who were receiving outpatient treatment for their problem of addiction. A two-stage cluster analysis was performed, revealing the existence of two typologies of consumers, called type A and Type B. The participants classified as Type B showed various indicators of chronicity (higher mean age, higher unemployment rate), more severity of their problem of drug consumption and of medical aspects, employment support, legal, family/social and psychiatric problems in comparison with Type A. Participants from the latter group reported active employment as their main source of income and they had consumed drugs for fewer years. However, they presented more severity associated with alcohol consumption. In view of these data, Type A is called functional drug-addict and Type B chronic drug-addict. Once the groups of drug-addicts were delimited, a more specific characterization was made, taking seven problem areas into account: medical, employment support, alcohol, drugs, legal, family/social, and psychiatric areas. As a general conclusion, more psychosocial severity was observed in Type B as compared with Type A. Lastly, the implications and usefulness of grouping drug-addicts into typologies is discussed.     

Gender Differences in Leadership Styles as a Function of Leader and Subordinates' Sex and Type of Organization

The main purpose of this study is to investigate gender differences in leadership styles and in organizational outcome variables, together with the influence of organizational/contextual variables on leadership styles in female and male participants in Spain. The sample comprised 226 participants (35 leaders and 191 subordinates) belonging to 35 work teams. The general findings show that only 2 of the 10 tested leadership styles are different for female and male leaders. Specifically, subordinates rate female leaders as more autocratic and negotiating than men, and this evaluation varies according to the subordinates' sex. We also found that some differences in the rating of female and male leaders depend on whether the organization is stereotypically feminine or masculine.     

Transportability of an empirically supported dissonance-based prevention program for eating disorders

This study sought to evaluate the degree to which positive effects remained when a well studied cognitive dissonance eating disorder prevention program was disseminated through a large national sorority under naturalistic conditions. All participants underwent a 2-session program run by peer facilitators. The sample included 182 undergraduate women from a local chapter of a national sorority at a large public university. Analyses revealed that the program significantly reduced body dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, dietary restraint, and the use of the media as a source of information about beauty, and restrained eating. Importantly, effect sizes were maintained at 5-months and 1-year follow-up. These findings demonstrate that empirically supported programs can remain effective when disseminated with careful training in large social systems.     

The dark side of cognitive illusions: When an illusory belief interferes with the acquisition of evidence‐based knowledge

Cognitive illusions are often associated with mental health and well‐being. However, they are not without risk. This research shows they can interfere with the acquisition of evidence‐based knowledge. During the first phase of the experiment, one group of participants was induced to develop a strong illusion that a placebo medicine was effective to treat a fictitious disease, whereas another group was induced to develop a weak illusion. Then, in Phase 2, both groups observed fictitious patients who always took the bogus treatment simultaneously with a second treatment which was effective. Our results showed that the group who developed the strong illusion about the effectiveness of the bogus treatment during Phase 1 had more difficulties in learning during Phase 2 that the added treatment was effective.     

Interference risk and the function of dynamic shifts in calling in the gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor)

Male gray treefrogs call to attract females under challenging acoustic conditions. At higher chorus densities, there is considerable background noise and a good chance that a male's calls will often be overlapped by calls of other individuals. Call overlap may reduce the probability of mating because females prefer calls with internal pulse structure that is not obscured. With increases in acoustic stimulation, males lengthen call duration while simultaneously reducing call rate such that "pulse effort" changes little. In our study, we tested the "interference risk hypothesis." This proposes that males change call duration so that, on average, there will be a sufficient number of pulses and interpulse intervals clear of acoustic interference per call to attract a female. However, female choice experiments employing call alternatives of different durations, rates, intensity levels, and degrees of call overlap refuted this hypothesis. Our results leave open the possibilities that the dynamic shift in the two components of pulse effort are related to the problem of call detection in a noisy environment or are responses by males to the perceived threat of competition for females.     

Prejudiced attitude measurement using the Rasch Rating Scale model

There have been two basic approaches for the study of minority group prejudice against the majority: to adapt instruments from the majority group, and to use qualitative techniques by analyzing the content of the discourse of the groups involved. Neither of these procedures solves the problem of measuring intergroup attitudes of majorities and minorities in interaction. This study shows the result of a prejudice scale which was developed to measure the attitude of both the minority and majority groups. Prejudice is conceived as an attitude which requires the beliefs or opinions about the out-group, the emotions it elicits, and the behavior or intentional behavior toward it to be known for its evaluation. The innovation in this work is that the psychometric development of the scale was based on the item response theory, and more specifically, the rating scale model.     

Temperament as Risk and Protective Factors in Obesogenic Eating: Relations Among Parent Temperament,Child Temperament,and Child Food Preference and Eating

Children’s food preferences and eating behaviors have implications for their health and weight status, serving as risk or protective factors for obesity. Although parent and child factors influence children’s eating, few studies have examined parent and child temperament simultaneously in relation to child food preference and eating behaviors. The authors addressed this research gap. Participants were 115 ethnically diverse children between 4 and 6?years old and their parents. Measures included parental temperament traits, parental anxiety, child temperament traits, and child food preference and eating behaviors observed using a laboratory procedure. Results show that children preferred candies over grapes, and that aspects of both child and adult temperament were related to child eating behaviors. Child surgency was linked to eating more candies, while child effortful control was linked to eating more grapes. Parent effortful control was related to children’s preference toward grapes. No relations were found between child eating behaviors and child or parent negative affectivity and parental anxiety. Overall, findings suggest that highly impulsive and poorly self-regulated children may be at risk for obesogenic eating habits.     

Comparison between two continuous performance tests for identifying ADHD: Traditional vs. virtual realityEjecución continua para la detección del TDAH: pruebas tradicionales frente a la realidad virtual

Background/Objective: Continuous Performance Tests (CPTs) have demonstrated validity when differentiating children with ADHD from healthy controls. However, these CPTs have limitations such as low ecological validity. New CPTs based on the use of Virtual Reality (VR) have appeared as supposedly improved methods for assessing ADHD. This study aims to compare the discriminant value of attentional variables produced by a VR CPT (Aula Nesplora) with that of variables from a traditional CPT (Test of Variables of Attention; TOVA) for identifying ADHD. Method: A total of 338 children aged between 6 and 16 years old (M = 10.84, SD = 3.01) participated in the study: 31.95% correspond to the inattentive presentation, 15.38% to the impulsive-hyperactive presentation, 22.78% to the combined presentation, and the remaining 29.88% correspond to children without ADHD. Results: Results indicated that Aula Nesplora predicts ADHD presentations better than TOVA. It also differentiates better between ADHD and non-ADHD students. Conclusions: These findings show the potential advantages of using virtual reality in ADHD assessment, as it facilitates the diagnosis of ADHD and the differentiation of its presentations in a realistic environment.