Psychosocial forces and neural mechanisms in disease: Defining the question and collecting the evidence

Adapted from the Samuel Novey Lecture in Psychological Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, November 12, 1981.     

Acceptance versus distraction: brief instructions, metaphors and exercises in increasing tolerance for self-delivered electric shocks

The current study compared the effects of an acceptance versus distraction rationale on coping with experimentally induced pain. Eighty participants were randomly assigned to one of five conditions: Full-Acceptance, Full-Distraction, Instruction-only-Acceptance, Instruction-only-Distraction and No-Instructions. Participants completed a simple matching task and were intermittently given the choice either to receive an electric shock and continue, or to avoid the shock and terminate the task. Only the Full-Acceptance strategy (that included experiential exercises and a metaphor) had a significant effect on task tolerance as measured by an increase in the number of shocks delivered post-intervention relative to baseline. In addition, the participants in both of the acceptance conditions showed lower levels of believability in that they were more likely to continue with the task even when reporting more pain. The results support the prediction that acceptance-based interventions work by undermining the behavioural-control functions of pain-related thoughts and feelings, and call for a systematic analysis of how metaphors and exercises work in analogue research.     

Subclinical delusional ideation and a self‐reference bias in everyday reasoning

Previous studies (e.g. Moller & Husby, 2000 ; Blackwood et al., 2004 ) have revealed that delusional thinking is accompanied by an exaggerated focus upon the self and upon stimuli that are perceived to be related to the self. The objective was to examine whether those high in subclinical delusional ideation exhibit a heightened tendency for self‐reference. Using a mixed design, healthy individuals, classified into high‐ and low‐scoring groups on the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory ( Peters, Day, & Garety, 1996 ), were compared on everyday reasoning tasks across three experiments. High‐PDI scorers, in contrast to the low‐PDI group, rated self‐referent objections to everyday arguments as stronger than other‐referent objections and formulated more self‐referent assertion‐based objections to everyday arguments. The findings support the notion that subclinical delusional ideation is linked to a self‐reference bias, which is evident in the sort of everyday thinking that people engage in when forming or evaluating their beliefs and which may contribute to delusion formation.     

Fairness Reactions to Personnel Selection Methods: An international comparison between the Netherlands,the United States,France, Spain,Portugal, and Singapore

This paper reports reactions to employee selection methods in the Netherlands and compares these findings internationally against six other previously published samples covering the United States, France, Spain, Portugal, and Singapore. A sample of 167 participants rated 10 popular assessment techniques using a translated version of Steiner and Gilliland's measure. In common with other country samples, we found that the most popular methods among applicants were interviews, work sample tests, and resumes. Least popular methods were graphology, personal contacts, and honesty and integrity tests. Generally, method favorability was found to be highly similar to the US and other published studies internationally. Across the six countries mean process favorability correlated at .87 and mean cross‐national procedural justice correlated .68. Process dimension ratings correlated at between .79 and .97 between the United States and the Netherlands. Only medium effect size differences (Cohen's d) were found between Dutch and US reactions to resumes and personality tests, the former being more favorably rated in the United States (d=.62) and the latter being more positively rated in the Netherlands (d=?.76). Implications for the design of selection procedures are discussed, especially implications for likely similarities and differences in applicant reactions internationally.     

Effects of Providing Pre‐Test Information and Preparation Materials on Applicant Reactions to Selection Procedures

This study examined the effects of providing applicants with pre‐test information and preparation (PTIP) materials on pass rates and reactions to the selection process. Applicants for chemical process operator positions that had (n=38) and had not (n=57) received PTIP materials before completing a test battery were surveyed after they had received notice of the outcome of the testing. Providing the PTIP materials did not influence overall pass rates or applicant reactions. However, results indicated that testing outcome (pass vs fail) had a strong influence on applicant reactions to the testing process. Among those that did not pass the testing hurdle, providing PTIP materials markedly improved perceptions of fairness and satisfaction with the testing process. These findings show that the use of PTIP materials reduces negative applicant reactions experienced by individuals that do not pass employment tests.     

Graduate students' social and emotional functioning relative to characteristics of eating disorders

The authors explored gender-based patterns of relations between social and emotional functioning and the behaviors empirically supported as being highly potent for eating disorders: drive to be thin and body dissatisfaction. Graduate students between 20 and 25 years of age served as participants. Correlation analyses revealed that for women, personal adjustment and internalizing behaviors had significant relations to drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction. Using hierarchical regression analysis, the authors found that self-esteem contributed to the most variation in the prediction of both outcome variables. A differing pattern emerged for men as drive for muscularity and hyperactivity were most strongly predictive of drive for thinness, but not body dissatisfaction. The authors discuss implications relative to T. L. Tylka and L. M. Subich's (2004) model.     

Memory aberrations, transliminality, and delusional ideation

This study investigated the relationships between cognitive-perceptual personality dimensions (transliminality and delusional ideation) and self-report measures of memory error (Oblivion Scale and the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire). 100 full- and part-time psychology undergraduate students completed the measures (18 men and 82 women; M = 19.3 yr., SD = 4.4). A positive correlation was found between transliminality and reported memory aberrations (Oblivion Scale scores) and also between transliminality and Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire scores. Correlations were positive between Peters, et al. Delusions Inventory and the self-report memory measures. Transliminality and Peters, et al. Delusions Inventory scores predicted the number of memory aberrations or slips reported on the Oblivion Scale and Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire. To explore whether transliminality explained additional variance to that accounted for by the Peters, et al. Delusions Inventory, forward regression was applied and showed aspects of transliminality not accounted for by Peters, et al. Delusions Inventory did not explain additional variance within the self-report memory measures.     

Attention and implicit memory in the category-verification and lexical decision tasks

Prior research on implicit memory appeared to support 3 generalizations: Conceptual tests are affected by divided attention, perceptual tasks are affected by certain divided-attention manipulations, and all types of priming are affected by selective attention. These generalizations are challenged in experiments using the implicit tests of category verification and lexical decision. First, both tasks were unaffected by divided-attention tasks known to impact other priming tasks. Second, both tasks were unaffected by a manipulation of selective attention in which colored words were either named or their colors identified. Thus, category verification, unlike other conceptual tasks, appears unaffected by divided attention, and some selective-attention tasks, and lexical decision, unlike other perceptual tasks, appears unaffected by a difficult divided-attention task and some selective-attention tasks. Finally, both tasks were affected by a selective-attention task in which attention was manipulated across objects (rather than within objects), indicating some susceptibility to selective attention. The results contradict an analysis on the basis of the conceptual-perceptual distinction and other more specific hypotheses but are consistent with the distinction between production and identification priming.