Parent Report of Attention Problems Predicts Later Adaptive Functioning in Children with Brain Tumors

Children with brain tumors are at risk for psychological and behavioral difficulties. This study examined the ability of parent report of attention problems, withdrawal, anxiety, and depression, as well as IQ, to predict later adaptive functioning in 42 children treated for brain tumors. Age at diagnosis, SES, gender, and scores on the Neurological Predictor Scale (NPS) also were examined as predictors. Parent report of attention problems, SES, and NPS were significant predictors of later adaptive functioning across domains. This finding highlights the ability of parent report of attention problems to predict later adaptive functioning in children treated for brain tumors.     

Integrating the stereotype content model (warmth and competence) and the Osgood semantic differential (evaluation,potency, and activity)

We integrate two prominent models of social perception dimensionality. In three studies, we demonstrate how the well‐established semantic differential dimensions of evaluation and potency relate to the stereotype content model dimensions of warmth and competence. Specifically, using a correlational design (Study 1) and experimental designs (Studies 2 and 3), we found that semantic differential dimensions run diagonally across stereotype content model quadrants. Implications of integrating classic and modern approaches of social perception are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rationally self-ascribed anti-expertise

In their paper, “I Can’t Believe I’m Stupid,” Adam Elga and Andy Egan introduce a notion of anti-expertise and argue that it is never rational to believe oneself to be an anti-expert. I wish to deny the claim that it is never rational for agents like us to ascribe anti-expertise to ourselves by describing cases where self-ascribed anti-expertise makes real life agents more rational.     

Wilhelm Reich – Ein blinder Seher?

The authors examine the extent to which the development of Wilhelm Reich’s ideas that led from Freud’s understanding of libido through marxism to sex-economy, from character-analysis to vegeto-therapy, from the orgasm reflex to the cosmic life energy “orgone”, might possibly be supported by a logic other than the one that Reich understood as "scientific". In so doing the authors differentiate the latent content from its manifest version and argue that if one focuses on the manifest content of Reich’s ideas, it is obvious that Reich ideologically falls back on the position of the “true socialists”, that his orgone theory ultimately re-vitalised the “new, true religion” Feuerbach’s (Engels 1888, p. 34) and that even Reich’s fetishization of genital love as a natural binding agent of human society finds its counterpart in Feuerbach. However, if one adds the latent content of Reich’s considerations, the unfolding of Reich’s ideas also presents the increasing reification of the human subject in its natural disguise as it emerged – in the light of historical materialism – under the social circumstances within which Reich developed his ideas. The authors develop the thesis that Reich’s misunderstanding of social processes as natural laws was not by coincidence but was due to the natural veil those processes were deceptively encircled. For as long as people keep the inner structure of their society beyond their social consciousness, they do not know what they are doing, so that the results of their social activity take on the appearance of being brought about by practical constraints caused by natural laws.     

Cues to Deception in the Employment Interview

Candidates' use of deceptive impression management (IM) during the employment interview has been found to influence employment outcomes. Unfortunately, interviewers are often unable to detect when deceptive IM is used. The current study applied research on cues to deception to the employment interview context to examine which micro‐ and macro‐level behavioral cues are indicators of deceptive IM. One hundred nine individuals completed mock employment interviews. We found that interviewees who used deceptive IM exhibited restrained facial behavior (i.e., less smiling), unrestrained verbal behavior (i.e., more speaking errors, less silences), and, unexpectedly, gave off the impression of being less anxious. The results suggest that behavioral cues have promise for future efforts to increase interviewers' ability to detect deception.     

Coloured Letters and Numbers (CLaN): A reliable factor-analysis based synaesthesia questionnaire

Synaesthesia is a heterogeneous phenomenon, even when considering one particular sub-type. The purpose of this study was to design a reliable and valid questionnaire for grapheme-colour synaesthesia that captures this heterogeneity. By the means of a large sample of 628 synaesthetes and a factor analysis, we created the Coloured Letters and Numbers (CLaN) questionnaire with 16 items loading on 4 different factors (i.e., localisation, automaticity/attention, deliberate use, and longitudinal changes). These factors were externally validated with tests which are widely used in the field of synaesthesia research. The questionnaire showed good test–retest reliability and construct validity (i.e., internally and externally). Our findings are discussed in the light of current theories and new ideas in synaesthesia research. More generally, the questionnaire is a useful tool which can be widely used in synaesthesia research to reveal the influence of individual differences on various performance measures and will be useful in generating new hypotheses.     

Social support from evaluative familiar persons – a buffer against stress? Preliminary evidence of neuroendocrine and psychological responses

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Social support may have a stress-buffering effect when an individual is or could be negatively judged by others, but paradoxically may also exacerbate stress. The aim of our study was to examine these findings when social support was provided by a positive or negative evaluative audience composed of familiar and close others (teachers).

Design and Methods: 84 men were confronted with the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups through a 3 (negative, positive, no-audience) x?2 (familiar, unfamiliar) experimental design with four measurement points of cortisol levels and state anxiety. We also tested whether closeness with the committee members predicted these variables for the participants in the familiar conditions.

Results: Using both a frequentist and a Bayesian approach, familiarity and social support did not have stress-buffering effects (or merely anecdotal effects) on cortisol levels but buffered self-reported anxiety only for the participants faced with a supportive audience composed of familiar persons. Closeness with the experimenters was not a significant predictor of the stress responses.

Conclusions: Because these results are preliminary evidence, further investigations into the relations between support provider and recipient during evaluative tasks would be worthwhile to better explain opposing findings found in this growing literature.     

Childhood Maltreatment Increases the Risk of Intimate Partner Violence via PTSD and Anger Personality Traits in Individuals Consulting for Sexual Problems

Childhood maltreatment is a significant risk factor for the perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) in adulthood. This study tested, in a clinical sample, a conceptual model suggesting that childhood maltreatment contributes to the development of anger personality traits, directly and indirectly via posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and that anger personality traits, in turn, are associated with IPV. Adults consulting for sex therapy (n = 114) completed self-report measures of childhood maltreatment, PTSD, anger, and IPV. Participants were exposed to high rates of childhood maltreatment (83%). Path analysis supported the hypothesized model: Exposure to child maltreatment was associated with anger personality traits, and this association was partially mediated by PTSD symptoms. Anger personality traits were highly correlated with IPV.     

Door-in-the-Face Technique and Delay to Fulfill the Final Request: An Evaluation With a Request to Give Blood

We tested the Door-in-the-Face technique (DITF) on blood donation with a delay between the acceptance of the request and the real possibility of complying with it. University students were solicited to give blood during a special one-day drive. After the refusal to participate in a long-term donor program, participants were asked for a one unit blood donation. In the control condition, only the latter request was addressed. The participants were either solicited two or three hours before the blood drive (delay) or during the blood drive (no delay). Results showed the DITF technique to be associated with greater verbal compliance with the request. However, the DITF technique with no delay was associated with greater behavioral compliance than were both of the control conditions and the DITF with a delay condition.