Stop-Think-Relax: An Adapted Self-Control Training Strategy for Individuals with Mental Retardation and Coexisting Psychiatric Illness

Published self-instructional techniques for stress/anger management for those with mental retardation and developmental disabilities are often impractical due to the demands of complex instructional sequencing and of applying the technique during distressing situations. The development and implementation of an adapted, self-instructional, self-control technique employing a simple, 3-step method, reinforced by iconic visual cues, will be presented. The application of this strategy in individuals with mental retardation and concurrent mental illness will be reviewed in 3 detailed clinical cases. The Stop-Think-Relax strategy is a highly versatile and easily taught method for self-control that can be successfully applied in adults with limited cognitive capacities and with coexisting psychiatric features.     

Individual-oriented and socially oriented cultural conceptions of subjective well-being: Conceptual analysis and scale development

Adopting a 'cross-cultural indigenous approach' (CCI), we attempted a conceptual analysis of cultural conceptions of SWB in terms of individual-oriented SWB (ISWB) and socially oriented SWB (SSWB) views. Also incorporating findings from our previous qualitative studies, a culturally balanced and fair measurement, The Individual-oriented and Socially oriented cultural conceptions of SWB Scales (ISSWB) was developed and evaluated in two studies involving Chinese and American participants. The 51-item version of the new measure showed good internal consistency reliability, test–retest reliability, convergent and discriminant validity. Further analysis showed that the Chinese possessed stronger SSWB than the Americans, while the Americans possessed stronger ISWB than the Chinese. There were also intracultural differences among the Chinese people. Overall, the studies showed the utility of ISSWB scales for future studies.     

The Effects of Caffeine Consumption on Direct and Indirect Majority and Minority Influence

A study is reported that examines the effect of caffeine consumption on majority and minority influence. In a double blind procedure, 72 participants consumed an orange drink, which either contained caffeine (3.5mg per kilogram of body weight) or did not (placebo). After a 40-minute delay, participants read a counter-attitudinal message (antivoluntary euthanasia) endorsed by either a numerical majority or minority. Both direct (message issue, i.e., voluntary euthanasia) and indirect (message issue-related, i.e., abortion) change was assessed by attitude scales completed before and after exposure to the message. In the placebo condition, the findings replicated the predictions of Moscovici's (1980) conversion theory; namely, majorities leading to compliance (direct influence) and minorities leading to conversion (indirect influence). When participants had consumed caffeine, majorities not only led to more direct influence than in the placebo condition but also to indirect influence. Minorities, by contrast, had no impact on either level of influence. The results suggest that moderate levels of caffeine increase systematic processing of the message but the consequences of this vary for each source. When the source is a majority there was increased indirect influence while for a minority there was decreased indirect influence. The results show the need to understand how contextual factors can affect social influence processes.     

The project of an International Congress of Psychology by J. Ochorowicz (1881)

Since the second part of the 19th century, there has been a great increase in the number of international scientific congresses, and they appear a necessary step in the maturation of knowledge. The first person to explicitly suggest the necessity of an international congress of psychology was Julian Ochorowicz (1850–1917), who was considered the founder of Polish psychology. In 1881 he sent an article to Théodule Ribot, editor of Revue Philosophique de la France et de l'Étranger, entitled “Project of an International Congress of Psychology,” which was published in Ribot's journal. In it he described the dispersed state of psychology in 1881 and the previous 50 years, including 12 subdisciplines ranging from psychophysics to the psychology of art, and how it should aim for unification. He suggested collective efforts to progress rapidly, with widespread collaboration and the continuous exchange of observations, information, and experiments. Having international congresses would constitute a forum for such exchanges, and in his article he outlined the steps that should be taken for putting together the first international congress of psychology. The proposal was quite extensive and fanciful, making Ribot somewhat doubt its realizability. Nevertheless, the first international psychology congress took place in Paris in 1889, 8 years after the publication of Ochorowicz's article. This quick development could be attributed to the creation of the psychology societies, one of the first being La Société de Psychologie Physiologique, which was created in France in 1885. The creation of this society also contributed to psychology being recognized as a scientific domain. In line with this, the final programme of the congress was less extensive than that proposed in Ochorowicz's article, focusing on physiological aspects and ignoring the philosophical ones. In the present paper, the historical context of Ochorowicz's article is outlined, followed by a translation of his article.     

Rumors Denials as Persuasive Messages: Effects of Personal Relevance,Source, and Message Characteristics1

Denial is a commonly used strategy to rebut a false rumor. However, there is a dearth of empirical research on the effectiveness of denials in combating rumors. Treating denials as persuasive messages, we conducted 3 laboratory‐based simulation studies testing the overall effectiveness of denials in reducing belief and anxiety associated with an e‐mail virus rumor. Under the framework of the elaboration likelihood model, we also tested the effects of denial message quality and source credibility, and the moderating effects of personal relevance. Overall, the results provided some support for the effectiveness of denials with strong arguments and an anxiety‐alleviating tone in reducing rumor‐related belief and anxiety. The effects of denial wording and source credibility were visible for participants who perceived high personal relevance of the topic. Limitations of the current research and future research directions are discussed.     

Reinhold Niebuhr in Contemporary Scholarship

Recent studies of Reinhold Niebuhr's life and work demonstrate his continued importance in theology, ethics, and political thought. Historical studies by Heather Warren, Mark Kleinman, and Normunds Kamergrauzis provide new assessments of Niebuhr's role as a political and religious leader in his own time and trace the consequences of the movements in which he participated. They also show us more clearly how his work was connected to the ideas and programs of his contemporaries. Colm McKeogh offers a more systematic treatment of Niebuhr's political realism in relation to just war theory. Niebuhr's intellectual legacy remains disputed, with Stanley Hauerwas and Langdon Gilkey offering radically different assessments of his theology. Hauerwas sees in Niebuhr a close connection to the religious liberalism of William James that precludes any authentic Christian witness. Niebuhr's empiricism reduces God to a necessary feature of human consciousness. Gilkey notes Niebuhr's early use of James' psychology, but discerns a theology of history that is central to Niebuhr's mature work. In that theology, the ground of hope necessarily lies beyond human consciousness, and indeed beyond history itself.     

Some observed differences in degree of concentration and their effects on shadowing

Three shadowing experiments investigated the hypothesis that difficulties in concentration are caused by internal factors as well as by the novelty, intensity or salience of background events. On the last trial of each experiment, a background message, which subjects had been instructed to ignore, changed unexpectedly. Most subjects noticed these changes and were disrupted by them (Experiments 1, 2 and 3). A smaller number of “concentrators” reported that they were unaware the changes had taken place. These concentrators were less disrupted by the background message than the non-concentrators both on the last trial and on earlier dichotic trials (Experiments 1 and 3). However, even concentrators were momentarily disrupted by the background changes (Experiment 3). Increased attended task difficulty increases the likelihood that subjects will fail to notice the changes (Experiment 2). The results support the view that good concentration consists in the ability to keep distracting events from consciousness.