Ethical Considerations in the Treatment of Compulsive Hoarding

Although empirically supported treatment for compulsive hoarding is in its preliminary stages, some information has emerged regarding ethical challenges experienced in treating this population. Our aims are twofold: (a) to inform the clinical community of ethical complications when conducting treatment for hoarding clients, and (b) to provide a decision-making model for ensuring quality and ethical care of hoarding clients. The ethical challenges (boundary crossings, dual roles, privacy/confidentiality, record keeping, fees, and cultural competence in treatment) were discovered through multiple roundtable discussions, supervision, and in the course of delivering empirically supported treatment protocols. A literature search was conducted to identify research that addressed ethical concerns. A decision-making model addressing ethical challenges in treatment of compulsive hoarding was developed.     

HIV Testing Experience and Risk Behavior Among Sexually Active Black Young Adults: A CBPR-Based Study Using Respondent-Driven Sampling in Durham,North Carolina

African Americans are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic inclusive of men who have sex with men, heterosexual men, and women. As part of a community‐based participatory research study we assessed HIV testing experience among sexually active 18–30 year old Black men and women in Durham, NC. Of 508 participants, 173 (74 %) men and 236 (86 %; p = 0.0008) women reported ever being tested. Barriers to testing (e.g., perceived risk and stigma) were the same for men and women, but men fell behind mainly because a primary facilitator of testing—routine screening in clinical settings—was more effective at reaching women. Structural and behavioral risk factors associated with HIV infection were prevalent but did not predict HIV testing experience. Reduced access to health care services for low income Black young adults may exacerbate HIV testing barriers that already exist for men and undermine previous success rates in reaching women.     

Meeting the Standard? A Sample of Christian Schools Libraries/Media Centers in Texas

This article reports a study using structured interviews of librarians of Christian schools in Texas. The study focuses on the librarian, the collections, the financial support and the selection policies, both written and assumed. Standards related to accreditation are also reviewed. Several denominations are included as well as varying size of schools. The libraries range in size from 3,000 to 25,000 volumes with the majority of holdings fewer than 10,000. Issues relating to censorship and selection of materials are discussed. We call for all accreditation agencies for our nation's private schools to investigate whether requiring specific standards for library/media center collections, budget, and their professional staff would make a significant impact on student performance. Also included in the article is a list of recommendations for a private school library selection policy.     

Perfectionism in depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and eating disorders

High levels of perfectionism have been observed in major depression, anxiety disorders and eating disorders. Though few studies have compared levels of perfectionism across these disorders, there is reason to believe that different dimensions of perfectionism may be involved in eating disorders than in depression or anxiety [Bardone-Cone, A. M. et al. (2007). Perfectionism and eating disorders: Current status and future directions. Clinical Psychology Review, 27, 84-405]. The present study compared patients with major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorders on dimensions of perfectionism. Concern over Mistakes was elevated in each of the patient groups while Pure Personal Standards was only elevated in the eating disorder sample. Doubts about Actions was elevated in both patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and eating disorders, but not in depressed patients. Analyses of covariance indicated that Concern over Mistakes accounted for most of the variance in the relationship of perfectionism to these forms of psychopathology.     

Spirituality and Ten False Beliefs and Pursuits of Women With Eating Disorders: Implications for Counselors

Women with eating disorders often struggle with deep spiritual conflicts that can be a major impediment to their recovery. On the basis of clinical experience with more than 350 women in an inpatient eating disorder treatment facility, the authors describe 10 false beliefs that women with eating disorders may hold; the authors explain how the pursuit of these beliefs can prevent the women from connecting with God and with others in genuine ways. The authors also suggest some therapeutic strategies that may help women with eating disorders find a healing and helpful spiritual perspective.     

Accurate step-hold tracking of smoothly varying periodic and aperiodic probability

Subjects observing many samples from a Bernoulli distribution are able to perceive an estimate of the generating parameter. A question of fundamental importance is how the current percept—what we think the probability now is—depends on the sequence of observed samples. Answers to this question are strongly constrained by the manner in which the current percept changes in response to changes in the hidden parameter. Subjects do not update their percept trial-by-trial when the hidden probability undergoes unpredictable and unsignaled step changes; instead, they update it only intermittently in a step-hold pattern. It could be that the step-hold pattern is not essential to the perception of probability and is only an artifact of step changes in the hidden parameter. However, we now report that the step-hold pattern obtains even when the parameter varies slowly and smoothly. It obtains even when the smooth variation is periodic (sinusoidal) and perceived as such. We elaborate on a previously published theory that accounts for: (i) the quantitative properties of the step-hold update pattern; (ii) subjects’ quick and accurate reporting of changes; (iii) subjects’ second thoughts about previously reported changes; (iv) subjects’ detection of higher-order structure in patterns of change. We also call attention to the challenges these results pose for trial-by-trial updating theories.     

Cross-modal evaluative priming: emotional sounds influence the processing of emotion words

Cross-modal priming occurs when a prime presented in one sensory modality influences responses to a target in a different sensory modality. Currently, demonstrations of cross-modal evaluative priming have been sparse and limited. In the present study, we seek to partially rectify this state of affairs by examining cross-modal evaluative priming from auditory primes to visual targets. Significant cross-modal priming effects were found, but only for negative primes. Results are discussed in terms of the negativity bias, and several suggestions are provided for using cross-modal evaluative priming to address theoretically important questions about emotion and cognition.     

What will Phil do next? : Spontaneously inferred traits influence predictions of behavior

Past research has shown that perceivers intentionally may make trait inferences about others and use this information to make predictions about these others' future behaviors. Other research has also shown that people can make trait inferences without intent—that is, spontaneously. However, one unexplored avenue is whether spontaneous trait inferences (STI), affect how perceivers predict others' will behavior. Three studies explored this issue. Results from Studies 1 and 2 showed that: (1) exposure to trait-implicative behaviors describing an actor influences subsequent behavior predictions made about the actor in a trait-consistent manner, and (2) predictions occurred regardless of behavior recall, implying that the behavior predictions were derived from prior trait inferences and not from behavior recall. Results from Study 3 bolstered this conclusion by showing that behavior predictions were similar regardless of whether subjects were explicitly instructed to make inferences or not, but that a manipulation known to interfere with inference generation (lie detection instructions) muted behavior predictions. Results from Study 3 also suggested that the prediction effects had both automatic and controlled components, and that reductions observed in the lie detection condition of Study 3 were caused by alterations in the automatic influence of trait knowledge to the behavior predictions. These results suggest that STI may be causal inferences about the actors' dispositions.     

You're getting warmer: Level of construal affects the impact of central traits on impression formation

Construal Level Theory argues that psychologically distant information will be processed conceptually, while psychologically near information will be processed concretely. Such theorizing implies that in the classic Asch (1946) paradigm in which participants make trait judgments of targets after viewing lists of trait words describing the targets, the words “warm” and “cold” should have more impact on impressions when targets are psychologically distant than when they are psychologically near. Results from two studies, indeed, found that the “warm–cold” effect reported by Asch was moderated by psychological distance. We interpret these findings as providing support both for the idea that the processes used to form impression of others can vary across situations and they do so in accord with the tenets of Construal Level Theory.