Engagement in Group Psychotherapy Among Marginalized Individuals With Hepatitis C

This article examines an innovative psychoeducational group model at a community-based hepatitis C treatment program in Toronto, Canada. Group support is increasingly used as part of community-based, interdisciplinary approaches to addressing the complex psychosocial needs and barriers to care of individuals living with and/or undergoing treatment for hepatitis C. This article articulates the theoretical framework and details of one such group model. It also examines group engagement and outcomes using data collected over three group cycles. Psychotherapeutic engagement was higher than might be anticipated for a highly marginalized population. Specifically, group cohesion measures were equivalent or higher compared to norms for other support/psychotherapy groups. This study suggests that individuals with complex psychosocial issues have the ability to engage meaningfully in group therapy.     

Social influence on metacognitive evaluations: The power of nonverbal cues

Metacognitive evaluations refer to the processes by which people assess their own cognitive operations with respect to their current goal. Little is known about whether this process is susceptible to social influence. Here we investigate whether nonverbal social signals spontaneously influence metacognitive evaluations. Participants performed a two-alternative forced-choice task, which was followed by a face randomly gazing towards or away from the response chosen by the participant. Participants then provided a metacognitive evaluation of their response by rating their confidence in their answer. In Experiment 1, the participants were told that the gaze direction was irrelevant to the task purpose and were advised to ignore it. The results revealed an effect of implicit social information on confidence ratings even though the gaze direction was random and therefore unreliable for task purposes. In addition, nonsocial cues (car) did not elicit this effect. In Experiment 2, the participants were led to believe that cue direction (face or car) reflected a previous participant's response to the same question—that is, the social information provided by the cue was made explicit, yet still objectively unreliable for the task. The results showed a similar social influence on confidence ratings, observed with both cues (car and face) but with an increased magnitude relative to Experiment 1. We additionally showed in Experiment 2 that social information impaired metacognitive accuracy. Together our results strongly suggest an involuntary susceptibility of metacognitive evaluations to nonverbal social information, even when it is implicit (Experiment 1) and unreliable (Experiments 1 and 2).     

Adolescents’ Attachment to Parents and Peers: Links to Young Adulthood Friendship Quality

Few studies have been carried out on emerging adults’ friendships and on their developmental roots. Research suggests that in adolescence, both attachment to parents and attachment to peers play a role in future socio-emotional development. The aim of the present study was to compare attachment in these two types of relationships in adolescence according to gender and test whether they respectively predicted the perception of best friendship in early adulthood. A sample of 83 participants (49 girls) was seen in early adolescence (M?=?13.66 years, SD?=?0.64) and 7 years later (mean age?=?21.15 years, SD?=?0.83). At T1, participants completed the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, which measures attachment using three subscales (communication, alienation and trust) and one global security score. At T2, they completed the McGill Friendship Questionnaire. Results show that in adolescence, boys report higher security with parents compared to peers (mainly due to better communication), unlike girls who obtain higher scores with peers. Longitudinal findings reveal that alienation in the relation with parents is what best predicts friendship quality in early adulthood. These findings underline the specific internal working models at play in socio-emotional development and the way gender differences evolve from adolescence to early adulthood.

     

Does the transcranial direct current stimulation improve dual-task postural control in young healthy adults?

Cognitive Processing - Some studies have suggested that postural balance improved after a single session of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), whereas others have found minimal, if...     

The fit between dignity self‐construal and independent university norms: Effects on university belonging,well‐being,and academic success

Universities struggle with students’ low well‐being and high dropout rates. High (compared to low) fit between students’ self‐construal and perceived university norms might help to prevent these problems. A strong dignity self‐construal (i.e., the understanding that one's worth is independent of others) is adaptive if university norms stress independence. The more a university norm is perceived as stressing independence, the better the fit for students with a strong (vs. weak) dignity self‐construal. Thus, if students with a strong dignity self‐construal perceive a university norm as stressing independence, they should develop a greater sense of belonging to the university and, in turn, experience higher well‐being, more motivation, and lower dropout intention. A longitudinal study with two measurement points conducted with students from 18 universities (N = 719) provided support for these predictions. This underlines the relevance of the fit between student and (perceived) school characteristics for the higher education sector.     

Variants of Psychopathic Traits Follow Distinct Trajectories of Clinical Features Among Children with Conduct Problems

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Original definitions of psychopathy suggest the existence of two variants that present with distinct clinical features among antisocial adults,...     

Problem Gambling in Adolescence: An Analysis Conducted from the Actor’s Perspective

The objective of this study is, by using the general theory of rationality (GTR), to better understand the rationale underlying gambling behavior in adolescents considered to have gambling problems. The study explore gambling associated benefits, negative consequences of gambling, and the adolescents’ perceptions of the severity of their gambling behavior. The qualitative research is based on semi-structured interviews with 31 adolescents considered as having gambling problems. The analysis revealed that gambling behavior are based on a threefold rationality: instrumental, cognitive and axiological. The GTR allows to better understand why most of them do not consider to have gambling problems.     

Avoiding affect in intergroup relations: The roles of dispositional and intergroup empathy in the relationship between alexithymia and prejudice

Alexithymia, that is, difficulties in recognizing, communicating, and processing one's own emotions, is associated with poorer interpersonal relations. Emotional processes are key drivers and mechanisms of prejudice and its reduction, and alexithymia is thought to influence individuals' empathic responses. This research examined the relationship between alexithymia and prejudice, and the role of empathy in this relationship. Three studies were conducted in three intergroup contexts to test whether alexithymia is also associated with poorer intergroup relations with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender+ individuals (Study 1, N = 126 heterosexual late adolescents) and Asian British people (Study 3, N = 300 White adults) in the United Kingdom, and immigrants in Italy (Study 2, N = 381 Italian adults). Participants completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), measures on dispositional and intergroup empathic concern (EC) and perspective taking (PT) as well as measures of prejudice (anti-outgroup hostility, anti-outgroup attitudes, and anti-outgroup behavioral intentions). Lower dispositional EC (Studies 1, marginal effect in Study 2) and intergroup EC and PT (Study 3) mediated the relationship between the Externally Oriented Thinking subscale of the TAS-20 (i.e., avoiding emotions and affective thinking) and greater prejudice. The findings are important for understanding the challenges of late adolescents and adults with alexithymia in intergroup relations, highlighting the role of dispositional and intergroup empathy for individual differences such as alexithymia in endorsing prejudice.