Mimicking disliked others: Effects of a priori liking on the mimicry‐liking link

The sharing of bodily states elicits in mimicker and mimickee corresponding conceptualisations, which facilitates liking. There are many studies showing the relatedness of mimicry and liking. However, the mimicry‐liking link has not been investigated under conditions in which the mimickee is liked or disliked a priori. In two studies, we examined moderating effects of a priori liking on the mimicry‐liking link. Liking was measured via self‐report measures (Studies 1 and 2) and behavioural measures using a virtual environment technology (Study 2). Results showed that when participants intentionally mimicked a disliked person, liking for that person was not improved, whereas when participants mimicked a liked person, liking for that person increased. These effects were shown to be mediated by affiliation. These studies not only provided further evidence of a link between mimicry and liking, but also demonstrated that this relationship is moderated by a priori liking. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alcohol intoxication and memory for events: A snapshot of alcohol myopia in a real-world drinking scenario

Alcohol typically has a detrimental impact on memory across a variety of encoding and retrieval conditions (e.g., Mintzer, 2007; Ray & Bates, 2006). No research has addressed alcohol's effect on memory for lengthy and interactive events and little has tested alcohol's effect on free recall. In this study 94 participants were randomly assigned to alcohol, placebo, or control groups and consumed drinks in a bar-lab setting while interacting with a “bartender”. Immediately afterwards all participants freely recalled the bar interaction. Consistent with alcohol myopia theory, intoxicated participants only differed from placebo and control groups when recalling peripheral information. Expanding on the original hypervigilance hypothesis, placebo participants showed more conservative reporting behaviour than the alcohol or control groups by providing more uncertain and “don't know” responses. Thus, alcohol intoxication had confined effects on memory for events, supporting and extending current theories.     

Dealing With Complexity Differently: From Interaction-Dominant Dynamics to Theoretical Plurality

We describe how the work of Guy Van Orden has been deeply influential in a variety of ways and focus on 2 important features: measurement and context. The centrality of these variables in understanding how psychological regularities emerge in our investigative contexts, and evolve into theories, recommends a different way of dealing with complexity. We argue that the Van Orden approach has, as one possible consequence, a plural approach to psychological phenomena. We end by describing what this means for cognitive science.     

Flexibility of Established Habit

(Geldard, Frank A. The Human Senses. New York: Wiley, 1953. Pp. 365.) Reviewed by John Paul Nafe.     

Adjective Check List Scores of Homosexual Men

Adjective Check List (ACL) scores were compared for 44 homosexual and 111 heterosexual males who were not involved with either psychotherapy or the law. Significant differences were found on 12 of 24 scales, most but not all “favoring” the heterosexuals, and on 78 of 300 individual adjectives, which comprise an unvalidated “homosexuality” scale. The ACL Heterosexuality scale did not differentiate the groups, but Heilbrun's Masculinity-Feminity scale did do so. The ACL was criticized for excessively high interscale correlations and for low validity coefficients with the major criterion. It was concluded that the homosexuals had more problems in self-acceptance and in relating to others, but that only a small minority differed from the heterosexuals sufficiently to be considered neurotic.     

Changes in Primary Process Thinking of a Prepsychotic Adolescent in Psychotherapy

The main goal of this study was to measure longitudinally change in thought processes and reality testing of a prepsychotic adolescent undergoing psychotherapy. The Holt scoring system for measuring primary process from Rorschach responses was the main measuring instrument. Four Rorschachs were administered over a period of three years. The results of the latter were compared with the clinical ratings of two psychiatrists. While clinical change in response to treatment was slight, there did appear to be a shift from primary to more secondary forms of formal thought processes as determined by the Rorschach.     

the nature and frequency of medicare/medicaid fraud and neutralization techniques among speech,occupational, and physical therapists

ABSTRACT

The current study examines the nature and frequency of Medicare/Medicaid fraud and the techniques of neutralization utilized by a purposeful sample of speech, occupational, and physical therapists working within the context of hospitals, nursing homes, and with home health agencies, in a southern state. Participant observations, surveys, and in-depth interviews were utilized to obtain data for this study. We identified two main fraudulent practices, cutting sessions short while charging for the entire session and charging individual session rates for group therapy sessions. We also identified three techniques of neutralization utilized by the therapists in our study, including: (1) everyone else does it, (2) denial of responsibility, and (3) denial of injury. The implications of our findings are discussed.     

Implicit Attitudes as Potential Protection From Risky Sex: Predicting Condom Use With the IAT

The Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) has become a popular tool for measuring implicit attitudes toward 2 contrasting concepts. In this study, we suggest including a neutral category (trees) to capture implicit evaluations of a single target attitude object. Using such a technique to measure implicit attitudes toward condoms, we predicted and found that explicit attitudes were related to intended condom use in situations that allow for controlled and deliberative processing, but implicit attitudes were related to intended condom use when automatic processing presides. Implications for such implicit and explicit attitude-behavior relations are discussed in the context of sexual risk-taking.     

Cognición ambiental

Resumen

Esta investigación revisa el conocimiento espacial humano en los ambientes cotidianos y reales. Los estudios relativos a mapas cognitivos se organizan en cinco categorías empíricas: edad, familiaridad, sexo, clase-cultura y componentes físicos del ambiente. Se discuten las cuestiones metodológicas y conceptuales en los trabajos sobre el conocimiento ambiental, enfatizando los problemas con las metodologías que utilizan el dibujo de mapas cognitivos. En particular se observa una falta de integración entre la investigación cognitiva pertinente y los trabajos de la psicología ambiental sobre mapas cognitivos. Finalmente se discute la aplicación potencial de los trabajos de conocimiento ambiental a la arquitectura, el diseño urbanístico y la educación.     

BEING DRIVEN MAD: TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING BORDERLINE AND OTHER DISTURBED STATES OF MIND THROUGH THE USE OF THE COUNTER‐TRANSFERENCE

In this paper material is presented from supervision groups run for nurses and other mental health professionals. The patients presented to the group came from different mental health settings with a diagnosis that included borderline features and/or other disturbed states of mind. All of the patients described caused strong counter‐transference feelings of sympathy, confusion, anger, hopelessness and guilt. Although these views were not expressed in formal ward rounds or recorded in clinical notes, evidence of their influence could be seen in the staff's attitude toward these patients. In supervision groups staff would either say that the patients were victims of mistreatment or they adopted a rather moralistic tone saying, ‘the patient is attention‐seeking’, ‘manipulative’ or ‘not mentally ill’. Psychoanalytic supervision which puts the transference and counter‐transference relationship at the centre of practice can help staff to think about their feelings and digest them in a way that makes use of them as evidence rather than discarding them as purely subjective. It also helps to reduce the toxic effects of the patient's projections upon the clinician's mind and this in turn helps to reduce retaliatory or manic clinical decisions. In this paper I argue that staff teams need time to reflect on their practice in handovers and clinical meetings and that psychoanalytic supervision can offer a particularly valuable clinical perspective on patients with Borderline features. This sort of support should be seen as an essential part of the work of nurses and other mental health professionals rather than an unaffordable luxury.