Diaries of significant events: socio-linguistic correlates of therapeutic outcomes in patients with addiction problems

The principles of narrative therapy imply that autobiographical diaries written by patients in treatment will not only facilitate but also elucidate progress. The relationship between the linguistic content of diaries and progress in treatment was examined in this study. Complete sets of daily diaries of ‘significant events’ written by 16 patients receiving treatment for drug, alcohol and food addictions at a residential centre, using the 12-step approach of the Anonymous fellowships, were typed up for analysis. Three forms of socio-linguistic enquiry were employed: narrative characterization; evaluative statement coding and computer analysis of word strategies. Results indicated that success in treatment as rated by counselling and psychiatric staff was associated with the following characteristics of diary narratives. They are (a) focused on individual progress, whether adopting a ‘positive interpretative’ or ‘negative reactive’ style; (b) less critical of self over time and more positive about others external to the treatment centre; (c) both positive about the treatment programme and critical of self; (d) using words indicative of ‘insight’ and ‘negativity’ as assessed by Pennebaker's LIWC programme. It is concluded that autobiographical material can usefully be employed to assess progress in treatment, and that its intrinsic value in effecting change should be further explored. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Toward accurate inferences of response class membership

In their review of synthesis within the functional analysis (FA) literature, Slaton and Hanley (2018) reported that most synthesized contingency analyses have included multiple topographies of problem behavior in the reinforcement contingency class. This leaves the question of whether one, some, or all forms of problem behavior are sensitive to the synthesized reinforcement contingencies in published analyses. To address this ambiguity, all topographies of problem behavior that were reported by caregivers to co-occur with the most concerning problem behavior were analyzed for 10 participants. We implemented extinction across one or more forms of problem behavior to determine whether all forms reported to co-occur were sensitive to the same synthesized reinforcement contingency. For nine of 10 participants, the most concerning topographies were sensitive to the same synthesized reinforcement contingencies as the less concerning topographies (results were inconclusive for one). Implications for inferring response class membership from single analyses are discussed.     

Sex is power belief and women’s mental health: The mediating roles of self-objectification and sexual subjectivity

Sex is power belief (SIPB) positively relates to self-objectification. This research aims at expanding this finding. We propose that SIPB involves an instrumental view of one’s own body (i.e., self-objectification) that leads women to experience the negative consequences classically associated with self-objectification. We further suggest that SIPB positively relates to sexual subjectivity—multidimensional sexual self-perceptions and positive sexual experiences—and that such relation counterbalances some of the negative effects of SIPB. We examine the effect of SIPB on women’s negative eating attitudes and sexual satisfaction, and test the mediating roles of self-objectification and sexual subjectivity in three studies (N1 = 121, N2 = 296, N3 = 320). Results supported our predictions that beliefs in one’s sexual power lead both to negative (via self-objectification) and positive (via sexual subjectivity) consequences for women’s mental health. The discussion focuses on the potential consequences of SIPB at both individual and collective levels.     

Face averages and multiple images in a live matching task

We know from previous research that unfamiliar face matching (determining whether two simultaneously presented images show the same person or not) is very error-prone. A small number of studies in laboratory settings have shown that the use of multiple images or a face average, rather than a single image, can improve face matching performance. Here, we tested 1,999 participants using four-image arrays and face averages in two separate live matching tasks. Matching a single image to a live person resulted in numerous errors (79.9% accuracy across both experiments), and neither multiple images (82.4% accuracy) nor face averages (76.9% accuracy) improved performance. These results are important when considering possible alterations which could be made to photo-ID. Although multiple images and face averages have produced measurable improvements in performance in recent laboratory studies, they do not produce benefits in a real-world live face matching context.     

When and How Different Motives Can Drive Motivated Political Reasoning

It is commonly assumed that the effectiveness of political messages depends on people's motivations. Yet, studies of politically motivated reasoning typically only consider what partisans generally might want to believe and do not separately examine the different types of motives that likely underlie these wants. The present research explores the roles of distinct types of motives in politically motivated thinking and identifies the conditions under which motivated reasoners are persuaded by political messages. Results of an experiment with a large, representative sample of Republicans show that manipulations inducing motivations for either (1) forming accurate impressions, (2) affirming moral values, or (3) affirming group identity each increased beliefs in and intentions to combat human-induced climate change, but only when also paired with political messages that are congruent with the induced motivation. We also find no evidence of a backlash effect even when individuals are provided with clearly uncongenial information and a motivation to reject it. Overall, our findings make clear that understanding when and why motivated political reasoning occurs requires a more complete understanding of both which motivations might be active among a group of partisans and how these motivations resonate with the messaging they receive.     

Word length effects on novel words: Evidence from eye movements

The present study investigated the effects of word length on eye movement behavior during initial processing of novel words while reading. Adult skilled readers’ eye movements were monitored as they read novel or known target words in sentence frames with neutral context preceding the target word. Comparable word length effects on all single-fixation measures for novel and known words suggested that both types of words were subject to similar initial encoding strategies. The impact of the absence of an existing lexical entry emerged in multiple first-pass fixation measures in the form of interactions between word length (long and short) and word type (novel and known). Specifically, readers spent significantly more first-pass time refixating long novel targets than short novel targets; however, the first-pass time spent refixating known controls did not differ as a function of length. Implications of these findings for models of eye movement control while reading, as well as for vocabulary acquisition in reading, are discussed.     

Children's judgment and recall of causal connectives: A developmental study of “because,” “so,” and “and”

The present study examined the acceptability judgments and recall performance of children aged 6,9, and 11 years with sentences expressing psychological cause-effect relations. Thirty-two sentences containing because medially, because initially, so, and and were generated from four clause pairs. Both probable and improbable event orders were used. The results indicated that children preferred because to so or and for statements of psychological causality. However, on both tasks, first and third graders frequently failed to attend to the temporal ordering specified by each sentence construction. The younger children also tended to judge all sentences acceptable, suggesting that they were concerned only with the probable association of event pairs, and not with the usual order of the events. Order of mention strategies did not occur in any group, suggesting that they arise only when children cannot make interpretations based on probable order of events. The data also indicated that the recall task is an unreliable index of rules for comprehension and production.This article is based on research conducted by the first author as partial fulfillment of the Ph.D. requirements for the Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin.     

Association between Depressive Symptoms and Negative Dependent Life Events from Late Childhood to Adolescence

The association between stressful life events and depression has been consistently supported in the literature; however, studies of the developmental trajectories of these constructs and the nature of their association over time are limited. We examined trajectories of depressive symptoms and negative dependent life events and the associations between these constructs in a sample of 916 youth assessed annually from age 9 to 16, using latent growth curve modeling. Youth depressive symptoms, as rated by youth, parents, and teachers, decreased from late childhood into adolescence, whereas rates of youth-rated life events did not change significantly over time. Initial levels of depressive symptoms were positively associated with initial levels of life events. Furthermore, after controlling for the initial association between the two constructs, increases in depressive symptoms (as assessed by parents and youth) were positively associated with increases in life events over time. The study builds on prior research by focusing specifically on negative dependent life events, examining results across multiple informants, and employing latent growth curve modeling to evaluate associations between trajectories of life events and depressive symptoms in a longitudinal adolescent sample. Additional studies employing latent growth modeling to examine the changes in this association during adolescence are needed.     

Stigma of mental and physical illness and the use of mobile technology

Research has shown the stigma attached to mental disabilities, yet little research has directly compared the experiences of people with physical disabilities and those with mental disabilities. Not only are both conditions likely perceived as stigmatizing, but the pervasive use of mobile technology may be one means by which people with disabilities can manage and understand their disability. Four hundred and eighty-seven individuals with physical and/or psychological disabilities completed a survey examining whether they would be willing to use mobile technology to manage their disability and how stigmatizing they perceived their disability to be. Willingness to use mobile technology was related to the age of the sample as well as the type of disability. Individuals with psychological disabilities were more likely to use certain forms of mobile technology relative to those with physical disabilities. Observed differences between physical and psychological disabilities are discussed in terms of the symbolic interaction stigma model.