Event Centrality,Posttraumatic Cognitions,and the Experience of Posttraumatic Growth

This study tested the extent to which negative appraisals following traumatic events and the centrality of traumatic events predicted posttraumatic growth (PTG; Tedeschi &; Calhoun, 1996 Tedeschi, R. G. and Calhoun, L. G. 1996. The posttraumatic growth inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9: 76–80. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Participants were 405 undergraduates at a Midwestern university who reported experiencing at least one traumatic event. Regression analyses indicated that the centrality of the event was a significant predictor for all five domains of PTG. Negative appraisals of the world were related to some domains of growth, but neither negative cognitions about the self nor self-blame was a significant predictor of any of the growth domains. Interpretation of these results is considered in light of the consistencies with Janoff-Bulman's (2004) Janoff-Bulman, R. 2004. Posttraumatic growth: Three explanatory models. Psychological Inquiry, 15: 30–34. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] explanatory models of development of PTG.     

Wives' and Husbands' Cortisol Reactivity to Proximal and Distal Dimensions of Couple Conflict

Poor marital quality has been linked repeatedly to spouses' health problems, with alterations to physiological stress response systems, such as the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenocortical (HPA) axis, as one putative mechanism. This study assessed wives' and husbands' HPA axis (i.e., cortisol) reactivity to marital criticism during laboratory‐based conflict discussions, in the context of marital aggression experienced during the previous year. Ninety‐five couples provided one saliva sample prior to—and three samples following—a triadic family conflict discussion involving their teenage child. Marital criticism during the conflict discussion was related to heightened HPA reactivity for husbands only. For wives, an interaction emerged between criticism during the conflict and previous‐year marital aggression: only those wives who had experienced high levels of marital aggression demonstrated a positive association between criticism and cortisol output. Husbands thus appeared to be more physiologically reactive to the in‐the‐moment critical behaviors, whereas wives' responses to proximal conflict were related to previous and perhaps more chronic experiences of marital aggression. These findings shed light on ways in which within‐couple processes during family conflicts involving children contribute to individual physiological functioning, enhancing our understanding of the role of family relationships in physical health outcomes.     

Restricted interests and teacher presentation of items

Restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) is more pervasive, prevalent, frequent, and severe in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) than in their typical peers. One subtype of RRB is restricted interests in items or activities, which is evident in the manner in which individuals engage with items (e.g., repetitious wheel spinning), the types of items or activities they select (e.g., preoccupation with a phone book), or the range of items or activities they select (i.e., narrow range of items). We sought to describe the relation between restricted interests and teacher presentation of items. Overall, we observed 5 teachers interacting with 2 pairs of students diagnosed with an ASD. Each pair included 1 student with restricted interests. During these observations, teachers were free to present any items from an array of 4 stimuli selected by experimenters. We recorded student responses to teacher presentation of items and analyzed the data to determine the relation between teacher presentation of items and the consequences for presentation provided by the students. Teacher presentation of items corresponded with differential responses provided by students with ASD, and those with restricted preferences experienced a narrower array of items.     

I fear your envy, I rejoice in your coveting: on the ambivalent experience of being envied by others

We present 2 studies on being envied. Study 1 used an emotional narrative methodology. We asked 44 Spanish (23 women, 21 men) and 48 European American (36 women, 12 men) participants to tell us about a recent experience in which others envied them. We classified the antecedents, relationship context, markers of envy, coping strategies, and positive and negative implications of being envied. In Study 2, 174 Spanish (88 women, 86 men) and 205 European American (106 women, 99 men) participants responded to a situation in which they had something someone else wanted. We manipulated the object of desire (academic achievement or having "a better life"). We measured individual differences in orientation to achievement (i.e., vertical individualism), cooperation and interpersonal harmony (i.e., horizontal collectivism), a zero-sum view of success, beliefs that success begets hostile coveting, fear of success, and dispositional envy. We also measured participants' appraisals, positive and negative emotions, and coping strategies. The findings from both studies indicate that being envied has both positive (e.g., increased self-confidence) and negative consequences (e.g., fear of ill will from others). Being envied had more positive and more negative psychological and relational consequences among those participants who were achievement oriented (European Americans) than among participants who were oriented to cooperation and interpersonal harmony (Spanish).     

ASSESSMENT OF THE RELATIVE EFFECTS OF ATTENTION AND ESCAPE ON NONCOMPLIANCE

The current study presents a method for assessing the relative effects of attention and escape on noncompliance in preschoolers. Attention and escape conditions were alternated in a multielement design, and a contingency reversal procedure, in which one test condition served as a control for the other, was used to demonstrate control. For all 3 participants, noncompliance was maintained, at least in part, by social attention. Functional analyses of noncompliance such as the one described here may be valuable for developing function‐based treatments.     

What do dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) understand about hidden objects?

Object permanence, the ability to mentally represent and reason about objects that have disappeared from view, is a fundamental cognitive skill that has been extensively studied in human infants and terrestrial animals, but not in marine animals. A series of four experiments examined this ability in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). After being trained on a “find the object” game, dolphins were tested on visible and invisible displacement tasks, and transpositions. In Experiments 1 and 2, dolphins succeeded at visible displacements, but not at invisible displacements or transpositions. Experiment 3 showed that they were able to pass an invisible displacement task in which a person’s hand rather than a container was used as the displacement device. However, follow-up controls suggested they did so by learning local rules rather than via a true representation of the movement of hidden objects. Experiment 4 demonstrated that the dolphins did not rely on such local rules to pass visible displacement tasks. Thus, like many terrestrial animals, dolphins are able to succeed on visible displacement tasks, but seem unable to succeed on tasks requiring the tracking of hidden objects.     

The lay distinction between primary and secondary emotions: A spontaneous categorization?

In line with the psychological essentialism perspective, Leyens et al. ( 13 2000) have hypothesized that people attribute different essences to groups and that they attribute more uniquely human characteristics to their own group than to out‐groups. Leyens et al. have focused on two types of emotions, which in Roman languages have specific labels, such as sentimientos and emociones in Spanish. A cross‐cultural study showed that sentimientos (or secondary emotions) are considered uniquely human emotions whereas emociones (or primary emotions) are perceived as nonuniquely human emotions. The present study focuses on whether this categorization into primary and secondary emotions is a spontaneous distinction that people use in their everyday lives, or whether, on the contrary, it is the result of experimental demands. The paradigm “Who says what to whom” was used to test this question. Geometrical shapes of different colours were systematically associated with different stimuli that varied in meaningfulness. In a first condition, shapes were associated with small or large items of furniture (meaningful categories) and with primary and secondary emotions. In a second condition, the items of furniture were replaced by words ending with a vowel or a consonant (meaningless categories). Subsequently, participants had to recognize which shape was associated with each stimulus. Intra‐category errors were significantly more numerous than inter‐category errors, except for the words ending with a vowel or a consonant. Stated otherwise, types of emotions were recognized like the meaningful difference between items of furniture. These results show that the distinction between primary and secondary emotions is an implicit one that people use spontaneously, and not as a result of task demands. The findings are discussed from the perspective of psychological essentialism and inter‐group relations.     

Assessing cognitive load using oculometrics to identify deceit during interviews

Lying requires a long‐term memory search and is a cognitive load task. Telling a spontaneous lie is associated with a higher cognitive load compared with the truth, although when memories are planned before telling a lie, the cognitive load can be less compared with the truth; therefore, telling a spontaneous lie could be associated with a higher cognitive load compared with a planned lie. In this study, we examined cognitive load, as measured through oculometrics, to identify deceit in interviews. Twenty‐four subjects were questioned, and their answers classified as spontaneous lies, planned lies, and truths. Results show that saccades and fixations were associated with a higher cognitive load when telling spontaneous lies compared with telling truths. Blinks and pupillometry show that subjects require greater cognitive load when telling truths compared with planned lies. Finally, telling spontaneous lies required higher cognitive load compared with planned lies, as assessed by blinks.     

Ecological Predictors of Disciplinary Style and Child Abuse Potential in a Hispanic and Anglo-American Sample

Recent attention to multicultural issues has sparked recognition that parenting is also a culturally construed phenomenon. The present study involved a diverse sample of 90 Anglo-American and Hispanic parents examining predictors based on distal/proximal levels as conceptualized in the ecological model. The study examined background characteristics (e.g., minority status, educational level, income), intrapersonal (anger, parenting competence, parenting satisfaction), and extrapersonal (social support) factors in the prediction of child abuse potential and dysfunctional disciplinary style. Parents participated anonymously in an in-home assessment. Neither minority status nor income predicted abuse potential or parenting style beyond what was accounted for by educational level. The pattern of findings for the sample suggests the relative importance of anger expression, parenting self-efficacy, and social support satisfaction in both abuse potential and disciplinary style for both Hispanic and Anglo-American parents. Future research directions with diverse samples are considered, including the need for measures specifically designed to assess parenting issues in diverse cultural groups.