Agentic and Communal Personality Traits: Their Associations with Depression and Resilience among Transgender Women

Research reports the perpetuation of communal traits by transgender women, possibly to affirm their core gender identity. Transgender women in the United States are nearly 6 times more likely than the general population to experience significant depressive symptoms. Studies among non-transgender individuals in the United States demonstrate that agentic traits are associated with less depressive symptoms, while studies on communal traits are more inconsistent in their association with indicators of depression. Our study’s central objective was to examine the associations of agency and communion with depression and resilience (i.e., personal competence and acceptance of self and life) among transgender women living part-time and full-time in the female gender role. Participants in the United States were recruited through online and offline purposive sampling. One hundred and twenty-two transgender women (primarily Caucasian; ages ranging from 22 to 75) completed a web-based questionnaire. Results indicated that agentic and communal traits were significantly associated with decreased symptoms of depression and increased levels of resilience. One component of resilience – acceptance of self and life – mediated the relationship between agentic/communal traits and depression, however, for communal traits this pattern was only found for transgender women living in the female role full-time. There were no significant differences on depressive symptoms and one component of resilience - personal competence – among transgender women living full-time compared to transgender women living in the female role part-time. Transgender women living full-time in the female gender role reported higher levels of agentic/communal traits and acceptance of self and life compared to those living part-time in the female gender role. Our findings are discussed in the context of mental health among transgender women.     

Multiple trials may yield exaggerated effect size estimates

Published psychological research attempting to support the existence of small and medium effect sizes may not have enough participants to do so accurately, and thus, repeated trials or the use of multiple items may be used in an attempt to obtain significance. Through a series of Monte-Carlo simulations, this article describes the results of multiple trials or items on effect size estimates when the averages and aggregates of a dependent measure are analyzed. The simulations revealed a large increase in observed effect size estimates when the numbers of trials or items in an experiment were increased. Overestimation effects are mitigated by correlations between trials or items, but remain substantial in some cases. Some concepts, such as a P300 wave or a test score, are best defined as a composite of measures. Troubles may arise in more exploratory research where the interrelations among trials or items may not be well described.     

Do procedures for verbal reporting of thinking have to be reactive? A meta-analysis and recommendations for best reporting methods

Since its establishment, psychology has struggled to find valid methods for studying thoughts and subjective experiences. Thirty years ago, Ericsson and Simon (1980) proposed that participants can give concurrent verbal expression to their thoughts (think aloud) while completing tasks without changing objectively measurable performance (accuracy). In contrast, directed requests for concurrent verbal reports, such as explanations or directions to describe particular kinds of information, were predicted to change thought processes as a consequence of the need to generate this information, thus altering performance. By comparing performance of concurrent verbal reporting conditions with their matching silent control condition, Ericsson and Simon found several studies demonstrating that directed verbalization was associated with changes in performance. In contrast, the lack of effects of thinking aloud was merely suggested by a handful of experimental studies. In this article, Ericsson and Simon's model is tested by a meta-analysis of 94 studies comparing performance while giving concurrent verbalizations to a matching condition without verbalization. Findings based on nearly 3,500 participants show that the "think-aloud" effect size is indistinguishable from zero (r = -.03) and that this procedure remains nonreactive even after statistically controlling additional factors such as task type (primarily visual or nonvisual). In contrast, procedures that entail describing or explaining thoughts and actions are significantly reactive, leading to higher performance than silent control conditions. All verbal reporting procedures tend to increase times to complete tasks. These results suggest that think-aloud should be distinguished from other methods in future studies. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Biased allocation of faces to social categories

Three studies show that social categorization is biased at the level of category allocation. In all studies, participants categorized faces. In Studies 1 and 2, participants overallocated faces with criminal features--a stereotypical negative trait--to the stigmatized Moroccan category, especially if they were prejudiced. On the contrary, the stereotype-irrelevant negative trait stupid did not lead to overallocation to the Moroccan category. In Study 3, using the stigmatized category homosexual, the previously used negative trait criminal--irrelevant to the homosexual stereotype--did not lead to overallocation, but the stereotype-relevant positive trait femininity did. These results demonstrate that normative fit is higher for faces with stereotype-relevant features regardless of valence. Moreover, individual differences in implicit prejudice predicted the extent to which stereotype-relevant traits elicited overallocation: Whereas more negatively prejudiced people showed greater overallocation of faces associated with negative stereotype-relevant traits, they showed less overallocation of faces associated with positive stereotype-relevant traits. These results support our normative fit hypothesis: In general, normative fit is better for faces with stereotypical features. Moreover, normative fit is enhanced for prejudiced individuals when these features are evaluatively congruent. Social categorization thus may be biased in itself.     

Psychopathic Traits of Dutch Adolescents in Residential Care: Identifying Subgroups

The present study examined whether a sample of 214 (52.8% male, M age = 15.76, SD = 1.29) institutionalized adolescents could be classified into subgroups based on psychopathic traits. Confirmatory Factor Analyses revealed a relationship between the subscales of the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory (YPI) and the three latent constructs of the original model on which it is based. Latent Class Analyses showed that adolescents showing psychopathic traits could be classified into three subgroups. The first group showed low scores on the grandiose/manipulative dimension, the callous/unemotional dimension, and the impulsive/irresponsible dimension (normal group). The second group scored moderate on the grandiose/manipulative dimension and the callous/unemotional dimension and high on the impulsive/irresponsible dimension (impulsive, non-psychopathic-like group). The third group scored high on all three dimensions (psychopathy-like group). The findings revealed that the impulsive, non-psychopathic like group scored significantly higher on internalizing problem behavior compared to the normal group, while the psychopathy-like and the impulsive, non-psychopathic-like group both scored higher on externalizing problem behavior compared to the normal group. Based on a self-report delinquency measure, it appeared that the psychopathy-like group had the highest delinquency rates, except for vandalism. Both the impulsive and psychopathy-like group had the highest scores on the use of soft drugs.     

Augmenting treatment efficiency in exposure therapy for PTSD: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of yohimbine HCl

The alpha-2 adrenergic receptor antagonist, yohimbine, can facilitate fear extinction in animals and humans. One potential mechanism is increased noradrenergic activity and associated arousal in the presence of conditioned stimuli. Accordingly, yohimbine might augment prolonged exposure (PE) therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), where heightened exposure-oriented arousal is a theorized driver and empirical predictor of treatment success. A double-blind placebo-controlled randomized trial (NCT 01031979) piloted yohimbine augmentation in 26 males with combat-related PTSD. Participants were given one-time dose of yohimbine or placebo prior to the first imaginal exposure. Subsequently, both arms completed standard PE. The primary outcome was trauma-cued heart-rate reactivity a week after the drug/exposure visit, a highly specified, objective measure sensitive to incremental change. Secondary outcomes included arousal during the drug/exposure visit and slope of distress, PTSD, and depression over the course of PE. Consistent with hypothesis, yohimbine led to higher objective and subjective arousal during the drug/exposure visit and to lower trauma-cued heart-rate reactivity one-week later. One dose of yohimbine also led to greater between-session habituation and more rapid improvement on depression, but not PTSD, over the course of care. Results of this controlled pilot indicate support for continued investigation of yohimbine-augmented exposure therapy for PTSD.     

A New Methodology for Reporting the Status of Community Health Improvement in the United States

Objective To assure that Healthy Communities are achieved, a tracking methodology is proposed using four health improvement categories. Methods Counties are classified as having met or not met nine HP2010 mortality targets and as improving or not improving, creating four categories of community health improvement – static, progressing, exemplary, and maintaining. Results Exemplary counties make up 1.7%32.7% of counties, counties have both improved and met the HP2010 target during the period. Across all indicators, a large proportion remains of counties that have neither met the HP2010 target nor improved (33.572.8%). Conclusions Understanding why, how, and in what ways communities move from static to maintaining categories is necessary to guiding every local public health system to community health improvement.     

The Role of Context on Strategic Actions in Mastermind

When inexperienced solvers play consecutive Mastermind games, they begin to use a strategy in which specific hypothetical types are offered in response to specific feedback types, a strategy known as the modal hypothesis strategy. When participants who had learned that strategy were shifted onto Mastermind games whose code format was different from, and easier than, that they had experienced, their use of the strategy was degraded despite their familiarity and experience in dealing with the specific feedback types occurring in the new code. The results suggest that the use of a domain-specific strategy is at least somewhat influenced by the match between the context in which the strategy has been acquired and the context in which it is being put to use.     

A Review of “Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors: Strengthening Attachment Bonds”

Abstract

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