The role of self-blame for trauma as assessed by the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI): a self-protective cognition?

The Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI) assesses cognitions hypothesised to be associated with poor recovery from traumatic experiences and the maintenance of PTSD. The validity of the PTCI has received good support but doubts have been raised about its Self-BLAME subscale. The main aim of the present study was to test the ability of the PTCI subscales to discriminate between traumatised individuals with and without PTSD and to predict posttraumatic symptom severity. Participants (N=63) who had experienced a traumatic event were recruited via the media and completed the PTCI and self-report measures of PTSD and depression symptoms. Full criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD were met by 37 but not by the other 26. There were significant differences between these two groups on the total PTCI score and the Negative Cognitions About SELF and the Negative Cognitions About the WORLD subscales, but not on the Self-BLAME subscale. The two groups were discriminated by the PTCI subscales with 65% accuracy and the multiple correlation (R=.68) between the subscales and posttraumatic symptom severity was highly significant. However, in these analyses, higher scores on the Self-BLAME subscale were associated with less risk of a diagnosis of PTSD and with less posttraumatic symptomatology. Possible interpretations of these results, in terms of statistical suppressor effects and the protective role of behavioural self-blame, are discussed.     

Parenting Cognitions Associated with the Use of Psychological Control

Psychological control is a pattern of parenting that is intrusive and manipulative of children's thoughts, feelings, and attachment to parents. Although little is known about the determinants of psychological control, it has been linked to the psychological status of the parent. We hypothesized that several parenting cognitions reflecting personal concerns would be associated with the use of psychological control: low perceived control, sensitivity to hurt, and a disapproving attitude to negative emotion. We also examined moderating associations with child temperament and child gender. Participants were 198 mothers and fathers of 3- and 4-year-olds (106 boys, 92 girls; M age = 4.10 years, SD = 0.26). Parents completed self- and spouse-report measures of psychological control, rated their child's temperamental characteristics, and completed measures of parenting cognitions. Predictions were generally supported for two of the three cognitions. Sensitivity to hurt and disapproval of negative emotion were associated with more frequent reported use of psychological control. There were some moderating effects of child characteristics.     

Diversion of attention in everyday concept learning: Identification in the service of use

Many people tend to believe that natural categories have perfectly predictive defining features. They do not easily accept the family resemblance view that the features characteristic of a category are not individually sufficient to predict the category. However, common category-learning tasks do not produce this simpler-than-it-is belief. If there is no simple classification principle in a task, the participants know that fact and can report it. We argue that most category-learning tasks in which family resemblance categories are used fail to produce the everyday simpler-than-it-is belief because they encourage analysis of identification criteria during training. To simulate the learning occurring in many natural circumstances, we developed a procedure in which participants' analytic activity is diverted from the way in which the stimuli are identified to the use to which the stimuli will be put. Finally, we discuss the prevalence of this diverted analysis in everyday categorization.     

Iffy beliefs: Conditional thinking and belief change

The ability to entertain possibilities and draw inferences about them is essential to human intelligence. We examine the hypothesis that conditional if-then statements trigger a mental simulation process in which people suppose the antecedent (if statement) to be true and evaluate the consequent (then statement) in that context. On the assumption that supposing an event to be true increases belief that the event has occurred or will occur, this hypothesis is consistent with the claim that evaluating a conditional will heighten belief in its antecedent more than in its consequent. Two experiments, employing conditionals of the form If animal A has property X, then animal B will have property X, in which X was a property that people could not readily relate to the animals, supported this claim. The effect was stronger following the evaluation of conditionals with dissimilar animal categories.     

Cultural Mistrust,Ethnic Identity,Racial Identity,and Self‐Esteem Among Ethnically Diverse Black University Students

Cultural mistrust, ethnic identity, racial identity, and self‐esteem were examined among African (n = 26), African American (n = 110), and West Indian/Caribbean (n = 24) university students. African American students' scores were statistically different from those of African and West Indian/Caribbean students on cultural mistrust, racial identity, and ethnic identity measures. There were no statistically significant differences on self‐esteem among the 3 groups. Results did indicate that cultural mistrust, ethnic identity, and racial identity accounted for 37% of the variance in self‐esteem for African American students. Implications for practice and future research directions are discussed.