Perceived Humanization by Intimate Partners during Pregnancy Is Associated with fewer Depressive Symptoms,Less Body Dissatisfaction,and Greater Sexual Satisfaction through Reduced Self-Objectification

Sex Roles - Consistent with objectification theory, the primary goal of the present study was to investigate the role of perceived humanization from one’s intimate partner as a predictor of...     

The Sexual Objectification and Alcohol Use Link: The Mediating Roles of Self-Objectification,Enjoyment of Sexualization,Body Shame,and Drinking Motives

Sex Roles - Alcohol consumption is on the rise among U.S. women, especially college women, despite the negative consequences that uniquely and disproportionately affect them. The current work...     

A Longitudinal Investigation of Children’s Trauma Memory Characteristics and Their Relationship with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - While trauma memory characteristics are considered a core predictor of adult PTSD, the literature on child PTSD is limited and inconsistent. We...     

Effects of A Parenting-Focused Mindfulness Intervention on Adolescent Substance Use and Psychopathology: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Substance use and psychopathology symptoms increase in adolescence. One key risk factor for these is high parent stress. Mindfulness interventions reduce stress in adults and may be useful to reduce parent stress and prevent substance use (SU) and psychopathology in adolescents. This study tested the feasibility and effects of a mindfulness intervention for parents on adolescent SU and psychopathology symptoms. Ninety-six mothers of 11–17 year olds were randomly assigned to a mindfulness intervention for parents (the Parenting Mindfully [PM] intervention) or a brief parent education [PE] control group. At pre-intervention, post-intervention, 6-month follow-up, and 1-year follow-up, adolescents reported on SU and mothers and adolescents reported on adolescent externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Primary intent to treat analyses found that the PM intervention prevented increases in adolescent SU over time, relative to the PE control group. The PM intervention also prevented increases in mother-reported externalizing symptoms over time relative to the PE control group. However, PM did not have a significant effect on internalizing symptoms. PM had an indirect effect on adolescent-reported externalizing symptoms through greater mother mindfulness levels at post-intervention, suggesting mother mindfulness as a potential intervention mechanism. Notably, while mothers reported high satisfaction with PM, intervention attendance was low (31% of mothers attended zero sessions). Secondary analyses with mothers who attended?>??=?50% of the interventions (n?=?48) found significant PM effects on externalizing symptoms, but not SU. Overall, findings support mindfulness training for parents as a promising intervention and future studies should work to promote accessibility for stressed parents.

Clinical Trials Identifier: NCT02038231; Date of Registration: January 13, 2014

     

Birthweight predicts individual differences in adult face recognition ability

It has long been known that premature birth and/or low birthweight can lead to general difficulties in cognitive and emotional functioning throughout childhood. However, the influence of these factors on more specific processes has seldom been addressed, despite their potential to account for wide individual differences in performance that often appear innate. Here, we examined the influence of gestation and birthweight on adults’ face perception and face memory skills. Performance on both sub-processes was predicted by birthweight and birthweight-for-gestation, but not gestation alone. Evidence was also found for the domain-specificity of these effects: No perinatal measure correlated with performance on object perception or memory tasks, but they were related to the size of the face inversion effect on the perceptual test. This evidence indicates a novel, very early influence on individual differences in face recognition ability, which persists into adulthood, influences face-processing strategy itself, and may be domain-specific.     

The common sense of counseling psychology: introducing the Common-Sense Model of self-regulation

Abstract

The goal of therapy is typically to improve clients’ self-management of their problems, not only during the course of therapy but also after therapy ends. Although it seems obvious that therapists are interested in improving clients’ self-management, the psychotherapy literature has little to say on the topic. This article introduces Leventhal’s Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation, a theoretical model of the self-management of health, and applies the model to the therapeutic process. The Common-Sense Model proposes that people develop illness representations of health threats and these illness representations guide self-management. The model has primarily been used to understand how people self-manage physical health problems, we suggest it may also be useful to understand self-management of mental health problems. The Common-Sense Model’s strengths-based perspective is a natural fit for the work of counseling psychologists. The model has important practical implications for addressing how clients understand mental health problems over the course of treatment and self-manage these problems during and after treatment.     

Interpreters in law enforcement contexts: Practices and experiences according to investigators

Interpreters play an important role in the criminal justice system, yet little is known about the way interpreters are used. This survey of U.S. law enforcement (N = 299) assessed practices and perceptions regarding interpreter use during interviews with nonnative English speakers. Investigators reported using colleagues more often than professional interpreters, using interpreters more often with suspects and in certain crimes (e.g., domestic violence), and that interpreters are usually at least partially informed about case facts prior to translating. Investigators responded to experimental vignettes, and results indicated they were more likely to seek and obtain interpreters when an interviewee has lived in the United States for fewer years; however, the language spoken and the interviewee's role (e.g., witness vs. suspect) did not affect decisions to request an interpreter. Several avenues for future experimental research are identified and discussed, including interpreting over the phone and interpreter susceptibility to biases.     

Monitoring of learning for emotional faces: how do fine-grained categories of emotion influence participants’ judgments of learning and beliefs about memory?

Researchers have evaluated how broad categories of emotion (i.e. positive and negative) influence judgments of learning (JOLs) relative to neutral items. Specifically, JOLs are typically higher for emotional relative to neutral items. The novel goal of the present research was to evaluate JOLs for fine-grained categories of emotion. Participants studied faces with afraid, angry, sad, or neutral expressions (Experiment 1) and with afraid, angry, or sad expressions (Experiment 2). Participants identified the expressed emotion, made a JOL for each, and completed a recognition test. JOLs were higher for the emotional relative to neutral expressions. However, JOLs were insensitive to the categories of negative emotion. Using a survey design in Experiment 3, participants demonstrated idiosyncratic beliefs about emotion. Some people believed the fine-grained emotions were equally memorable, whereas others believed a specific emotion (e.g. anger) was most memorable. Thus, beliefs about emotion are nuanced, which has important implications for JOL theory.     

Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beer Holder: An Initial Investigation of the Effects of Alcohol,Attractiveness, Warmth,and Competence on the Objectifying Gaze in Men

Despite literature revealing the adverse consequences of objectifying gazes for women, little work has empirically examined origins of objectifying gazes by perceivers. Integrating alcohol myopia and objectification theories, we examined the effects of alcohol as well as perceived female attractiveness, warmth, and competence on objectifying gazes. Specifically, male undergraduates (n?=?49) from a large U.S. Midwestern university were administered either an alcoholic or placebo beverage. After consumption, participants were asked to focus on the appearance or personality (counterbalanced) of pictured women who were previously rated as high, average, or low in attractiveness, warmth, and competence. Replicating previous work, appearance focus increased objectifying gazes as measured by decreased visual dwell time on women’s faces and increased dwell time on women’s bodies. Additionally, alcohol increased objectifying gazes. Whereas greater perceived attractiveness increased objectifying gazes, more perceived warmth and perceived competence decreased objectifying gazes. Furthermore, the effects of warmth and competence perceptions on objectifying gazes were moderated by alcohol condition; intoxicated participants objectified women low in warmth and competence to a greater extent than did sober participants. Implications for understanding men’s objectifying perceptions of women are addressed, shedding light on potential interventions for clinicians and policymakers to reduce alcohol-involved objectification and related sexual aggression.