Effects of symptom presentation order on perceived disease risk

People are quick to perceive meaningful patterns in the co-occurrence of events. We report two studies exploring the effects of streaks in symptom checklists on perceived personal disease risk. In the context of these studies, a streak is a sequence of consecutive items on a list that share the characteristic of being either general or specific. We identify a psychological mechanism underlying the effect of streaks in a list of symptoms and show that the effect of streaks on perceived risk varies with the length of the symptom list. Our findings reveal a tendency to infer meaning from streaks in medical and health decision making. Participants perceived a higher personal risk of having an illness when presented with a checklist in which common symptoms were grouped together than when presented with a checklist in which these same symptoms were separated by rare symptoms. This research demonstrates that something as arbitrary as the order in which symptoms are presented in a checklist can affect perceived risk of disease.     

Using information theory to assess the diversity,complexity, and development of communicative repertoires

The application of quantitative and comparative measures from information theory on animal communication can provide novel insights into the ecological, environmental, social, and contextual properties that shape the structure, organization, and function of signal repertoires. Using 2 phylogenetically different mammalian species that share similar ecological and social constraints as examples, the authors quantitatively examined the internal structure and development of a subsystem of these species' vocal repertoires in comparison with that of human language and illustrated that these species exhibit convergent developmental processes. The authors also discussed how predictions on the structure and organization of animal communication systems can be made from this new application of information theoretic measures with respect to behavioral ecology.     

Computerized perceptual analysis of patients with body dysmorphic disorder: a pilot study

Many factors influence the development of body image, one of which is the perception we have of our body. Perception can refer to actual visual input or the interpretation of vision; in other words, cognitive appraisal. The goal of this preliminary study is to determine if three groups (body dysmorphic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a non-psychiatric control group) differed in the perception of their faces. Thirty individuals, 10 in each group, were asked to make changes to a computerized image of their face. In addition, affective and perceptual tests were administered. The groups did not differ on affective and perceptual organizational measures, although the obsessive-compulsive disorder group reported a higher level of anxiety than the body dysmorphic disorder group. Imaging software showed that facial features were modified by patients with body dysmorphic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder in about 50% of cases. No modifications were made in the control group. Future studies need to investigate the possible causes of these differences.     

Alcohol use among older adults

Alcohol use problems among older adults have been called the "invisible epidemic." As the population of older adults continues to grow, there is an increased need to reexamine alcohol use in this population. The authors provide an overview on alcohol use in the over-60 age group. The main areas of focus included research on the prevalence of drinking in that population, as well as comments on the best practices in assessment and psychological treatment. Several screening assessments have been recommended for use with older adults, such as the CAGE questionnaire, Michigan Alcohol Screening Test-Geriatric version, Alcohol-Related Problems Survey, and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. The authors note age-appropriate psychological treatment interventions that include brief interventions, family interventions, motivational counseling, and cognitive behavioral therapies. Barriers to assessment and treatment are also discussed.     

Costs and benefits of collaborative remembering

Collaborative inhibition, the poorer memory performance of collaborative groups as compared with nominal (noninteracting) groups was measured in the free recall of categorized lists. In Experiment 1, collaborative inhibition was present in four‐person groups, but not in pairs of two‐person groups, where each was compared with performance in four‐person nominal groups. However, on a final individual free recall test, members of two‐ and four‐person collaborative groups recalled a higher proportion of the list than members of nominal groups. In Experiment 2, recall in three‐person collaborative groups was less than in three‐person nominal groups but only on the first of three successive study‐test trials. On the final individual free recall test, members of collaborative groups recalled more words than members of nominal groups. Despite inhibiting recall and reminiscence, collaboration benefits remembering when collaborators are subsequently tested individually. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Peer support for women with breast cancer: the role of empathy and self‐disclosure

This study examined how women with breast cancer perceived different styles of peer helping. Forty recently diagnosed breast cancer patients evaluated three audiotaped conversations between a breast cancer patient and an (ex‐patient) volunteer helper; the conversations differed in terms of the empathy and self‐disclosure offered by the helper. The findings supported the first hypothesis, that a helping style involving high self‐disclosure would be positively evaluated only in the presence of high empathy. However, the findings did not support the second hypothesis, that in conversations where high empathy is present, a helping style involving high self‐disclosure would be evaluated more positively than one involving low self‐disclosure. Qualitative data suggested that the helper's ability to listen to the patient and the helper's appropriate sharing of her own experience of breast cancer were both perceived as important components of effective helping. Implications for the training and practice of volunteer helpers are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The contributions of multi‐criteria decision making to the development of decision support systems subspecialties: an empirical investigation

This study focuses on examining the structure of decision support systems (DSS) research, with a particular emphasis on assessing the contributions of multi‐criteria decision making (MCDM) to the development of each of the DSS subspecialty areas. This study traces how concepts and findings by researchers in the MCDM area have been picked up by DSS researchers to be applied, extended and refined in the development of DSS research subspecialties. In doing so, factor analysis is applied to an author cocitation frequency matrix derived from a large database file of comprehensive DSS literature. This study concludes that researchers in the MCDM area have made crucial contributions to the development of DSS research subspecialties. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Talented but Disruptive: An Exploration of Problematic Players in Sports Teams

This study aimed to enhance the understanding of problematic players, who have been identified as highly talented but negative influences in team sport. Using semi-structured interviews, 15 players and coaches’ experiences of problematic players were explored. Results were divided into features, causes of behavior, impacts, and managerial considerations surrounding problematic players. Findings revealed problematic players share characteristics with narcissists. From an applied perspective, the negative impacts from these players are recognized, such as negative role modeling and lower team morale. Managerial considerations for these players are discussed, which could be beneficial for coaches working with problematic players and their negativity.

Lay Summary: We explored coach and player experiences of individuals who are highly talented yet problematic. Such players can now be understood further, in terms of behaviors such as blame shifting, and their impacts such as negative role modeling and creating team divides. Creating stronger coach–player relationships were suggested for effective collaboration.     

Examining the cross‐cultural validity of the positive affect and negative affect schedule between an Asian (Singaporean) sample and a Western (American) sample

The positive affect and negative affect schedule (PANAS) is a popular measure of positive (PA) and negative affectivity (NA). Developed and validated in Western contexts, the 20‐item scale has been frequently administered on respondents from Asian countries with the assumption of cross‐cultural measurement invariance. We examine this assumption via a rigorous multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, which allows us to assess between‐group differences in both strength of scale item‐to‐latent factor relationship (metric invariance test) and mean of each scale item (scalar invariance test), on a large sample of 1,065 respondents recruited from Singapore (Asian sample) and the United States (Western sample). We found that two items assessing PA (“excited” and “proud”) and three items assessing NA (“guilty,” “hostile,” and “ashamed”) exhibited metric noninvariance whereas 11 of the remaining metric invariant items exhibited scalar noninvariance, suggesting that the PA and NA constructs differ from what the PANAS is expected to measure for Asian respondents. Our findings serve as a cautionary note to researchers who intend to administer the PANAS in future studies as well as to researchers interpreting the results of past studies involving respondents from Asian countries.