Action Observation and Imagery Training Improve the Ease With Which Athletes Can Generate Imagery

Imagery can improve sport performance, although its efficacy is mediated by the ease with which athletes can generate images. Establishing techniques that improve this imagery ability factor is desirable to enhance the effectiveness of imagery interventions. Twenty-seven club-level female golfers were assigned to imagery, action observation, or physical practice training groups (n = 9). Changes in image generation ease were assessed using the Revised Movement Imagery Questionnaire over an 8-week period. Imagery and action observation training were both effective in improving aspects of imagery ability. Action observation can provide sport psychologists with an effective tool for improving visual imagery ability in athletes.     

Attention to repeated images on the World-Wide Web: Another look at scanpath theory

The scanpath theory of visual perception was tested using Web pages as visual stimuli.Scanpaths are repetitive sequences of fixations and saccades that occur upon reexposure to a visual stimulus. Since Internet users are exposed to repeated visual displays, the Web provides ideal stimuli to test this theory. Eye movement data were recorded for subjects’repeated viewings of three Web pages over three sessions. Resemblance of eye path sequences was measured with a string-edit method; multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were used to group sequences. Support was found for the scanpath theory; some clusters included pairs of sequences from the same subject. A repeated measures analysis of variance revealeda statistically significant main effect for stimulus type, with a text-intensive news story page generating more similar sequences than a graphic-intensive advertising page. There was a statistically significant main effect for cross-viewing comparisons, reflecting a linear trend in which eye paths for the same subject became more alike over time.     

Relations among children's perceptions of maternal behavior,attributional styles,and behavioral symptomatology in maltreated children

This investigation examined relations among perceptions of mothers, attributional style, and counselor-rated behavior problems in 187 school age children (88 maltreated, 99 nonmaltreated). Hypotheses regarding the presence of higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in maltreated children were confirmed. Attributional style was found to function as a moderator of externalizing behavior problems, suggesting that attributional style exerts a protective role against the harmful effect of child maltreatment. Perceptions of mothers were found to operate as a mediator of both internalizing and externalizing symptomatology, with maltreated children with less positive perceptions of their mothers exhibiting greater internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. These findings advance knowledge of how cognitive processes contribute to behavior problems in maltreated children and possess implications for prevention and intervention efforts.     

Early-occurring Maternal Depression and Maternal Negativity in Predicting Young Children’s Emotion Regulation and Socioemotional Difficulties

This longitudinal investigation examined the effects of maternal depression and concomitant negative parenting behaviors on children’s emotion regulation patterns and socioemotional functioning. One hundred fifty-one mothers and their children were assessed when children were approximately 1 1/2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-years of age. Ninety-three of the children had mothers with a history of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) that had occurred within the first 21 months of the child’s birth, and 58 of the children had mothers without any history of MDD. Early-occurring Initial maternal depression predicted children’s dysregulated emotion patterns at age 4 and decreased perceived competence ratings at age 5. Initial maternal depression also indirectly predicted decreased child social acceptance ratings at age 5 through its association with dysregulated emotion patterns. Furthermore, the relation between maternal depression and children’s decreased social acceptance was more pronounced in those offspring with a history of high versus low maternal negativity exposure. Findings increase understanding of the processes by which maternal depression confers risk on children’s socioemotional adjustment.     

Mother-child play and emerging social behaviors among infants from maltreating families

Mother-child play of 12-month-old infants (N=130) from maltreating (N=78) and non-maltreating (N=52) families was analyzed as a context that integrates infants' developing social and cognitive skills. Play was coded from semistructured and unstructured play paradigms. No group differences were found in infants' play maturity. Infants from abusing families demonstrated more imitative play than infants from non-maltreating families, and engaged in less independent play than infants from both neglecting and non-maltreating families, suggesting a delay in emerging social behaviors. Mothers from abusing and non-maltreating families differed in attention directing behaviors. Maternal behaviors predicted child play style variables, but did not mediate the effects of maltreatment. Findings discuss the influence of an early maltreating environment upon the development of the emergent self. Implications for early intervention are underscored.     

Longitudinal Outcomes of Child Parent Psychotherapy: Response to Commentaries

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - In response to the commentaries provided by Chu et al. (2020), Harmon et al. (2020), and McMahon & Maxwell (2020) on our longitudinal...     

The Effects of Viewing R-rated Movie Scenes That Objectify Women on Perceptions of Date Rape

The contribution of sexualized images of women in the media to rape and beliefs that support rape has been the subject of considerable research. The present study tested the effects of viewing scenes from R-rated popular films on perceptions of female responsibility for and enjoyment of either a date rape or a stranger rape, using a sample of participants that was both ethnically and socioeconomically diverse. Participants viewed either nonviolent scenes that objectified and degraded women sexually or scenes from an animation festival. In a supposedly unrelated second experiment, participants then read a fictitious magazine account of a date rape or a stranger rape. Results indicated a significant three-way interaction among gender, video condition, and rape scenario on perceptions of the rape, such that males who viewed the sexually objectifying video felt that the victim in the date-rape condition experienced pleasure and “got what she wanted.”     

Shared suffering can mitigate aversively‐generated aggression:

Although considerable research indicates that aversive conditions (such as uncomfortably high temperatures) often evoke aggressive inclinations, there is also evidence that people are attracted to those who share their discomfort. In a 2 × 2 design, female participants in either a hot or comfortable room worked with a nearby partner exposed to the same temperature but whose reactions to the temperature were either the same as, or different from, their feelings about the temperature. The women in a fifth condition had a partner situated in a room with a comfortable temperature . Consistent with Schachter's [1959] social–emotional comparison theory, the highest level of aggression was displayed by the participants in the hot room working with a partner whose emotional reactions were different from their own, whereas their counterparts, also exposed to the high temperature but whose partner's feelings were similar to their own, exhibited the least aggression over all the trials. Aggr. Behav. 32:80–87, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.