Why theatre-based research works? Psychological theories from behind the curtain

While many scholars have demonstrated the effectiveness of theatre-based knowledge mobilization, fewer studies have examined its psychological dimensions. This article examines some psychological theories that may account for the success behind theatre-based knowledge mobilization. Drawing from the Canadian Experience Project, a study about the labor market challenges of skilled immigrant workers, we show how theatre-based research dissemination efforts attempt to achieve optimal stress by using aesthetic distance processes. We maintain that this psychological capacity to attune to audience members, especially evident in forum theatre, makes theatre a particularly effective means for knowledge mobilization.     

Putting the psychology back into psychological models: Mechanistic versus rational approaches

Two basic approaches to explaining the nature of the mind are the rational and the mechanistic approaches. Rational analyses attempt to characterize the environment and the behavioral outcomes that humans seek to optimize, whereas mechanistic models attempt to simulate human behavior using processes and representations analogous to those used by humans. We compared these approaches with regard to their accounts of how humans learn the variability of categories. The mechanistic model departs in subtle ways from rational principles. In particular, the mechanistic model incrementally updates its estimates of category means and variances through error-driven learning, based on discrepancies between new category members and the current representation of each category. The model yields a prediction, which we verify, regarding the effects of order manipulations that the rational approach does not anticipate. Although both rational and mechanistic models can successfully postdict known findings, we suggest that psychological advances are driven primarily by consideration of process and representation and that rational accounts trail these breakthroughs.     

Spatiotemporal balance in competing apparent motion is not predicted from the strength of the single-motion percept

Apparent motion is useful for investigating how spatiotemporal cues are integrated to determine the identity of a moving object. To examine its spatiotemporal properties, a competing-motion paradigm has advantages in strict psychophysical evaluation, despite difficulty in object-identity determination, over a non-competing subjective-grading paradigm. The latter has been often used, whereas the former has not been fully investigated. Here, we compared these two paradigms. In the competing-motion experiment, a sample spot was followed by a far and a near test spot with onset asynchrony. We found that the onset asynchrony between the near and far test spots was directly related to the distance ratio between them. This spatial size-invariant relation was not predicted from the strength of the single-apparent-motion percept, estimated from the non-competing subjective-grading experiment in which a sample spot was followed by only one test spot. Moreover, the spatiotemporal balance in competing apparent motion was found not to be valid under negative interstimulus-interval conditions, although a single apparent motion is perceived in those conditions. These clear discrepancies suggest that competing and single apparent motions are processed in a different way according to the difficulty in object identification.     

Assessing the cross-cultural content validity of the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension scale (PRCA-24)

Despite its popularity in the USA, the most common communication apprehension (CA) measurement scale, the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension scale (PRCA-24), has been used in just three studies in Japan. Further, validity analyses have not been reported for Japanese samples. This article attempts to analyze the content validity of the PRCA-24 on Japanese college students. Results indicate that the PRCA-24 may be of use in determining some, but not all, types of CA among Japanese students. Suggestions for future CA research in Japan are offered.     

Popular psychological tests and self-fulfilling prophecy: An experiment of Japanese female undergraduate students

The purpose of this study was to examine whether or not the feedback of the results of popular psychological tests influences human behavior, and to compare the strength of any influence with that of academic psychological tests. We conducted an experiment in which 64 female Japanese subjects took a popular or academic psychological test, and then interacted with a stranger. The subjects who took each test received bogus feedback implying that they were extroverted or introverted. The results showed that subjects who received the extroversion feedback were more interactive with a stranger than those who received the introversion feedback, irrespective of whether they had taken the popular or academic test. This suggests that the feedback of popular psychological tests, like that of academic tests, can influence human behavior and create a self-fulfilling prophecy. The results also showed that those subjects who took the popular psychological tests reported higher psychological well-being than those who took the academic tests.     

Keeping an “I” on PRIDE: Measuring Imitation in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

In parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT), therapists encourage parents to imitate child behaviors in order to convey approval of the child’s actions and promote the development of linguistic and social–cognitive skills. However, the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS-IV), used to measure skills taught during PCIT, does not include guidelines for coding parent–child imitation, making it difficult to determine how PCIT affects it. The current study addresses this problem by developing guidelines for coding imitation, which were then used to code DPICS-IV segments from 58 Mexican American families that participated in a past clinical trial. Results suggest that these coding guidelines can be used to reliably measure parent and child imitation. A series of additional analyses supported the construct validity of the codes. Specifically, there was a trend for parent imitation, but not child imitation, to increase more from pre–post treatment in PCIT relative to treatment as usual. In addition, parents who imitate their children were found to have children who imitate them more in return. Finally, improvement in parent imitation, but not child imitation, was significantly related to a decrease in child behavior problems. Further study is needed to determine the optimal frequency of imitation, and findings suggest that additional attention to coaching imitation may be warranted.