Naming difficulties in adolescents with dyslexia: application of the tip-of-the-tongue paradigm

The present study used the "tip-of-the-tongue" (TOT) experimental paradigm in a picture-naming task to explore the naming deficits of adolescents with dyslexia. As compared with a control group of typically developing readers, the adolescents with dyslexia had fewer correct responses and more TOT responses. When they failed to retrieve a target word, the adolescents with dyslexia had more phonological substitutions and benefited less from a phonological cue. However, both groups did not differ in the amount of semantic substitutions and supplied the same amount and kind of partial semantic information on the missing target word. These findings suggest that adolescents with dyslexia have significant naming difficulties that seem to arise because of difficulty in accessing the phonological word forms after the corresponding abstract lexical representation has been successfully accessed.     

Physical Attractiveness and Psychological Adjustment Among Substance Abuse Inpatients: A Longitudinal Study1

Relations between psychological adjustment and physical attractiveness were examined longitudinally in substance abuse inpatients, controlling for the effects of length of drug abuse, length of inpatient stay, age, and socioeconomic status. Measures of adjustment and attractiveness were obtained during the first week of admission and six weeks later (within two weeks of discharge). Regression analyses indicated that initial attractiveness did not predict later adjustment, and initial adjustment did not predict later attractiveness. Partial correlation analyses revealed a positive association between attractiveness and adjustment at the first time point, but not at the later time point. These results suggest that physical attractiveness exerts only a temporary effect on judgments of adjustment in an inpatient setting. Attractiveness may affect decisions made when screening patients at mental health facilities, but may not affect decisions made over the full course of inpatient treatment.     

Ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic differences in young adults' self-disclosure: who discloses what and to whom?

Self-disclosure of feelings, thoughts, experiences, and beliefs is central to our lives as social beings and has numerous implications for relationships and health. Although prior research suggests that men and underrepresented groups disclose less, ethnicity is conflated with socioeconomic status and there are few data regarding the types of information that different groups disclose and whether this information is disclosed equally to different people. The current study measured self-disclosure in 203 young adults (50% African American, 50% female), in respect of seven domains and 10 interpersonal targets. As expected, disclosure was not lower among African Americans once income was controlled, although both ethnicity and gender interacted with domain of disclosure and interpersonal target. Importantly, young men and African Americans reported disclosing less in the context of more intimate relationships. Together, these results suggest that income may be as important in predicting low disclosure as ethnicity or gender and that lower disclosure in low-disclosing groups is particularly evident in intimate relationships. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for patterns of interpersonal relating and physical and mental health processes.     

Relationship of Mindfulness to Distress and Cortisol Response in Adolescent Girls At-Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

Altered stress response theoretically contributes to the etiology of cardiometabolic disease. Mindfulness may be a protective buffer against the effects of stress on health outcomes by altering how individuals evaluate and respond to stress. We engaged adolescent girls at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes in a cold-pressor test in order to determine the relationship of dispositional mindfulness to cortisol response and subjective stress, including perceived pain and unpleasantness during the stressor, and negative affect following the stressor. We also evaluated mindfulness as a moderator of psychological distress (depressive/anxiety symptoms) and stress response. Participants were 119 girls age 12–17 years with overweight/obesity, family history of diabetes, and mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms. Greater mindfulness was associated with less perceived pain and negative affect, but was unrelated to cortisol response to the stressor. Regardless of mindfulness, greater depressive/anxiety symptoms related to a more blunted cortisol response. Mindfulness might promote better distress tolerance in adolescents at risk for diabetes by altering how youth perceive and relate to acute stress, rather than through altering the physiological stress response. At all levels of mindfulness, depressive/anxiety symptoms relate to greater blunting of cortisol response. Findings contribute to emerging literature on the role of mindfulness in promoting the mental and physical health and well-being of individuals at risk for Type 2 diabetes.     

Body-image,quality of life and psychological distress: a comparison between kidney transplant patients and a matching healthy sample

The purpose of the current study was to assess the uniqueness of the condition of kidney transplant recipients in comparison to a sample of matching healthy peers in relation to body-image dissatisfaction and identification, quality of life and psychological distress. Participants were 45 kidney transplant recipients who were under follow-up care at a Transplant Unit of a major Medical Center, and a sample of 45 matching healthy peers. Measures were taken using self-report questionnaires [Body-Image Ideals Questionnaire (BIIQ), Body Identification Questionnaire (BIQ), Brief Symptoms Inventory (BSI), and the SF-12]. The major findings were the following: (i) kidney transplant recipients reported lower levels of quality of life and higher levels of PsD when compared to their healthy peers; (ii) no difference in body-image dissatisfaction was found between the two studied groups; (iii) significant correlations between body-image dissatisfaction quality of life and PsD were found only in the kidney transplant recipients. The kidney transplantation condition has a moderating effect in the association between body-image dissatisfaction PsD but not in the association between body-image dissatisfaction and quality of life; (iv) kidney transplant recipients experienced higher levels of body identification than did their healthy peers. Taken together, these findings highlight the unique condition of kidney transplant recipients, as well as the function that body-image plays within the self.     

Maternal depressed mood and stress as related to vigilance,self-efficacy and mother-child interactions

Parenting self-efficacy, maternal vigilance, competence and child behaviour were studied in a community sample of mothers of 18-36-month-old children. Thirty dysphoric mothers had elevated Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores (12–16) and 30 nondysphoric mothers had BDIs <5. Dysphoric mothers were more stressed, less happily married, less effective as parents and described their children as less competent and responsive than did non-dysphoric mothers. When completing a distracting questionnaire task, all mothers were less vigilant and their children less well behaved than during free play. Stressed, dysphoric mothers were observed to be less sensitive, responsive, warm, vigilant and effective in controlling their children, and their children were more destructive, and less happy, responsive and compliant. Combined maternal stress and dysphoria were associated with generally negative perceptions of self and child, and negative mother-child interactions.     

Children's Level of Participation in a False-Belief Task,Age, and Theory of Mind

The hide-and-seek deception task of M. Chandler, A. S. Fritz, and S. Hala (1989) was modified to provide a more precise estimate of the age at which children acquire and manifest a theory of mind. Two characters (good, bad) and two levels of involvement (pretend play, sociodramatic play) were incorporated into the research design, so that children's representational understanding of deception could be studied. Two-, 3-, and 4-year-olds (N = 90) participated in the study. The results indicated that 4-year-olds used significantly more deceptive strategies than 2- and 3-year-olds in pretend play and in sociodramatic play. There was no difference between 2- and 3-year-olds in the use of deceptive strategies; they used significantly fewer strategies in the bad roles than in the good roles. No significant differences were found in the 3 age groups' performances in the good-character tasks. The reality-masking hypothesis (P. Mitchell, 1994) accounts for the differences in performances on that task; thus, children younger than 4 years old do seem to have a theory of mind.     

A Career Developmental Perspective on the Therapeutic Alliance: Implications for Counseling

This review explores the role played by childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) in selecting a career in the field of mental health and the potential positive and deleterious effects of these career‐choice motives on the therapeutic alliance. The reviewed findings support the assumption that CEM may serve as a precursor for career choice of professions in the mental health field. Implications are suggested for the counselor/therapist–client relationship, also known as the therapeutic alliance, as well as for career counseling.