No Self Without Salience: Affective and Self-relevance Ratings of 552 Emotionally Valenced and Neutral Dutch Words

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - It is unknown how self-relevance is dependent on emotional salience. Emotional salience encompasses an individual's degree of attraction or aversion to...     

A Religious Point of View

The purpose of this paper is to show connections between Wittgenstein's approach to philosophy and the writings on religion of two authors whom we know Wittgenstein read and admired: William James and Leo Tolstoy. Wittgenstein stresses certain attitudes toward philosophical ‘problems’ which resemble the attitudes that James and Tolstoy connect with religious faith. There are also similarities of phrases and expressions. It is not possible to say that these writers influenced the way Wittgenstein regarded philosophy, but it suggests that he recognized the similarities between their approaches and his despite the differences in subject. Consequently it helps to clarify why he would speak of his approach to problems as being from ‘a religious point of view’ even though its orientation is not specifically religious.     

Robust estimation of the hierarchical model for responses and response times

Van der Linden's (2007, Psychometrika, 72, 287) hierarchical model for responses and response times in tests has numerous applications in psychological assessment. The success of these applications requires the parameters of the model to have been estimated without bias. The data used for model fitting, however, are often contaminated, for example, by rapid guesses or lapses of attention. This distorts the parameter estimates. In the present paper, a novel estimation approach is proposed that is robust against contamination. The approach consists of two steps. In the first step, the response time model is fitted on the basis of a robust estimate of the covariance matrix. In the second step, the item response model is extended to a mixture model, which allows for a proportion of irregular responses in the data. The parameters of the mixture model are then estimated with a modified marginal maximum likelihood estimator. The modified marginal maximum likelihood estimator downweights responses of test-takers with unusual response time patterns. As a result, the estimator is resistant to several forms of data contamination. The robustness of the approach is investigated in a simulation study. An application of the estimator is demonstrated with real data.     

Are Religious Coping and Pain Perception Related Together? Assessment in Iranian Cancer Patients

Pain of cancer had various significant side effects that based on the literature it can reduced by religious coping methods. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between religious coping and pain perception in Iranian cancer patients. In this cross-sectional study (October–December, 2015), 380 hospitalized cancer patients were entered to the study using accessible sampling. Data were collected by socio-demographic, Religious Coping and McGill pain questionnaires. Males (48.39 ± 13 ± 39; CI95: 46.41–50.38) are older than females (45.33 ± 18.44; CI95: 42.79–47.87). According to results, there was a significant relationship between pain perception and positive religious coping in cancer patients. Also there was a significant relationship between pain perception and family history of cancer (P < 0.05). It seems that improving the level and quality of positive religious affiliation can be effective on the amount of stimulation and pain of cancer patients. Of course, more comprehensive studies are needed to be achieved more reliable results about the effects of religious coping on pain perception in these patients.     

Does substance abuse contribute to further risk of falls in dementia

This study aimed to predict the risk of falls by focusing on substance abuse in the elderly with dementia. Our national cross-sectional survey included 1210 elderly Malaysian demented subjects. The study identified the effects of age, ethnicity, sex differences, marital status, educational level, and substance abuse on the likelihood of falls in the elderly with dementia. The multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze data collected from samples. The prevalence of falls was about 17% among subjects and significantly increased with age (p = .006). Furthermore, the results showed that age (OR = 1.03), ethnicity (OR = 1.69), substance abuse (OR = 1.68), and female sex (OR = 1.45) significantly enhanced the risk of falls in respondents (p < .05). Educational level and marital status had no significant effects on the likelihood of falls (p > .05). However, the findings provided evidence of an additional effect of substance abuse on further risk of falls in older adults with dementia.     

A portable,low-resistance puff topography instrument for pulsating,high-flow smoking devices

A smoking topography instrument appropriate for pulsating high flow rate smoking devices, such as the narghile water pipe, has been developed and tested. Instrument precision and repeatability was determined using a digitally controlled smoking machine, and the added draw resistance due to the topography instrument was measured over the range of expected puff flow rates. The maximum error in any topography variable was found to be less than 5%. The instrument was successfully demonstrated in a pilot field study of 30 volunteer narghile smokers. The pilot study yielded an average smoker puff volume, duration, and interpuff interval of 0.53 l, 2.47 sec, 16.28 sec, respectively.     

Sex differences in relational aggression in preschool children in Iran

The purpose of this study was to compare scores on a Relational Aggression Questionnaire for preschool boys and girls in Iran. The questionnaire was developed here, and its reliability and validity were assessed. Teachers' reports of relational aggression in 258 children ages 3 to 7 years was studied. Sex differences in relational aggression were not observed and was not significantly different across age groups.     

Is Distraction an Adaptive or Maladaptive Strategy for Emotion Regulation? A Person-Oriented Approach

Distraction is an emotion regulation strategy that has an ambiguous status within cognitive-behavior therapy. According to some treatment protocols it is counterproductive, whereas according to other protocols it is seen as a quite useful strategy. The main purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that distraction is adaptive when combined with active acceptance, but maladaptive when combined with avoidant strategies. A non-clinical community sample of adults (N?=?638) and a clinical sample (N?=?172) completed measures of emotion regulation and well-being. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to identify subgroups with different profiles on six emotion regulation variables, and these subgroups were then compared on well-being (positive and negative emotionality, and life quality) and on clinical status. A nine-cluster solution was chosen on the basis of explained variance and homogeneity coefficients. Two of these clusters had almost identical scores on distraction, but showed otherwise very different profiles (distraction combined with acceptance vs. distraction combined with avoidance). The distraction-acceptance cluster scored significantly higher than the distraction-avoidance cluster on all measures of well-being; it was also under-represented in the clinical sample, whereas the distraction-avoidance cluster was over-represented. Limitations include a cross-sectional design, and use of self-report measures. The findings suggest that distraction may be either adaptive or maladaptive, depending on whether it is combined with an attitude of acceptance or avoidance.