Differentiation of Self, Stress, and Emotional Support as Predictors of Psychological Distress

We explored the relations among stress, emotional support, and differentiation of self from the family of origin as predictors of psychological distress in a sample of 200 college students. First, we investigated the discrepant findings of Murdock and Gore (Contemp Fam Ther 23: 319–335, 2004) and Skowron et al. (J Couns Dev 82: 69–78, 2004) regarding the relationships among stress, differentiation, and symptoms (a question of mediation vs. moderation). Second, we examined the role of emotional support in concert with stress and differentiation. When both stressful events and perceived stress were measured, differentiation of self was found to be a significant partial mediator of their effects on psychological distress. Emotional support was also found to partially mediate the relationship between differentiation of self and psychological distress. Differentiation of self partially mediated the relationship between actual and perceived stress, and perceived stress partially mediated the relationship between differentiation of self and psychological distress.     

Utilizing Benchmarking to Study the Effectiveness of Parent–Child Interaction Therapy Implemented in a Community Setting

Benchmarking is a program evaluation approach that can be used to study whether the outcomes of parents/children who participate in an evidence-based program in the community approximate the outcomes found in randomized trials. This paper presents a case illustration using benchmarking methodology to examine a community implementation of Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (CI-PCIT) utilized as a child maltreatment prevention effort. Data were collected from 83 parent–child dyads. Change scores were compared to treatment and control effect sizes aggregated from the PCIT literature. Pre-post results indicated significant positive changes in child behavior for CI-PCIT completers. Benchmarking analyses revealed that parents who completed CI-PCIT reported significantly greater positive child outcomes than the aggregate control group benchmark, and significantly less than observed in the treatment benchmark. A summary of decision points and implications for utilizing this methodology in the child maltreatment field are postulated.     

A test of the circumvention-of-limits hypothesis in scientific problem solving: the case of geological bedrock mapping

Sources of individual differences in scientific problem solving were investigated. Participants representing a wide range of experience in geology completed tests of visuospatial ability and geological knowledge, and performed a geological bedrock mapping task, in which they attempted to infer the geological structure of an area in the Tobacco Root Mountains of Montana. A Visuospatial Ability × Geological Knowledge interaction was found, such that visuospatial ability positively predicted mapping performance at low, but not high, levels of geological knowledge. This finding suggests that high levels of domain knowledge may sometimes enable circumvention of performance limitations associated with cognitive abilities.     

Validation of Catalan version of BRIEF-P

The BRIEF-P is one of the most used instruments to measure Executive Function (EF). This report is aimed at showing the psychometric properties of the Catalan version of it. To do this, a random cluster sampling was carried out in Osona (Catalonia), recruiting 417 teachers and 408 parents of children aged 3 to 6 years. As with the original instrument, results show that reliability is excellent and that girls have a better EF than boys in the following areas: Working Memory, Plan/Organize, and Inhibit. Since in some areas Catalonia's preschool children show EF values slightly better than those of the reference sample, a new scale for using it in this population is provided.     

Spatial working memory for clustered and linear configurations of sites in a virtual reality foraging task

Two experiments using an immersive virtual reality foraging environment determined the spatial strategies spontaneously deployed by people in a foraging task and the effects on immediate serial recall of trajectories though the foraging space, which could conform or violate specific organisational constraints. People benefitted from the use of organised search patterns when attempting to monitor their travel though either a clustered "patchy" space or a matrix of locations. The results are discussed within a comparative framework.     

Differences in perceptions of coronary disease among Hong Kong Chinese: implications for the societal readiness in disease prevention

Perceptions of coronary heart disease (CHD) influence individual health behavior, which is central to preventing the disease. Not enough is known about the demographic differences in perceptions of CHD among Chinese communities. This study examined these differences in the perceived seriousness and risk of CHD among Hong Kong Chinese. A self-developed questionnaire was administered to a convenient sample (n = 236). Significant differences were identified in the perceived seriousness and risk of CHD between younger and older age groups (p < 0.001) and groups with lower and higher education levels (p < 0.001), but not between genders (p > 0.05). Over 50% of participants expressed greater concern about infectious disease than about CHD, while two-thirds to over half of female, older, and less educated participants were more concerned about stroke. This study highlighted populations with lower levels of CHD perception that need increased public education. The findings have implications for the societal readiness to establishing ongoing public healthcare strategies to increase awareness of CHD.     

Social factors in the development of early executive functioning: a closer look at the caregiving environment

This study investigated prospective links between quality of the early caregiving environment and children's subsequent executive functioning (EF). Sixty-two families were met on five occasions, allowing for assessment of maternal interactive behavior, paternal interactive behavior, and child attachment security between 1 and 2 years of age, and child EF at 2 and 3 years. The results suggested that composite scores of parental behavior and child attachment were related to child performance on EF tasks entailing strong working memory and cognitive flexibility components (conflict-EF). In particular, child attachment security was related to conflict-EF performance at 3 years above and beyond what was explained by a combination of all other social antecedents of child EF identified thus far: child verbal ability and prior EF, family SES, and parenting behavior. Attachment security may thus play a meaningful role in young children's development of executive control.     

The road not taken: creative solutions require avoidance of high-frequency responses

To investigate individual differences in creativity as measured with a complex problem-solving task, we developed a computational model of the remote associates test (RAT). For 50 years, the RAT has been used to measure creativity. Each RAT question presents three cue words that are linked by a fourth word, which is the correct answer. We hypothesized that individuals perform poorly on the RAT when they are biased to consider high-frequency candidate answers. To assess this hypothesis, we tested individuals with 48 RAT questions and required speeded responding to encourage guessing. Results supported our hypothesis. We generated a norm-based model of the RAT using a high-dimensional semantic space, and this model accurately identified correct answers. A frequency-biased model that included different levels of bias for high-frequency candidate answers explained variance for both correct and incorrect responses. Providing new insight into the nature of creativity, the model explains why some RAT questions are more difficult than others, and why some people perform better than others on the RAT.     

An evaluation of the consequences of using short measures of the Big Five personality traits

Researchers often use very abbreviated (e.g., 1-item, 2-item) measures of personality traits due to their convenience and ease of use as well as the belief that such measures can adequately capture an individual's personality. Using data from 2 samples (N = 437 employees, N = 355 college students), we show that this practice, particularly the use of single-item measures, can lead researchers to substantially underestimate the role that personality traits play in influencing important behaviors and thereby overestimate the role played by new constructs. That is, the use of very short measures of personality may substantially increase both the Type 1 and Type 2 error rates. We argue that even slightly longer measures can substantially increase the validity of research findings without significant inconvenience to the researcher or research participants.