Relationship Between the Holden Psychological Screening Inventory (HPSI) and the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI) in a Community Sample

Using a sample of 144 mature students, aged 18–53 years, attending a high school upgrading program, the screening properties of the Holden Psychological Screening Inventory (HPSI) and the correspondence of the HPSI to the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI) were evaluated. Correlations between the HPSI and the BPI scales and joint factor analysis of these two inventories demonstrated the validity of HPSI scales and their sampling adequacy from the major components of psychopathology measured by the BPI. Using the BPI as the Gold Standard, the HPSI has almost perfect specificity but the sensitivity of the HPSI is only about 50% at a T-score of 60, whereas at T = 55, the sensitivity is 70%, with a specificity of almost 80%. Overall, results indicated that the three HPSI scales distinctly measure the three major factors of the BPI, and the HPSI has considerable utility as a screening tool.     

Effects of trazodone on sleep in patients diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Trauma victims frequently report nightmares with experiences of reliving the stressful event in catastrophic dreams. The following day there are exaggerated startle responses and psychic numbing, followed that evening by a reluctance to go to sleep and insomnia. This study found trazodone to be effective in veteran patients with a diagnosis or symptoms of PTSD including sleep disturbance. Among this group of veterans, 20 of the 21 under 60 and 24 out of 27 over 60 had positive responses to bedtime trazodone doses, in that they slept better, including going to sleep more quickly, having fewer nightmares,and had less anger the next day. These benefits may be due to deepened non-REM sleep early in the night as well as delayed REM-sleep onset.     

Upward mobility, status inconsistency, and psychological health

According to much of the theoretical literature, the psychological consequences of intergenerational occupational mobility are associated with poorer psychological health, even when upward mobility is involved. One possible explanation is that mobility results in status inconsistencies that are experienced as stressful. The research reported here reconsiders the notions that mobility is associated with higher levels of stress and that stress results from exposure to status inconsistencies. The results obtained, based on a sample of English men, provide no support for either thesis.     

The Effects of Practice on Children's Ability to Apply Ground Rules in a Narrative Interview

Despite the widespread use of ground rules in forensic interview guidelines, it is unknown whether children retain and apply these rules throughout narrative interviews. We evaluated the capacity of 260 five- to nine-year-olds to utilize three ground rules. At the beginning of the interview all children heard the rules; half also practiced them. Children then responded to open-ended prompts about a repeated laboratory event and were assessed for their application of the rules. Logistic regressions revealed that practice only benefitted the use of the “don't know” rule. Although the children accurately answered “don't understand” and “correct me” practice questions, practice appeared to give no greater benefit than just hearing the rules. Results suggest that the current format of ground rule practice in interview guidelines is appropriate for the “don't know” rule, but the other rules may require more extensive practice with this age group. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can we predict mathematical learning disabilities from symbolic and non‐symbolic comparison tasks in kindergarten? Findings from a longitudinal study

Background. The ability to compare numbers, as the most basic form of number sense, has been related to arithmetical achievement. Aims. The current study addressed the predictive value of non‐symbolic and symbolic (number word (NW) and Arabic number (AN)) comparison for arithmetics by means of a longitudinal design. Sample. Sixteen children with mathematical disabilities (MD), 64 low achievers (LA), and 315 typical achieving (TA) children were followed from kindergarten till grade 2. Method. The association of comparison skills with arithmetical skills in grades l and 2 was studied. The performances of MD, LA and TA children were compared. Results. Regression analyses showed that non‐symbolic skills in kindergarten were predictively related to arithmetical achievement 1 year later and fact retrieval 2 years later. AN comparison was predictively related to procedural calculation 2 years later. In grade 2, there was an association between both symbolic tasks and arithmetical achievement. Children with MD already had deficits in non‐symbolic and symbolic AN comparison in kindergarten, whereas in grade 2 the deficits in processing symbolic information remained. Conclusions. The combination of non‐symbolic and symbolic deficits represents a risk of developing MD.     

Why did you choose that person over me? Ingroup rejection and attributions to discrimination

The present research examined the attributions that people make when an individual rejects a member of his or her own group in favor of a member of an outgroup (i.e., ingroup rejection). Study 1 showed that Latinos rejected by an ingroup member (perpetrator) made more attributions to discrimination than Whites under similar circumstances. Study 2 showed that Latinos made more attributions to discrimination for ingroup rejection when the perpetrator was Latino as compared to when the perpetrator was White, whereas Whites' attributions to discrimination were relatively low regardless of perpetrator's ethnicity. Study 3 showed that priming loyalty norms increased attributions to discrimination among Latinos in response to ingroup rejection, but not in response to outgroup rejection. This research brings a new perspective to discrimination research by focusing on intragroup rejection and nonprototypical cases of discrimination.     

“I deserve success”: Academic entitlement attitudes and their relationships with course self-efficacy, social networking, and demographic variables

This study investigated differences in university students?? academic entitlement (AE) by demographic group (sex, college class, college generational status) as well as AE??s relationship with self-efficacy for college coursework and social networking. It also investigated predictors of AE in first-generation (FG) students and continuing-generation (CG) students. Participants were 313 undergraduates at a south-central U.S. university. Males reported significantly greater AE than females. No differences in AE were found by college class or generational status. AE was significantly correlated with college course self-efficacy and social network use. College course self-efficacy, sex, and social network use predicted AE in CG students; however, in FG students, AE was predicted by college course self-efficacy alone. Implications for future research are presented.     

Spatial mislocalization as a consequence of sequential coding of stimuli

In three experiments, we tested whether sequentially coding two visual stimuli can create a spatial misperception of a visual moving stimulus. In Experiment 1, we showed that a spatial misperception, the flash-lag effect, is accompanied by a similar temporal misperception of first perceiving the flash and only then a change of the moving stimulus, when in fact the two events were exactly simultaneous. In Experiment 2, we demonstrated that when the spatial misperception of a flash-lag effect is absent, the temporal misperception is also absent. In Experiment 3, we extended these findings and showed that if the stimulus conditions require coding first a flash and subsequently a nearby moving stimulus, a spatial flash-lag effect is found, with the position of the moving stimulus being misperceived as shifted in the direction of its motion, whereas this spatial misperception is reversed so that the moving stimulus is misperceived as shifted in a direction opposite to its motion when the conditions require coding first the moving stimulus and then the flash. Together, the results demonstrate that sequential coding of two stimuli can lead to a spatial misperception whose direction can be predicted from the order of coding the moving object versus the flash. We propose an attentional sequential-coding explanation for the flash-lag effect and discuss its explanatory power with respect to related illusions (e.g., the Fr?hlich effect) and other explanations.     

Relationships Between Religion and Intolerance Towards Muslims and Immigrants in Europe: A Multilevel Analysis

This paper examines relationships between religiosity and intolerance towards Muslims and immigrants among Europeans living in non-Muslim majority countries by applying multilevel modeling to European Values Study data (wave four, 2010). Thus relationships across 44 national contexts are analyzed. The analysis found large between-country differences in the overall levels of intolerance towards immigrants and Muslims. Eastern Europeans tend to be more intolerant than Western Europeans. In most countries Muslims are less accepted than immigrants,—a finding which reflects that in post-9/11 Europe Islamophobia is prevalent and many still see Muslims with suspicion. A key result is that believing matters for the citizen’s attitudes towards Muslims and immigrants. Across Europe, traditional and modern fuzzy beliefs in a Higher Being are strongly negatively related to intolerance towards immigrants and Muslims, while fundamentalism is positively related to both targets of intolerance. Religious practice and denominational belonging on the other hand matter far less for the citizen’s propensity to dislike the two out-groups. With the only exception of non-devout Protestants who do not practice their religion, members of religious denominations are not more intolerant than non-members. The findings are valid for the vast majority of countries although countries differ in the magnitude of the effects.