Self-efficacy as a moderator of the planning-behaviour relationship in interventions designed to promote physical activity

Individuals who lack perceived self-efficacy may benefit less from planning interventions because they fail to apply their plans when encountering situations that appear challenging. Thus, self-efficacy may operate as a moderator in relation to the effects of planning interventions on behaviour. This article reports from two experimental studies using cluster randomisation. Study 1 included 58 patients with diabetes who received a face-to-face action planning intervention to improve their physical activity levels. Study 2 targeted the roles of planning and self-efficacy for the maintenance of regular running and for relapse prevention in 187 active individuals over a 2-year period. The email-delivered intervention prompted specific goal setting and facilitated planning to mobilise social support to secure relapse prevention. Results of the two studies were consistent with a moderating effect of self-efficacy in relation to the planning-behaviour relationship. Individuals with high self-efficacy benefited from planning interventions. If a person lacks self-efficacy, planning may not effectively promote physical activity.     

Unconscious task application

The nature of unconscious information processing is a heavily debated issue in cognitive science (e.g., Kouider & Dehaene, 2007), and neuroscience (e.g., Crick & Koch, 1998). Traditionally, it has been thought that unconscious cognitive processing is restricted to knowledge that is strongly prepared by conscious processes (e.g., Dehaene et al., 1998). In three experiments, we show that the task that is performed consciously can also be applied unconsciously to items outside the current task set. We found that a same–different judgment of two target stimuli was also performed on two subliminally presented prime stimuli. This was true for target and prime stimuli from entirely different categories, as well as for prime and target stimuli at different levels of abstraction. These results reveal that unconscious processing can generalize more widely than previously accepted.     

Anxiety as a Predictor of Age at First Use of Substances and Progression to Substance Use Problems Among Boys

This study examined associations of generalized and social anxiety with (1) age at first use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana and (2) interval from first use to first problem use of each substance. Participants were 503 males who comprised the youngest cohort (first assessed in the first grade) of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a longitudinal community-based study of boys. Annual assessments of generalized and social anxiety, delinquency, and substance use from first grade through high school were included. Both types of anxiety predicted earlier first use of alcohol and tobacco, and generalized anxiety predicted earlier first use of marijuana. Both types of anxiety predicted the progression from first use to problems related to marijuana. The effect of generalized anxiety tended to be significant above and beyond the effect of delinquency, while the effect of social anxiety on risk for first use of substances was not. Overall, the associations between anxiety and substance use and related problems depend on the class of substance and the type of anxiety.     

Reading problems and depressed mood

Although reading difficulties show well-established overlaps with disruptive behavior disorders in childhood, much less is known about reading-disabled children's vulnerability to emotional difficulties. Using longitudinal data from 6 assessments of boys in the Pittsburgh Youth Study, we found robust links between severe, persistent reading problems and increased risk for depressed mood in a community sample of boys aged 7 and 10 years at initial assessment, though not in those who had already entered their teens. These associations could not be accounted for in terms of selected family risks or comorbid disruptive behaviors; instead, the pattern of the findings pointed to the existence of more direct causal processes whereby reading problems influence younger boys' risk of depressed mood.     

Boys who lie

Lying in 4th-, 7th-, and 10th-grade boys was measured through parent and teacher reports. There was a tendency for the prevalence of lying to be lower for older boys. In all three grades lying was significantly related to several problem behaviors, such as delinquency, theft, and fighting. However, the correlations were generally higher for older than for younger children. Children who lied were more likely to come from families where mothers poorly supervised their children and rejected them, and where parents did not get along well or did not live together. Socioeconomic status was not related to children's lying.     

Delay of Gratification,Psychopathology, and Personality: Is Low Self-Control Specific to Externaiizing Problems?

We assessed the delay of gratification behavior of 428 twelve and thirteen-year-old boys, half of whom were known to manifest symptoms of behavioral disturbance. Consistent with the hypothesis that low self-control is a risk factor specific to externalizing (aggressive and delinquent) disorders, boys who showed signs of externalizing disorders tended to seek immediate gratification in a laboratory task more often than both nondisordered boys and boys who showed signs of internalizing (anxious and depressed) disorders. In addition, children who were able to delay immediate gratification were described by their mothers as ego controlled, ego resilient, conscientious, open to experience, and agreeable. These results suggest that poor delay of gratification may be one of a select number of specific risk factors for externalizing     

Inductive reasoning in psychometrics: A philosophical corrective

A brief historical overview of inductive logic is presented, and the logic of enumerative induction is discussed in its two generalized forms: rule-derivative and event-predictive. The psychometric tradition and experimental studies in induction are briefly recapitulated to indicate that they have not included event-predictive induction, that probabilities have not been prevalently included in rule-generative induction, and that the linguistic medium might be utilized more fully in the inductive area. An experimental test model designed in order to address these considerations is discussed. This test model of event-predictive induction in the linguistic medium was administered to a large sample of college graduates. Statistical characteristics of the tests and items were very satisfactory when compared to operational subtests. The theoretical significance of the study for future psychometric and experimental investigations in induction is discussed.     

Skill deficits and male adolescent delinquency

The research literature on juvenile delinquency shows that antisocial adolescents are often lacking in academic, interpersonal, and work skills. Past research on antisocial adolescents has focused primarily on the relationship between single skill deficits and official delinquency. The present report extends this body of literature by investigating the relationship between seven measures of skill and official and self-reported delinquency in a nonclinical sample of 70 white male adolescents. Youths classified as delinquent on the basis of prior police contact had a lower multivariate profile on seven measures of academic, interpersonal, and work skills. Five of the seven measures correlated significantly with both the official and self-reported criteria of delinquency. Academic skill deficits may be the strongest covariates of antisocial behavior.     

Dreams and COVID-19

This work originates from reflections on the observation of recurring themes in dreams of patients in psychoanalytic treatment during the most restrictive lockdown period in Italy (March - May 2020). The authors focus on the peculiar dialogic state between consciousness and the unconscious that arose following a collective event such as that of the pandemic, which determined the activation of complex personal nuclei, compensatory effects of the unconscious psyche and new perspective functions. These latter aspects are interpreted with reference to the contributions of Erich Neumann, bringing a new psychological vision of the relationship between Man and Nature in relation to catastrophic events.