Conceptualizing Sex Offender Denial From a Multifaceted Framework: Investigating the Psychometric Qualities of a New Instrument

The authors examined the psychometric properties of a clinician‐rated measure of sex offender denial. Convergent and discriminant validity for the measure was supported, and given its relationship to treatment attitudes, the measure demonstrated utility for assessing treatment change and readiness.     

Impulsivity in internet addiction: a comparison with pathological gambling

Internet addiction has been considered to be associated with poor impulse control. The aim of this study is to compare the trait impulsivity of those suffering from Internet addiction with that of individuals suffering from pathological gambling. Twenty-seven patients diagnosed with Internet addiction (age: 24.78±4.37 years), 27 patients diagnosed with pathological gambling (age: 25.67±3.97 years), and 27 healthy controls (age: 25.33±2.79 years) were enrolled in this study. All patients were men seeking treatment. Trait impulsivity and the severity of the Internet addiction and pathological gambling were measured by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11, the Young's Internet Addiction Test, and the South Oaks Gambling Screen, respectively. The Beck Depression Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory were also administered to all subjects. Our results show that those suffering from Internet addiction showed increased levels of trait impulsivity which were comparable to those of patients diagnosed with pathological gambling. Additionally, the severity of Internet addiction was positively correlated with the level of trait impulsivity in patients with Internet addiction. These results state that Internet addiction can be conceptualized as an impulse control disorder and that trait impulsivity is a marker for vulnerability to Internet addiction.     

Knowledge and abilities: The need for a new understanding of knowing-how

Stanley and Williamson (The Journal of Philosophy 98(8), 411–444 2001) reject the fundamental distinction between what Ryle once called ‘knowing-how’ and ‘knowing-that’. They claim that knowledge-how is just a species of knowledge-that, i.e. propositional knowledge, and try to establish their claim relying on the standard semantic analysis of ‘knowing-how’ sentences. We will undermine their strategy by arguing that ‘knowing-how’ phrases are under-determined such that there is not only one semantic analysis and by critically discussing and refuting the positive account of knowing-how they offer. Furthermore, we argue for an extension of the classical ‘knowing-how’/‘knowing-that’-dichotomy by presenting a new threefold framework: Using some core-examples of the recent debate, we will show that we can analyze knowledge situations that are not captured by the Rylean dichotomy and argue that, therefore, the latter has to be displaced by a more fine-grained theory of knowledge-formats. We will distinguish three different formats of knowledge we can have of our actions, namely (1) propositional, (2) practical, and (3) image-like formats of knowledge. Furthermore, we will briefly analyze the underlying representations of each of these knowledge-formats.     

Spezielle Aspekte bei Angststörungen

Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions worldwide and frequently cause significant functional impairment. Generalized anxiety disorder is the most commonly occurring impairing anxiety disorder in primary care. The degree of disability attributable to generalized anxiety disorder is comparable to that of major depression and is similar to that of chronic physical illnesses, such as peptic ulceration, arthritis, asthma and diabetes mellitus. Comorbid illnesses, such as mood disorders are commonly seen in clinical practice and have a significant impact on the clinical presentation and the treatment approach. Both psychotherapeutic and pharmacological techniques are recognized as being effective management strategies. The present article focuses on two case-reports of patients with anxiety disorders in an inpatient setting. By describing comorbid conditions subsequent difficulties and challenges in treatment are underlined.     

Feeling the weight of calories: using haptic feedback as virtual exemplars to promote risk perception among young females on unhealthy snack choices

ABSTRACT

Virtual simulations allow users to feel and manipulate objects as they would in the physical world. Guided by exemplification theory and risk communication research, a virtual exemplar was developed to allow users to feel the weight of the caloric density of unhealthy snacks (e.g., potato chips) to heighten risk perceptions on snack choices. A 3 (base-rate statistics, print exemplar, virtual exemplar) × 3 (Time 1, Time 2, Time 3) mixed design experiment (N = 152) compared the effect of three mediated modes of delivering health information at baseline, immediately after, and 1 week after treatments. Virtual exemplars led to greater spatial presence, issue involvement, and recommended health behavior than did base-rate statistics or print exemplars, but had no effect on perceived vividness. Heightened perceived susceptibility following virtual exemplars persisted for 1 week. Findings emphasized the importance of spatial presence elicited by an exemplar in heightening the perceived susceptibility of health risks both immediately after and 1 week after exposure. The role of spatial presence and vividness in the context of virtual exemplars that afford the illusion of firsthand experiences is discussed and compared against traditional exemplification research that has focused on the impact of secondhand experiences.     

Automatic identification of familiar faces

Much research has suggested that facial identification has some characteristics of automaticity, in that it is rapid, nonconscious, and mandatory. However, little research has tested whether it can occur even if attention is already devoted to the demanding central processes of another task. In the present study, we addressed this type of automaticity using the psychological refractory period paradigm. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants successfully identified familiar faces, even while they were engaged with another task, indicating the automaticity of familiar-face identification. In Experiments 3 and 4, however, participants could not identify unfamiliar faces as automatically as they could identify the familiar faces. We concluded that automatic face identification is possible, but dependent on prior familiarity.     

An Ethics of Propriety: Ritual,Roles, and Dependence in Early Confucianism

This study examines the normative foundations of early Confucian ethics and suggests that rather than attempting to understand Confucian ethics in the language of ‘morality’ a more productive way would be to appreciate Confucianism as an ethics of propriety that can be articulated in terms of social roles, ritual decorum, and relational dependence. I argue that Western notions of ‘morality’ betray a thicker, more culturally loaded concept that possesses a limited utility in regard to comparative study. We can appeal to a kind of methodological charity where we not only maximize the sense of the text or subject's sayings but also privilege the categories of thought that are native to the text's or speaker's lexicon. With this in mind, we can understand Confucian ethics as an ethics of propriety that departs substantially from Western moral systems, including virtue ethics, and challenges our received views on justice, autonomy, and personal identity.     

Testing mediator variables in a resistance training intervention for obese adults with type 2 diabetes

A poor understanding of behaviour change mechanisms has hindered the development of effective physical activity interventions. The aim of this study was to identify potential mediators of change in a home-based resistance training (RT) program for obese individuals with type 2 diabetes. Obese individuals with type 2 diabetes (N?=?48) were randomly allocated to either an RT intervention (n?=?27) or a control group (n?=?21) for the 16-week study period. The study sample included 16 men and 32 women and the mean age of participants was 54.4 (±11.7) years. Participants in the RT group received a multi-gym and dumbbells and home supervision from a certified personal trainer. RT behaviour was measured using a modified Godin Leisure Time Questionnaire. Social-cognitive constructs were measured and tested in a mediating variable framework using a product-of-coefficients test. The intervention had a significant effect on RT behaviour (p?<?0.001) and muscular strength (p?<?0.001). The intervention had a significant effect on RT planning strategies (p?<?0.01), which mediated the effect of the intervention on RT behaviour. The home-based RT program successfully targeted participants’ RT planning strategies which contributed to their exercise adherence.     

Effects of Diversity on Knowledge Sharing and Creativity of Work Teams: Status Differential Among Members as a Facilitator

ABSTRACT

We investigated a plausible intermediate process and a boundary condition that elaborates the diversity–team creativity relationship to address mixed findings on the relationship between diversity and creativity. Our analysis using multi-source data collected from 128 work groups showed that age diversity and functional background diversity had negative and positive effects, respectively, on knowledge sharing and subsequent team creativity. Moreover, the effects of the four diversity attributes (age, gender, functional background, and tenure) on knowledge sharing were all negative in groups with low status differential, whereas the same effects became significantly positive in groups with high status differential. This study demonstrates a mechanism through which group diversity facilitates team creativity based on the information processing view of diversity and the functional approach to social status.     

The cerebellum: Its role in language and related cognitive and affective functions

The traditional view on the cerebellum as the sole coordinator of motor function has been substantially redefined during the past decades. Neuroanatomical, neuroimaging and clinical studies have extended the role of the cerebellum to the modulation of cognitive and affective processing. Neuroanatomical studies have demonstrated cerebellar connectivity with the supratentorial association areas involved in higher cognitive and affective functioning, while functional neuroimaging and clinical studies have provided evidence of cerebellar involvement in a variety of cognitive and affective tasks. This paper reviews the recently acknowledged role of the cerebellum in linguistic and related cognitive and behavioral–affective functions. In addition, typical cerebellar syndromes such as the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome (CCAS) and the posterior fossa syndrome (PFS) will be briefly discussed and the current hypotheses dealing with the presumed neurobiological mechanisms underlying the linguistic, cognitive and affective modulatory role of the cerebellum will be reviewed.