Physical Size Stereotyping as a Mediator of Attributions of Responsibility in an Alleged Date-Rape Situation1

This research focuses on male and female observers' attributions of responsibility to a female accuser and a male accused of rape. Observers read 1 of 2 scenarios in which the accuser was either smaller or larger than the accused and then made judgments concerning each person's responsibility for what happened. The data indicated that the larger accuser was considered more responsible than the smaller accuser and the larger accused was perceived to be more responsible than the smaller accused. Females attributed more responsibility and had less sympathy, respect, and liking for the accused, whereas males attributed more responsibility and reported more negative attitudes toward the accuser. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for legal and health-care professionals.     

Ethnic Identity, Self-Esteem, and Values in Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and African Americans

This study investigates the relationship between ethnic identity, self-esteem, value orientations, and perceived value congruence in 207 minority students. It also investigates within-group concordance and cross-cultural differences in value orientations. Dilemmas were used to measure value orientations and perceived congruence between personal and group values. A version of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992) and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (1965) were used to measure ethnic identity and self-esteem, respectively. Ethnic identity was positively related to self-esteem. The perception of value congruence was not related to ethnic identity or self-esteem. There was within-group concordance in the ranking of value solutions. In addition, the groups differed in the strength of ethnic identity, perceived value congruence, and the ranking of the value solutions.     

Attitudes to Authority in Women Religious

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between three stances in attitudes to authority and levels of intrapsychic and interrelational of maturity in women religious in initial stages of membership. Subjects were drawn from congregations throughout the U.S. from those involved in programs of formation or temporary commitment. The total sample (N = 162) was divided into three equal-attitude groups (N = 54), using complementary but uncorrelated measures of attitudes to institutional authority and directiveness. Relationship between the behavioral rating of directiveness seemed associated with intrapsychic measures of individuation, with those scoring as most directive found most mature from this perspective. Maturation rated from an intergenerational system approach seemed to be associated with pro-authority attitudes, with those most supportive of authority scoring highest on this construct. Implications for further research as well as work with religious in formation are suggested.     

Treating liquid expulsion in children with feeding disorders

In the current investigation, we compared and evaluated the effects of two intervention procedures, a modified chin prompt and reclined seating, on the liquid expulsion of 2 children with feeding disorders. For both participants, expulsion decreased to clinically meaningful levels when we added the modified chin prompt or reclined seating to a treatment package consisting of differential reinforcement of acceptance, nonremoval of the cup, and re‐presentation. We discuss possible mechanisms underlying the effects of the 2 interventions and areas for future research.     

Much More Than PTSD: Mothers’ Narratives of the Impact of Trauma on Child Survivors and Their Families

This study examined the narratives of ten Caucasian mothers whose children had been impacted by ‘traumatic’ events and referred to a specialist trauma service in N. Ireland. The research question was whether the PTSD construct adequately represented the broad ‘lived’ experience of the impact of trauma on survivors’ wellbeing and their family relationships as articulated by mothers post trauma. Narrative Interviewing methodology was employed and the resulting data inductively organised into an evolving thematic framework. A quantitative analysis of the prevalence of particular themes is presented supplemented by qualitative quotations to illustrate the complexity of reported impact. The major components of the mothers’ narratives included family and relational distress (35.7%), non-pathological individual distress (24.4%), resilience (16.7%) and a prior history of adversity (16.6%). Prior history of adversity was resent in 8 out the 10 cases including a high level of suicide. PTSD symptomatology constituted a small proportion of the narratives (6.6%) and this suggests that the PTSD construct does not adequately represent the broad ‘lived’ experience of the impact of trauma. Although a small and heterogeneous study sample, the findings are sufficiently robust to suggest further investigation is required to understand the phenomenological experience of trauma of child victims/survivors and their families.     

How Status Conflict Undermines Athletes' Willingness to Help New Teammates

Drawing from theory on social hierarchy and intragroup behaviors, the current study examined whether status conflicts attenuate willingness to help newcomers. Using experimental vignettes with high-level team sport athletes (N = 112), the results demonstrated that athletes were less willing to help high-status newcomers who played the same position than newcomers who played (a) a different position and (b) the same position but were described to be lower status. Our findings show that when positional competition creates a salient status threat, this can curtail an athlete's willingness to help in the socialization processes of a teammate.     

Trauma and Relationship Satisfaction in Treatment Seeking Couples: A Dyadic Investigation of Differentiation as a Mediator

Contemporary Family Therapy - The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between interpersonal trauma history and relationship satisfaction, and the mediating effect of...     

Brain drawings following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and links to illness perceptions and health outcomes – Findings from a population-based study

Objective: Individuals’ illness perceptions predict health behaviours and influence functional outcomes. This study examined associations between a novel assessment of illness perceptions, in the form of adult’s brain drawings after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and questionnaire measures of illness perceptions, quality of life and post-concussive symptoms.

Design: Population-based, prospective longitudinal study examining 245 adults with predominantly mild TBI with high risk of complications.

Main outcome measures: Participants were asked to draw pictures of what they thought their brain looked like before injury and at baseline and one month post-injury. Drawing characteristics (height, width and percentage damage at one month) were examined in relation to each outcome of interest at six months.

Results: Greater damage at one month was associated with more negative illness perceptions (rs = .23), poorer mental health (rs = ?.21), and more total post-concussive symptoms (rs = .27 to r = .35) at six months. The extent of damage depicted reduced over time (p < .001). No associations were found between the amount of damage drawn and injury severity, nor the height or width of drawings and injury severity or illness perceptions.

Conclusion: Drawings post-TBI offer a simple, cost- and time-effective way to begin discussions and improve understanding of peoples’ illness perceptions.     

Differences in memory functioning between children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and/or focal epilepsy

Prior research has shown that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and epilepsy are frequently comorbid and that both disorders are associated with various attention and memory problems. Nonetheless, limited research has been conducted comparing the two disorders in one sample to determine unique versus shared deficits. Hence, we investigated differences in working memory (WM) and short-term and delayed recall between children with ADHD, focal epilepsy of mixed foci, comorbid ADHD/epilepsy and controls. Participants were compared on the Core subtests and the Picture Locations subtest of the Children’s Memory Scale (CMS). Results indicated that children with ADHD displayed intact verbal WM and long-term memory (LTM), as well as intact performance on most aspects of short-term memory (STM). They performed worse than controls on Numbers Forward and Picture Locations, suggesting problems with focused attention and simple span for visual-spatial material. Conversely, children with epilepsy displayed poor focused attention and STM regardless of the modality assessed, which affected encoding into LTM. The only loss over time was found for passages (Stories). WM was intact. Children with comorbid ADHD/epilepsy displayed focused attention and STM/LTM problems consistent with both disorders, having the lowest scores across the four groups. Hence, focused attention and visual-spatial span appear to be affected in both disorders, whereas additional STM/encoding problems are specific to epilepsy. Children with comorbid ADHD/epilepsy have deficits consistent with both disorders, with slight additive effects. This study suggests that attention and memory testing should be a regular part of the evaluation of children with epilepsy and ADHD.