Relationship Education for Incarcerated Adults

As relationship education (RE) programs become more widely implemented, it is important to measure and document the changes associated with RE for diverse audiences. Also, researchers have been challenged to examine the impact of RE with more disadvantaged groups. While we are seeing an increase in this area, only three studies have examined RE with an incarcerated sample. These previous studies examined only those currently in a relationship and focused primarily on couple functioning. The aim of this study was to expand the existing literature by examining RE with a broader sample of incarcerated adults, regardless of current relationship status, and to expand our understanding of its association with outcomes beyond the couple domain by also including measures of individual and parental functioning. In addition, we examined whether change from pre‐ to posttest was moderated by individual characteristics. Using a sample of incarcerated adults (N = 122), the study found positive change in three domains of functioning (couple, individual, and parental). Specifically, results indicated change on five of the eight outcome variables examined. Overall, we found both similarities and differences among program participants on changes from pre‐ to posttest. For the majority of outcomes, the positive change from pre‐ to posttest emerged regardless of individual characteristics.     

Directed forgetting shares mechanisms with attentional withdrawal but not with stop-signal inhibition

To explore the mechanisms underlying the ability to intentionally forget, the present study combined an itemmethod directed forgetting paradigm with tasks that measure stop-signal inhibition (Experiments 1 and 2) and inhibition of return (IOR; Experiment 2). Following each study-phase instruction to remember (R) or forget (F), a target was presented centrally (Experiment 1) or to the left or right in the visual periphery (Experiment 2); the target required a speeded response that was sometimes countermanded by a central stop signal. Although stopsignal reaction times were unaffected by the preceding memory instruction (or relationship with word-target location), F instructions improved stopping and delayed responses. Replicating previous findings in the literature, significant IOR was observed following F instructions but not following R instructions (Experiment 2). These findings suggest that intentional forgetting is an active cognitive process that more likely engages attentional mechanisms related to orienting than those related to stop-signal inhibition.     

Binding across space and time in visual working memory

Recent studies of visual short-term memory have suggested that the binding of features such as color and shape into remembered objects is relatively automatic. A series of seven experiments broadened this investigation by comparing the immediate retention of colored shapes with performance when color and shape were separated either spatially or temporally, with participants required actively to form the bound object. Attentional load was manipulated with a demanding concurrent task, and retention in working memory was then tested using a single recognition probe. Both spatial and temporal separation of features tended to impair performance, as did the concurrent task. There was, however, no evidence for greater attentional disruption of performance as a result of either spatial or temporal separation of features. Implications for the process of binding in visual working memory are discussed, and an interpretation is offered in terms of the episodic buffer component of working memory, which is assumed to be a passive store capable of holding bound objects, but not of performing the binding.     

Representational momentum in children born preterm and at term

The term representational momentum (RM) refers to the idea that our memory representations for moving objects incorporate information about movement – a fact that can lead us to make errors when judging an object’s location (the RM effect). In this study, we explored the RM effect in a sample of children born very prematurely and a sample born at term. Because preterm children are known to be at risk for problems with motion perception, we anticipated that they would show a weaker or absent RM effect. This prediction was confirmed. In addition, we found that, in both samples of children, 5–6 year olds showed a reduced RM effect compared to 7–9 year olds. These results demonstrate that the ability to represent motion information in memory shows continued development over this age range, and may help to elucidate factors contributing to problems with fine and gross motor planning and execution that have been observed in the preterm population. We propose that problems affecting the formation, maintenance, or use of predictive models, or motion extrapolation skills, may have cascading effects on the development of other abilities.     

Dimensional, categorical, or dimensional-categories: testing the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity among adults using factor-mixture modeling

The present study tested multiple, competing latent structural models of anxiety sensitivity (AS), as measured by the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3; Taylor et al., 2007). Data were collected from 3 sites in North America (N = 634). Participants were predominantly university students (M = 21.3 years, SD = 5.4). ASI-3 data were evaluated using an integration of mixture modeling and confirmatory factor analysis—factor mixture modeling (FMM; Muthén, 2008). Results supported a 2-class 3-factor partially invariant model of AS. Specifically, the FMM analyses indicated that AS is a taxonic (two-class) variable, and that each categorical class has a unique multidimensional factor structure. Consistent with the specific point-prediction regarding the hypothesized parameters of the putative latent class variable, FMM indicated that the putatively “high-risk” subgroup of cases or latent form of AS composed approximately 12% of the studied sample whereas the putatively “normative” subgroup of cases or latent form of AS composed 88% of the sample. In addition, the AS Physical and Psychological Concerns subscales, but not the Social Concerns subscale, most strongly discriminated between the two latent classes. Finally, comparison of continuous levels of AS Physical and Psychological Concerns between FMM-derived AS latent classes and independent clinical samples of patients with anxiety disorders provided empirical support for the theorized taxonic-dimensional model of AS and anxiety psychopathology vulnerability. Findings are discussed in regard to the implications of this and related research into the nature of AS and anxiety psychopathology vulnerability.     

Resilience to suicidal ideation in psychosis: Positive self-appraisals buffer the impact of hopelessness

Recent years have seen growing interest into concepts of resilience, but minimal research has explored resilience to suicide and none has investigated resilience to suicide amongst clinical groups. The current study aimed to examine whether a proposed resilience factor, positive self-appraisals of the ability to cope with emotions, difficult situations and the ability to gain social support, could buffer against the negative impact of hopelessness amongst individuals with psychosis-spectrum disorders when measured cross-sectionally. Seventy-seven participants with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders completed self-report measures of suicidal ideation, hopelessness and positive self-appraisals. Positive self-appraisals were found to moderate the association between hopelessness and suicidal ideation. For those reporting high levels of positive self-appraisals, increased levels of hopelessness were significantly less likely to lead to suicidality. These results provide cross-sectional evidence suggest that positive self-appraisals may buffer individuals with psychosis against the pernicious impact of a well known clinical risk factor, hopelessness. Accounting for positive self-appraisals may improve identification of individuals at high risk of suicidality, and may be an important area to target for suicide interventions.     

Social desirability and self-reported driving behaviours: Should we be worried?

There is widespread use of self-report measures of driving behaviour in the traffic psychology literature, despite the frequent criticism that such measures are subject to social desirability bias. However, no research has yet investigated the more recently developed measures of driving anxiety and avoidance behaviour for socially desirable responding. Furthermore, relatively little research has investigated the issue of socially desirable responding on self-reported driver behaviour in general, and that which does exist has several shortcomings. The present study used a repeated measures design to assess the effect of social desirability on a measure of driving avoidance, the Driving and Riding Avoidance Scale (DRAS), and the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ). A sample of 228 undergraduate students completed the DRAS, DBQ and a measure of socially desirable responding in class, which constituted a public place, and then again 2 months later in the privacy of their homes. None of the DBQ items were significantly different across the two locations. However, two of the DRAS general avoidance items were higher in the public setting, perhaps demonstrating the effect of socially desirable responding on driving avoidance due to environmental or practical concern. Nevertheless, overall it appears as though the DRAS and DBQ are not particularly vulnerable to socially desirable responding, although further well-designed research on the effects of such bias on these and other self-report measures of driving behaviour should be undertaken.     

Between the idea and the reality: A study of the counselling experiences of bereaved people who sense the presence of the deceased

There have been many theories of the process of loss and bereavement, from Freud, to the present day. Early theories of bereavement described a process which, following various stages and associated tasks, ended at the relinquishment of the bond to the deceased. In more recent years theories have taken different directions, identifying how bereaved people re‐learn life, recreate biographies, and continue relationships to the deceased. Some research studies of bereavement have investigated the counsellors’ perspective, but there are very few studies of the client's experience and most studies have focussed on outcomes of counselling. This qualitative study, using semi‐structured interviews, provides an insight into the bereaved client's perspective on the content and process of their counselling experiences. Taking as its focus the client's sense of the presence of the deceased, this study aimed to identify whether or how counsellors facilitate exploration of this experience and which theories they use in client work. The main finding is that 80% of the counsellors were not perceived by participants to have worked with them satisfactorily in relation to their sense of presence of the deceased or in relation to the story of the death itself.