Older spouses' perceptions of partners' chronic arthritis pain: implications for spousal responses, support provision, and caregiving experiences

This study of older patients with osteoarthritis and their spouses examined concordance between patients' and spouses' reports of patients' pain severity and the association of concordance with support and caregiving outcomes. Patients and spouses independently viewed videotapes of the patient performing simulated household tasks and provided ratings of patients' pain. Spousal overestimation of patients' pain was the most common type of nonconcordance. Spouses who were accurate in their perceptions of their partner's level of pain during a log-carrying task responded less negatively and provided emotional support that was more satisfying to patients. In addition, spouses who were accurate in their perceptions of their partner's pain during the log-carrying task reported less stress from providing support and assistance. Future research that uses such observational methods may be highly useful for understanding the effects of chronic illness on older couples.     

Correlations for scores on the 180-item version of the MMPI-2 and the Neuroticism scale of the NEO-Personality Inventory

64 normal adult controls (53 men, 11 women; M age 45.2 yr.) in a study of an estuary-associated syndrome were administered the MMPI-2-180 and the Neuroticism scale from the NEO-Personality Inventory. Pearson product-moment correlations between MMPI-2 scales and the Neuroticism scale were similar to those reviously reported using the full-length MMPI. Correlations between MMPI-2 scales, D, Pt, Sc, and Si, and NEO-PI Neuroticism (range .44 to .52) suggest that many psychiatric conditions are associated with psychological distress of the type individuals high in trait neuroticism are prone to experience.     

Reliability of personality disorder symptoms and personality traits in substance-dependent inpatients

The authors compared the internal consistency, 1-year temporal stability, and self-informant agreement of ratings of personality trait (NEO Five-Factor Inventory; NEO-FFI; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and personality disorder symptom severity (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders Questionnaire; SCID-II-Q; R. L. Spitzer, J. B. W. Williams, M. Gibbon, & M. First, 1990) in 131 substance-dependent inpatients. Internal consistency coefficients were acceptable to very good for most NEO-FFI and SCID-II-Q scales, and temporal stability correlations were significant for all measures. Agreement between patient and informant ratings was more modest. Substance abuse and depression symptom severity moderated the temporal stability and self-informant agreement of several personality trait and disorder ratings. The authors did not find that the five factors were more reliable than the Axis II symptoms. Issues related to the reliability of personality assessment in multiply diagnosed patients are discussed.     

An examination of career indecision and application to dispositional authenticity

Authenticity has been viewed as a dimension related to life satisfaction, but we propose that authenticity is related to career outcomes. In this study, we examined the relation between authenticity and career indecision. Authenticity was assessed by the Authenticity Scale and it was found to be moderately related to different indices of career indecision in a sample of 537 undergraduate university students. Results are discussed in terms of their clinical and research implications and encourage a broader perspective in conceptualizing vocational concerns.     

Why Doesn't Parental Alienation Occur More Frequently? The Significance of Role Discrimination

Approximately two thirds of divorced families develop co-parenting relationships that are more or less effective. Of the approximately one third of divorces that do not evolve into effective co-parenting, a subset deteriorates into parental alienation. Classical Balance theory predicts parental alienation as a normative outcome in divorcing and divorced families. Discriminating between their roles as spouses and parents allows separated and divorced couples to avoid alienation outcomes. Elevated anxiety, however, may interfere with these discriminative responses, and lead parents into stereotyping each other. This article proposes a two-dimensional model of parental estrangement-alienation addressing variations in anxiety and stereotyping. Interventions for reducing the effects of estrangement and alienation are also identifed and discussed.     

An above real time training intervention for sport decision making

ObjectivesA speeded video-based decision-making training intervention was used to assess the impact of above real time training on decision-making skill in sport.Design and methodsThree groups completed pre tests and either five weeks of fast speed video training, normal speed video training or no training, followed by a post test and two retention tests in subsequent weeks. Decision accuracy was measured by awarding three, two, one, or no point(s) based on independent coach ratings of each situation.ResultsResults revealed that those trained in above real time improved performance earlier in the training intervention compared to those trained in normal speed. The above real time group also retained more of the performance improvements. The transfer test for decision accuracy showed improvement following the training intervention for all groups, trends in the data reflected a higher retention rate for the fast speed group choosing the bet option more frequently than normal and control groups.ConclusionsThe results lend support to the general use of video-based decision-making training for team invasion sports. A greater impact is that they provide a new paradigm by adapting above real time training to decision making, to create a more game-like training scenario.     

Matching bias in syllogistic reasoning: Evidence for a dual-process account from response times and confidence ratings

We examined matching bias in syllogistic reasoning by analysing response times, confidence ratings, and individual differences. Roberts’ (2005) “negations paradigm” was used to generate conflict between the surface features of problems and the logical status of conclusions. The experiment replicated matching bias effects in conclusion evaluation (Stupple & Waterhouse, 2009), revealing increased processing times for matching/logic “conflict problems”. Results paralleled chronometric evidence from the belief bias paradigm indicating that logic/belief conflict problems take longer to process than non-conflict problems (Stupple, Ball, Evans, & Kamal-Smith, 2011). Individuals’ response times for conflict problems also showed patterns of association with the degree of overall normative responding. Acceptance rates, response times, metacognitive confidence judgements, and individual differences all converged in supporting dual-process theory. This is noteworthy because dual-process predictions about heuristic/analytic conflict in syllogistic reasoning generalised from the belief bias paradigm to a situation where matching features of conclusions, rather than beliefs, were set in opposition to logic.