Children With Conduct Problems and Co-occurring ADHD: Behavioral Improvements Following Parent Management Training

To scale up evidence-based treatment of conduct problems, parent management training, Oregon model (PMTO) has been disseminated throughout Norway. This study examined whether Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) predicted the outcomes of PMTO. Of 253 children and families, 97 were reported to have an ADHD diagnosis. Although different at intake, the groups with and without ADHD had close to an equal change in behavioral status following treatment. Maternal depression and family income predicted the combined group's behavior following PMTO. The study indicates that reductions in conduct problems following PMTO are of the same magnitude in children with or without ADHD. However, some characteristics may differentially predict outcomes for children with combined problems.     

Do examples of failure effectively prepare students for learning from subsequent instruction?

Studies on the productive failure (PF) approach have demonstrated that attempting to solve a problem prepares students more effectively for later instruction compared to observing failed problem-solving attempts prior to instruction. However, the examples of failure used in these studies did not display the problem-solving-and-failing process, which may have limited the preparatory effects. In this quasi-experiment, we investigated whether observing someone else engaging in problem solving can prepare students for instruction, and whether examples that show the problem-solving-and -failing process are more effective than those that only show the outcome of this process. We also explored whether the perceived model–observer similarity had an impact on the effectiveness of observing examples of failure. The results showed that observing examples effectively prepares students for learning from instruction. However, observing the model's problem-solving-and-failing process did not prepare students more effectively than merely looking at the outcome. Studying examples were more effective if model–observer similarity was high.     

Non-musicians also have a piano in the head: evidence for spatial–musical associations from line bisection tracking

The spatial representation of ordinal sequences (numbers, time, tones) seems to be a fundamental cognitive property. While an automatic association between horizontal space and pitch height (left-low pitch, right-high pitch) is constantly reported in musicians, the evidence for such an association in non-musicians is mixed. In this study, 20 non-musicians performed a line bisection task while listening to irrelevant high- and low-pitched tones and white noise (control condition). While pitch height had no influence on the final bisection point, participants’ movement trajectories showed systematic biases: When approaching the line and touching the line for the first time (initial bisection point), the mouse cursor was directed more rightward for high-pitched tones compared to low-pitched tones and noise. These results show that non-musicians also have a subtle but nevertheless automatic association between pitch height and the horizontal space. This suggests that spatial–musical associations do not necessarily depend on constant sensorimotor experiences (as it is the case for musicians) but rather reflect the seemingly inescapable tendency to represent ordinal information on a horizontal line.     

Konzepte der Identifizierung

The authors investigate primary, hysterical, narcissistic identification, and introjection as conceptualised by Freud, Melanie Klein’s projective identification, and Anna Freud’s identification with the aggressor and altruistic surrender. It is pointed out that hysterical identification, narcissistic identification, and introjection are unconscious processes leading into a state of primary identification, and that they can be distinguished on a clinical level as regards the emotional meaning the object has for the subject. In hysterical identification the aspects of an object with which one identifies and all its other aspects retain their emotional meaning, in narcissistic identification these other aspects also keep their emotional meaning, but in this case the aspects with which one identifies lose their emotional meaning, and in introjection all aspects of an object lose their emotional meaning. Furthermore, it is shown that hysterical or narcissistic identifications are the mechanisms underlying the identification with the aggressor, and that—along with projections—hysterical re-identification also plays a decisive role in projective identification and altruistic surrender, whereby in these latter processes the object identifies himself unconsciously with the contents projected onto him in a hysterical or narcissistic manner.     

Why There Cannot be a Single Probabilistic Measure of Coherence

Bayesian Coherence Theory of Justification or, for short, Bayesian Coherentism, is characterized by two theses, viz. (i) that our degree of confidence in the content of a set of propositions is positively affected by the coherence of the set, and (ii) that coherence can be characterized in probabilistic terms. There has been a longstanding question of how to construct a measure of coherence. We will show that Bayesian Coherentism cannot rest on a single measure of coherence, but requires a vector whose components exhaustively characterize the coherence properties of the set. Our degree of confidence in the content of the information set is a function of the reliability of the sources and the components of the coherence vector. The components of this coherence vector are weakly but not strongly separable, which blocks the construction of a single coherence measure.     

An Impossibility Result for Coherence Rankings

If we receive information from multiple independent and partially reliable information sources, then whether we are justified to believe these information items is affected by how reliable the sources are, by how well the information coheres with our background beliefs and by how internally coherent the information is. We consider the following question. Is coherence a separable determinant of our degree of belief, i.e. is it the case that the more coherent the new information is, the more justified we are in believing the new information, ceteris paribus? We show that if we consider sets of information items of any size (Holism), and if we assume that there exists a coherence Ordering over such sets and that coherence is a function of the probability distribution over the propositions in such sets (Probabilism), then Separability fails to hold.     

Social and Temporal Comparisons Made by Individuals Living With HIV Disease: Relationships to Adherence Behavior1

When faced with the uncertainty of serious illness, individuals cope by comparing themselves to other people (social comparisons) and to other times in their lives (temporal comparisons). Participants were 44 individuals being treated for HIV who completed questionnaires measuring comparisons, adherence, and self‐efficacy; 34 also completed qualitative interviews that were coded for comparisons. High levels of comparison to worse‐off others, worse‐off past selves, and better‐off future selves were prevalent. Comparisons to worse‐off others resulting in positive affect were associated with greater medication adherence; comparisons to better‐off others resulting in negative affect were related to worse adherence. Self‐efficacy to adhere mediated the relationship between comparison and adherence. Individuals who are uncertain about treatment outcomes may engage in social comparison to gain specific knowledge about adherence.     

Relations among heavy training stress,mood state,and performance for male junior rowers

This study investigated the influence of rapidly increased training volume on performance and recovery-stress state perceived by 10 male junior rowers. The training during the 6-day period amounted to 21.5 +/- 2.2 hr., which was equivalent to an average increase in training load by approximately 100% compared to their average training volume during the previous 4 wk. The time to row 2,000 m on a rowing ergometer and resting cortisol level were significantly increased after the 6-day training period. Scores on subscales of the Recovery Stress Questionnaire for Athletes significantly increased for somatic component of stress (Fatigue) and decreased factor indicating recovery (Social Relaxation) after the heavy training period. A correlation of .63 was found between increased training volume and scores on the Conflicts/Pressure subscale at the end of the heavy training period. Correlations were also found between changes in training volume with changes on subscales of Sleep Quality (r=-.64) and Burnout/Personal Accomplishment (r=-.66). Changes in resting cortisol levels as a result of heavy training stress were related to the changes in the following stress subscales: Social Stress (r=.76), Fatigue (r=.64), Disturbed Breaks (r=.65), and Fitness/Injury (r=.67). Changes in performance, perceived recovery-stress state and resting plasma cortisol level reflect increased stress due to high training. These results suggest that the Recovery Stress Questionnaire for Athletes could be used to evaluate the effects of rapidly increased training volume for male junior rowers.     

Enquiring into the qualitative nature of anger: Challenges and strengths of the introspective method

Current Psychology - Anger is known to be a negatively valenced emotion that can trigger different forms of harmful actions. Traditionally, it is studied from a third-person point of view using...