The negative generation effect: Delineation of a phenomenon

In four experiments employing between-list designs, generation was found to have negative effects on free recall of word pairs and on cued recall of the second word. In addition, generation had negative effects on measures of word-pair integration and on clustering in recall. In contrast, positive effects of generation were found on free recall of second words alone, and on a recognition test for memory of the second word. It was concluded that in between-list designs, generation led to greater individual-item processing of the generated term than reading, but this processing occurred at the expense of processing the relation between the words in a pair and processing the relations between different pairs in a list.     

Death anxiety and death obsession in Spanish students

This study examined the dimensional structure of Templer's Death Anxiety Scale and Abdel-Khalek's Death Obsession Scale. The responses of 289 Spanish students to the Spanish forms of both scales were evaluated by means of a principal components analysis with varimax rotation. Three significant factors were identified: Death Obsession, Cognitive-Affective, and Death Anxiety. The distribution of the factor loadings for the items of both scales on Factors 1 and 3 supported the discriminant validity of the constructs specific to each of the scales, while Factor 2 showed a common component in both scales characterized by cognitive and affective aspects in relation to the idea of death.     

Can we really do without self-esteem? Comment on Crocker and Park (2004)

Because self-esteem plays a central role in managing anxiety and provides a superordinate goal that organizes much human behavior, the authors conclude that it would be extremely difficult and probably impossible for people to stop pursuing self-esteem. Although they agree that investment in others' welfare may circumvent some of the negative consequences of self-esteem pursuit, the authors argue that the self-esteem implications of other-oriented behavior will inevitably be a powerful motivating force. Finally, the authors propose that self-esteem derived from self-determined standards of value may reduce defensiveness, closed-mindedness, and indifference to others, as well as promote personal growth, but they acknowledge the daunting barriers to the attainment of such self-determined bases of self-worth.     

Anxiety buffer disruption theory: a terror management account of posttraumatic stress disorder

We present anxiety buffer disruption theory (ABDT) and provide a review of current evidence regarding the theory. ABDT is an application of terror management theory to explain diverse reactions to traumatic events and the onset and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It posits that PTSD results from a disruption in one's anxiety-buffering mechanisms, which normally provide protection against anxiety in general and death anxiety in particular. The disruption of these mechanisms leaves the individual defenseless in the face of overwhelming anxiety, which leads to the major symptom clusters of PTSD: re-experiencing, hyper-arousal, and avoidance. According to ABDT, because of the disruption in their anxiety-buffering mechanisms, individuals with PTSD symptoms do not respond to mortality reminders in the defensive ways that psychologically healthier individuals do. We review four sets of studies conducted in four different cultures and with people who have experienced different types of trauma, which reveal this atypical response pattern and lend support to ABDT.     

How does attention spread across objects oriented in depth?

Previous evidence suggests that attention can operate on object-based representations. It is not known whether these representations encode depth information and whether object depth, if encoded, is in viewer- or objectcentered coordinates. To examine these questions, we employed a spatial cuing paradigm in which one corner of a 3-D object was exogenously cued with 75% validity. By rotating the object in depth, we can determine whether validity effects are modulated by 2-D or 3-D cue-target distance and whether validity effects depend on the position of the viewer relative to the object. When the image of a 3-D object was present (Experiments 1A and 1B), validity effects were not modulated by changes in 2-D cue-target distance, and shifting attention toward the viewer led to smaller validity effects than did shifting attention away from the viewer. When there was no object in the display (Experiments 2A and 2B), validity effects increased linearly as a function of 2-D cue-target distance. These results demonstrate that attention spreads across representations of perceived objects that encode depth information and that the object’s orientation in depth is encoded in viewer-centered coordinates.     

Anxiety, depression and coping: CDI, MASC and CRI-Y for screening purposes in schools

This study used depression (CDI - Kovacs, 1981), anxiety (MASC - March, 1997) and coping strategy (CRI-Y - Moos, 1993) scales and studied the fitness and discriminant validity of reduced versions. The sample consisted of 916 Portuguese pupils, 54.3% feminine, aged 10 to 21 years old. The participants were selected from a set of public schools nation-wide. Two classes were chosen from the 5th to the 12th grades. A set of principal component analyses was carried out in a randomly chosen sample (n = 394) and all the three reduced measures were found to be strongly correlated with the previous. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) using the other part of the sample (n = 522) revealed adjustment indexes suggesting a good fit for both the whole model and gender and age groups separately. All scales revealed a good internal consistency. Globally, girls were more anxious and developed more coping strategies than boys. Older students tended to be less depressed, while younger adolescents present higher scores in depression and anxiety and less coping strategies. Reduced scales are sensitive to gender and age differences and can be used in school settings in order to establish a baseline and roadmaps for both universal and selective mental health school based programs.     

Kontroverse zu Beschwerdenvalidierungsverfahren bei der Begutachtung psychischer St?rungen

The value of symptom validity tests in a forensic context is currently the subject of a controversial debate in Germany. The discussion primarily focuses on neuropsychological symptom validity tests, however, tests specific for mental disorders are neglected. Unfortunately, no assessment tools for symptom validation of mental disorders of German origin are available and adaptations of available English state of the art instruments have not yet been tested. Further research of assessment development and qualitative analysis of the decision-making process in medicolegal evaluation is needed in German speaking countries.     

Fluctuations and phase symmetry in coordinated rhythmic movements

Pendular, clocking movements typify mammalian terrestrial locomotion. They can be investigated with a procedure in which people swing hand-held pendulums at the wrists, comfortably and rhythmically. Pendular, clocking behavior was examined for in-phase and out-of-phase coordinations. The periodic timing and powering of rhythmic movements in the comfort state follow from different laws (Kugler & Turvey, 1986). One law guides the assembling of the reference frame for "clocking." Another law guides the assembling of the muscular, escapement processes determining the cycle energy. Wing and Kristofferson's (1973) method for parsing periodic-timing variance into independent "clock" and "motor" sources was applied. Mean periodicity was unaffected by phase. "Clock" fluctuations, however, were larger out of phase than in phase. "Motor" fluctuations were indifferent to phase but reflected the departures of individual wrist-pendulum systems from their preferred periods. It appears that an intended phase relation is realized as a constraint on "clock" states. These states are more stable under the in-phase constraint than under the out-of-phase constraint.     

Sex of leader,leader behavior,and subordinate satisfaction

A 2×2×2 factorial design was employed to examine the influence of instructed leadership style, sex of leader, and sex of followers on leader behavior, subordinate satisfaction, and productivity in a simple task. In general, male and female leaders were equally able and equally willing to display autocratic and democratic leadership styles if so instructed. Similarly, leader sex did not have a significant influence on subordinate satisfaction or productivity either by itself or in interaction with leadership style or follower sex.