“My iPhone Changed My Life”: How Digital Technologies Can Enable Women’s Consumption of Online Sexually Explicit Materials

Digital technologies continue to change the ways women can access and consume sexual materials online, including pornography. Yet, limited research has considered the possibilities of digital technologies to enhance women’s access and consumption of online pornographic materials. In this paper, we use a cyberfeminist lens to examine women’s experiences consuming online sexually explicit materials, which most women defined as pornography including videos and images. In particular, we consider the ways women who identify as porn consumers can use digital technologies to enable and enhance their consumption of these pornographic materials. Drawing on qualitative, in-depth interviews with 11 women, our findings illustrate the ways women can use digital technologies to consume pornography online in ways that help them to fulfill their sexual needs, embrace and explore their sexual selves, connect in sexual relationships, and normalize their sexual desires.     

West African Immigrant Perspectives on Female Genital Cutting: Experiences,Attitudes, and Implications for Mental Health Service Providers

This small pilot study analyzed the experiences of female genital cutting (FGC) among West African immigrants in New York City from three West African countries (the Gambia, Guinea, and Mali) with FGC prevalence rates of 76, 97, and 89%, respectively, among girls and women aged 15 to 49 years. Nine women participated in two focus group sessions. In the first group, five female participants ranged in age from18–20, and in the second, four participants ranged in age from 31 to 44. Focus group data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Despite the small sample size, the findings of this exploratory study highlight important aspects of immigrant women’s experiences regarding FGC and indicate the need for further exploration. Participants drew from personal experiences to discuss FGC and their views of the practice. Salient themes that emerged included the secretive and violent nature of the practice, the primacy of matriarchal decision-makers, the fear among immigrant mothers that their children would be subjected to FGC without their consent, and health care encounters in the USA. The findings of this study are considered in light of their implications for research, service provision, and policy.     

A comparison of procedures for unpairing conditioned reflexive motivating operations

This study compared the effectiveness of two procedures to reduce behavior evoked by a reflexive conditioned motivating operation (CMO‐R). Task demands were shown to evoke escape‐maintained problem behavior for 4 students with disabilities. Alternative communication responses were taught as an appropriate method to request escape and this treatment combined with extinction for problem behavior led to decreases in problem behavior for all students. A beeping timer was then arranged to temporally precede the task demand to create a CMO‐R that evoked communication responses. When data showed that the sound of the timer was functioning as a CMO‐R, two methods to reduce behavior evoked by a CMO‐R—extinction unpairing and noncontingent unpairing—were evaluated. Results indicated that noncontingent unpairing was an effective method to reduce the evocative effects of the CMO‐R. Extinction produced unsystematic effects across participants. Results are discussed in terms of abolishing CMOs and the implications of CMOs.     

A prospective investigation of rumination and executive control in predicting overgeneral autobiographical memory in adolescence

The CaR-FA-X model (Williams et al., 2007), or capture and rumination (CaR), functional avoidance (FA), and impaired executive control (X), is a model of overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM). Two mechanisms of the model, rumination and executive control, were examined in isolation and in interaction in order to investigate OGM over time. Across two time points, six months apart, a total of 149 adolescents (13–16 years) completed the minimal-instruction autobiographical memory test, a measure of executive control with both emotional and nonemotional stimuli, and measures of brooding rumination and reflective pondering. The results showed that executive control for emotional information was negatively associated with OGM, but only when reflective pondering levels were high. Therefore, in the context of higher levels of reflective pondering, greater switch costs (i.e., lower executive control) when processing emotional information predicted a decrease in OGM over time.     

Dynamic measures of anxiety-related threat bias: Links to stress reactivity

Exaggerated attention to threatening information, or the threat bias, has been implicated in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Recent research has highlighted methodological limitations in threat bias measures, such as temporal insensitivity, leading to the development of novel metrics that capture change and variability in threat bias over time. These metrics, however, have rarely been examined in non-clinical samples. The present study aimed to explore the utility of these trial-level metrics in predicting anxiety-related stress reactivity (stress-induced negative mood state) in trait anxious adults (N?=?52). Following a stressor, participants completed the dot probe task to generate threat bias scores. Stress reactivity was measured via stress-induced changes in subjective mood state. More variability in trial-level bias scores (TL-BSs) and greater bias away from threat (both mean and peak negative TL-BSs) predicted increased stress reactivity. The temporal characteristics of threat bias and implications for clinically-relevant measurement are discussed.     

The development and validation of an implicit measure of competence need satisfaction

Research on self-determination theory has typically relied on explicit measures when examining the concept of competence need satisfaction. As a result, we know relatively little about competence need satisfaction that arises under conditions of automaticity. Across four studies, we developed and validated implicit measures of competence need satisfaction by drawing on two tasks: a relational variant of the implicit association test (IAT; Study 1, 3, and 4) and the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP; Study 2–3). Results across these studies revealed that both implicit measures were either unrelated or moderately related to their explicit counterpart. They were also unrelated to one another. Unlike the IRAP, the IAT was found to be reliable, to display discriminant validity, and to yield meaningful but modest relations with constructs in a nomological network. Together, these results provide modest support for the usefulness of the competence need satisfaction IAT but not of the competence need satisfaction IRAP as an implicit measure of the need for competence. Future research examining the unique predictive value of this IAT is needed, together with research on possible explanations for the low reliability of the IRAP.     

Behavioral Genetics and the Forensic Mental Health Provider: An Overview

The area of behavioral genetics has sufficiently entered the area of forensic mental health work that providers should have some working knowledge of the strengths and limitations of these exciting technical advances. Using MAOA as an example, this essay reviews some of the recurring themes in forensic behavioral genetics and suggests additional ways in which the technology might be used in legal matters. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gender Differences in Experiences with Couples Treatment for IPV

Evidence suggests that conjoint treatment can be effective for certain violent couples in certain situations (Finkel in Rev Gen Psychol 11:193–207, 2007; LaTaillade et al. in J Cogn Psychother 20:393–410, 2006; Fals-Stewart et al. in J Consult Clin Psych 73:239–248, 2005; Stith et al. in J Marital Fam Ther 29(3):407–426, 2003). However, not as much is known about which aspects of conjoint treatment make a difference, nor if male and female participants experience these elements of treatment differently. Knowing which components of couples’ treatment clients perceive as helpful—and whether their perceptions differ by gender—will allow us to redefine models with an eye toward making them more effective. In this study we used qualitative methods to examine the aspects of a particular couples’ treatment program (Stith and McCollum in Aggress Violent Beh 16(4):312–318, 2011) that clients found useful while also considering the differences between men’s and women’s responses. Fourteen couples, in which the male had been identified as the primary aggressor, were interviewed multiple times to gain their perspectives about components of the program they found helpful and their suggestions for program improvement. Themes are analyzed by gender. Implications for treatment and future research are provided.     

Mobile Internet Testing: An analysis of equivalence,individual differences,and reactions

Mobile internet testing (MIT) is the latest cost effective technological push in employment testing. The ability to access assessments via the internet using mobile devices provides increased speed and convenience for both administrators and respondents. In this article, we examine the equivalence of MIT compared with testing on personal computers (PCs) and whether attitudes and other individual differences influence responses and reactions to MIT. Results demonstrated equivalence for a supervisory situational judgment test across testing modes, but not for a cognitive ability test. Significant relationships were found between anxiety and both performance and reactions to mobile assessment. Respondents also reported significantly more positive reactions when tested on a PC versus a mobile device. Future research and practical implications are discussed.