Listeners' cognitive and affective reactions to English speakers with standard American English and Asian Accents

Using a 2 (speaker accent: standard American, Asian) x 2 (speakers' sex: male, female) between-subjects design, the present study examined the effects of accent and sex on listeners' cognitive and affective reactions towards speakers with standard American English accents and Asian accents. 70 female and 27 male college students (M = 21.8 yr., SD = 4.7) listened to the audio recording of a monologue by one of the speakers in the early 20s who differed in accent and sex. Standard American English was operationalized as nonaccented English, typical of the western part of the USA, and Vietnamese-accented English was used as an exemplar of Asian-accented English. Results showed that relative to standard American-accented English speakers, Asian-accented English speakers were perceived as poorer communicators who were less potent, less threatening, and more concerned about others. These cognitive reactions to Asian-accented English speakers include (a) the general stereotype associated with an accent, status and solidarity, as well as (b) the stereotype unique to Asians as an ethnic group, being concerned for others and poorer communicators. Analysis also showed that speakers with an Asian accent evoked more negative affect and required more attention from listeners than did speakers with a standard American English accent. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Decomposing intuitive components in a conceptual problem solving task

Research into intuitive problem solving has shown that objective closeness of participants' hypotheses were closer to the accurate solution than their subjective ratings of closeness. After separating conceptually intuitive problem solving from the solutions of rational incremental tasks and of sudden insight tasks, we replicated this finding by using more precise measures in a conceptual problem-solving task. In a second study, we distinguished performance level, processing style, implicit knowledge and subjective feeling of closeness to the solution within the problem-solving task and examined the relationships of these different components with measures of intelligence and personality. Verbal intelligence correlated with performance level in problem solving, but not with processing style and implicit knowledge. Faith in intuition, openness to experience, and conscientiousness correlated with processing style, but not with implicit knowledge. These findings suggest that one needs to decompose processing style and intuitive components in problem solving to make predictions on effects of intelligence and personality measures.     

The relationship of body dysmorphic disorder and eating disorders to obsessive-compulsive disorder

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and eating disorders are body image disorders that have long been hypothesized to be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Available data suggest that BDD and eating disorders are often comorbid with OCD. Data from a variety of domains suggest that both BDD and eating disorders have many similarities with OCD and seem related to OCD. However, these disorders also differ from OCD in some ways. Additional research is needed on the relationship of BDD and eating disorders to OCD, including studies that directly compare them to OCD in a variety of domains, including phenomenology, family history, neurobiology, and etiology.     

A new name for some old ways of thinking: pragmatism,radical empiricism,and epistemology in W.E.B. Du Bois’s “Of the Sorrow Songs”

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion - When William James published Pragmatism, he gave it a subtitle: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. In this article, I argue that pragmatism...     

Transitional Dynamics of Three Supervisory Styles Using Markov Chain Analysis

Counseling supervision is a critically important process that depends on the establishment of a supportive, collaborative, and developmentally enhancing working relationship. However, the actual verbal exchanges within the supervisory dyads are infrequently examined in the literature. In this study, we used Markov chain analysis to explore supervision dynamics of 34 supervisory dyads and how these dynamics varied within three supervisory styles (i.e., attractive, interpersonally sensitive, and task oriented). Among the three styles, the interpersonally sensitive supervisory style was the only discriminant variable based on which supervisory dyads exhibited statistically different state-transitional patterns (i.e., movement patterns across six supervision events). The results of this study provide implications for clinical supervisors, counselor educators, counselors-in-training, and researchers who are interested in studying process features at the microlevel.     

The electroencephalogram and childhood aggression

Available evidence reveals that, although the incidence of abnormal electroencephalograms (EEGs) varies between 10% and 15% in the general adult population, abnormal EEGs occur in 48–70% of aggressive psychopaths. The fact that the EEGs of aggressive, adult psychopaths show a high degree of similarity to the EEGs of normal young children has suggested that aggression may somehow result from a failure in the normal development of the central nervous system. This “maturational-retardation” hypothesis of aggression was investigated in the present study, the purpose of which was to discover whether behavior-problem children who are severely aggressive have immature EEGs, or EEGs characteristic of chronologically younger children. Six severely aggressive boys, aged 8.7–13.6 years, had their EEGs recorded while performing a simple reaction task. For each subject, an interval histogram consisting of measurements of the duration of 780 half wavelengths in the EEG was generated by the computer using the tracing from the left parietal-occipital (P₃ -0₂ ) derivation. The resulting histograms were subjected to a central moments analysis and age of each subject was estimated from the moments by means of a multiple regression equation. This equation, which relates an individual's age to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th central moments of his EEG interval histogram, had been derived by Surwillo [1975a] on a group of normal boys. In every case, age predicted from the EEG of a severely aggressive subject was less than the subjecťs actual age. This finding was statistically significant, as the probability of the outcome occurring by chance was only 0.016. The results of the experiment supported the maturational-retardation hypothesis of aggressive behavior.     

Effects of Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy on psychological difficulties and perceived quality of life

Aims: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy on psychological difficulties and perceived quality of life of clients who came for psychotherapy during free practice. Method: A total of 106 psychotherapy clients were randomly assigned to a therapy group or a control group. The outcome was assessed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID II) with respect to clinical symptoms and by the Croatian Scale of Quality of Life (KVZ) with respect to Quality of Life. The therapy group received the measures at pre-, post- and five-months follow-up occasions, whereas the control group received them initially and after a period of three months. Results: In the therapy group, as compared to the control group, there was a significant decrease of clinical symptoms and increase in the quality of life. With respect to clinical symptoms, effect sizes were 0.65 at post-measurement and 1.09 at follow-up, indicating a substantial reduction of symptom strain, which is comparable to the well established effects of Cognitive Behavior Therapy. We also found a significant increase in perceived quality of life after therapy, as compared to the wait-list control group, with effect sizes between 0.51 and 0.73. Therapeutic improvements were still present five months after the end of therapy, showing further development in the same direction. Conclusions: Neuro-linguistic psychotherapy is an efficient intervention, which is on a par with other, well-established psychotherapeutic techniques.