Effects of goal-setting and feedback on memory performance and beliefs among older and younger adults

This research examined the impact of goal-setting conditions on memory beliefs and performance among older and younger adults. After baseline recall and assessment of beliefs, participants were assigned to goal-setting, goals plus feedback, or control. Then, additional recall trials were followed by repeated memory beliefs assessments. For both younger and older adults, performance, motivation, and self-efficacy were affected positively by goal-setting. The impact of goals plus feedback was mixed and varied as a function of age and dependent measure. Success rates for reaching memory goals, which were low for the older adults, may have been a factor in these results. Adults' self-set recall goals were predicted initially by baseline performance and self-efficacy. On the final trial, goals were predicted by last trial performance, self-efficacy, and control beliefs.     

Influence of Levels of Abstractness on Reasoning Ability

Judgment by students of faculty effectiveness have relied, for the most part, on subjectively expressed responses to a series of “effectiveness traits” (cues). Simple averaging schemes have summarized the aggregate judgments, often resulting in (a) treating all cues as if they were of equal importance, and (b) inattention to the effects or measurement of individual differences of judges.

Multiple regression was used in this study to derive (empirically) individual cue utilization patterns (i.e., weights) for 10 effectiveness traits. Ss were compared to their subjectively expressed judgment scheme. Results indicate that Ss were moderately successful in expressing their actual cue utilization patterns; however, different judgment schemes were clearly observed.     

Effect of the Healthy MOMs Lifestyle Intervention on Reducing Depressive Symptoms Among Pregnant Latinas

Depression during the prenatal and postpartum periods is associated with poor maternal, perinatal and child outcomes. This study examines the effectiveness of a culturally and linguistically tailored, social support-based, healthy lifestyle intervention led by trained community health workers in reducing depressive symptoms among pregnant and early postpartum Latinas. A sample of 275 pregnant Latinas was randomized to the Healthy MOMs Healthy Lifestyle Intervention (MOMs) or the Healthy Pregnancy Education (control) group. More than one-third of participants were at risk for depression at baseline. MOMs participants were less likely than control group participants to be at risk for depression at follow-up. Between baseline and 6 weeks postpartum, MOMs participants experienced a significant decline in depressive symptoms; control participants experienced a marginally significant decline. For MOMs participants, most of this decline occurred during the pregnancy intervention period, a time when no change occurred for control participants. The change in depressive symptoms during this period was greater among MOMs than control participants (“intervention effect”). From baseline to postpartum, there was a significant intervention effect among non-English-speaking women only. These findings provide evidence that a community-planned, culturally tailored healthy lifestyle intervention led by community health workers can reduce depressive symptoms among pregnant, Spanish-speaking Latinas.     

Trauma Exposure in Anxious Primary Care Patients

The present study examined rates of trauma exposure, clinical characteristics associated with trauma exposure, and the effect of trauma exposure on treatment outcome in a large sample of primary care patients without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals without PTSD (N?=?1,263) treated as part of the CALM program (Roy-Byrne et al., Journal of the American Medical Association 303(19)1921–1928, 2010) were assessed for presence of trauma exposure. Those with and without trauma exposure were compared on baseline demographic and diagnostic information, symptom severity, and responder status six months after beginning treatment. Trauma-exposed individuals (N?=?662, 53 %) were more likely to meet diagnostic criteria for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and had higher levels of somatic symptoms at baseline. Individuals with and without trauma exposure did not differ significantly on severity of anxiety, depression, or mental health functioning at baseline. Trauma exposure did not significantly impact treatment response. Findings suggest that adverse effects of trauma exposure in those without PTSD may include OCD and somatic anxiety symptoms. Treatment did not appear to be adversely impacted by trauma exposure. Thus, although trauma exposure is prevalent in primary care samples, results suggest that treatment of the presenting anxiety disorder is effective irrespective of trauma history.     

Personality Dysfunction and the Management of Chronic Medical Illness: A Community Health Sample

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of personality disorders on perceived health status, self-efficacy for management of the chronic illness, and physician perception of patient health. A total of 607 patients with self-identified chronicillness(es) volunteered to participate in the study. Out of this sample, 147 had collaborative physician data indicating a chronic illness. The final sample was 143 due to incomplete data. Results suggested that maladaptive personality characteristics, as measured by the Short-Form of the Coolidge Axis II Inventory (SCATI), were related to a number of important factors that influence self-management of chronic illnesses. When the personality constellations were broken into 3 groups (normal, subclinical, and clinical) significant differences were found on the 3 groups of dependent variables (Subjective Health, Self-Efficacy, Physician Appraisal) for the different personality disorders. These data provide useful information on several factors that influence effective disease management. Clinical implications and directions for future research are provided.     

Ritual in Western Medicine and Its Role in Placebo Healing

Ritual has long been thought to play an important role in the healing processes used by ancient and non-Western healers. In this paper, I suggest that practitioners of Western medicine also interact with patients in a highly ritualized manner. Medical rituals, like religious rituals, serve to alter the meaning of an experience by naming and circumscribing unknown elements of that experience and by enabling patients' belief in a treatment and their expectancy of healing from that treatment. These are all critical elements necessary to mobilize the potent placebo effects reported elsewhere to result from doctor-patient interactions.     

Relative spatial expansion and contraction within the Müller-Lyer and Judd illusions

The shaft portions of Müller-Lyer (M-L) figures, one-ended M-L figures, Judd figures, and their respective control (tails-up) figures were divided by subjects into eight equal-appearing intervals by means of successive bisections. For most of the control stimuli the length of the left half of the shaft tended to be overestimated relative to the length of the right side. For the tails-out version of the M-L figure, there was relative overestimation of segments of the shaft adjacent to the tails, while for the tails-in version there was relative underestimation of these segments. These results indicate that the distortion of perceived length in the M-L illusion is not distributed evenly along the shaft. For the one-ended M-L figures the apparent overestimations and underestimations extended further along the shaft than for the standard figures. For the Judd figure perceived length varied systematically along the length of the shaft from underestimation near the tails-in end of the figure to overestimation near the tails-out end. These results are contradictory to the hypothesis that the M-L illusion results from inappropriate size scaling produced through the operation of size-constancy mechanisms, since this conjecture would predict uniform expansion or contraction. The results are compared with findings that localization responses are accurate for M-L figures but biased for one-ended M-L figures and Judd figures.     

Book Review

C. G. Jung : Psychological reflections Frances Smart : Neurosis and crime Gérard Borg : Le voyage à la drogue Karl Menninger : Number words and number symbols: a cultural history of numbers Alvin R. Mahrer . (Ed.) New approaches to personality classification Curatorium C. G. Jung Institute (Eds.) Conscience Joachim Fleschner : Childhood and destiny: the triadic principle in genetic education Kenneth Koch : Wishes, lies and dreams Joe Kovel : White racism: a psychohistory Isca Salzberger -Wittenberg : Psycho-analytic insight and relationships: Kleinian approach Robert C. Carson : Interaction concepts of personality