Book Reviews

Using a latent variable modelling strategy we study individual differences in patterns of answers to the selection task and to the truth table task. Specifically we investigate the prediction of mental model theory according to which the individual tendency to select the false consequent card (in the selection task) is negatively correlated with the tendency to judge the false antecedent cases as irrelevant (in the truth table task). We fit a psychometric model to two large samples (N = 486, twice), and find no evidence for this negative correlation. We examine which of the assumptions of the model theory must be amended to accommodate our findings.     

Expertise in biological conceptions: The case of the vineyard

To study how expertise impacts the understanding of a complex system like the vineyard, three measures were used with 259 participants (190 non-experts, 34 winemakers and/or winegrowers, and 35 biologists): a questionnaire to check for expertise (the Plant Biology Questionnaire), a task about the Structure, Behaviour and Function model, and a measure of the content of the participants’ discourse with the ALCESTE software. Results showed that biologists mentioned functions significantly more often than behaviours, whereas it was the opposite for winegrowers. Non-experts mentioned functions and behaviours significantly less frequently than experts did. The content analysis confirmed the differential expression of each kind of expertise: scientific wording for biologists, technical wording for winegrowers, and words focused on perceptible structures for the non-experts. Results from all tasks were highly correlated and allowed for an interpretation of expertise in terms of mental models of the vineyard.     

Motivational determinants of reasoning about social relations: The role of need for cognitive closure

The role of need for cognitive closure (NFCC) in reasoning about social relations was investigated. Participants learned pairwise liking/disliking relations between people who could also be categorised on the basis of nationality and then had to group them into social cliques. The social clique structures were either consistent or inconsistent with the nationality categorisation, and the diagnostic information that was necessary to determine the number of cliques appeared either early or late in the information sequence. We expected participants under conditions of high (vs low) NFCC to rely more on heuristic processing. As predicted, high (vs low) NFCC participants were less accurate in their representations of cliques when the clique structure was inconsistent with the nationality category (Study 1 and 2) and when the diagnostic information was presented late (Study 1). The implications regarding the influence of NFCC on reasoning and the role of specific NFCC manipulations are discussed.     

Truth table tasks: The relevance of irrelevant

Two types of truth table tasks are used investigating mental representations of conditionals: a possibilities-based and a truth-based one. In possibilities tasks, participants indicate whether a situation is possible or impossible according to the conditional rule. In truth tasks participants evaluate whether a situation makes the rule true or false, or is irrelevant with respect to the truth of the rule. Comparing the two-option version of the possibilities task with the truth task in Experiment 1, the possibilities task yields logical answer patterns whereas the truth task yields defective patterns. Adding the irrelevant option to the possibilities task in Experiment 2 leads to a considerable amount of defective patterns in the possibilities task, but still to more logical patterns in the possibilities task than in the truth task. Experiment 3 shows that directionality matters since rule-to-situation tasks yield more logical answer patterns than do situation-to-rule tasks. We conclude that both task types are not comparable as such since wording, number of options and directionality influence the results.     

Understanding the Mental Health Travails of Custodial Grandparents

Grandcarers are at-risk of poor mental health outcomes. Current knowledge of the support needs of grandcarers is fragmented. To help fill this knowledge gap qualitative analysis was undertaken on 49 interviews conducted with custodial grandparents. The findings reveal that conflicted occupational roles coupled with the complexity of the stressors facing grandcarers both contribute to their social isolation and to their self-doubts about their ability to adequately attend to their grandchildren’s needs. Greater awareness among occupational therapists (OTs) of custodial grandparents’ mental health travails and an increased understanding of key occupational therapy (OT) practice initiatives are central to addressing grandcarers’ mental health travails.     

Examining the pathways between gratitude and self-rated physical health across adulthood

The current study examined whether dispositional gratitude predicts physical health among adults, and if so, whether this relationship occurs because grateful individuals lead healthier lives, either psychologically or physically. Specifically, we examined whether psychological health, healthy activities, and willingness to seek help for health concerns mediated the link between gratitude and self-reported physical health, as well as if these mediational pathways are moderated by age, in a broad sample of Swiss adults (N = 962, M_age = 52 years, age range: 19–84). Dispositional gratitude correlated positively with self-reported physical health, and this link was mediated by psychological health, healthy activities, and willingness to seek help for health concerns. However, the indirect effects for psychological health and healthy activities were stronger for older than younger adults. In other words, the mechanisms explaining why gratitude predicts health appear to differ across adulthood.     

Relation of self-talk frequency to loneliness,need to belong,and health in German adults

This study examined whether individuals with a high need to belong and feelings of loneliness tend to compensate for a lack of social contact by self-talk and whether self-talk prevents negative consequences on their physical and mental health. The sample consisted of 559 adults drawn from the German Sozioland Panel Project. The results of SEM analyses revealed evidence for significant relations of the need to belong and loneliness with the frequency of self-talk. Moreover, the need to belong and loneliness were significantly related to mental and physical health, but loneliness was shown to be more important for the prediction of both health outcomes. Results of moderator analyses indicate that self-talk might be a risk factor for an increased negative correlation between loneliness and mental health. Self-talk, which is supposed to be related to self-awareness, might reinforce the subjective feeling of loneliness and hence have a negative impact on psychological well-being.     

Gender-linked personality and mental health: The role of trait emotional intelligence

The present study examined the role of the emotion-related personality dimension, or trait emotional intelligence (EI), in the relationship between gender-linked personality (GLP) traits and internalizing mental health difficulties (IMHDs). GLP traits were measured as Agency and Communion, due to conceptual advantages over other semantic representations (e.g., masculinity, femininity) in the literature. IMHDs as the outcome variable were conceptualized as a latent composite of anxiety, stress, and emotion-oriented coping. A moderate relationship between Agency and IMHDs was fully mediated by trait EI. Trait EI also divided an overall non-significant effect of Communion on IMHDs into an indirect, protective effect via trait EI and a direct, adverse effect. The results suggest that Agency and Communion subsume different sets of trait EI facets, which may account for much of the differential protective effects of these GLP traits on IMHDs. Discussion focuses on implications of the results for sex differences in mental health.     

The Witness to Witness Program: Helping the Helpers in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Witness to Witness Program (W2W), based on Weingarten’s witnessing model (2000, 2003, 2004), began in July 2018 and originally was established to support healthcare workers and attorneys (our partners) who were experiencing empathic distress working with people involved in various stages of the detention process. The W2W program evolved to offer four primary components: clinician listening sessions geared to deep understanding of the person’s story of their work and its challenges; an inventory of the person’s current internal and external resources both in the present and in the past; help with removal of barriers to those resources; and development of a personal toolkit to handle stress. Additional services available to partners and their organizations included psycho-educational webinars, facilitated peer support groups, and organizational consultations to foster trauma-sensitive and resilience-hardy work environments. In March, after lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, W2W pivoted to focus on handouts and webinars addressing how to cope with distress and moral injury, maintaining resilience, coping with grief, and dealing with multiple losses caused by the pandemic. Disaster sparked collaboration and innovation. A train the trainer model was developed to reach more community health workers providing services to the Latinx community dealing with losses similar to those experienced by the clients they serve. W2W continues to create virtual communities of support. In doing so we practice doing reasonable hope together (Weingarten, Family Process, 2010, 49, 5).     

Subliminal primes for global or local processing influence judgments of vehicular traffic

Previous studies on semantic priming show that briefly presented words can unconsciously manipulate subjects’ mental states, behaviors, and attitudes. Here we evaluated whether semantic primes can also manipulate the breadth of subjects’ visual attention. We primed participants with briefly presented words that indicate either broadness or narrowness; each prime was followed by either a large or a small picture of a street intersection with vehicles, and participants had to indicate in which order the vehicles were legally allowed to pass the intersection. Participants responded to large pictures faster when primed with words denoting broadness, and to small pictures faster when primed with words denoting narrowness. From this we concluded that semantic priming can be effectively applied to manipulate the breadth of attention, which could be exploited in real-world scenarios.