Phone follow up to families of COVID-19 patients who died at the hospital: families' grief reactions and clinical psychologists' roles

A proportion of persons affected by coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) die and do so in extraordinary circumstances. This can make grief management extremely challenging for families. The Clinical Psychology unit of an Italian hospital offered a bereavement follow-up call to such families. This study aimed to explore the families' experiences and needs collected during these calls, and the role that the psychologists played through the call. A total of 246 families were called over 3 months. Multiple qualitative methods included: (i) written reports of the calls with relatives of patients who died at the hospital for COVID-19; (ii) qualitative semi-structured interviews with psychologists involved in the calls; (iii) observation of psychologists' peer group discussions. A thematic analysis was conducted. Six themes emerged: without death rituals, solitary, unexpected, unfair, unsafe, coexisting with other stressors. Families' reactions were perceived by psychologists as close to a traumatic grief. Families' needs ranged from finding alternative rituals to giving meaning and expressing different emotions. The psychologists played both a social-institutional and a psychological-human role through the calls (e.g., they cured disrupted communication or validated feelings and choices). This study highlighted the potential of traumatic grief of families of COVID-19 victims, and provided indications for supporting them within the space of a short phone call.     

单亲家庭儿童相对剥夺感与心理适应的循环作用关系：一项追踪研究

本研究基于经典相对剥夺理论和发展情境理论, 采用纵向设计, 以湖北省某地区273名单亲家庭儿童为被试, 进行连续3次的追踪测查, 考察单亲家庭儿童相对剥夺感与心理适应的特点及其循环作用关系。结果发现: (1)单亲家庭男生的抑郁和孤独感水平比女生高; 贫困单亲家庭儿童的相对剥夺感、抑郁和孤独感水平比非贫困单亲家庭儿童高, 自尊水平比非贫困单亲家庭儿童低; (2)控制了性别、学段和家庭经济状况后, 在个体内水平上T1时的相对剥夺感显著负向预测T2时的心理适应, 进而显著负向预测T3时的相对剥夺感, 同时T2时的相对剥夺感也能显著负向预测T3时的心理适应; (3)相对剥夺感与心理适应的循环作用在不同家庭经济状况单亲儿童中存在显著差异, 贫困单亲家庭儿童的心理适应对其相对剥夺感的作用比非贫困单亲家庭儿童更大。可见, 单亲家庭儿童的相对剥夺感与心理适应存在循环作用关系, 即前测(T_n)的相对剥夺感会导致后测(T_n+1)的心理适应不良, 进而影响后测(T_n+2)的相对剥夺感, 研究结果对于单亲家庭儿童心理适应的干预具有一定启示意义。     

随机截距潜在转变分析(RI-LTA)——个案自我转变与个案间差异的分离

传统的潜在转变分析属于单水平分析, 但其同样也可以看作二水平分析。Muthén和Asparouhov就以二水平分析的视角在单水平分析框架内提出了随机截距潜在转变分析(RI-LTA), 其中跨时间点产生的自我转变可以看作在水平1进行分析, 跨时间点不变的个案间差异可以看作在水平2进行分析, 使个案的自我转变和个案间的初始差异分离, 避免了高估保留在初始类别的概率。某研究型大学2016级本科生的追踪调查数据被用于演示使用随机截距潜在转变分析的过程。该方法的最大优势是通过引入随机截距避免了高估保留在本类别的转变概率。未来研究可以运用蒙特卡洛模拟研究探究随机截距潜在转变分析模型的适用性, 也可以用多水平分析的思路为灵感, 探究多水平随机截距潜在转变分析在统计软件中的实现。     

Mediation of the stigma in the influence of negative symptomatology over recovery in psychosis

Background/Objective: The interest in recovery processes in psychotic disorders has boosted the necessity of knowledge about the factors that could influence in such recovery. Negative symptomatology and the stigma have been negatively linked to the recovery process in psychosis. The aim of this investigation is to improve the understanding of how the recovery process is affected by negative symptomatology based on the analysis of the mediating effects of the internalized stigma. Method: The sample was composed of 114 people that had experienced, at some point in their life, at least one clinically relevant psychotic episode. CAPE-42, STORI and ISMI were used for the evaluation. The macro PROCESS for SPSS was used. The indirect effect was calculated using 10.000 samples of bootstrap for the bootstrap confidence intervals (IC) corrected for bias. Results: The results show that the influence of negative symptomatology predicts the stigmatization of the person regarding his disorder. This predicts a negative influence in the recovery process of the psychosis. Conclusions: These results back the importance of adding the reduction of the stigma as a specific strategy to improve the recovery process in psychotic disorders.     

The most efficient sequence of study depends on the type of test

Across three experiments featuring naturalistic concepts (psychology concepts) and naïve learners, we extend previous research showing an effect of the sequence of study on learning outcomes, by demonstrating that the sequence of examples during study changes the representation the learner creates of the study materials. We compared participants' performance in test tasks requiring different representations and evaluated which sequence yields better learning in which type of tests. We found that interleaved study, in which examples from different concepts are mixed, leads to the creation of relatively interrelated concepts that are represented by contrast to each other and based on discriminating properties. Conversely, blocked study, in which several examples of the same concept are presented together, leads to the creation of relatively isolated concepts that are represented in terms of their central and characteristic properties. These results argue for the integrated investigation of the benefits of different sequences of study as depending on the characteristics of the study and testing situation.     

亲子分离与青少年同伴侵害和抑郁的关系:一项追踪研究

采用追踪研究设计,对贵州省1094名青少年进行了间隔半年的两次测查,考察早期亲子分离对青少年后期同伴侵害经历及抑郁水平的影响及性别差异。结果表明：（1）早期亲子分离能显著增加T1同伴侵害和抑郁,并通过T1的同伴侵害和抑郁间接影响T2的同伴侵害和抑郁;（2）亲子分离、同伴侵害和抑郁的关系存在显著性别差异：在女生组中,早期亲子分离不仅能够显著增加T1抑郁水平,还通过影响T1抑郁间接影响T2的同伴侵害状况,且早期亲子分离也可以边缘显著预测T1的同伴侵害状况;在男生组中,亲子分离仅能显著预测T1的同伴侵害经历,对于T1抑郁及T2时间点的各变量则无显著影响;（3）无论是否受到亲子分离的影响,同伴侵害与青少年抑郁之间均存在相互作用关系。研究结果提示早期亲子分离会导致青少年后期同伴侵害经历及抑郁水平上升,且主要体现在女生群体中,这为经历亲子分离后青少年心理健康干预方案的制定提供了科学依据。     

汉语儿童口语流畅性与阅读理解的关系:一项三年追踪研究

对196名小学二年级儿童进行为期三年的追踪测查,使用交叉滞后模型检验了儿童字词阅读流畅性和篇章朗读流畅性等不同层面口语流畅性与阅读理解的关系。在控制了一般认知能力、汉字识别、口语词汇知识、快速命名和自回归效应之后发现：（1）模型比较的结果支持字词阅读流畅性对阅读理解作用的单向预测模型,儿童二年级时字词阅读流畅性对三年级的阅读理解,以及三年级时字词阅读流畅性对四年级的阅读理解均有显著预测作用;（2）模型比较的结果支持篇章朗读流畅性与阅读理解的双向预测模型,前一个测量时间点的篇章朗读流畅性可以稳定地预测后一个测量时间点的阅读理解,同时,前一个测量时间点的阅读理解也可以稳定地预测后一个测量时间点的篇章朗读流畅性。结果表明在排除了自回归效应和其他变量的作用后,只存在字词阅读流畅性对阅读理解的单向预测关系,而篇章朗读流畅性与阅读理解之间存在双向预测关系,这一发现支持了认知资源和自动化理论,并对阅读的交互-补偿模型进行了一定的补充。     

Do drivers accept cooperative behavior of their automated vehicle on highways?

Automated cooperatively interacting vehicles will change the future of traffic completely. Such vehicles will be capable of planning and carrying out maneuvers based on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, enabling a safer driving experience. However, this gain of safety will only be effective if drivers use and accept the decisions made by advanced automated technology. Especially when drivers are cognitively distracted, new strategies might be necessary, e.g., by further explaining the reason for a cooperative decision.In a driving simulator study, we investigated the acceptance of lane change maneuvers in cooperative situations carried out by an automated vehicle on a two-lane German highway. When the automated system detected a potential lane change ahead, it carried out one of three possible maneuvers: accelerate, decelerate, or maintain speed. Participants (N = 20) were asked whether they accepted the system’s behavior either while being cognitively distracted or in an attentive state. Thus, we investigated the influence of a cognitively demanding secondary task and, in addition, further situational characteristics (Scope of action, Criticality for the lane-changing vehicle, Display of intention) on the acceptance towards the system’s behavior. Moreover, participants had to rate the perceived situation’s criticality.Results underlined the importance of explicit indication of the intention to change lanes. Furthermore, increased cognitive load led to a higher acceptance of the defensive system behavior. This study contributes to the development of a user-centered interface and interaction strategy for cooperative interacting vehicles.     

Analysis of the occurrence and severity of vehicle-pedestrian conflicts in marked and unmarked crosswalks through naturalistic driving study

BackgroundAlthough many studies have been conducted on the safety of pedestrian crossings, few researches have been focused on drivers' behavior in unmarked crosswalk and marked crosswalk areas. Considering that statistics of pedestrian accidents are not the same in the two types of crossing area, based on the last report of the World Health Organization, it is very critical to evaluate driver yielding behavior to determine the differences in the actions of drivers when encountering pedestrians in the two areas.MethodsThis study was conducted based on surrogate measures of safety (SMoS) collected through a Naturalistic Driving Study on 52 participants in Iran. The study was carried out from April 2017 to April 2018 using the installation of cameras in the private vehicle of the participants. The analysis of the recorded films showed that 956 conflicts have occurred in unmarked crosswalks and 392 conflicts in marked crosswalks, respectively.ResultsA model was developed for driver yielding behavior using binary logistic regression, and showed that yielding rates in unmarked crosswalsk were about fifty percent of the yielding rates in marked crosswalks. Based on the model, it is indicated that the aggressive behavior of pedestrians during the crossing, such as running, zigzag and diagonal crossing, as well as the late detection of pedestrians by drivers resulting from high-speed driving in the unmarked crossing areas, will reduce the yielding behavior rate. Also, using the Swedish traffic conflicts technique, the severity of the conflicts was classified into four general categories: encounter, potential, slight, and serious conflict, through 30 different levels on the basis of conflicting speed and time to the accident. The results showed that pedestrians behavior during conflicts of the group “encounter” and drivers’ behavior during conflicts of the groups of “potential”, “slight” and “serious”, were the principal factors in preventing collision through an evasive maneuver. The results showed that increasing the level of conflict severity, which indicates an increase of the conflicting speed and a decrease of the time remaining to point of a possible collision with pedestrian, causes drivers to yield a harsh-maneuver to prevent collision. Soft-maneuvers such as deceleration and acceleration, as well as harsh-maneuvers such as changing the lane/stop during conflicts were most driver yielding behavior during conflict groups of slight and serious. According to the results of the analysis, the behavior of drivers in marked crossing areas is better than in the unmarked crossing area, leading to safer crossing for pedestrians.ConclusionsThis study suggests that the significant differences in driver yielding behavior in the two areas is due to the late detection of pedestrians by drivers and also the less proper action by them in unmarked crosswalk areas. Thus, the probability of accidents in Unmarked Crossing areas is higher than in marked crossing areas. Consequently, the design of improved advanced driver assistance systems to identify the risk of pedestrian accident may improve the driver yielding behavior and thus increase the safety of pedestrians.     

Peer teaching: Students teaching students to increase academic performance

Peer teaching among students has a powerful role in the learning process and has been studied and recognized as an effective teaching method. Research on peer teaching applied in different contexts has shown that learning through the process of teaching others increases students' academic performance. In Indonesia, some research on peer teaching has been conducted, but there has been no research on peer teaching in the context of theological studies. Hence, this empirical study aims to verify whether peer teaching is effective when applied in a theological school setting. In this study, students of a homiletics course were the research sample. Results show that peer teaching had a positive effect on students' academic performance. However, further research is recommended on the application of peer teaching in other subject areas to confirm the effectiveness of peer teaching in a theological school context.