Memory and interpretation of visual representations of threat in socially anxious and nonanxious individuals

The present study was designed to replicate and extend results reported by Brendle and Wenzel (Behav. Res. Ther. 42 (2004) 155), who found that socially anxious individuals accurately recalled threat-relevant information but subsequently imposed a biased interpretation upon that same material, using more ecologically valid stimuli. Socially anxious (n=37) and nonanxious (n=47) individuals viewed two positive, two negative, and two neutral video vignettes and completed two cognitive tasks assessing memory and interpretation of factual details immediately and after 48 h. Similar to the results reported by Brendle and Wenzel (2004), socially anxious and nonanxious individuals did not differ in their memory for details that had been presented in the vignettes. However, socially anxious individuals made more negative interpretations of details included in the vignettes than nonanxious individuals, although unlike Brendle and Wenzel (2004), they did not demonstrate the tendency to make less positive interpretations. It is concluded that socially anxious individuals are characterized by interpretation biases when presented with threat-relevant information, and there is no evidence to suggest that they are characterized by memory biases for threat-relevant information.     

测评中的共同方法偏差

共同方法变异是指由于测量方法而非所测构想造成的变异。共同方法变异会对测评和测评间的相关产生严重影响,甚至会使研究导致错误结论。本文介绍了学界对共同方法偏差的研究,内容包括：(1)共同方法偏差在多大程度上和以何种方式影响测评研究结果;(2)共同方法偏差的潜在来源及其程序控制。     

Extreme judgments depend on the expectation of following judgments: A calibration analysis

Objectives

Judges avoid extreme judgments in the beginning of evaluation sequences. The calibration hypothesis attributes this bias to judges’ need to preserve their judgmental degrees of freedom. It follows that the expectation of a sequence leads to avoiding extreme judgments in the beginning. Thus, judges may make extreme judgments if they expect only one performance but should avoid extreme judgments if they expect a sequence.

Design

A between-group design was used.

Method

One experimental group (n = 21) expected to judge only one gymnastics performance whereas the other group (n = 20) expected to judge a sequence of performances. Both groups then judged only one identical performance.

Results

Groups differed significantly in the frequency of extreme judgments. Participants expecting one performance used extreme judgment categories more often; participants expecting a series avoided extreme judgments.

Conclusion

The results support calibration processes in sequential judgments. The specification of the underlying process will allow testing possible interventions to avoid serial position biases in serial evaluations in the future.     

Interpretational Biases in Emotional Psychopathology

Many psychological disorders are characterized by interpretational processing biases, and Aaron T. Beck's work provided a crucial theoretical foundation for assessing, treating, and researching them. The present commentary aims to sketch a brief historical overview of how this work evolved and developed, and how it has been translated into concrete assessment techniques for use in treatment and led to innovative research lines in clinical research.     

Why did this happen to me? Religious believers’ and non-believers’ teleological reasoning about life events

People often believe that significant life events happen for a reason. In three studies, we examined evidence for the view that teleological beliefs reflect a general cognitive bias to view the world in terms of agency, purpose, and design. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that individual differences in mentalizing ability predicted both the tendency to believe in fate (Study 1) and to infer purposeful causes of one’s own life events (Study 2). In addition, people’s perception of purpose in life events was correlated with their teleological beliefs about nature, but this relationship was driven primarily by individuals’ explicit religious and paranormal beliefs (Study 3). Across all three studies, we found that while people who believe in God hold stronger teleological beliefs than those who do not, there is nonetheless evidence of teleological beliefs among non-believers, confirming that the perception of purpose in life events does not rely on theistic belief. These findings suggest that the tendency to perceive design and purpose in life events—while moderated by theistic belief—is not solely a consequence of culturally transmitted religious ideas. Rather, this teleological bias has its roots in certain more general social propensities.     

Attention and recognition biases associated with stature dissatisfaction among young men in China

This research evaluated information-processing biases related to height dissatisfaction among young Chinese men. In Study 1, 32 highly stature dissatisfied (HSD) men and 36 less stature dissatisfied (LSD) men performed a dot probe task featuring height-related words and neutral words. HSD men were significantly slower than LSD men were in responding to probes that followed short stature words, but the groups did not differ in response speeds to probes that followed tall stature or neutral words. In Study 2, 33 HSD men and 34 LSD men completed an implicit learning task followed by a word recognition task. HSD men recognized significantly more short stature words from the initial task, but recognition accuracy for other word types did not differ between groups. Together, these findings suggest that HSD men are more inclined than LSD men to selectively avoid cues that reflect shortness in stature and to selectively recognize such cues later.     

Sexual Orientation and Human Rights in the Ethics Code of the Psychology and Counseling Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran (PCOIRI)

The aim of this study is to investigate the necessity of revising the Ethics Code of the Psychology and Counseling Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran (PCOIRI) with respect to people’s rights and dignity and to avoid unfair discriminations toward sexual orientation and gender identity. It is said that confused diagnoses; wrong decision making; unethical practice; and the subsequent harm caused to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clients result from the lack of a clear code and relevant guidelines. In addition, certain conditions in Iran (such as religious perspectives, laws, cultural biases, misunderstandings, a lack of local academic and scientific resources, and Western conspiracy theories) lead professional psychologists and researchers to avoid researching sexual minorities and gender identity, which negatively impacts the Ethics Code of the PCOIRI. Iranian and Western researchers have identified four primary sources to which psychologists and counselors can refer when faced with ethical dilemmas: developmental psychology, professional ethics codes, philosophy of psychology literature, and available researches and compilations on professional ethics. Finally it is suggested that, when dealing with homosexual clients and the related ethical dilemmas, Iranian psychologists and counselors need clear and specific guidelines and a professional ethics code developed from more appropriate reference points than legal and religious sources.     

Mood-congruent bias and attention shifts in the different episodes of bipolar disorder

An “affective” go/no-go task was used in the different episodes of bipolar patients (euthymic, depressed, and manic) to examine (1) the presence of a mood-congruent attentional bias; and (2) the patients' ability to inhibit and invert associations between stimuli and responses through blocks. A group of healthy individuals served as controls. Results revealed a mood-congruent attentional bias: patients in the manic episode processed positive information faster, whereas those in the depressive episode processed negative information faster. In contrast, neither euthymic patients nor healthy individuals showed any mood-congruent biases. Furthermore, there was a shift cost across blocks for healthy individuals, but not for the patients. This may reflect a general impairment at selecting relevant information (e.g., in terms of disability to inhibit and invert associations between stimuli and responses) in bipolar participants, regardless of their episode. This state/trait dissociation in an episodic and chronic disorder such as bipolar disorder is important for its appropriate characterisation.     

How do social fears in adolescence develop? Fear conditioning shapes attention orienting to social threat cues

Social fears emerging in adolescence can have negative effects on emotional well-being. Yet the mechanisms by which these risks occur are unknown. One possibility is that associative learning results in fears to previously neutral social stimuli. Such conditioned responses may alter subsequent processing of social stimuli. We used a novel conditioning task to examine how associative processes influence social fear and attention orienting in adolescents. Neutral photographs were paired with socially rewarding or aversive stimuli during conditioning; a dot-probe task then assessed biases in attention orienting. The social conditioning task modified subjective ratings of the neutral stimuli. Moreover, for the neutral stimulus that was paired with the aversive stimulus, the strength of conditioning showed a relationship with subsequent attentional vigilance. The findings elucidate mechanisms by which negative peer experiences during adolescence may affect emotional processing.     

Role‐Induced Bias in Court: An Experimental Analysis

Criminal procedure is organized as a tournament with predefined roles. We show that assuming the role of a defense counsel or a prosecutor leads to role‐induced bias even if participants are asked to predict a court ruling after they have ceased to act in that role and if they expect a substantial financial incentive for being accurate. The bias is not removed either if participants are instructed to predict the court ruling in preparation of plea bargaining. In line with parallel constraint satisfaction models for legal decision making, findings indicate that role‐induced bias is driven by coherence effects, that is, systematic information distortions in support of the favored option. This is mainly achieved by downplaying the importance of conflicting evidence. These distortions seem to stabilize interpretations, and people do not correct for this bias. Implications for legal procedure are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.