Worldviews about change: Their structure and their implications for understanding responses to sustainability,technology, and political change

People hold different perspectives about how they think the world is changing or should change. We examined five of these “worldviews” about change: Progress, Golden Age, Endless Cycle, Maintenance, and Balance. In Studies 1–4 (total N = 2733) we established reliable measures of each change worldview, and showed how these help explain when people will support or oppose social change in contexts spanning sustainability, technological innovations, and political elections. In mapping out these relationships we identify how the importance of different change worldviews varies across contexts, with Balance most critical for understanding support for sustainability, Progress/Golden Age important for understanding responses to innovations, and Golden Age uniquely important for preferring Trump/Republicans in the 2016 US election. These relationships were independent of prominent individual differences (e.g., values, political orientation for elections) or context-specific factors (e.g., self-reported innovativeness for responses to innovations). Study 5 (N = 2140) examined generalizability in 10 countries/regions spanning five continents, establishing that these worldviews exhibited metric invariance, but with country/region differences in how change worldviews were related to support for sustainability. These findings show that change worldviews can act as a general “lens” people use to help determine whether to support or oppose social change.     

Impact of a Patient-Facing Enhanced Genomic Results Report to Improve Understanding,Engagement, and Communication

“The objective of this study was to” test the effectiveness of an enhanced genomic report on patient-centered outcome domains including communication, engagement and satisfaction. “Study design utilized” a prospective, randomized, mixed-methods desctiptive study of a whole genome sequencing results report, GenomeCOMPASS?, that was accessed by providers through the electronic health record and by patients through the associated patient portal. “The study was set in” an integrated healthcare delivery system in central Pennsylvania. “Eighty-four” parents of 46 children with undiagnosed Intellectual Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or multiple congenital anomalies who had participated in a previous study offering whole genome sequencing for their affected child were invited to enroll. Fifty-two parents enrolled. Following a traditional genetics results informing visit, the study coordinator stratified families by diagnostic result and uninformative result and then randomized families within each group to an intervention arm to receive the GenomeCOMPASS? report or to the usual care arm to receive a summary letter from the medical geneticist. A letter inviting enrollment included a baseline survey, which once returned, constituted enrollment. Surveys were administered at 3 months post-genetics visit. At 6 months, the usual care arm crossed over to receive the intervention and were administered an additional survey at 3 months. Qualitative interviews were conducted following survey completion to augment the survey data regarding the patient centered outcomes of interest. Patient reported outcomes including communication, engagement, empowerment and satisfaction. In the intervention arm, GenomeCOMPASS? reports were released to 14 families (N?=?28 parents) and of those 21 (75%) returned 3 month surveys. In the usual care arm, 12 families (N?=?24 parents) received usual care summary letters and of those 20 (83%) returned 3 month surveys. At crossover, GenomeCOMPASS? reports were released to 20 individuals and 15 (75%) returned 3 month surveys. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 5 individuals. Use of the GenomeCOMPASS? report was reported by this small group of parents to improve communication with providers and non-health professionals such as educators and therapists and led to increased engagement and high satisfaction. Providers and others involved in the children’s care also endorsed the report’s effectiveness. Reports that addressed negative findings, i.e. uninformative results, were not found to be useful. Although the number of users was small, this study supports that customizable template reports may provide a useful and durable source of information that can support and enhance the information provided by genetics professionals in traditional face-to-face encounters. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov (Record 2013–0594).     

The Wished‐For Always Wins Until the Winner Was Inevitable All Along: Motivated Reasoning and Belief Bias Regulate Emotion During Elections

How do biases affect political information processing? A variant of the Wason selection task, which tests for confirmation bias, was used to characterize how the dynamics of the recent U.S. presidential election affected how people reasoned about political information. Participants were asked to evaluate pundit‐style conditional claims like “The incumbent always wins in a year when unemployment drops” either immediately before or immediately after the 2012 presidential election. A three‐way interaction between ideology, predicted winner (whether the proposition predicted that Obama or Romney would win), and the time of test indicated complex effects of bias on reasoning. Before the election, there was partial evidence of motivated reasoning—liberals performed especially well at looking for falsifying information when the pundit's claim predicted Romney would win. After the election, once the outcome was known, there was evidence of a belief bias—people sought to falsify claims that were inconsistent with the real‐world outcome rather than their ideology. These results suggest that people seek to implicitly regulate emotion when reasoning about political predictions. Before elections, people like to think their preferred candidate will win. After elections, people like to think the winner was inevitable all along.     

Relations of Parenting and Negative Life Events to Cognitive Diatheses for Depression in Children

In a sample of 299 children (grades 2, 4, and 6), we examined parenting and negative life events as predictors of depressive cognitions, specifically low self-perceived competence, depressive cognitive schemas, and depressogenic attributional style. We also examined developmental trends in these relations. Children completed measures of parenting, negative life events, and depressive cognitions. Parents also completed measures of parenting and negative life events. Consistent with our hypotheses, negative parenting and negative life events corresponded with higher levels of depressive cognitions, whereas positive parenting corresponded with lower levels of depressive cognitions. The relations between negative parenting and negative automatic thoughts were stronger for older children. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Developmental changes in depressive cognitions: a longitudinal evaluation of the Cognitive Triad Inventory for Children

As part of a longitudinal study, the Cognitive Triad Inventory for Children (CTI-C; N. J. Kaslow, K. D. Stark, B. Printz, R. Livingston, & S. L. Tsai, 1992) as well as other measures of cognitive style and depressive symptoms were administered annually to 3 cohorts of children starting in Grades 2, 4, and 6. Developmentally based analyses revealed 4 things: (a) The factor structure of the CTI-C changed over the course of middle childhood and then stabilized in early adolescence; (b) the CTI-C correlated significantly with measures of depression, self-perceived competence, self-worth, perceived controllability, and perceived contingency, but not with measures of attributional style; (c) 1-year stability correlations increased substantially from Grade 2 to Grade 8; and (d) the CTI-C did not generally predict self-reported depressive symptoms 1 year later. Implications emerge regarding developmental changes in the structure of children's depressive cognitions.     

The future of psychotherapy outcome research: science or political rhetoric?

Although the relationship between research and clinical psychology has at times been conflicted, it has also been productive. Psychologists from both specialties have benefited from each others' work. The area of psychotherapy outcome research represents an important interface between the fields of clinical and research psychology. In an era of scarce resources and demands for accountability, there is pressure for researchers to justify the value of clinical practices. Recently, numerous articles have appeared recommending changes to the way psychotherapy research is conducted. The authors of these articles emphasize with urgency the importance of conducting and reporting research in a manner that will influence the decisions of policymakers and sanction funding for psychotherapy services. This article is an exploration of the impact of these recommendations, whose objective appears to be the promotion of psychological techniques for inclusion in clinical practice guidelines. It is argued that such recommendations may be in conflict with the philosophy and methods of science and may adversely affect public perception, perhaps leading psychologists to be seen as political lobbyists rather than clinicians and researchers.     

Dynamic facial expressions are processed holistically,but not more holistically than static facial expressions

There is evidence that facial expressions are perceived holistically and featurally. The composite task is a direct measure of holistic processing (although the absence of a composite effect implies the use of other types of processing). Most composite task studies have used static images, despite the fact that movement is an important aspect of facial expressions and there is some evidence that movement may facilitate recognition. We created static and dynamic composites, in which emotions were reliably identified from each half of the face. The magnitude of the composite effect was similar for static and dynamic expressions identified from the top half (anger, sadness and surprise) but was reduced in dynamic as compared to static expressions identified from the bottom half (fear, disgust and joy). Thus, any advantage in recognising dynamic over static expressions is not likely to stem from enhanced holistic processing, rather motion may emphasise or disambiguate diagnostic featural information.     

An investigation of stride interval stationarity while listening to music or viewing television

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the effects of auditory and visual distractions on pedestrian ambulation. A fundamental temporal characteristic of ambulation is the temporal fluctuation of the stride interval. In this paper, we investigate the stationarity of stride interval time series when people are exposed to different forms of auditory and visual distractions. An increase in nonstationary behavior may be suggestive of divided attention and more frequent central modulation of locomotion, both of which may have ramifications on pedestrian vigilance and responsiveness to environmental perturbations. One group of fifteen able-bodied (6 females) young adult participants completed a music protocol (overground walking with and without music). A second group of fifteen (7 females) did a television protocol (treadmill walking while watching TV with and without sound). Three walking trials, each 15min in duration, were performed at each participant's comfortable walking speed, with force sensitive resistors under the heel of each foot. Using the reverse arrangements test, the vast majority of time series were nonstationary, with a time-varying mean as the principal source of nonstationarity. Furthermore, the television trial with sound had the greatest number of nonstationarities followed by overground walking while listening to music. We discuss the possibility that these conditions measurably affect gait dynamics through a subconscious synchronization to external rhythms or a cyclic distraction followed by a period of increased conscious correction of gait timing. Our findings suggest that the regulation of stride timing is particularly susceptible to constant, time-evolving auditory stimuli, but that normal pacing can be restored quickly upon stimulus withdrawal. These kinds of sensory distractions should thus be carefully considered in studies of pedestrian ambulation.     

A Gift From the Heart: The Experiences of Women Whose Egg Donations Helped Their Sisters Become Mothers

During in‐depth interviews, 3 women whose egg donations resulted in the birth of a child or children for their sisters discussed their donation motivations and decisions, the challenges of the donation procedure, and their postdonation feelings and experiences in the years since the birth of their nieces and nephews. The findings of this narrative study support the viability and advantages of this form of family building and highlight the counseling and support needs of known donors throughout the process.