Aggregate item response analysis

A stochastic postulate is given for the multiple-item, successive-intervals scaling of populations. The logistic equivalent of this postulate provides an aggregate item response model in which a unidimensional submodel may be nested. This reduction provides a subtractive conjoint measurement of several items and stimuli on the same latent scale. Generalized-least-squares methods are used to estimate and test the multiple-item model, and its unidimensional reduction, on aggregate survey responses. The entire procedure is illustrated with an analysis of semantic-differential attitude data. This analysis exhibits an item selection procedure that is applicable to various social constructs.The authors dedicate this paper to the memory and contributions of Clyde Coombs.The programming and data analyses for the present paper were carried out by José Ventura of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Jerry Meiten of the Department of Statistics, University of Florida.The study was also supported by the College of Business Administration, University of Florida, and the Faculty of Social Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.     

The prevalence of despair in intractable conflicts: Direct messages of hope and despair affect leftists,but not rightists

In contexts of long-term conflict, it often seems easier to spread despair than to instill hope. The prevalence of despair, an emotion that promotes apathy, in contexts that so desperately need hope, an emotion that promotes conciliation, calls for further investigation. One possibility is that messages of hope and despair have different effects on people based on their political ideology. In the present research we examined the effect of direct despair- and hope-inducing messages (compared to a control condition involving a neutral message) on participants' experience of hope for peace, their sense of urgency to resolve the conflict, and subsequently their support for concession-making as a function of political orientation. Two samples of Jewish-Israelis were collected. Study 1 was collected using snowball methods, while Study 2 replicated and enhanced findings with a more representative sample of Jewish-Israeli society collected using an online survey platform. In both studies, messages of hope or despair yielded no influence on Rightists, whose baseline of hope is inherently low. However, for Leftists (experiencing higher levels of hope for peace) the despair manipulation significantly decreased support for concession-making through decreased hope for peace and sense of urgency to resolve the conflict, providing an explanation to the prevalence of despair over hope in conflict.     

Delay discounting mediates the association between posterior insular cortex volume and social media addiction symptoms

Addiction-like symptoms in relation to excessive and compulsive social media use are common in the general population. Because they can lead to various adverse effects, there is a growing need to understand the brain systems and processes that are involved in potential social media addiction. We focus on the morphology of the posterior subdivision of the insular cortex (i.e., the insula), because it has been shown to be instrumental to supporting the maintenance of substance addictions and problematic behaviors. Assuming that social media addiction shares neural similarities with more established ones and consistent with evidence from the neuroeconomics domain, we further examine one possible reason for this association—namely that insular morphology influences one's delay discounting and that this delay discounting contributes to exaggerated preference for immediate social media rewards and consequent addiction-like symptoms. Based on voxel-based morphometry techniques applied to MRI scans of 32 social media users, we show that the gray matter volumes of the bilateral posterior insula are negatively associated with social media addiction symptoms. We further show that this association is mediated by delay discounting. This provides initial evidence that insular morphology can be associated with potential social media addiction, in part, through its contribution to poor foresight and impulsivity as captured by delay discounting.     

Individual Therapy via the Phenomenon of Hope for Treating Chronic and Complex PTSD

Evidence-based treatment (EBT) supports different types of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet, a growing body of evidence shows a high therapy dropout rate and non-response rate among PTSD patients, especially patients with complex PTSD. A different, short-term therapeutic approach is therefore needed which combines CBT and psychodynamic therapy (PDT) because it is better for patients with chronic and/or complex PTSD to work with clarified stages and an end of treatment in mind. The patient's mental structure is conceptualized as a continuum, and functional problems are regarded as stemming from cognitive structures and unresolved developmental conflict. The five phases of the phenomenon of hope model proposed in an earlier article—a connection phase; an agency and pathway phase (developing a goal-oriented decision-making pattern and learning to plan toward goal achievement); a reconstruction phase; a phase of processing the conflict characteristic of PTSD by utilizing the natural power of hope; and a summary and separation phase—advance a short-term therapy that combines CBT and PDT techniques. This integrated therapy is based on notes that were kept relating to the case study of a chronic PTSD patient.     

From Traumatic Language to Posttraumatic Language: The Development of Language in Therapy According to the “Phenomenon of Hope” Model

Hope and language are part of the human development process starting from birth and continuing through all the stages of development. They are tools that help us to cope in complex situations. Environmental failure produces trauma, which damages the “self” and impairs the development of hope and language. The individual experiences “pessimistic hope” and “drained hope” and begins using “concrete language” and “pseudo-language.” Such profiles and languages indicate functional difficulties, including the inability to establish mature intimate personal relationships. When traumatic events such as those experienced in military combat compound childhood trauma (environmental failure), mental and functional difficulties buried by our defense systems may rise to the surface and worsen and chronic complex trauma may ensue. Psychotherapy for chronic complex trauma is complex. The therapeutic approach that is used in the “hope phenomenon” model includes five therapy stages that allow us to examine the effect of a trauma on personality and function. Here we examine the link between the five stages of therapy and the use of language. According to my experience, patients use concrete language and pseudo-language in the beginning of the therapeutic connection. As this connection and therapist-patient alliance evolves and deepens and the client and therapist move through the various stages, the patient then starts to use “plural language.” Concrete language and pseudo-language are used in the pessimistic hope and drawn hope stages, respectively, until a profile characterized by a realistic and mature hope emerges. This profile goes hand in hand with an ability to use plural language. This article examines the development of hope and language in a complex posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patient who was treated using the hope phenomenon model. Consent for the therapy details to be used in this article was given by the patient.     

Pseudodiagnosticity in judgment under uncertainty

The study investigates the extent to which the false alarm (i.e., ) is utilized in judgment under uncertainty. The main findings are (1) this cue is utilized by subjects when provided with a numerically low base-rate (i.e., P(H)) and a high hit-rate (i.e., P(D/H)). Under these conditions the false alarm helps resolve the inconsistency between the implications of these probabilistic cues. (2) The false alarm is ignored by subjects when provided with a numerically high base-rate and a high hit-rate. Under these conditions both latter probabilities are consistent and imply strong support for the focal hypothesis. The false alarm is either not consistent with these cues or redundant and ignored. In addition, three experiments provided evidence regarding base-rate utilization. When comparing conditions (1) and (2) it is demonstrated that the base-rate has a significant effect on judgments. Finally, the experiments provided evidence suggesting that the base-rate is not ignored when the datum is not diagnostic. The results are discussed in relation to the base-rate fallacy, pseudodiagnosticity, and cue consistency.     

Therapist Interventions Associated with Productive Emotional Processing in the Context of Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Depressed and Suicidal Adolescents

Productive emotional processing is considered a key change mechanism in attachment-based family therapy (ABFT). This study examined the impact of attachment-based family therapy therapist interventions aimed to promote productive emotional processing of primary adaptive emotions in a sample of 30 depressed and suicidal adolescents who had participated in a larger randomized clinical trial. Results of sequential analyses revealed that relational reframes and therapists’ focus on primary adaptive emotions were associated with the subsequent initiation of adolescents’ productive emotional processing of primary adaptive emotions. In contrast, interpretations, reassurances, and therapists’ focus on adolescents’ rejecting anger toward their parents were all followed by the discontinuation of adolescents’ emotional processing that had already begun. Finally, therapists’ general encouragement of affect and focus on adolescents’ unmet attachment/identity needs were associated with both the initiation of adolescents’ productive emotional processing, and with the discontinuation of such processing once it had already begun. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.     

Ease of Recall vs Recalled Evidence in Judgment: Experts vs Laymen

When major reasons of fault are presented in a pruned format, people fail to transfer the proportions of the omitted categories to the "all-other-problems" category. The present research investigated the underlying judgmental processes and the effect of domain knowledge on this phenomenon, known as pruning bias. In Experiment 1, although people with higher levels of domain knowledge failed to adjust completely for omission from the fault tree, they were more accurate and less biased than people with lower levels of domain knowledge. In Experiment 2, two hypothe ses are contrasted: The first, the availability explanation, sug gests that the underestimation of the "all-other-problems" category stems from its label being a less effective retrieval cue for specific fault reasons than the labels of major categories. The second hypothesis suggests that people judge by perceived ease of recall. The results suggest that people generating less failure reasons provide higher proportions to the "all-other-problems" category than people generating more reasons. The latter generation condition was perceived to be more difficult, signaling to people that the "all-other-problems" category is not so prevalent. The results of Experiments 3 and 4 indicate, as hypothesized, that the judgments of people with relatively low levels of domain knowledge are influenced by perceived ease of recall, whereas the judgments of people with higher levels of domain knowledge are influenced by recalled evidence. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

The effect of consumers' diurnal preferences on temporal behavior

The purpose of this study is to determine whether customers' diurnal preferences, tested at different times of the day, affect their responses and behavior. Three studies explore whether synchrony between the peak circadian arousal period and the time of participant testing influenced participants' temporal perception and behavior. Overall, the results imply a robust synchrony and time-of-day effects on the dependent variables. The authors discuss the theoretical significance of their findings and the managerial implications for consumer research and practice.     

Treatment seeking for posttraumatic stress in Israel Defense Forces veterans deployed in the Second Lebanon War (2006) and “Operation Cast Lead” in the Gaza Strip (2009): a comparative study

Background and objectives: The goal of the study was to determine the long-term prevalence of combat-related treatment seeking and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Israel’s veterans deployed to the Second Lebanon War (2006) and “Operation Cast Lead” in the Gaza Strip (2009).

Methods: The prevalence of treatment seeking and DSM-IV-TR diagnoses among Israel Defense Force (IDF) veterans was assessed using seven and five year’s surveillance and records. The whereabouts and combat exposure of veterans during the war was determined based on the IDF’s Operations Directorate records.

Results: Overall prevalence of treatment seeking was 1.32% and 0.38% in the Second Lebanon War and “Operation Cast Lead”, respectively. The prevalence of treatment-seeking veterans from the Second Lebanon War and in “Operation Cast Lead” was significantly higher in soldiers deployed to high combat-exposure zones (2.19% and 3.1%, respectively), relative to low combat-exposure zones (0.24% and 0.06%, respectively), and relative to soldiers deployed elsewhere (0.26% and 0.02%, respectively). PTSD prevalence was similar among treatment-seeking veterans deployed in high combat-exposure zones in both combats.

Conclusions: There is a gap of anywhere between 3% and 11% between treatment seeking by IDF veterans following war deployment and the actual prevalence of PTSD in this soldier population.