Relating other's behaviour to own behaviour: Effects of delayed response and task difficulty

120 Ss from age groups 8, 12 and 16 years were tested for their understanding that another person's (O) sadness response was related to a preceding behaviour in S. The understanding was tested after experimental interaction episodes where E's assistant (O) worked on an (easy or difficult) task, was helped by S, and responded (immediately or delayed) with sadness. The results showed that a relating of O's behaviour to S was shown primarily for Ss in the two oldest age groups, and primarily when O's response was immediate. A delay of 11/2 min in O's response resulted in attributions of O's behaviour to psychological processes in O rather than to S's behaviour. The youngest Ss focused on O in explaining O's behaviour. Task difficulty did not effect Ss causal attributions.     

Quantifying aggression: Effects of identity of stimulus

A test for children's insight into relations between behaviour and aggressive emotion showed that kindergarten children showed an increase in ratings of emotion corresponding to an increase in aggressive behaviour (positive relation), and that an increase in ratings of emotions corresponding to a decrease in aggression-related behaviour (negative relation) was shown by seven- and nine-year-old children. Cognition of relations between aggressive emotion and behaviour seemed to be developed earlier than cognition of relations between intention and behaviour as observed in a previous study. Results from the test also indicated that the magnitude of emotion ratings differed in identity (same stimulus person) and non-identity (differed stimulus persons) stimulus conditions.     

Does placebo response mediate runner's high?

It is proposed that runner's high is mediated by increased endorphin release as induced by placebo responses arising from subjective expectancies and setting.     

Teachers do not Deal in Widgets

Although the use of merit pay, incentive pay, bonus pay, and job promotion are well-established measures in the private or corporate sector of American society, few examples of successful teacher merit pay systems exist. In 1983, the Eastern Washington University Department of Education surveyed six major private corporations to determine whether corporate merit pay programs could be applied to teachers and educational institutions. Survey findings suggest several reasons why merit pay programs for teachers will probably fail: (a) lack of monetary goals; (b) the necessity for subjective evaluation, which requires multiple measurement devices, extensive supervision, and time; (c) the absence of a many-tiered corporate structure in most educational institutions; and (d) increased supervisory direction that could stifle creativity and flexibility.     

Corpus Linguistics Methods in the Study of (Meta)Argumentation

Argumentation - As more and more sophisticated software is created to allow the mining of arguments from natural language texts, this paper sets out to examine the suitability of the...     

Treatment of pharmacotherapy-refractory posttraumatic stress disorder among Cambodian refugees: a pilot study of combination treatment with cognitive-behavior therapy vs sertraline alone

Cambodian refugees with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) represent a cohort in severe need of treatment, but little information is available to guide treatment choices. We selected a sample of pharmacotherapy-refractory individuals to test the efficacy of combination treatment with sertraline and cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) for treating PTSD. Participants in this pilot study were ten Khmer-speaking women who had been at a mean age of 22-26 years during the Pol Pot period (1975-1979). These patients were randomly assigned to either sertraline alone or combined treatment. We found that combined treatment offered additional benefit in the range of medium to large effect sizes for PTSD and associated symptoms. Our findings indicate that substantial gains can be achieved by adding CBT to pharmacotherapy for PTSD, and that a program of CBT emphasizing information, exposure, and cognitive-restructuring can be successfully modified for Khmer-speaking refugees.     

Anger-associated panic attacks in Cambodian refugees with PTSD; a multiple baseline examination of clinical data

Despite the increasing recognition of the importance of anger as a key aspect of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the presence of anger-induced panic attacks has been understudied in traumatized groups. The present investigation determines the prevalence of anger-associated panic attacks among Cambodian refugees suffering from PTSD. Specific characteristics of these episodes that were examined included frequency, symptoms, and cognitions (in particular, fear of death from bodily dysfunction). In a survey of 100 Khmer patients suffering PTSD, 58% reported anger-associated panic attacks in the last month. These attacks occurred at a mean rate of 6.2 attacks a month and were characterized by extreme arousal and in 81% of these cases, fears of death due to bodily dysfunction during the anger-induced panic. Mechanisms for this high rate of fear of death during anger arousal are discussed with a focus on culture-specific catastrophic cognitions.     

Traditional Christian Belief and Belief in the Supernatural: Diverging Trends in the Netherlands Between 1979 and 2005?

Is there an ongoing decline in religious beliefs in the Netherlands? Using cross-sectional data from 1979 up to 2005, we focus on traditional Christian faith and belief in the supernatural; the literature suggests that they undergo diverging trends. We first describe these trends using the Social and Cultural Developments in the Netherlands surveys covering the 1979–2005 period. Explanations for the trends are formulated and tested using OLS regression models and a counterfactional simulation technique. Our findings indicate that during the 1979–2005 period both traditional Christian faith and belief in the supernatural declined, although the latter at a slower rate. Since church membership rates are continuously declining as well, belonging and believing still go hand in hand in the Netherlands. The most important explanation for both the decline in traditional Christian faith and the decline in belief in the supernatural is the slow but continuous replacement of older religious affiliated cohorts with younger nonaffiliated cohorts.