One-session cognitive treatment of dental phobia: preparing dental phobics for treatment by restructuring negative cognitions

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a single session of cognitive restructuring in a sample of phobic dental patients. Fifty-two patients were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: cognitive restructuring (modification of negative cognitions), provision of information (about oral health and dental treatment), and a waiting list control condition. Both interventions maximally lasted one hour. In comparison with the waiting list control condition and the information intervention condition, the cognitive intervention condition not only showed a large decrease in frequency and believability of negative cognitions, but also exhibited a clear decline in dental trait anxiety. Analysis at a follow-up of one year demonstrated a further, drastic reduction in dental anxiety in both intervention conditions, wherein the difference among these conditions was not maintained. It is concluded that it is possible to obtain substantial reductions of dental trait anxiety through a single session of cognitive restructuring. Nevertheless, repeated exposure to the dental situation seems necessary for a further reduction of anxiety.     

On the doing-allowing distinction and the problem of evil: a reply to Daniel Lim

In his article ‘Doing, allowing, and the problem of evil’ recently published in this journal, Daniel Lim attempts to undermine the following claims with respect to God: (1) the doing-allowing distinction exists and (2) the doing-allowing distinction is morally significant. I argue that Lim’s attempt is unsuccessful, and that his understanding of divine providence has the unacceptable consequence of implying that God is the originator of evil.     

Understanding the Transition from Career to Fulltime Motherhood: A Qualitative Study

According to the literature, minimal research has been conducted on fulltime mothers (i.e., stay-at-home mothers [SAHM]); studies dealing with motherhood tend to emphasize the developmental needs of the child versus the mother. The current research seeks to tackle that issue by bringing fulltime motherhood to the forefront. In particular, phenomena related to women transitioning from work to fulltime motherhood are qualitatively examined. Four women participated in this study and shared their personal experiences surrounding this subject matter. A SAHM Model and two SAHM Portraits are created to comprehend and explain the complexities found within their roles.     

A slow component of classic Stroop interference

The interference in colour naming may extend beyond critical Stroop trials. This “slow” effect was first discovered in emotional Stroop tasks, but is extended here to classical Stroop. In two experiments, meaningless coloured letter strings followed a colour word or neutral word. Student participants (Experiment 1), and 18 stroke patients and 18 matched controls (Experiment 2) showed substantial interference by incongruent colour words, both in the word trial (fast component) and in the subsequent string trial (slow component). Different patient subgroups emerged from the comparison of Stroop performance with the controls. An association of fast and slow components was only found in one subgroup. Exploratory analyses revealed no clear differences in damage location between subgroups. Fast interference caused by colour-meaning conflict may be specific for classical Stroop, but the broader occurrence of slow effects suggests a more generalised process of disengagement from attention-demanding stimuli.     

Preliminary evidence that acute and chronic daily psychological stress affect sexual arousal in sexually functional women

It is assumed that psychological stress may inhibit sexual arousal in women. Research on the effect of (acute and chronic) psychological stressors on genital and subjective sexual arousal, however, is scarce. To investigate whether psychological stressors indeed inhibit sexual responding, sexually functional women were randomly assigned to an experimental condition (n=30) in which acute psychological stress was induced by a frustrating computer task or a control condition (n=29). After the acute psychological stress or control induction women were exposed to an erotic stimulus. Genital sexual arousal was assessed using vaginal photoplethysmography. Self-report ratings of subjective sexual arousal were collected after the erotic stimulus. Furthermore, women were post hoc divided into a 'low' and a 'high' chronic stress group, based on their pre-assessment scores on a chronic daily stress questionnaire. As predicted, it was found that women in the acute stress condition responded with lower levels of genital and subjective sexual arousal to an erotic stimulus than women in the control condition. In addition, women with high levels of chronic stress responded with lower levels of genital sexual arousal to an erotic stimulus than women with low levels of chronic stress. Chronic stress did not affect the level of subjective sexual arousal.     

The facilitation of important personal goals through exercise

In a sample of 1287 adolescents, it appeared that weekly exercise facilitates a variety of goals; particularly those related to being or remaining healthy, feeling relaxed, not being bored, feeling physically good, not being stressed, and attaining high achievements were endorsed. Sedentary and active adolescents reported a similar order of 10 specific goals with respect to the likelihood of being positively influenced by exercise. The frequency of reported facilitation for each of the goals, however, was higher among the active adolescernts. This suggests that the more exercise is incorporated in daily life, the more it can be regarded as an integral part of the personal goal structure.