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Background and objectives: Both anxiety sensitivity (AS) and maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) may contribute to anxious and depressive symptoms. Given the overlap between ER and AS—They both pertain to maladaptive beliefs about emotions (BE)—We tested whether AS would demonstrate an indirect relationship with anxiety and depressive symptoms via BE and ER. Design: Participants were 150 undergraduate students who completed an online survey. Methodology: Participants completed the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3, difficulties with emotion regulation scale, Beliefs about Emotions Questionnaire, and Depression Anxiety Stress scales. Results: Bootstrapped serial mediation analyses demonstrated that the relationship between AS and anxiety symptoms was partially attributable to BE and ER, but not to BE alone. Similarly, the relationship between AS and depressive symptoms was completely attributable to BE and ER, but not to BE alone. Supplemental analyses suggested that beliefs about the controllability of emotions/anxiety were particularly important in the indirect nature of the relationship between AS and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: AS and ER play an important role in the maintenance of anxiety and depressive symptoms. These results highlight the uncontrollability of emotions as a potentially important construct in cognitive-behavioural models of anxiety and emotion regulation. The cross-sectional design and non-clinical sample limit the generalizability of our findings; replication and extension in other samples and via experimental designs is warranted.

School shooting homicide events generate considerable attention. A substantial number of research reports have tried to explain the phenomenon. However, the outcome of these studies has produced a conflicting picture of the issue. Our systematic review explored the quality of research in publications on school shooters. Research quality was assessed concerning description of design, method, and interpretation of results according to PRISMA and CRD criteria. We investigated evidence of the impact of psychological theories on how research was designed and interpreted. A total of ten papers met the criteria for inclusion in the review. With a few exceptions the research quality was low. Only three studies contained a separate methods section. Two out of ten studies reported from an interview with a school shooter. Secondary sources such as school, hospital and/or psychological evaluations, were used in four studies, while the rest had only applied tertiary data sources. There was a void of psychological theoretical analysis to inform the creation of relevant research designs. No study discussed psychological theories to inform inference from empirical data to conclusion. Higher quality of research and enhanced focus on theoretical understanding of psychological factors in school shooting are called upon. Keywords: School shootings, homicide, violent crime, psychological theory, literature review

Despite common stereotypes about those who use different types of online dating, psychological research on online dating agency users’ characteristics is actually very limited, and no scientific study has yet examined the individual characteristics of Tinder™ users. The current exploratory study aimed to investigate why individuals use these services, and how they differ in terms of sociability, self-esteem, and sexual permissiveness, with the aim of stimulating further research in the field. Participants (N = 75) were recruited over social media and completed questionnaires assessing motivation to use online dating, sociability, self-esteem, and sexual permissiveness. No differences were found in motivations, suggesting that people may use both Online Dating Agencies and Tinder™ for similar reasons. Tinder users in the current sample were younger than online dating agency users, which accounted for observed group differences in sexual permissiveness. There were no differences in self-esteem or sociability between the groups. Men were more likely than women to use both types of dating to find casual sex partners than women. Men also scored more highly on a measure of sexual permissiveness than women. These findings support previous research in indicating that users of both Tinder™ and Online Dating Agencies do not differ from the general population.

The human amygdala consciously and nonconsciously processes facial expressions and directs spatial attention to them. Research has shown that amygdala activity habituates after repeated exposure to emotionally salient stimuli during passive viewing tasks. However, it is unclear to what extent the amygdala habituates during biologically relevant amygdala-mediated behaviors, such as the orienting of attention to environmentally salient social signals. The present study investigated amygdala habituation during a dot-probe task measuring attentional bias to backward masked fearful faces. The results suggest that across the duration of the 50 min (1,098 trial) task both attentional bias behavior and amygdala activity were sustained—rather than habituated. Thus, these initial findings indicate that when biologically relevant behavior is sustained, so too is amygdala activation.

Are idioms stored in memory in ways that preserve their surface form or language or are they represented amodally? We examined this question using an incidental cued recall paradigm in which two word idiomatic expressions were presented to adult bilinguals proficient in Russian and English. Stimuli included phrases with idiomatic equivalents in both languages (e.g. “empty words/пycтыe cлoвa”) or in one language only (English—e.g. “empty suit/пycтoй кocтюм” or Russian—e.g. “empty sound/пycтoй звyк”), or in neither language (e.g. “empty rain/пycтoй дoждь”). If idioms are stored in a language-specific format, then phrases with idiomatic equivalents in both languages would have dual representation, and should therefore be more easily recalled than phrases with idiomatic meaning in only one language. This result was obtained. As such, the findings support the dual-coding theory of memory and are also compatible with models of the bilingual lexicon that include language tags or nodes.

Background/Objective: Sharp decline in physical activity has been observed among Chinese youth in recent decades. The transtheoretical model of behavior change (TTM) provides a useful framework for developing effective intervention programs. Yet the application of the TTM in China has been limited due to the lack of a valid TTM-based questionnaire to examine different stages of physical activity behavior. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to translate the Physical Activity Stages of Change Questionnaire (PASCQ), which is a well-validated scale based on the TTM, into Chinese and to test the psychometric properties of this Chinese version. Methods: The PASCQ was translated from English into Chinese and its internal consistency, one-week test–retest reliability and concurrent validity were tested in a sample of Chinese university students. Results: Both the internal consistency and the test–retest reliability satisfied psychometric standards. The Chinese version of the PASCQ also successfully discriminated between individuals with different levels of physical activity, which indicated a good concurrent validity. In particular, participants in the action and maintenance stages reported significantly higher energy expenditure than participants in the precontemplation, contemplation, and preparation stages. Conclusions: The results indicate good reliability and concurrent validity of the Chinese version of the PASCQ. The questionnaire may be profitably used to identify individuals at different stages of physical activity behavior, which may help in physical activity promotion programs among Chinese college students.

Aims: Musical preferences have been associated with substance use, but research has not fully considered the effect of the changes in music consumption in the digital age. We examined the effect of self-chosen music on substance use behaviors. Methods: Sixty college-age students volunteered to participate in exchange for class credit. Self-reported substance use behavior, sensation seeking, and school commitment were measured through surveys. Music preferences were assessed through self-report of the top 20 most played songs from each participant’s digital music devices. Each song was evaluated for references to substance use. Findings: Song and genre choices in private digital collections varied widely. Listening to music with a greater number of references to substance use was associated with greater reported substance use behaviors. Conclusion: The relationship between substance use and music preference in this study of idiosyncratic music libraries remains consistent with previous research that examined the effect of preferred genre alone.

The Youth Program Quality Survey is a 24-item measure of program quality designed to evaluate participant perceptions of experiences in short- and long-term youth programs. The Youth Program Quality Survey was developed based on the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine’s eight program setting features that can contribute to the positive development of youth. This measurement tool is quite new within the field and as such little research has been conducted to determine its validity and reliability. The current study is designed to examine three previously proposed factor structures with a sample of 391 youth between the ages of 10 and 18 who participated in 38 different youth programs (e.g. sport, leadership, in-school-mentoring). Confirmatory factor analysis results indicate model fit issues with all three proposed factor structures. Therefore, an exploratory factor analysis is performed to improve model fit, and a revised 4-factor 19-item model is proposed. An analysis of invariance by age shows that the measurement model did not vary between younger and older youth participants. Practical implications and areas of future research are offered.

Prior research on the disclosure of concealable stigmas at work has mostly overlooked the moderating and mediating role of employees’ trust in their supervisor and organization at large. The absence of trust from this field of study limits organizational efforts to foster inclusion at work. Thus, this paper presents a framework for examining the multiple linkages between employees’ trust in their direct supervisors and their organization, and the disclosure decision. Trust is proposed to be embedded in intra and extra organizational context, both in terms of the legal framework and the HR policies and practices. On the basis of synthesis of the literature, the article extends previous research and reviews of diversity by providing systematic review and recommendations that can help promote diversity management efforts and ultimately contribute to employees’ well-being as well as positive organizational outcomes.

Background: Major depression is a chronic disease which often requires long-term antidepressant use. Prescriptions of antidepressants have increased in the past two decades in the US Although current clinical data support the treatment efficacy of antidepressants, early discontinuation of their use by the patient is common. Aim: To identify the treatment experiences of patients, including their perceptions on antidepressant effects, changes in personality, and addiction. Overall goal was to identify factors for larger studies on patterns of antidepressant medication use. Method: This cross-sectional, descriptive study interviewed 45 adults in a large metropolitan city in the US using a structured interview guide that consisted of: demographic characteristics, depression and medication history, antidepressant drug taking behaviors, and antidepressant drug effects. Results: All 45 patients had health insurance. 71.1% of the subjects reported mild to moderate feelings of depression at the time of interview. Almost all (93.3%) patients felt that their antidepressants had made their depression better. 53.3% of patients perceived a change in their personality due to antidepressant use. A third (31%) perceived their antidepressant use to be their choice, while 69% stated it was a necessity. A majority (63.6%) felt they were dependent on their antidepressant, but 88.6% felt they were not addicted to their medication. Conclusions: Overall, important factors on long-term antidepressant use from the patient’s perspective were obtained in this study. Thus these study data can be considered pilot information since it will help to develop tailored intervention studies to improve long-term antidepressant adherence.

The human penis exhibits considerable variation in size, while a substantial proportion of the adult male population experiences size anxiety. This paper employs an evolutionary framework in order to understand this variation, as well as the concern men exhibit about the adequacy of the size of their penis. It is argued that female choice has been one important sexual selection force, responsible for shaping the size of the penis. However, this force has been relatively weak, because women do not consider the size of their partners’ penis to be the most important determinant of their sexual satisfaction. Also, in ancestral human societies, sexual satisfaction was a secondary concern, while women had limited space to exercise mate choice. The mismatch between ancestral and modern conditions, with female choice being stronger in the present than in the past, causes anxiety in men about their ability to satisfy their partners, which is also manifested in their concerns about size.

Forgiveness is conceptualized as the process of making peace with life. The three sources of forgiveness, another person, oneself, and a situation or circumstance are capable of freeing a person from a negative association to the source that has transgressed against a person. Research studies show the mental health benefits associated with forgiveness. The present study explores the experiences of adults who practice forgiveness, specifically, the indicators of forgiveness, the childhood antecedents, and the benefits of forgiving behavior. The study uses a qualitative research approach following a phenomenological framework. A total of 12 adults, ranging from 25 to 40 years of age, who received a high score on Heartland Forgiveness Scale were included in the study. Using semi-structured in-depth interviews, their personal experiences were explored. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The themes emerged show that the childhood antecedents of forgiveness are parental influences and early childhood experiences. The indicators of forgiving behavior include positive emotional state, empathy and perspective taking, and religiosity. The themes identified are enhanced sense of well-being, improved self-acceptance, and competence to deal with challenges. Forgiveness enhanced physical and psychological well-being. The findings of the study have several implications for religious leaders, teachers, parents, mental health professionals, and trainers.

The concept that asthma is psychosomatic and may be related to parenting has been debated since the 1930s. With the growing focus on the multi-dimensional nature of physical and mental illness currently present in the health fields, recent research has once again begun to support such a theory. This article provides a brief review of the literature pertaining to the possible relationship between the early maternal–infant bond and later onset and severity of asthma with a focus on the history of this theory. Modern research suggests that multiple asthma risk factors are also possible results of poor maternal–infant bonding, supporting the theory that a poor maternal–infant bond may make a child vulnerable to the development of later asthma. However, the impact of such a bond needs to be investigated further and with better methodology to help develop better and more comprehensive models of asthma, maternal–infant bonding, and early experiences.

It is not too late, but about time to realize how damaging IT overuse can be. The present paper discusses why it is of tremendous importance to study the effect of the Internet, smartphone, and other new digital technologies on individuals’ productivity and well-being. Besides its recognized addictive nature, it also becomes clear that such technology inevitably alters our natural social lives, which has, in our opinion, the potential to harm entire societies. In developed countries, we are more or less all using digital devices for communication purposes; we surf the Internet and we download apps on a daily basis. We present two lines of argument as to why the study of technological (over)use and its consequences is of tremendous importance. First, we outline under which circumstances use of smartphones and Internet can make us unproductive. Second, we anchor the (over)use of technologies in an affective neuroscience framework. Both these approaches to describing and understanding the consequences of digital technology use clearly show that many humans are already “overusing” technology. Therefore, we also provide some initial ideas on how to cut down technology use in order to live more satisfying and happier lives. Let us look into each other’s eyes and begin to spend more quality time with our loved ones outside in nature instead of staring at digital devices.

We examined two strategies that people use in their social judgements—indifference and compensation. Given the average position of members of intermediate-status groups, we reasoned that an indifference strategy would characterise perceivers’ competence vs. warmth judgements of these people because they do not possess features that deviate from normality. In contrast, high- and low-status groups deviate from normality, and we reasoned that attention to the negative aspects of their competence vs. warmness should enlist a complementary desire to compensate such groups on the opposite dimension, in line with societal norms of politeness. We tested these ideas in relation to people who were underweight (intermediate-status group), overweight (low-status group) and ideal weight (high-status group). Results from Study 1 showed that compensation was used for underweight faces and ideal weight faces, while an indifference strategy was used in the judgements of overweight faces, which we reasoned may be tied to cultural and individual differences. When these noise variables were removed in Studies 2a and 2b, we showed that, consistent with our assumptions, the indifference strategy was used in the evaluations of underweight people, and compensation was used for the ideal and overweight categories. Finally, Study 2b showed that norms of politeness predicted the use of compensation, but only for the overweight category.

In longitudinal studies, changes in participants’ cognitive performances can partly be attributed to variations in the testing situation (testing specific factors), such as, different test administrators or different testing environments. Focusing on test administrator influence, testing specific factors were examined in a Swedish longitudinal study of ageing. Test scores from 6,686 examinations revealed significant test administrator effects on all instruments measuring speed of processing, episodic memory and spatial ability. 1.4–3.5% of the total variation in test scores was explained by the factor attributed to the test administrator. Further, results indicated task familiarity on speed scores, and fatigue attributable to the time of day of the testing session for memory and spatial ability. Participants tested in the testing centre performed significantly better than participants who received home visits. This study provides evidence that testing specific factors are tangible concerns in longitudinal ageing studies.

Background: Schizophrenia is associated with elevated risk of aggressive behavior and poor cognitive performance. Methods: 65 male offenders, age ≥ 18, with schizophrenia, hospitalized between January 2014 and December 2015, were evaluated using Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Trail Making Test (TMT A), Trail Making Test (TMT B), and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) tools for cognitive function, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Psychopathic checklist- revised (PCL-R) were used to evaluate psychopathological symptomatology manifestations of schizophrenia disorder. Historical, Clinical and Risk managment-20 (HCR-20) test was used to assess the risk factors of aggressive behavior. Overt Aggression Scale (OAS) was used to asses aggressive behavior recidivism. Results: 56.9% of inpatients with schizophrenia were recidivate in aggressive behavior (≥1 incident), while 43.1% were not recidivate during the same period time. The group with recidivism of aggressive behavior showed significant poor results in WAIS (p

Binary or dichotomous thinking may lead to aggression throughout people’s lifespan; additionally, relationships are likely to be affected by types of aggression (i.e. physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility) as well as gender and age. Using large-scale data (N = 2,315), the current study tested if age or gender moderated dichotomous thinking’s correlation with four different types of aggression. Participants (Mage = 36.1, SD = 16.2, range = 18–69) completed the Dichotomous Thinking Inventory and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Dichotomous thinking differentially affected aggression depending on participants’ age: dichotomous thinking and aggression were more strongly correlated in younger participants. Individuals’ tendency to think dichotomously appeared relatively stable; however, age appeared to moderate dichotomous thinking’s effects.

© 2016 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Parenting style is an area of research which is emerging in South Africa. Previous research notes significant differences between ethnic groups in terms of parenting. In a country as diverse as South Africa, which has also evolved from an era of separatism and segregation, comparing parenting styles across ethnic groups is an interesting topic. This is a comparative study using a cross-sectional design. The Parenting Style and Dimension Questionnaire was used to collect the data. The final sample consisted of 746 participants with a mean age of 20.48 (SD = 1.96) years; 36% males and 64% females. The results found maternal authoritative parenting style to be the most prevalent across and within groups, but there were also significant differences between and within groups. Fathers’ parenting style was perceived as significantly different in three ethnic groups, but mothers’ parenting styles were not perceived as significantly different. ispartof: Cogent Psychology vol:3 issue:1 pages:1-12 status: published

With continuous advancements in forensic science, expert testimony has become more common in criminal proceedings. This study (N = 170) sought to examine the combined influence of mock juror gender, expert gender, and testimony complexity in a case involving DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) evidence. Findings revealed that testimony complexity interacted with expert gender to influence verdict judgments. Participants were unaffected by testimony complexity when the expert was a man, but were more likely to convict when complex testimony was presented by a woman. In support of the heuristic-systematic model, expert gender elicited an effect only in high-complexity conditions—interestingly, this was exclusively the case for male mock jurors. Understanding how jurors cognitively process legal and extra-legal information may help legal actors (e.g., evidence experts, lawyers) communicate evidence and its legal relevance more effectively.

Background and Objectives: Chronic stress contributes to psychopathology and the practise of yoga is suggested to decrease stress and improve well-being. However, the literature often reports methodological problems (cross-sectional designs, sample sizes ≤ 20, and limited exploration of community populations). The aim of this study was to address these limitations and evaluate the potential psychological benefits of yoga to a non-clinical population. Methods: Women (N = 116) reporting chronic stress participated in this longitudinal study. Participants were allocated to a twice-weekly, hour-long yoga class for a period of two months, or a waitlist-control. Indicators of psychological well-being were measured at baseline, post-test and one-month follow-up. Results: Psychological distress decreased over time in both groups, however the control group experienced decreases in positive effect compared with the yoga group. Curvilinear trends were observed, indicating that trajectories of improvement seen at post-test were not robustly seen at follow-up. Conclusion: The study indicates that short-term yoga practise may yield some benefits to stressed individuals, but that evaluation over a longer term of practise may be required to determine the optimal dose for improvements and maintenance. Differential treatment effects may be difficult to detect in studies with populations that may already be motivated to improve their health.

The purpose of this study was to examine how various appearance issues and depression may relate to disordered eating among female college students. The appearance issues analyzed in this study were: level of body dissatisfaction, body mass index (BMI), social appearance anxiety (SAA), and social-cultural attitudes toward appearance. The questionnaire was distributed to volunteer students during regularly scheduled classes. Students, both study participants and non-participants, were furnished with information on where to get help if they had concerns about disordered eating behavior, appearance-related anxiety, or depression. Participants were 370 female undergraduate students enrolled at one Midwestern University in the United States. This study provided statistical evidence that college females at risk of acquiring an eating disorder had significantly larger differences between their current body shape and their ideal body shape, scored significantly higher in the sociocultural attitudes toward appearance, had more SAA, and depress ion compared to those less at risk of acquiring an eating disorder. However, the BMI of college females at risk of acquiring an eating disorder did not differ significantly from the BMI of college female students less at risk. This study contributes to a better understanding of disordered eating and how it relates to appearance issues, and depression.

Recent research has indicated that judgments of competence based on very short exposure to political candidates’ faces reliably predict electoral success. An unexplored question is whether presenting written information of the kind to which voters are typically exposed during an election alongside candidates’ faces affects competence judgments. We conducted three studies using photographs of 16 pairs of competing politicians in 16 medium-sized towns of northeast Italy as stimuli. Study 1 confirmed the external validity of earlier research in which participants were exposed to candidates’ faces without providing any other information. Study 2a showed that competence judgments were not subject to in-group favoritism: candidates’ faces were presented alongside information about the political coalition to which they belonged (center left; center right) to participants who declared a left or right political orientation. Finally, Study 2c compared the competence inferences made in Study 1 (face-only condition) with those of Study 2a (face plus political coalition label) and with new inferences (Study 2b) based on candidates’ faces plus information about campaign promises (greater equality; lower taxes). The results showed that automatic competence inferences are not substantially modified when relevant written information is presented alongside candidates’ faces.

Research and clinical applications of q-methodology, in which a set of descriptive statements are sorted into a forced, quasi-normal distribution, have recently been extended to validation of integrated interpretations of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2nd Edition (MMPI-2). This study aimed to develop a q-set customized for individuals diagnosed with substance abuse or those within a substance abuse treatment setting. 229 q-items, covering 11 content areas, were written to cover both the content area of the MMPI-2 and the variables affecting substance abuse treatment outcome. On the basis of their reliability, measured by inter-rater total correlation and variance components, 98 items were selected for final testing. Scores on this final q-set showed acceptable levels of reliability when forced into both a quasi-normal and flat distribution, with pairwise inter-rater reliability estimates of .519 and .517, respectively. Results of the study suggest the new q-set might be better suited to assessing a substance abusing population than the original Midwestern q-set that inspired it.

This interdisciplinary research, drawing on cognitive psychology and linguistics, extended to middle childhood past research during early childhood or adulthood on thinking aloud prior to written composing. In year 5 of a longitudinal study of typical writing, when cohort 1 was in grade 5 (n = 110 ten year-olds) and cohort 2 in grade 7 (n = 97 twelve year-olds), a cross-sectional study was conducted. Children were first asked to think aloud while they generated ideas and second while they planned their essays to express and defend their opinions on a controversial topic in the region of the United States where they lived. Third, they wrote their essays. Their think-aloud protocols were audio-recorded and later transcribed into writing for analysis. The authors developed and applied rating scales for quality of idea generating and planning in the written transcriptions and quality of opinion expression, opinion defense, organization, and content in the essays children wrote after thinking aloud; total number of words in essays was also counted. Seventh graders scored significantly higher than fifth graders on quality of idea generation but not planning, and higher on all variables rated for quality in the written essays including length. Quality of expressing opinions and defending opinions were uncorrelated in grade 5, but moderately correlated in grade 7. Whether idea generating or planning quality explained unique variance in essays varied with coded written essay variables and grade. Educational applications of results for assessment, assessment-instruction links, instruction in social studies, and theory of mind in persuasive essay writing are discussed.

Many studies have found that negative affect decreased attentional flexibility. But the motivational dimensional model of affect proposed that negative affect high in motivational intensity narrows attentional focus, whereas negative affect low in motivational intensity broadens attentional focus. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between negative affective states varying in motivational intensity and attentional flexibility. Experiment 1 compared the attentional consequences of negative affect low in motivational intensity (sadness) relative to a high-motivation negative affect (disgust). Results indicated that low-motivation negative affect increased attentional flexibility on a covert attentional orienting task. Experiment 2 compared the attentional consequences of negative affect low in motivational intensity (sadness) relative to a neutral affective state and found that the low-motivation negative affect (sadness) relative to the neutral affective state increased attentional flexibility. These experiments support the motivational dimensional model of affect.

The Developmental Model of Sport Participation describes three pathways that youth can follow: recreational participation, late specialization and early specialization. Many competitive sport programmes are promoting early specialization in hopes that their athletes will gain an advantage over others; however, research indicates that youth who wait until adolescence to specialize in a given sport may achieve physical and psychological benefits. The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological effects of sport specialization by examining relationships between youth hockey players’ level of specialization, psychological needs satisfaction (PNS), psychological needs dissatisfaction (PND), mental health and mental illness. Sixty-one youth male hockey players (Mage = 14.90) responded to an online survey. Results indicated that PND according to specialization was significant with early specializers reporting the highest PND and recreational athletes reporting the lowest PND (p = .029), indicating a large effect size (η2 = .157). No other significant differences were found. Bivariate correlations revealed significant relationships between all variables. Moreover, regression analyses showed that PNS positively predicted mental health (β = .47) and negatively predicted mental illness (β = −.51), while PND positively predicted mental illness (β = .71) and negatively predicted mental health (β = −.44). Results suggest that PNS is important to promote mental health and avoid mental illness. Future research is needed to fully understand the psychological consequences of early sport specialization.

Given the established association between foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and risk of criminality and criminalisation, this systematic review examines the prevalence of FASD within youth justice systems. Four relevant sources were identified. Each source suggests a disproportionate prevalence in comparison to the general youth population. However, this masks significant variation between studies, and a much-heightened prevalence of FASD among Aboriginal youth in custody. The continued lack of research establishing prevalence, limits the potential for strong conclusions and suggests an imperative for improved processes of identification. This highlights systematic deficits in the ability to assess or even screen for FASD, with particular challenges for the youth justice system. Until such challenges can be resolved, it is likely that young people with FASD will remain hidden within a system in which they are at great risk of inadequate support, discrimination and criminalisation.

The aim of this study was to explore differences in how mothers perceive the identity of their child after acquired brain injury and the emotions associated with these different perceptions. Five mothers of children who had sustained a brain injury were interviewed and the data were analysed using thematic analysis to obtain the mothers’ narratives about what had happened to their child’s identity as a result of the injury. Three general narratives are described: a child with problems, in which the problems of the child dominated the perception of the child’s identity and the post-injury child was viewed as fundamentally different from the pre-injury child; an improving child, in which the child’s progress and achievements figured prominently, and the post-injury child was viewed as having an identity continuous with that of the pre-injury child; and an improved child, in which the post-injury child was viewed as fundamentally different and improved compared to the pre-injury child. These narratives were associated with different emotional responses: A child with problems was associated with a sense of burden, grief and anxiety about the future. These emotions were relatively absent from the other two narratives, and an improving child was associated with a sense of relief, pride and optimism.

Neuropsychological assessment forms an essential part of the screening, diagnosis and general assessment of Alcohol-Related Brain Damage (ARBD). A number of studies have evaluated the applicability of various neuropsychological tests within the context of ARBD assessment, yet little attempt has been made to collate this evidence and discuss its clinical application. The aim of this protocol is to outline the methodology for a systematic review that aims to identify the neuropsychological tools being used to assess cognitive impairments in individuals with ARBD and evaluate their efficacy within this context. We will search a number of online databases and other sources to identify studies using a neuropsychological tool in the screening, diagnosis or neuropsychological assessment of individuals with ARBD. Primary outcome measures of interest will be construct validity, convergent validity, reliability (retest and inter-rater), sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and practical considerations. Results from the review will assist clinicians and researchers involved in the assessment and diagnosis of ARBD by providing a synthesis and critical analysis of the evidence base for each tool, allowing them to make efficient and well-informed test selections. Review findings could also be used to inform the development of guidelines for ARBD diagnosis and assessment.

The call is a tactical component in beach volleyball attacks. Through the call, the setter indicates to his or her teammate an open spot in the opponent’s court. In two experimental conditions, we investigated the interval between the call and the ball-hand contact (“call shot interval”, CSI) of top-level athletes. We show that the probability that a given call is followed is dependent on the duration of the CSI and the number of call options. Longer CSIs result in an increased probability that the given call will be followed, whilst increasing the call options results in a decrease in probability. On average, there is a 50% probability that the call will be followed if the call precedes the shot by 460 ms and if a single call option (“line”) is expected. If the attacker has to choose between three call options (“line”, “cut”, “no-one”) a 50% probability that the call will be followed is observed at an CSI of 542 ms. It did not appear that gender influenced the ability to follow a call. We recommend that in practice and in competition, players and coaches should consider the proper duration of the CSI for effective calling.

This paper investigates the utility and efficacy of a novel eight-week cognitive rehabilitation programme developed to remediate attention deficits in adults who have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI), incorporating the use of both action video game playing and a compensatory skills programme. Thirty-one male TBI patients, aged 18–65 years, were recruited from 2 Australian brain injury units and allocated to either a treatment or waitlist (treatment as usual) control group. Results showed improvements in the treatment group, but not the waitlist control group, for performance on the immediate trained task (i.e. the video game) and in non-trained measures of attention and quality of life. Neither group showed changes to executive behaviours or self-efficacy. The strengths and limitations of the study are discussed, as are the potential applications and future implications of the research.

The main purpose of conducting this study was to investigate the effectiveness of group play therapy in preschool children’s creativity and aggression control. The research method was experimental along with pretest–posttest design in control group. The sample of study included all preschool students of Dehloran town with a total number of 60 students from preschool students that (30 subjects in experimental group and 30 subjects in control group) were selected by multistage random cluster sampling. The research instruments were Torrance’s creativity questionnaire and aggressiveness questionnaire of Shahim. Their reliability and validity have been confirmed and to analyze the findings, covariance analysis test was used. The major findings of the research indicate that group play therapy in preschool children’s creativity and aggression has a significant effect on the level of 0.01 and it enhances creativity and reduces aggression in preschool children.

This study explored the role of time since diagnosis and whether the care recipient was a child, a parent, or a spouse, on caregiver’s perceptions of the caring role, with a group of 269 female cancer caregivers. Questionnaire measures were used to explore psychological and social resources and psychological distress. Analysis of variance and hierarchical multiple regression were used and identified significant effects of time since diagnosis and care recipient. This study concludes that a more tailored approach to understanding the needs of caregivers is required particularly in terms of time since diagnosis and care recipient, in order to provide more effective support.

It has been demonstrated that retrieval practice on a subset of studied items can cause forgetting of different related studied items. This retrieval-induced forgetting (the RIF effect) has been demonstrated in a variety of recall studies and has been attributed to an inhibitory mechanism activated during retrieval practice by competition for a shared retrieval cue. The current study generalizes the RIF effect to recognition memory and investigates this competition assumption. Experiment 1 demonstrated an effect of RIF effect in item recognition with incidental encoding of category-exemplar association during the study phase. Experiment 2 demonstrated evidence of RIF with use of an independent retrieval cue during retrieval practice. Results from this study indicate that response competition may occur outside of the retrieval-practice phase, or may not be limited to situations where there is an overt link to a shared category cue.

We examined the influence of cultural orientation salience on the emotion perception process in a contextualized emotion recognition task. We primed individual and collective focus in participants who later rated the emotion expressions of a central character (target) showing a happy, sad, angry, or neutral facial expression in a group setting. Facial orientation of a group of four other persons towards the target person was manipulated so that they faced either “inwards,” towards the central character, or “outwards,” towards the observer. Priming a collectivistic mind-set resulted in the perception of more intense emotions in the “inwards” facial orientation condition when the target showed angry, happy, or neutral expressions. Individualist focus influenced emotion perception in the “outwards” facial orientation condition in few cases. The findings highlight the significance of perceivers’ cultural orientation and social elements of the situation for emotion perception in line with the “culture as situated cognition” model.

Insights from psychology and cognitive science have, as yet, barely entered hospital choice research. This conceptual article closes this gap by reviewing and conceptually framing the current literature on hospital choice and patient information behavior and by discussing which tools are needed to advance scientific methodology in the study of patient decision-making strategies in hospital choice. Specifically, we make a call for more experimental research in hospital choice in order to complement existing theories, methods, and tools. This article introduces computerized process-tracing tools in hospital choice research, and also outlines a hands-on example, to provide a basis for future research.

Studies have shown that while East Asians focused on the center of the face to recognize identities, participants adapted their strategy by focusing more on the eyes to identify emotions, suggesting that the eyes may contain salient information pertaining to emotional state in Eastern cultures. However, Western Caucasians employ the same strategy by moving between the eyes and mouth to identify both identities and emotions. Malaysian Chinese have been shown to focus on the eyes and nose more than the mouth during face recognition task, which represents an intermediate between Eastern and Western looking strategies. The current study examined whether Malaysian Chinese continue to employ an intermediate strategy or shift towards an Eastern or Western pattern (by fixating more on the eyes or mouth respectively) during an emotion recognition task. Participants focused more on the eyes, followed by the nose then mouth. Directing attention towards the eye region resulted in better recognition of certain own- than other-race emotions. Although the fixation patterns appear similar for both tasks, further analyses showed that fixations on the eyes were reduced whereas fixations on the nose and mouth were increased during emotion recognition, indicating that participants adapt looking strategies based on their aims.

Anonymous retrospective data were provided by 3,443 adult participants via computer-assisted self-interview. This was the first study focused on determinants of adult sexual orientation to adjust for the effects of same-sex sibling incest. Five measures of adult sexual orientations (ASOs) provided evidence consistent with the theory that ASOs result from early sex-specific romantic attachment, conditioning caused by early sexual experiences with partners, and other experiences, such as early masturbation using human images, acting synergistically with critical period learning, and sexual imprinting. Early same-sex crushes were the most powerful predictor of ASOs, and they also increased the likelihood of engaging in early same-sex partnered and masturbation behaviors. Incestuous experiences with same-sex siblings affected the ASOs of the incest participants. And, lesbian, gay, and bisexual participants tended to have an earlier onset of puberty than heterosexual controls within sexes. However, statistical analyses showed that the incest and puberty effects were mathematically explained by the participant’s early sexual experiences with partners and other experiences such as masturbation using human images. Early same-sex crushes were predicted by nuclear family variables implying that same-sex crushes were more likely when the opposite-sex parent modeled an unsatisfactory heterosexual romantic partner.

Recently, our team found that category-selective attention could modulate tool processing at the partial awareness level and unconscious face processing in the middle occipital gyrus (MOG). However, the modulation effects in MOG were in opposite directions across the masked tool and masked face conditions in that study: MOG activation decreased in the masked faces condition but increased in the masked tools condition under the consistent compared with the inconsistent cue-selective-attentional modulation. In the present study, in order to confirm that the opposite effects were due to the changed contours of the tools, using the same tool pictures and fMRI technique, we devised another two conditions: variant mirror tool picture condition and invariant tool picture condition. The results showed that, during the variant mirror tool picture condition, activation in the MOG decreased under tool-selective attention compared with face-selective attention. Interestingly, however, during the invariant tool picture condition, activation in the MOG revealed neither positive nor negative changes. Combined with the result of increased MOG activity in the changed different tool condition, the three different effects demonstrated not only that the unconscious component of partial awareness processing (no knowledge of the identity of the tool) could be modulated by the category-selective attention in the earlier visual cortex but also that the modulation effect could further interact with the conscious component of partial awareness processing (consciousness of the changing contour of the tool) in a continuous manner.

Superstorm Sandy, which affected millions of people in 2012, was a disaster in structural, financial, medical, and emotional terms. Many survivors experienced post-storm health psychology impacts. Depression levels increased by 25%, and physician visits were elevated by a significant amount. Clearly, large-scale disasters have a profound effect on the physical and emotional health of survivors. Understanding these effects can improve future disaster relief programs and policies. Exploration of post-disaster issues can inform government entities and non-government organizations to assist communities and individuals left in the aftermath of natural disasters.

In view of a rampant increase in availability of and access to many health-compromising leisure choices and opportunities in India during the last few decades, this study examines the pattern of leisure practices in a sample of school-going adolescents from rural, urban, and metro regions of North India (n = 1,500). Data were collected through an anonymous leisure survey from consenting students. Results show a greater prevalence of the use of electronic media and telecommunication gadgets, reflecting a larger engagement in sedentary activities than in cultural, community, and physically demanding leisure activities. In particular, the students from metro and urban areas reported greater involvement in multiple sedentary activities, while rural adolescents reported greater engagement with watching television, listening to fast music and religious leisure. The results implicate an urgent need for revisiting adolescent health policy and promoting positive leisure education in schools.

Recent electroencephalography (EEG) studies accumulated evidence that support a dynamic view of the self (multiple aspect theory). In this study, we test the specific hypothesis of the multiple aspect theory of the self by using EEG data from the HisMine paradigm. In the HisMine paradigm German pronouns are visually presented in a stream of additional stimuli, while changes in brain activity are determined by means of EEG. At an early cortical processing stage, the presentation of the possessive pronouns "mein" ("my"), "sein" ("his") and "dein" ("your") elicited significantly different brain activities when compared to the non-personal pronoun "ein" ("a"). At a later processing stage, cortical processing of the self-related possessive pronoun ("mein") differed from the processing of all other possessive and the non-personal pronoun. In line with previous observations (and the multiple aspect theory of the self), the early effect (here referred to as Me1) was found at specifically left occipito-parietal electrode locations (e.g. PO9), whereas the later effect (here referred to as Me2) occurred specifically at the left fronto-temporal electrode site, F7. This finding supports the idea that the human self is consisting of multiple aspects. Potential implications are discussed.

The reasoned action approach to understanding and predicting behavior includes the sufficiency assumption. Although variables not included in the theory may influence behavior, these variables work through the variables in the theory. Once the reasoned action variables are included in an analysis, the inclusion of other variables will not increase the variance accounted for in behavioral intentions or behavior. Reasoned action researchers are very concerned with testing if new variables account for variance (or how much traditional variables account for variance), to see whether they are important, in general or with respect to specific behaviors under investigation. But this approach tacitly assumes that accounting for variance is highly relevant to understanding the production of variance, which is what really is at issue. Based on the variance law, I question this assumption.

The use of pharmacological cognitive enhancers (PCEs) in the healthy population is a controversial topic with numerous and expansive repercussions. By outlining common proponent arguments on the current PCE state of affairs, the definition of normality, and the complex regulation of PCEs, this article addresses why the mainstream use of PCEs in the healthy population is still disadvantageous overall. In this respect, the influence and roles of researchers to the society are emphasized in bringing the focus back to the fundamental issues, which is crucial in deciphering its controversy and avoiding costly societal, research credibility and ethical implications.

The present study aimed to assess the effect of age and gender on second-grade children’s reading performance. Two hundred and eighty-seven children aged 7.1–8.2 years were divided into two age subgroups (the younger, 85–91 months and the older, 92–98 months) and were examined in reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension tasks. Results showed a significant effect of age in reading performance, with the older children having better scores than younger ones for reading fluency, reading comprehension, and the total reading performance. Gender was not found to play an important role in reading performance. The findings are discussed on the ground of functional brain development and the different rates of cerebral maturation.

The music-evoked emotion literature implicates many brain regions involved in emotional processing but is currently lacking a model that specifically explains how they temporally and dynamically interact to produce intensely pleasurable emotions. A conceptual model, the dynamic functional capacity theory (DFCT), is proposed and provides a foundation for the further understanding of how brain regions interact to produce intensely pleasurable emotions. The DFCT claims that brain regions mediating emotion and arousal regulation have a limited functional capacity that can be exceeded by intense stimuli. The prefrontal cortex is hypothesized to abruptly deactivate when this happens, resulting in the inhibitory release of sensory cortices, the limbic system, the reward-circuit, and the brainstem reticular activating system, causing “unbridled” activation of these areas. This process is hypothesized to produce extremely intense emotions. This theory may provide—music-evoked emotion researchers and music therapy researchers -- a theoretical foundation for continued research and complement current theories of emotion. Published version

“Systemising” and “Empathising” are two cognitive tendencies that individuals rely on to make sense of the world. Systemising involves the observation of environmental contingencies and the consequent formulation of concrete rules to predict events. Empathising is the drive to attribute affective states to others, and to guide responses based on these inferences. High Anxiety is linked to negative, and erroneous, interpretations of social information, and it is possible that the introduction of systems, and therefore predictive utility, might appeal to anxious individuals. It was hypothesised that individuals with high trait anxiety levels would report higher systemising tendencies and lower empathising tendencies than their less anxious peers. A total of 223 participants completed measures of trait anxiety, empathising and systemising tendencies, and autistic traits. Consistent with the hypotheses, individuals with higher levels of trait anxiety demonstrated high systemising tendencies and relatively low empathising tendencies, whilst their less anxious peers demonstrated balanced tendencies in both domains. The High Anxiety group also scored highest on the self-reported measure of autistic traits. This research has identified anxiety as a potential facilitator of divergence in cognitive tendencies, which will be further enhanced by studies in clinical populations.

Memory for repeated items improves when presentations are spaced during study. Here, two experiments assessed the so-called spacing effect on a yes–no recognition memory task using affective and neutral words. In Experiment 1, a group of participants was asked to orient their attention to semantic features of target words (deep semantic analysis) that were consecutively repeated or spaced, while another group was engaged in a graphemic shallow analysis of words (Experiment 2). The depth of word processing approach was meant to highlight the role of repetition priming mechanisms in the generation of spacing effects. We found that spacing effects occurred for both affective and neutral words (Experiment 1). However, following shallow analysis of words, the spacing effect was reduced for both affective and neutral words (Experiment 2). No differences were detected in terms of positive versus negative words. These results suggest that spaced learning operates when the to-be-remembered material is also affectively charged and that, under certain circumstances, it may enhance recognition memory as affective connotation does.