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This pilot randomized control trial (RCT) tested “Do More, Feel Better” (DMFB), a lay-delivered Behavioral Activation intervention for depressed senior center clients. The study examined: 1. the feasibility of training older lay volunteers to fidelity; and 2. the acceptability, safety, and impact of the intervention. Twenty-one lay volunteers at four senior centers were trained in DMFB. Fifty-six depressed clients were randomized to receive 9 sessions of DMFB or Behavioral Activation delivered by social workers (MSW BA). Research assessments of overall client activity level (BADS) and depression severity (HAM-D) were conducted at baseline and weeks 3, 6, and 9. Eighty-one percent of lay volunteers who underwent training were formally certified in DMFB. Depressed clients receiving each intervention reported high levels of satisfaction and showed large and clinically significant changes in 9-week activity level (d ≥ 1.35) and depression severity (d ≥ 3.34). Differences between treatment groups were very small for both activity level (dMSW = 0.16; 95% CI, -0.70 to 1.02) and depression (dMSW = 0.14; 95% CI, -0.63 to 0.91). Increases in activity level were associated with decreases in depression (β = -0.42; 95% CI, -0.55 to -0.30). Both interventions appeared to work as intended by increasing activity level and reducing depression severity. “Do More, Feel Better” shows the potential of evidence-based behavioral interventions delivered by supervised lay volunteers, and can help address the insufficient workforce available to meet the mental health needs of community-dwelling older adults.

Intimate relationships matter to health and happiness. However, the vast scope of relationship research and the abundance of precise micro-theories has presented obstacles to the development of integrative theories with contextual-behavioral foundations that are oriented towards application of findings in domains of public health significance. Derived from the well-validated Interpersonal Process Model, which described intimacy as a dyadic exchange in which Person A engages in a vulnerable self-disclosure, Person B enacts a response, and Person A perceives the response as responsive, we present an integrative, analytic-abstractive, contextual-behavioral model of intimate relations. The model describes the intimacy process as a set of functional relations describing behaviors and responses of Persons A and B in context, languaged as middle-level terms to facilitate cross-disciplinary applications. Three primary relations of the model are non-verbal emotional expression (Person A) and safety (Person B), verbal self-disclosure (Person A) and validation (Person B), and asking (Person A) and giving (Person B). The model also emphasizes the importance of self- and other-awareness, expressions of closeness, and reciprocity as additional terms. Future research directions and potential applications are discussed.

Previous research on microaggressions has emphasized the frequency of and distress produced by microaggressions as reported by people of color. The current research supplements the existing literature by developing a self-report measure of White individuals’ microaggressive likelihood against Black people, the Cultural Cognitions and Actions Scale (CCAS). Study 1 developed the CCAS through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of responses to CCAS items from a sample of 978 non-Hispanic White undergraduate students. The final scale comprised four factors (Negative Attitudes, Colorblindness, Objectifying, and Avoidance) assessing microaggressive likelihood, and CCAS total and factor scores were significantly related to several other indicators of racism and bias. Study 2 involved 31 of the previous participants in a lab-based discussion of race-related issues with a confederate and provided initial support for the predictive validity of the measure. Overall, this report supports a growing literature that microaggressions are more than innocuous, harmless behaviors, unrelated to racism, and instead represent relevant processes within the science of racism and bias. It also provides a potential means of testing the effectiveness of interventions intended to reduce the commission of microaggressions.

Theories of dishonest behavior implicitly assume language independence. Here, we investigated this assumption by comparing lying by people using a foreign language versus their native tongue. Participants rolled a die and were paid according to the outcome they reported. Because the outcome was private, they could lie to inflate their profit without risk of repercussions. Participants performed the task either in their native language or in a foreign language. With native speakers of Hebrew, Korean, Spanish, and English, we discovered that, on average, people inflate their earnings less when they use a foreign language. The outcome is explained by a dual system account that suggests that self‐serving dishonesty is an automatic tendency, which is supported by a fast and intuitive system. Because using a foreign language is less intuitive and automatic, it might engage more deliberation and reduce the temptation to lie. These findings challenge theories of ethical behavior to account for the role of the language in shaping ethical behavior. This project was supported by the Israel Science Foundation grant number 1337/11, by a grant from the University of Chicago's Wisdom Research Project and the John Templeton Foundation, a grant by the National Science Foundation #1520074 to the University of Chicago, a grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreements: ERC‐StG‐637915), two grants by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PSI2014‐52181‐P; PSI2017‐84539‐P), a grant from the Catalan Government (SGR 2017‐268), and a grant from the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework (FP7/2007–2013 Cooperation Grant Agreement 613465‐AThEME). Joanna D. Corey was supported by a grant from the Catalan Government (FI‐DGR).

High quality relationships are essential to psychological health and well-being, and relational intimacy is a core feature of these relationships. Decades of research in relationship science have converged on a central model of intimacy wherein individuals develop close, trusting relationships with one another. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) is a contextual behavioral intervention approach that is well-equipped to target interpersonal processes through the provision of in-session, therapist mediated reinforcement of skillful intimate relating. Single-subject level analyses of FAP's efficacy and mechanism of action are supportive; however, there is a need for group-level research to evaluate its efficacy and generalizability. This paper presents the development of the Awareness, Courage, and Responsiveness Scale (ACRS), a self-report measure of behaviors essential to intimate relating informed by contextual behavioral science principles and Reis and Shaver's (1988) Intimacy Process Model. In this five-part study, functioning of the ACRS is examined in undergraduate student samples (Studies 1–3), an adult community sample (Study 3), non-clinical dyadic relationships (Study 4), and a transdiagnostic clinical sample (Study 5). Strengths and limitations of the final measure are discussed.

BackgroundRacial bias in medical care is a significant public health issue, with increased focus on microaggressions and the quality of patient-provider interactions. Innovations in training interventions are needed to decrease microaggressions and improve provider communication and rapport with patients of color during medical encounters.MethodsThis paper presents a pilot randomized trial of an innovative clinical workshop that employed a theoretical model from social and contextual behavioral sciences. The intervention specifically aimed to decrease providers’ likelihood of expressing biases and negative stereotypes when interacting with patients of color in racially charged moments, such as when patients discuss past incidents of discrimination. Workshop exercises were informed by research on the importance of mindfulness and interracial contact involving reciprocal exchanges of vulnerability and responsiveness. Twenty-five medical student and recent graduate participants were randomized to a workshop intervention or no intervention. Outcomes were measured via provider self-report and observed changes in targeted provider behaviors. Specifically, two independent, blind teams of coders assessed provideremotional rapportandresponsivenessduring simulated interracial patient encounters with standardized Black patients who presented specific racial challenges to participants.ResultsGreater improvements in observed emotional rapport and responsiveness (indexing fewer microaggressions), improved self-reported explicit attitudes toward minoritized groups, and improved self-reported working alliance and closeness with the Black standardized patients were observed and reported by intervention participants.ConclusionsMedical providers may be more likely to exhibit bias with patients of color in specific racially charged moments during medical encounters. This small-sample pilot study suggests that interventions that directly intervene to help providers improve responding in these moments by incorporating mindfulness and interracial contact may be beneficial in reducing racial health disparities.

The interpersonal process model (IPM) suggests that closeness develops in relationships when two people reciprocally engage in vulnerable self-disclosure, respond to each other, and perceive each other’s responses as validating, understanding, and caring (responsive). Little is known about how fear-of-intimacy relates to this foundational intimacy process. We conducted two studies of fear-of-intimacy and the IPM. In Study 1, 146 high fear-of-intimacy participants were randomly assigned to either interact for 1 hr with a research assistant (RA) demonstrating high responsiveness, to interact for 1 hr with an RA displaying low responsiveness, or to view a nature video for 1 hr. Unlike previous experiments with undergraduates documenting that high responsiveness predicts closeness up to 2 weeks after the interaction, the current study with high fear-of-intimacy individuals found that high responsiveness predicted closeness immediately after the interaction but this was not sustained over time. In Study 2, we conducted structural modeling in a diverse sample of 216 survey respondents with a range of fear-of-intimacy scores. Consistent with previous studies, perceived responsiveness strongly predicted closeness. Fear-of-intimacy had negative direct effects on vulnerable self-disclosure and perceived responsiveness but a positive direct effect on closeness.

The US has never been more divided politically. Polarization is notable on majority-liberal college campuses where conservatives feel outnumbered and marginalized. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of a half-day workshop to decrease polarization and improve closeness between conservatives and liberals at a majority-liberal college campus. Informed by political psychology and relationship science, the intervention employed exercises derived from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy to encourage identification of core beliefs and vulnerable discussions of deeper reasons for core political beliefs aimed at generating closeness and understanding between participants. Participants (N = 20) were assigned to 2 groups: one of mixed conservatives and liberals, and one of all liberals. All participants reported improvements in attitudes and hostility towards outgroup members from pre- to post-workshop, but only differences in relations with specific outgroup workshop participants were maintained at 1-month follow-up. Participants also reported arguing less than expected.

We explore the origin of the foreign language effect on moral judgements by assessing whether language context alters the weight given to intentions and outcomes during moral judgement. Specifically, we investigated whether foreign language contexts, compared with native ones, may lead people to focus more on the outcomes of an action and less on the intentions behind it. We report two studies in which participants read scenarios in which the actor’s intentions and the resulting consequences were manipulated. As previously shown, people considered both the actor’s intentions and the action’s outcomes when assessing the damage, cause, moral wrongness, responsibility, and punishment deserved. However, although the foreign language context reduced the impact of intentions on damage assessment, the overall effect of intention and outcomes on these variables was mainly the same in the foreign and the native language contexts. We conclude that differential weighting of intentions and outcomes is unlikely to account for the impact of foreign language use on moral judgement.

Though moral intuitions and choices seem fundamental to our core being, there is surprising new evidence that people resolve moral dilemmas differently when they consider them in a foreign language (Cipolletti et al., 2016; Costa et al., 2014a; Geipel et al., 2015): People are more willing to sacrifice 1 person to save 5 when they use a foreign language compared with when they use their native tongue. Our findings show that the phenomenon is robust across various contexts and that multiple factors affect it, such as the severity of the negative consequences associated with saving the larger group. This has also allowed us to better describe the phenomenon and investigate potential explanations. Together, our results suggest that the foreign language effect is most likely attributable to an increase in psychological distance and a reduction in emotional response. This research was partially funded by grants from the Spanish Government (PSI2011-23033, Consolider Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00048, and Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness PSI2014-52181-P), from the Catalan Government (SGR 2009-1521), from the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework (FP7/2007-2013 Cooperation grant agreement 613465-AThEME), from the John Templeton Foundation and the National Science Foundation #1520074 to the University of Chicago. Joanna D. Corey was supported by a grant from the Catalan Government (FI-DGR).

Published online: 22 January 2016 In this study we explore whether world knowledge (WK) processing differs between individuals listening to their native (L1) or their non-native (L2) language. We recorded event-related brain potentials in L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish while they listened to sentences uttered by native speakers of Spanish. Sentences were either congruent or incongruent with participants’ WK. In addition, participants also listened to sentences in which upcoming words could not be anticipated on the basis of WK. WK violations elicited a late negativity of greater magnitude and duration in the L2 than the L1 group. However, sentences in which WK was not helpful regarding word anticipation elicited similar N400 modulations in both groups. These results suggest that WK processing requires a deeper lexical search in L2 comprehension than in L1 comprehension This research was approved by the ethics committee of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance, which funded this study.We thank Silvia Blanch and Xavier Mayoral for their technical support, and Meritxell Ayguasanosa for assistance in testing participants. This research was funded by an FPI grant (BES-2012-056668) and two project grants (PSI2011-23033 and Consolider INGENIO CSD2007- 00012) awarded by the Spanish Government; by one grant from the Catalan Government (SGR 2009-1521); and by one grant from the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework (FP7/2007-2013 Cooperation grant agreement 613465-AThEME). C.D.M. is supported by the IKERBASQUE institution and the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language. A.C. is supported by the ICREA institution and the Center for Brain and Cognition.

Would you kill one person to save five? People are more willing to accept such utilitarian action when using a foreign language than when using their native language. In six experiments, we investigated why foreign-language use affects moral choice in this way. On the one hand, the difficulty of using a foreign language might slow people down and increase deliberation, amplifying utilitarian considerations of maximizing welfare. On the other hand, use of a foreign language might stunt emotional processing, attenuating considerations of deontological rules, such as the prohibition against killing. Using a process-dissociation technique, we found that foreign-language use decreases deontological responding but does not increase utilitarian responding. This suggests that using a foreign language affects moral choice not through increased deliberation but by blunting emotional reactions associated with the violation of deontological rules. This project was supported by grants from the John Templeton Foundation (37775), the National Science Foundation (1520074), the Spanish Government (PSI2011-23033, Consolider Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00048), the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PSI2014-52181-P), the Catalan Government (SGR 2009-1521), and the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework (FP7/2007-2013 Cooperation Grant Agreement 613465-AThEME). J. D. Corey was supported by a grant from the Catalan Government (FI-DGR). S. Hayakawa was supported by a Harper Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Chicago.