Does the alliance cause good outcome? Recommendations for future research on the alliance.

Research has consistently documented that the quality of the therapeutic alliance is related to the outcome of diverse psychotherapies. Insufficient attention, however, has been directed at identifying the nature and magnitude of the causal relationship between the alliance and outcome. In this commentary, we discuss the major threats to causal interpretation of alliance-outcome correlations and provide suggestions for future research that would help clarify the extent to which the alliance causes positive outcomes. Assuming the alliance is a causal factor in relation to outcome, we provide recommendations for research on the alliance that would attempt to improve patient care by enhancing the alliance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect intensity and cardiac arousal.

Investigated in 3 experiments the relationships between affect intensity and basal, evoked, and perceived cardiac arousal. Affect intensity was assessed using R. J. Larsen and E. Diener's (1987) Affect Intensity Measure (AIM). Cardiac arousal was evoked with exercise in the 1st study and with mental arithmetic in the 2nd and 3rd. Perceived cardiac arousal was measured under optimal conditions using a standard heartbeat discrimination procedure. Women as a group scored higher on the AIM. Affect intensity was unrelated to basal or evoked cardiac arousal and was negatively related to perceived cardiac arousal in all 3 studies. Data suggest that affect intensity, although unrelated to actual physiological arousal, is negatively related to the accuracy with which individuals perceive their own arousal. Results are discussed within the context of an expanded arousal-regulation model (J. Blascovich, 1990). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correlation of vibrational intensity with fluorescence lifetimes in π conjugated polymers

A series of novel pi (π) conjugated polymers, originating from the archetypical Polyphenylene vinylene, in which the phenyl units are successively replaced by the larger naphthyl and anthryl acene units, were previously found to have a well-defined relationship between their relative fluorescence yields and their vibrational characteristics, as determined by Raman spectroscopy. In this study the Strickler-Berg equation is used to probe the influence of continual substitution of higher order acene units into the conjugated backbone in terms of the variation of the radiative and non-radiative rates. The deconvolution of the radiative and non-radiative rates enables the correlation of the reduction of the Raman intensity and concomitant increase in the fluorescence yield with the reduction of the non-radiative rate. This confirms that the reduction of the non-radiative rate is the dominant process introduced by the vibrational confinement originating from systematic substitution of higher order acene units into the polymer backbone.     

Estrogen effects on the hyperactivity induced by (+)-MDMA and cocaine in female rats.

This study compared the effects of estrogen (E) on the hyperactivity induced by (+)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) with E effects on cocaine-evoked hyperactivity in female rats. Sprague-Dawley rats were ovariectomized (OVX); half of them received a 17β-estradiol (E?) implant (OVX + E). Three weeks later, rats received saline, (+)-MDMA (1, 2, or 4 mg/kg) or cocaine (5, 10, or 20 mg/kg), and locomotor activity was monitored. OVX + E rats exhibited greater locomotor hyperactivity in response to both psychostimulants than did OVX rats. The enhanced response to cocaine appeared within 5 min following drug injection whereas the enhanced response to (+)-MDMA was delayed for approximately 30 min. The differential effects of E on hyperactivity may be due to the unique profiles of dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-HT) in response to (+)-MDMA and cocaine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linking of serially ordered lists by macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta): List position influences.

Five monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were trained on 2 sets of 3 5-item serially ordered lists. Then, each set was either linked or not in a counterbalanced, within-subject design. Linking entailed training on the 2 pairs that ordered the 3 5-item fists into a single overall 15-item series. Choices on novel pairings after linking conditions attempted to define the unique contributions of knowledge of within-list ordinal position and between-lists link training. With linkage, the series was immediately treated as a 15-item ordered list. Without linkage, choices reflected list positions from initial learning, but continued testing with directional reward yielded gradual ordering into a 15-itern list. Apparently, monkeys remembered and used initial list-position information, but linkage allowed inference of an integrated serial relationship among items. Results supported primate list memory as an organizational process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dietary disinhibition, perceived stress, and glucose control in young, Type 1 diabetic women.

Examining the relationship of stress, dietary disinhibition, and blood glucose control in diabetic young women was the goal of this study. 65 diabetic girls and women, ranging in age from 12 to 26 yrs, completed eating behaviors and perceived stress scales during regular clinic visits. Blood glucose control was assessed by concurrent glycosylated hemoglobin measurements. Multiple regression analyses indicated that high levels of perceived stress predicted dietary disinhibition and that within the age range studied, young women were more likely than early adolescent girls to perceive their life as stressful. Contrary to previous findings that failed to show that stress can indirectly affect glucose control by interfering with compliance behaviors, the present work indicated a Stress?×?Dietary Disinhibition interaction in predicting glucose control. Blood glucose control was poorest in those diabetic women who both perceived their lives as stressful and reported medium to high disinhibition. Blood glucose control was unrelated to stress in young women who reported low levels of disinhibition. These results have implications for the development of specific interventions for young diabetic women who perceive their lives as stressful and who may respond to stress by eating. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Convoys of social support in childhood and early adolescence: Structure and function.

Little is known about social networks in childhood, and even less is known about the networks of ethnically diverse children. Interviews were conducted with 333 African-American, Anglo/European-American, and Hispanic-American public school children in Grades 1–2, 4–5, and 8–9. The research was based on the social convoy model (R. L. Kahn and T. C. Antonucci, 1980), in which social networks are viewed as dynamic hierarchic structures affording the provision of support across the life span. An adapted convoy mapping procedure evidenced good test–retest reliability at all ages, and convoy support measures were associated with self-concept and teacher-rated sociability and mood. For all ethnic groups, the results reflect the significance of close family relations across age, an increase in involvement with extended family in middle-childhood, and the emergent role of peers as support providers in adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical familiarity and processing efficiency: Individual differences in naming, lexical decision, and semantic categorization.

College students were separated into 2 groups (high and low) on the basis of 3 measures: subjective familiarity ratings of words, self-reported language experiences, and a test of vocabulary knowledge. Three experiments were conducted to determine if the groups also differed in visual word naming, lexical decision, and semantic categorization. High Ss were consistently faster than low Ss in naming visually presented words. They were also faster and more accurate in making difficult lexical decisions and in rejecting homophone foils in semantic categorization. Taken together, the results demonstrate that Ss who differ in lexical familiarity also differ in processing efficiency. The relationship between processing efficiency and working memory accounts of individual differences in language processing is also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Primate research, family politics, and social policy: Transforming "cads" into "dads."

The ideology of fatherhood, as it is defined in Western, industrialized culture, assumes that fathers are biologically predisposed to be relatively uninvolved in infant care. This article summarizes recent revisions of both primate research and sociobiological theory. These new perspectives on male parenting behavior shift the focus from a narrow emphasis on the genetic relationship between male primates and their offspring to a broader focus that includes multiple social, demographic, and ecological variables. This paradigm underlines the behavioral flexibility, rather than the behavioral fixity, of male parenting behaviors. The relevance of this new theoretical consensus for social policy that could strengthen fathers' relationships with their children is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)