Picture Choice Research Articles

Ultra-Brief Breath Counting (Mindfulness) Training Abolishes Negative Affect–Induced Alcohol Motivation in Hazardous Community Drinkers

ObjectivesMindfulness therapy improves drinking outcomes arguably by attenuating negative mood–induced drinking, but this mechanism has not been demonstrated in hazardous community drinkers. To address this, three studies tested whether a key ingredient of mindfulness, breath counting, would attenuate the increase in motivation for alcohol produced by experimentally induced negative mood, in hazardous community drinkers.MethodIn three studies, hazardous community drinkers were randomized to receive either a 6-min breath counting training or listen to a recited extract from a popular science book, before all participants received a negative mood induction. Motivation for alcohol was measured before and after listening to either the breath counting training or the control audio files, with a craving questionnaire in two online studies (n = 122 and n = 111), or an alcohol versus food picture choice task in a pub context in one in-person study (n = 62).ResultsIn Study 1, breath counting reduced alcohol craving. However, since the mood induction protocol did not increase craving, the effect of breath counting in reversing such increase could not be demonstrated. Online breath counting eliminated the increase in alcohol craving induced by negative mood (Study 2) and eliminated the stress-induced increase in alcohol picture choice in the pub environment (Study 3).ConclusionsBriefly trained breath counting attenuated negative mood–induced alcohol motivation in hazardous community drinkers. These results suggest that breath counting is a reliable and practical method for reducing the impact of negative emotional triggers on alcohol motivation.PreregistrationThese studies are not preregistered.

Generational Differences in WeChat Avatars: Transmutation of Identity Symbols in China's Generation X and Generation Z

With the internet development in China, social media is becoming more and more popular, and many older people are beginning to use social media. Thus, a generation gap regarding identities on social media begins to appear. In this article, the author focuses on the generation gap in WeChat profile pictures between Generation Z and Generation X. The author uses Netnography and in-depth interviews to examine and analyze the differences between the WeChat profile pictures and the reasons behind ones choice of social media profile pictures of the two generations. The author categorizes the sampled WeChat profile pictures based on the nine cultural spheres and analyzes the differences and their causes based on the cultural spheres. Dramaturgy, identity symbols, developmental psychology, and history are being used to analyze the reasons behind these differences. This study reveals how the introduction of foreign culture into China and identity symbols influence the choice of profile pictures for Gen Z and Gen X.

Comprehension of Existential There-Constructions by Korean Learners of English

This study addresses the lack of comprehension data in second language acquisition research by focusing on English existential there-constructions (ETCs) with a locative extension (e.g., there is an X on the Y). The post-copular noun X used in the present study consisted of two types: actual and nonsense. Participants included 40 native speakers, as well as 40 advanced and 40 intermediate Korean learners of English, who completed an online picture selection task. In one picture, X was placed on the nearby Y; in another picture, X was placed on the far Y. The choice of both pictures was the correct response because ETCs are used to describe the existence of something regardless of its distance. There was a statistically significant relationship between English proficiency and the interpretation of ETCs. However, there was no relationship between the noun type and the interpretation of ETCs. In the Korean English curriculum, the distinction between expletive there and locative there must be emphasized.

Gender-Specific Marketing Strategies Used by Sports Supplements

While the use of sports supplements is common among athletes and active adults, the marketing strategies used by these sports supplement manufacturers remain unknown—especially relative to active and athletic women. This descriptive study aims to describe marketing strategies used, such as color choices, structure function claims, and picture choice, and analyze if there are gender-specific differences within the strategies. A total of 100 best-selling sports supplements were selected from three separate third-party websites. Food products, accessories, and kitchen appliances were excluded. Supplement main webpages and sports supplement-specific webpages were explored to determine which marketing strategies were used and if there were gender-specific differences. Of 169 sports supplement webpages reviewed, only 23.1% (n=39) included pictures that were only/majority female. Only 7.1% (n=12) of supplement bottles used feminine colors, while for supplement pages, only 8.3% (n=14) utilized feminine colors and 43.2% (n=73) used masculine colors. While the number of women athletes continues to grow, sports supplement manufacturers are not using strategies targeted to women. Future research should examine the reasons for this discrepancy and women’s perceptions of purchasing sports supplements targeted to men.

Dialectical Behavior Group Therapy for Adolescents and Parents: Analysis of Answer Entropy

Introduction: The work’s purpose is to study the group behavior of the members of six therapeutic groups, two closed and four slow-open, involved in a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) class. We studied three groups of teenagers and three of their parents or legal guardians. We confronted the groups’ responses to an “absurd questionnaire” submitted during the training, and we concentrated on the entropy of the response. Methods: The research method consists of a questionnaire administered to training attendees. Participants chose one picture in each one of 50 couples (“absurd questionnaire”). In this work, we could propose a questionnaire to each trainee before the first meeting of the groups. We studied the longitudinal evolution of entropy, and we also compared the six groups according to their first picture choices and their evolution, the changes in the choices, the number of changes (flux), and the divergence or convergence toward the initial answer (focus). We have also analyzed the frequency of entropy variation via the Fourier transform. Results: We find the maximum statistical difference between parents’ and adolescents’ closed groups. The entropy trend is steeper in the adolescent closed group. The entropy evolution depends more on the age group (parents or adolescents) in closed and slow-open groups than on the setting. We found an increase in entropy from the beginning to the end of the training in all the groups. Conclusions: The clear outcome of this study is the augmentation in entropy in all the groups regardless of the settings (closed or slow-open) and possibly a similar entropy’s dominant oscillation frequency, that is, the number of complete cycles in the training interval, regardless of the type of group and the training duration.

Slow Open Dialectical Behavior Group Therapy for Adolescents and Parents: Comparison between Groups

Introduction: The study’s objective is to explore the common behavior of the participants in four slow open groups taking part in a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training. The experiment population consisted of two groups of adolescents and two of some of their parents or legal guardians. We compared the groups via their answers to the “absurd questionnaire” during the training sessions. Methods: the participants had to select one image in each of 50 pairs in a questionnaire (“absurd questionnaire”). In this experiment, we were able to administer a version of the questionnaire to the participants before forming the groups. We analyzed the differences between the four groups, considering their initial picture choices and how these evolved, the changes in the choices, the flux, and the answers’ focus. Results: The presence of a questionnaire administered before the group experience allows us to distinguish between socio-cultural orientation and group effects. A strong orientation precedes the group formation, is partially lost during the group activity and is eventually recovered at the end of the group work. In addition, there are apparent similarities between the same age groups (parents and adolescents), while family ties seem to play a lesser role in shaping the group’s behavior. Conclusions: The slow-open setting appears to render the groups more susceptible to the external environment. While we can observe the formation of a group identity distinguishable from the “clan loyalty” via a decrease in the initial orientation, this is short-lived, and the external environment asserts its eventual dominance. Family ties are less effective than generational kinship in shaping the groups’ behavior.

When the mainstream takes over: political magazines’ attempts to cultivate alternativeness in Finland

ABSTRACT Finland belongs to the few European countries that have kept alive their party press, but during the past five years, the shrinking party press, one party by one, has changed formats from newspapers to a combination of magazines and websites. These political voices, ranging from conservative to communist, are intriguingly contradictory, as they have moved to the web with support from the magazine, one of the oldest media forms. Finland thus provides an ‘end result’ of a problem met by many European mediascapes today: what is the role of ideological journalism in a situation that prefers speed and topicality? A magazine could provide more space for alternativeness in the forms of time axis, feature style and personal views. However, based on the present study’s findings, a change of format does not seem to be the solution. Parties have continued the practice of replacing journalism by marketing communication in a desperate effort to try to develop ‘something different’. The six party journals examined in this study can be divided into two groups, but in fact, all their expression modes tend to repeat mainstream neutralism. Their ideological markers are limited to choice of themes, interviewees and pictures—and during the research project, one of the most independent-sounding voices shifted to a quarterly.

The Effectiveness of Peace Education Program on the Preschoolers’ Social Behaviour in the Sultanate of Oman

Purpose – This research aims to measure the effects of the peace education program on the social and emotional behaviours of preschool children in the Sultanate of Oman. Children should be equipped with basic values, such as respecting the efforts and ideas of others, forming a comprehensive and positive relationship with people, possessing the skills of empathy, and resolving conflicts in peaceful ways.Design/methods/approach – The researcher adopted the quasi-experimental approach, and the current study presented the Peace Education Program (PEP) for children aged 4–6 years in the Sultanate of Oman. The participants consisted of 40 children in the experimental group and 40 children in the control group. The researcher used a scale with picture choice questions containing two pictures per question to measure the behaviours of children before and after the treatments. The peace education program for the study also included 28 training sessions that were presented for 15 weeks at a duration of one hour per session.Findings – The current study results also favoured the experimental group, as an improvement in their social behaviour was observed after joining the program.Research implications/limitations – The research demonstrates that peace is a key prerequisite for developing a balanced life, especially in childhood. The results may be of great significance in measuring and improving children's behaviour through (PEP).Practical implications – The study findings may likely be fruitful to Oman's pupils, educators, curriculum designers, and educational policy-makers.Originality/value – This study has been successful in focusing on some aspects of growth and behaviour enhancement in children.
 Paper type Research paper

Brief Negative Affect Focused Functional Imagery Training Abolishes Stress-Induced Alcohol Choice in Hazardous Student Drinkers.

Introduction Imagery-based stress management therapies are effective at reducing alcohol use. To explore the therapeutic mechanism, the current study tested whether brief functional imagery training linked to personal negative affect drinking triggers would attenuate sensitivity to noise stress-induced alcohol seeking behaviour in a laboratory model. Methods Participants were UK-based hazardous student drinkers (N = 61, 80.3% women, aged 18–25) who reported drinking to cope with negative affect. Participants in the active intervention group (n = 31) were briefly trained to respond to personal negative drinking triggers by retrieving an adaptive strategy to mitigate negative affect, whereas participants in the control group (n = 30) received risk information about binge drinking at university. The relative value of alcohol was then measured by preference to view alcohol versus food pictures in two-alternative choice trials, before (baseline) and during noise stress induction. Results There was a significant two-way interaction (p < .04) where the control group increased their alcohol picture choice from baseline to the noise stress test (p < .001), whereas the active intervention group did not (p=.33), and the control group chose alcohol more frequently than the active group in the stress test (p=.03), but not at baseline (p=.16). Conclusions These findings indicate that imagery-based mood management can protect against the increase in the relative value of alcohol motivated by acute stress in hazardous negative affect drinkers, suggesting this mechanism could underpin the therapeutic effect of mood management on drinking outcomes.

The integrity of underlying phonological representations of Greek-speaking children with speech sound disorders

ABSTRACT Underlying representations are important for the development of spoken and written language. English-speaking children with speech sound disorders (SSD) have been reported to show significant difficulty with tasks tapping phonological representations. The present study describes the development of a task for the assessment of phonological representations in Greek-speaking children. The purpose of the study is twofold: to investigate the development of phonological representation in typically developing (TD) Greek-speaking children and to explore the possibility that children with SSD may have insufficiently defined phonological representations. Greek-speaking preschool aged children (4;0–5;5 years) with SSD receiving intervention (N = 20) were compared to their typically developing peers (N = 80) on their ability to complete a task of real-word auditory discrimination with picture choice. Performance differences were assessed across segmental properties and variation in word structure. TD children aged 4;0–4;5 scored lower than older TD children. A marginally significant difference in performance was found between children with SSD and TD controls. Quantitative analysis of mistakes indicated that children with SSD and TD children aged 4;0–4;5 opt for the phonological distractor. Stimuli tapping on the specification of underlying representations at a segmental level were more taxing compared to stimuli tapping on the integrity of stored word structures. Task materials and procedures used in the present study provide preliminary normative data and may be used for the assessment of Greek-speaking children with SSD. Children with SSD are at risk of developing underspecified phonological representations and therefore should receive assessment of underlying representations to guide intervention.

Analyzing Personality through Social Media Profile Picture Choice

The content of images users post to their social media is driven in part by personality. In this study, we analyze how Twitter profile images vary with the personality of the users posting them. In our main analysis, we use profile images from over 66,000 users whose personality we estimate based on their tweets. To facilitate interpretability, we focus our analysis on aesthetic and facial features and control for demographic variation in image features and personality. Our results show significant differences in profile picture choice between personality traits, and that these can be harnessed to predict personality traits with robust accuracy. For example, agreeable and conscientious users display more positive emotions in their profile pictures, while users high in openness prefer more aesthetic photos.

Slow Open Dialectical Behavior Group Therapy for Adolescents and Parents: Longitudinal Study of Unconscious Orientation

Introduction: The study’s objective is to explore the existence and the evolution of common behavior of the participants to four slow open groups taking part in a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training. Two groups were composed of adolescents and two of their respective parents. We analyzed their evolution via the answers to the “absurd” questionnaire. Methods: The “absurd questionnaire,” composed of 50 pairs of images, was administered to the participants who had to choose one image from each pair. In this experiment, we were able to submit a version of the questionnaire to the participants before forming the groups. We have analyzed their initial picture choices and how these evolved, considering the changes in the choices, the differences in the four groups, the flux, and the answers’ focus. Results: In the four groups, we found statistical evidence that both the pictures’ initial choices and their evolution during the training are not simply governed by randomness. The initial picture choice in each pair is highly skewed toward one of the two pictures in each pair. We compare the longitudinal evolution of the picture’s choice in the four groups. Conclusions: The results show that the answers to the questions are strongly polarized already before the groups convene, revealing an initial socio-cultural bias. The group environment causes relaxation of this strong initial bias and subsequent recovery. This relaxation could indicate the formation of a “group continuum,” coming from the entanglement of individuals’ psyches, creating a group entity having its own identity. In the slow-open groups, the participants are mainly subject to clan loyalties.

RE leader connectedness: a theology of the lived reality of Catholic education

ABSTRACT The relationships between RE leaders in Catholic education and their schools and their religious communities may be ambiguous. RE leaders often appear disconnected from both ‘ordinary’ teacher issues and ‘ordinary’ leadership issues because of their religious responsibilities. In this innovative research project, the authors have explored RE leader connectedness and disconnectedness in Catholic schools around the world. Visual research methods are used, as respondents make use of artistic representations of both connectedness and disconnectedness, to describe (by explaining their choice of picture) the nature of their connectedness. Responses from Australia, Hong Kong in China, the USA, the UK and Germany are presented here, generating an initial account of the lived reality of RE leaders in Catholic schooling systems. Responses range from those who seem to integrate their accountabilities to school and church systems to those who seem more ‘torn’ between those systems and disconnected from one or both of school and church. The authors suggest this has implications for practical-empirical theology, and education more generally, based on the idea of the ‘bi-dimensionality’ of the RE leader role in Catholic schools, and on the role of the school in Catholic theology which, according to D’Souza, ‘cannot help but be one of the intersecting points where the problems and challenges of society are encountered’

Drug dealers gone digital: using signalling theory to analyse criminal online personas and trust

ABSTRACT Online and digital platforms play a central role in today’s illegal activities and related networks. Communicating through these channels makes creating an online criminal identity crucial to establish oneself as trustworthy and meet the needs of potential buyers, especially when reaching out to strangers in a market. A highly needed skill is balancing the signals of attracting wanted attention and of avoiding possible risks. This article explores how social media drug dealers present themselves in 173 Facebook profiles. The analysis of these online criminal personas is applied in two stages: a) a broader content analysis of the profile content and b) by using signalling theory to understand the overall visual presentation of these online criminal personas. I find that sellers fall into three main persona types: the professional dealer, private dealer, and cultural dealer. These personas signal trust in different ways through their choice of pictures, text, and personal information.

Patient Experience Research in Children and Young People's Mental Health Services in England: A Route to Genuine Service Transformation or Just Pretty Pictures and Tasteful Color Schemes?

The personalization of service provision and responding to patients’ expressed needs are key components of government plans to improve children and young people’s mental health services in England. This qualitative study explored the use of patient experience research in these services. Despite national level commitments to listening to and acting on the “patient’s voice,” both service users (young people) and parents of this group reported never having been invited to participate in patient experience research. Most professional respondents reported that such research was frequently tokenistic and conducted solely to meet an administrative requirement. Senior policy makers justified the limited investment in, and use made of patient experience research, by pointing to what they felt were more urgent priorities facing children and young people’s mental health services. These included unprecedented levels of demand and critical underfunding of mental health services and related youth- and community-based services. The conceptualization of patient experience research within the National Health Service (NHS) as a service improvement issue was found to have led to its status being diminished to one concerned with relatively cosmetic matters, such as the color scheme or choice of pictures on the walls of clinics. Senior policy makers argued that it was important to rethink the role and value of patient experience research, and to recognize its unique contribution to addressing the existential questions facing services.

Research on Color Space Perceptions and Restorative Effects of Blue Space Based on Color Psychology: Examination of the Yijie District of Dujiangyan City as an Example.

An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that blue space can promote the recovery of the human body, as does green space. However, the influence of blue space on the color space has been studied much less. Based on research on color psychology and healthy cities, the current study takes Yijie District of Dujiangyan City as the research object. Logistic regression models and the semantic differential method was used to explore residents’ perceptions of color space and their restorative ratings of blue space. This study describes the characteristics of the people visiting blue space, investigates whether the benefits brought about by blue space are related to the color space, and studies whether the surrounding colors in the blue space have a positive effect in promoting residents’ perceptions of pleasure. Based on residents’ choices of environmental pictures containing various colors, a color tendency map was constructed. The results revealed strong correlations between residents’ perceived pleasure and color space color collocation. Socio-demographic factors were found to affect the frequency of visiting blue space. Reasonable color planning is necessary for human health. Based on the study findings, relevant planning suggestions are proposed as a reference basis for waterfront space color planning.

Does a Smile Matter if the Person Is Not Real?: The Effect of a Smile and Stock Photos on Persona Perceptions

ABSTRACT We analyze the effect of using smiling/non-smiling and stock photo/non-stock photo pictures in persona profiles on four key persona perceptions, including credibility, likability, similarity, and willingness to use. For this, we collect data from an experiment with 2,400 participants using a 16-item survey instrument and multiple persona profile treatments of which half have a smiling photo/stock photo and half do not. The results from structural equation modeling, supplemented by a qualitative analysis, show that a smile enhances the perceived similarity with the persona, similar personas are more liked, and that likability increases the willingness to use a persona. In contrast, the use of stock photos decreases the perceived similarity with the persona as well as persona credibility, both of which are significant predictors to a willingness to use a persona. These professionally crafted stock-photos seem to diminish the sense of identification with the persona. The above effects are consistent across the tested ages, genders, and races of the persona picture, although the effect sizes tend to be small. The results suggest that persona creators should use smiling pictures of real people to evoke positive perceptions toward the personas. In addition to presenting quantitative evidence on the predictors of willingness to use a persona, our research has implications for the design of persona profiles, showing that the picture choice influences individuals’ persona perceptions even when the other persona information is identical.

Cross-Linguistic Variation in the Meaning of Quantifiers: Implications for Pragmatic Enrichment.

One of the most studied scales in the literature on scalar implicatures is the quantifier scale. While the truth of some is entailed by the truth of all, some is felicitous only when all is false. This opens the possibility that some would be felicitous if, e.g., almost all of the objects in the restriction of the quantifier have the property ascribed by the nuclear scope. This prediction from the standard theory of quantifier interpretation clashes with native speakers’ intuitions. In Experiment 1 we report a questionnaire study on the perception of quantifier meanings in English, French, Slovenian, and German which points to a cross-linguistic variation with respect to the perception of numerical bounds of the existential quantifier. In Experiment 2, using a picture choice task, we further examine whether the numerical bound differences correlate with differences in pragmatic interpretations of the quantifier some in English and quelques in French and interpret the results as supporting our hypothesis that some and its cross-linguistic counterparts are subjected to different processes of pragmatic enrichment.

Stress Response and Appetite Regulation in Overweight and Normal-Weight Young Men: Preliminary Data

Stress has been related to alterations in eating behavior, but only a few studies have been focused on how overweight can modulate the way individuals cope with stress, including appetite and food preference assessment. Our study examines the differences in psychological, hormonal, and cardiovascular response to acute stress between young healthy men with overweight and with normal-weight, in comparison with a control situation. After experimental manipulation, the motivational drivers to different types of food were evaluated using a picture choice task. Results suggest that men with overweight show a buffered stress response of salivary cortisol and lower recovery in heart rate variability with respect to normal-weight participants. Additionally, stress favored an appetite for high-fat sweet aliments, but only in the normal-weight men, and not in participants with overweight. The results also suggest a loop between stress and food appetite, with men with overweight showing a deficit in adaptive coping with acute stress and changes in appetite for high-fat sweet aliments after stress. Further research is needed to confirm whether certain profiles of stress response can be considered as early signs of obesity risk from a preventive view.

An Update and Generalization of Group Unconscious Orientation in OMIE1 Group Training for Therapists

Introduction: This paper presents an update of a previous study we conducted to explore the presence and behavior of a common orientation among the participants to a group training for therapists via their answers to an “absurd questionnaire”. Having measured a second class of trainees during their training, we are able to compare the results with those obtained by the first measurement. Methods: As in the previous study, during the training we have submitted to the trainees 11 questionnaires composed of 50 pairs of images asking them to choose one image from each pair. We have then analyzed their initial picture choices and how they evolved over time. We also present the analysis of the combined data of both experiments. Results: In both experiments we found statistical evidence that both the initial choices of the pictures and their evolution during the training are not simply governed by randomness. The initial picture choice in each pair is highly skewed toward one of the two pictures, and there is a statistically significant change in the picture choice in the first part of the training in both experiments. Conclusions: The results could be interpreted as a manifestation of group dynamics postulated by Bion with his “basic assumptions”. We see patterns that suggest an initial “honey moon” (dependence from the leader) followed by a “fight-flight” attitude (frustrated dependence from the leader) and finally a “mourning” of the group and of the training experience. In spite of some statistically significant differences between the two experiment, the behavior is largely compatible. Bion himself used to say that “as you never bath yourself twice in the same river, you never enter twice the same group”, being every human assembly unique and singular.