Objective
In Australia, the number of female psychologists is significantly larger than that of male psychologists. Due to gaps in the literature, it is difficult to establish whether such discrepancies affect mental health support seeking. The present study investigated the preferences of Australian respondents for the sex of a potential therapist and whether the accommodation of such preferences affects mental health support seeking.
Method
The study employed a mixed design online survey analysed using multiple linear and multinomial logistic regressions and used a convenience sample of N = 456 Australian participants recruited via social media. Demographics, preferences for therapists' sex, problem type, and likelihood to seek help if preferences for therapists' sex were accommodated or not were collected via an online questionnaire. Analyses included tests for group differences and regressions.
Results
Male respondents reported lower baseline likelihood to seek mental health support than female respondents. A main effect of sex of respondent on preferences for therapists' sex was found, but no main effect of problem type on preferences for therapists' sex was evident. Finally, accommodating preferences for therapists' sex was a significant predictor of mental health support seeking.
Conclusion
It is prudent to encourage the monitoring and accommodation of clients' preferences of therapists' sex. Additionally, more males could be encouraged to enter the mental health professions. The results of the current study may inform education and health policy. Future research could further explore the effects of occupation and problem type on preferences for therapists' sex and help‐seeking.
Increasingly higher demands are being made on the capacity-limited cognitive capabilities of human operators as they strive to maintain situation awareness (i.e., understanding "what is going on") and performance in complex tasks. In the current study we asked whether: (a) training administered via a mobile phone-based app could improve multitasking and (b) improved multitasking in the app would generalize to improved performance and situation awareness in a simulated air traffic control task (ATC). Participants completed the ATC task before and after multiple sessions of app-based multitasking training or control training. Multitasking on the app improved across training sessions. However, this did not lead to improved performance or situation awareness, or workload reduction, relative to control training on the ATC task. These outcomes indicate that app-based multitasking training based on repetition of a single training task will not necessarily yield generalizable benefits to human performance in other complex dynamic tasks.
The number of legal systems in the Asia Pacific that conduct jury trials is growing. Although, there is evidence corroborating the suitability of jury trials for achieving justice, research also highlights problematic aspects. Eye witness testimony at jury trials, in particular, raises a number of potential issues which include the continuing influence of retracted witness testimony, potentially unsuitable interview techniques, insufficient differentiation between recall and recognition and potential juror prejudice. The problem of withdrawn testimony is considered in relation to the well-researched concept of the continued influence effect. Options for minimisation of the continued influence effect based on the event model concept are explored, for instance, by offering a coherent alternative explanation instead of a simple withdrawal of the testimony. Further discussion explores how concomitant factors affect the severity of the continuing influence of retracted testimony. One such factor is the potential for juror prejudice due to ethnic differences between the accused, witnesses, and jurors. The subject of juror prejudice is examined in the context of the intergroup contact hypothesis and research on indirect and vicarious intergroup contact. Moreover, options to improve the quality of testimonies and to avoid retractions in the first place are discussed. Several research-based recommendations are provided and possible actions are suggested for ameliorating the problems discussed.
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