Toward a further understanding of assent

Arranging assent opportunities is an increasingly common strategy for involving clients in therapeutic decisions within behavior analysis. Recent behavior-analytic articles have helped create a basic behavioral definition and conceptualization of assent, but much more guidance is needed for practitioners and researchers interested in embedding assent into their practices. The purpose of this article is to advance the conceptualization and understanding of assent and assent practices by refining previous definitions and conceptualizations of assent and providing six essential considerations for embedding assent into practice. The six considerations consist of determining the applicability and feasibility of assent, assessing assent-related skills, arranging assent procedures and teaching assent-related skills, arranging fair choices, selecting opportunities to assess assent, and informally assessing assent. Following the discussion of the considerations for assent practices, we issue a call for specific topics of research on assent.     

Taking stock of youth organizing: an interdisciplinary perspective

Youth organizing combines elements of community organizing, with its emphasis on ordinary people working collectively to advance shared interests, and positive youth development, with its emphasis on asset-based approaches to working with young people. It is expanding from an innovative, but marginal approach to youth and community development into a more widely recognized model for practice among nonprofit organizations and foundations. Along the way, it has garnered attention from researchers interested in civic engagement, social movements, and resiliency. A growing body of published work evidences the increasing interest of researchers, who have applied an assortment of theoretical perspectives to their observations of youth organizing processes. Through an appraisal of the current state of this still-emerging area of practice and research, including case examples, the authors identify common elements of the practice of youth organizing--relationship development, popular education, social action, and participatory research and evaluation--and conclude with a discussion of promising future directions for research and practice.     

Social anxiety mediates the effect of autism spectrum disorder characteristics on hostility in young adults

Problems with social anxiety are frequently reported in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It is possible that social anxiety, when present, exacerbates the experience of hostility and other forms of aggression in relation to ASD symptoms. This study sought to determine if social anxiety symptoms mediate the relationship between features of ASD and feelings of hostility in young adults. Self-report measures of social anxiety, ASD, and facets of aggression were collected in a non-clinical sample (n = 618) of college students. Social anxiety was found to partially mediate the relationship between ASD features and self-reported hostility. There was also evidence for inconsistent mediation, such that social anxiety dampened the strength of the relationship between ASD symptoms and verbal and physical aggression. Findings highlight the potential influence of associated psychiatric symptoms in people with ASD. In addition, dimensional conceptualization of ASD symptoms, as opposed to a categorical approach solely, may be a useful approach to studying complex personality processes.     

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Abstract

Social comparisons in a real intergroup context involving Anglophones and Francophones from Quebec, Canada, were examined. Three hypotheses were proposed: A variety of potential comparisons arise in an intergroup context, three different motivations for social comparison in an intergroup situation (reality testing, group enhancement, equity appeal) are associated with predictably different targets for comparison, and social comparisons are linked to feelings and actions. Some support for all three hypotheses was found. We suggest that the major dilemmas confronting social comparison theory could be approached more effectively if researchers studying comparisons at the individual level and those interested in intergroup comparisons worked more in concert.     

Empirical Support for the Critical Assumptions of Empowerment Theory

This exploratory case study provides empirical support for three critical assumptions of empowerment theory. Many empowerment theorists have argued that empowerment takes on multiple forms across people, is contextually embedded, and shifts over time (Rappaport, 1984; Zimmerman, 1990, 1995). To better understand the implications of these assumptions for empowerment theory and the research and intervention methods we employ, the empowerment experiences of 49 employees within a large human service delivery organization were explored. A method well suited to investigate empowerment's assumptions of multiplicity and dynamism—a constructivist approach to inquiry—was employed. Content analyses of interview and observational data revealed that the process of empowerment may be more complex than originally conceived. Not only did multiple meanings and desires for empowerment emerge across employees and between employees and leaders, but several shifting ecologies impacted the employees' lives, causing the employees' empowerment experiences to fluctuate. Empowerment emerged as a dynamic, highly individualistic, contextually layered process. Multiple forms, contexts, and dynamics that influenced employee empowerment are described. Implications of these findings for empowerment research and intervention are discussed.     

Cultural sensitivity: Problems and solutions in applied and preventive intervention

Applied and preventive intervention research must consider cultural diversity as a matter of course, not only for reasons of social justice, ethical acceptability, and effectiveness, but given major historical and demographic changes in the United States. This article raises several issues commonly encountered in such research—from key conceptual issues surrounding the construct of race, ethnicity, culture, and minority status, to the conceptualization, design, recruitment, measurement, delivery, data analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of an intervention—and suggests possible solutions aimed at fostering genuine cultural sensitivity while satisfying the demands of rigorous scientific inquiry. This article is not a guide to the do's and don'ts of cultural sensitivity, but rather an attempt to stimulate discussion in an area that should be of concern to all psychologists interested in applied and preventive intervention.     

Culture and empowerment in the Deaf community: An analysis of internet weblogs

Although deafness is traditionally conceptualized as a medical problem or disability, about 500 000 deaf people in the United States identify as members of an ethno‐linguistic minority that takes pride in being Deaf. This study examined 416 Internet weblog posts authored by nine Deaf bloggers to describe aspects of Deaf culture and individual and community level empowerment strategies expressed in weblogs. Results highlight aspects of American Deaf culture, such as the value placed on American Sign Language and equal treatment of D/deaf and hearing people. Findings also provide evidence of expressions of Deaf culture such as the use of humour and supporting the community that have been less emphasized in previous literature. Community level empowerment strategies evident in posts included disseminating information, rallying the involvement of members and advocating for social justice. Overlap between expressions of Deaf culture and empowerment strategies were also found. Present results inform a growing literature on empowerment strategies that occur without intervention by professionals. Implications of the study for community research and action are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychological situations illuminate the meaning of human behavior: Recent advances and application to social influence processes

Psychologists have long sought to understand how people experience, think, and communicate about situations. Psychology's protracted journey toward understanding psychological situations recently took a momentous turn toward more rigorous conceptualization and measurement of situational characteristics along multiple dimensions. We provide a selective review of recent developments in research on psychological situations and highlight the value that these recent contributions deliver for researchers interested in human cognition, emotion, and behavior. We illustrate this value with an application of insights and instruments from the CAPTION and DIAMONDS models to social influence processes in groups. Specifically, we demonstrate how utilizing validated multidimensional scales of situational characteristics can illuminate the psychological meaning of brokering behaviors. We conclude by discussing current challenges and promising future directions for research on psychological situations.     

Empowerment Theory: Clarifying the Nature of Higher-Order Multidimensional Constructs

Development of empowerment theory has focused on defining the construct at different levels of analysis, presenting new frameworks or dimensions, and explaining relationships between empowerment-related processes and outcomes. Less studied, and less conceptually developed, is the nature of empowerment as a higher-order multidimensional construct. One critical issue is whether empowerment is conceptualized as a superordinate construct (i.e., empowerment is manifested by its dimensions), an aggregate construct (i.e., empowerment is formed by its dimensions), or rather as a set of distinct constructs. To date, researchers have presented superordinate models without careful consideration of the relationships between dimensions and the higher-order construct of empowerment. Empirical studies can yield very different results, however, depending on the conceptualization of a construct. This paper represents the first attempt to address this issue systematically in empowerment theory. It is argued that superordinate models of empowerment are misspecified and research that tests alternative models at different levels of analysis is needed to advance theory, research, and practice in this area. Recommendations for future work are discussed.     

Youth Action Research for Prevention: A Multi-level Intervention Designed to Increase Efficacy and Empowerment Among Urban Youth

Youth Action Research for Prevention (YARP), a federally funded research and demonstration intervention, utilizes youth empowerment as the cornerstone of a multi-level intervention designed to reduce and/or delay onset of drug and sex risk, while increasing individual and collective efficacy and educational expectations. The intervention, located in Hartford Connecticut, served 114 African-Caribbean and Latino high school youth in a community education setting and a matched comparison group of 202 youth from 2001 to 2004. The strategy used in YARP begins with individuals, forges group identity and cohesion, trains youth as a group to use research to understand their community better (formative community ethnography), and then engages them in using the research for social action at multiple levels in community settings (policy, school-based, parental etc.) Engagement in community activism has, in turn, an effect on individual and collective efficacy and individual behavioral change. This approach is unique insofar as it differs from multilevel interventions that create approaches to attack multiple levels simultaneously. We describe the YARP intervention and employ qualitative and quantitative data from the quasi-experimental evaluation study design to assess the way in which the YARP approach empowered individual youth and groups of youth (youth networks) to engage in social action in their schools, communities and at the policy level, which in turn affected their attitudes and behaviors.     

Paternal care may influence perceptions of paternal resemblance

Father-child resemblance is increasingly attracting attention from researchers interested in studying paternal investment. The current study sought to determine whether a quasi-experimental infant massage intervention would increase father's perceptions of resemblance. The study included a dozen fathers in each of two groups: the first received an intensive series of lessons on infant-father massage along with their infants, while the second group served as a neutral control. We failed to find significant correlations between paternal investment and resemblance, but we found that fathers who participated in the infant massage intervention reported significantly larger post-study ratings of resemblance and lower ratings of paternal stress. This suggests that the relationship between father-child resemblance and paternal investment may be bidirectional.     

Is employee narcissism always toxic? – The role of narcissistic admiration,rivalry and leaders’ implicit followership theories for employee voice

Organizational researchers are increasingly interested in investigating the influence of narcissism on the workplace. Drawing on self-determination theory and recent research that distinguishes two dimensions of narcissism and their different underlying motivational dynamics, we hypothesized that employee empowerment and, in turn, voice are differentially influenced by the two narcissism facets admiration and rivalry. In particular, we expected that employees’ narcissistic admiration is positively related to voice via empowerment, whereas rivalry is negatively related to voice via empowerment. Moreover, we investigated leaders’ implicit followership theories (IFTs) as moderator of the relationships between narcissistic rivalry and narcissistic admiration with empowerment. We argue that a leader’s positive IFTs buffer the negative effect of narcissistic rivalry and foster the positive effect of narcissistic admiration on empowerment, and in turn voice (i.e., first-stage moderated mediations). We found support for most of our predictions in a multi-wave field study using data from 268 leader–employee dyads. Theoretical and practical implications are explored.     

Empowerment meets narrative: Listening to stories and creating settings

Comments on and summarizes some of the themes of a special issue on empowerment. Extends empowerment theory with the suggestion that both research and practice would benefit from a narrative approach that links process to practice and attends to the voices of the people of interest. Narrative theory and method tends to open the field to a more inclusive attitude as to what counts as data and to cross-disciplinary insights as well as citizen collaboration. Communal narratives are defined at various levels of analysis, including the community, the organizational, and the cultural. A definition of empowerment that includes a concern with resources calls attention to the fact that communal narratives and personal stories are resources. Implications for personal and social change are suggested.     

Youth Empowerment in Context: Exploring Tensions in School-Based yPAR

In much of the youth empowerment literature, researchers focus on the relationship between youth and adults involved in empowerment programs while neglecting the broader social framework in which these relationships and the program itself functions. Utilizing an ecological model, the current research examines the tensions that surfaced in attempts to create an empowering setting in an after-school PAR program with fifth-graders. Challenging assumptions about youth, structural challenges, and conflicting theories of change are highlighted. Results examine the role of sociocultural context as PAR researchers attempt to create a setting in which students gain skills to become change agents within their school. The study suggests that youth empowerment is a context dependent process that requires attention to a multiplicity of factors that influence possibilities for empowerment via second order change.     

Building value-based partnerships: toward solidarity with oppressed groups

We propose a value-based conceptualization of partnership, defining partnership as relationships between community psychologists, oppressed groups, and other stakeholders, which strive to achieve key community psychology values (caring, compassion, community, health, self-determination, participation, power-sharing, human diversity, and social justice). These values guide partnership work related to the development of services or supports, coalitions and social action, and community research and program evaluation. We prescribe guidelines for building such partnerships and conclude by considering some of the challenges in implementing value-based partnerships.     

Empowering school social work practices for positive youth development: Hong Kong experience

Empowerment has become a popular concept in working with adolescents in recent years. It challenges the deficit model of youth work and focuses on creating a facilitative climate in which young people can make maximum use of the opportunity to learn and grow. While many practitioners have adopted the empowerment approach in youth services, however, we know little about the possibilities for empowerment practice in the field of school social work. Based on the findings of a qualitative study conducted in Hong Kong, this paper explores how school social workers engage in different dimensions of empowerment: (1) the personal dimension in regard to how students recapture a sense of competence to meet life challenges and fight for their own benefits; (2) the school and community dimensions in regard to how practitioners collaborate with service users and partners to initiate constructive changes to school policies and strengthen the school-community partnership for student development; and (3) the institutional dimension in regard to how practitioners play the advocacy role in the education sector. The findings provide rich information for other youth workers, especially those who render service in the school setting, as they apply the empowerment approach in daily practice.     

An analysis of mutual assistance

Why should community psychology be interested in mutual assistance? Mutual assistance organizations represent not an alternative to professional care by an addition to resources in the community of a kind that makes for a more competent community (Iscoe, 1974). Mutual assistance also reflects the values of empowerment that many community psychologists accept as primary (Rappaport, 1981). For those persons who suffer with conditions that may be attributed to oppressive social environments, there is no alternative to collective political and social action to produce change. The developing mutual assistance movement provides an unparalleled opportunity to enhance our understanding of the meaning and significance of social support and the conditions under which people change. Those of us in the field have every reason to embrace this movement for it is truly in keeping with the vision of community psychology.