A Note on Variations in “Persistence” Test Score with Sex,Age, and Academic Level

Summary

Preferences for 10 foreign nations were assessed in 60 English children, and information about one nation (Germany) was elicited. Evaluations of the nations seemed largely more-or-less adequate approximations to a cultural standard, while information about Germany was sketchy and largely related to war. A previously reported curvilinear relationship between preference and knowledge was confirmed, significantly, among the Ss with the more reliable preference judgments.

The children were played a story set either in their own nation (England) or an unpopular nation (Germany), Their immediate apprehension of the story was unaffected by the setting. Recall after seven weeks, however, showed relative evaluative distortion, according to the national setting. It is suggested that such selective recall could occur in such a way as to provide apparent—but spurious—cognitive justification of early evaluative learning in the field of national attitudes.     

Intimacy in the Face of Catastrophic Illness

SUMMARY

This is a therapist's story of her battle with life-threatening breast cancer and the impact of that illness on the intimacy bond with her husband of thirty years. She reviews the year of treatment, noting the couple's connections at various points in the process of dealing with the disease: the diagnosis, the treatment and the aftermath. Facing life-threatening illness can drive a couple apart or draw them closer together, but whichever it does, it is a loss of innocence about the very real presence of death and its impact on our daily life in relationship.     

Career assessment and creativity: potential complementarity or a contradiction in terms?

ABSTRACT

In this research we investigated whether creativity and career assessment are a contradiction in terms or whether, through creative thinking, their potential complementarity in career guidance and counselling can be realised. The research demonstrates the creative application of the systemic Integrative Structured Interview (ISI) for the Self-Directed Search (SDS) with a South African female mid-life career changer. Results indicated that the ISI positions clients as storytellers who create rich systemic stories about their quantitative SDS scores. The constructs of story telling are evident throughout an interview about quantitative scores; the scores become unifying themes across the stories. In sum, the ISI can assist mid-life career changers to make meaning of their career transition; and by embedding career assessment in a systemic story telling process creativity is evidenced as a multilayered process.     

Tomorrow is the start of the rest of their life — so who cares about health? Exploring constructions of weight-loss motivations and health using story completion

ABSTRACT

In Western societies, health is closely associated with body weight and weight loss, achieved through individual health behaviour. I examined such associations in constructions of weight-loss motivations and health in stories generated using the novel method of story completion. The story stem featured either a female or male protagonist deciding to lose weight; 148 women and 22 men (ages 18–24) provided stories in response. A social constructionist thematic analysis identified five themes: health as clothing size and means to an end; weight-loss activity as good for every woman; tomorrow is going to be the start of the rest of their life; tell me when I’m okay — it’s not about wellbeing; and weight loss as signifier of the “true self.” Considering the adverse social and psychological consequences reflected in the stories and the longstanding elusiveness of successful weight-loss methods, I support calls to review the dominant weight-focused approach to public health.     

This century,this country: One survivor's story of posttraumatic stress syndrome

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress syndrome, also called posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), affects people who have experienced extremely traumatic events. Individuals who live with posttraumatic stress syndrome must continually overcome many obstacles to live their daily lives. The following is one woman's story of abuse, its after effects, and survival. By telling her story, I hope to make her suffering that much more meaningful. In addition, I wish to call attention to what goes on behind closed doors and explain what we can do about it.     

Acute stress disorder among civilians during a war and post-traumatic growth six years later: the impact of personal and social resources

Background and Objectives: Various studies suggest a link between stress response to a traumatic event and post-traumatic growth (PTG), but little is known about their long-term relationship. In this study, the relationship between acute stress disorder (ASD) among civilians during a war on the home front and PTG six years later was examined for the first time. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, the role of personal and social resource loss and gain as moderating factors was investigated. Design and Methods: At Time 1 of the research (the Second Lebanon War in 2006), a structured questionnaire was administered to 370 civilians living within rocket range. At Time 2, 6 years later, 301 participants from Time 1 were again examined. The data analysis refers to the 301 respondents who participated at Time 2. Results: The findings indicate a significant relationship between ASD and PTG. Examination of the interaction revealed that resource gain (but not resource loss) moderates (strengthens) the relationship between the two. Conclusions: These findings are not consistent with the COR view that resource loss has a greater effect on stress responses than resource gain.     

Narrative, identity and mental health: How men with serious mental illness re-story their lives through sport and exercise

ObjectivesIt has been suggested that mental illness threatens identity and sense of self when one's personal story is displaced by dominant illness narratives focussing on deficit and dysfunction. One role of therapy, therefore, is to allow individuals to re-story their life in a more positive way which facilitates the reconstruction of a meaningful identity and sense of self. This research explores the ways in which involvement in sport and exercise may play a part in this process.DesignQualitative analysis of narrative.MethodWe used an interpretive approach which included semi-structured interviews and participant observation with 11 men with serious mental illness to gather stories of participants’ sport and exercise experiences. We conducted an analysis of narrative to explore the more general narrative types which were evident in participants’ accounts.FindingsWe identified three narrative types underlying participants’ talk about sport and exercise: (a) an action narrative about “going places and doing stuff”; (b) an achievement narrative about accomplishment through effort, skill or courage; (c) a relationship narrative of shared experiences to talk about combined with opportunities to talk about those experiences. We note that these narrative types differ significantly from—and may be considered alternatives to—dominant illness narratives.ConclusionThis study provides an alternative perspective on how sport and exercise can help men with serious mental illness by providing the narrative resources which enabled participants to re-story aspects of their lives through creating and sharing personal stories through which they rebuilt or maintained a positive sense of self and identity.     

Student essay competition prize winner basket weaving: Sharing stories in a group setting

Abstract

Participating in a self-awareness group (in this case for counsellors in training) is an exercise in give and take - an interweaving of stories - through which we share ourselves with our peers. This paper explores some personal discoveries about the processes at work in (a) listening to others, (b) relating my own story - and assessing thereby the extent of my belonging, role and investment in the group. A dream alerted me to our shifting to another dimension of story-sharing by the end of forty sessions. The imagery I use is of basket weaving and creating a mandala.     

Looking heteronormatively good! Combining story completion with Bitstrips to explore understandings of sexuality and appearance

ABSTRACT

This study sought to develop knowledge about understandings of sexuality and appearance by using a story completion task combined with an innovative visual methodology. Fifty-four (mainly female) participants were randomly assigned to complete a story about a fictional bisexual, lesbian, or heterosexual character who is going on a date, and then asked to build a Bitstrips online avatar of their character. Our social constructionist thematic analysis identified that looking good was a common feature of the stories and that this was understood in largely heteronormative terms. This imperative was also clear in stories of the date, which relied on traditional notions of gender and heterosexuality. Finally, individuality and authenticity were rewarded in participants’ stories, yet this was simultaneously constrained by (dominant) heteronormative narratives. We conclude that combining story completion with visual methods enabled deeper insights into representations of appearance, dating, and relationships, than a textual method alone.     

Breaking gendered boundaries? Exploring constructions of counter-normative body hair practices in Āotearoa/New Zealand using story completion

ABSTRACT

Do women with body hair continue to evoke disgust? Are men without body hair read only as athletes and/or gay? To explore contemporary sense-making practices around apparently counter-normative gendered body hair practice, we developed a two-stem story completion task. We collected stories from 161 undergraduate students (129 women and 32 men) about David, who had decided to start removing body hair, and Jane, who had decided to stop removing body hair. We analysed the data thematically within a constructionist framework, resulting in three themes: secrecy and shame; the personal benefits of going against the grain; and the personal is political. The personal benefits theme included four distinct (gendered) subthemes: increased heterosexual attractiveness; increased sporting prowess; removal of a hassle; and liberation from conformity. These story data gave access to familiar but also somewhat different accounts than those collected through typical self-report measures.     

Living,resisting, and playing the part of athlete: Narrative tensions in elite sport

ObjectivesTo explore: (i) How elite and professional sport culture might steer individuals towards particular stories, identities, and actions; (ii) How athletes navigate or respond to these cultural pressures.DesignCross-sectional qualitative methodology.MethodNarrative interviews and focus groups with 21 elite and professional athletes followed by a narrative analysis of structure and form.ResultsAthletes demonstrated one of three processes. Individuals who live the part of athlete story their life and act in ways that conform to a culturally dominant performance narrative. Here, identity is foreclosed, relationships sacrificed in the pursuit of success, and long-term wellbeing threatened. Over time, alternative narrative types may provoke moral reflection on their story and actions. Individuals who resist the part of athlete sustain a life story and identity that deviates from the performance narrative, drawing on alternative narrative types. Their resistance is typically overt as they publicly demonstrate actions that align with their multidimensional story. Individuals who play the part of athlete modify their story and actions depending on sociocultural context. These individuals covertly maintain a multidimensional life story, but silence this story when powerful others require performance stories.ConclusionsAlthough some elite/professional athletes' life stories revolve around performance outcomes, this is not a prerequisite for excellence. Other athletes achieve excellence while sustaining a multidimensional life story and identity. To do so, they navigate a culture that expects a performance focus, through overt resistance or covertly manipulating their public stories and actions.     

Editorial Introduction to the Special Issue: Using Story Completion Methods in Qualitative Research

ABSTRACT

What is story completion? How come I’ve never heard of it? Can it be useful for me as a qualitative researcher? A relatively unknown method for qualitative data collection, story completion has a long history of use in psychotherapy practice and (quantitative) developmental psychology research. We believe it has untapped, exciting potential as a qualitative technique in and beyond psychology, offering something quite different to many of the popular methods (e.g., interviews, focus groups). In this article, an introduction to an exciting Special Issue that discusses and demonstrates the potential of story completion, we provide a brief history of the development of story completion as a qualitative technique and an overview of design, sampling, and data analysis in story completion research. We finish by highlighting potential pitfalls of story completion, alongside a discussion of the possibilities it offers, and briefly introduce the empirical papers in the Special Issue.     

I,You, or He: Examining the Impact of Point of View on Narrative Persuasion

ABSTRACT

Narratives can be used to persuade individuals to change their attitudes and behaviors, and can be especially effective is in changing attitudes toward individuals that are stigmatized or otherwise labeled as outgroup members. One feature that can influence a story’s persuasive effectiveness is the story’s point of view (POV). This study experimentally investigated the relative impacts of 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-person POVs on attitudes toward, and beliefs about, gay people. Results showed that participants who read the 3rd-person story had significantly more positive attitudes toward gay people than those who read the 1st-person story. In all cases, POV appeared to have no impact upon narrative transportation or identification.     

Self-reported posttraumatic growth predicts greater subsequent posttraumatic stress amidst war and terrorism

Background and objective: This study tested three alternative explanations for research indicating a positive, but heterogeneous relationship between self-reported posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PSS): (a) the third-variable hypothesis that the relationship between PTG and PSS is a spurious one driven by positive relationships with resource loss, (b) the growth over time hypothesis that the relationship between PTG and PSS is initially a positive one, but becomes negative over time, and (c) the moderator hypothesis that resource loss moderates the relationship between PTG and PSS such that PTG is associated with lower levels of PSS as loss increases. Design and method: A nationally representative sample (N?=?1622) of Israelis was assessed at three time points during a period of ongoing violence. PTG, resource loss, and the interaction between PTG and loss were examined as lagged predictors of PSS to test the proposed hypotheses. Results: Results were inconsistent with all three hypotheses, showing that PTG positively predicted subsequent PSS when accounting for main and interactive effects of loss. Conclusions: Our results suggest that self-reported PTG is a meaningful but counterintuitive predictor of poorer mental health following trauma.     

A home of her own: (Writing) a family story of separation and second chances

Abstract

On March 16, 1996, the author interviewed her mother, Beth Tillmann, about Beth's parents' divorce and her life as a foster child. From detailed notes taken during this phone conversation and from family stories told to the author throughout tier life, the author constructed a narrative titled “A Home of Her Own” Its structure and tone mimic the way her mother speaks about the dissolution of her family of origin and her attachments to and separations from those who tried to lielp her rebuild a sense of home. After the story is a discussion of what narrative representations of loss offer the writer, the subject, and the reader.     

Fleeing from one place,searching for another

The history of psychoanalysis also tells the story of how individuals were uprooted. Oppression and persecution forced Jewish psychoanalysts into exile during the interwar period and the Second World War. An account of the history of psychoanalysis in a particular country is also bound to mirror international conditions. This article tells the life story of a psychoanalyst of Jewish descent. However, it also tells another story, namely the painful history of psychoanalysis. The life of the Jewish psychoanalyst, Lajos Székely (1904-1995), who found his way to Sweden in May 1944, summarises and distils the destiny of other Jewish psychoanalysts. The article describes the life of a psychoanalyst, but is at the same time about what he represents in a more general sense. It is about the many Jewish psychoanalysts who were forced to flee and who, although the flight was finally over, still uprooted, were compelled to seek a place and a purpose in a new social environment.     

The Caveman's Conscience: Evolution and Moral Realism

An increasingly popular moral argument has it that the story of human evolution shows that we can explain the human disposition to make moral judgments without relying on a realm of moral facts. Such facts can thus be dispensed with. But this argument is a threat to moral realism only if there is no realist position that can explain, in the context of human evolution, the relationship between our particular moral sense and a realm of moral facts. I sketch a plausible evolutionary story that illuminates this relationship. First, the sorts of adaptive pressures facing early humans would have produced more than just potent prosocial emotions, as evolutionary antirealists like to claim; it would have produced judgments—often situated within emotions—to the effect that others could reasonably disapprove of some bit of conduct, for an early human who cared deeply about how others might respond to her action enjoyed the benefits of more cooperative exchanges than those early humans who did not. Second, according to objectivist versions of moral constructivism, moral facts just are facts about how others, ideally situated, would respond to one's conduct. Thus if any objectivist moral constructivism story is true, then we can intelligibly assert that a) our capacity for moral judgment is the product of adaptive pressures acting on early humans and b) some moral judgments are objectively true.     

How does mindfulness modulate daily stress response: evidences from ambulatory assessment

Objective: Mindfulness has been found to be associated with less adverse stress response. However, little is known about how mindfulness modulates stress response in the real daily life. The current study investigated the relation between daily stress and negative emotions, and explored a mediational link via perceived loss of control, and moderation by dispositional mindfulness, to better understand this association. Design: A total of 95 college students were recruited to complete a questionnaire and to report on their stress, perceived loss of control and negative emotions in daily life. Main Outcome Measures: Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) was used to assess dispositional mindfulness. Stress, perceived loss of control and negative emotions were assessed by ambulatory assessment. Results: Stress was positively related with negative emotions at within-person level. Perceived loss of control mediated the relationship between stress and negative emotions. Furthermore, participants with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness showed an attenuated association between stress and anger, and also attenuated associations between perceived loss of control, and anger and fatigue at within-person level. Conclusion: These findings point to perceived loss of control as an important key factor in daily stress effects. Dispositional mindfulness appears to have beneficial effects in that it attenuates the impact of daily stressors on individuals’ wellbeing. Clinical implications and limitations are discussed.     

The impact of maternal postnatal depression on men and their ways of fathering: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Objectives: Postnatal depression affects approximately 15% of women in Western countries. There are conflicting findings about the effects on fathers as well as the extent to which fathers buffer against the negative effects of depression on children. This study sought to understand the ways in which maternal postnatal depression affects men and their ways of fathering.

Design: Narrative interviews were conducted with 14 British fathers (mean age?=?33.9?years) whose (ex)partners had experienced at least one episode of postnatal depression. Interviews explored how their partner’s depression affected them, the partner relationship, their children and their ways of fathering. Data were analysed with interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Results and Conclusions: Men felt that their partner’s depression led to significant physical and/or psychological maternal absence as well as a fracturing of the family unit, which had been an important ideological foundation for men’s fathering. Unequal divisions of labour, unfulfilled expectations, a thwarting of preferred ways of fathering and preoccupation with their partner’s depression took some men away from fathering. Others reported adaptation by accepting the loss of shared parenting and investing in an exclusive father–child relationship. Fathering appears to be particularly affected by the loss of a close adult relationship.