What predicts first date success? A longitudinal study of modality switching in online dating

This study uses a longitudinal design to investigate the effects of online dating sites on first date success. Participants were surveyed before their first date with someone from an online dating site (N = 186) and again after meeting their partner in person (N = 94). As part of the survey, they also supplied the e‐mails they had sent to their partner through the dating site so their actual communication could be examined. Findings indicated that first date success was predictable from features of participants' online impressions and relational dynamics. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and methodological contributions to the literature on relationship development, as well as their practical implications for online dating sites and users.     

Does worry affect adjustment to bereavement? A longitudinal investigation

Background and objectives: Repetitive thought is a trans-diagnostic risk-factor for development of psychopathology. Research on repetitive thought in bereaved individuals has focused primarily on clarifying the role of rumination, repetitive thinking about past negative events and/or negative emotions. While detrimental effects of rumination have been demonstrated following bereavement, surprisingly few studies have aimed to clarify the role of worry, repetitive thinking about potential future negative events, in adjustment to loss. This study sought to fill this gap in knowledge. Methods/Design: One hundred eighty-three bereaved individuals (85.3% women) filled out questionnaires on sociodemographic and loss-related characteristics, worry, and symptom measures of depression, anxiety, and prolonged grief. After six months, 155 participants completed worry and symptom measures again. Using multiple regression analyses, concurrent and longitudinal associations between loss-related variables, worry, and symptoms of psychopathology were examined. Results: Main results were that worry was strongly positively associated with symptoms of anxiety, depression and prolonged grief concurrently and also predicted higher levels of anxiety, depression and prolonged grief longitudinally. Conclusions: Findings suggest that worry influences adjustment to bereavement negatively and may be a potential target in grief therapy, especially when aiming to reduce anxiety.     

Illness perceptions or recurrence risk perceptions: What comes first? A longitudinal cross-lagged examination among cardiac patients

Objectives: Previous research suggested that illness perceptions provide the basis for illness risk perceptions through an inductive reasoning process. This study aimed to assess the direction of relationships between illness and recurrence risk perceptions over time, among cardiac patients.

Design: A longitudinal study was conducted among 138 patients undergoing coronary angioplasty. Self-report questionnaires measured perceived recurrence risk and illness perceptions one day and one month after catheterisation.

Results: Cross-lagged Panel Model Analyses revealed that higher perceptions of timeline, consequences and emotional representations of illness at hospitalisation were associated with higher recurrence risk perceptions one month later. Perceived personal control was the only illness perception with bi-directional associations: higher perceived personal control at hospitalisation was associated with higher recurrence risk perceptions one month later; and higher recurrence risk perceptions at hospitalisation was associated with lower personal control one month later.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that the associations between recurrence risk and illness perceptions can only partly be explained by inductive reasoning. Halo effects and defensive processes are suggested as complementary explanations for the observed associations between risk and illness perceptions.     

Do Teachers maintain their Expectation Bias for students? A longitudinal investigation

Whether teachers maintain their expectation bias for students over time is crucial for understanding self-fulfilling prophecy effects. However, the stability of teacher expectation bias has been largely ignored in the literature. We examined the stability of teacher expectation bias across a sample of teachers and the change trajectories of teacher expectation bias across high-, medium-, and low-expectation teacher groups across all teachers and in the curriculum areas of mathematics, Chinese, and English. Our analyses were based on two-year longitudinal data with four time points from 567 Chinese senior high school students and their 50 teachers. The results showed that across all teachers, teacher expectation bias at the individual student level was dynamic over time. That is, teachers seemed to adjust their initial expectation bias in the first few months but then maintained the adjusted expectation bias afterwards. However, when students moved from Grade 11 to Grade 12 (the last year of high school), teachers seemed to change their expectation bias again. The evidence from HLM analyses further supported these results. That is, all the high- and low-expectation teachers alleviated their initial expectation bias significantly in the first six months and then adhered to their adjusted expectation bias. However, when students moved to the last year of high school, some high- and low-expectation teachers’ expectation biases were volatile again. Nevertheless, most high- and low-expectation teachers (except for Chinese low-expectation teachers) tended to either over-estimate or under-estimate their students across two school years. Further, compared to Chinese and mathematics teachers, English teachers’ biases seemed to be even more stable. Our findings suggested that some teachers consistently over- or under-estimated their students over an extended time period and this could have implications for student outcomes.

     

Can children develop a dual identity when immigrant mothers feel homesick? A short-term longitudinal study among Turkish immigrants

Abstract

Turkish immigrant-origin youth in Western Europe often develop strong ethnic and weaker national identities. To advance our understanding of this pattern, we investigated the concurrent development and intergenerational transmission of both identities over time in conjunction with maternal homesickness. Our study was based on a sample of 176 Turkish mother-child dyads from Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands. Mothers (M _t1 = 38 years) reported on their identities and homesickness at T1 and children (M _t1 = 12 years) on their identities at T1 and T2. Our results showed that children’s ethnic and national identities became more incompatible over time, mother’s homesickness strengthened children’s ethnic identities, and mother’s ethnic identities in combination with high levels of homesickness weakened children’s national identities. We conclude that early adolescence is a critical time for Turkish immigrant youth’s identity development and that a focus on parental acculturative stressors can advance ethnic socialization and cultural transmission research.     

A longitudinal study of factors predicting students’ intentions to leave upper secondary school in Norway

Social Psychology of Education - This article illuminates factors predicting students’ intention to leave upper secondary school. The research is anchored in an ecological theoretical...     

Which emotional regulatory strategy makes Chinese adolescents happier? A longitudinal study

Growing interest in emotion regulation is reflected in the studies of cognitive and social development. However, the extant studies mainly highlight how emotion regulation develops based on a western value system. This study utilised a longitudinal design to examine the development of emotion regulation and explored the contributions of different regulatory strategies to emotion experience regarding the early adolescent development period in a Chinese population. A total of 303 Chinese adolescents (age range = 10–14 years) were followed up in a three‐phase longitudinal study for 3 years. In each phase of the study, participants completed Adolescents Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Daily Emotion Scale. Results of hierarchical linear regressions revealed that Chinese adolescents reported more down‐regulation. Down‐regulation is more effective than up‐regulation in enhancing desirable emotion experience and reducing undesirable emotion experience during adolescents' development. Also, the adaptive functions of emotional regulatory strategies in Chinese background were discussed.     

Is there a psychopathic element in adolescent drinking? A longitudinal study

While previous studies have examined the relationship between psychopathic traits and alcohol use in adolescents, limited empirical investigations of the longitudinal bidirectional effects of psychopathic traits and alcohol use have been conducted for this age-group. The purpose of the present study was to examine the longitudinal associations among adolescent’s psychopathic traits and their alcohol use, in order to illustrate the directional causal relationship between the two constructs, taking into account demographic effects. Participants were 334 adolescents from Cyprus. The participants responded to self-report questionnaires in two consecutive measurements within a six-month interval. Data were analyzed with cross-lagged structural equation modelling. Results indicated that the Dependence alcohol symptoms in Time 1 were significant predictors of the Interpersonal dimension of psychopathy in T2, and the Behavioural dimension of psychopathy in T1 was a significant predictor of Dependence alcohol symptoms in T2, regardless of previous levels of psychopathy and alcohol use, gender and age effects. Implications for research are discussed.     

Do health beliefs about COVID-19 predict morbidity? A longitudinal study

In a highly powered (N ≈ 5000), six-months longitudinal study (December 2020-May 2021), we tested the assumption that beliefs concerning COVID-19 and the precautions against it predicted morbidity. Six months after having filled out a survey measuring beliefs about the disease and the precautions against it, participants reported if they were or had been ill with COVID-19. A lower likelihood of being or having been ill with COVID-19 was predicted by personal optimism concerning infection, perceived personal control over infection, perceived effectiveness of precautions, and self-reported personal or better-than-average adherence to the precautions. A higher likelihood of being or having been ill with COVID-19 was predicted by perceived personal control over a good outcome of an infection, egocentric impact perception concerning the impact of the disease, perceived difficulty of adherence to the precautions, and both personal and egocentric impact perception concerning the impact of the precautions. Comparative optimism did not predict morbidity, nor did personal optimism concerning severe disease or a good outcome, perceived personal control over severe disease, and moralization of the precautions. We discuss implications for public health communication.     

How is anxiety related to math performance in young students? A longitudinal study of Grade 2 to Grade 3 children

Both general and math-specific anxiety are related to proficiency in mathematics. However, it is not clear when math anxiety arises in young children, nor how it relates to early math performance. This study therefore investigated the early association between math anxiety and math performance in Grades 2 and 3, by accounting for general anxiety and by further inspecting the prevalent directionality of the anxiety–performance link. Results revealed that this link was significant in Grade 3, with a prevalent direction from math anxiety to performance, rather than the reverse. Longitudinal analyses also showed an indirect effect of math anxiety in Grade 2 on subsequent math performance in Grade 3. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of monitoring anxiety from the early stages of schooling in order to promote proficient academic performance.     

Cognitive–motivational antecedents of career decision-making processes in Portuguese high school students: A longitudinal study

In this study we propose an integrated framework of the antecedents of identity development and well/ill-being for high school students (N = 462) in the transition to higher education/job market. One study was conducted to investigate the effects of basic psychological need-satisfaction/frustration (as proposed within self-determination theory) and career decision-making self-efficacy (posited by social cognitive career theory) on the identity dimensions and experienced well/ill-being. Three longitudinal nested models were tested: a need-satisfaction/self-efficacy main effects model, an identity main effects model and a reciprocal main-effects model. The reciprocal effects between the variables were favored by the data. Basic need-satisfaction and career decision making self-efficacy positively predicted proactive exploration and commitment-making, while basic need-frustration predicted both diminished well-being and ill-being. Reciprocally, proactive exploration investments positively predicted whereas ruminative exploration negatively predicted, need-satisfaction and career decision-making self-efficacy. Implications for the design of career interventions are discussed and suggestions for future research proposed.     

What drives corporate carsharing acceptance? A French case study

Corporate carsharing allows employees to make use of a fleet of vehicles for their business travels. It offers a means of managing vehicle fleets more optimally, bringing both economic and environmental benefits. However, this kind of use can cause concerns, and even rejection in some cases. This paper describes an online survey of 259 people in France that assessed the psychological variables determining intentions to use a corporate carsharing service. The questionnaire instantiated the dimensions of the UTAUT acceptability model. Because of the specificities of carsharing as a means of transportation, we added a dimension referring to the service’s perceived environmental friendliness. Results showed that effort expectancy (i.e., degree of ease associated with use) is the most important dimension in determining behavioral intentions about corporate carsharing. Moreover, perceived environmental friendliness had only a small effect on behavioral intentions, mediated by performance expectancy (i.e., the degree to which individuals believe that using the system will help them improve their job performance). Results are notably discussed in terms of practical recommendations to favor corporate carsharing.     

Mentally ill or mentally handicapped? A longitudinal study of severe learning disorder

SUMMARY

In the course of some eighteen months of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, a young woman of twenty-seven once deemed braindamaged at the age of seven years, has shown herself capable of sustaining once weekly psychotherapy. Against all expectations she has taken responsibility for her own attendance, travelling by public transport alone to her sessions. She has also taken initiatives in relation to finding work for herself.

Psychotherapy has disclosed a significant component of autism in the personality which is resorted to regularly and which seems to drag the patient into a passive acceptance of half-life which she tries not to mind. In the course of her sessions the patient has come to take more notice of her predicament and to mind more about the dissatisfactions which she experiences.

The case presented here is considered to have the characteristics of a particular group of adolescents. These are often described as “just slow” and are brought for psychiatric or psychological attention by desperate parents urgently concerned about the working future of their children.

These are individuals of whom the original definition of mental handicap contained in the Mental Health Act 1913 “a state of arrested or incomplete development of mind” would seem to offer as honest, appropriate and meaningful an assessment as the formal I.Q. score introduced in 1959. Unlike the latter, it is an assessment based on a concept of mental development. Assessment by I.Q. score has led to emphasis on training to compensate for the supposed loss of functioning and also to notions like “training for development” and “education from birth”.

In the case described here it was the abandonment of training aims and approaches which produced a dramatic improvement in the well-being of the patient and her family. Treatment is now fostering the potential in this woman to bring her own mind into action and to support in her, her own wish for personal development.     

What’s it all about? A qualitative study of meaning in life for counseling psychology doctoral students

The interviews of 10 female counseling psychology doctoral students regarding their views about meaning in life (MIL) were analyzed using consensual qualitative research. The participants defined MIL as goals or purposes, were actively involved in searching for meaning, and believed that MIL had been stimulated by life-changing experiences and culture. On a personal level, they gained meaning from relationships, personal growth, and religion/spirituality. On a professional level, they gained meaning from providing therapy, conducting research, and teaching. As therapists, participants approached MIL indirectly by asking about client goals/motivations or by focusing on other clinical problems that if resolved would enhance MIL. Implications for doctoral training and for psychotherapy are offered.     

Does distraction reduce pain-produced distress among college students?

College students in four experiments placed their hands in ice water (the cold-pressor task) and reported their distress. They simultaneously engaged in different reaction-time (RT) tasks that varied in the amount of attention required for successful performance. In each experiment, which differed in numerous procedural details, RT, error-rate, and self-report measures all demonstrated that the distraction tasks differed in the degree of attention required. Greater distraction, however, failed to reduce physiological, self-report, or behavioral responses to the cold-pressor task. These data call into question the hypothesis that attention mediates the process whereby distraction tasks reduce pain-produced distress.     

Is Bradburn's measure of psychological well-being fair to introverts? A study among 16- to 18-yr.-old students

The relationship between dimensions of personality characteristics and the perceived rearing attitude of parents in the Japanese population were investigated. The scores on a measure of perceived parental attitude of 153 normal female students, measured on the Parker Parental Bonding Instrument, were correlated with personality features from the Japanese version of the Cloninger Temperament and Character Inventory. Self-directedness, especially the subclasses of Responsibility vs Blaming and Congruent Second Nature vs Incongruent Habits, was significantly related to high scores on Maternal Care and low scores on Maternal Overprotection. The subscale of Self-acceptance vs Self-striving correlated only with low scores on Maternal Overprotection. Paternal Care was only related to the total scale scores on Self-directedness. Results suggest that some personality traits may be related to the perceived attitudes of parents, especially of the mother, during childhood.