Attitudes and attitude change of indigenous teacher trainees in Papua New Guinea

The study reported used the semantic differential as an instrument to collect data for an examination of attitudes and attitude change of indigenous teacher trainees at Port Moresby Teachers College. The sample consisted of three Intakes of students, differing widely in exposure to Western education and experience of the teaching role. Teaching in College was almost entirely the responsibility of Australian academics. Analysis of the results showed a strong similarity between Intakes on pre-test factor patterns. The major factor in each case was clearly identifiable as Osgood's evaluative factor. Two other factors gave evidence of splintering of the evaluative dimension. The basic three factor pattern of Osgood was not established. Ten evaluative scales were identified and used in calculation of pre and posttest attitude scores on the sixty concepts rated. Tests of significance of differences between means and variances were carried out by Intakes and, in the case of one Intake which was made up of males and females, by sex. Results were described and tentative explanations offered taking account of Intake differences, cultural setting and the possible effect of teacher/student cross-cultural differences.     

Conservation studies in Papua New Guinea: A review

Among the most widely used measures of cognitive development are Piaget's tests of conservation. In general, children in Western cultures achieve conservation between the ages of about 7 and 11 years. In recent years considerable attention has been focussed on the performance of non-Western children. In Papua New Guinea the education system is based on the Western pattern and the assumptions underlying Western education have been adopted. These assumptions include many about the level of cognitive development achieved at various ages. The published research on conservation in Papua New Guinea is reviewed, and it is concluded that the performance of children in P.N.G. on conservation tasks is well below that of Europeans of the same age. Suggestions are presented for the development of more adequate standardised procedures for cross-cultural research in the area.     

Remuneration disparities in Oceania: Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands

This paper explores the impact of remuneration differences on workers in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. In these countries remunerative differences are linked to government policy (in Papua New Guinea) and job contracts (in the Solomon Islands), and have impacted on industrial relations in both settings (strike action). A total of N = 350 professionals (n = 60 expatriates) from 54 organizations in aid, government, higher education and industry (mean response rate = 36%) responded to an organizational survey form. Remuneration ratios between international and local respondents based on the World Bank's index of purchasing power parity approached 9:1. In both sites staff compared pay and benefits (remuneration) packages: Internationally remunerated staff rated their ability higher than their local counterparts did; locally remunerated groups reported more injustice in remuneration, were more demotivated by the gaps, and were more likely to be thinking about leaving the organization. In-country workshops of N = 40 largely local stakeholders from aid and community organizations plus government ministries considered the survey's findings and recommended: in Solomon Islands, (a) introducing a policy of localization, (b) establishing a remuneration commission (already existent in Papua New Guinea), and (c) reducing the remunerative gap; in Papua New Guinea, (d) reversing the post-Independence "dual pay system" (currently official policy), (e) instituting pay-for-performance, and (f) ensuring the existent localization policy is applied to recruitment, selection, and staff career planning and management.     

Changes in studying abilities as perceived by students attending psychotherapy

In rehabilitative psychotherapy, the goal is to support and improve the person's working and studying capacity and to secure his/her staying in or entering the workforce. In this qualitative study, the aim was to describe the changes students experienced in their studying ability and the advancement of their studies as a result of the therapy process. The results of this study showed many kinds of positive changes in the psychological resources and studying ability of students participating in psychotherapy. The results also show that when psychotherapy is arranged with the aim to support the study process, good connections between psychotherapy, study tutoring and career guidance are needed.     

Extracurricular activities of Dutch University students and their effect on employment opportunities as perceived by both students and organizations

Research on biographical data suggests that recruiters draw inferences about candidates' abilities and attributes based on résumé information. However, few studies have explored students' attributions with regard to the experiences that are relevant in enhancing employment opportunities. The aim of the present study is to fill this gap by analyzing the effect of university students' extracurricular activities (ECAs) on their perceived employment opportunities. Specifically, we combine a large sample of students with recruiters from a wide range of sectors in the Netherlands. Students completed a questionnaire, while recruiters participated in an experiment and semi‐structured interviews. Students' expectations about the value of ECAs for their employment opportunities were found to be misaligned with recruiters' viewpoints. Students expected academic performance to be more relevant for employment opportunities than ECAs, whereas recruiters stated the opposite. Students expected an internship to be the most valued ECA, whereas most recruiters prioritized a board year and emphasized students' motivation and ability to demonstrate the learning gained from ECAs in general. Implications for further biodata research are discussed.     

Advertised Australian counselling psychologists: A descriptive survey of their practice details and self perceived competence in six counselling psychology practice areas

This survey research in a field setting aimed to describe psychologists who advertised themselves in the Australian Yellow Pages as counsellors, thus providing a snapshot of advertised counselling psychologists in Australia. Data was collected using a multiple mailing survey method and resulted in a 62.2% return rate. The psychologists’ (a) demographic characteristics, (b) training and development, (c) provision of services, (d) professional involvement, and (e) their self perceived competence in working with (i) depression, (ii) anxiety, (iii) substance use, (iv) clients from non English speaking backgrounds and Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander individuals, (v) clients who are same sex attracted (gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals), and (vi) clients using electronic mail and instant messaging were assessed. Advertised Australian counselling psychologists tend to be female, mature and Caucasian. The majority of the psychologists surveyed live in urban areas. Master and Bachelor level degrees were most often reported, a minority held doctoral degrees. The average psychologist charged $96.32 per hour, less than the Australian Psychological Society (APS) recommended fee for an hour of service. Eclectic and cognitive behaviour therapy were indicated most often as the theoretical orientations guiding psychological work. Psychologists belonged almost exclusively to the Australian Psychological Society as a professional association. Surprisingly, 2.9% of psychologists indicate not following an ethical code in their work and 3.9% failed to ensure that their work was covered by professional indemnity insurance. Advertised psychologists are thus described and suggestions are given for the further development of the profession. Regarding their self perceived competence, Australian advertised psychologists present as having self perceived strengths and areas of weakness regarding their counselling competence. This indicates that they are aware of their varying ability to work with various issues and populations. The self perceived competence of Australian psychologists in six specific counselling practice areas and suggestions for future training and development are provided.     

The Body of Christ has AIDS: The Catholic Church Responding Faithfully to HIV and AIDS in Papua New Guinea

Using the example of the Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea (PNG), I detail how, through praxis, it has brought to life a living theology of HIV and AIDS. In this way, the Catholic Church in PNG is responding faithfully to the epidemic. As a Christian country with a generalised HIV epidemic, where the body of an individual is reconstituted through the liturgical practices of baptism and Eucharist, theologically, in PNG the body of Christ has AIDS. In order to examine the ways in which the Catholic Church in PNG has responded faithfully to the Christian body with AIDS, I do so in relation to the three theological virtues of faith, hope and love.

Contours of time: topographic construals of past, present, and future in the Yupno valley of Papua New Guinea

Time, an everyday yet fundamentally abstract domain, is conceptualized in terms of space throughout the world's cultures. Linguists and psychologists have presented evidence of a widespread pattern in which deictic time-past, present, and future-is construed along the front/back axis, a construal that is linear and ego-based. To investigate the universality of this pattern, we studied the construal of deictic time among the Yupno, an indigenous group from the mountains of Papua New Guinea, whose language makes extensive use of allocentric topographic (uphill/downhill) terms for describing spatial relations. We measured the pointing direction of Yupno speakers' gestures-produced naturally and without prompting-as they explained common expressions related to the past, present, and future. Results show that the Yupno spontaneously construe deictic time spatially in terms of allocentric topography: the past is construed as downhill, the present as co-located with the speaker, and the future as uphill. Moreover, the Yupno construal is not linear, but exhibits a particular geometry that appears to reflect the local terrain. The findings shed light on how, our universal human embodiment notwithstanding, linguistic, cultural, and environmental pressures come to shape abstract concepts.     

Memory conformity and the perceived accuracy of self versus other

Here, we demonstrate that the decision to conform to another person’s memory involves a strategic trade-off that balances the accuracy of one’s own memory against that of another person. We showed participants three household scenes, one for 30 s, one for 60 s, and one for 120 s. Half were told that they would encode each scene for half as long as their virtual partner, and half were told that they would encode each scene for twice as long as their virtual partner. On a subsequent two-alternative-forced choice (2AFC) memory test, the simulated answer of the partner (accurate, errant, or no response) was shown before participants responded. Conformity to the partner’s responses was significantly enhanced for the 30-s versus the 60- and 120-s scenes. This pattern, however, was present only in the group who believed that they had encoded each scene for half as long as their partner, even though the short-duration scene had the lowest baseline 2AFC accuracy in both groups and was also subjectively rated as the least memorable by both groups. Our reliance on other people’s memory is therefore dynamically and strategically adjusted according to knowledge of the conditions under which we and other people have acquired different memories.     

The effects of modelling and instruction on the problem-solving performance of preschool children in Papua New Guinea and Australia(1)

Children from preschools in Australia (AUST) were compared with indigenous children from preschools at Hanuabada and Kaugere in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The effects of modelling and instruction, separately and together, on their performance in problem-solving tasks were evaluated. In addition, a within-culture comparison was made of the two PNG groups. ANCOVAS were computed with the factors group (PNG-AUST and Hanuabada-Kaugere), treatment condition (no modelling with no instruction, instruction alone, modelling alone, and instruction with modelling) and sex. Mental and chronological ages were included as covariates. The results showed that (a) the strategy adoptions were more frequent in the instruction with modelling and in the instruction alone conditions than in the control condition and the modelling alone condition was not different from the control condition, (b) PNG children in the three experimental conditions adopted the advocated strategy about three times as often as the Australian children, (c) no differences occurred between girls and boys in strategy adoptions but girls were quicker in completing the tasks than boys, and (d) chronological age was a predictor of group effects. These results were discussed in terms of a possible cognitive developmental mechanism in the performance of modelled behaviours.     

Formulations of self and family systems

The observations of systemic family therapy and self psychology fit together conceptually because both rest upon systems theory. Underlying assumptions common to both fields of inquiry are reviewed. The concept of the self and its parts is examined, with discussion of its systems properties featuring stability and change. Parallels are noted between healthy self-functioning and healthy family functioning; self-formation processes and family developmental processes; and sense of self and family paradigm. It is suggested that there are isomorphic patterns in these formulations that allow us to switch back and forth easily between the individual and the family. Two clinical case examples are also included.     

The self as a central tenet of our psychology: New perspectives on the self

Abstract

The self is fundamental to psychology and yet it is as broad as it is foundational. Numerous concepts fall into the examination of the self and has resulted in many reviews of those individual aspects but few of the self as a whole. In this special issue, we offer an avenue for authors to engage in reviews of those such individual aspects to try to draw attention to new and novel approaches to what is an integral component of our psychology.