Predicting individual change in support over time among chronically impaired older adults

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the degree of individual change in friendship and family networks and support over time as a function of sociodemographic characteristics, rehabilitation use, and disability. Participants, 449 older adults, had age-related vision loss, a common, chronic impairment that tends to worsen over time. Three interviews were conducted (baseline and 6- and 18-month follow-ups). All network and support variables showed a decrease over time. Regarding factors predicting individual variation, age (younger) and education (lower) were associated with greater baseline friendship support, rehabilitation was related to maintaining a larger friend network, and disability was positively associated with family network and support. Results supported the importance of examining rates of individual change and factors associated with variability in multiple support components by relationship type.     

Right or Wrong? The Brain's Fast Response to Morally Objectionable Statements

ABSTRACT— How does the brain respond to statements that clash with a person's value system? We recorded event-related brain potentials while respondents from contrasting political-ethical backgrounds completed an attitude survey on drugs, medical ethics, social conduct, and other issues. Our results show that value-based disagreement is unlocked by language extremely rapidly, within 200 to 250 ms after the first word that indicates a clash with the reader's value system (e.g., "I think euthanasia is an acceptable/unacceptable…"). Furthermore, strong disagreement rapidly influences the ongoing analysis of meaning, which indicates that even very early processes in language comprehension are sensitive to a person's value system. Our results testify to rapid reciprocal links between neural systems for language and for valuation.     

Specific Life Events and Chronic Experiences Differentially Associated with Depression and Anxiety in Young Twins

Behavioral genetic analyses indicate that environmental influences associated with depression and anxiety are specific to each symptom type; however, this has not been tested specifically in children. Sixty-one (61) child twin pairs in which at least one twin had a very high anxiety or depression score, and 29 nonanxious, nondepressed pairs were interviewed about life events and chronic stressors in the previous 12 months. Loss events, schoolwork stressors, family relationship problems, and friendship problems were all significantly associated with depression but not anxiety. Threat events were significantly associated with anxiety but not depression. Loss events and schoolwork stressors appeared to act as shared environment influences in that they made twin pairs resemble one another. Threat events, friendship problems, and family relationship problems were individual specific and accounted for differences within the pairs. These results clarify the associations between life events and depressive and anxious symptoms in children and adolescents and reveal specific associations previously unidentified in this age range.     

Children with Autism and Their Friends: A Multidimensional Study of Friendship in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study of Israeli and American preadolescent children examined characteristics of friendship in 44 children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) compared to 38 typically developing children (TYP), as they interacted with a close friend Participants were 8-12 years of age (HFASD: Israel, n = 24; USA, n = 20; TYP: Israel, n = 23; USA, n = 15), and were matched on SES, receptive language vocabulary, child age, and gender (each study group included one girl). Multidimensional assessments included: individual behaviors of target children and observed child-friend interactions during construction and drawing scenarios; target child's and friend's self-perceived mutual friendship qualities; and mother-reported characteristics (friendship's duration/frequency; friend's age/gender/disability status). Overall, children with HFASD displayed a number of differences on individual and dyadic friendship measures. Both age and verbal abilities affected friendship behaviors. Children with HFASD and their friends perceived friendship qualities similarly, suggesting that preadolescents with HFASD have capacities for interpersonal awareness. Between-group similarities also emerged on several complex social behaviors, suggesting that friendship follows a developmental trajectory in autism and may enhance social interaction skills in autism.     

Adolescent Friendship as a Dynamic System: Entropy and Deviance in the Etiology and Course of Male Antisocial Behavior

A dynamic systems framework was applied to understand the influence of friendship on antisocial behavior from childhood (age 9-10) through adulthood (age 24-25) for Oregon Youth Study males (N = 206). Boys were videotaped interacting with a friend at ages 14, 16, and 18, and deviant content and interpersonal processes were independently coded. Conditional dyadic interpersonal processes were studied as a communication system and summarized by an index of information entropy (F. Attneave, 1959). High entropy scores represent disorganized, unpredictable patterns of interaction, whereas low entropy scores reflect an organized dialogue. Conversations of early-onset antisocial boys and their best friends were less organized and included more deviant content than those of well-adjusted controls. Prediction analyses, however, revealed an interaction between entropy and deviant talk. Consistent with expectation, males with well-organized interactions (i.e., low entropy) but elevated levels of deviant content were most likely to continue antisocial behavior into adulthood. Findings suggest that individual risk for maladaptation may be amplified by early adolescent friendship dynamics organized around deviance.     

Personality Trait Change in Adulthood

ABSTRACT— Recent longitudinal and cross-sectional aging research has shown that personality traits continue to change in adulthood. In this article, we review the evidence for mean-level change in personality traits, as well as for individual differences in change across the life span. In terms of mean-level change, people show increased self-confidence, warmth, self-control, and emotional stability with age. These changes predominate in young adulthood (age 20–40). Moreover, mean-level change in personality traits occurs in middle and old age, showing that personality traits can change at any age. In terms of individual differences in personality change, people demonstrate unique patterns of development at all stages of the life course, and these patterns appear to be the result of specific life experiences that pertain to a person's stage of life.     

Multisystem-Multimethod Family Assessment in Clinical Contexts

A framework for assessing multiple levels of the family system by using multiple methodologies is proposed in this paper. This approach for measuring family phenomena is referred to as Multisystem-Multimethod (MS-MM) family assessment. Ideas from systems theory, measurement theory, and clinical application are used to describe the measurement strategy. A clinical case example is offered illustrating one way in which a MS-MM procedure can be implemented with families. Several currently available assessment tools are utilized to assess the individual, marital, and family levels of the family system. This diversity of measurement techniques provides convergent and divergent information within and across system levels. An MS-MM procedure has the capacity to assess the wholistic qualities of systems as well as specific issues within the boundaries of particular family subsystems.     

Fusion,Compression, Diversion,and the Workings of Paradox: A Theory of Therapeutic/Systemic Change

This paper describes a geodynamic balance theory of family process. It attempts to synthesize temporal/spatial patterning, movement, interpersonal structure, and the family developmental process. The family system is portrayed in terms of the pattern of interpersonal orbits among its members and the interface between these and “external” systems such as friendship networks, neighborhoods, and therapists. It is proposed that therapeutic/systemic change can be induced through either of two interventional mechanisms: diversion (e.g., behavioral techniques, restructuring, differentiating) or compression (e.g., paradoxical technique, returning home, grief work). Such processes share a number of similarities with analogues from the physical sciences. These formulations may assist clinicians in determining the most appropriate operations and directions for treatment.     

科技干扰与青少年网络游戏成瘾：归属需求的中介作用与友谊质量的调节作用

为探讨科技干扰对青少年网络游戏成瘾的影响以及归属需求和友谊质量在二者之间的作用机制,本研究采用科技干扰量表、归属需求量表、友谊质量量表以及网络游戏成瘾量表对3076名初中学生进行调查,探讨归属需求是否在科技干扰和网络游戏成瘾之间起中介作用以及该过程是否受到友谊质量的调节。结果发现：（1）科技干扰正向预测青少年网络游戏成瘾;（2）归属需求在科技干扰和青少年网络成瘾之间起部分中介作用;（3）科技干扰对归属需求的作用以及归属需求对网络游戏成瘾的作用受到了友谊质量的调节。本研究的结果表明科技干扰会通过归属需求来增加网络游戏成瘾的风险,且友谊质量会降低科技干扰对归属需求以及归属需求对网络游戏成瘾的影响。     

多元视角下的异性友谊

异性友谊是一种重要的人际关系。已有研究考察了一般异性友谊的特点、影响和维系, 同时也考察了利友关系的心理特征和身心影响。异性朋友可能会对青少年和大学生的社会适应带来消极影响, 但这一影响可能具有文化差异。进化心理学取向的研究者主要考察了异性友谊的进化功能, 他们认为异性友谊能够帮助个体完成长期择偶目标或短期择偶目标, 同时还能够为个体提供重要的择偶信息。未来研究有必要结合新出现的友谊理论, 考察不同年龄阶段的异性友谊, 同时关注异性友谊中的个体差异变量, 比如人际性行为取向、暗黑三合一性格和择偶智力。     

Embarrassability and self-construal: A theoretical integration

This study investigates embarrassability and its association to three individual difference variables:

1. (1) social anxiety,

2. (2) a person's interdependent self-construal (i.e. interconnectedness), and

3. (3) independent self-construal (i.e. bounded, separateness).

Previous theories of embarrassment are integrated in relating these individual differences to the process of embarrassment and individual level embarrassability. It is suggested that embarrassment can be traced to three factors:

1. (1) the strength of one's idealized role-identity (as bounded and separate) going into the interaction,

2. (2) the sensitivity to others' evaluations as the interaction unfolds, and

3. (3) the degree to which one's identity is entwined with and dependent on others.

Three-hundred and seventy-one students, representing diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, composed the sample. Even after accounting for the effects of social anxiety, the strength of a person's independent self-construal is negatively associated with embarrassability. Beyond those effects, the strength of the interdependent self-construal is positively related to embarrassability. These findings support the hypothesized model and contribute to the criticism that the previous western conceptualization of embarrassability is ethnocentric and restricts the construct. Implications and directions for future research are provided.     

Hermanas de Corazón y Alma

Friendship is a relationship that can traverse generations or be located within a specific era of a person's life. In this article, the author examines the role that her childhood friendship played in shaping her understanding of gender, ethnicity, poverty, immigration, spirituality and family processes. This friendship was during emerging adolescence and helped the author navigate and develop mestiza consciousness. These lessons were reinforced during her graduate training and have influenced her identity as a Chicana feminist therapist and the manner in which she connects with clients in psychotherapy. After presenting the story of her friendship, the author incorporates the theoretical perspectives of Chicana Feminism and Spirita to demonstrate how this friendship has influenced her clinical work with women. Specific themes discussed are language, invisibility, and cultural formulations of gender and spirituality.     

聋校低年级学生班级友伴网络建构及其特点研究— 一项两年的追踪研究

本文采用调查法与社会网络分析法对聋校三年级聋生在班级群体中的友伴网络进行2年的追踪研究,以探索友伴网络的建构及其动态发展特征。结果表明：①三年级初期,聋生在友伴网络的个体中心度与个体的外貌、成绩与年龄等个人特征有显著相关;但随年级升高,这种相关性逐渐消失。②聋生友伴网络中存在一个十分稳定的中心小团体,其团体成员在整个网络中处于中心地位。③聋生在班级群体中的互选朋友关系呈现出中等程度的稳定性。     

小学生同伴接纳对其人格发展的影响：友谊质量的多层级中介效应

以班级为单位选取1-6年级23个班级的小学生,通过最好朋友提名法,得到有互选朋友有效被试700人,采用同伴提名法、小学生友谊质量问卷、小学生人格发展教师评定问卷,运用多层线性模型（HLM）考察个体和班级两个水平上的同伴接纳、友谊质量对人格的影响,并在两个水平上检验友谊质量在同伴接纳对人格的影响上的多层中介效应。结果表明：（1）班级水平：班级平均友谊质量对外倾性、亲社会性、认真自控、情绪稳定性有预测作用;班级平均同伴接纳对情绪稳定性有预测作用。（2）个体水平：同伴接纳对人格5个维度均有直接影响;除情绪稳定性,友谊质量分别在同伴接纳对智能特征、外倾性、亲社会性、认真自控影响上有部分中介效应。     

Systematic variability in the quality of moral action, as defined in two formulations

Whether the often-reported, low level correlations among moral scores for different situations are due to systematic variations in both contexts and persons' functioning was investigated within two moral systems: Kohlberg's (1981) and an interactional formulation (Haan, 1978). The sample was 119 university students, members of 15 naturally existing friendship groups. First they were individually interviewed; then, as friendship groups, they took part in five sessions of about 3 hr each; 10 groups played moral games, whereas 5 groups discussed hypothetical dilemmas. The students were reinterviewed individually, soon after the five sessions, and again 3-4 months later. Thus eight moral scores were secured for each moral system. Measures of characteristic ego functioning and friends' sociometric evaluations were obtained before the sessions along with situationally evoked ego functioning and the groups' functioning during the sessions. Inconsistent moral performance occurred according to both systems, but variations could be attributed to systematic situational effects of contextual stress, contents of dilemmas, and operational style of friendship groups, and to individual differences in the students' characteristic and situationally evoked ways of resolving conflict. Differences between the two systems in the effects of ego strategies were most striking.     

GENDER AND ETHNOCULTURAL COMPARISONS IN STYLES OF LOVE

Ethnocultural background and gender were investigated as correlates of love styles in an ethnically diverse sample of university students in Toronto. Women viewed love as more friendship oriented, more pragmatic, but less permissive than did men, findings consistent with previous research with American college students. Ethnocultural differences or Gender x Ethnocultural Background interactions were also found. In line with an expected contrast between Asian and Western cultural traditions regarding love, Chinese and other Asian respondents of both sexes were more friendship oriented in their love relationships than were respondents of Anglo-Celtic or European ethnocultural backgrounds. Expectations of greater gender role differentiation among Asians were partly supported by finding that women from Asian ethnocultural backgrounds other than Chinese were less likely to view "love as a game" than were either their female or male counterparts. Women from Asian ethnocultural backgrounds other than Chinese also expressed a more altruistic view of love than did Anglo-Celtic women.     

儿童期虐待与青少年网络欺负行为的关系：自尊的中介作用和友谊质量的调节作用

本研究采用问卷法对2407名青少年进行调查,探究儿童期虐待对青少年网络欺负行为的影响,以及自尊的中介作用和友谊质量的调节作用。结果表明：（1）儿童期虐待显著正向预测青少年网络欺负行为。（2）自尊在儿童期虐待与青少年网络欺负行为之间起部分中介作用。（3）儿童期虐待对青少年网络欺负行为的间接效应的前半段路径受到友谊质量的调节。友谊质量高、低水平下儿童期虐待对自尊的预测作用均显著,但友谊质量较高的青少年群体中儿童期虐待对自尊的预测作用更强。     

Exploring the Influence of Culture on Career Through the Career‐in‐Culture Interview

This study sought to understand how culture in general affects career development. Using an adapted version of the Career‐in‐Culture Interview (Ponterotto, Rivera, & Sueyoshi, 2000 ), the authors interviewed 14 adults from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Through a qualitative analysis of the interviews, themes were identified based on 4 of the interview questions and were reported based on occupations the participants were aware of while growing up, their cultural and ethnic backgrounds, religious/spiritual backgrounds, and family influence. These themes promote a developmental consideration of career‐related issues in counseling. The findings can help counselors better work with clients by focusing not just on the individual but also on cultural influences on career development.     

Relating therapy with individuals, couples and families

This paper introduces a theoretical system within which relating behaviour may be defined, classified and measured. It is emphasized that a person both relates to and is related to by others. Relating may be of a positive or negative kind, and it is argued that the object of psychotherapy is both to eliminate the person's negative relating and enable the person to tolerate the negative relating of others. The term 'interrelating' is used to refer to the combination of relating and being related to of two people. Couple therapy is aimed at correcting the negative interrelating of partners, and family therapy is aimed at improving the interrelating of pairs of family members. A set of questionnaires based upon the theoretical system is introduced. These measure the negative relating of individuals and negative interrelating between individuals, and are proposed as useful adjuncts to individual, couple and family therapy.