Recent Publications in Journals

[Authors are asked to send offprints of articles in learned journals on subjects relevant to this section. Offprints of articles in other publications will not normally be reported on here, likewise offprints of articles in books since they may constitute part of a volume that can be made the subject matter of a review.]     

Recent Publications in Journals

[Authors are asked to send offprints of articles in learned journals on subjects relevant to this section. Offprints of articles in other publications will not normally be reported on here, likewise offprints of articles in books since they may constitute part of a volume that can be made the subject matter of a review.]     

Five commandments for APA

The author delineates 5 rules of scientific review and publishing and argues that these norms need to be upheld even when to do so proves politically difficult. The 5 rules are: (a) Scientific articles should be judged only by their logic and the strength of their evidence; (b) the results of a competent peer review should be accepted; (c) disagreements with scientific articles should be aired in peer reviewed commentaries; (d) efforts to judge scientific articles on the basis of political concerns should be resisted; and (e) the explicit rules and normative expectations of peer review should not be arbitrarily altered.     

Early adolescent egocentrism: a review of six articles

This paper reviews six articles which appear to be representative of the past fifteen years during which researchers have focused on early adolescent egocentrism. Each article is described in chronological order and compared to research findings suggested by the other articles. Although the researchers have suggested some interesting associations, there is a lack of consistency among their findings. The author indicates methodological problems and questions for further research which arise from the reviewed articles.     

Trends in the creativity literature: An analysis of research in the journal of creative behavior (1967–1989)

Abstract

Many have noted a renewed interest in creativity. However, even with a 40‐year history, little effort has been directed at the study of changes in the field, and no effort has been made to develop a historical perspective of the work being conducted. Which topics have consistently been examined? Which have gone out of favor, and which have shown surges of interest? The present investigation addressed these questions by examining 311 articles, representing a 23‐year span (1967–1989). This span began in 1967 with the founding of the Journal of Creative Behavior. Predictions were based on previous literature reviews and similar studies conducted in other areas of the social sciences. One prediction was that there would be increases in the number of authors per article (women authors in particular) and in the total number of references. Furthermore, empirical articles were expected to be on the rise, as were articles focusing on social and educational issues. The number of articles concerned with personality and related topics were expected to show a decrease. Results generally supported the hypotheses: The number of authors, number of female authors, number of references, and social and educational articles all showed upward trends. However, the number of empirical articles did not increase during the 23‐year period. Overall, the findings suggest that trend‐analytic research is viable and informative. It tells us not only where the field has gone, but also gives hints as to where it may be going.     

The Moral Foundations of Human Rights Attitudes

Human rights are claimed to be innate and based on moral principles. Human rights attitudes have been shown to be related to political ideology, but there have been few studies investigating their relationship with morality. Using moral foundations theory, we examine whether morals can predict human rights attitudes across two studies. The first study used questionnaires to show that human rights are based exclusively on individualizing moral foundations; however, increases in individualizing and decreases in binding foundations predict increases in human rights endorsement. Moral foundations also mediated the relationship between political identification and human rights. Both individualizing and binding foundations performed a role in explaining the lower endorsement of human rights by conservatives as compared to liberals. The second study used textual analysis of newspaper articles to show that human-rights-related articles contained more moral language than other articles, in particular for the individualizing foundations. Conservative newspapers had a greater use of binding foundations in human rights articles than liberal newspapers.     

Projects in progress

This department publishes articles on large-scale projects in which logic plays a significant role, especially editions of collected or selected works. In addition to factual and historical details, articles describe points of historiography and scholarship which are of more general interest. Articles should be submitted to the Editor.     

Gender in Spanish Daily Newspapers

The purpose of this study was to examine the portrayal of women and men in a Spanish daily newspaper and to find whether there were gender differences among the authors of the articles in said newspaper. A content analysis was conducted of 4,060 articles and advertisements from 24 issues of a randomly selected, large-circulation, Spanish newspaper. Men were found to be more commonly featured in the articles, photographs, and advertisements than women, and they would usually be soldiers, athletes or high-rank businessmen much more often than women were. Furthermore, we determined that the reporters writing the articles were more likely to be men than women. And, in addition, men were more likely to be cited as sources than women.     

Conceptualization and measurement of family outcomes associated with families of individuals with intellectual disabilities

The purpose of this review is to (a) document the current status of conceptualizing and measuring family outcomes related to having a member with an intellectual disability and (b) determine the extent to which family research focuses on internal family characteristics as contrasted to external family support. The reviewers collected 28 articles using the terms well-being, adaptation, family functioning, or family quality of life in the title. Results of our analyses are presented as a comparison between well-being, adaptation, and family functioning articles in one group and family quality of life articles in a second group. Both groups lacked explicit conceptual definitions, theory, and random/representative samples. The articles placed an undue emphasis on maternal participation, and tended to report a single family member score as representative of the whole family. Two major differences between the groups was a tendency for family quality of life studies to be grounded in conceptual frameworks and focus on new instrument development. Recommendations for future research directions are included.     

Evaluating the evidence base for relational frame theory: a citation analysis

Relational frame theory (RFT) is a contemporary behavior-analytic account of language and cognition. Since it was first outlined in 1985, RFT has generated considerable controversy and debate, and several claims have been made concerning its evidence base. The present study sought to evaluate the evidence base for RFT by undertaking a citation analysis and by categorizing all articles that cited RFT-related search terms. A total of 174 articles were identified between 1991 and 2008, 62 (36%) of which were empirical and 112 (64%) were nonempirical articles. Further analyses revealed that 42 (68%) of the empirical articles were classified as empirical RFT and 20 (32%) as empirical other, whereas 27 (24%) of the nonempirical articles were assigned to the nonempirical reviews category and 85 (76%) to the nonempirical conceptual category. In addition, the present findings show that the majority of empirical research on RFT has been conducted with typically developing adult populations, on the relational frame of sameness, and has tended to be published in either The Psychological Record or the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Overall, RFT has made a substantial contribution to the literature in a relatively short period of time.     

Commentary on the Symposium on Social Justice and the Health Professions: Ethical and Experiential Issues

This commentary on the Symposium on Social Justice and the Health Professions is meant to give the reader an overview of the articles in this issue and provide the perspective of an interested observer who attended the conference. The articles in this issue will be especially interesting to anyone who is concerned with the varying lenses through which healthcare may be seen as empowering to those able to access it, frustrating to those who confront bias and stigmatization, and in need of a constant refocusing to assure adequate attention is paid the ethical issues underpinning healthcare.     

Developments in Classification,Identification, and Intervention for School Refusal and Other Attendance Problems: Introduction to the Special Series

The literature on school attendance problems (SAPs) is diverse and sometimes confusing, but it is also promising. This special series presents seven articles and a discussion that attest to the diversity, complexity, and exciting developments associated with SAPs. While some articles focus on school refusal in particular, others have relevance for school refusal, truancy, and other types of SAPs. Collectively, the seven articles provide direction in thinking about two key questions: (1) How can SAPs best be classified and identified?; and (2) Which innovative approaches can be applied when a SAP is severe, chronic, and/or complex? In this way the series has direct relevance for Tiers 1 and 3 of the Response to Intervention model for managing school absenteeism (Kearney & Graczyk, 2014). Three innovative treatment programs presented in this series illustrate ways in which mental health interventions and educational interventions can be combined to address Tier 3 SAPs. The discussion article presents thought-provoking reflections on the topics covered in the seven articles and on the gaps in practice and research in the field of SAPs. You are invited to critically and creatively respond to the ideas offered in this series.     

Immigration and the popularization of social science, 1920 to 1930

This article examines how social scientists presented their views on immigration to readers of popular magazines from 1920 to 1930, a period of public debate on the merits of immigration restriction. By comparing the content of these magazine articles with professional journal articles on immigration, the representativeness of the social scientific material presented to the public can be assessed. While similar issues were discussed in popular and professional articles, social scientists writing popular articles were more likely to support an outmoded racial interpretation of immigration. Their resulting support of immigration restriction was not representative of the dominant cultural perspective held by most social scientists. Thus, readers looking to social scientists for an “informed opinion” were not given an accurate impression of social scientific thought on immigration.     

Virtual special issue on theory and research on collective action in the European Journal of Social Psychology

This virtual special issue presents a collection of 23 articles that present theory and research on collective action in the European Journal of Social Psychology. The articles are organized according to four major themes that emerged. In the first section, articles on identification with the disadvantaged group, identification with the superordinate group, and identity content as predictors of collective action are summarized. The second section combines articles examining the role of sociostructural variables (permeability, legitimacy, and stability) for collective action. The third section comprises articles on the psychological implications of sociostructural variables (emotions, efficacy beliefs, threat perceptions) as predictors of collective action. In the final section, articles that highlight the dynamic perspective on collective action are presented. This issue contains articles on collective action conducted by disadvantaged groups, advantaged groups, and opinion‐based groups. After the conceptual overview, commonalities and distinctions between the articles are highlighted, and some directions for future research are outlined. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How prevalent is contextual information in research on school bullying?

Empirical articles on school bullying need to give contextual details of the study, including on participants (number, age, gender), the country in which data was gathered, and the year in which it was gathered. We argue that these are important aspects of information, and that country and year of data collection cannot be inferred unambiguously unless they are explicitly stated. We report an analysis of contextual information on a sample of 201 articles, from 1976 to 2015, on school bullying. The great majority of studies gave information on number and age of participants, and most on gender balance. Most also gave explicit information on the country in which data was gathered. However only about one quarter of articles gave information on the date (year) in which data was gathered. For those that did, the average gap from data gathering to publication was 4 years, with a range of 1 to 11 years. We argue that the date of data collection is an important historical aspect, as many societal changes, even over a period of a few years, can impact on prevalence and nature of bullying. We recommend that besides participant and country information, year of data collection is routinely given in empirical articles on school bullying.     

An approach to the study of determiners in early language development

The definite and indefinite articles (the and a) are usually regarded as being a contrastive system. Either the or a is required with a noun, depending on certain semantic and pragmatic considerations. Developmental research views the child as progressively attaining appropriate (adult) use of the two forms. However, both historical and recent developmental evidence indicates that the articles should be incorporated into a total system of determination, including both verbal and nonverbal determiners. A single experiment is described to show 3-year-old children's use of the articles (and other determiners). Several functions of the articles within the two conditions of the experimental context were elicited, as were other verbal (e.g., this, that) and nonverbal (e.g., a point) determiners. It is argued that instead of regarding the child's use of the articles as correct or incorrect, we should look at the form and function of those determiners used and omitted and consider why they are elicited.     

Family Therapy in the Forbidden City: A Review of Chinese Journals From 1978 to 2006

This article provides a glimpse into the development of family therapy in China, by reviewing family therapy articles written in Chinese and published in journals in China that are not, therefore, readily accessible to the international community. A content analysis of journals published between 1978 and 2006 revealed 199 family therapy articles in 109 Chinese journals. Most of the studies were conducted by psychiatry or medical professionals, and were based on general systems theory or a systemic family therapy model. The articles focused on the promotion of family therapy theories and interventions in China, but did not specify the application of theory to specific clientele or symptoms. After the year 2000, a threefold increase in the number of family therapy publications was noted. These papers included the introduction of additional theories, but did not include critical assessment of the applicability of Western family therapy models to Chinese families. The researchers noted an absence of articles that identified Chinese approaches to family therapy, and a paucity of papers on gender, professional reflection, and the therapy process. The article concludes that there is room for improvement in the quality of family therapy publications in China, and that gains may be made by interdisciplinary collaboration among academics and practitioners.     

Sexual Assault in Intimate Relationships: Introduction to Special Issue

ABSTRACT

The 13 articles in this special issue draw from the experience of women and men in Australia, Canada, Denmark, India, Micronesia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Vietnam, and the US to shed light on the complex problem of accounting for Intimate Partner Sexual Violence (IPSV) in a globalizing world. As a collection, the articles draw from qualitative methodologies in social science and humanities privileging local narratives drawn through interviews, focus groups, participant observation and historical surveys. This special issue presents articles from multiple disciplinary vantage points that seek to bring to the fore insight drawn from the close reading of sexual violence in varied global cultural contexts. The collection of articles challenges the idea that there is a universal way to understand and measure IPSV. Together the articles demonstrate key elements of the disconnect between local understandings and the assumed universality of concepts that undergird most sexual violence research. Congruent with our previous work, the challenge of the work in the cross-cultural perspective taken by this special issue lies in the acknowledgement that the ways we account for and define sexual violence in intimate (dating, cohabiting and marital) relationships is culturally-situated and must be contextualized as such. This cross-cultural perspective values the conceptual insight that can be drawn from cultural difference and pushes against a homogenization of notions of sexual violence in studies within global societies as well as those that work to compare them.     

Anger in Wikipedia: Perceived intentionality and threat appraisal as mediators of anger about man‐made attacks

The online encyclopedia Wikipedia has established strict guidelines for the objectivity of content. At the same time, Wikipedia includes articles on negative events, such as disasters or man‐made attacks. These events can elicit strong emotions, which in turn may spill over into Wikipedia articles. Previous research has shown that Wikipedia articles on man‐made attacks contain more anger‐related content than Wikipedia articles on disasters. Building on these findings, we aimed to investigate whether the threat that Wikipedia authors experience when they learn of an attack is relevant as a factor in explaining the anger effect. Threat is known to elicit active and engaged reactions, such as anger, which is why it is a likely explaining factor. Our research also aimed to replicate the findings from the linguistic analysis of the Wikipedia articles using controlled scenario‐based laboratory experiments. Three studies demonstrated that man‐made attacks (terrorist attack, shooting rampage) elicited more threat, more anger, and more expressions of anger‐related content in Wikipedia texts than nature‐made disasters (earthquake, flood) and man‐made disasters (train accident). Moreover, threat was relevant as a factor in explaining the effects on anger and anger‐related content in the Wikipedia texts. These mediations could be explained by the perceived intentionality of the event. This research highlights the findings that perceived intentionality and threat are relevant mediating factors for feelings and expressions of anger after man‐made attacks.     

Emotions, personality, and health: introduction to the special issue

Our intent in this introduction to the special issue on Emotions, Personality, and Health is to alert readers to the logic underlying the editors' choices of topics for the issue and to provide a brief summary of its contents. We discuss how the 10 articles fit together to provide a mosaic of diverse approaches to the study of emotion. Collectively, these articles show ways that emotion research may be integrated with personality theory to inform us about the psychological dimensions of health and illness.