Aboriginal perceptions of social and emotional wellbeing programs: A systematic review of literature assessing social and emotional wellbeing programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians perspectives

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been targets of social and emotional wellbeing programs for many years. However, the few health-care programs and services that are evaluated rarely provide insight into the participants' perspectives of program success or failure. This systematic review assessed 33 social and emotional wellbeing programs across Australia to better understand what Aboriginal community members think about the programs and how they could be improved. Results highlighted the interesting and valuable insights provided by Aboriginal participants, including what kinds of program activities and approaches are most suitable, what program characteristics are successful or desired, and their experiences of wellbeing change before and after program participation. They likewise voiced opinions about poorly received programs, culturally inappropriate services and negative experiences. This review highlighted how health and wellbeing programs must better engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients to ensure that services are culturally safe, holistic, integrate appropriate staffing, include culturally relevant activities and value patient/participant experiences. These findings have significant implications for the health and wellbeing sector; specifically, research, policy, program design and implementation, evaluation methods, and self-determination.     

Linking academic social environments, ego-identity formation, ego virtues, and academic success

This study used Structural Equation Modeling to test an Eriksonian conceptual model linking academic social environments (relationships with faculty and fellow students), ego-identity formation, ego virtues, and academic success. Participants included 765 first-year students at a university in southern Ontario, Canada. Results indicated that supportive relationships with faculty was directly related to higher average grades and perceived academic ability, whereas positive relationships with fellow students was indirectly related to academic success through ego virtues. Positive ego-identity formation (identity achievement) was also indirectly related to academic success through ego virtues.     

Using Transactional Analysis and Mental Imagery to Help Shame‐Based Identity Adults Make Peace With Their Past

Development of a shame‐based identity, also known as toxic shame, can significantly interfere with an adult's ability to form an intimate relationship with another. As adults find peace from their past using transactional analysis and mental imagery, they learn to empower themselves to form healthy, intimate relationships.     

Do young children rehearse? An individual-differences analysis

The issue of whether young children rehearse in auditory memory tasks was investigated across a series of three studies comparing individual differences in articulation rates and memory spans. Applying the principles of the working-memory model, children with faster rates of speaking should have superior memory spans if they engage in rehearsal. Two of the experiments, with 4-year-old children, failed to establish any significant association between articulation rate and memory span, although both the memory span and articulation rate procedures were found to be highly reliable in this age group A third experiment confirmed that, as expected, articulation rates and memory spans were significantly associated with one another in adult subjects. The results indicate that, contrary to recent theories of children’s short-term-memory development, 4-year-old children do not engage in subvocal rehearsal during auditory memory span tasks.     

Information processing in chronic pain disorder: A preliminary analysis

Researchers have alternately suggested selective attention, impaired stimulus filtering, and affective language deficiency models as accounting for multiple somatic complaints in persons with chronic pain disorder. The purpose of the present study was to establish the comparative usefulness of these three models for explaining somatic focus in a chronic pain population. Nine chronic pain patients evidencing high somatic focus (somatizing chronic pain patients), 10 chronic pain patients evidencing low somatic focus (nonsomatizing chronic pain patients), and 10 healthy control subjects were administered a computerized version of the emotional Stroop test as a test of these models. A total of 105 pain-, depression-, and neutral-content words were used as Stroop test stimuli. Stroop test color-naming response latencies were submitted to a two-way Group × Word Type mixed-model ANOVA, with Word Type as the repeated measure. Results reveal that neither the selective attention model nor the affective language deficiency model adequately explain Stroop test performance in somatizing chronic pain patients. Findings provide tentative support for the impaired stimulus filtering model, with somatizing chronic pain patients evidencing similar Stroop test response delays across all words. These results suggest that chronic pain sufferers misinterpret bodily sensations. Findings are discussed in terms of a bilevel approach for treatment of somatizing chronic pain patients that would include assisting the patient in accurate appraisal and interpretation of physical symptoms.     

Situational moderators of gender differences in reward allocations

This experiment investigated the impact of four variables, hypothesized to convey cues as to sex-role appropriate behavior, on gender differences in reward allocations between self and a co-worker. These variables were: expectations for future interactions with the co-worker, sex of co-worker, type of reward, and type of allocation decision. Males and females were asked to indicate how they would allocate money or course points between themselves and a same or opposite sex co-worker with inferior performance. Females allocated either type of reward more equitably than males when making independent allocations. When making joint (zero-sum) allocations, however, both sexes allocated rewards more equitably with a same-sex co-worker than with an opposite-sex co-worker when future interaction with the co-worker was expected. Grades were seen as more important than money by both sexes, and both men and women allocated course points more equitably than money. Type of reward did not, however, differentially affect men's and women's allocation patterns. Overall, independent allocations were more equitable than joint allocations. Results are discussed as suggesting that gender differences in reward allocations are not a result of inherent personality differences between the sexes but rather reflect the influence of situational factors that can arouse sex-role specific self-presentational concerns.