Multicultural Education and Perceived Multicultural Competency of School Counselors

A national survey of practicing school counselors (N = 755) revealed significant differences between participants’ perceived multicultural competence based on the type of multicultural training received. Participants who took infused multicultural coursework had significantly higher mean scores in multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills than participants who reported taking a single multicultural course. Una encuesta nacional de consejeros escolares en activo (N = 755) reveló diferencias significativas en la competencia multicultural percibida de los participantes según el tipo de capacitación multicultural recibida. Los participantes que tomaron cursos que incluían contenidos multiculturales obtuvieron puntajes medios significativamente más altos en consciencia, conocimientos y habilidades multiculturales que aquellos participantes que indicaron haber tomado un único curso multicultural.     

Determinants of loneliness of young adult drug users

Loneliness is a subjective experience that is influenced by such variables as personality, life experiences, and situation. In the present study, the author examined the connection between the use of ecstasy (MDMA) and the antecedents of loneliness. MDMA users were compared with non-MDMA drug users and with a group of young adults in the general population who did not use drugs. A total of 818 participants from all 3 groups volunteered to answer a 30-item yes-no questionnaire reflecting on their experiences of loneliness and what caused them. Results showed that the predominant causes of loneliness were personal inadequacies, developmental deficits, unfulfilling intimate relationships, relocation or significant separations, and social marginality. There were significant differences between the scores of the MDMA users and scores of the other groups. Gender differences between and within groups were also examined.     

Strategies of coping with loneliness throughout the lifespan

There is a great diversity in the available strategies for coping with loneliness. The present study examined the influence of age and gender on coping with loneliness. Seven hundred and eleven participants from all walks of life volunteered to answer an 86 item yes/no questionnaire, reflecting on the beneficial coping strategies, which they have used to deal with the pain of loneliness. Four age groups were compared: youth (13–18 years old), young adults (19–30 years old), adults (31–58 years old) and seniors (60–80 years old). Within and between gender comparisons were also done. Results revealed that loneliness is approached and dealt with more effectively by the adult group, and that women appear to cope better than men do with loneliness.     

EFFECTS OF AND PREFERENCE FOR PAY FOR PERFORMANCE: AN ANALOGUE ANALYSIS

We examined the effects of 2 payment systems on the rate of check processing and time spent on task by participants in a simulated work setting. Three participants experienced individual pay‐for‐performance (PFP) without base pay and pay‐for‐time (PFT) conditions. In the last phase, we asked participants to choose which system they preferred. For all participants, the PFP condition produced higher rates of check processing and more time spent on task than did the PFT condition, but choice of payment system varied both within and across participants.     

Bodily Disorientation and Moral Change

Neglect of the moral promise of disorientation is a persistent gap in even the most sophisticated philosophies of embodiment. In this article, I begin to correct this neglect by expanding our sense of the range and nature of disoriented experience and proposing new visions of disorientation as benefiting moral agency. Disorientations are experienced through complex interactions of corporeal, affective, and cognitive processes, and are characterized by feelings of shock, surprise, unease, and discomfort; felt disorientations almost always make us unsure of how to go on. I argue that experiences of disorientation can strengthen the moral agency of individuals. I begin by clarifying experiences of felt ease and orientation. I then characterize disoriented embodiment by investigating select experiences that often involve or accompany disorientation, focusing throughout on how disorientation prompts changes in motivation and action. I conclude by charting how disoriented embodiments can help individuals become better moral agents overall, in part by challenging norms that restrict embodiment and undermining dualistic conceptions of the self.     

Altered face scanning and impaired recognition of biological motion in a 15-month-old infant with autism

Mounting clinical evidence suggests that abnormalities of social engagement in children with autism are present even during infancy. However, direct experimental documentation of these abnormalities is still limited. In this case report of a 15-month-old infant with autism, we measured visual fixation patterns to both naturalistic and ambiguous social stimuli: video scenes of a caregiver and point-light animations of human action. Results suggested that viewing patterns of the child with autism were driven by the physical contingencies of the stimuli rather than by their social context. If corroborated in larger studies, this observation would advance the hypothesis that mechanisms of social development which rely on preferential engagement with socially contingent conspecifics - and which emerge in the very first weeks of life in typical infants - are developmentally derailed in children with autism.     

Studying visual search using systems factorial methodology with target-distractor similarity as the factor

Systems factorial technology (SFT) is a theory-driven set of methodologies oriented toward identification of basic mechanisms, such as parallel versus serial processing, of perception and cognition. Studies employing SFT in visual search with small display sizes have repeatedly shown decisive evidence for parallel processing. The first strong evidence for serial processing was recently found in short-term memory search, using target-distractor (T-D) similarity as a key experimental variable (Townsend & Fifi?, 2004). One of the major goals of the present study was to employ T-D similarity in visual search to learn whether this mode of manipulating processing speed would affect the parallel versus serial issue in that domain. The result was a surprising and regular departure from ordinary parallel or serial processing. The most plausible account at present relies on the notion of positively interacting parallel channels.     

Coping with loneliness in old age: a cross-cultural comparison

The present study is an examination of the influence of cultural background on the ways in which the aged cope with loneliness. Thirty-six participants from Canada and 105 from Portugal (60-83 years old) answered an 86-item questionnaire which examined thebeneficial strategies which they used to cope with loneliness. The strategies which were examined included Acceptance and Reflection, Self-Development and Understanding, Social Support Network, Distancing and Denial, Religion and Faith, and Increased Activity. Results indicated that the elderly of the two cultures differ on three subscales. Gender differences between and within cultures were also examined.     

Dimensions of loneliness among Canadian and Czech youth: A cross-national study

The present study examined the influence of cultural background on the causes of adolescents' loneliness. Eighty Canadian youth and 168 adolescents from the Czech Republic formed the participants pool. They answered a thirty-item yes/ no questionnaire. The questionnaire is composed of five subscales, namely: Personal Inadequacies, Developmental Deficits, Unfulfilling Intimate Relationships, Relocation/Significant Separations, and Social Marginality. Results revealed a mixed pattern of differences between the two cultures. Canadian youth had lower mean scores on Personal Inadequacies and Developmental Deficits, but scored higher on Social Marginality. Gender differences within and between the cultures were also examined. Both genders in the Czech Republic had higher mean scores than their Canadian counterparts.