A Step in the Right Direction: Measuring Indicators of Responsible Community Engagement in Samburu,Kenya

Journal of Academic Ethics - The inclusion of stakeholders and knowledge systems is increasingly valued in research to address complex socio-ecological challenges around the world. Often these...     

Ministry-Related Burnout and Stress Coping Mechanisms Among <Emphasis Type="Italic">Assemblies of God</Emphasis>-Ordained Clergy in Minnesota

Clergy members suffering from burnout face both personal and professional complications. This study assessed occupational burnout and stress coping mechanisms among ministers affiliated with the Assemblies of God, a denomination that has received little attention in previous burnout-related studies. A cross-sectional design was employed using two instruments with acceptable psychometric properties. Approximately 65 % of those surveyed were either suffering from burnout or on the verge of burnout. Statistical differences in coping mechanism use were found between those who were and were not experiencing some level of burnout. The results of this study add to the existing understanding of occupational burnout among clergy members and ways in which burnout may be alleviated.     

Change in maternal criticism and behavior problems in adolescents and adults with autism across a 7-year period

In a previous study, high levels of maternal criticism predicted increased behavior problems in adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) over an 18-month period (Greenberg, Seltzer, Hong, & Orsmond, 2006). The current investigation followed these families over a period of 7 years to examine the longitudinal course of criticism and behavior problems, to assess the association between their trajectories, and to determine the degree to which change in each of these factors predicted levels of criticism and behavior problems at the end of the study period. A sample of 118 mothers coresiding with their adolescent and adult children with ASD provided open-ended narratives about their children and reported on the children's behavior problems at 4 waves. Maternal criticism was derived from expressed emotion ratings of the narratives. Criticism exhibited low but significant stability over the 7-year period, and behavior problems exhibited high stability. Through latent growth curve modeling, (a) criticism was found to have increased over time, but only for the group of families in which the sons or daughters transitioned from high school services during the study period; (b) individual changes in criticism and behavior problems were positively correlated over the 7-year period; and (c) changes in criticism predicted levels of behavior problems at the conclusion of the study. Changes in behavior problems were not predictive of end levels of criticism. Implications for intervention and prevention efforts are discussed.     

Modeling multiple risks during infancy to predict quality of the caregiving environment: contributions of a person-centered approach

The primary goal of this study was to compare several variable-centered and person-centered methods for modeling multiple risk factors during infancy to predict the quality of caregiving environments at six months of age. Nine risk factors related to family demographics and maternal psychosocial risk, assessed when children were two months old, were explored in the understudied population of children born in low-income, non-urban communities in Pennsylvania and North Carolina (N = 1047). These risk factors were (1) single (unpartnered) parent status, (2) marital status, (3) mother's age at first child birth, (4) maternal education, (5) maternal reading ability, (6) poverty status, (7) residential crowding, (8) prenatal smoking exposure, and (9) maternal depression. We compared conclusions drawn using a bivariate approach, multiple regression analysis, the cumulative risk index, and latent class analysis (LCA). The risk classes derived using LCA provided a more intuitive summary of how multiple risks were organized within individuals as compared to the other methods. The five risk classes were: married low-risk; married low-income; cohabiting multiproblem; single low-income; and single low-income/education. The LCA findings illustrated how the association between particular family configurations and the infants' caregiving environment quality varied across race and site. Discussion focuses on the value of person-centered models of analysis to understand complexities of prediction of multiple risk factors.     

Emotion-Focused Therapy: A Synopsis

The basic principles of an emotion-focused approach to therapy (EFT) are presented. In this view, emotion is seen as foundational in the construction of the self and is a key determinant of self-organization. As well as simply having emotion, people also live in a constant process of making sense of their emotions. Personal meaning emerges by the self-organization and explication of one’s own emotional experience, and optimal adaptation involves an integration of reason and emotion. In EFT, distinctions between different types of emotion (i.e., primary versus secondary, adaptive versus maladaptive) provide therapists with a map for differential intervention. Therapists are viewed as emotion coaches who help people become aware of, accept, and make sense of their emotional experience. Four major empirically supported principles of emotion awareness, emotion regulation, emotion transformation and reflection on emotion guide emotion coaching and serve as the goals of treatment. A case example illustrates how the principles of EFT helped a young woman to overcome her core maladaptive fears and mobilize her ability to protect herself.     

Existential Underpinnings of Approach and Avoidance of the Physical Body

In addition to enjoying pleasurable bodily activities, people appear threatened by the physical aspects of the body; they experience anxiety and inhibitions surrounding sex, eating, bodily appearance and functions. Based on terror management theory, we posit that people are dually motivated to approach the life-affirming properties of the physical body, and to avoid the physical or animalistic aspects of the body because of their association with death. This paper summarizes a substantial body of research, consisting of over twenty empirical studies, that identify personality and situational variables that interact with mortality concerns, moderating approach and avoidance attitudes and behaviors with respect to the physical body. We suggest that this dynamic motivation can go far in explaining the often observed ambivalence toward the body.     

The Talking Platypus Phenomenon: Competency Ratings as a Function of Sex and Professional Status

Ratings of vocational competence, marriageability, and interpersonal success were made by male and female subjects of a stimulus person described in a one-page, single-spaced biography. The sex and status of the stimulus person in the biography were manipulated such that for each biography half the subjects were led to believe it was about a male, half were led to believe it was about a female, half were led to believe that the individual was an attorney, and half were led to believe that the individual was a paralegal worker. The results indicated that both men and women perceived the female attorney as being the most vocationally competent. It was proposed that the increased ratings of vocational competency for the female attorney were a function of her performance being perceived as having occurred within a context replete with the types of constraints that usually obviate the degree of success she achieved. It was also suggested that the finding concerning vocational competence exemplifies the talking platypus phenomenon; that is, when an individual achieves a level of success not anticipated, his/her achievement tends to be magnified rather than diminished. After all, it matters little what the platypus says, the wonder is that it can say anything at all.     

The body as a source of self-esteem: the effect of mortality salience on identification with one's body, interest in sex, and appearance monitoring

The present research investigated the role of the physical body as a source of self-esteem and tested the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that reminding people of their mortality increases self-esteem striving in the form of identification with one's body, interest in sex, and appearance monitoring. The results revealed that individuals high in body esteem responded to mortality salience manipulations with increased identification with their physical bodies in Study 1 and with increased interest in sex in Study 2. Study 3 showed that reminders of death led to decreased appearance monitoring among appearance-oriented participants who were low in body esteem. These findings provide insight into why people often go to extreme lengths to meet cultural standards for the body and its appearance.