Validation of the Life Role Salience Scale in a South African setting

This study aimed to validate the Life Role Salience Scale (LRSS) in a South African context. Respondents were 300 working adults (72.3% = women; 57.9% = non-white; mean age = 35.12 years, SD = 10.25 years; mostly from the finance sector = 35.6%). Confirmatory factor and exploratory factor analyses were conducted to determine the LRSS’s factor structure and reliability of scores from the scale for the South African sample. Results yielded five factors emerging from the analyses: Homecare role reward value and homecare role commitment; marital role reward value and marital role commitment; occupational role commitment; occupational role value reward; and parental role reward value. The reliability of scores from the LRSS ranged from 0.79 (parental role reward value) to 0.95 (homecare role reward value and homecare role commitment). The LRSS shows validity for research use in South Africa.     

Lucky achievement: virtue epistemology on the value of knowledge

Virtue epistemology argues that knowledge is more valuable than Gettierized belief because knowledge is an achievement, but Gettierized belief is not. The key premise in the achievement argument is that achievement is apt (successful because competent) and Gettierized belief is inapt (successful because lucky). I first argue that the intuition behind the achievement argument is based wrongly on the fact that ‘being successful because lucky’ implicates ‘being not competent enough’. I then offer an argument from moral luck to argue that virtue epistemologists should maintain that knowledge is no more valuable than Gettierized belief.     

Cognitive factors associated with depression and anxiety in adolescents: A two-year longitudinal study

Background/Objective: To examine the roles of anxiety sensitivity and attentional bias in the development of anxiety and depression symptoms among adolescents. Method: 214 grade 7 to grade 10 Hong Kong Chinese students completed a package of psychometric inventories to measure levels of anxiety sensitivity, selective attentional processing, and anxiety and depressive symptoms in 2016 and then again in 2017. Results: Girls, when compared with boys, exhibited more anxiety symptoms and anxiety sensitivity in 2016. They also reported a significant increase in mean depression level from 2016 to 2017. Regression analyses revealed that the physical-concerns dimension of anxiety sensitivity, positive attentional bias, and to a lesser extent negative attentional bias were related to the development of both anxiety and depression symptoms one year later. Fear of mental incapacity could predict depression one year later but not anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: Intervention through anxiety sensitivity training to reduce somatic concerns and attentional bias modification to increase habitual attention to positive stimuli and to disengage from negative stimuli can reduce anxiety and depression symptoms among high school students.     

Pathological Dissociation and Its Relationships with Aggression and Delinquency in a College Student Sample in Hong Kong

Pathological dissociation is widely regarded as a cross-culturally occurring condition related to trauma and adversity and is an important construct in the mental health field. Yet, the frequency of pathological dissociation in both clinical and nonclinical populations in Hong Kong remains unknown. In addition, the relationship of pathological dissociation with aggression and delinquency requires further investigation. To investigate these relationships, we administered the Dissociative Experiences Scale-Taxon (DES-T), the 5-item Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire (SDQ-5), selected sections from the Self-Report Version of the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule (SR-DDIS), the Reactive–Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ), and a delinquent behaviors checklist to 177 college students in Hong Kong. The findings suggest that pathological dissociation is not as rare as it is traditionally believed to be in Hong Kong. In our sample, 4.52% of the participants may have a DSM-5 dissociative disorder (including other specified dissociative disorder) while 9.60% met the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD). Our findings indicate that the RPQ total score and delinquency may be more characteristic of BPD than of pathological dissociation. In addition, while reactive aggression was related to pathological dissociation and BPD symptoms in both genders, proactive aggression was related to pathological dissociation and BPD symptoms only in females. Although the findings of this study are preliminary and the results should be interpreted with caution, the study provides the first data regarding pathological dissociation and its relationship with aggression and delinquency in Hong Kong. Some implications for research and practice are highlighted. Further investigation of pathological dissociation in Hong Kong is necessary. In addition, more studies are essential to further examine the relationships between pathological dissociation, aggression, and delinquency in both clinical and nonclinical populations.     

The Satisfaction with Life Scale in Adolescent Samples: Measurement Invariance across 24 Countries and Regions,Age, and Gender

Measurement of adolescent life satisfaction across cultures has not received much attention in previous empirical research. The present study evaluated measurement invariance of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) among adolescents in 24 countries and regions (N = 22,710; age range = 13–19 years; 53% female). A single-factor model with residual covariance between a pair of items tapping past life satisfaction fitted well in 19 countries and regions and showed a partial metric invariance. In a subset of nine countries and regions, partial scalar invariance was supported. Partial metric invariance across all 24 countries and regions was achieved when custom model modifications in five countries and regions were included. Three SWLS items showed evidence of noninvariance across cultures. The measurement model was found to operate similarly across gender and age. Our findings suggest that caution is needed when using the SWLS for measuring life satisfaction among adolescents from different cultures.

     

Forgiveness in the context of developmental guidance: implementation and evaluation

This study examined the implementation of forgiveness as a guidance programme with Hong Kong Chinese adolescents in the classroom setting. The forgiveness programme was based on Enright's process model of forgiveness. The effectiveness of the programme was evaluated, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings showed that it is viable to promote forgiveness as a classroom guidance programme. Though no significant improvement in participants' self-esteem and hope was found, participants showed a better understanding of forgiveness, had a more positive attitude towards their offenders, and were more willing to apply forgiveness as a strategy. They also evaluated the forgiveness programme positively, specifically the use of an experiential approach. The implications of this study for student guidance and counselling were discussed.     

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.     

Abusive supervision and subordinate supervisor‐directed deviance: The moderating role of traditional values and the mediating role of revenge cognitions

This study examined the link between abusive supervision and subordinate supervisor‐directed deviance by focusing on the moderating role of traditionality and the mediating role of revenge cognitions directed towards supervisors. The results of analysing 283 supervisor–subordinate dyads in six private electronic companies and 222 supervisor–subordinate dyads in two state‐owned oil and gas companies in the People's Republic of China showed that abusive supervision was positively related to revenge cognitions directed towards supervisors and to supervisor‐directed deviance. In addition, traditionality moderated the above relationships such that they were stronger among low traditionalists than among high ones, while revenge cognitions mediated the main effect of abusive supervision and the interactive effect of abusive supervision and traditionality on supervisor‐directed deviance.