Experiences of Adults Who Identify as Primary Caregivers

The role of primary caregiver is unique. Understanding the role of the primary caregiver will better inform those in the counseling profession. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to gain a clearer perspective of the lived experiences of adults who identify as primary caregivers. The authors conducted semistructured interviews with 6 Caucasian female participants and analyzed the data using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings include personal perceptions and caregiver experiences pertaining to the caregiver role, caregiver mentality, professional identity, social and emotional responses, and self‐care among caregivers throughout the caregiving process. Implications for counselors and future research are presented.     

The Name Game: How Naming Products Increases Psychological Ownership and Subsequent Consumer Evaluations

Naming products is quite prevalent in American culture; however, we are not aware of any consumer research that explores the effects of this phenomenon. Across three studies, we demonstrate that when consumers name products, their evaluations of those products increase (e.g., attitudes, purchase intentions, and willingness to accept). We find that name fit and creativity as well as subsequent psychological ownership drive this effect. We also demonstrate that the naming effect is quite robust—replicating across multiple products, presentation formats, and populations as well as persisting over time. These results contribute to consumer research by opening up a new substantive line of inquiry into the effects of naming products.     

Parameters of Time-out: Research Update and Comparison to Parenting Programs,Books, and Online Recommendations

In reviews published more than 30 years ago, eight parameters important to the use of time-out were identified and available research was summarized. The purpose of the current paper is to provide an updated summary of existing research for each parameter of time-out. Within each parameter, we conducted a thorough review of the published literature and identified all peer-reviewed articles addressing each parameter. We identified and summarized a total of 46 articles across the eight parameters, including 32 not cited in previous reviews. Sufficient findings were available to draw conclusions regarding time-out warning, schedule of time-out, contingent versus noncontingent release, and duration. Tentative conclusions based on only a few studies could be drawn in regard to instructional versus physical administration and verbalized reason for time-out. No conclusions could be drawn regarding time-out signal and specific time-out location. While we know much more today regarding effective implementation of time-out, there is a clear need for further exploration within these identified parameters. In addition to summarizing the literature, we reviewed recommendations made by behavioral parent training programs, parenting books, and parenting Web sites, and compared how well their recommendations matched current research based on the conclusions drawn from our review. We found that parenting sources made strong and specific recommendations on several of the parameters that were either not consistent with available research or simply lacked a sufficient research base.     

Examining the factor structure of narrative meaning-making for stressful events and relations with psychological distress

This study examined the underlying factor structure of 15 narrative meaning-making indices for narratives of stressful events, and explored the incremental validity of the narrative factor solution over and above general personality traits in predicting various indices of psychological well-being. Two-hundred and twenty four undergraduates (M_age?=?19.2 years, SD_age?=?2.1; 114 males and 110 females; 67.6% Caucasian, 12.0% East Asian, 7.6% African-American, 4.0% South Asian, 2.2% Hispanic, and 6.7% as mixed or Other origin) wrote about the most traumatic experience in their life, and completed a series of psychological questionnaires. The narratives were coded in 15 ways theoretically derived from the narrative meaning-making literature. A series of exploratory structural equation models indicated that a four-factor solution best approximated the data. The four factors were: positive processing, negative processing, integrative meaning, and structure. All four factors related differentially to indices of well-being over and above traits. There appear to be four distinct, but related, factors of narrative meaning-making for memories of stressful events, which shed light on the nuanced relations with well-being.     

Low Working Memory rather than ADHD Symptoms Predicts Poor Academic Achievement in School-Aged Children

This study examined whether working memory (WM), inattentive symptoms, and/or hyperactive/impulsive symptoms significantly contributed to academic, behavioral, and global functioning in 8-year-old children. One-hundred-sixty 8-year-old children (75.6% male), who were originally recruited as preschoolers, completed subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition, Integrated and Wechsler Individual Achievement Test–Second Edition to assess WM and academic achievement, respectively. Teachers rated children’s academic and behavioral functioning using the Vanderbilt Rating Scale. Global functioning, as rated by clinicians, was assessed by the Children’s Global Assessment Scale. Multiple linear regressions were completed to determine the extent to which WM (auditory-verbal and visual-spatial) and/or inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptom severity significantly contributed to academic, behavioral, and/or global functioning. Both auditory-verbal and visual-spatial WM but not ADHD symptom severity, significantly and independently contributed to measures of academic achievement (all p < 0.01). In contrast, both WM and inattention symptoms (p < 0.01), but not hyperactivity-impulsivity (p > 0.05) significantly contributed to teacher-ratings of academic functioning. Further, inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity (p < 0.04), but not WM (p > 0.10) were significantly associated with teacher-ratings of behavioral functioning and clinician-ratings of global functioning. Taken together, it appears that WM in children may be uniquely related to academic skills, but not necessarily to overall behavioral functioning.     

Suicidal–Homicidal Ideation in Mass Killers and Transcendence

This article examines the role that suicidal–homicidal ideation plays in influencing mass killers and draws on the author’s concept of transcendent fantasy theory. Although numerous researchers touch on the fact that 50% of mass killers commit suicide, few have traced and compared the suicidal person’s fantasy process with that of the suicidal–homicidal killer’s fantasy process. Suicidal individuals tend to be intropunitive. They internalize the blame for real or imagined failures, and they seek to escape from such failures, or to inflict punishment on him- or herself for the same reasons. Mass killers externalize the blame for their real or imagined losses. Due to their mordant bitterness toward self and others, these suicidal–homicidal individuals often fantasize not only about escaping, but transcending their feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and worthlessness by having society see them as powerful, clever, and superior for pulling off a massacre and making (in their view) oppressive people pay.