From scapegoating to thinking and finding a home: delivering therapeutic work in schools

This paper discusses how the child psychotherapist's core skills can be usefully applied in a school setting. It outlines some of the important policy changes that have necessitated a move towards delivering therapeutic work in community settings such as schools. It is argued that the role of the child psychotherapist in schools has much in common with the role played by the psychotherapist in a therapeutic community. The paper suggests that therapy in schools is in many ways less simple than therapy in clinic settings, and in particular it is often unclear who exactly the client is and at what level to intervene when a referral is made. The referred patient is not necessarily the ‘problem’, so that the child psychotherapist must be prepared to tackle issues in the system to ensure that splitting and projection are reduced, and systems around children can become more containing. Clinical vignettes and one main clinical illustration are used to try to illustrate these points.     

How Big is My Neighborhood? Individual and Contextual Effects on Perceptions of Neighborhood Scale

Neighborhood is a social and geographic concept that plays an increasingly important role in research and practice that address disparities in health and well-being of populations. However, most studies of neighborhoods, as well as community initiatives geared toward neighborhood improvement, make simplifying assumptions about boundaries, often relying on census geography to operationalize the neighborhood units. This study used geographic information system (GIS) tools to gather and analyze neighborhood maps drawn by residents of low-income communities in 10 cities. The median resident map size was approximately 30 percent smaller than the median census tract, but 25 percent of residents viewed their neighborhood as quite small (less than one-fifth of the typical census tract). Multi-level modeling showed significant within context variation in perceived neighborhood scale. Longer term residents with higher education and income and who were more engaged in the neighborhood held more expansive views. But there were also contextual influences with higher density and mixed use areas associated with smaller perceived neighborhoods, and higher collective efficacy associated with larger neighborhood sizes. Artificially imposed neighborhood units may misrepresent resident experience, but GIS tools can be used to craft more authentic neighborhood definitions for research and practice.     

Single-digit Arabic numbers do not automatically activate magnitude representations in adults or in children: Evidence from the symbolic same–different task

We investigated whether the mere presentation of single-digit Arabic numbers activates their magnitude representations using a visually-presented symbolic same–different task for 20 adults and 15 children. Participants saw two single-digit Arabic numbers on a screen and judged whether the numbers were the same or different. We examined whether reaction time in this task was primarily driven by (objective or subjective) perceptual similarity, or by the numerical difference between the two digits. We reasoned that, if Arabic numbers automatically activate magnitude representations, a numerical function would best predict reaction time; but if Arabic numbers do not automatically activate magnitude representations, a perceptual function would best predict reaction time. Linear regressions revealed that a perceptual function, specifically, subjective visual similarity, was the best and only significant predictor of reaction time in adults and in children. These data strongly suggest that, in this task, single-digit Arabic numbers do not necessarily automatically activate magnitude representations in adults or in children. As the first study to date to explicitly study the developmental importance of perceptual factors in the symbolic same–different task, we found no significant differences between adults and children in their reliance on perceptual information in this task. Based on our findings, we propose that visual properties may play a key role in symbolic number judgements.     

Relations between risk perceptions and socio-political ideology are domain- and ideology- dependent

Public policy intended to address risks is largely determined by government officials who are typically elected by ‘the people’. Lay people presumably support political figures most likely to tackle the risks perceived as relevant. The present research investigated whether risk perceptions vary by risk domain and socio-political ideology. American community adults (N = 387) recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk completed measures of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), social dominance orientation (SDO), political conservatism, and perceived domain risks. Risk perceptions of conservatives versus liberals systematically differed by domain: Increases in political conservatism (vs. liberalism) and RWA were associated with perceiving “personal danger” hazards as more risky, whereas increases in SDO were associated with perceiving “competitive” hazards as less risky. A liberal-orientation was associated with heightened risk concerning collective (shared) hazards.     

The happy cyclist: Examining the association between generalized authoritarianism and subjective well-being

Although authoritarianism can negatively impact others (e.g., by predicting prejudiced intergroup attitudes), implications for the self are mixed and require clarification. Extending previous research, we examined the association between generalized authoritarianism (GA, indicated by right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation) and subjective well-being (SWB, indicated by positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) by testing simultaneously the general-level association between GA and SWB as well as specific residual associations between GA and SWB components, independent of basic personality dimensions. We observed a significant general-level association between GA and SWB whereby heightened authoritarianism predicted greater SWB. No residual associations were found between specific GA and SWB components. Despite being “bad” for others, generalized authoritarianism may be “good” for the self.     

Transnationalism and Its Personal and Social Consequences for Chinese Transmigrants

In this essay, I investigate the origins of Chinese migrant transnationalism and its personal and social consequences. I propose a theoretical perspective that turns on a synthesis that I shall call “cultural functionalism,” a synthesis that attempts to reconcile functionalism and postmodernism. My argument is that Chinese transmigrants overcome (post)modern alienation through a two-way approach: first, a strong participation in and full commitment to community development and connectivity within the Chinese diaspora; and, second, a religio-cultural renaissance—both being conceived of as constituting a putative “cultural contract” and “social capital” nexus.     

The Return of the Native: Globalization and the Adaptive Responses of Transmigrants

The intent of this study is to examine the adaptive responses of Hong Kong transmigrants and their transnational and transcultural practices in terms of their consequent behavioral and emotional patterns. Their transnational practices and relative adaptability can be explained with Robert Merton's (1957) “strain theory.” More specifically, the study aims to identify, describe, and explain the variety of behavioral patterns and modes of emotional manifestations of adaptation of Hong Kong returnees, and to identify their individual and collective strategies of adaptation to help them solve their adjustment and integration problems in their adopted countries.     

Fear,excitement, and financial risk-taking

Can fear trigger risk-taking? In this paper, we assess whether fear can be reinterpreted as a state of excitement as a result of contextual cues and promote, rather than discourage, risk-taking. In a laboratory experiment, the participants' emotional states were induced (fear vs. control), followed by a purportedly unrelated financial task. The task was framed as either a stock market investment or an exciting casino game. Our results showed that incidental fear (vs. control) induced risk-averse behaviour when the task was framed as a stock investment decision. However, fear encouraged risk-taking when the very same task was framed as an exciting casino game. The impact of fear on risk-taking was partially mediated by the excitement felt during the financial task.     

表达形式影响自我积极偏向的表现:来自P200的证据

该研究运用事件相关电位技术,采用肯定和否定的表达方式呈现自我参照任务,探讨不同表达方式对自我积极偏向效应的影响。实验一中,行为数据显示,自我积极偏向效应表现的并不完整;ERP数据显示,P200波幅的结果与行为数据结果相一致。实验二中,行为数据显示,自我积极偏向效应表现得完整;ERP数据显示,P200成分上并未产生任何实验效应。综合两个实验结果,证明了不同表达方式对自我积极偏向效应的表现存在影响。导致这种差异的根本原因可能在于两种表达方式造成的注意资源不同。