Taking offense: effects of personality and teasing history on behavioral and emotional reactions to teasing

This study investigated how global personality traits and teasing history are related to participants' emotional and behavioral reactions to an actual teasing event. College undergraduates (N = 108) worked on a task with a same-sex confederate. While interacting, the confederate either teased participants about how slowly they were working on the task or made a benign comment about the nature of the task. Analyses revealed that even mild teasing can generate negativity towards the teaser and interaction. More interestingly, however, personality moderated reactions to teasing, as teasing condition interacted with each of the Big Five personality domains in theoretically meaningful ways. Childhood teasing history also moderated reactions to teasing, as frequent victims and frequent teasers responded in different ways.     

Cues to deception

Do people behave differently when they are lying compared with when they are telling the truth? The combined results of 1,338 estimates of 158 cues to deception are reported. Results show that in some ways, liars are less forthcoming than truth tellers, and they tell less compelling tales. They also make a more negative impression and are more tense. Their stories include fewer ordinary imperfections and unusual contents. However, many behaviors showed no discernible links, or only weak links, to deceit. Cues to deception were more pronounced when people were motivated to succeed, especially when the motivations were identity relevant rather than monetary or material. Cues to deception were also stronger when lies were about transgressions.     

Individual differences in children's emotion understanding: effects of age and language

Over the last two decades, it has been established that children's emotion understanding changes as they develop. Recent studies have also begun to address individual differences in children's emotion understanding. The first goal of this study was to examine the development of these individual differences across a wide age range with a test assessing nine different components of emotion understanding. The second goal was to examine the relation between language ability and individual differences in emotion understanding. Eighty children ranging in age from 4 to 11 years were tested. Children displayed a clear improvement with age in both their emotion understanding and language ability. In each age group, there were clear individual differences in emotion understanding and language ability. Age and language ability together explained 72% of emotion understanding variance; 20% of this variance was explained by age alone and 27% by language ability alone. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.     

Arousal, changeover responses, and preference in concurrent schedules

Pigeons were trained on multiple schedules that provided concurrent reinforcement in each of two components. In Experiment 1, one component consisted of a variable-interval (VI) 40-s schedule presented with a VI 20-s schedule, and the other a VI 40-s schedule presented with a VI 80-s schedule. After extended training, probe tests measured preference between the stimuli associated with the two 40-s schedules. Probe tests replicated the results of Belke (1992) that showed preference for the 40-s schedule that had been paired with the 80-s schedule. In a second condition, the overall reinforcer rate provided by the two components was equated by adding a signaled VI schedule to the component with the lower reinforcer rate. Probe results were unchanged. In Experiment 2, pigeons were trained on alternating concurrent VI 30-s VI 60-s schedules. One schedule provided 2-s access to food and the other provided 6-s access. The larger reinforcer magnitude produced higher response rates and was preferred on probe trials. Rate of changeover responding, however, did not differ as a function of reinforcer magnitude. The present results demonstrate that preference on probe trials is not a simple reflection of the pattern of changeover behavior established during training.     

Explicit and implicit processes in multicue judgment

In two experiments, a multicue probability learning task was used to train participants in relating judgments to a criterion, on the basis of several cues that could or could not be relevant. The outcome feedback had 25% added noise to simulate real-world experience-based learning. Judgmental strategies acquired were measured by individual multiple linear regression analyses of a test phase (with no feedback) and were compared with self-ratings of cue relevance. In a third experiment, participants were instructed explicitly on cue relevance, with no training phase. The pattern of results suggested that both implicit and explicit cognitive processes influenced judgments and that they may have been sensitive to different task manipulations in the learning phase. On more complex tasks, despite weak explicit learning, explicit processes continued to influence judgments, producing a decrement in performance. These findings explain why studies of expert judgment often show only moderate levels of self-insight, since people have only partial access to the processes determining their judgments.     

The relation of children's everyday nonsocial peer play behavior to their emotionality, regulation, and social functioning

The relations of children's nonsocial behavior to their emotionality, regulation, and social functioning were examined in a short-term longitudinal study. Parents (primarily mothers) and teachers rated children's effortful regulation, emotionality, asocial behaviors, problem behaviors, and social acceptance, and children's nonsocial play behaviors were observed for two semesters. Peers also rated likability. Children's observed reticent activities were related to adults' ratings of high regulation, low externalizing problems, and high asocial behavior, as well as to low anger and low positive emotion. On the other hand, solitary play was associated with low positive emotion and low regulation over time and with high asocial behavior and high peer exclusion. Peer rejection mediated the relation of internalizing emotions (anxiety, low positive emotion) and regulation to solitary play later in the school year, and asocial play mediated the relation of internalizing emotions to both solitary and reticent play behavior.     

Incidence of critical events in professional practice: a statewide survey of psychotherapy providers

The goal was to tabulate the incidences of clients' suicide, attack by a client, and sexual contact with clients in an Alaskan sample of masters and doctoral-level psychotherapy providers (excluding psychiatrists) and to assess which, if any, demographic or professional characteristics were associated with each critical event. Results from 151 respondents (response rate 43.5%) indicated that 42.7% of providers had experienced at least one client's suicide, 28% had been physically attacked by a client, 4% reported having had sexual contact with a then current client, and 6% reported sexual contact with a former client. Areas for research are outlined, specifically the importance of using methods other than surveys and exploring variables other than standard demographic data.     

Community‐Based Participatory Research With Black Churches

Black Americans are more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to rely on spiritual and religious resources for mental health support. As such, counselors must seek unique ways to reach and understand Black communities. This article provides an overview of Black Americans' help‐seeking behaviors, the significance and culture of the Black Church, and a framework for counselors and counseling researchers to form effective partnerships to conduct community‐based participatory research initiatives that will produce empirical outcomes and promote culturally responsive mental health and wellness programming in Black communities.     

Effects of Movement Improvisation and Aerobic Dancing on Motor Creativity and Divergent Thinking

Creativity is considered to be an embodied concept, where internal psychological and external behavioral processes are intertwined. Creativity enhancement programs often target the cognitive side of this bi‐dimensionality leaving the impact of motor interventions underexplored. To address this gap in the literature, we tested the effectiveness of two motor programs on motor creativity and divergent thinking (verbal and figural). A total of 92 college students (M_age = 25.36, SD = 2.66) were randomly allocated to a movement improvisation, an aerobic dance, or a control condition. Participants in both motor programs took part in ten 30‐minute classes twice a week over a period of 5 weeks. The findings revealed a significant effect of the motor programs on motor fluency and flexibility. Movement improvisation yielded the greatest effects on those variables, followed by aerobic dancing and control condition. Movement improvisation also impacted significantly more figural originality than the control condition. However, the effects were limited to the motor domain and failed to transfer into other divergent thinking variables. The findings highlighted the contribution of movement programs to creative potential development, and the imperative role of a non‐judgmental environment, where individuals are free to move spontaneously.