Psychological Science in Australia

This paper is a brief account of the Australian Strategic Review of the Psychology Discipline and its Research. Issues discussed include Australia's contribution to world research in psychological science, research funding, the age and qualifications of researchers, the social and economic benefits arising from the applications of research outcomes, multidisciplinary issues, the role of psychology in industry, links between the discipline and the profession of psychology, professional training, cross-cultural issues, and educational issues. Priorities for development of research and postgraduate training are identified, and include human factors and other areas related to technological change, clinical psychology with particular attention to health psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, and neuroscience and physiological psychology.     

Locus of control and self-esteem as moderators of stressor-symptom relations in children and adolescents

Locus of control and self-esteem were examined as moderators of links between negative life events and psychological symptoms in 238 young people 8 to 16 years old. Results indicated that locus of control buffered the effects of stressors on psychological symptoms, and the pattern of buffering did not differ by age or gender. Self-esteem buffered the link between Stressors and symptoms, but only for girls. Further analyses with girls only revealed a conjunctive moderation effect of locus of control and self-esteem: When faced with many negative life events, girls who have both an external locus of control and low esteem show the highest psychological maladjustment.The writing of this article was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Training grant 5 T 32 MH18387-03 in Child Mental Health/Primary Prevention.     

Parent Involvement in Early Intervention for Disadvantaged Children: Does It Matter?

This study investigated the association between parent involvement in early intervention and children's later school competence. Parents (N = 704) of children participating in the Chicago Longitudinal Study were interviewed retrospectively about their school involvement in preschool and kindergarten. Parents reported on the activities in which they participated and their frequency of program participation. Results indicated that even after controlling for family background, the number of activities in which parents participated in preschool and kindergarten was significantly associated with higher reading achievement, with lower rates of grade retention at age 14 (eighth grade), and with fewer years in special education. The frequency of parent involvement was only marginally associated with reading achievement but was associated with lower rates of grade retention and fewer years in special education. A confirmatory analysis indicated that teacher ratings of parent involvement in first and second grade were significantly associated with higher reading achievement in eighth grade, lower grade retention rates, and lower rates of special education placement through eighth grade. Findings support the benefits of parent involvement in early childhood programs.     

Sequence‐specific procedural learning deficits in children with specific language impairment

This study tested the procedural deficit hypothesis of specific language impairment (SLI) by comparing children's performance in two motor procedural learning tasks and an implicit verbal sequence learning task. Participants were 7‐ to 11‐year‐old children with SLI (n = 48), typically developing age‐matched children (n = 20) and younger typically developing children matched for receptive grammar (n = 28). In a serial reaction time task, the children with SLI performed at the same level as the grammar‐matched children, but poorer than age‐matched controls in learning motor sequences. When tested with a motor procedural learning task that did not involve learning sequential relationships between discrete elements (i.e. pursuit rotor), the children with SLI performed comparably with age‐matched children and better than younger grammar‐matched controls. In addition, poor implicit learning of word sequences in a verbal memory task (the Hebb effect) was found in the children with SLI. Together, these findings suggest that SLI might be characterized by deficits in learning sequence‐specific information, rather than generally weak procedural learning.     

Inside‐Out: Representational Ethics and Diverse Communities

The purpose of this paper is to write about insights and special considerations for researchers who are, to some degree, “insiders” to the communities they study by expanding on the concept of representational ethics as applied to research in community psychology with diverse and marginalized groups. Representational ethics refers to the ways that researchers, artists, or corporations represent the identities of the people they portray in their communications. As community psychologists we generate and disseminate knowledge about the communities we work with, and in that process, create narratives about the people who participate in our studies. In preparing a report on psychological issues among Evangelical Christian refugees from the former Soviet Union, Dina Birman struggled with her portrayal of this group and her own status of being both an insider and an outsider to this community. When investigating academic aspirations and psychological distress among Muslim high school students, Ashmeet Oberoi was forced to acknowledge the one‐sidedness of the discourse on autonomy and cultural socialization of Muslim adolescents. In her research with Cuban‐educated doctors in Miami, Florida, Wendy Moore encountered similar issues as she considered how to represent gender dynamics among her participants.     

The impact of coping and resilience on anxiety among older Australians

Objective: This study aims to explore the relationships between various coping types, resilience, and anxiety among older Australians. Particular attention is paid to whether resilience moderates coping's effect on anxiety. Method: A total of 324 Australians aged between 55 and 90 (M = 66.7, SD = 8.6) were surveyed as part of the study. Moderation was assessed using structural equation modelling and plots of simple slopes. Results: Significant negative correlations were detected between anxiety and both proactive coping and preventive coping. Higher levels of resilience were associated with lower levels of anxiety. Age moderated both proactive coping and reflective coping's effects on anxiety and gender moderated avoidance coping's effect on anxiety. Resilience was found to moderate the relationships between proactive coping and anxiety, and instrumental support seeking and anxiety. For those high in resilience, there was little association between anxiety and proactive coping or anxiety and instrumental support seeking. Among low resilience individuals, there was a negative association between proactive coping and anxiety, but a positive association between instrumental support seeking and anxiety. Conclusion: Resilience, proactive coping, and preventive coping are all important predictors of anxiety among older people. Among those who are low in resilience, proactively coping with stress may be particularly important for good mental health. The results of the study highlight the complexity of the relationship between resilience, coping, and anxiety among older people.     

Believable Visions of the Good: an Exploration of the Role of Pastoral Counselors in Promoting Resilience

Although adjustment after trauma is often positively associated with meaning, some studies challenge this connection (Bonanno, Memory, 21(1), 150–156, 2013; Silver and Updegraff 2013). In this article we elaborate on the relation between existential meaning and resilience. First, we conceptualize existential meaning—searching for and finding meaning in life—in terms of “orienting in moral space”, using the philosophical ideas of Taylor (1989), the psychological meaning-making model of Park (Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 257–301, 2010), and existential theory. We argue that orienting systems in moral space are “believable visions of the good”. We then search recent literature on resilience—in particular literature in which the connection with meaning is challenged—for indications of a connection with existential meaning. We conclude that resilience necessarily comprises a “moral dimension” that is an adaptive process of (eventually) finding meaning in life. Finally, we discuss implications for the role that pastoral counselors, as professionals in the domain of existential meaning, may play in promoting resilience in organizations where employees regularly face existential issues like violence, suffering, and death.     

The relationship between family support; pain and depression in elderly with arthritis

The prevalence and chronic nature of arthritis make it the most common cause of disability among U.S.A adults. Family support reduces the negative impact of chronic conditions generally but its role in pain and depression for arthritic conditions is not well understood. A total of 844 males (35.0%) and 1567 females (65.0%) with arthritic conditions (n = 2411) were drawn from the 2012 Health and Retirement Study to examine the effect of family support on pain and depressive symptoms. Using regression analysis and controlling for age, ethnicity, gender, marital/educational status and employment/income, physical function/disability status, pain and antidepressant medications, and other clinical indicators of chronic health conditions, we examined the effects of family support (spouse, children, other) on pain and depression levels. Results indicated that depressive symptoms decreased significantly with strong family and spousal support (p < .05). Pain decreased as support levels increased, but was non-statistically significant. This study provides new insights into the relationship between family support, pain, and depression for individuals with arthritis. Future longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate family support and relationships over a wider spectrum of demographics.     

Age is in the Eye of the Beholder: Examining the Cues Employed to Construct the Illusion of Youth in Teen Pornography

Past research has identified a subgenre of mainstream pornography that attempts to create the illusion for consumers that sex is occurring between an adult and a minor (i.e., a child or young adolescent under the age of 18). This illusion is established through various textual, verbal, visual, and behavioural cues. Although the construction of adult–minor relationships in pornography has received some scholarly attention, there has been no attempt to investigate this phenomenon within pornographic videos available via the Internet. The current study addressed this omission by analyzing for content 150 of the most popular “teen” pornography videos available on three pornography websites. We coded for textual, visual, verbal, and behavioural content that connoted sexual activity between an adult and a minor. Results indicated that a small number of videos (28, 18.7 % of the sample) contained a disproportionate percentage of cues (54.2 %), with the remaining videos containing little or no youth sexualized content. We conclude that only a subsample of videos clearly attempted to portray adult–minor relationships. The prevalence of various cues within the sample was quantified and discussed, as were limitations associated with this study and directions for future research.