Index to Volume 28

Other Index

Index to Volume 28     

Predictors of High School Achievement in a Hong Kong International School

Asian students consistently achieve academically at higher rates than other students. This study reports on the prediction of grades by teenagers' values and autonomy expectations, and their mothers' reports on these variables. Fifty-eight Western and 66 Asian juniors and seniors and their mothers were recruited from an international high school. Teenagers' value priority for Openness to Change and their autonomy expectations predicted academic achievement in the entire group of students, unpackaging the effect of culture on academic achievement. Mothers' value priorities and autonomy expectations did not associate with their teenagers' grades. Teenagers' value for Openness to Change emerged as a significant independent predictor in the combined group; however, the effect was stronger in Western than in Asian teenagers. This study provides unusual evidence for pancultural correlates of academic achievement.     

Gender, Race, and Class in Organizational Contexts

Creating settings that support diversity has been a long-standing concern of community psychology. In this paper, I propose two qualities as important aspects of organizational contexts that support the meaningful participation of diverse groups:(a) a culture of connection and (b) recognition of multiple realities. For each theme, I first examine countervailing values that can undermine meaningful participation of nondominant groups. I suggest that organizational values for independence and a press for sameness can contribute to settings where members of traditionally oppressed groups will be prevented from meaningful participation. I also suggest that fostering a culture of connectedness that actively legitimizes multiple realities is a constructive alternative. To illustrate these points, I share observations based on experiences in manufacturing, educational, and community-based settings. Then, I explore two dynamics that are important when confronting the countervailing values and building more inclusive contexts: (a) accountability for impact and (b) privilege dynamics. Last, I turn to some possibilities for change through a stance of connected disruption.     

Using psychodynamic concepts in strategic family therapy: A suicidal adolescent case

This paper describes the treatment of a suicidal adolescent with strategic family therapy. The cotherapists conceptualized the case psychoanalytically and systemically. They propose that their understanding of psychodynamics enhanced their ability to tailor their interventions to the family's unique style and capacities. Rather than dismiss psychodynamic concepts as irrelevant to strategic family therapy, they maintain that an appreciation of individual members' ego strengths, defenses, affects, and unacknowledged impulses leads to the construction of more effective metaphors and a set of interventions more isomorphic to family patterns.     

Assertive community treatment for frequent users of psychiatric hospitals in a large city: A controlled study

Evaluated a large-city adaptation of the assertive community treatment (ACT) model (Stein & Test, 1980). Outcomes were examined after 1 year for 82 clients, averaging over 17 lifetime psychiatric hospitalizations, randomly assigned either to ACT or to a drop-in (DI) center. After 1 year, 76% of the ACT clients and only 7% of DI clients were involved in the respective programs. The ACT team averaged 2 home and community visits per week to each client. ACT clients averaged significantly fewer state hospital admissions and state hospital days than did DI clients. ACT clients reported greater satisfaction with program services, fewer contacts with the police, and less difficulty with practical problems associated with psychiatric readmission. More ACT clients were known to have stable community housing. Annual per-client treatment costs for ACT were estimated to be $1,500 less than for DI.     

Inconsistent responding to repeated MMPI items: is its major cause really carelessness?

Previous authors have recommended using the number of inconsistent responses given to repeated MMPI items as a measure of the carelessness with which an individual has responded to the test. Such a recommendation assumes that a respondent who reads the items carefully must necessarily give an identical response to both presentations of the same item. Contrary to this assumption of a single cause, three potential causes of inconsistency--maladjustment, carelessness, and indecision--were investigated among 202 normal undergraduates who responded to the whole MMPI twice. The results suggest that indecision may be a more important cause of inconsistency than carelessness, thereby calling into question the use of inconsistencies on repeated MMPI items as a "carelessness" scale. Implications regarding the processes involved in responding to personality items are discussed.     

Fading Affect Bias in the Philippines: Confirmation of the FAB in Positive and Negative Memories but Not for Death Memories

Emotions associated with memories for the loss of a loved one and for negative events in general decrease in intensity more than memories associated with positive events, a phenomenon known as the fading affect bias (FAB). We tested whether FAB was cross‐culturally evident by collecting positive, negative, and memories for the deaths of loved ones from Filipinos. Memories were coded as violent/nonviolent and resolved/unresolved, and we predicted that resolved memories should show greater fading and that affective details should be lower in those memory accounts. FAB analyses revealed that negative affective intensity faded while positive affect remained constant, supporting FAB for positive and negative memories. However, there was no evidence of FAB in Filipinos' death memories. Filipinos' positive memories were distributed from the period of the reminiscence bump and focused on themes of childbirth and marriage, while negative and death memories did not cluster at any period of life.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing a Rebt Theory: The Effects of Rational Beliefs, Irrational Beliefs, and Their Control or Certainty Contents on the Functionality of Inferences: I. In a Social Context

This article presents two experiments that examine the validity of REBT's suggestion that contents do not influence the effect that rational and irrational beliefs (beliefs) have on the functionality of inferences (FI). Specifically, two role-playing experiments indicated that control and certainty contents that refer to rational and irrational beliefs influence the effect that those beliefs have on the FI. This finding was demonstrated when beliefs and their contents referred to either one's self or other people in a social context. Based upon the results of these two experiments, it may be prudent for REBT to modify its hypothesis that contents do not influence the effects that rational and irrational beliefs have on the FI. Specifically, it may wish to hypothesise that beliefs interact with contents to affect the FI.     

The miscommunication of deception: An adaptive perspective

Undergraduates were videotaped as they told lies and truths about their last job. Later, these undergraduates viewed the videotape and tried to guess which of their fellow subject were lying. Monetary incentives had been offered for successful lying and lie detection. Our subjects showed a “demeanor bias”—some looked honest even when they were lying; others looked dishonest even when they were telling the truth. These differences in apparent honesty were the primary determinant of deception judgments; perceivers' detection skills played a lesser role. Honest-looking subjects were predisposed to perceive others as dishonest. In general, our liars used hand gestures, maintained eye contact, and refrained from smiling. Perceivers misconstrued these behaviors as signs of honesty and could not often detect deceit—unless the lie was being told by a subject who had earlier told the truth. We draw on sociobiological concepts and offer an adaptive perspective on human deceit.