Media’s Influence on Self-Image and Romantic Relationship Decision-Making in College-Age Clients: What Mental Health Counselors Should Know

Research indicates that media-influenced decisions potentially assist in leading college-aged students to make negative interpersonal choices, resulting in poor intimate relationships (Storey and McDonald, 2013). However, many mental health counselors inadvertently ignore the effect of media when they work with college-aged clients. To speak to the need for mental health counselors to become aware of the issue, this study examined the phenomenological perspective of eight students. This qualitative study’s results indicate that media portrayal of successful couples and unrealistic expectations affect intimate relationship decision-making.     

Developing of an English Version of the Aggressive Driving Behavior Test (AVIS). Improving the Construct Validity of Aggressive Driving

The research investigated the psychometric properties and the discriminant validity of the English version of the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Aggressive Driving Behavior (AVIS). Study 1 assessed the psychometric properties of the instrument. Internal consistency ranged from 0.77 to 0.92. Exploratory factor analysis did not support the original five factor structure, Instrumental Aggression and Acting Out being unified in a single factor. Following the confirmatory factor analysis a version with 26 items and 3 factors was obtained. Inter-scale correlations showed that the dimensions of the AVIS are inter-correlated. Study 2 verified the discriminant validity of the English version of the AVIS by testing the relationships between the AVIS dimensions and the DAX (Driving Anger Expression Inventory) dimensions. The results showed good discriminant validity, the dimensions of the two instruments being uncorrelated. In conclusion, the findings contribute to the development of the driving aggression construct by adding new dimensions to it.     

Ordering the components of autobiographical events

Memory for the temporal order of the components of autobiographical events was examined in two experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the relationship between reaction times to recognise photographs of the components of events and ordering of these photographs. Reaction times were not related to true event position, nor to assigned temporal position, in a manner consistent with an activation strength model of temporal ordering. In contrast, ordering performance was found to be related to event vividness ratings, ability to classify a photograph as one the participant had taken, and retention interval. These findings are all consistent with the hypothesis that the order of an autobiographical event's components is determined by the associative structure that links each component to its general event memory. Overall, memory for the order of the components of autobiographical events may be initially based on associations between the event components and their general event memory representation. These associations appear to decay rapidly leaving only reconstructive ability as the determinant of event component order.     

Growth curve models for indistinguishable dyads using multilevel modeling and structural equation modeling: the case of adolescent twins' conflict with their mothers

Growth modeling is a useful tool for studying change over time, and it is becoming increasingly popular with developmental researchers. There is a considerable methodological literature surrounding growth modeling for individuals; however, far less attention has been focused on growth models for pairs of related individuals (i.e., dyads). In this article, the authors consider dyadic growth models for those cases where there are no relevant variables that can empirically distinguish between dyad members (e.g., same-sex twins or best friends). The authors describe how researchers can estimate growth models for indistinguishable dyads using both multilevel modeling and structural equation modeling. Although both approaches can be used to estimate the same underlying models, the authors focus on practical similarities and differences between the two approaches. They illustrate modeling issues using an overtime study of adolescent twins' conflict with their mothers, a substantively important topic given the enduring interest in parent-child relationships during adolescence.     

Parental divorce and adolescent delinquency: ruling out the impact of common genes

Although the well-documented association between parental divorce and adolescent delinquency is generally assumed to be environmental (i.e., causal) in origin, genetic mediation is also possible. Namely, the behavior problems often found in children of divorce could derive from similar pathology in the parents, pathology that is both heritable and increases the risk that the parent will experience divorce. To test these alternative hypotheses, the authors made use of a novel design that incorporated timing of divorce in a sample of 610 adoptive and biological families. They reasoned that if genes common to parent and child mediate this association, nonadopted youth should manifest increased delinquency in the presence of parental divorce even if the divorce preceded their birth (i.e., was from a prior parental relationship). However, should the association be environmental in origin, the authors reasoned that adolescents should manifest increased delinquency only in response to divorce exposure, and this association should not vary by adoption status. Results firmly supported the latter, suggesting that it is the experience of parental divorce, and not common genes, that drives the association between divorce and adolescent delinquency.     

What do students remember? Episodic memory and the development of schematization

Research examining changes in memory and memory awareness during learning suggests that early in the process, students primarily have representations that are episodic in nature and experience ‘remember’ awareness during recall. However, as learning continues and schematization occurs, students' knowledge is more likely to be dominated by semantic memory representations and ‘just know’ awareness is experienced during recall. The greater the amount of remembering experienced early in learning, the more likely it is that the shift to knowing will occur in students. In this study, university students studied either material rich in distinctive features that may serve as cues to episodic memory, or material lacking in these features. Students' knowledge was tested after a 2‐day and a 5‐wk interval. In contrast to students who studied the material lacking distinctive features, students who studied the distinctively rich material showed a predominance of remember awareness on the first test, and on the follow‐up test showed a predominance of know awareness and were able to recall more details of the learning material. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Selective processing of masked and unmasked verbal threat material in anxiety: Influence of an immediate acute stressor

Attentional biases for threat were investigated using a computerised version of the emotional Stroop task. The study examined the influence of state and trait anxiety by employing a student sample assigned to high trait anxious (HTA; n=32) or low trait anxious (LTA; n=32) groups on the basis of questionnaire scores, and state anxiety was manipulated within participants through the threat of electric shock. Threatening words that were either unrelated (e.g., cancer, danger) or related to the threat of shock (e.g., electrocute, shock) were presented to participants both within and outside of awareness. In the latter condition a backward masking procedure was used to prevent awareness and exposure thresholds between the target and mask were individually set for each participant. For unmasked trials the HTA group showed significant interference in colour naming for all threat words relative to control words when performing under the threat of shock, but not in the shock safe condition. For the masked trials, despite chance performance in being able to identify the lexical status of the items, HTA participants showed facilitated colour naming for all threat words relative to control items when performing under threat of shock, but this effect was not evident in the shock safe condition. Neither valence of the items nor the threat of shock influenced colour naming latencies in either exposure mode for the LTA group.     

Memories of uncertain origin: Dreamt or real?

The existence of a memory whose origin, real or dreamt, was uncertain was reported by just over half of an undergraduate sample of 358. Each respondent described one such memory if they had one. The memories were typically of mundane events, although 10 respondents described possible crimes. Respondents were often concerned to resolve the origin of these memories. Their plausibility, vividness, and how well the events fitted into one's life were often considered by the respondents, but where resolution occurred it was frequently based on evidence obtained from the physical or social environment. The reported qualities of the event did not correlate with whether the respondent thought it more likely to have been originally a dream or a real event.