Friend influence over adolescent problem behaviors as a function of relative peer acceptance: to be liked is to be emulated

Friend influence over alcohol intoxication and delinquent behavior was examined as a function of relative peer acceptance in a 3-year study of Swedish youth (N = 184 girls, 145 boys). Participants were in the first year of secondary school (7th grade, M = 11.7 years old) or the first year of high school (10th grade, M = 15.3 years old) at the outset. Friends resembled one another before the friendship; resemblances were even greater after the friendship began. Resemblances continued to grow among those who remained friends one year later, but declined among those whose friendships dissolved. Partners were not equally responsible for increases in similarity. In stable friendships, the more accepted partner exerted greater influence over the less accepted partner, such that the greatest increases in problem behaviors were found among less accepted youth whose friends had higher initial levels of delinquency and alcohol intoxication. Unstable friends resembled random pairs of youth in that more- and less-accepted partners were comparably uninfluential.     

Consequence Mining

The standard semantic definition of consequence with respect to a selected set X of symbols, in terms of truth preservation under replacement (Bolzano) or reinterpretation (Tarski) of symbols outside X, yields a function mapping X to a consequence relation \(\Rightarrow_X\). We investigate a function going in the other direction, thus extracting the constants of a given consequence relation, and we show that this function (a) retrieves the usual logical constants from the usual logical consequence relations, and (b) is an inverse to—more precisely, forms a Galois connection with—the Bolzano–Tarski function.     

Exploring the associations between coping patterns for everyday stressors and mental health in young schoolchildren

The purposes of this study were to explore the structure of coping with everyday stressors in a young nonclinical population and examine the relationship between coping and mental health. A total of 1324 children from 91 second-grade classes in 35 schools participated. Mental health was assessed using the parent and teacher forms of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997), and coping was assessed by the Kidcope (Spirito et al., 1988) self-report checklist. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested a three-factor structure of coping. Latent-variable regression analysis indicated that coping categories including both active and emotional strategies were associated with fewer mental health problems, whereas withdrawal and oppositional coping strategies were associated with greater mental health problems. With some important exceptions, the results replicated previous studies of adults and adolescents. The need for new, more comprehensive coping assessments is highlighted.     

Reading times and adaptive styles among patients diagnosed with psychosis as assessed by the Serial Color-Word Test

The present study focuses on how patients diagnosed with psychosis deal with a conflicting situation. In the study, two groups of patients were assessed. One group consisted of patients diagnosed with psychosis (n = 41), while the comparison group (n = 135) consisted of inpatients diagnosed either with anorexia nervosa or with bulimia nervosa. The groups were assessed using the Serial Color Word Test (S-CWT), designed for studying an individual's successive adaptation over time to a conflicting situation. The S-CWT differentiated the two groups regarding both reading time and adaptive styles. Patients diagnosed with psychosis had longer reading times and an adaptive style that was deviant throughout the test, indicating poorer cognitive functioning and more serious psychopathology. These problems may in turn influence functioning in work or study and daily living, all of which are important in treatment planning.     

Development of a Facebook Addiction Scale

The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS), initially a pool of 18 items, three reflecting each of the six core elements of addiction (salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, and relapse), was constructed and administered to 423 students together with several other standardized self-report scales (Addictive Tendencies Scale, Online Sociability Scale, Facebook Attitude Scale, NEO-FFI, BIS/BAS scales, and Sleep questions). That item within each of the six addiction elements with the highest corrected item-total correlation was retained in the final scale. The factor structure of the scale was good (RMSEA = .046, CFI = .99) and coefficient alpha was .83. The 3-week test-retest reliability coefficient was .82. The scores converged with scores for other scales of Facebook activity. Also, they were positively related to Neuroticism and Extraversion, and negatively related to Conscientiousness. High scores on the new scale were associated with delayed bedtimes and rising times.     

Further clarifying proximal withdrawal states and the turnover criterion space: Comment on Hom, Mitchell, Lee, and Griffeth (2012)

In "Reviewing Employee Turnover: Focusing on Proximal Withdrawal States and an Expanded Criterion," Hom, Mitchell, Lee, and Griffeth (2012) brought together many of the most important content and process factors in the employee turnover literature. In this paper, I attempt to clarify the true contributions of this framework for the turnover area and at the same time explain why improved prediction is not among these contributions. I then enumerate 3 theoretically problematic aspects of the proposed framework, which limit its contribution. Finally, I suggest 3 directions that researchers should pursue in order to test and extend the framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Development of a work addiction scale

Andreassen, C. S., Griffiths, M. D., Hetland, J. & Pallesen, S. (2012). Development of a work addiction scale. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 265–272. Research into excessive work has gained increasing attention over the last 20 years. Terms such as “workaholism,”“work addiction” and “excessive work” have been used interchangeably. Given the increase in empirical research, this study presents the development of the Bergen Work Addiction Scale (BWAS), a new psychometrically validated scale for the assessment of work addiction. A pool of 14 items, with two reflecting each of seven core elements of addiction (i.e., salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, relapse, and problems) was initially constructed. The items were then administered to two samples, one recruited by a web survey following a television broadcast about workaholism (n = 11,769) and one comprising participants in the second wave of a longitudinal internet‐based survey about working life (n = 368). The items with the highest corrected item‐total correlation from within each of the seven addiction elements were retained in the final scale. The assumed one‐factor solution of the refined seven‐item scale was acceptable (root mean square error of approximation = 0.077, Comparative Fit Index = 0.96, Tucker‐Lewis Index = 0.95) and the internal reliability of the two samples were 0.84 and 0.80, respectively. The scores of the BWAS converged with scores on other workaholism scales, except for a Work Enjoyment subscale. A suggested cut‐off for categorization of workaholics showed good discriminative ability in terms of working hours, leadership position, and subjective health complaints. It is concluded that the BWAS has good psychometric properties.     

Die Verleugnung der Realit?t

Denial is of great importance for the ego functions and for the constitution of the entire ego but little of this is reflected in case reports and theoretical treatises. The reason for this probably lies in the circumstance that two further problems play a role in the issue of denial: that of reality and that of truth. According to the theory of correspondence, truth is the equivalent of reality. According to this theory, subject and object are opposed. The repudiation of the theory of correspondence has led to blindness and deafness for many things. The modern concept of truth, according to which truth is constructed intersubjectively, destroys the opposition of subject and object. The destruction is an act of denial. Although the theory of correspondence may be outmoded, it could nevertheless retain its former appreciation. ??If we stopped reading canonical philosophy books??, wrote Richard Rorty, ??we would be less aware of the forces that make us think and talk as we do?? (citation from Habermas 2008, S.?34).     

Integrating turnover reasons and shocks with turnover decision processes

We interviewed and classified 186 quitters from many jobs and organizations via a theoretically-based protocol into five decision process types. We then tested exploratory hypotheses comparing users of these types on their propensity to report certain turnover reasons and turnover shocks. “Impulsive-type quitters,” with neither a job offer in hand nor turnover plan when they quit, reported poor management, work stress, and family demands as frequent turnover reasons, with manager conflicts and family events as frequent shocks. “Comparison quitters,” who had a job offer in hand and no plan, reported pay and advancement opportunities as top reasons with information about an alternative job being the most frequent shock. “Preplanned quitters,” who had a definite plan to quit well in advance, reported relocation and life/career changes as frequent reasons, with increasing family demand, relocation, and school starting as frequent shocks. “Satisficing quitters,” who made a plan conditional on getting an acceptable job offer, reported pay, poor management, work responsibilities, and work schedules as frequent reasons. Implications of these and other findings are discussed.     

An integrated approach to delivering exposure-based treatment for symptoms of PTSD and depression in OIF/OEF veterans: preliminary findings

Combat-exposed military personnel from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan report high rates of PTSD and associated psychiatric problems. A formidable body of research supports exposure therapy as a front-line intervention for PTSD; however, relative to studies of civilians, fewer investigations have evaluated the effectiveness of exposure therapy using military samples. Specifically, barriers to care (e.g., stigma associated with receiving mental health services ) may compromise utilization of evidence-based psychotherapy. As such, researchers have argued that veterans with PTSD may require an integrated and innovative approach to the delivery of exposure techniques. This paper presents the rationale for and preliminary data from an ongoing clinical trial that compares the home-based telehealth (HBT) application of a brief, behavioral treatment (Behavioral Activation and Therapeutic Exposure; BA-TE) for veterans with PTSD to the standard, in-person application of the same treatment. Forty OIF/OEF veterans with PTSD and MDD were consented, enrolled, and randomized to condition (BA-TE in-person, or BA-TE HBT) and symptoms of anxiety and depression were assessed at pre- and posttreatment. Participants in both conditions experienced reductions in depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms between pre- and posttreatment, suggesting that HBT application of an integrated PTSD treatment may be feasible and effective.