The Self-Concept of Welfare Recipients

Do persons receiving welfare feel differently about themselves and others than persons who are not welfare recipients? Does duration of time on welfare have any bearing on these feelings? To answer these questions the writer compared 2 groups of clients who were receiving services from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, using a number of scales that reflected attitudes regarding self and others. One group consisted of clients who were on welfare at the time of application for rehabilitation services and the other group consisted of those who were not. The welfare group was further broken down into 3 groups on the basis of the duration of time that they had been on welfare. No differences were found between any of the groups on self-concept, self-acceptance, ideal-self or concept of others. Some variables that might be masking the hypothesized differences, thus accounting for the present findings, are discussed.     

Construct validation of a state version of the Social Physique Anxiety Scale among young women

This study examined the validity of a state version of the Social Physique Anxiety Scale (Hart, Leary & Rejeski, 1989) by conducting tests of concurrent and discriminative validation. Participants were four separate samples of young women (N=221) who exercised ≤ 2 days/week and who participated in various experiments examining body image and self-presentation. Participants' scores on the state SPAS (S-SPAS) were significantly correlated, in expected directions, with scores on both trait and state measures of body image and self-presentation, and with body mass index (BMI). In addition, S-SPAS scores discriminated between women who exercised in a mixed-sex versus a same-sex environment, but trait SPAS scores did not. Together, these results provide evidence of construct validity of a state version of the SPAS and demonstrate that social physique anxiety can be conceptualized and measured as a situational variable. The S-SPAS, rather than the trait SPAS, should be employed in experiments designed to detect differences in state social physique anxiety.     

Efficiently assessing negative cognition in depression: an item response theory analysis of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale

Despite a central role for dysfunctional attitudes in cognitive theories of depression and the widespread use of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale, form A (DAS-A; A. Weissman, 1979), the psychometric development of the DAS-A has been relatively limited. The authors used nonparametric item response theory methods to examine the DAS-A items and develop a briefer version of the scale. Using DAS-A data obtained from depressed participants enrolled in 2 large depression treatment studies (N=367), the authors developed a 9-item DAS form (DAS-SF1). In addition, because 2 versions of the DAS are needed for certain study designs, they also developed a 2nd short version (DAS-SF2). These short forms were highly correlated with the original 40-item DAS-A (rs ranged from .91 to .93), exhibited change similar to that of the DAS-A over the course of treatment, were moderately correlated with related self-report assessments, predicted concurrent depression severity, and predicted change in depression from before to after treatment. Taken together, the authors believe the DAS-SF1 and DAS-SF2 provide an efficient and accurate assessment of dysfunctional attitudes among depressed individuals.     

How is Systemic and Constructionist Therapy Change Process Narrated in Retrospective Accounts of Therapy? A Systematic Meta‐synthesis Review

Despite the considerable potential of qualitative approaches for studying the systemic and constructionist therapy process due to shared theoretical and epistemological premises, to date there is lack of a comprehensive qualitative synthesis of how change process is experienced and conceptualized by clients and therapists. To address this evidence gap, we performed a systematic meta‐synthesis review of 30 studies reporting clients’ and therapists’ retrospective narratives of change process across systemic and constructionist models and across a range of client configurations, including individuals, couples, families, and groups. The studies were identified following a systematic search in PsycINFO and MEDLINE resulting in 2,977 articles, which were screened against eligibility criteria. Thematic analysis led to the identification of four main themes: (1) navigating through differences, (2) toward nonpathologizing construction of problems, (3) navigating through power imbalances, and (4) toward new and trusting ways of relating. Findings illustrate the multifaceted aspects of systemic and constructionist change process, the importance for their reflexive appraisal, and the need for further research contributing to the understanding of the challenges inherent in the systemic and constructionist therapeutic context.     

Sit Still and Pay Attention?

Sitting still while trying to pay attention implicitly reinforces the idea that to pay attention one should focus on a single aspect of the stimulus. Movement encourages attending to different aspects of the stimulus and as such is hypothesized to increase attention. We tested this with students from a traditional and a nontraditional school. Students were asked to observe and recall landmarks on a map. Students from the traditional school who viewed the map from multiple perspectives remembered more landmarks and locations than students who viewed the map from a single perspective. Students from a nontraditional school who are accustomed to movement while learning, did not show this effect. The experiment is discussed in terms of mindfulness theory.     

Personality dimensions and domains of service performance: A field investigation

Although recent meta-analytic studies have investigated the validity of the Big Five domains of personality by classifying pre-existing personality measures into the five dimensions, published validity studies incorporating explicit measures of the five broad traits are rare. This concurrent validity study examines relationships between direct measures of Big Five traits and job performance for a sample of 105 service workers. Analyses specifically examine relationships between three personality dimensions and factorally independent domains of service performance. Both conscientiousness and extraversion are found to correlate with specific performance dimensions. Contrary to our expectation, the extraversion-performance relationship is, however, negative.