21st birthday drinking and associated physical consequences and behavioral risks

Twenty-first birthday celebrations often involve dangerously high levels of alcohol consumption, yet little is known about risk factors for excessive drinking on this occasion. Participants (N = 150) from a larger prospective study who consumed at least one drink during their celebration completed questionnaires and semistructured interviews about their 21st birthday within four days after the event. Assessments were designed to characterize 21st birthday alcohol use, adjusted for alcohol content, as well as situational/contextual factors (e.g., celebration location, peer influence) that contribute to event-level drinking. Participants reported an average of 10.85 drinks (9.76 adjusted drinks), with experienced drinkers consuming significantly more than relatively na?ve drinkers who had no previous binge or drunken episodes. Men consumed more drinks, whereas age of first drunken episode and heavier drinking during the 3-months preceding the 21st birthday predicted higher estimated blood alcohol concentrations (eBACs) on the 21st birthday. Celebrating in bars and engaging in birthday-specific drinking traditions (free drinks at bars) explained additional variance in 21st birthday eBACs. Both physical consequences (e.g., blacking out or having a hangover) and behavioral risks (e.g., sexually provocative behaviors) were prevalent and were predicted by higher eBACs. Together these findings indicate that 21st birthday celebrations are associated with heavy drinking and a variety of physical consequences and behavioral risks.     

Developmental and dyadic perspectives on commitment in adult romantic relationships

We tested hypotheses concerning the developmental roots of becoming the "weak-link" (less committed) partner in adult romantic relationships and the associations between partners' absolute and relative levels of commitment and dyadic outcomes. We examined 78 target 20- to 21-year-olds who were involved in a romantic relationship and who had been studied since birth. As predicted, people who received lower-quality support from caregivers in toddlerhood or who were less able to resolve conflicts with a best friend in midadolescence were more likely to become the weak-link partner in a romantic relationship at age 20 to 21. Furthermore, lower commitment on the part of the weak-link partner coupled with greater discrepancy in commitment between partners predicted a greater likelihood that the couple would display hostility (rated by observers) during a videotaped conflict-resolution task when they were 20 to 21 years old. These findings are discussed from developmental and dyadic perspectives.     

Assessment Center Practices in South Africa

Despite the popularity of assessment centers (AC) in South Africa, no recent study exists that describes AC practices in that region. Given this research gap, we conducted a survey study that analyzes the development, execution, and evaluation of ACs in N=43 South African organizations. We report findings regarding AC design, job analysis and job requirements assessed, target groups and positions of the participants after the AC, number and kind of exercises used, additional diagnostic methods used, assessors and characteristics considered in constitution of the assessor pool, observational systems and rotation plan, characteristics, contents, and methods of assessor training, types of information provided to participants, data integration process, use of self‐ and peer‐rating, characteristics of the feedback process, and features after the AC. Finally, we compare the results with professional suggestions to identify pros and cons in current South African AC practices and offer suggestions for improvement.     

Relationship between positive mental health and appreciation in Korean individuals

Appreciation is a key component of subjective well‐being and may contribute to positive mental health. Few studies have examined relationships between specific aspects of appreciation and the 3 dimensions of positive mental health, and thus, the aim of this study was to identify associations between aspects of appreciation and positive mental health. Appreciation and positive mental health were measured in 266 Korean university students (50% females) using the Appreciation Inventory and the Mental Health Continuum‐Short Form. The results obtained showed that Have Focus significantly predicted Emotional Well‐being; Have Focus and Loss/Adversity significantly predicted Social Well‐being and Have Focus, Expression and Nature/Daily Life significantly predicted Psychological Well‐being. The implications of results that might enable positive mental health to be enhanced are discussed.     

Korea and the Gender Construction of Female Marriage Immigrants

The purpose of this article is to explore the way gender has been constructed in relation to the recent number of international marriage immigrants in South Korea. In particular, it looks at how the construction of gender at work in this context has been used to create a place and status for these women in Korean society which largely understands itself to be homogeneous. The author argues that nationalistic and patriarchal discourses have served to construct the foreign women’s gender through the roles of wife, mother, and daughter-in-law in particular ways that serve the interests of Korea as a nation.     

Effects of Cultural Orientation,Self-Esteem,and Collective Self-Esteem on Well-Being

This study examined a model of independent and interdependent self-construal, individual and collective self-esteem, and subjective well-being in a sample of college students from the mainland USA, Hawaii, and Japan. Specifically, the mediation role of individual as well as collective self-esteem in the effects of independent and interdependent self-construal on subjective well-being was explored. Results indicated that the hypothesized model fit well. The study found the direct effects of independent self-construal on subjective well-being in all three cultural groups. Collective self-esteem was a significant mediator of the effects of both independent and interdependent self-construal on subjective well-being only in the mainland USA. The negative effect of interdependent self-construal on collective self-esteem was observed only in the mainland USA. Better understanding of both universal and culture-specific aspects of collective self-esteem in promoting subjective well-being seems essential for further theoretical development as well as effective prevention/intervention efforts across three cultural groups.     

The Influence of Orthography on the Production of Alphabetic,Second-Language Allophones by Speakers of a Non-alphabetic Language

This study investigated the influence of orthographic information on the production of allophones in a second language (L2). Two proficiency levels of native Mandarin speakers learned novel Korean words with potential variants of /h/ based on auditory stimuli, and then they were provided various types of spellings for the variants, including the letters for [ Open image in new window ] and ø. Subsequently, picture-naming and spelling recall tasks were given to the Mandarin-speaking learners. The results showed that Mandarin-speaking learners, after exposure to the spellings, began to produce and lexically store the /h/ variants following the given forms of the spellings of words, which provides support for the impact of spellings in the production and lexical storage of L2 allophones. However, the effect of L2-learning experience was not shown to be strong, which suggests difficulty in the native-like attainment of the production of L2 allophones.     

Foreign Language Effect and Psychological Distance

Does using a foreign language result in forming different moral decisions than using our mother tongue? Two studies were conducted to investigate whether there is a relationship between foreign language effects (differences between native vs. foreign language conditions) and psychological distance. Study 1 tested four moral dilemmas adapted from Greene et al. (Cognition 107: 1144–1155, 2008). Non-fluent Korean–English bilingual participants (N = 161) indicated decisions regarding four moral dilemmas in either Korean or English languages. The study found that for personal moral conflict situations, in which emotion and automatic intuition were more important than deliberation, there were significant differences in ratios of utilitarian decisions between the native language (L1) and the foreign language (L2) conditions. The participants tended to make more utilitarian decisions in L2 than in L1, which implies reduced emotionality in L2. Study 2 examined whether the psychological distance increased using the foreign language (English) utilizing an automatic self-test. Nonproficient Korean–English bilinguals (N = 26) formed associations between three kinds of geometric shapes (ellipses, rectangles and triangles) and three kinds of labels (‘me’, ‘friends’ and ‘others’). The results of the study found the self-bias effect decreased when labels were presented in the foreign language (in English). This implies that the foreign language effect resulted from the reduced emotional response, and deliberation in decision making which may result from increased psychological distance.     

Self-Control as Self-Regulation: A Return to Control Theory

In an effort to build on previous theory and research it is argued that self-control is not synonymous with impulsivity, but rather should be conceptualized as self-regulation: the capacity to override impulsive desires. Using a sample of college students and a sample of serious adult criminal offenders, we test four hypotheses regarding the relationship between self-regulation, impulsivity, and several outcome measures reflecting antisocial or criminal behavior. Our findings within the college sample more strongly support the notion of self-control as self-regulation. The result differences between samples also highlight the need to consider limitations when generalizing results from more conventional student groups.