Correlates of attachment at age 3: construct validity of the preschool attachment classification system

This study examined correlates of attachment at age 3 to further validate preschool separation-reunion measures. Three-year-olds (N = 150) and their mothers participated in a separation-reunion protocol, the Preschool Attachment Classification System (PACS: J. Cassidy & R. S. Marvin with the MacArthur Working Group on Attachment, 1992), and a mother-child interaction session during a laboratory visit. Mothers also completed psychosocial measures and, along with teachers, evaluated child behavior problems. The secure and disorganized groups received, respectively, the highest and lowest interaction scores. Disorganized children showed a higher level of teacher-reported externalizing and internalizing problems than did secure children. Mothers of insecure children reported higher child externalizing (all insecure groups) and internalizing (avoidant group) scores, more personal distress related to emotional bonding (disorganized group), childrearing control (ambivalent group), and child hyperactivity (avoidant group). Results strongly support the validity of the PACS as a measure of attachment in 3-year-olds.     

Attachment at early school age and developmental risk: examining family contexts and behavior problems of controlling-caregiving, controlling-punitive, and behaviorally disorganized children

Preschool to school-age trajectories of 242 children, including 37 with insecure-disorganized and 66 with insecure-organized attachment patterns, were examined. Child attachment and stressful life events (the latter retrospectively) were measured at ages 5-7, and mother-child interactive quality, parenting stress, marital satisfaction, and teacher-reported behavior problems were evaluated concurrently and 2 years earlier. Results indicated that all three disorganized subgroups had poorer mother-child interactive patterns and more difficult family climates than secure or insecure-organized children. The controlling-punitive group showed significant increases in maternal reports of child-related stress between preschool and school age. The controlling-caregiving group showed greater likelihood of loss of a close family member, and mothers of the insecure-other group reported lower marital satisfaction and greater likelihood of their own or a spouse's hospitalization. Controlling-punitive children had higher externalizing scores, and controlling-caregiving children higher internalizing scores, than secure children.     

Predicting Environmental Behaviors: The Influence of Self-Determined Motivation and Information About Perceived Environmental Health Risks1

The purpose of the present study is to examine the combined contribution of 2 predictors of environmental behaviors, self-determined motivation and information about a particular environmental issue (viz., perceived environmental health risks). The hypothesized model was tested with 761 participants from the general population using structural equation modeling. Self-determined motivation was found to predict both environmental behaviors and the tendency to seek information on health risks coming from 2 main sources (federal government agencies and public groups), which led to more confidence in those sources of information. In turn, confidence in the different sources of information was found to be significantly associated with perceptions of environmental health risks. Finally these perceptions were also found to be predictors of environmental behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of 2 possible processes that could facilitate environmental behaviors.     

Priming reveals differential coding of symbolic and non-symbolic quantities

Number processing is characterized by the distance and the size effect, but symbolic numbers exhibit smaller effects than non-symbolic numerosities. The difference between symbolic and non-symbolic processing can either be explained by a different kind of underlying representation or by parametric differences within the same type of underlying representation. We performed a primed naming study to investigate this issue. Prime and target format were manipulated (digits or collections of dots) as well as the numerical distance between prime and target value. Qualitatively different priming patterns were observed for the two formats, showing that the underlying representations differed in kind: Digits activated mental number representations of the place coding type, while collections of dots activated number representations of the summation coding type.     

Psychological ownership in relation to workplace trust and turnover intent

The study investigated the relationship between workplace trust, psychological ownership and turnover intent within a South African professional services organisation. A cross-sectional quantitative survey design was used to collect data from a purposive sample (n = 302) of skilled, highly skilled and professional employees in a professional services industry. The participants completed the Psychological Ownership Questionnaire, Workplace Trust Survey, and Turnover Intentions Scale. The results from structural equation modelling (SEM) suggest psychological ownership to be significantly related to workplace trust (positively) and turnover intent (negatively). In addition, the findings indicate psychological ownership to fully mediate the relationship between workplace trust and turnover intent. By implication, work environments that fostered workplace trust would increase the level of psychological ownership that employees’ experienced, which, in turn, would reduce employees’ intent to leave their workplace.     

Elementary schoolchildren know a logical argument when they see one

Both empirical data and theoretical approaches suggest that argumentation is an important component of development of reasoning skills. We argue that if argumentation does have a primary role, then children should be able to distinguish more from less logical justifications even when they are incapable of determining the correct conclusion by themselves. We asked 8- and 11-year-old children to choose one of two conclusions for abstract reasoning problems, based on justifications from authority (friends and teacher) or logical ones (probability and counterexamples). Although there was a clear age-related increase, even the younger children considered logical justifications to be better than authority, irrespective of the specific conclusion endorsed. Thus, children can distinguish logical and non-logical justifications even when they cannot easily arrive at the correct conclusion by themselves.     

Perceived parenting and separation-individuation in Belgian college students: associations with emotional adjustment

The present study examined associations among perceived parenting, separation-individuation, and emotional adjustment in a convenience sample of college students in Belgium (N=350; 68% female; aged 18 to 26). In line with a conceptual model advanced in the literature, factor analysis supported the distinction between three dimensions of separation-individuation: overdependence and healthy separation (both of which had already been described in earlier research) and a new dimension, labeled excessive autonomy. Path analysis findings were consistent with a mediational model in which lower quality of perceived parenting predicted more excessive autonomy, which in turn predicted poorer emotional adjustment. In addition, healthy separation predicted superior emotional adjustment, whereas overdependence was not associated with this particular type of adjustment. Implications for current understanding of the process of separation-individuation in college students and of excessive autonomy, in particular, are discussed.     

Reasons for withdrawing belief in vivid autobiographical memories

Previous studies have shown that many people hold personal memories for events that they no longer believe occurred. This study examines the reasons that people provide for choosing to reduce autobiographical belief in vividly recollected autobiographical memories. A body of non-believed memories provided by 374 individuals was reviewed to develop a qualitatively derived categorisation system. The final scheme consisted of 8 major categories (in descending order of mention): social feedback, event plausibility, alternative attributions, general memory beliefs, internal event features, consistency with external evidence, views of self/others, personal motivation and numerous sub-categories. Independent raters coded the reports and judged the primary reason that each person provided for withdrawing belief. The nature of each category, frequency of category endorsement, category overlap and phenomenological ratings are presented, following which links to related literature and implications are discussed. This study documents that a wide variety of recollective and non-recollective sources of information influence decision-making about the occurrence of autobiographical events.     

Building a Successful University Program: Key and Common Elements of Expert Coaches

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine how expert university coaches of team sports built their successful programs. In particular, key and common elements that enabled these coaches to achieve success were identified. Five expert Canadian female university coaches were interviewed individually. The results of the analysis revealed four elements for developing successful programs. First, coaches possessed a variety of personal attributes that enabled them to display appropriate leadership behaviors depending on the situation they faced. Second, coaches had a personal desire to foster their players' individual growth. Third, coaches possessed thorough organizational skills from which they planned the season and prepared their team for games. Finally, these elements were linked together by the coaches' vision, which involved the athletes buying into the coaches' goals, philosophy, and personality in order to achieve success. These results are discussed in relation to literature on coaching psychology and leadership.     

Child maltreatment as a global phenomenon: From trauma to prevention

Past studies have clearly showed the negative impact of neglect and abuse on child development at both the psychological and neurobiological levels. To date, many studies have focused on identifying risk and protective factors occurring at all levels of the ecology. However, more distal‐level variables, such as culture and ethnicity, have not been studied as much as those of more proximal levels; yet studies in Western countries have consistently found an overrepresentation of child maltreatment reports among ethnic minority groups. In this commentary, we reflect on a series of articles examining maltreatment from a crosscultural perspective and using samples of diverse countries. Taken together, studies in this special section document the terrible fact that maltreatment is a global phenomenon. Through a summary of these studies’ main findings and concerns, we highlight four key points that we believe are important to consider for future research and intervention efforts.