The Current State of Gerontological Counseling Research: A 26‐Year Content Analysis

Because of demographic changes and the prioritization of Medicare reimbursement, there is greater attention to the mental health needs of older adults. To better understand the current state of gerontological counseling research, the authors completed a content analysis of counseling scholarship spanning 26 years. Only 1.68% of the articles reviewed focused on topics related to gerontological counseling. The authors analyzed publishing patterns, topics explored, and the roles of theory and empirical research in gerontological counseling research.     

The impact of physical activity and sex differences on intraindividual variability in inhibitory performance in older adults

It is well-known that processing speed and executive functions decline with advancing age. However, physical activity (PA) has a positive impact on cognitive performances in aging, specifically for inhibition. Less is known concerning intraindividual variability (iiV) in reaction times. This study aims to investigate the influence of PA and sex differences on iiV in inhibitory performance during aging. Healthy adults were divided into active and sedentary groups according to PA level. To analyse iiV in reaction times, individual mean, standard deviation and the ex-Gaussian parameters were considered. An interaction between activity level and sex was revealed, sedentary females being slower and more variable than sedentary men. No sex differences were found in the active groups. These results indicate that the negative impact of sedentariness on cognitive performance in older age is stronger for females. The present findings underline the need to consider sex differences in active aging approaches.     

Theoretical foundations of analytical psychology: recent developments and controversies

This article gives an introductory overview of the papers in this volume originally given at the Joint Conference of the IAAP and the University of Basel, Basel, October 18‐20, 2018. The aim of the conference was to bring core concepts of analytical psychology together with theorizing and research from academic sciences, at the very place where Jung started his academic career, the University of Basel. The conference focussed on three fields: the relationship of consciousness and the unconscious and the theory of complexes; the theory of archetypes; and the status of analytical psychotherapy in contemporary psychotherapy research. The aim of the conference was to further the development of theory in analytical psychology in relation to results and insights in contiguous areas of knowledge. In the first area, contributors pointed to the solid evidence especially from the neurosciences for the psychodynamic conceptualizations of the unconscious, and also for the concept of complexes. In contrast to this, the concept of archetypes is controversial, with a majority of contributors questioning Jung’s biological conceptualizations of archetypes, and speaking instead for reformulations from the perspective of cultural theory, dynamic systems theory and other approaches. In the field of psychotherapy research, contributors pointed to the profound need for conducting more empirical studies on the outcome of Jungian psychotherapy, but also for a thorough reconsideration of standard research designs in the field.     

Exploring the Effects of Creativity Training on Creative Performance and Creative Self‐Efficacy: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study

In organizations and educational institutions, creativity trainings are the preferred approach to enhancing individual creative abilities. However, three issues regarding these trainings still remain largely unsolved. First, the question of how long‐lasting creativity training effects are has not been sufficiently answered so far. Second, the question arises whether all participants benefit from such trainings equally in terms of their creative performance (CP). Third, an increasing number of studies have shown that creativity trainings may also be able to increase participants' creative self‐efficacy (CSE), that is, the confidence in one's own creativity. Other studies, however, did not find evidence for this effect. Therefore, this article aims to address these issues by analyzing data from three measurement waves. Results reveal that participants' CP increased during the training and decreased only slightly 4 weeks after the training. Additionally, we found an effect of diminishing training returns in that the higher a participant's CP before the training the lower the training effect was. In contrast to most prior literature, we found no support for an effect of creativity training on participants' CSE. We discuss these findings and offer implications for both theory and practice. Finally, we state this study's limitations and derive avenues for further research.     

What Is Too Much or Too Little? The Curvilinear Effects of Job Tension on Turnover Intent,Value Attainment,and Job Satisfaction

This study addressed 2 relatively unexplored issues in the current job stress literature. First, a significant body of research has substantiated a curvilinear relationship between job tension and performance without examining the potential impact of work stress on other important outcomes. Second, past research has failed to control for the influence of role stressors and other important variables that might alter the job-tension/work-outcomes relationship. We hypothesized that experienced job tension would predict turnover intent, value attainment, and job satisfaction, and that this relationship would be nonlinear. Data gathered from 270 hotel managers confirmed our hypotheses. Notably, tension predicted turnover intent (U shape), value attainment (inverted-U shape), and job satisfaction (inverted-U shape) in the expected manner, while explaining additional variance beyond that contributed by demographic factors, role stressors, and linear tension terms. Implications of these findings for theory and practice, as well as avenues for future research are provided.     

The Impact of Childcare and Parent-Child Interactions on School Readiness and Social Skills Development for Low-Income African American Children

Low-income and African American children are at increased risk for school readiness deficits in terms of both cognitive and social development. This study examined the roles of childcare involvement and parent-child interaction quality on the development of school readiness and social skills among a low-income, minority sample of kindergarten children. Findings provide mixed evidence on the role of childcare exposure, with early entry into childcare predicting higher levels of social skills ratings and increased time per week in such settings predicting lower levels of social skills development. Childcare exposure had positive, although trend-level, relationships with other readiness-related outcomes after accounting for demographic characteristics of children and their families. Parent-child interactions characterized as structured and responsive to the child's needs and emotions were positively related to school readiness, social skills, and receptive communication skills development after accounting for demographic characteristics and childcare exposure. Implications for preventive intervention program development and the role of school psychologists in the areas of consultation and intervention are discussed.     

The functional domain specificity of self-esteem and the differential prediction of aggression

On the basis of an evolutionary theory of self-esteem (SE), it was hypothesized that the SE-aggression relationship differs across functionally distinct domains of SE and across contexts. In 2 experiments, participants had the opportunity to aggress against the evaluator of an essay they had written. In Study 1, self-perceived superiority was positively related to aggression, whereas social inclusion was inversely related to aggression. In Study 2, in which the context was altered to simulate a mating competition, only a measure of self-perceived mate value emerged as a (positive) predictor of aggression. Global SE failed to contribute to the prediction of aggression in either experiment. Statistically controlling for narcissism did not eliminate either set of findings. Implications for the conceptualization and measurement of SE and narcissism are discussed.     

Social norms and the expression and suppression of prejudice: the struggle for internalization

The authors studied social norms and prejudice using M. Sherif and C. W. Sherif's (1953) group norm theory of attitudes. In 7 studies (N = 1,504), social norms were measured and manipulated to examine their effects on prejudice; both normatively proscribed and normatively prescribed forms of prejudice were included. The public expression of prejudice toward 105 social groups was very highly correlated with social approval of that expression. Participants closely adhere to social norms when expressing prejudice, evaluating scenarios of discrimination, and reacting to hostile jokes. The authors reconceptualized the source of motivation to suppress prejudice in terms of identifying with new reference groups and adapting oneself to fit new norms. Suppression scales seem to measure patterns of concern about group norms rather than personal commitments to reducing prejudice; high suppressors are strong norm followers. Compared with low suppressors, high suppressors follow normative rules more closely and are more strongly influenced by shifts in local social norms. There is much value in continuing the study of normative influence and self-adaptation to social norms, particularly in terms of the group norm theory of attitudes.     

Learned suppression of photopositive tendencies in Drosophila melanogaster

A task was designed to teach individual flies to avoid a lighted area after they had displayed an initial preference for it. The flies walked in a T-maze and chose between a lighted and a darkened alley leading, respectively, to a lighted and a darkened vial. Flies that were photopositive on a first trial were subjected to an aversive stimulus (a filter paper inserted into the lighted vial and wetted with a quinine solution), and they performed 16 training trials; they learned to avoid the lighted vial. The flies trained with water instead of quinine in the lighted vial still display avoidance of the lighted vial, but to a lesser extent. The flies trained with a dry filter paper in the lighted vial did not show any increase in avoidance during training. Like the flies trained with no quinine at all, those trained to avoid the lighted vial under a partial reinforcement condition (one half of the trials with quinine, the other half with a dry vial) did not master the task. Finally, removal of the quinine after an avoidance acquisition criterion was reached resulted in an extinction process.