Beyond conflict: Functional facets of the work-family interplay

The present paper deals with three positive facets of the work-family interplay, i.e., transfer of competencies, transfer of positive mood, and cross-domain compensation. The latter refers to the experience that engagement in one domain helps dealing with failures in the other domain. In two correlational studies (N₁ = 107 working mothers, N₂ = 146 working men and women), cross-domain compensation predicted domain-specific well-being even when we controlled for work-family conflicts and the two other positive facets (viz., transfer of competencies and positive mood). In an additional experiment (N₃ = 63 working men and women), which exclusively focused on compensation, participants were asked to remember a job-related failure. Then they were instructed to think about a positive job-related experience (i.e., intradomain compensation) or family-related experience (i.e., cross-domain compensation). Compared to a control group, both experimental groups showed faster emotional recovery, with cross-domain compensation being a slightly more effective strategy at the beginning of that recovery.     

Contextual and Individual Predictors of Psychological Disengagement From Sport During a Competitive Event

The present study aims to identify the processes underlying athletes' psychological disengagement during a competitive event. It was expected that goal attainment would predict psychological disengagement through the mediation of physical self‐worth. It was further hypothesized that athletic identity and passion for the activity would be predictors of psychological disengagement. Athletes completed measures of athletic identity, passion, and physical self‐worth before a competition; and perceived goal attainment, physical self‐worth, and psychological disengagement after a competition. Physical self‐worth mediated the relationship between perceived goal attainment and discounting. Obsessive passion and athletic identity were negatively related to devaluing over and above goal attainment and physical self‐worth. The study highlights individual and contextual correlates of psychological disengagement in the sport setting.     

Social processes affecting the mnemonic consequences of rumors on children’s memory

This research examined whether the impact of overheard rumors on children’s memory for their experiences varies as a function of social processes. The results of two experiments revealed that the very same errant rumor had different consequences for children’s recollections depending on the degree and type of social interactions they had with peers after exposure to the rumor. In both experiments, 3- to 5-year-olds overheard a false rumor about a recently experienced event and then were interviewed about the event 1 week later. In Experiment 1, children were more likely to report experiencing rumored-but-nonoccurring information if they were allowed to interact naturally with peers following exposure to the rumor than if they were prevented from peer exchange. In Experiment 2, exposure to the rumor induced greater memory contamination if it was planted among familiar peers than if it was encountered among strangers.     

Similarity predicts liking in 3-year-old children

Two studies examined the influence of similarity on 3-year-old children’s initial liking of their peers. Children were presented with pairs of childlike puppets who were either similar or dissimilar to them on a specified dimension and then were asked to choose one of the puppets to play with as a measure of liking. Children selected the puppet whose food preferences or physical appearance matched their own. Unpacking the physical appearance finding revealed that the stable similarity of hair color may influence liking more strongly than the transient similarity of shirt color. A second study showed that children also prefer to play with a peer who shares their toy preferences, yet importantly, show no bias toward a peer who is similar on an arbitrary dimension. The findings provide insight into the earliest development of peer relations in young children.     

Joel Osteen as Cultural Selfobject: Meeting the Needs of the Group Self and Its Individual Members in and from the Largest Church in America

This paper examines the appeal and success of Joel Osteen, pastor of the largest church in America: Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Our guiding theory comes from Heinz Kohut’s Self psychology, especially as elaborated in his interviews with Charles Strozier. We also draw on the work of Indian psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar, who, using Kohut, argues that the guru in the Indian context functions as a cultural selfobject, and we argue that Osteen functions in an analogous way in the American context—that is, as a cultural selfobject. Specifically, we argue that Osteen’s appeal and success is due to what Kohut refers to as idealizing transferences and mirroring transferences, as well as Osteen’s ability to provide a “calming structure” and a sense of “continuity,” as Kohut uses these terms, for members of the Lakewood community. To demonstrate this thesis, we analyze a recent sermon by Osteen, a chapter in one of his bestselling books, and the airplane incident that involved Victoria Osteen in December 2005. We contextualize our analysis by discussing relevant sociological and demographic data pertaining to Lakewood Church, and we conclude by making the point that cultures can become disillusioned with their own cultural selfobjects and, whatever the fate of Joel Osteen and company, our culture will nevertheless continue to produce new cultural selfobjects.     

Protective Effects of Maternal and Peer Support on Depressive Symptoms during Adolescence

The current study examined the contributions of maternal and peer support to depressive symptoms in early to mid-adolescence and variation in these contributions across age, gender, and race. Five waves of data on maternal support, peer support, and depressive symptoms were collected on rural youth (N = 3,444) at 6 month intervals. Multilevel modeling was used to evaluate within and between-person effects of maternal and peer support on depressive symptoms. Within-person effects of peer support did not vary by age, gender, or race. At the between-person level, peer support predicted levels of depressive symptoms at age 12, but this effect became nonsignificant after controlling for maternal support. Within-person effects of maternal support did not vary with age but were qualified by gender and race. Between-person effects of maternal support on depressive symptom levels at age 12 and slopes varied across race and gender, respectively. Findings highlight the robustness of the protective effects of maternal and peer support during adolescence among girls and white youth.     

Social support from friends predicts changes in memory specificity following a stressful life event

ABSTRACT

Exposure to negative life stress has been associated with difficulty retrieving memories for specific autobiographical events, with important consequences for the emergence of emotional disorders. We examined whether social support can protect against the effects of negative events on memory specificity. University students (N?=?143) were assigned to groups based on whether or not they experienced a negative stressor, operationalised as whether or not their recent exam performance was in line with their expectations. After receiving their exam results (T1), and one month later (T2), participants completed measures of memory specificity, their attitudes towards themselves and the occurrence of other stress-related events. Participants also completed a general measure of perceived social support from friends, family, and significant others, and an equivalent measure for social support related to performance. For participants who experienced an exam-related stressor, reduced performance-specific social support from friends was associated with reduced memory specificity at T2, even when accounting for T1 memory specificity, individual differences in attitudes towards self, the experience of additional stressors, and gender. No such relation was present for participants who did not experience a stressor. These findings provide new understanding of the influence of social variables on autobiographical memory specificity.     

General,Artistic and Scientific Creativity Attributes of Engineering and Music Students

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research was to investigate similarities and differences in general, artistic, and scientific creativity between engineering versus music students, as 2 groups respectively representing scientific and artistic domains. One hundred music and 105 engineering students from a large, Northeastern university completed measures of general creativity, music creativity, engineering creativity, and a demographic questionnaire. Results indicated that musicians scored higher in general and artistic creativity, with no significant differences in scientific creativity. Participants had higher levels of creativity, compared with normative data from previous studies. Gender, age, and specialization within major yielded no significant differences. Implications for creativity measures are discussed, including cognitive risk tolerance.     

Assessing the Relationship Between Youth Sport Participation Settings and Creativity in Adulthood

This article presents an assessment of the relative influences of time spent participating in organized sports and informal sports during childhood with respect to the development of general creativity. In this study, 99 upper-division undergraduate and graduate students completed a comprehensive childhood leisure activities questionnaire and the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults. According to the results of the joint generalized least-squares regression analysis, hours spent in organized sport settings was negatively related to creativity as an adult; time spent in unstructured sport settings was found to be positively related to adult creativity. The findings also point to the importance of balancing participation across organized and unstructured settings. The most creative individuals in the sample were those who spent roughly half of their sport participation time in each setting, as opposed to individuals with below-average creativity, who spent upwards of 3/4 of their sport participation time in organized settings. Therefore, fostering creative development through sport may not require a dramatic reorientation from current youth sport development models, but only a shift toward a more balanced distribution of time spent playing in both organized and unstructured settings. Future experiments are needed to test this relationship.