The Effect of Normative and Behavioral Persuasion on Help Seeking in Thai and American College Students

On the basis of previous research on self‐construals, the theory of reasoned action, and persuasive communication, the authors hypothesized that individual, behavioral‐focused information would be more effective in increasing help‐seeking intention among college students in the United States, whereas relational, normative‐focused information would be more effective among college students in Thailand. Results partially supported these predictions, suggesting that different information can enhance help‐seeking intention across cultures. En la investigación previa en el auto‐construals, la teoría de la acción razonada, y de comunicación persuasiva, los autores formaron una hipótesis que el individuo, la información enfocado‐conductista sería más efectiva en aumentar la intención de buscar ayuda entre estudiantes colegiales en los Estados Unidos, mientras que la información relacional y enfocado‐normativo sería más efectiva entre estudiantes colegiales en Tailandia. Los resultados sostuvieron parcialmente estas predicciones, sugiriendo que la información diferente puede aumentar la intención de la busca de ayuda a través de culturas.     

The Interface between Mental Health Providers, Families, and Schools: Parent and Child Attitudes about Information-Sharing

Youth with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are at an increased risk for school problems and negative consequences into adulthood, increasing the need for collaboration between families, school personnel and mental health providers. Current treatment guidelines emphasize the importance of information-sharing between providers and schools, yet few studies have addressed parents’ or students’ attitudes and preferences about this process or about the disclosure of mental health-related information to school professionals. Using a sample of 73 pairs of parents and their adolescents seeking outpatient treatment, this study assessed parental and adolescent attitudes about disclosure of mental health treatment information to school personnel. The majority of parents reported that the school should be informed that their adolescent was receiving counseling or medication for EBD, and that they should be the primary informant, rather than providers. By comparison, adolescents preferred more discretion about their involvement in treatment. Taken together, the study results highlight a number of implications relevant to the therapeutic relation and the process of obtaining and sharing mental health-related treatment information with various school personnel. Future research directions regarding the consultative and collaborative process with school personnel are also discussed.     

Strengths of Character and Happiness: Introduction to Special Issue

This special issue examines strengths of moral character and their relationship to happiness. Six papers are included that address this topic using a variety of samples and methods. The value of positive psychology in encouraging the juxtaposition of typically separate lines of research is underscored.     

Manipulability impairs association-memory: Revisiting effects of incidental motor processing on verbal paired-associates

Imageability is known to enhance association-memory for verbal paired-associates. High-imageability words can be further subdivided by manipulability, the ease by which the named object can be functionally interacted with. Prior studies suggest that motor processing enhances item-memory, but impairs association-memory. However, these studies used action verbs and concrete nouns as the high- and low-manipulability words, respectively, confounding manipulability with word class. Recent findings demonstrated that nouns can serve as both high- and low-manipulability words (e.g., CAMERA and TABLE, respectively), allowing us to avoid this confound. Here participants studied pairs of words that consisted of all possible pairings of high- and low-manipulability words and were tested with immediate cued recall. Recall was worse for pairs that contained high-manipulability words. In free recall, participants recalled more high- than low-manipulability words. Our results provide further evidence that manipulability influences memory, likely occurring through automatic motor imagery.     

Examining Factors Associated with Utilization of Chaplains in the Acute Care Setting

Journal of Religion and Health - Hospitalized persons want their spiritual needs addressed and discussed by the healthcare team, but medical providers and nurses lack the necessary training....     

Review of Samuel D. Rocha’s the Syllabus as Curriculum: A Reconceptualist Approach

Studies in Philosophy and Education - The Syllabus as Curriculum: A Reconceptualist Approach by Samuel D. Rocha. The review examines the central tenets of Rocha’s book, namely that the...     

Expertise, Evaluative Motivation, and the Structure of Citizens' Ideological Commitments

Political psychologists have typically argued that ideological commitments are structured in a bipolar fashion, where a positive evaluation of conservative objects implies a negative evaluation of liberal objects (and vice versa). Individual differences in conformity to this pattern are usually attributed to an ability-related variable, i.e., political expertise . Departing from this strict focus on ability, this study examines the hypotheses that an important motivational variable—the need to evaluate , or the desire to form opinions of objects as "good" or "bad"—would (1) predict deviations from ideological bipolarity, even controlling for expertise; and (2) moderate the relationship between expertise and deviations from bipolarity. Data from two national surveys provided evidence for these hypotheses and indicated that the results extended to deviations from bipolarity in evaluations of presidential candidates and political parties.     

School achievement strongly predicts midlife IQ

The relationship between measures of IQ and standardized school achievement tests is well established at around r ≈ 0.5 when the two are measured in close proximity. The current paper examined the stability of this correlation when comparing elementary school achievement (grades 3–8) and midlife IQ. Iowa Adoption Study participants who had standardized school achievement measures (ITBS) on file were given the WAIS-III. Mean age at IQ testing was 44.01 years (SD 6.65 years). The correlation between school achievement and WAIS-III FSIQ was r = 0.64, suggesting substantial life span stability in this relationship. Furthermore, elementary school achievement was substantially correlated with occupational status and household income at midlife. These findings suggest that standardized school achievement data is a useful measure of premorbid IQ.