Gender Differences in Reasons for Entering and Leaving Education Administration: Discriminant Function Analyses

Using discriminant function analyses on survey data collected from 457 students in 29 education administration programs across the United States, the authors inquired into whether men and women decide to enter and possibly leave education administration for different reasons. There were statistically significant functions separating men and women in their reasons for entering and leaving education administration. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Children’s Play with a Forest Diorama as a Window into Ecological Cognition

This study examined the play of 4-year-old children with a forest diorama that included toy representations of plants and animals. To examine the potential role of culture and expertise in diorama play, children from 3 samples participated: rural Native American, urban Native American, and urban non-Native American. Children’s playtime was divided into time segments, which were coded for types of actions and for types of talk. Children from all 3 samples actively engaged with the diorama in both realistic and imaginative play. Furthermore, children from all samples were sensitive to ecological relations. In addition, Native American children talked at least as much as the non-Native American children, a finding that challenges widespread characterizations of Native American children as less talkative and possessing smaller vocabularies. The most striking finding was that Native American children (both urban and rural) were more than twice as likely as non-Native American children to take the perspective of an animal in their play. These results demonstrate the value of dioramas for assessing young children’s biological cognition.     

Development of hot and cool executive function during the transition to adolescence

This study examined the development of executive function (EF) in a typically developing sample from middle childhood to adolescence using a range of tasks varying in affective significance. A total of 102 participants between 8 and 15 years of age completed the Iowa Gambling Task, the Color Word Stroop, a Delay Discounting task, and a Digit Span task. Age-related improvements were found on all tasks, but improvements on relatively cool tasks (Color Word Stroop and Backward Digit Span) occurred earlier in this age range, whereas improvements on relatively hot tasks (Iowa Gambling Task and Delay Discounting) were more gradual and occurred later. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that performance on all tasks could be accounted for by a single-factor model. Together, these findings indicate that although similar abilities may underlie both hot and cool EF, hot EF develops relatively slowly, which may have implications for the risky behavior often observed during adolescence. Future work should include additional measures to characterize more intensively the development of both hot and cool EF during the transition to adolescence.     

Magnitude and chronometry of neural mechanisms of emotion regulation in subtypes of aggressive children

Emotion regulation is a key social skill and children who fail to master it are at risk for clinical disorders. Specific styles of emotion regulation have been associated with particular patterns of prefrontal activation. We investigated whether anxious aggressive children would reveal a different pattern of cortical activation than non-anxious aggressive children and normally-developing children. We examined the magnitude and timing of source activation underlying the N2—an ERP associated with inhibitory control—during a go/nogo task with a negative emotion induction component (loss of earned points). We estimated cortical activation for two regions of interest—a ventral prefrontal and a dorsomedial prefrontal region—for three 100-ms windows over the range of the N2 (200–500 ms). Anxious aggressive children showed high ventral prefrontal activation in the early window; non-anxious aggressive children showed high ventral prefrontal activation in the late window, but only for the duration of the emotion induction; and normally-developing children showed low ventral prefrontal activation throughout. There were no group differences in dorsomedial prefrontal activation. These results suggest that anxious aggressive children recruit ventral prefrontal activation quickly and indiscriminately, possibly giving rise to their rigid, threat-oriented approach to conflict. The late ventral prefrontal activation seen for non-anxious aggressive children may underlie a more delayed, situation-specific, but ineffective response to frustration.     

Me, myself, and lie: The role of self-awareness in deception

Deception has been studied extensively but still little is known about individual differences in deception ability. We investigated the relationship between self-awareness and deception ability. We enlisted novice actors to portray varying levels of deception. Forty-two undergraduates viewed the videotaped portrayals and rated the actors’ believability. Actors with high private self-awareness were more effective deceivers, suggesting that high self-monitors are more effective at deceiving. Self-awareness may lead to knowledge of another’s mental state (i.e., Theory of Mind), which may improve an individual’s deception ability.     

Lesbian Women of Color: Therapeutic Issues and Challenges

Lesbian women of color may seek professional help to find their way through the challenges of being a triple minority. The authors discuss specific issues faced by African American, Asian American, Latina American, and Native American lesbian women, offering guidelines for affirmative practice when working with these women in a counseling context. Mujeres lesbianas de color pueden buscar ayuda profesional para poder navegar los desafíos de estar en una triple minoría. Los autores describen problemas específicos que enfrentan mujeres afro‐americanas, asiático‐americanas, latinoamericanas, e indígenas lesbianas, y ofrecen gufas para prácticas afirmativas cuando se trabaja con estas mujeres en un contexto de consejería.     

Mentor and protégé predictors and outcomes of mentoring in a formal mentoring program

This study examines the predictors and outcomes of mentoring received by participants of a 12-month formal mentoring program. Based on relationship theory, we examined how the personality of the individuals in the mentoring dyad, their perceived similarity, and mentor perceived support for mentoring contributed to relationship outcomes. The study includes data from both mentors and protégés at the program launch, midway through the program, and at program close. Mentor proactivity was related to more career and psychosocial mentoring; protégé’s perceptions of similarity to the mentor was related to more psychosocial mentoring. More mentoring was related to positive protégé and mentor outcomes, including improved protégé career clarity over the duration of the study.     

Action-state orientation and the theory of planned behavior: A study of job search in China

Job search is an important element of people’s careers and is especially critical for unemployed individuals. The current study surveyed a sample of 328 unemployed job seekers in China to test hypotheses related to the theory of planned behavior and action-state orientation theory. Results of the three-wave longitudinal study demonstrated that the theory of planned behavior was effective in modeling job-search intention and job-search intensity. Action-state orientation moderated the relationship between attitude and intention, as well as the relationship between intention and intensity. The current study sheds light on the motivational and self-regulatory process of job search and reemployment for Chinese unemployed job seekers.