Career And Relationship Satisfaction Among Female Faculty in Marriage and Family Therapy Programs

This study explored career and relationship satisfaction of women faculty in accredited marital and family therapy (MFT) programs. Faculty were more satisfied with teaching duties than research or service duties and more satisfied with service than research duties. A backwards multiple regression procedure showed that the combined variables of psychosocial mentoring functions, expanded service duties, and having received an award for research or service were associated with greater levels of career satisfaction while career mentoring functions were associated with reduced levels of career satisfaction. Implications and suggestions for improving the academic climate are presented for institutions, MFT programs, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), and the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE).     

An investigation of false memory in perceptual implicit tasks

Reports of critical lure priming in perceptual implicit tasks [e.g., McKone, E., & Murphy, B. (2000). Implicit false memory: Effects of modality and multiple study presentations on long-lived semantic priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 43, 89-109] using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott [Roediger, H. L., III, & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803-814] procedure have suggested availability of the lexical form of lure items at study. Three experiments were conducted to further explore "false" implicit priming in perceptual tests. In Experiments 1 and 3, implicit and explicit stem completion tests were given in the DRM procedure with semantic lists; in Experiment 2, a graphemic response test was used in a similar design. For all experiments, explicit instructions resulted in reliable false memory, while implicit instructions resulted in priming for list items and no priming for lure items. Priming for lure items was evident for "test-aware" subjects only in Experiment 1 and in a combined analysis for all three experiments. These results establish boundary conditions for priming for critical lures and indicate that access to the lexical form of critical lures may not occur under incidental learning conditions when strong controls against explicit retrieval are implemented.     

An evaluation of a brief functional analysis format within a vocational setting

We conducted and compared both brief and extended functional analyses of disruptive behaviors for 3 individuals with developmental disabilities who attended a vocational training program. Results demonstrated that the brief assessment identified the function of 2 of the 3 participants' disruptive behavior compared to the extended assessment.     

The relationship between executive function and verbal memory in Parkinson's disease

A growing body of evidence suggests that the various cognitive symptoms found in Parkinson's disease (PD) are secondary to executive dysfunction. Studies addressing this possibility for memory impairment specifically have not included measures of working memory nor have they ruled-out potential mediating variables such as overall level of cognitive impairment or depression. The purpose of this study was to include measures of these variables in determining the relationship between multiple aspects of executive function and delayed verbal recall in 32 idiopathic PD patients. Results were consistent with the original hypothesis and further suggest that working memory is a key factor in recall memory and may mediate the relationship between other executive measures and recall in PD.     

Joining a consumer society: Russian immigrant versus American materialism

• Regardless of their home country, immigrants to the United States often arrive in search of personal freedom and a share of the riches of this country. Prior research has identified a range of knowledge and skills that immigrants must acquire in order to navigate such a consumer society. One aspect of joining a consumer society that has not been addressed, however, is the role of material goods in one's life. The purpose of this paper is to examine the changing role, if any, of material goods in the lives of immigrants arriving in the United States from a non‐consumer society and to compare the level of materialism among such immigrants with that of Americans. The results of a study of 278 Soviet‐era Russian immigrants and 200 native‐born Americans indicate that at the time the immigrants arrived, they were just as materialistic as Americans and became no more materialistic, the longer they lived in the United States. Both Americans and Russians, however, became less materialistic with age. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

     

Attentional interference in judgments of musical timbre: individual differences in working memory

Researchers have shown that working memory is related to a variety of high-level cognitive processes. However, the results of recent research have suggested that may be because of its role in attentional control. In the present experiment, the authors investigated that hypothesis by using an attentional interference task with musical stimuli. Listeners were asked to monitor one ear for either a clarinet or violin tone and to ignore any information in the other ear. On some of the trials, they heard only one tone and on other trials, either the same instrument in both ears or different instruments. Individual differences were measured in working memory and musical experience. The results showed more attentional interference in the different-instrument condition for participants with lower working memory scores, which suggested that working memory involves the ability to control attention to inhibit irrelevant information.     

Predictability and the dynamics of position processing in the flash-lag effect

Several models have been proposed to account for the flash-lag effect. One criterion for evaluating alternative models is to consider the separate effects of motion predictability and flash predictability. We first established that flash predictability has an impact on the size of the perceived spatial offset in the flash-lag illusion. We then examined motion predictability by varying the consistency of the motion trajectory. Both manipulations affected the magnitude of the flash-lag illusion. These outcomes suggest that the perception of position is a dynamic process that can be modulated by explicit cues in advance of the flash and by the temporal integration of position information over a consistent motion trajectory. A complete explanation of the flash-lag effect must specify how flash predictability and motion predictability modulate position-processing mechanisms.     

A preliminary investigation of multicultural perspective and life satisfaction

The present study represents a preliminary investigation of Ramirez' contention that developing a multicultural identity would lead to better mental health and more life satisfaction. Using a tentative index of a multicultural perspective analysis indicated that, although a multicultural perspective is associated with more life satisfaction, it accounts for only 8% of the variance. Further, one of the measures used by Ramirez to measure an aspect of a multicultural perspective was not correlated with life satisfaction, and another correlated negatively. This latter measure accounts for only 6% of the variance in life satisfaction. Combined, these findings provide limited support for Ramirez perspective by explaining 14% of the overall variance in life satisfaction.     

Post Traumatic Stress,Context, and the Lingering Effects of the Hurricane Katrina Disaster among Ethnic Minority Youth

This study examined the stability of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in a predominantly ethnic minority sample of youth exposed to Hurricane Katrina. Youth (n = 191 grades 4th thru 8th) were screened for exposure to traumatic experiences and PTSD symptoms at 24 months (Time 1) and then again at 30 months (Time 2) post-disaster. PTSD symptoms did not significantly decline over time and were higher than rates reported at earlier time points for more ethnically diverse samples. Younger age, female sex, and continued disrepair to the child’s home predicted stable elevated PTSD symptoms. Findings are consistent with predictions from contextual theories of disaster exposure and with epidemiological data from adult samples suggesting that the incidence of PTSD post Katrina is showing an atypical pattern of remittance. Theoretical, applied, and policy implications are discussed.