Religious belief,age, and sexual orientation on attributions of younger and older gay and heterosexual men

Using 4 vignettes and 20 response items, this exploratory study investigated attributions about older or younger gay or heterosexual men with a history of multiple sex partners, substance abuse, and legal problems. The character is diagnosed with a terminal illness and two options for care: no treatment or an aggressive treatment protocol with a small chance of recovery. When controlling for respondents’ (N?=?324) religious identification, frequency of attendance at religious services, and ethno-cultural identification, a General Linear Model was significant (F?=?57.014, df?=?20, p?<?.001). Differences in the vignette responses centred on perceptions of quality of life, the character's lifestyle, and suicide.     

Evidence that anticipated stigma predicts poorer depressive symptom trajectories among emerging adults living with concealable stigmatized identities

People living with concealable stigmatized identities are vulnerable to experiencing greater depressive symptoms as a result of occupying a lower social status. In the present research, we examine the effect of changes in enacted stigma and changes in anticipated stigma on trajectories of depressive symptoms over time. A sample of 192 college-aged emerging adults (81.0% female, 81.9% Caucasian, M_age = 18.82 years) living with a concealable stigmatized identity (e.g., mental illness and sexual minority status) completed measures of enacted stigma, anticipated stigma, and depressive symptoms at two time points across eight weeks. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicate that increases in anticipated stigma, but not enacted stigma, predicted poorer trajectories of depressive symptoms, controlling for the effect of baseline rumination and other identity-related variables. These data are among the first to demonstrate that worries about future devaluation predict poorer depressive symptom trajectories over time among college-aged emerging adults.     

Are Infants’ Theory-of-Mind Abilities Well Integrated? Implicit Understanding of Intentions,Desires, and Beliefs

The development of theory of mind (ToM) in infancy has been mainly documented through studies conducted on a single age group with a single task. Very few studies have examined ToM abilities other than false belief, and very few studies have used a within-subjects design. During 2 testing sessions, infants aged 14 and 18 months old were administered ToM tasks based on the violation-of-expectation paradigm which measured intention, true belief, desire, and false-belief understanding. Infants’ looking times at the congruent and incongruent test trials of each task were compared, and results revealed that both groups of infants looked significantly longer at the incongruent trial on the intention and true-belief tasks. In contrast, only 18-month-olds looked significantly longer at the incongruent trial of the desire task and neither age group looked significantly longer at the incongruent trial on the false-belief task. Additionally, intertask comparisons revealed only a significant relation between performance on the false-belief and intention task. These findings suggest that implicit intention and true-belief understanding emerge earlier than desire and false-belief understanding and that ToM constructs do not appear to be integrated, as is the case for explicit ToM.     

Religion, Spirituality and Therapy: Implications for Training

Religion and spirituality are recognized coping resources but are neglected in psychological training and practice. However, religion and spirituality can be successfully used to cope with psychological disorders, prevent unhealthy behaviors and promote resilience. This study explored and described two questions regarding the concepts of the terminology religion and spirituality, and the perceptions of the use of religion and spirituality in therapy. Purposive sampling was utilized in a qualitative study of 15 registered psychologists, and data were analyzed using Tesch’s model of qualitative content analysis. The concepts religion and spirituality appear difficult to define but the importance of their use as coping mechanisms in their own and their clients’ lives was recognized. These findings have implications for professional training.     

The impact of object carriage on independent locomotion

The current study examined whether carrying objects in one's hands influenced different parameters associated with independent locomotion. Specifically, 14- and 24-month-olds walked in a straight path under four conditions of object carriage – no object (control), one object carried in one hand (one object-one hand), two objects carried in each of the hands (two objects-two hands), and one object carried in both hands simultaneously (one object-two hands). Although carrying objects failed to influence a variety of kinematic parameters of gait, it did affect children's arm postures, with children adopting less mature arm positions when carrying objects. Finally, arm position was related to walking skill, but only for older children when they were not carrying objects. These findings indicate that although a relation does exist between arm positions and gait parameters, this relation is easily disrupted by carrying loads, even small ones.     

The Dual Effects of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Relationships to Research Productivity and Career Outcomes in Academe

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has been shown to be important for organizational effectiveness, yet less is known about the relationship between OCB and objective outcomes for individuals. We investigate the relationship between OCB and both short-term and longer term outcomes within the context of an outcome-based reward system. We also investigate a type of OCB specific to professional occupations, namely, professional service OCB. Using resource allocation and social exchange theories, we hypothesize that OCB directed internally to the employing organization may have a negative impact on individuals’ productivity and career outcomes while engaging in professional service OCB would be positively related to these outcomes. Results from a survey of 622 faculty members in research universities provide support for these hypotheses. Future research directions are discussed.     

“I’ve got you under my skin”: Relational therapists’ experiences of patients who occupy their inner world

The aim of this study was to conduct an in-depth exploration of therapists’ experiences of patients who affect them more than others and occupy their inner world beyond the context of therapy sessions. A phenomenological analysis was performed on semi-structured interviews with five relational therapists. All the therapists had a strong experience of a particular patient getting “under their skin.” In all these cases, the patient was a traumatized woman. The distinctive characteristic of the phenomenon was a sense of blurred or too permeable boundaries between the therapist and the patient. This was associated with fear and anxiety, but also with feelings of love. The therapists’ reactions to having a patient “under their skin” varied from resistance to symbiotic relatedness. The therapists’ ideas of their professional role influenced how the experience of carrying the patient’s suffering was interpreted. The phenomenon of the patient’s presence in the therapist’s representational world might be interpreted as a distinct countertransference phenomenon when working in a more “thin boundary” manner with particular cases. The therapists’ ability to effectively manage their vulnerabilities, activated in the countertransference, seems to be crucial for therapeutic progress. Implications for research, clinical practice, and training are discussed.     

DEPLOYMENT STATUS: A DIRECT OR INDIRECT EFFECT ON MOTHER–CHILD ATTACHMENT WITHIN A CANADIAN MILITARY CONTEXT?

Research has suggested that military spouses experience increased depressive symptoms and parenting stress during a military member's deployment. A relationship between maternal depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and child attachment security has been found in the general population, as has an indication that social support may provide a buffering effect. While there appears to be an association between the emotional well‐being of military spouses and child emotional well‐being during deployment, data are limited regarding the association between maternal emotional well‐being and child attachment security. The current study explores the association between deployment status and child attachment to the nonmilitary parent (i.e., the mother in this study) in a sample of 68 Canadian military families. Results revealed a significant impact of deployment status on maternal depressive symptoms and on quality of child attachment. The impact of deployment status on attachment was not mediated through the maternal variables, and despite a main effect of social support on the maternal variables, there was no moderating effect. Thus, our results suggest that deployment may affect child attachment independently of maternal well‐being.