Profiles of Three Preservice ESOL Teachers' Development of Instructional Scaffolding

This study explored English as a second language (ESOL) preservice teachers’ conceptions of and abilities to provide scaffolded instruction. In-depth study of three interns indicated that each was unique with respect to their views of scaffolding and in the degree to which their implementation of scaffolded instruction changed over the course of the year. Participants differed in the focus of scaffolding and in their attempts to scaffold within lesson frameworks, across sequential lessons, and through responsive instruction. Though some preservice teachers can develop complex conceptions of the process, scaffolding is closely linked to interns’ understanding of language and literacy development.     

Treatment of Adolescent Panic Disorder: A Nonrandomized Comparison of Intensive Versus Weekly CBT

This study compared the relative efficacy of intensive versus weekly panic control treatment (PCT) for adolescent panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA). Twenty-six adolescents participated in weekly sessions and 25 received intensive treatment involving daily sessions. Both groups demonstrated significant and comparable reductions in panic disorder severity and general anxiety symptoms, which maintained over time. Participants receiving weekly treatment showed significant decreases in depressive symptoms, whereas those in the intensive program reported no change. Findings support the efficacy of the intensive approach for adolescent PDA, but suggest that adolescents receiving intensive treatment may benefit from a brief course of additional weekly sessions.     

A Decline in Creativity? It Depends on the Domain

Earlier studies using psychometric tests have documented declines in creativity over the past several decades. Our study investigated whether and how this apparent trend would replicate through a qualitative investigation using an authentic nontest measure of creativity. Three-hundred and fifty-four visual artworks and 50 creative writing works produced by adolescents between 1990–1995 and 2006–2011 were assessed. Products were analyzed using a structured assessment method based on technical criteria and content elements. Criteria included in the current investigation (e.g., genre, medium, stylistic approach) are relevant both to the specific media domains and to previously established dimensions of creativity, such as originality and complexity. Results showed strong domain differences: performance in visual arts increased on a variety of indices of complexity and technical proficiency, and performance in writing decreased on indices related to originality and technical proficiency. Findings highlight the value of analysing creativity across domains. The importance of considering cultural and technological changes in characterizing and understanding apparent trends in amount and types of creativity is discussed.     

Memory of myself: Autobiographical memory and identity in Alzheimer's disease

A number of theories posit a relationship between autobiographical memory and identity. To test this we assessed the status of autobiographical memory and identity in 20 individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 20 age‐matched controls, and investigated whether degree of autobiographical memory impairment was associated with changes in identity. Two tests of autobiographical memory (Autobiographical Memory Interview, autobiographical fluency) and two measures of identity (Twenty Statements Test, identity items of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale) were administered. AD participants exhibited significant impairments on both memory tests, and changes in the strength, quality, and direction of identity relative to controls. Impairments of some components of autobiographical memory, particularly autobiographical memory for childhood and early adulthood, were related to changes in the strength and quality of identity. These findings support the critical role of early adulthood autobiographical memories (16–25 years) in identity, and suggest autobiographical memory loss affects identity.     

Influence of electroencephalography neurofeedback training on episodic memory: A randomized,sham-controlled,double-blind study

The relationships between memory processes and oscillatory electroencephalography (EEG) are well established. Neurofeedback training (NFT) may cause participants to better regulate their brain EEG oscillations. The present study is a double-blind sham-controlled design investigating the effect of NFT on memory. NFT included up-training upper alpha (UA) band, up-training sensory-motor rhythm (SMR) band and sham protocol. Thirty healthy adult volunteers were randomly divided into three treatment groups. NFT sessions (30 min each) took place twice weekly for a total of 10 sessions while memory testing took place pre- and post-training. The results indicate dissociation between SMR and UA NFT and different memory processes. While the SMR protocol resulted in improving automatic, item-specific and familiarity-based processes in memory, the UA protocol resulted in improved strategic and controlled recollection. The implications of the results are discussed.     

Intrinsic Religiosity and Volunteering During Emerging Adulthood: A Comparison of Mormons with Catholics and Non‐Catholic Christians

Emerging adulthood is a period when religious beliefs are likely to be shaped. Studying the influence of religious culture on prosocial behavior among emerging adults aids our understanding of the process and effects of religious socialization. Mormon religious culture places a particularly strong emphasis on caring for family and fellow Mormons. Because intrinsically religious individuals internalize their religious community's values, we hypothesized that the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and volunteering would be stronger among Mormons than among Catholics or non‐Catholic Christians. We tested this hypothesis using a sample of Mormon (N = 118), Catholic (N = 304), and non‐Catholic Christian (N = 542) emerging adults (18–29 year olds) across three volunteering contexts (religious, family, and secular). Controlling for extrinsic religiosity and worship attendance, the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and frequency of volunteering was greater among Mormons than Catholics and non‐Catholic Christians in the context of religious and family volunteering. However, intrinsic religiosity was not a significant predictor of secular volunteering. Our findings suggest that Mormon culture influences the frequency and type of volunteering engaged in by young Mormon adults.     

The Relation of Reciprocated and Nonreciprocated Friendship Nominations to Peer Social Competence for Chinese Elementary School Children

The authors examined associations between different forms of children’s friendship nomination reciprocity (mutual, unilateral given, unilateral received) and other measures of children’s peer social competence (liking, loneliness, overt aggression, perceived popularity) for 501 Chinese third- to sixth-grade students. Using a multigroup path analysis (with gender as group), for both boys and girls, all three forms of friendship nominations were negatively related to self-reported loneliness. Mutual friendship nominations and unilateral received friendship nominations were positively related to peer nominations for liking and to peer nominations of perceived popularity. The path between unilateral received friendship nominations and perceived popularity was higher for boys than for girls. Also, for boys only, mutual friendship nominations and unilateral received friendship nominations were each negatively related to peer nominations of overt aggression. These patterns are somewhat different from research examining the association of forms of friendships to peer social competence for children in Western cultures. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of the relation of different forms of friendship nominations to children’s peer social competence as well as the broad association of culture for these relations.     

The Effects of Hand Gestures on Verbal Recall as a Function of High- and Low-Verbal-Skill Levels

The author examined the effects of cueing for verbal recall with the accompanying self-generated hand gestures as a function of verbal skill. There were 36 participants, half with low SAT verbal scores and half with high SAT verbal scores. Half of the participants of each verbal-skill level were cued for recall with their own gestures, and the remaining half was given a free-recall test. Cueing with self-generated gestures aided the low-verbal-skill participants so that their retrieval rate equaled that of the high-verbal-skill participants and their loss of recall over a 2-week period was minimal. This effect was stable for both concrete and abstract words. The findings support the hypothesis that gestures serve as an auxiliary code for memory retrieval.     

Leader Behavior,Work-Attitudes,and Turnover of Salespeople: An Integrative Study

Data were collected from the national field sales force of a major consumer goods manufacturer. The study develops a structural model of salespeople's perceptions of their supervisors' behaviors (i.e., leadership consideration and leadership role clarity), and the influence of supervisors' behaviors on the sales force's role perceptions, job anxiety, job satisfaction, propensities to leave and actual turnover. The study integrates previous research regarding sales force turnover to form the underpinning for the relationships between the constructs, and finds empirically that sales managers' leadership behaviors directly and indirectly influence job satisfaction, which influences salespeople's propensity to leave the organization and actual turnover.     

The Relationship of Infertility and Death: Using the Relational/Cultural Model of Counseling in Making Meaning

Although the crisis of infertility and attitudes associated with death are often approached differently in counseling, they both share similar attributes. Often, these experiences are described negatively and are associated with at least some form of loss. These negative experiences affect individuals' personal and existential meaning in a profound way. In this article, these experiences will be explored. Specifically, the relationship between these 2 experiences will be explored in order to understand how individuals attempt to make meaning. Finally, the application of the Relational/Cultural Model of counseling will be introduced as a way to facilitate meaning making.