Perceptual asymmetry and youths’ responses to stress: Understanding vulnerability to depression

This research examined the hypothesis that reduced posterior right hemisphere activity interferes with the regulation of emotions and behaviour in response to stress, creating vulnerability to depression. Consistent with a diathesis–stress model, we predicted that youths with a reduced posterior right hemisphere bias in emotional processing would engage in less adaptive responses to stress, which would be associated with depressive symptoms in those who reported the recent experience of high, but not low, levels of stress. Participants were 510 4th through 8th graders who completed the Chimeric Faces Task and measures of responses to stress and depressive symptoms. Results supported the idea that responses to stress account for the association between reduced posterior right hemisphere activity and depressive symptoms in youths who report high, but not low, levels of stress. This study provides insight into one process through which reduced posterior right hemisphere activity may confer vulnerability to depressive symptoms, and implicates responses to stress as a target for intervention.     

Psychological dynamics and self-perceptions of vasectomy candidates.

Growing concern with population control has focused attention on various methods of contraception including vasectomy. Psychological research on this topic is scant, however. In this study, 9 vasectomy candidates who were undergoing the operation were compared to 9 husbands whose wives were about to have a tubal ligation. Their responses on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale and the Adjective Check List were compared. Most of the data showed no significant differences except on one scale of Counseling Readiness. The results, and others, indicate that vasectomy candidates may have a tendency to deny the anxiety connected with the operation due to its irreversible nature.     

Summation of punishment suppression

In two experiments, eight rats were trained to lever press with food on a variable-interval schedule. Bar pressing produced shock on a variable-interval schedule in the presence of two independently presented stimuli, a light and a tone. Two rats in each experiment received alternative presentations of the light and the tone and were consequently always in the presence of a stimulus that signalled variable-interval punishment. The other two rats in each experiment were treated similarly except that they received periods in which neither light nor tone was present. During these periods, bar pressing was not punished. The two stimuli that signalled punishment were then presented simultaneously to evaluate the effect of stimulus compounding on response suppression. The subjects trained without punishment-free periods did not show summation to the compound stimulus; the subjects trained with punishment-free periods showed summation of suppression. The major difference between the two experiments was the longer mean interval of variable-interval punishment used in the second experiment. This manipulation made the summation effect more resistant to extinction and thus increased its magnitude.     

The Complementarity of the Irish and British Liberal Market Economies and Skilled EU Migration Since 2004 Compared to the Swedish Coordinated Market Economy

This paper sets out to explain why the UK and Ireland have received a higher proportion of skilled and highly educated European migrants since 2004 than Sweden, arguing that the features of the formers’ liberal market economies as described in the Varieties of Capitalism literature are more complementary to skilled temporary migration than those of Sweden’s coordinated market economy. The flexible labour market, the short-term employment relationships, the emphasis on general education and the centrality of competition in the Irish and British labour markets are identified as the main features attracting skilled temporary European migrants. This stands in contrast to Sweden’s emphasis on specialised vocational training, long-term employment relationships and a rigid, less accessible labour market. These findings imply that European coordinated market economies, in need of skilled migrants due to demographic changes, have to create strong institutional incentives to compete with liberal market economies for skilled migrants.     

Further evaluation of a brief, intensive teacher-training model

The purpose of this study was to further evaluate the outcomes of a model program that was designed to train current teachers of children with autism. Nine certified special education teachers participating in an intensive 5-day summer training program were taught a relatively large number of specific skills in two areas (preference assessment and direct teaching). The teachers met the mastery criteria for all of the skills during the summer training. Follow-up observations up to 6 months after training suggested that the skills generalized to their classrooms and were maintained for most teachers with brief feedback only.     

Coping among children and adolescents with chronic illness

The present study was aimed to investigate age and gender effects on coping with everyday stressors among children and adolescents with chronic illness and healthy controls. Patients (8–13 years of age) with asthma (n=47), atopic dermatitis (n=52), and cancer (n=57) were compared to healthy controls (n=158) matched by age, gender, and grade. Self-report data on coping with academic and interpersonal stressors were collected. The primary results indicated that coping with everyday stressors was improved in children and adolescents with chronic illness compared to healthy controls. Thus, patients reported less passive avoidance on cross-situational coping and tended to show more situation-specific coping with social and school-related stressors than healthy controls. Additionally, among the clinical groups, patients with atopic dermatitis and cancer scored higher on positive self-instructions than patients with asthma. Conclusively, the results suggest that coping with a chronic illness may lead to more effective coping with everyday stressors. Implications for evaluating coping styles in patients with chronic illness are discussed.     

Depressive Symptoms Following Coping with Peer Aggression: The Moderating Role of Negative Emotionality

The way in which children cope with peer aggression may determine their subsequent adjustment, but different forms of coping may be more or less effective for particular children. This research examined whether the contribution of children’s coping to subsequent depressive symptoms was contingent on children’s temperament (i.e., level of negative emotionality; NE) and gender. Children (N?=?235, 102 boys, 133 girls, M?=?7.94 years, SD?=?0.33) reported on exposure to peer victimization. Parents rated children’s NE and depressive symptoms, and teachers rated children’s coping. For girls with high NE, problem solving protected against depressive symptoms whereas seeking retaliation heightened risk for depressive symptoms. Advice seeking protected children with low NE against depressive symptoms whereas ignoring protected children with high NE against depressive symptoms. Humor predicted fewer depressive symptoms in boys with high NE but more depressive symptoms in boys with low NE. This research helps to elucidate individual differences in the effects of coping on adjustment, and has implications for interventions aimed at reducing risk resulting from exposure to peer aggression.     

Career adaptability: A meta-analysis of relationships with measures of adaptivity,adapting responses,and adaptation results

Career adaptability, a psychosocial resource for managing career-related tasks, transitions, and traumas, is a central construct in career construction theory and the field of vocational psychology. Based on the career construction model of adaptation, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine relationships of career adaptability with measures of adaptivity, adapting responses, adaptation results, and demographic covariates. Results based on a total of 90 studies show that career adaptability is significantly associated with measures of adaptivity (i.e., cognitive ability, big five traits, self-esteem, core self-evaluations, proactive personality, future orientation, hope, and optimism), adapting responses (i.e., career planning, career exploration, occupational self-efficacy, and career decision-making self-efficacy), adaptation results (i.e., career identity, calling, career/job/school satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, job stress, employability, promotability, turnover intentions, income, engagement, self-reported work performance, entrepreneurial outcomes, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect), as well as certain demographic characteristics (i.e., age, education). Multiple regression analyses based on meta-analytic correlations demonstrated the incremental predictive validity of career adaptability, above and beyond other individual difference characteristics, for a variety of career, work, and subjective well-being outcomes. Overall, the findings from this meta-analysis support the career construction model of adaptation.