Adapting Group Therapy to Address Real World Problems: Insights from Groups Offered in the Bahamas

This article presents a cultural adaptation of a group therapeutic approach that is being offered in the Bahamas. “The Family: People Helping People” project was designed as an intervention to improve socialization in New Providence, the Bahamian capital and its most heavily populated city. “The Family” group model offers support and training to improve communication in relationships and to encourage constructive emotional expression. This article will provide an overview of “The Family,” address key elements of this approach that are culturally tailored, and offer clinical examples and note implications for group therapy training. This cultural adaptation offers helpful insights for addressing community problems, such as violence and societal fragmentation, and may inform the development of community-based group interventions in other settings.     

On the nature of international sales and sales management research: a social network–analytic perspective

This research uses a combination of text mining, co-word analysis, and social network analysis (SNA) to review 132 international sales and sales management (ISSM) articles published between 1980 and 2017. The study provides a unique view of the past and future of ISSM research and provides three principal contributions. First, from a social network–analytic perspective, it offers a unique examination of the ways ISSM research topics are interconnected, as reflected by keyword network structure. Second, by conducting SNA across two periods (1980–1999 and 2000–2017) and examining the changes in network centrality measures, the study offers initial insights into the evolving nature of the ISSM literature. Third, the study reports keyword network disconnections (i.e., structural holes) to propose a fruitful agenda for future ISSM research. Taken together, this research offers a current perspective of the ISSM research domain's evolving nature.     

Time Perspective and Procrastination in the Workplace: An Empirical Investigation

In the workplace, procrastination is typically viewed as a sub-optimal behavior that undermines productivity. As a construct, psychologists typically conceptualize procrastination as a stable and enduring personality trait. It has recently been argued that time perspective is also a personality trait, which has an important influence on procrastination behavior (Ferrari and Díaz-Morales, 2007 Journal of Research in Personality 41:707–714). Time perspective helps to guide not only employees’ judgments and decisions, but also their actions at the individual level. In this study, we examine the extent to which five qualitatively different types of time perspective (defined by Zimbardo and Boyd, 1999 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77:1271–1288) predict the tendency to procrastinate in the workplace. Participants were 236 managers and executives sampled from seven major information technology and financial organizations in India. Regression analyses revealed that of the five time dimensions, two were significantly positively related to procrastination, whereas two others showed negative relationships. From a basic science perspective, these findings help to extend our theoretical understanding of both time perspective and procrastination. From an applied standpoint, the results suggest an important individual difference dimension that might be considered during the personnel selection process.     

Affording Emerging Adulthood: Parental Financial Assistance of their College-Aged Children

The purpose of this study was to examine parents’ attitudes about and patterns of providing financial assistance to their children during college, and how varying levels of parental financial support were related to children’s beliefs (e.g., perceptions of adulthood), behaviors (e.g., work hours, drinking, and drug use), and identity development. The sample consisted of 402 undergraduate students (62% women) recruited from four college sites across the United States (M age = 19.89), and one of their parents (310 mothers and 92 fathers). Using cluster analysis, results suggested four distinct approaches to parental financial involvement and found that emerging adults’ beliefs, behaviors, and identity development differed as a function of parents’ cluster membership. Discussion focuses on implications for emerging adult children whose parents endorse varying levels of financial involvement.     

New insights into the regulation of synaptic plasticity from an unexpected place: Hippocampal area CA2

The search for molecules that restrict synaptic plasticity in the brain has focused primarily on sensory systems during early postnatal development, as critical periods for inducing plasticity in sensory regions are easily defined. The recent discovery that Schaffer collateral inputs to hippocampal area CA2 do not readily support canonical activity-dependent long-term potentiation (LTP) serves as a reminder that the capacity for synaptic modification is also regulated anatomically across different brain regions. Hippocampal CA2 shares features with other similarly "LTP-resistant" brain areas in that many of the genes linked to synaptic function and the associated proteins known to restrict synaptic plasticity are expressed there. Add to this a rich complement of receptors and signaling molecules permissive for induction of atypical forms of synaptic potentiation, and area CA2 becomes an ideal model system for studying specific modulators of brain plasticity. Additionally, recent evidence suggests that hippocampal CA2 is instrumental for certain forms of learning, memory, and social behavior, but the links between CA2-enriched molecules and putative CA2-dependent behaviors are only just beginning to be made. In this review, we offer a detailed look at what is currently known about the synaptic plasticity in this important, yet largely overlooked component of the hippocampus and consider how the study of CA2 may provide clues to understanding the molecular signals critical to the modulation of synaptic function in different brain regions and across different stages of development.     

Authenticity as meaning validation: An empirical investigation of iconic and indexical cues in a context of “green” products

Authenticity judgments involve how individuals distinguish what appears to be real versus fake, genuine versus phony. In this investigation, we bring authenticity into the laboratory to assess it in a manner quite different from most extant approaches. Taking a Peircian semiotic view in a context of environmentally conscious consumption, we develop and test a set of hypotheses concerning the effects of indexical and iconic cues to an authentic “green” product meaning. Results suggest that effects of these indicators of authenticity can be induced in a controlled manner with products being assessed as more or less “green” on the basis of particular cue arrangements. Furthermore, the effectiveness of these semiotic cues is moderated by a basic distinction among products. Taken together, the results provide evidence supporting a meaning validation process as the basis of authenticity judgments and suggest new directions for theory building in a domain where there is substantial practitioner interest. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.