Self-Determination in Intervention With Battered Arab Women in Community Health Clinics in Israel

Many abused women from patriarchal collectivistic societies that are subjected to social control seek help in community health clinics. The article is based on a qualitative study, which consisted of 24 interviews with 12 abused Israeli Arab women who sought the help of social workers in community health clinics. A central theme that emerged from the interviews was the women’s wish to maintain their self-determination in retaining the power to determine the boundaries of the intervention within the professional relationship. The discussion focuses on the dialectical consequences of maintaining the women’s self-determination—empowering them, on one hand, and limiting them, on the other.     

Willingness to express emotion: The impact of relationship type,communal orientation,and their interaction

This research examines the effects of relationship type (close vs. business), a personality variable (dispositional communal orientation), and the interaction of these two variables on individuals’ willingness to express emotions to relationship partners. Results supported our predictions that (a) people are willing to express more emotion in relationships likely to be high in communal strength than in relationships likely to be low in communal strength, (b) individuals high in communal orientation are willing to express more emotion than those who are low in communal orientation, and (c) relationship type and communal orientation interact to influence willingness to express two emotions that reveal weakness and vulnerability (fear and anxiety). Specifically, communal orientation had little effect on willingness to express fear and anxiety in business relationships, whereas high relative to low communal orientation was associated with willingness to express more fear and anxiety within close relationships.     

Characterization of memory impairment following closed-head injury in children using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT).

Memory impairment following closed-head injury (CHI) in children is well documented. Characterization of the memory deficits of children with CHI could contribute to the prediction of academic performance and rehabilitation of these children. Twenty-five children who sustained closed-head injury and 25 matched controls were administered the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT). The advantage of this memory test is that a number of memory components are measured simultaneously, thus enabling us to study the relations between different aspects of memory within the same patient sample. The findings indicate that the Rey AVLT is a good test for characterization of impaired verbal memory in children following CHI. Transformation of scores derived from the Rey AVLT to Z-scores enables us to determine the relative effect of CHI in children on different memory scores. Raw scores were more vulnerable than relational ones, derived as the difference between two raw scores (e.g., learning, Trial 5 - 1), to closed-head injury in children, and scores reflecting word span were the least vulnerable. The results are discussed in terms of the possible contribution of the frontal lobes, which are frequently affected in closed-head injuries, to memory performance.     

Outsourcing self-regulation

Three studies demonstrate a novel phenomenon--self-regulatory outsourcing--in which thinking about how other people can be instrumental (i.e., helpful) for a given goal undermines motivation to expend effort on that goal. In Experiment 1, participants who thought about how their partner helped them with health goals (as opposed to career goals) planned to spend less time and effort on health goals in the upcoming week. This pattern was stronger for depleted participants than for nondepleted participants. In Experiment 2, participants who thought about how their partner helped them with academic-achievement goals procrastinated more, leaving themselves less time for an academic task, than did participants in two control conditions. This pattern was stronger for participants who were told that procrastinating would drain their resources for the academic task than for participants who were told that procrastinating would not drain their resources for that task. In Experiment 3, participants who decreased their effort after thinking of an instrumental significant other reported higher relationship commitment to that individual than did participants who did not decrease their effort. The possibility for shared (or transactive) self-regulation is discussed.     

Forgotten but not gone: context effects on recognition do not require explicit memory for context

Context effects on recognition memory provide an important indirect assay of associative learning and source memory. Neuropsychological studies have indicated that such context effects may obtain even if the contexts themselves are not remembered--for example, in individuals impaired on direct tests of memory for contextual information. In contrast, a recent study indicated that the effects of temporal context reinstatement on visual recognition obtain only when the contextual information itself was explicitly recollected. Here we report that the effects of reinstatement of spatial-simultaneous context on visual object recognition memory obtain irrespective of whether those context stimuli are explicitly recognized. We suggest that spatial-simultaneous context effects might be based on ensemble unitization of target and context stimuli at encoding, whereas temporal context effects may require recollective processes.     

Chinese child-rearing beliefs: Key dimensions and contributions to the development of culture-appropriate assessment

Socio-cultural perspectives explain inconsistency in Chinese child-rearing research when imported methods and concepts are applied. We sought to elucidate child-rearing belief constructs relevant to Chinese contexts. Exploratory factor analysis identified items representing child-rearing concepts both imported and indigenous to Chinese culture and forming four dimensions: Training, Shame, Authoritative, and Autonomy. Data from parents of preschool-aged children in Hong Kong ( N  = 228) and Taiwan ( N  = 213) were subject to confirmatory factor and scale internal consistency analyses. Results support the conceptual and psychometric coherence of each subscale. Discussion of findings focuses on the benefits of culturally responsive methodology and the potential utility of the scales in child-rearing research with Chinese and other Confucian cultural populations.     

Perceived Support for Promotion-Focused and Prevention-Focused Goals: Associations With Well-Being in Unmarried and Married Couples

ABSTRACT— Perceived emotional support from close relationship partners in times of stress is a major predictor of well-being. However, recent research has suggested that, beyond emotional support, perceived support for achieving personal goals is also important for well-being. The present study extends such research by demonstrating that associations of perceived goal support with well-being differ depending on how people represent their goals and the general motivational context in which they pursue these goals. Among unmarried romantic partners, for whom the context of the relationship presumably is largely attainment oriented, perceived support for attainment-relevant (or promotion-focused ) goals independently predicted relationship and personal well-being, whereas perceived support for maintenance-relevant (or prevention-focused ) goals did not. In contrast, among married partners, for whom the context of the relationship presumably is both attainment and maintenance oriented, perceived support for both promotion-focused and prevention-focused goals independently predicted well-being. We discuss the implications for forecasting and improving well-being among married couples.