Intrinsic Need Satisfaction: A Motivational Basis of Performance and Weil‐Being in Two Work Settings1

Studies in 2 work organizations tested a self‐determination theory based model in which employees' autonomous causality orientation and their perceptions of their managers' autonomy support independently predicted satisfaction of the employees' intrinsic needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, which in turn predicted their performance evaluations and psychological adjustment. Path analysis indicated that the self‐determination theory model fit the data very well and that alternative models did not provide any advantage.     

Irrational Beliefs and the Experience and Expression of Anger

The present study assessed rational-emotive theories of anger by examining the interrelationships of irrational beliefs and the experience and expression of anger. An audiotaped anger-provoking scenario was used to determine whether irrational beliefs predicted state anger and hostile thoughts following provocation. After completing measures of irrational beliefs, trait anger, and anger expression and control, 161 college students were exposed to the provoking stimulus, which was followed by measures of state anger and hostile thoughts. Findings showed both low frustration tolerance and awfulizing were related to trait anger, anger suppression, and outward anger expression. Only low frustration tolerance was related to state anger following provocation. However, awfulizing was associated with all hostile thoughts, and both self-directed shoulds and self-worth were associated with derogatory thoughts about others. Only awfulizing had incremental validity over trait anger, and then, only in the prediction of derogatory thoughts.     

Implementation of Belief Change Operators Using BDDs

While the theory of belief change has attracted a lot of interest from researchers, work on implementing belief change and actually putting it to use in real-world problems is still scarce. In this paper, we present an implementation of propositional belief change using Binary Decision Diagrams. Upper complexity bounds for the algorithm are presented and discussed. The approach is presented both in the general case, as well as on specific belief change operators from the literature. In an effort to gain a better understanding of the empirical efficiency of the algorithms involved, a fault diagnosis problem on combinational circuits is presented, implemented and evaluated.     

'At the still point of the turning world': a journey through the temporal dimensions of a father–son conflict

This paper will examine aspects of the permeability of time, with a view to exploring our perceptions of ourselves as present–focused distinct individuals. Permeability of time is defined as time's fluidity, its ability to move across boundaries of past, present and future. Fluidity, in this sense, is our capacity to experience past, present and future simultaneously.
Time will be examined from both psychoanalytic and systemic viewpoints. Issues of time and timelessness, consciousness and memory will be raised and the usefulness of working from an affective base discussed. The case cited in the paper is one in which the family was in the stage of having an adolescent child. Adolescence will therefore be discussed as it relates to the issue of time. The clinical discussion will be based on an integration of the two theoretical perspectives as they relate to time and affect. In conclusion I will revisit the question of our perception of ourselves as present–focused distinct individuals within a family context.     

The relationship between parental report on the BRIEF and performance-based measures of executive function in children with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury.

The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) is a questionnaire that assesses parental observations of behaviors associated with executive function in children in the home environment. The current investigation examines the relationship between the BRIEF and individually-administered neuropsychological tests in children with traumatic brain injury. Forty-eight children with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury were administered the WISC-III and several performance-based tests of executive function (the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Trail Making Test Part B, verbal fluency), and a parent completed the BRIEF. Results indicate that the Metacognition Index from the BRIEF correlates with Verbal IQ, but none of the index scores from the BRIEF correlate with any of the performance-based tests of executive function. Results are discussed with respect to the ecological validity of standardized clinical neuropsychological tests of executive function.     

The Impact of American Protestant Missions in Lebanon on the Construction of Female Identity,c. 1860-1950

Posing challenging questions in an attempt to answer what impact the American Protestant missionary encounter had on middle-class Syrian women, this article focuses on the experience of Syrian women with the American Presbyterian Mission in Lebanon. It discusses missionary educational institutions as the most important site of the encounter between missionaries and women in the Middle East. It further speculates as to what young Arab women took from their mission educations' ideas of gender, modernization and deculturization in order to shape their own destinies and to create their own sense of identity.     

On Measuring Forgiveness: Implications from Smallest Space Analysis of the Forgiveness Likelihood Scale

The structure of the Rye et al.’s Forgiveness Likelihood Scale was evaluated using the principal components analysis and Guttman’s Smallest Space Analysis. Participants (n = 98) were students in Introduction to Psychology classes. While the former suggested a one-factor solution, the latter suggested differentiating the items based on the facet of ease of forgiving with three subsets: easy, medium, and difficult items. Unexpectedly, the Total Forgiveness Likelihood Scale score and the subscale based on just difficult items correlated significantly with the Fantasy subscale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. A mapping sentence is offered with four facets and their putative constituent elements as a way to conceptualize the development of new, or to improve upon current, forgiveness likelihood scales.     

Neurocognitive development of relational reasoning

Relational reasoning is an essential component of fluid intelligence, and is known to have a protracted developmental trajectory. To date, little is known about the neural changes that underlie improvements in reasoning ability over development. In this event‐related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, children aged 8–12 and adults aged 18–25 performed a relational reasoning task adapted from Raven's Progressive Matrices. The task included three levels of relational reasoning demands: REL‐0, REL‐1, and REL‐2. Children exhibited disproportionately lower accuracy than adults on trials that required integration of two relations (REL‐2). Like adults, children engaged lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and parietal cortex during task performance; however, they exhibited different time courses and activation profiles, providing insight into their approach to the problems. As in prior studies, adults exhibited increased rostrolateral PFC (RLPFC) activation when relational integration was required (REL‐2 > REL‐1, REL‐0). Children also engaged RLPFC most strongly for REL‐2 problems at early stages of processing, but this differential activation relative to REL‐1 trials was not sustained throughout the trial. These results suggest that the children recruited RLPFC while processing relations, but failed to use it to integrate across two relations. Relational integration is critical for solving a variety of problems, and for appreciating analogies; the current findings suggest that developmental improvements in this function rely on changes in the profile of engagement of RLPFC, as well as dorsolateral PFC and parietal cortex.