A Case Study Demonstrating Reduction of Aggressive Client Behaviors Using the Neuro-Occupation Model: Addressing Professional Burnout through Nonlinear Thinking

This single case study suggests that mental health practitioners adopt nonlinear modes of thinking within the neuro-occupation model to avoid professional burnout. Accordingly, the elimination of severely aggressive behavior of an institutionalized client was reviewed following an intervention using the model. Provided with new opportunities, the client self-extinguished aggressive interactions, reinstated social behaviors, and expanded occupations. Accepting clients as their own change agents limits our role to facilitators and reframes service delivery in mental health, which argues for comparison studies that measure reduced burnout in occupational therapists using the model.     

Emotion Regulation Mediates Effects of Alexithymia and Emotion Differentiation on Impulsive Aggressive Behavior

Alexithymia and low emotion differentiation restrict access to emotional information and increase propensity toward dysregulated and deviant behaviors, such as impulsive aggression. However, mechanisms underlying such effects are largely unknown. This study examined the mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between restricted access to emotional information and impulsive aggression. Alexithymic features and emotion differentiation explained 43% of the variance in impulsive aggression; these relationships were fully mediated by emotion-regulation difficulty. Contrary to previously held assumptions, alexithymic features and emotion differentiation were uncorrelated with one another, each limiting the translation of unique emotion information necessary for adaptive emotion and behavior regulation.     

Is There Such a Thing as “Ultimate” Meaning? A Review of Fluid versus Fixed Models of Different Forms of Human Striving

A growing number of social psychological theories have posited that meaning-striving can be compensated for across domains; threats in one area can simply be addressed by gains in another. Other models argue that not all forms of meaning are created equal; certain forms of striving trump other ones. This review compares the assertions made by these different models related to meaning to illustrate that (a) with few exceptions, fluidity is central to meaning, and (b) despite such consensus on the fluid nature of meaning, existing models diverge on the existence and nature of “ultimate” meanings. Future directions for the empirical study of meaning and methodological considerations are discussed.     

The recollective qualities of adolescents’ and adults’ narratives about a long-ago tornado

The recollective qualities of autobiographical memory are thought to develop over the course of the first two decades of life. We used a 9-year follow-up test of recall of a devastating tornado and of non-tornado-related events from before and after the storm, to compare the recollective qualities of adolescents’ (n?=?20, ages 11 years, 11 months to 20 years, 8 months) and adults’ (n?=?14) autobiographical memories. At the time of the tornado, half of the adolescents had been younger than age 6. Nine years after the event, all participants provided evidence that they recall the event of the tornado. Adults also had high levels of recall of the non-tornado-related events. Adolescents recalled proportionally fewer non-tornado-related events; adolescents younger than 6 at the time of the events recalled the fewest non-tornado-related events. Relative to adolescents, adults produced longer narratives. With narrative length controlled, there were few differences in the recollective qualities of adolescents’ and adults’ narrative reports, especially in the case of the tornado; the recollective qualities were stronger among adolescents older at the time of the events. Overall, participants in both age groups provided evidence of the qualities of recollection that are characteristic of autobiographical memory.     

Proportional reasoning,framing effects,and affirmative action: Is six of one really half a dozen of another in university admissions?

People often reason proportionally, perceiving fixed outcomes as larger or smaller depending upon the reference condition. Thus, for policies affecting individuals, presenting data as percentages rather than frequencies can alter perceived effects on high versus low base rate group members, even though identical numbers of individuals in each group are affected. Such numerical framing effects were explored through a case analysis of public debates over race-conscious selection policies and through experimental manipulations employing a race-conscious university admissions scenario. Undergraduates (N = 193) received data reporting the expected impact on black and white student enrollment resulting from a university shift to race-neutral admissions. Compared to those encountering percentages or proportions, participants receiving identical information expressed as frequencies revealed a predicted greater preference for race-neutral or “race blind” admissions. Structural equation analysis supported a model in which perceived impact and fairness mediated the relationship between format and endorsement of race-neutral admissions.     

Integrating fieldwork into employment counseling for methadone‐treatment patients

An innovative employment counseling model, Customized Employment Supports, was developed for methadone‐treatment patients, a population with historically low employment rates. The effectiveness of a key component of the model, “vocational fieldwork,” the delivery of services in the community rather than only within the clinic, was assessed through a quasi‐experimental study of the first 55 patients receiving the model in 2 clinics. Employment outcomes after 6 months were compared between patients who received vocational fieldwork (n = 18) and those who did not (n = 37). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that patients receiving vocational fieldwork had significantly better outcomes for competitive work, informal work, and any paid work.     

Identity bifurcation in response to stereotype threat: Women and mathematics

Three studies explored women’s bifurcation of feminine identity as a response to threatening stereotypes in the domain of mathematics. Study 1 demonstrated that women in a math class who previously had completed a large number of math courses disavowed “feminine characteristics” strongly associated with stereotypes about women’s potential for math success (e.g., flirtatiousness, planning to have children) but not characteristics perceived to be weakly associated with these stereotypes (e.g., empathy, nurturance), more than women who had completed fewer math courses. Studies 2 and 3 directly manipulated stereotype threat by presenting a scientific article reporting stereotype-consistent sex differences in math aptitude. As predicted, women strongly identified with mathematics responded to this threatening article by disavowing feminine characteristics strongly associated, but not those weakly associated, with the relevant negative stereotypes, while women not strongly identified with mathematics showed no such differentiation in response. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.