Introducing Reality Play Therapy: Reactions and Perceptions From Elementary School Counselors

Many elementary school students lack school relationships required for positive personal, social, and academic interactions. Reality therapy and play therapy both seek to address these relationships through developmentally appropriate and effective interventions. Integrating these 2 approaches has the potential for elementary school counselors to provide students with opportunities to create positive relationships and develop problem-solving skills. In this study, 8 school counselors participated in a series of trainings introducing reality play-therapy techniques to assess this potential. A thematic analysis conducted on feedback sessions following the trainings yielded themes related to the participants’ positive perceptions to the training and possible application.     

The Effects of Social Support on Self‐Esteem,Self‐Efficacy,and Job Search Efficacy in the Unemployed

This study attempted to determine the effects of family and social support on the self‐esteem, self‐efficacy, and job search self‐efficacy of the unemployed. A total of 117 surveys were collected in Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon measuring self‐esteem, general self‐efficacy, and job search self‐efficacy and social support. Pearson correlation coefficients demonstrated moderately strong positive relationships between social support and self‐esteem, general self‐efficacy, and job search self‐efficacy. Social and family support had a stronger influence on the self‐perceptions of men than women.     

VSearch: Macintosh software for experiments in visual search

In this paper, we describe software that turns a Macintosh computer into an off-the-shelf tool for experiments on visual search. Our design goals included portability (between members of the Macintosh computer family and between various research settings), user-friendliness (equivalent to Macintosh programming standards), flexibility (to allow replication and extension of important experiments on visual search), and adaptability (very short design-to-data and data-to-analysis turnaround times). We describe how the software meets these goals in three major phases of an experiment: stimulus construction, experimental control, and statistical analysis. We then list several landmark studies of visual search that can be easily designed and extended with the software. Finally, we outline plans for expanding the experimental variations that will be supported in future versions of the software.     

Inconsistent-handed advantage in episodic memory extends to paragraph-level materials

Past research using handedness as a proxy for functional access to the right hemisphere demonstrates that individuals who are mixed/inconsistently handed outperform strong/consistently handed individuals when performing episodic recall tasks. However, research has generally been restricted to stimuli presented in a list format. In the present paper, we present two studies in which participants were presented with paragraph-level material and then asked to recall material from the passages. The first study was based on a classic study looking at retroactive interference with prose materials. The second was modelled on a classic experiment looking at perspective taking and the content of memory. In both studies, the classic effects were replicated and the general finding that mixed/inconsistent-handers outperform strong/consistent-handers was replicated. This suggests that considering degree of handedness may be an empirically useful means of reducing error variance in paradigms looking at memory for prose level material.     

Misleading Norms and Vulnerability in the Life Course: Definition and Illustrations

This review paper investigates the potentially misleading effect of some social norms on life trajectories. Conformity to some gender norms related to the division of paid and family work becomes counterproductive for individuals who experience turning points in their life along the way. We present various empirical results mainly drawn from the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES where conformity to social norms has detrimental effects on life trajectories. We conclude by stressing that the sensitizing concept of misleading norms contributes to a better understanding of vulnerability across the life course.     

Criteria Based Content Analysis: The Less Scientific Road to Truth

Criteria Based Content Analysis (CBCA) is a forensic tool that aims atdistinguishing true from false statements made by crime victims. As such,CBCA and similar techniques are regularly employed by psychologicalexpert-witnesses in court. However, it could be argued that the diagnosticaccuracy of CBCA is moderate, and too low for application in the forensiccontext. The current article discusses problems that arise if conclusionsabout credibility of testimonies based on CBCA are presented in court. Afundamental, yet so far hardly addressed flaw is that CBCA suffers from aninherent truth bias. That is, the underlying notion that credibility isexamined by means of searching for signs supporting truthfulness isscientifically less valid than the approach in which credibility isestablished by focusing on alternative explanations and signs of deceit.     

Correlations for organizational,nonorganizational, and intrinsic religiosity with social support among intercollegiate athletes

The present study was a preliminary examination of the correlations among organizational, nonorganizational, and intrinsic religiosity and social support as measured by the Duke Religion Index and the Nonsupport scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory for 105 intercollegiate athletes (51 women). Scores among these measures were not correlated (-.05 to -.14).