Exploring the effect of stress on mood, self-esteem, and daily habits with psychology graduate students

There are few empirical studies on the issues of psychology graduate students beyond dissertation research. Data from a sample of 65 psychology graduate students were analyzed to explore how stress relates to self-esteem, mood, and daily habits (eating, sleeping, smoking, exercise, and alcohol consumption). The results suggest that sleep patterns, exercise habits, and negative mood were significant correlates and predictors of stress. Findings prompt further investigation of the effects of the stress on psychology graduate students, which might aid in developing interventions leading to increased productivity, satisfaction, and global well-being for both graduate students and faculty.     

Depiction of an object's size in drawings subsequent to interaction with the object

Subsequent representation of the size of the object in a visuomotor activity was evaluated after an object was used differentially in two ways. 25 female and 17 male students volunteered from general psychology courses and were randomly assigned to a condition in which participants used a small teaspoon to remove sand from a ladle or simply moved the ladle. Those who removed sand drew a representation of a ladle that was taller than did participants who moved the ladle. It appears, given the time-consuming activity of removing sand, the ladle appeared to contain more sand and seemed larger. Findings suggest that the way an object was used may distort memory of its size and that subsequent representation of the size in a visuomotor task can be influenced by that memory.     

Individual Differences in Self‐Enhancement and Self‐Protection Strategies: An Integrative Analysis

ABSTRACT Research has identified a large number of strategies that people use to self‐enhance or self‐protect. We aimed for an empirical integration of these strategies. Two studies used self‐report items to assess all commonly recognized self‐enhancement or self‐protection strategies. In Study 1 (N=345), exploratory factor analysis identified 4 reliable factors. In Study 2 (N=416), this model was validated using confirmatory factor analysis. The factors related differentially to the key personality variables of regulatory focus, self‐esteem, and narcissism. Expanding this integrative approach in the future can reveal a great deal about the structure and dynamics of self‐enhancement and self‐protection motivation.     

Decline and Conflict: Causes and Consequences of Leadership Transitions in Religious Congregations

Changes in leadership can be difficult for any organization. Leadership transitions in religious congregations might be especially challenging given the personal relationships involved and the spiritual dimension of a leader's position. This complexity often makes it difficult to separate the reasons for the transition from the impacts of the transition. For example, loss of membership and congregational conflict can be both a cause and a consequence of leadership change. Using the 2006–2007 National Congregations Study, this research explores how membership decline and congregational conflict are associated with leadership transitions in religious congregations. Although we find that leadership transitions are associated with conflict and membership decline, we also find that certain factors, such as whether the leader comes from within the congregation and context of the transition, moderate these associations.     

The Relationships Among Sensory Processing Styles,Personality Traits,and Body Mass Index: A Pilot Study

The purpose of the authors in this study is to explore the possible relationships among sensory processing styles, possible sensory processing disorders, personality traits, and body mass index. There is research on the relationship between obesity as defined by body mass index and temperament, and sensory processing and temperament; however, no information could be found on the relationship between body mass index and sensory processing styles, or the role that temperament and personality styles may play in these relationships. The 50 female participants were recruited from the University of New England community. The sample included women between the ages of 19 and 59 years, and of various weights. None of the participants had a history of thyroid problems, diabetes, or any physical disabilities that would limit daily physical activity. None had been diagnosed with sensory processing disorder. All participants filled out two self-reports and a demographic questionnaire. The Adult/Adolescent Sensory Profile (Brown &; Dunn, 2002 Brown , C. E. , &; Dunn , W. ( 2002 ). Adult/Adolescent Sensory Profile . San Antonio , TX : The Psychological Corporation . [Google Scholar]) determines a person's sensory processing style and possible sensory processing disorder, and the Basic Personality Inventory (Jackson, 1996 Jackson , D. N. ( 1996 ). Basic Personality Inventory Manual , (2nd ed.) . Port Huron , MI : Sigma Assessment  [Google Scholar]) focuses on everyday behaviors to describe temperament and “adult behavioral syndromes” (p. 5). Through this study the authors show only tentative relationships between body mass index and sensory processing styles and personality traits. The data could be interpreted to support both discriminant and convergent validity between the Adult/Adolescent Sensory Profile and the Basic Personality Inventory. There were, however, significant correlations between aspects of sensory processing and aspects of personality that appeared to strengthen the idea that differences in sensory processing result in predictable types of behavior, indicating that sensory processing disorders are a separate diagnostic category.     

Elevated disgust sensitivity in blood phobia

In order to demonstrate elevated disgust sensitivity and facilitated disgust learning in patients suffering from blood injection injury phobia, 23 phobics and 20 controls underwent an evaluative conditioning experiment. They were presented with picture pairs consisting of affectively neutral pictures (CS), which were followed by either disgust-inducing, fear-inducing, pleasant, or neutral scenes (US). During the presentation we recorded the electromyogram (EMG) of the musculus levator labii as a specific disgust indicator. Affective ratings for the pictures were determined before and after conditioning. Also, CS-US contingency verbalisation (CV) was assessed. Phobics reported a greater overall disgust sensitivity, experienced stronger feelings of disgust, and showed greater EMG responses while viewing disgust-eliciting scenes than control subjects. Evaluative conditioning occurred equally in both groups and depended on CV.     

Loneliness and social behaviours in a virtual social environment

Feeling lonely motivates people to reconnect with others, but it can also trigger a vicious cycle of cognitions and behaviours that reinforces their loneliness. In this study, we examined the behavioural consequences of loneliness in a virtual social environment. A total of 176 participants navigated a character (protagonist) through a two-dimensional browser game and rated the character's loneliness multiple times during the game. In the first part of the game, another character is introduced as the protagonist's spouse. At one point, the spouse leaves for an undetermined period of time but later returns. Immediately before this separation, higher ascribed loneliness of the protagonist was associated with more frequent interactions with the spouse. After the reunion, however, higher ascribed loneliness was associated with less frequent interactions with the spouse. Ascribed loneliness was not significantly related to the frequency of interactions with others nor to the frequency of solitary activities. These patterns held after controlling for ascribed positive affect. Participants' levels of loneliness were related to the level of ascribed loneliness only when the spouse was present but not when the spouse was absent. In sum, these findings suggest that the conditions that trigger the vicious cycle of loneliness are person- and situation-specific.     

Disclosing Extra-Dyadic Involvement (EDI): Understanding Attitudes, Subjective Norms, and Perceived Behavioral Control

Extra-dyadic involvement (EDI) is a complex issue that affects many individuals, couples, and families. One important, relatively unexplored issue concerns the disclosure of EDI. Despite some scholarly discourse on whether disclosure should be facilitated in a therapeutic context (e.g., Butler et al. in J Marital Fam Ther 35:125–143, 2009; Butler et al. in Am J Fam Ther 36:265–283, 2008), empirical research has not studied the intrapersonal or interpersonal processes related to disclosure. In this study, we explored potential factors involved in the decision to disclose EDI by looking at the relationships among attitudes towards EDI (in terms of perceived justifications and costs), subjective norms (obligation to disclose), and perceived behavioral control (difficulty) associated with EDI disclosure. Our sample included 337 individuals enrolled in at least one university course at one of three geographically distinct universities. Findings indicate that more permissive attitudes towards EDI are not significantly associated to the perceived difficulty in disclosing EDI or the obligation associated with disclosing EDI involving sexual intercourse. However, more permissive attitudes are related to lower felt obligation to disclose EDI that does not involve direct sexual intercourse. Conversely, more restrictive attitudes towards EDI (perceived severity, degree of perceived upset, and how detrimental it is perceived to be to the relationship) predicted greater difficulty but also greater obligation in disclosing all forms of EDI. Specific implications of these findings, including potential implications for therapy, are discussed. Overall, this study provides preliminary information regarding potentially useful factors to consider in understanding the EDI disclosure process that may also be useful in developing intervention points in therapy.     

Conceptual Resources for Questioning ‘Child as Educator’

This paper critically evaluates the ways we look to children to educate us and explores how we might depart from that dynamic, exploring how a range of conceptual frameworks from historical and cultural studies and psychoanalysis might contribute to understanding the problematic of childhood, its problems and its limitations. While ‘child as educator’ may appear to reverse the typical power relations between adults and children, it is argued that this motif in fact repeats many of the same problems as any claims about what children, and especially what ‘child’, is like. Specifically, the paper first reviews analyses of what is at stake in the figure of ‘child’; second, feminist engagement with the notion of ‘intersectionality’ is discussed in terms of how it might inform debates about childhood. Finally, drawing on Lacanian psychoanalytic approaches, analysis focuses on the notion of misrecognition structured in the ‘as’ connecting ‘child’ and ‘educator’.     

Relations Among Early Object Recognition Skills: Objects and Letters

Human visual object recognition is multifaceted and comprised of several domains of expertise. Developmental relations between young children's letter recognition and their 3-dimensional object recognition abilities are implicated on several grounds but have received little research attention. Here, we ask how preschoolers' success in recognizing letters relates to their ability to recognize 3-dimensional objects from sparse shape information alone. Seventy-three 2 1/2 to 5-year-old children completed a “Letter Recognition” task, measuring the ability to identify a named letter among 3 letters, and a “Shape Caricature Recognition” task, measuring recognition of familiar objects from sparse, abstract information about their part shapes and the spatial relations among those parts. Children also completed a control “Shape Bias” task, in which success depends on matching exact shapes but not on building an internal representation of the configuration of features characteristic of an object category or letter. Children's success in letter recognition was positively related to their shape caricature recognition scores, but not to their shape bias scores. The results suggest that letter recognition builds upon developing skills in attending to and representing the relational structure of object shape, and that these skills are common to both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional object perception.