Personality, job level, job stressors, and their interaction as predictors of coping behavior

Hypotheses concerning the relationships among job stressors, job level, personality, and coping responses were investigated in a sample of 305 electrical contracting employees. Coping behaviors were measured with questionnaire items based on interviews conducted with a sample of the subjects. Neuroticism (N) and Extraversion (E) were the personality variables most strongly related to coping behavior. Overall, more coping variance was explained by personality than by job stressors; however, when the effects of job level and job stressors were combined, they explained more variance in complaining/quitting and seeking social support than did the personality variables. Both work situation and personality seem to be important variables in the choice of coping behaviors. There was no evidence of interactions among personality, stressors, and job level in explaining coping behavior.     

MMPI-A performance of African and Mexican American adolescent first-time offenders

54 African and Mexican American adolescent first-time offenders were examined with the MMPI-A to evaluate ethnic differences. Multivariate analyses by ethnicity and MMPI-A scales (validity, clinical, content, and supplementary scales) were not significant; however, there was a significant univariate difference where African American adolescents scored significantly higher on the Repression scale than the Mexican American group. A greater percentage of within-normal-limits profiles were African American (50%) than Mexican American (25%). Research and clinical implications for using the MMPI-A with these groups are discussed.     

Psychological treatment of secondary insomnia

Psychological treatment of insomnia has focused on primary insomnia (i.e., having a psychological origin). Secondary insomnia, sleep disturbance caused by a psychiatric or medical disorder, although it is more common than primary insomnia, has received very little attention as a result of the belief that it would be refractory to treatment. The present study randomly assigned older adults with secondary insomnia to a treatment group, 4 sessions composed of relaxation and stimulus control, or a no-treatment control group. Self-report assessments conducted at pretreatment, posttreatment, and a 3-month follow-up revealed that treated participants showed significantly greater improvement on wake time during the night, sleep efficiency percentage, and sleep quality rating. The authors hypothesize that treatment success was probably due in part to difficulty in diagnostic discrimination between primary and secondary insomnia.     

Misremembrance of options past: source monitoring and choice

This study reveals that when remembering past decisions, people engage in choice-supportive memory distortion. When asked to make memory attributions of options' features, participants made source-monitoring errors that supported their decisions. They tended to attribute, both correctly and incorrectly, more positive features to the option they had selected than to its competitor. In addition, they sometimes attributed, both correctly and incorrectly, more negative features to the nonselected option. This pattern of distortion may be beneficial to people's general well-being, reducing regret for options not taken. At the same time, it is problematic for memory accuracy, for accountability, and for learning from past experience.     

Psychometric properties of the Hawaiian Culture Scale--Adolescent Version

This article reports on the psychometric properties of a newly constructed Hawaiian Culture Scale--Adolescent Version. A total of 2,272 Native Hawaiian and 1,170 non-Hawaiian adolescents were administered this 50-item inventory that measures the source of learning the Hawaiian way of life, how much Hawaiian beliefs are valued and important to maintain, how much non-Hawaiian beliefs are valued, Hawaiian blood quantum, and specific cultural traditions (seven subscales = Lifestyles, Customs. Activities, Folklore, Causes-Locations, Causes-Access, and Language Proficiency). The results strongly supported the internal consistency and validity of the measures for both the Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian groups. On the basis of the demographic data, partial support was offered for cross-cultural theories of ethnic identity. More consistent support was found for multiculturalism in Hawai'i's adolescents. Further research is needed to link these measures with indicators of psychological adjustment (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance use).     

Long-term outcomes of pediatric acquired brain injury

Recent studies have shown that persisting deficits remain even in young children with mild brain injuries. Our 2-year study investigated patterns of recovery in children and adolescents with ABI over the past 10 years. In the first year, we retrospectively reviewed demographic information (e.g., age at injury, gender,severity, GCS, coma length, and LOS), medical status, academic and therapy interventions, psychological, emotional and cognitive,physical, social, and family issues reported by parents and clients and outcome data from an adapted version of the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory.In the second year of the study, we prospectively collected in-depth information through the use of new outcome measures, questionnaires and structured interviews. We focused on the relationships between persisting limitations (academic performance, pragmatic communication, social interactions, and physical abilities) and restrictions on participation (i.e., school, social relationships, vocational,and quality of life) of children who are between 3 and 5 years post-injury.     

Ethical issues in exercise psychology

Exercise psychology encompasses the disciplines of psychiatry, clinical and counseling psychology, health promotion, and the movement sciences. This emerging field involves diverse mental health issues, theories, and general information related to physical activity and exercise. Numerous research investigations across the past 20 years have shown both physical and psychological benefits from physical activity and exercise. Exercise psychology offers many opportunities for growth while positively influencing the mental and physical health of individuals, communities, and society. However, the exercise psychology literature has not addressed ethical issues or dilemmas faced by mental health professionals providing exercise psychology services. This initial discussion of ethical issues in exercise psychology is an important step in continuing to move the field forward. Specifically, this article will address the emergence of exercise psychology and current health behaviors and offer an overview of ethics and ethical issues, education/training and professional competency, cultural and ethnic diversity, multiple-role relationships and conflicts of interest, dependency issues, confidentiality and recording keeping, and advertisement and self-promotion.     

Importing perceived features into false memories

False memories sometimes contain specific details, such as location or colour, about events that never occurred. Based on the source-monitoring framework, we investigated one process by which false memories acquire details: the reactivation and misattribution of feature information from memories of similar perceived events. In Experiments 1A and 1B, when imagined objects were falsely remembered as seen, participants often reported that the objects had appeared in locations where visually or conceptually similar objects, respectively, had actually appeared. Experiment 2 indicated that colour and shape features of seen objects were misattributed to false memories of imagined objects. Experiment 3 showed that perceived details were misattributed to false memories of objects that had not been explicitly imagined. False memories that imported perceived features, compared to those that presumably did not, were subjectively more like memories for perceived events. Thus, perception may be even more pernicious than imagination in contributing to false memories.     

G. Stanley Hall's contribution to science, practice and policy: The child study, parent education, and child welfare movements

G. Stanley Hall influenced several social movements that had great implications for child wellbeing: the Child Study, Parent Education, and Child Welfare Movements. However, while Hall laid much of the foundation for the field of scientific child study and policy-relevant research, his legacy is virtually nonexistent. The current article reviews the life and contributions of G. Stanley Hall, and the dual role Hall played in history as a revered leader of the Child Study Movement and a controversial figure in the landscape of early child psychology.