Funded Personnel Services Research: Patterns and Trends

Completed and on-going research projects in the personnel services funded by the Office of Education were analyzed regarding the topics investigated, geographical area in which the research was being done, agencies receiving the grant, and the frequency of different research designs and statistical analyses. The analysis suggests that research in the personnel services is predominantly centered in the North Central accreditation region; is experimental in design and has an apparently growing programmatic emphasis; and, finally, is primarily concerned with college student populations. A number of questions are raised for consideration in the discussion and conclusions.     

Filial Therapy With Incarcerated Fathers: Effects on Parental Acceptance of Child,Parental Stress,and Child Adjustment

The rationale for filial therapy is explored and the effectiveness of a 10-week filial therapy parent training group for incarcerated parents is described. Results of the analysis of covariance revealed that incarcerated fathers in the experimental group scored significantly higher after training than incarcerated fathers in the control group on both their attitude of acceptance and their empathic behavior toward their children. They also scored significantly lower than the control group fathers on level of stress related to parenting and identified child problem behaviors. In addition, t-test results showed that the self-concepts of the children of fathers in the experimental group increased significantly as a result of interactions with their fathers in structured filial play sessions.     

Imagination inflation: Imagining a childhood event inflates confidence that it occurred

Counterfactual imaginings are known to have far-reaching implications. In the present experiment, we ask if imagining events from one’s past can affect memory for childhood events. We draw on the social psychology literature showing that imagining a future event increases the subjective likelihood that the event will occur. The concepts of cognitive availability and the source-monitoring framework provide reasons to expect that imagination may inflate confidence that a childhood event occurred. However, people routinely produce myriad counterfactual imaginings (i.e., daydreams and fantasies) but usually do not confuse them with past experiences. To determine the effects of imagining a childhood event, we pretested subjects on how confident they were that a number of childhood events had happened, asked them to imagine some of those events, and then gathered new confidence measures. For each of the target items, imagination inflated confidence that the event had occurred in childhood. We discuss implications for situations in which imagination is used as an aid in searching for presumably lost memories.     

Effects on fathers of children with down syndrome

This study investigated research evidence for eight assertions found in the literature about effects on fathers of children with disabilities. Eighty-seven fathers of children with Down syndrome completed questionnaire instruments designed to measure demographic variables, adaptation, stress, personality, social support and marital functioning. The results provided little support for most of the assertions. It is concluded that the existing literature provides a somewhat erroneous perspective of the experiences of such fathers. These findings reinforce the need for further research specifically with fathers of children with mental retardation.     

Including Moral Dimensions of Choice Within the Structure of the Theory of Planned Behavior1

There have been a number of recommendations for reducing fat in the diet, of which consuming milk of a lower fat content is one of the most popular. In the reported study, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was applied to attitudes towards the consumption of milks of differing fat contents. Subjects (N= 257) completed a mail questionnaire in which the basic components of the model were assessed. A measure of perceived moral obligation for family's health was also included since it was predicted that this would constitute an influence not only on intentions, but also on attitudes. The findings largely support the predictive effect of the inclusion of the measure of perceived moral obligation. Differential attitudes and the use of alternative outcome evaluation scales are also examined. The findings are discussed in relation to possible extensions to the model.     

Sex from Somewhere Liberally Different?

Philosophical Studies -     

"I help because I want to, not because you tell me to": empathy increases autonomously motivated helping

Empathetic arousal has been found to be a strong predictor of helping behavior. However, research has neglected the motivational mechanisms whereby empathetic concern elicits help giving. Three studies examined the extent to which autonomous and controlled motives for helping mediated the relationship between empathy and helping. Study 1 found that state empathy predicted willingness to offer time and money to help a person in need, with this relationship mediated by autonomous motivation for helping. Study 2 demonstrated that dispositional, empathetic concern predicted prosocial intentions and behavior via the mediation of autonomous motivation. Study 3 revealed that participants who focused on the emotions of another person in distress reported greater willingness to help than did participants who remained emotionally detached, with this effect mediated by autonomous motivation to help. Controlled motivation had no positive effects on helping in any of the studies. The results suggest that empathy encourages prosocial behavior by increasing autonomous motivation to help.