A Dyadic Perspective on Speech Accommodation and Social Connection: Both Partners' Rejection Sensitivity Matters

Findings from confederate paradigms predict that mimicry is an adaptive route to social connection for rejection‐sensitive individuals (Lakin, Chartrand, & Arkin, 2008). However, dyadic perspectives predict that whether mimicry leads to perceived connection depends on the rejection sensitivity (RS) of both partners in an interaction. We investigated these predictions in 50 college women who completed a dyadic cooperative task in which members were matched or mismatched in being dispositionally high or low in RS. We used a psycholinguistics paradigm to assess, through independent listeners' judgments (N = 162), how much interacting individuals accommodate phonetic aspects of their speech toward each other. Results confirmed predictions from confederate paradigms in matched RS dyads. However, mismatched dyads showed an asymmetry in levels of accommodation and perceived connection: Those high in RS accommodated more than their low‐RS partner but emerged feeling less connected. Mediational analyses indicated that low‐RS individuals' nonaccommodation in mismatched dyads helped explain their high‐RS partners' relatively low perceived connection to them. Establishing whether mimicry is an adaptive route to social connection requires analyzing mimicry as a dyadic process influenced by the needs of each dyad member.     

The gendered nature of career development of university professors: the case of Turkey

This paper examines the gendered nature of the careers of university professors in Turkey, where 23% of professors are women. This proportion is relatively high compared to Western Europe and the United States, indicating that Turkey is an important country in which to study women and men’s professorial careers in academic institutions. The paper draws on original documentary sources and a qualitative study of Turkish professors. It demonstrates how the interplay between state policy and the dominant family ideology has enabled and constrained both women and men’s careers, but in different ways. The paper also suggests that the progress made towards women’s hierarchical equality may in the future be threatened by the current transformation of the university sector in Turkey.     

The Application of Behavior Change Theory to Family-Based Services: Improving Parent Empowerment in Children’s Mental Health

We describe the development of a parent empowerment program (PEP) using a community-based participatory research approach. In collaboration with a group of dedicated family advocates working with the Mental Health Association of New York City and state policy makers, academic researchers took an iterative approach to crafting and refining PEP to better prepare family advocates to help bridge the gaps in service access among children with emotional and behavioral problems. Despite the growth of family-led, family support programs nationally, research that demonstrates the positive benefits of such programs is scarce in the children’s mental health literature. The PEP model is based on research data about barriers families face in mental health service utilization (e.g., stigma, perceptions of providers, attitudes towards mental illness, service availability, etc.). PEP is premised on (a) the concept of empowerment as a process, (b) the need to engage parents in becoming active agents of change, and (c) the application of an integrated framework to empower parents, called the Parents as Agents of Change model. Our paper focuses on describing the application of a Unified Theory of Behavior Change as a theoretical framework to help activate parents as change agents in meeting their children’s mental health needs. Based on an integrated model of grassroots driven Principles of Parent Support and research-based Unified Theory of Behavior Change, PEP’s Parents as Agents of Change model provides a conceptual framework for testing the effectiveness of family support services in children’s mental health, a much-needed area for future research.     

Examining the Clinical Efficacy of Core Transformation: A Randomized Clinical Trial

This randomized clinical trial with a sample of adults (N = 129) from India explored the effects of a single core‐transformation session on symptom experience and psychological growth. The results over the total 8‐week study period indicated significant, moderate overall effect sizes (ds = 0.63 and 0.52) for symptom experience, emotional stability, affect balance, global well‐being, and purpose in life. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.     

FEMINIST AND FUNDAMENTALIST ATTITUDES TOWARD PORNOGRAPHY CONTROL

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences among feminists and between feminists and fundamentalists on attitudes toward pornography control. Ciliigan's (1982) model of moral reasoning was used as a basis for examining the division among feminists. An in-depth interview of 44 women was conducted. The feminists who wanted to control pornography, as well as the fundamentalists, focused primarily on responsibility to the welfare of others. Anticontrol feminists gave a higher priority to individual rights and freedom. Other differences, such as their hierarchy of values and experiences with victims of violence were found. All respondents felt extremely negative toward pornography and most believed that pornography is related to violence against women.     

THE SURVIVING SIBLING: THE EFFECTS OF SIBLING DEATH IN CHILDHOOD

This paper considers the case of childhood mourning in which there is an increased possibility of a pathological grief reaction, due to an incapacity to sustain mourning and an inability to comprehend death. The death of a sibling in childhood is a complex loss to manage, the outcome of which is inextricably linked with parental grief. Maladaptive parental mourning processes, including the phenomenon of the ‘replacement child’, are explored. The effects of this loss on the surviving sibling can give rise to a variety of symptoms that may impair emotional development. Amongst the main responses experienced by the surviving sibling is that of a guilt reaction, not only for having survived when the sibling did not, but also a fear that harboured death wishes may have caused the tragedy. Premature death anxiety and distorted concepts of illness are further possible outcomes of this event. It is suggested that the primary deprivation a child may experience when their sibling dies is the emotional absence of their parents who are preoccupied with their own grief.