Readiness, Functioning, and Perceived Effectiveness in Community Prevention Coalitions: A Study of Communities That Care

This paper examined whether community readiness, prevention knowledge, coalition functioning, and barriers are linked to perceived effectiveness of community prevention coalitions. Interviews were conducted with 203 key leaders in Communities That Care (CTC) prevention boards in 21 Pennsylvania communities. Community-level means for the reliable self-report measures were utilized separately and in combination with research staff ratings, state technical assistant staff ratings, and other data. The results indicated that the strong link between readiness and perceived effectiveness was mediated by internal coalition functioning. The extent of CTC linkage with outside community entities was not linked to perceived effectiveness. The study concludes that community readiness is an important condition for success of a prevention coalition, and exerts effects mainly through the quality of the coalition's internal functioning. Member turnover and infighting appear to be important factors related to internal functioning. Linkage with outside entities may be more important for coalition models where the coalition is more dependent on local institutions for resources.     

The Benefits of Spiritual Diaries: A Mixed-Method Study in Korea

Journal of Religion and Health - This mixed study examined the benefits of spiritual diaries in Korea. Quantitatively, differences in spiritual growth and psychological well-being were examined in...     

Understanding the factors that determine workplace coaching effectiveness: a systematic literature review

Meta-analytic results have established that workplace coaching is effective, however, little is known about the determinants of coaching effectiveness. This paper reports an inclusive systematic literature review, covering the quantitative and qualitative research on workplace coaching. We focus on seven promising areas in the current workplace coaching literature that emerged by the synthesis of 117 empirical studies: self-efficacy, coaching motivation, goal orientation, trust, interpersonal attraction, feedback intervention, and supervisory support. The major contribution of our paper is the systematic integration of well-established theoretical constructs in the workplace coaching context and the new insights we provide in the synthesis of these literatures. Based on our review, we provide specific recommendations to be addressed in future research, including recommended research methodologies, which we propose will significantly progress the field of workplace coaching theory and practice.     

The impact of self on materialism among teenagers

No previous research has investigated the relationship between the concept of self and materialism, especially among teenagers. Our study seeks to reverse this trend by examining how independent self‐construal and interdependent self‐construal affect materialism among Brazilian teenagers (grades 7 through 12). Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling. We find that independent self‐construal has a positive effect on materialism. Furthermore, we created three sub‐constructs out of the original interdependent self‐construal construct, none of which affected materialism in the same way. Group dependency, a need to achieve the group's authorisation, increases materialism; group loyalty, an attitude of group fidelity, has no effect on materialism; and group respect, a respect for group decision, diminishes materialism. These are interesting results, because they question our prior beliefs on the matter and introduce new factors into the scholarly discussion of this issue. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does counting to ten increase or decrease aggression? The role of state self‐control (ego‐depletion) and consequences

In this investigation, we experimentally test the interaction of ego‐depletion (low state self‐control), consequences, and decision‐making time on aggressive responses to an insult from a confederate. The results indicate that ego‐depleted participants respond more quickly and aggressively to an insult from a confederate. However, when a 30‐ second decision‐making delay is imposed, ego‐depleted participants reduce their aggression, but only if there are external consequences to being aggressive. In the absence of such consequences, ego‐depleted participants become more aggressive following a delay. Additionally, if a distracting cognitive load disrupts the 30‐ second delay, aggression levels do not change significantly, even if there are consequences. These results suggest people respond to aggressive triggers more impulsively when ego‐depleted.     

Trauma as an objective or subjective experience: The association between types of traumatic events,personality traits,subjective experience of the event,and posttraumatic symptoms

The study aimed to examine the discrete effect of objective (type of trauma and demographic characteristics) and subjective (proximity to the trauma, subjective experience of the trauma as a threat, the Big Five personality traits, and dissociative symptoms) factors on the risk for PTSD among 1,210 undergraduate students. The findings indicate that survivors of physical/sexual assault scored the highest on proximity to the trauma, subjective experience of the trauma as a threat, neuroticism, dissociation, and PTSD symptoms. In addition, subjective experience of the trauma, proximity to it, type of trauma, dissociation, and neuroticism were associated with the risk for PTSD symptoms. The findings point to the significance of both subjective and objective variables in the risk for PTSD symptoms.     

Longitudinal linkages between sibling relationships and adjustment from middle childhood through adolescence

The links between changes in sibling conflict and intimacy and changes in perceived peer social competence and depression symptoms were examined from middle childhood through adolescence. Participants were mothers, fathers and first- and second-born siblings from 197 White, working/middle class, two-parent families. Peer competence peaked in early adolescence and then declined; depression symptoms were high in middle childhood and, for girls, in middle adolescence. Controlling for parent-offspring relationships and sibling and parent adjustment, increases in sibling conflict were linked to increases in depression symptoms, and increases in sibling intimacy were linked to increases in peer competence and, for girls, decreases in depression symptoms.     

Daily mood and stress predict pain, health care use, and work activity in African American adults with sickle-cell disease.

This study examined the extent to which daily mood and stress were associated with pain, health care use, and work activity in 41 adults (mean age=36 years) with sickle-cell disease. Multilevel model analyses of daily diaries (M=91 days) indicated that increases in stress and negative mood were associated with increases in same-day pain, health care use, and work absences. Lagged models suggested bidirectional relationships, with evidence that pain may be the more powerful initiating variable in pain-mood and pain-stress cycles. Of importance, positive mood was associated with lower same-day and subsequent day pain, as well as fewer health care contacts, suggesting that positive mood may serve to offset negative consequences of pain and other illness symptoms.     

Construction Of Reality Or Dependent Origination? From Scientific Psychotherapy To Responsible Attention

The term ‘postmodernism’ has carved itself a niche in everyday, and specialised, vocabulary. We understand it as being the new mentality that emerges from the critique of modernity. This transformation, which has been underway since the second half of the twentieth century, undermines the foremost myth of the modern world, that we can discover an objective and stable truth, that is to say independent and lasting. This change is affecting all areas of human knowledge, from philosophy to physics, as well as human practices and experiences. Its origins are to be found in the theories that label themselves critical, starting with Marxism and existentialism, and in further developments such as hermeneutics, symbolic interactionism, post-structuralism, ethnomethodology, deconstructionism, and others. In this article we wish to recover one of the principal ideas of this change of mentality, the idea of ‘construction of reality’ and contrast it with ‘dependent origination’ (Paticcasamuppada) characteristic of the Dharma, a system of liberation from suffering synthesised by Buddha. We are interested in this relationship in the specific field of Psychotherapy, or in the broader field of Integral Psychology. To this end, firstly we inquire how constructivism has made a space for itself in the scientific world; we then address the constructivist features of the Dharma.