Intuition, Affect, and Peculiar Beliefs

Research with college students has found that intuitive thinking (e.g., using hunches to ascribe meaning to experiences) and positive affect interactively predict ideas of reference and odd/magical beliefs. We investigated whether these results would generalize to a diverse community sample of adults that included individuals with elevated levels of peculiar perceptions and beliefs. We measured positive and negative affect and intuitive thinking through questionnaires, and peculiar beliefs (i.e., ideas of reference and odd/magical beliefs) through structured clinical interviews. We found that peculiar beliefs were associated with intuitive thinking and negative affect, but not positive affect. Furthermore, in no instance did the interaction of affect and intuitive thinking predict peculiar beliefs. These results suggest that there are important differences in the factors that contribute to peculiar beliefs between college students and clinically meaningful samples.     

A Prospective Investigation of Changes in Avoidant and Active Coping and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms among Military Veteran

The present investigation utilized a prospective design to investigate associations between changes in self-reported avoidant and active coping occurring during residential treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and PTSD symptom severity at treatment discharge. Participants were 636 military Veteran patients (91.4?% male; M _age?=?51.7?years) admitted to a Veterans Affairs (VA) residential rehabilitation program for PTSD, between 2000 and 2008. Results indicated that increases in avoidant coping and decreases in active coping from treatment intake to discharge were simultaneously and incrementally predictive of total PTSD symptom severity at treatment discharge, after accounting for PTSD symptom severity at treatment intake. These findings hold particular relevance for treatment-seeking populations with severe PTSD and researchers and clinicians attempting to understand and treat these populations.     

‘So people know I'm a Sikh’: Narratives of Sikh masculinities in contemporary Britain

This article examines British-born Sikh men's identification to Sikhism. In particular, it focuses on the appropriation and use of Sikh symbols amongst men who define themselves as Sikh. This article suggests that whilst there are multiple ways of ‘being’ a Sikh man in contemporary post-colonial Britain, and marking belonging to the Sikh faith, there is also a collectively understood idea of what an ‘ideal’ Sikh man should be. Drawing upon Connell and Messerschmidt's discussion of locally specific hegemonic masculinities (2005. “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept.” Gender and Society 19 (6): 829–859), it is suggested that an ideal Sikh masculine identity is partly informed by a Khalsa discourse, which informs a particular performance of Sikh male identity, whilst also encouraging the surveillance of young men's activities both by themselves and by others. These Sikh masculinities are complex and multiple, rotating to reaffirm, challenge and redefine contextualised notions of hegemonic masculinity within the Sikh diaspora in post-colonial Britain. Such localised Sikh masculinities may both assert male privilege and reap patriarchal dividends (Connell, W. 1995. Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press), resulting in particular British Sikh hegemonic masculinities which seek to shape the performance of masculinity, yet in another context these very same performances of masculinity may also signify a more marginalised masculinity vis-à-vis other dominant hegemonic forms.     

Jealousy in Sport: Exploring Jealousy's Relationship to Cohesion

The present study continued the development and revision of the Sport Jealousy Scale (SJS) and investigated the relationships among jealousy, cohesion, and satisfaction with athletes. The original SJS (now SJS-II) was revised and given to 236 Division I athletes along with the Group Cohesion Questionnaire (GEQ; Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985 Carron, A. V., Widmeyer, W. N. and Brawley, L. R. 1985. The development of an instrument to assess cohesion in sport teams: The Group Environment Questionnaire. Journal of Sport Psychology, 7: 244–266. [CSA][Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the Revised Self-Report Jealousy Scale (SRJS-II; Bringle, Roach, Andler, & Evenbeck, 1977 Bringle, R. B., Roach, S., Andler, C. and Evenbeck, S. Presented at the annual meetings of the Midwestern Psychological Association. Chicago, IL. Correlates of jealousy,  [Google Scholar]), and the Satisfaction Questionnaire (Widmeyer & Williams, 1991 Widmeyer, W. N. and Williams, J. M. 1991. Predicting cohesion in coacting sport. Small Group Research, 22(4): 548–570. [CSA][Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Jealousy was negatively correlated with both cohesion (r = ?.23, p < .01) and satisfaction (r = ?.22, p < .01). Following Baron and Kenny's (1986) Baron, R. M. and Kenny, D. A. 1986. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51: 1173–1182. [PUBMED][INFOTRIEVE][CSA][Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] three-step model for testing mediation, satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between jealousy and cohesion. The results confirm the existence of jealousy in sport, provide psychometric evidence for a measure of sport jealousy, validate expected relationships among jealousy, cohesion, and satisfaction, and provide initial information on gender and sport differences in jealousy and cohesion. These findings will help researchers continue to examine jealousy and its correlates in sport teams, and may help coaches and professionals working with teams maintain positive team dynamics.