Self‐perceived competence,learning conceptions and preferred learning situations in the domain of communication

Background: An important purpose of education in the field of social work is the development of social‐communicative competence and students' individual learning theories (ILTs) concerning this domain. Aims: Our first aim was to develop diagnostic instruments for ILT assessment and to understand the relationships between ILT variables. Our second purpose was to study the differences in ILT variables between students of three study years. Samples: A total of 396 full‐time social work students participated in this study: 176 first‐year, 147 second‐year and 73 fourth‐year students (92% women and 8% men). Method: Based on a theoretical framework, three questionnaires have been constructed, covering three ILT variables: self‐perceived competence, learning conceptions and preferred learning situations. For scale construction, principal component analyses and reliability analyses were conducted. ANOVAs and post hoc comparisons of means were used to investigate cross‐sectional differences regarding ILT variables. Pearson correlations and regression analyses were performed to gain more insight into the relationships between ILT variables. Results: Five aspects of self‐perceived competence, four learning conceptions and five preferred learning situations were found. Learning conceptions and self‐perceived competencies were found to be predictors of students' preferred learning situations. Many differences were found between the three groups of students, especially between the first‐year students and the others. Conclusions: When studying the acquisition of social‐communicative competence, it is important to take students' individual learning theories into account. Increased insight into the role ILTs play can be of help in improving social work education.     

Information‐Seeking Strategies,Uncertainty, and Computer‐Mediated Communication

This article argues that existing theory and research on computer‐mediated communication (CMC) provide a limited view of information‐seeking behavior and proposes a conceptual model for its examination via CMC and new media. Although most CMC environments eliminate or severely reduce nonverbal and contextual information available to address uncertainty, form impressions, and develop relationships, such environments offer alternative mechanisms for acquiring social information about others. The article discusses strategies for seeking social information and identifies factors influencing their selection from alternatives, incorporating them into a conceptual model. Finally, 2 promising approaches for examining the effects and effectiveness of social information seeking in CMC are described, with an emphasis on how the proposed conceptual model can aid in the development of each.     

Do conflict management styles affect group decision making? Evidence from a longitudinal field study

This study examined the relationship between group conflict management styles and effectiveness of group decision making in 11 ongoing, naturally occurring workgroups from 2 large U.S. organizations. The major postulate of the study was that groups develop norms regarding how they will manage conflicts that carry over to affect other activities, such as decision making, even when these activities do not involve open conflict. To determine the impact of conflict management style on decision effectiveness, a longitudinal design was used that identified conflict management styles in the initial portion of each team's series of meetings and then analyzed a group decision taken in a meeting near the end of that series. Group conflict management styles were determined using observational methods, and decision effectiveness was measured using multiple indices that tapped member, facilitator, and external observer viewpoints. Task complexity also was considered as a possible moderating variable. The findings suggest that groups that developed integrative conflict management styles made more effective decisions than groups that utilized confrontation and avoidance styles. Groups that never developed a stable style were also less effective than groups with integrative styles.     

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Clusters and Acquired Capability for Suicide: A Reexamination Using DSM-5 Criteria

This study used the interpersonal–psychological theory of suicide to explore the relationships among DSM-5 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters derived from the six-factor anhedonia model and facets of acquired capability for suicide (ACS). In a sample of 373 trauma-exposed undergraduates, most PTSD symptom clusters were negatively associated with facets of ACS in bivariate correlations, but the anhedonia cluster was positively associated with ACS in regression models. Structure coefficients and commonality analysis indicated that anhedonia served as a suppressor variable for the other symptom clusters. Our findings further elucidate the complex relationship between specific PTSD symptom clusters and ACS.     

Psychoneuroendocrine effects of resource-activating stress management training.

OBJECTIVE: The stress-induced release of cortisol has been linked to detrimental health outcomes. Therefore, strategies to attenuate cortisol stress responses are of interest for prevention and treatment of stress-related symptoms and problems. Previous studies have found protective effects of cognitive-behavioral stress management training--which focuses on the modification of stress-inducing cognitions--on cortisol stress responses; however, the effects of resource-oriented interventions on cortisol stress responses are unknown. DESIGN: The longitudinal effects of resource-oriented stress management training (Zurich resource model training) on cortisol stress responses and cognitive appraisal of a standardized psychosocial stress test were evaluated in 54 healthy male participants assigned randomly to treatment and control groups. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; C. Kirschbaum, Wust, & Strasburger, 1992) was administered to all participants 3 months after the treatment group underwent stress management training. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Saliva cortisol samples were taken before, during, and after the TSST, and cognitive stress appraisal was assessed before the test. RESULTS: The treatment group had significantly attenuated cortisol responses and stress appraisals in comparison to the control group. The endocrine differences were mediated by differences in cognitive appraisals. DISCUSSION: These results indicate that resource-oriented stress management training effectively reduces endocrine stress responses to stress in healthy adults.     

Selective attention and cerebral dominance in perceiving and responding to speech messages

The effect of attention on cerebral dominance and the asymmetry between left and right ears was investigated using a selective listening task. Right handed subjects were presented with simultaneous dichotic speech messages; they shadowed one message in either the right or left ear and at the same time tapped with either the right or the left hand when they heard a specified target word in either message. The ear asymmetry was shown only when subjects' attention was focused on some other aspect of the task: they tapped to more targets in the right ear, but only when these came in the non-shadowed message; they made more shadowing errors with the left ear message, but chiefly for non-target words. The verbal response of shadowing showed the right ear dominance more clearly than the manual response of tapping. Tapping with the left hand interfered more with shadowing than tapping with the right hand, but there was little correlation between the degree of hand and of ear asymmetry over individual subjects. The results support the idea that the right ear dominance is primarily a quantitative difference in the distribution of attention to left and right ear inputs reaching the left hemisphere speech areas. This affects both the efficiency of speech perception and the degree of response competition between simultaneous verbal and manual responses.     

Adolescent reading skill and engagement with digital and traditional literacies as predictors of reading comprehension

This study investigates the concurrent predictors of adolescent reading comprehension (literal, inferential) for fiction and non‐fiction texts. Predictors were examined from the cognitive (word identification, reading fluency), psychological (gender), and ecological (print exposure) domains. Print exposure to traditional and digital texts was surveyed using a diary method of reading habits. A cross‐sectional sample of 312 students in early (11–13 years) or middle adolescence (14–15 years) participated from a range of SES backgrounds. Word identification emerged as a strong predictor of reading comprehension across adolescence and text genres. Gender effects favouring female students were evident for reading frequency but not for reading skill itself. Reading habits also differed, and comprehension advantages were observed among females for fiction and males for non‐fiction. Age effects emerged for reading frequency, which was lower in middle adolescence. Although more time was spent on digital than on traditional texts, traditional extended text reading was the only reading habit to predict inference‐making in comprehension and to distinguish skilled from less skilled comprehenders. The theoretical and educational implications of these results are discussed.     

Riding the waves: A functional‐cognitive perspective on the relations among behaviour therapy,cognitive behaviour therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy

Different types of therapy explain psychopathology and the effects of psychotherapy differently. Different explanations are, however, not necessarily mutually exclusive. Based on the idea that functional and cognitive explanations are situated at different levels, we argue that functional therapies such as traditional Behaviour Therapy (BT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) are not necessarily incompatible with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). Whether a functional and a cognitive therapy actually align depends on whether they highlight the same type of environmental causes. This functional‐cognitive perspective reveals various differences and communalities among BT, CBT and ACT.