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.     

Do CEOs Matter to Firm Strategic Actions and Firm Performance? A Meta‐Analytic Investigation Based on Upper Echelons Theory

What roles do CEOs play in firm performance? To address this question, the management field has accumulated a substantial amount of research over the past 3 decades built on upper echelons theory (UET), which posits that CEO characteristics manifest in firm strategic actions and, in this way, future firm performance. Hence, there is a need to systematically amass and take stock of prior empirical findings for UET testing and development. We use meta‐analytic techniques to synthesize prior UET research on the relationships among commonly studied CEO characteristics, firm strategic actions, and future firm performance. Based on 308 studies, meta‐analytic results generally support UET's predictions with a few exceptions: CEO characteristics (i.e., tenure, formal education, prior career experience, and positive self‐concept) are significantly associated with firm strategic actions, which in turn are significantly related to future firm performance. Moreover, CEO characteristics (i.e., age, tenure, formal education, and prior career experience) are positively related to future firm performance. In addition, fine‐grained analyses have revealed interesting and important relationships between specific measures of CEO characteristics (e.g., CEO prior task experience) and firm outcomes (e.g., firm strategic actions that match with CEO prior task experience). Implications for theory, future research, and practice are discussed.     

Parental Involvement in Elite Junior Slalom Canoeing

This study's aim was to examine elite youth athletes’ views on parental involvement in training, competition, and at home. Eight canoeists were interviewed up to 4 times and completed written diaries over a 6-week period. Results indicated that parents were generally deemed to have a positive influence through domain specific and cross-domain behaviors. Positive behaviors included parents focusing on their children's holistic development at home, motivational and constructive evaluation at training, and limiting demands on athletes through the provision of practical support, reading and understanding the situation and their child, and supporting the development of growth mind-set across all domains.     

How Couple- and Parenting-Focused Programs Affect Child Behavioral Problems: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The significance of enhancing parenting skills to reduce child maladjustment is well-established and supports the important role of evidence-based parenting programs. However, the notion that parenting should be the exclusive focus for enhancing child behavior is necessarily limiting. Evidence is growing that relationship-oriented treatments may be another powerful approach to improve child adjustment, albeit the underlying effects in couple- versus parenting-focused programs have been subject to limited study. The aim of this RCT was to compare the treatment effects of (1) a couple-focused program (the Couples Coping Enhancement Training) to (2) a parenting training (Triple P) and (3) a control group on children’s behavioral problems in 150 couples. The parents’ perceptions of relationship quality, parenting behavior, and child’s behavioral problems were assessed by means of questionnaires completed prior to and 2 weeks after the end of the treatment. Multi-group path analyses revealed that in mothers’ perception the couple-focused program reduced child behavioral problems by enhancing the relationship quality whereas improved parenting mediated the benefits in the parenting training. In fathers’ evaluations the couple-focused program reduced dysfunctional parenting which largely accounted for the benefits in child adjustment. The dearth of research on child outcomes in couple-focused intervention studies is a striking gap that should be overcome. It is a promising field because of its evident potential to foster the health of many children.     

Observing Christian faith during the childhood years

This paper presents the treasure and cultivate model as a research tool for observing Christian faith in the childhood years. The model seeks to treasure and preserve the natural and innate aspects of a child’s faith and spirituality, whilst simultaneously seeking to develop and cultivate other facets. It is proposed that this balanced approach leads to a childhood faith that is both wholesome and a resource to the child. Observation and logging of a child’s faith in this way provides a tool that allows surveying of characteristics that may influence faith. In the future, this research tool may be used to inform those who seek to foster a child’s religious faith in order that such nurture may be both healthy and resourceful. The paper describes a research project of 61 children aged three to thirteen years old, from six Christian denominations in North West England.     

Improving Personal Happiness Through Couple Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Self-directed Couple Enhancement Program

Although personal happiness is highly associated with social relationships, basic questions remain regarding the causal effect of improved social relationships on happiness. The main aim of this study was to test whether emotional and cognitive dimensions of personal happiness can be increased by means of a self-directed relationship enhancement program, which aims to increase relationship-relevant skills such as dyadic coping, communication, and conflict resolution. N = 220 couples were randomly assigned either to an intervention or to a waiting list control group (survey: pre-, post-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups). Multi-group latent change score models reveal that (1) personal happiness can be increased through a couple intervention; (2) change in personal happiness was predicted by an increase in skills and relationship satisfaction through the intervention; (3) the least happy participants benefited most from the intervention. Improving spousal interactions may help people become and stay happier. Participants in this study did not relapse to their set point of personal happiness as could be expected by adaptation theory. Thus, not treating individuals directly, but rather the dynamic system of spousal interactions as a whole, offers a potentially very powerful area for happiness research.     

Measuring Need Satisfaction and Frustration in Educational and Work Contexts: The Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (NSFS)

The satisfaction and frustration of the psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence predict well-being and ill-being outcomes. However, research within educational and work contexts is stifled by the lack of an exhaustively validated measure. Following extensive preparatory and pilot work, the present three studies (total N = 762) aimed to develop such a measure and validate it against the Basic Need Satisfaction at Work Scale (Deci et al. in Personal Soc Psychol Bull 27(8):930–942, 2001) and an adapted version of the Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs (Sheldon and Hilpert in Motivation Emot 36(4):439–451, 2012). The Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale demonstrated a better factor structure and internal reliability than its predecessors, and good criterion validity. This improvement was due to the exclusion of ambiguous items and items measuring antecedents of need satisfaction and frustration. The results also strengthen current evidence showing that need satisfaction and frustration are distinct but related constructs, and each better predicts well-being and psychological health problems, respectively.     

Examining the link between adult attachment style,employment and academic achievement in first semester higher education

Although previous research indicates that both employment and adult attachment style have an influence on academic achievement, the interaction of these two factors has not been clarified. The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating effect of adult attachment style on the relationship between employment status and first semester academic achievement in higher education. A sample of 378 freshman college students answered a series of questionnaires (Academic Amotivation Inventory, the Relationship Questionnaire and demographic), and their high school averages and first semester academic results were obtained from the Registrar’s office. The Analysis of covariance showed that employment status (having employment vs. no employment) and adult attachment style of students (secure vs. dismissing) strongly interacted in predicting academic achievement (first semester average adjusted for high school average, perceived financial burden, and amotivation). More specifically, the first semester averages of secure students with or without employment, and that of dismissing students without employment was indistinguishable. However, dismissing students with employment had significantly lower first semester averages than the secure students. This study showed that dismissing students entering postsecondary education who also have employment are at greater risk of academic difficulties than students with a secure attachment style.     

Faking revisited: Exerting strategic control over performance on the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure

Across four studies, we demonstrate that effects obtained from the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, like those obtained from other indirect procedures, are not impervious to strategic manipulation. In experiment 1, we found that merely informing participants to “fake” their performance without providing a concrete strategy to do so did not eliminate, reverse, or in any way alter the obtained outcomes. However, when those same instructions orientated attention toward the core parameters of the task, participants spontaneously derived a strategy that allowed them to eliminate their effects (experiment 2). When the participants were provided with a viable response strategy, they successfully reversed the direction of their overall Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure effect (experiment 3). By refining the nature of those instructions, we managed to target and alter individual trial‐type effects in isolation with some success (experiment 4).