Psychological Skills and “the Paras”: The Indirect Effects of Psychological Skills on Endurance

We examined the indirect effects of basic psychological skills (PS) on military endurance through enhanced advanced PS while controlling for fitness. British Army recruits (n = 159) participated in three endurance events for Parachute Regiment selection and completed an adapted Test of Performance Strategies questionnaire (Hardy et al., 2010 Hardy, L., Roberts, R., Thomas, P. R., &; Murphy, S. M. (2010). Test of performance strategies (TOPS): Instrument refinement using confirmatory factor analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 11, 27–35. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2009.04.007[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Following confirmatory factor analyses, the multiple mediation regression analyses using PROCESS (Hayes, 2013 Hayes, A.F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford Press. [Google Scholar]) suggested that goal setting, imagery and relaxation all had positive indirect effects on endurance via activation, with goal setting also impacting on endurance via negative thinking. These data provide some support for basic PS influencing endurance via advanced PS.     

Measuring Anxiety and Depression in Ghanaian and U.S. College Students

Differences between Ghanaian (n = 465) and U.S. (n = 425) college students on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist‐25 (HSCL‐25; Mollica, Wyshak, de Marneffe, Khuon, & Lavelle, 1987 ) were examined. Compared with their U.S. counterparts, Ghanaians reported less general distress related to anxiety and depression, more anxiety‐specific distress, and no differences in depression‐specific distress. A multidimensional approach may be most appropriate in HSCL‐25 screening for symptoms of anxiety and depression. Se examinaron las diferencias entre estudiantes universitarios ghaneses (n = 465) y estadounidenses (n = 425) en el Listado de Síntomas de Hopkins‐25 (HSCL‐25, por sus siglas en inglés; Mollica, Wyshak, de Marneffe, Khuon, & Lavelle, 1987 ). Comparados con sus homólogos estadounidenses, los ghaneses comunicaron un menor sufrimiento general relacionado con la ansiedad y depresión, un mayor sufrimiento específico relacionado con la ansiedad, y no hubo diferencias en el sufrimiento específico relacionado con la depresión. Un enfoque multidimensional puede ser el más apropiado en el chequeo de HSCL‐25 para síntomas de ansiedad y depresión.     

The impact of psychological distress on absence from work

The aims of this study were to examine the impact of psychological distress on absence from work; to compare psychological distress and job satisfaction as predictors of absence; and to compare the relative effects of 2 components of psychological distress, depression and anxiety, on absence. Organizational records of absence over a 3-year period were obtained for 323 health service staff in the United Kingdom, who also completed self-report measures of psychological distress and job satisfaction at the beginning of the study and 2 years later. Psychological distress, particularly depression, was found to predict absence, with higher levels of distress predicting a greater number of days and number of times absent. Job satisfaction and psychological distress independently predicted levels of absence. The psychological distress-absence relationship was not moderated by demographic variables.     

Nice guys finish first: the competitive altruism hypothesis

Three experimental studies examined the relationship between altruistic behavior and the emergence of status hierarchies within groups. In each study, group members were confronted with a social dilemma in which they could either benefit themselves or their group. Study 1 revealed that in a reputation environment when contributions were public, people were more altruistic. In both Studies 1 and 2, the most altruistic members gained the highest status in their group and were most frequently preferred as cooperative interaction partners. Study 3 showed that as the costs of altruism increase, the status rewards also increase. These results support the premise at the heart of competitive altruism: Individuals may behave altruistically for reputation reasons because selective benefits (associated with status) accrue to the generous.     

Color naming, lens aging, and grue: what the optics of the aging eye can teach us about color language

Many languages without separate terms for green and blue are or were spoken in locations receiving above-average exposure to ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation. It has been proposed that this correlation is caused by premature lens aging. This conclusion was supported by an experiment in which younger observers used the term "blue" less often when they described simulated paint chips filtered through the equivalent of an older observer's lens-removing much short-wavelength light-than when they described the unfiltered versions of the same paint chips. Some stimuli that were called "blue" without simulated aging were called "green" when filtered. However, in the experiment reported here, we found that the proportion of "blue" color-name responses did not differ between younger subjects and older observers with known ocular media optical densities. Color naming for stimuli that were nominally green, blue-green, or blue was virtually identical for older and younger observers who viewed the same (unfiltered) stimuli. Our results are inconsistent with the lens-brunescence hypothesis.     

The Effects of the Intergenerational Transmission of Family Emotional Processes on Conflict Styles: The Moderating Role of Attachment

This study of 203 emerging adults investigated the moderating role of attachment on the intergenerational transmission of the effects of family emotional processes (enmeshment and disengagement) on adult offspring's conflict management. Results indicated that higher levels of perceived disengagement led to more use of hostile and volatile and lower use of validating conflict styles. Results further indicated that attachment moderated the effects of disengagement on hostile and volatile but not validating styles. High levels of anxiety exacerbated the effects of disengagement while low levels of avoidance buffered the effects of disengagement. Clinical and research implications are discussed.