Children's interpretation of adult nonreaction: A trial-by-trial self-report assessment and evidence for contrast effects in an observational context

The study investigated children's interpretation of blank reaction (nonreaction) from one adult to another as a function of its pairing with positive or negative overt feedback. Each child watched through a one-way mirror as an evaluating adult provided feedback to a second adult who was performing on a two-choice discrimination task. After six initial blank reaction trials, children observed one of four types of feedback combinations over 60 experimental trials: (a) right feedback on some trials and blank reactions on others, (b) wrong feedback on some trials and blank reactions on others, (c) right, wrong, and nonreaction on different trials, or (d) nonreaction on all trials. There was little evidence that children consistently interpreted blank reaction as meaning right independent of feedback combination. In contrast, in the Right-Blank and Wrong-Blank feedback combinations, children interpreted blank as meaning the opposite of the overt feedback it was paired with on over two-thirds of the trials, with no sex differences or test anxiety effects.     

Sanctification of life and health: insights from the landmark spirituality and health survey

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between sanctification of life and health. Sanctification is defined as a process through which aspects of life are perceived as having divine character and significance. A latent variable model was created to test the following hypotheses that link sanctification with health: (1) people who attend worship services more often are more likely to develop a sanctified view of life; (2) individuals who develop a sanctified view of life are likely to be more compassionate, (3) people who are more compassionate will provide more emotional support to others, (4) providing more support to others will be associated with a greater sense of meaning in life, and (5) people who have derived a deeper sense of meaning in life will enjoy better health. Data from a new cross-sectional nationwide survey (N?=?2932) provide support for each of these hypotheses.     

Quality of life and mental health among women with ovarian cancer: examining the role of emotional and instrumental social support seeking

The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of emotional and instrumental social support seeking in the quality of life (QOL) and mental health of women with ovarian cancer. Participants were recruited through the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry, and one hundred women took part in a mail questionnaire that collected information on their demographics, medical status, social support seeking, QOL and mental health including anxiety, depression and stress. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the influence of emotional and instrumental social support seeking on QOL and mental health. After controlling for remission status, greater emotional social support seeking was predictive of higher overall QOL, social/family QOL, functional QOL and lower depression scores. Instrumental social support seeking was not significant in the models. The results illustrate that social support seeking as a coping mechanism is an important consideration in the QOL and mental health of women with ovarian cancer. Future studies should examine the psychological and behavioral mediators of the relationship to further understand the QOL and mental health of women with ovarian cancer.     

ASSESSING WOMEN'S FEMINIST IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT Studies of Convergent, Discriminant, and Structural Validity

Researchers have called for increasing sophistication in the assessment of women's feminist identity development (Enns & Hackett, 1990; Hackett, Enns, & Zetzer, 1992) to understand important psychological processes. This series of studies examined recent efforts to operationalize Downing and Roush's (1985) model of feminist identity development. Specifically, the psychometric properties of two existing measures—the Feminist Identity Development Scale (Bargad & Hyde, 1991) and the Feminist Identity Scale (Rickard, 1987)—were examined in two studies with separate samples of women (total N = 486). Results of Study 1 indicated the strengths and significant limitations associated with each scale (e.g., low internal consistency for some subscales, item-subscale inconsistency). A composite measure (derived from these scales) with better overall psychometric properties is described. In Study 2, we found good support for the composite instrument's internal consistency, as well as convergent, discriminant, and factorial validity in a sample that included a wide age range and nonstudent community residents.     

Underneath the Mask of the Strong Black Woman Schema: Disentangling Influences of Strength and Self-Silencing on Depressive Symptoms among U.S. Black Women

Sex Roles - Recent investigations have elucidated the influence of the Strong Black Woman (SBW) Schema on the mental health and treatment seeking behaviors of Black women in the United States....     

Changes in meaning in life across the course of psychodynamic psychotherapy

Using the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), we studied Presence and Search for meaning for 34 adult clients in psychodynamic psychotherapy. Clients completed the MLQ and Outcome Questionnaire (OQ) before intake and after every eight sessions. Variance in Presence scores was mostly attributable to clients; variance in Search scores was mostly attributable to clients and therapists. Clients initially high in Presence decreased and then increased back to initial levels; clients initially low in Presence increased and then decreased back to initial levels. Clients initially low in Search increased and then leveled off; clients initially high in Search decreased and then leveled off. In lagged cross panel analyses, when clients decreased in psychological distress during one eight-week time period, they increased in Presence during the next eight-week time period; when they increased in psychological distress during one eight-week time period, they increased in search in the next time period. Excerpts from post-therapy interviews illustrate the process of working with meaning in life in psychotherapy. Implications for practice and training are discussed.     

Assessing the Impact of a Paid Children,Youth, or Family Worker on Anglican Congregations in England

Drawing on the survey conducted by Christian Research and commissioned by the Youthscape Centre for Research and One Hope, this study examined the impact of a paid children, youth, or family worker on the weekly attendance of 5- to 18-year-old children within 786 Church of England churches with adult attendance ranging from 20 to 250 people. Nearly one-third of these churches had a paid children, youth, or family worker (N?=?259). The data demonstrated that on average the presence of a paid children, youth, or family worker added seven young people between the ages of 5 and 18 years to the total weekly Sunday attendance, after controlling for the weekly adult attendance figures.     

Decomposing the relationship between cognitive functioning and self-referent memory beliefs in older adulthood: what’s memory got to do with it?

With advancing age, episodic memory performance shows marked declines along with concurrent reports of lower subjective memory beliefs. Given that normative age-related declines in episodic memory co-occur with declines in other cognitive domains, we examined the relationship between memory beliefs and multiple domains of cognitive functioning. Confirmatory bi-factor structural equation models were used to parse the shared and independent variance among factors representing episodic memory, psychomotor speed, and executive reasoning in one large cohort study (Senior Odyssey, N = 462), and replicated using another large cohort of healthy older adults (ACTIVE, N = 2802). Accounting for a general fluid cognitive functioning factor (comprised of the shared variance among measures of episodic memory, speed, and reasoning) attenuated the relationship between objective memory performance and subjective memory beliefs in both samples. Moreover, the general cognitive functioning factor was the strongest predictor of memory beliefs in both samples. These findings are consistent with the notion that dispositional memory beliefs may reflect perceptions of cognition more broadly. This may be one reason why memory beliefs have broad predictive validity for interventions that target fluid cognitive ability.     

Purpose in life and cognitive functioning in adulthood

With an increasingly aging population, more work is needed to identify factors which may promote the maintenance of normal cognitive functioning. The current study tested the concurrent association between sense of purpose in life and the cognitive variables of episodic memory, executive functioning, and composite cognitive functioning in adults (N = 3489, M_age = 56.3 years, SD = 12.27, Range = 32–84 years) from the Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS). Correlational analyses suggested that purpose in life was associated with higher scores for memory, executive functioning, and overall cognition. Bootstrapping tests of moderation found no evidence for a moderating effect of age on purpose and the cognitive variables. Future studies should attempt to explain the mechanisms behind this relationship and explore the potential for interventions to promote healthy cognitive and purposeful aging.