Belief in Magic Predicts Children's Selective Trust in Informants

Children are able to distinguish between regular events that can occur in everyday reality and magical events that are ordinarily impossible. How do children respond to a person who brings about magical as compared with ordinary outcomes? In two studies, we tested children's acceptance of informants' claims when the informants had produced either magical or ordinary outcomes. In Study 1, children's skeptical or credulous stance toward magic predicted their endorsement of the claims made by the informants. Children who were more credulous were likely to accept information from the informant who had produced magical outcomes. In Study 2, a brief manipulation was only partially effective in changing children's initial stance toward magic. Their initial stance toward magic continued to predict their acceptance of information from the informant who had produced magical outcomes.     

Amodal completion is modulated by lightness similarity

The strength of amodal completion is known to be modulated by contour relationships and global shape. Some researchers have shown that amodal completion also depends on surface similarity, but they have not distinguished the relative importance of similarity in surface representations either pre or post lightness constancy. In the experiments reported here, we aimed to determine whether amodal completion depends on processes that occur either before or after the establishment of lightness constancy. We used computer rendering techniques to vary the consistency of a cast shadow with a decrement in luminance on one side of a partially occluded surface. We found that perceived completion depended on the consistency of the decrement in surface luminance with the orientation of a cast shadow (Exp.?1). In Experiment ?2, we generated occluded surface fragments that could be either luminance-matched or lightness-matched to surface fragments on the opposite side of the occluder, and we found that the strength of amodal completion depended primarily on similarity in the perceived surface reflectance. In Experiments 3 and 4, we performed apparent-motion tasks to obtain converging evidence for grouping on the basis of perceived similarity in lightness. We found that matching surfaces in lightness significantly improved the apparent motion of surfaces behind an occluder, as compared with surfaces that were matched in contrast alone. These results suggest that amodal completion depends on the perceived similarity in lightness of partially occluded surface fragments.     

Self-Acceptance Group Therapy: A Transdiagnostic,Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Shame

Shame has broad importance to psychological problems. However, few interventions specifically address shame, and most of these have been designed to target shame in the context of particular disorders. Self-Acceptance Group Therapy (SAGT) was developed as a transdiagnostic shame-focused treatment, based on a cognitive-behavioral framework. SAGT is an 8-week treatment that involves psychoeducation and training in the use of cognitive and behavioral shame regulation and support-building skills in order to promote self-acceptance. After describing SAGT, the study presented used an open trial design to examine the utility of SAGT for addressing shame, self-acceptance, quality of life, and relevant psychological problems (e.g., depression, social anxiety). Twenty-four outpatients with elevated shame were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 1-month follow-up. By post-treatment, results revealed significant improvements in self-acceptance, shame, and borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms among treatment completers (n = 18), with all of these improvements maintained at follow-up. Additionally, significant improvements in quality of life, emotion dysregulation, depression, loneliness, and stress were observed at follow-up. Results provide preliminary support for SAGT’s utility in the treatment of shame and related pathology among diverse outpatients.     

Relationships Between Social Support,Internal Assets,and Life Satisfaction in Korean Adolescents

In previous literature, social support has been reported to have a significant, positive relationship with life satisfaction. However, few studies have examined this relationship among Korean youths and how their psychological functioning is associated with both social support and life satisfaction. This study investigated the associations between different sources of social support (i.e., family, peer, and teacher), psychological factors (i.e., self-efficacy and emotional regulation), and life satisfaction, in a sample of 1133 Korean adolescents. The possibility of sex differences in these relationships was also investigated. Results indicated that only family support had a direct relationship with life satisfaction for male adolescents; however, all three types of social support were found to have a significant, indirect relationship with life satisfaction for male adolescents through both psychological factors. In contrast, all three types of social support had a direct relationship with life satisfaction of female adolescents. Additionally, self-efficacy had a mediating effect on the relationship between the social support from family and teachers and life satisfaction of female adolescents. The results and implications of the study are discussed.     

What Does “Happiness” Prompt in Your Mind? Culture,Word Choice,and Experienced Happiness

What three words come to your mind in association with “happiness”? We analyzed the 1563 words reported by 521 Korean and American participants in this free association task. The most frequently endorsed word was “family” in Korea, whereas the most popular word among Americans was “smile.” The overall frequency of social words (e.g., relationships, social emotions) reported by Koreans was higher, and the most often mentioned relationship type differed between the two groups (family in Korea; friend in the US). Nonetheless, both in Korea and the US, individuals who mentioned more social words were significantly more satisfied with their lives. The amount of social support provision mediated the link between the number of reported social words and experienced happiness. Regardless of culture, a simple count of social words associated with happiness appears to offer a reasonably good clue for how happy the person actually is.     

A Narrative Analysis of Sibling Grief

Sibling grief is linked to serious physical and mental health outcomes, yet remains the least researched of all family bereavement. This exploratory study created a shared sibling grief narrative. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 27 participants who lost a sibling. Primary themes included Shared Life: Identity Within the Sibling Arrangement; Sibling Death: Pivotal Moments in Time; Life After Sibling Loss: Emotional Suffering, Life After Sibling Loss: Missing Roles & Changing Relationships; and The Sibling Lives On. The following study findings clarify the overlooked impact that sibling death has on the surviving sibling and demonstrate the crucial need for more sibling loss research.     

A flexible and accurate method to estimate the mode and stability of spontaneous coordinated behaviors: The index-of-stability (IS) analysis

Patterns of coordination result from the interaction between (at least) two oscillatory components. This interaction is typically understood by means of two variables: the mode that expresses the shape of the interaction, and the stability that is the robustness of the interaction in this mode. A potent method of investigating coordinated behaviors is to examine the extent to which patterns of coordination arise spontaneously. However, a prominent issue faced by researchers is that, to date, no standard methods exist to fairly assess the stability of spontaneous coordination. In the present study, we introduce a new method called the index-of-stability (IS) analysis. We developed this method from the phase-coupling (PC) analysis that has been traditionally used for examining locomotion–respiration coordinated systems. We compared the extents to which both methods estimate the stability of simulated coordinated behaviors. Computer-generated time series were used to simulate the coordination of two rhythmic components according to a selected mode m:n and a selected degree of stability. The IS analysis was superior to the PC analysis in estimating the stability of spontaneous coordinated behaviors, in three ways: First, the estimation of stability itself was found to be more accurate and more reliable with the IS analysis. Second, the IS analysis is not constrained by the limitations of the PC analysis. Third and last, the IS analysis offers more flexibility, and so can be adapted according to the user’s needs.     

Father Involvement and Behavior Problems among Preadolescents at Risk of Maltreatment

Although there is a well-established connection between father involvement and children’s positive behavioral development in general, this relation has been understudied in more vulnerable and high-risk populations. The aims of this study were to examine how the quantity (i.e., the amount of shared activities) and quality (i.e., perceived quality of the father-child relationship) of father involvement are differently related to internalizing and externalizing behavior problems among preadolescents at risk of maltreatment and test if these associations are moderated by father type and child maltreatment. A secondary data analysis was conducted using data from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). Generalized estimating equations analysis was performed on a sample of 499 preadolescents aged 12 years. The results indicated that higher quality of father involvement was associated with lower levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems whereas greater quantity of father involvement was associated with higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The positive association between the quantity of father involvement and behavior problems was stronger in adolescents who were physically abused by their father. The association between father involvement and behavior problems did not differ by the type of father co-residing in the home. The findings suggest that policies and interventions aimed at improving the quality of fathers’ relationships and involvement with their children may be helpful in reducing behavior problems in adolescents at risk of maltreatment.