One missing-letter effect: two methods of assessment.

When participants search for a target letter while reading, they make more omissions if the target letter is embedded in frequent function words than in less frequent content words. This effect is usually observed with a paper and pencil procedure. It has been shown that a similar pattern is observed using a rapid serial visual presentation procedure in which words appear one at a time on a computer screen. It has been questioned, however, whether the two methods tap the same cognitive processes. Item-based correlations between the paper and pencil and the rapid serial visual presentation procedure were high and not significantly different from reliability estimates of either procedure. It is concluded that both procedures highlight the same cognitive processes that are responsible for the missing-letter effect.     

Effects of Perceived Organizational Support on Objective and Subjective Career Success via Need Satisfaction: A Study Among French Psychologists

The authors examined potential links between perceived organizational support (POS) and objective and subjective career success through the satisfaction of the 3 basic psychological needs (BPNs) posited in self‐determination theory. The inclusion of BPN satisfaction as a mediator provides an interesting route, suggesting it is a condition for POS to lead to career success. The authors submitted an online questionnaire to 379 French counseling psychologists and examined the responses using a cross‐sectional design with only 1 measurement. The results indicated the indirect effects of POS on objective career success via the satisfaction of the 3 BPNs and on subjective career success via satisfaction of the needs for autonomy and competence.     

The polite wiggle‐room effect in charity donation decisions

We extend research on charity donations by exploring an everyday tactic for increasing compliance: asking politely. We consider three possible effects of politeness on charity donations: a positive effect, a negative effect, and a wiggle‐room effect where the perception of the request is adjusted to decline donating without feeling selfish. Results from six experiments systematically supported the polite wiggle‐room effect. In hypothetical donations contexts, indirect requests were judged more polite. In real donation contexts, though, indirect requests were not judged as more polite and had no consistent effect on donation decision. Rather, the decision to donate predicted the perceived politeness of the request, independently of its phrasing. Experiment 4 provided causal evidence that participants justified their donation decisions by adjusting their perception of the request. The polite wiggle‐room effect has important implications for organizations that seek to increase compliance while maintaining a positive image.     

Race,psychosocial vulnerability and social support differences in inner-city women's symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder

Background/Objectives: Inner-city Black women may be more susceptible to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than White women, although mechanisms underlying this association are unclear. Living in urban neighborhoods distinguished by higher chronic stress may contribute to racial differences in women's cognitive, affective, and social vulnerabilities, leading to greater trauma-related distress including PTSD. Yet social support could buffer the negative effects of psychosocial vulnerabilities on women's health. Methods/Design: Mediation and moderated mediation models were tested with 371 inner-city women, including psychosocial vulnerability (i.e., catastrophizing, anger, social undermining) mediating the pathway between race and PTSD, and social support moderating psychosocial vulnerability and PTSD. Results: Despite comparable rates of trauma, Black women reported higher vulnerability and PTSD symptoms, and lower support compared to White Hispanic and non-Hispanic women. Psychosocial vulnerability mediated the pathway between race and PTSD, and social support moderated vulnerability, reducing negative effects on PTSD. When examining associations by race, the moderation effect remained significant for Black women only. Conclusions: Altogether these psychosocial vulnerabilities represent one potential mechanism explaining Black women's greater risk of PTSD, although cumulative psychosocial vulnerability may be buffered by social support. Despite higher support, inner-city White women's psychosocial vulnerability may actually outweigh support's benefits for reducing trauma-related distress.     

Two senses of narrative unification

In this paper I seek to clarify the role of narrative in personal unity. Examining the narrative self-constitution view developed by Marya Schechtman, I use a case of radical personal change to identify a tension in the account. The tension arises because a narrative can be regarded either to capture a continuing agent with a loosely coherent, consistent self-conception – or to unify over change and inconsistency. Two possible ways of responding, by distinguishing senses of identity or distinguishing identity and autonomy, are examined, but I argue that neither precisely maps this tension. I then develop a distinction between two ways in which narrative can unify: through “bottom-up” processes related to the connection between agency and self-conception; and “top-down” processes related to self-interpretative activity. The account provides ways to resolve some criticisms of narrative theories of identity, in particular in better accounting for the role of repudiated characteristics in narrative identity.     

Correlates of perceived HIV-related stigma among HIV-positive pregnant women in rural Mpumalanga province,South Africa

The study investigated correlates of perceived HIV-related stigma among 673 HIV-positive women from rural Mpumalanga province, South Africa (mean age 28 years old, SD = 5.73 years). The women completed measures of HIV-related stigma experience and related personal factors. Following multivariable logistic regression, results showed that lack of male involvement during the ante-natal visits was significantly associated with all four perceived HIV-related stigma factors. Lower income, intimate partner violence (IPV), lower education, and experienced HIV-related stigma were associated with a combination of the four components of perceived HIV-related stigma. From these findings, we conclude that higher levels of education, income, and partner involvement are protective factors against perceived HIV-related stigma, at multiple layers. Improving on adult education and income generating activities can help in reducing HIV-related stigma. Male partner involvement in their partner’s pregnancy, the initiation of support groups for both women and men, as well as community-based IPV prevention interventions may help to reduce perceived HIV-related stigma among women living with HIV.     

The Family Cycle: An Activity to Enhance Parents’ Mentalization in Children’s Mental Health Treatment

This article introduces the Family Cycle, a therapeutic activity informed by attachment theory, family systems theory, and current literature on reflective functioning. The Family Cycle helps clinicians and families create a narrative about a child’s psychopathology that considers complex trauma and/or adverse childhood experiences. It reframes observable dysfunctional phenomena as behavioral sequelae of more deeply rooted emotional loss. After the theoretical underpinnings of the Family Cycle are laid out, we describe the implementation of the Family Cycle within the context of an intensive home-based, family-focused intervention created at the Yale Child Study Center, the Intensive In-Home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service (IICAPS). The Family Cycle provides a teachable clinical framework to facilitate the treatment of families with complex, multigenerational trauma.     

Experiencing the Other as the Self: Cultural Diversity Courses as Liberating Praxis

Abstract. In response to our increasingly global and multicultural world, undergraduate degree plans have come to include courses, which meet the Diversity requirement. While diversity may have a variety of definitions, clearly the educational institution believes that all students earning a degree should complete course work that exposes them to cultures not their own. Courses that fulfill Diversity requirements often include “Introduction to World Religions,” among others. Even a traditional‐style teaching of such a course will accomplish a certain degree of broadening of students’ perspectives. The risk, however, is that at the end of the course the students are simply better informed about sets of people whom they would still objectify as the other. This article describes an experiential method of teaching which enables students to begin to change their consciousness, as well as their body of information, by learning to experience the other as self. The author calls this the identification/participation method.