Academic cheating as a function of defense mechanisms and object relations

This study examined relationships between academic cheating behaviors by using self-reports of past cheating behavior, providing a situational experiment with the opportunity to cheat, and evaluating defense mechanisms and object relations as measured by the Defense Mechanisms Inventory. Subjects included 75 female and 8 male university students ranging in age from 18 to 51 years (M=25.5, SD=6.9). Analysis showed variations in students' self-reported cheating history relative to their measured object relations status and type of defense mechanisms. Actual cheating in the experimental setting was not significantly related to any of these variables. Findings are discussed based on a critique of heterogeneity of the cheating construct.     

Mechanisms of mindfulness: emotion regulation following a focused breathing induction

The current study investigated whether a 15 min recorded focused breathing induction in a normal, primarily undergraduate population would decrease the intensity and negativity of emotional responses to affectively valenced picture slides and increase willingness to remain in contact with aversive picture slides. The effects of the focused breathing induction were compared with the effects of 15 min recorded inductions of unfocused attention and worrying. The focused breathing group maintained consistent, moderately positive responses to the neutral slides before and after the induction, whereas the unfocused attention and worry groups responded significantly more negatively to the neutral slides after the induction than before it. The focusing breathing group also reported lower negative affect and overall emotional volatility in response to the post-induction slides than the worry group, and greater willingness to view highly negative slides than the unfocused attention group. The lower-reported negative and overall affect in response to the final slide blocks, and greater willingness to view optional negative slides by the focused breathing group may be viewed as more adaptive responding to negative stimuli. The results are discussed as being consistent with emotional regulatory properties of mindfulness.     

A multilevel model of safety climate: cross-level relationships between organization and group-level climates

Organizational climates have been investigated separately at organization and subunit levels. This article tests a multilevel model of safety climate, covering both levels of analysis. Results indicate that organization-level and group-level climates are globally aligned, and the effect of organization climate on safety behavior is fully mediated by group climate level. However, the data also revealed meaningful group-level variation in a single organization, attributable to supervisory discretion in implementing formal procedures associated with competing demands like safety versus productivity. Variables that limit supervisory discretion (i.e., organization climate strength and procedural formalization) reduce both between-groups climate variation and within-group variability (i.e., increased group climate strength), although effect sizes were smaller than those associated with cross-level climate relationships. Implications for climate theory are discussed.     

Conflicting visual and tactual-kinesthetic stimulation

The effects of stimulus and response probability on choice reaction time (RT) were independently investigated. In different conditions, two sets of three stimuli of probabilities of.1, .3, .6 and.3, .3, .4 were assigned to two responses-two of the stimuli assigned to one response. All combinations of S-R assignments were studied, yielding response probabilities of .1-.9, ,3-.7, and ,4-.6. With response probability held constant, variations in stimulus probability led to consistent and substantial effects on both RT and error rates. Response-probability effects were confined to error rates, and repetition effects were negligible. The results support the assumption of recent models of choice behavior that adjustments are made to the absolute (rather than just to the ordinal) values of stimulus probability.     

Three steps to open science for qualitative research in psychology

Principles and applications of open science (also referred to as open research or open scholarship) in psychology have emerged in response to growing concerns about the replicability, transparency, reproducibility, and robustness of psychological research alongside global moves to open science in many fields. Our objective in this paper is to inform ways of collectively constructing open science practices and systems that are appropriate to, and get the best out of, the full range of qualitative and mixed-method approaches used in psychology. We achieve this by describing three areas of open research practice (contributorship, pre-registration, and open data) and explore how and why qualitative researchers might consider engaging with these in ways that are compatible with a qualitative research paradigm. We argue it is crucial that open research practices do not (even inadvertently) exclude qualitative research, and that qualitative researchers reflect on how we can meaningfully engage with open science in psychology.     

Freely generated filters in free Boolean algebras

In this paper we will prove that ifF is a filter of a free Boolean algebra such that the minimal cardinality of the set of generators ofF is an uncountable regular cardinal or a singular cardinal with uncountable cofinality thenF is freely generated.Presented byPiotr Wojtylak     

Behavioral skills workshop for staff and supervisor in a community residence for developmentally handicapped adults

A behavioral skills workshop for counselors and a supervisor in a community group home was developed and evaluated. The workshop included group skills training, individual supervised in vivo practice, and supervisor training. Supervisor training taught behavioral staff management skills that were delivered in a multiple baseline design across subjects. Positive changes in staff behavior occurred for each group only after supervisor intervention. Significant positive changes occurred by the end of the workshop and were maintained at follow-up for staff self-evaluations of expertise and confidence to resolve problems, severity of client problems, and behavioral observations of positive client behaviors.     

Prevalence of renewal of problem behavior during context changes

Renewal is defined as the reemergence of a previously eliminated behavior following a context change. Determining the prevalence of this effect in clinical practice would allow clinicians to better anticipate the reemergence of problem behavior, such as when a patient is discharged from a treatment facility to return to their home. The current consecutive, case-series analysis determined the prevalence and magnitude of renewal when implementing behavioral treatments for problem behavior. Across 182 context changes, renewal was observed 77 times (42.3%). In the first session following the context change, problem behavior rates increased by a factor of 3 and then decreased across successive sessions. These results indicated that renewal effects may be common, but are also transient and return to rates observed before context changes.