The observing self: Diminishing egocentrism through brief mindfulness meditation

Reflecting the egocentrism that permeates contemporary society, people often believe they stand out in the eyes of others (i.e., the spotlight effect), a conviction that is entirely misplaced. Although considerable efforts have focused on elucidating the consequences of the spotlight effect, much less is known about factors that may attenuate this illusory perception. Accordingly, the current study explored the possibility that, via shifts in perspectives on the self (i.e., first person vs. third person), brief mindfulness‐based meditation may reduce a future‐oriented variant of this bias. The results revealed that, compared with responses in the control conditions (i.e., control meditation or no mediation), brief mindfulness‐based meditation fostered the adoption of a third‐person vantage point during mental imagery and diminished perceptions of personal salience.     

A Review of Functional Analysis Methods Conducted in Public School Classroom Settings

The use of functional behavior assessments (FBAs) to address problem behavior in classroom settings has increased as a result of education legislation and long-standing evidence supporting function-based interventions. Although functional analysis remains the standard for identifying behavior–environment functional relations, this component is rarely included in FBAs in practice. To address this research-to-practice gap, we searched the FBA literature to identify studies including functional analyses (FAs) conducted in students’ usual classrooms and implemented by school personnel in public school settings. FAs were defined broadly as assessments involving systematic manipulation of one or more antecedent or consequent variable to evaluate environmental influences on student problem behavior. We identified 39 studies including FAs for 88 participants. All studies were coded with regard to FA approaches and procedures as well as student, classroom, and implementer characteristics. In addition, we evaluated the extent to which FA methods in the study sample aligned with previous recommendations to address practical barriers to implementation. Results revealed a range of FA approaches that varied according to student and classroom characteristics, as well as several strategies to address implementation barriers that have been under-utilized in classroom-based FAs to date.     

High Hopes? Educational,Socioeconomic, and Ethnic Differences in Parents’ Aspirations for their Unborn Children

Parents’ aspirations shape children’s development. In this study, over 6700 pregnant women and over 4300 of their partners from the Growing Up in New Zealand cohort responded to a question about their hopes, dreams, and expectations for their unborn children. Responses were coded according to a Maslowian hierarchy of needs. Mothers and their partners predominantly mentioned self-actualization and physiological aspirations for their unborn children, but their responses varied as a function of parental ethnicity and level of educational achievement and less so as a function of socioeconomic status. Mothers of European ethnicity, and parents with higher levels of educational achievement, mentioned more aspirations for their children—especially for self-actualization and belonging—than mothers of non-European ethnicity and parents with lower levels of educational achievement. These findings are discussed with respect to Maslowian theory and cultural developmental theories, and in terms of understanding the aspirations of parents from diverse backgrounds.     

A self-determination theory approach to predicting daily prosocial behavior

Motivation and Emotion - We examine reports of typical daily helping (Study 1a-b, Ns?=?402 and 217) and daily helping reported over seven days (Study 2, n?=?2380 daily diary...     

The two‐sided nature of individual and intragroup experiences in the aftermath of collective victimization: Findings from four diaspora groups

Most social psychological research on collective victimhood has examined its consequences for intergroup relations. Less attention has been paid to individual and intragroup processes associated with collective victimization, which the present study aimed to examine. We conducted eight focus group interviews among four diaspora communities (Armenian Americans, Burundian refugees, Jewish Americans, Nepali‐speaking Bhutanese refugees) with historical or more recent experiences of collective victimization. Thematic analysis revealed three major foci shared across communities (but with different emphases within each focus), which included juxtaposed themes that highlight the two‐sided nature of experiencing and coping with collective victimization and its aftermath: Vulnerability and struggle versus resilience and strength, loss versus continuity and renewal, and silence about versus transmission of knowledge about ingroup victimization. These findings illustrate how groups integrate seemingly opposite poles of collective victimization that characterize this complex and multifaceted experience, which has important theoretical implications.     

Feminism,Capitalism, and Ecology

This article critically assesses the different ways of theoretically connecting feminism, capitalism, and ecology. I take the existing tradition of socialist ecofeminism as my starting point and outline two different ways that the connections among capitalism, the subordination of women, and the destruction of the environment have been made in this literature: materialist ecofeminism and Marxist ecofeminism. I will demonstrate the political and theoretical advantages of these positions in comparison to some of the earlier forms of theorizing the relationship between women and nature, but I will also submit them to philosophical critique. I will show how the Marxist ecofeminist position needs to be both updated and revised in order to account for the different, sometimes contradictory mechanisms for the capitalization of nature that have become prominent today. I will underscore two developments in particular: the dominance of neoliberalism and the development of biotechnology. I will conclude by summing up the theoretical grounds on which a contemporary political alliance between feminist and ecological struggles against capitalism can be built.     

Self‐Compassion as a Facet of Neuroticism? A Reply to the Comments of Neff,Tóth‐Király,and Colosimo (2018)

In this paper, we respond to comments by Neff et al. (2018) made about our finding that the negative dimensions of self‐compassion were redundant with facets of neuroticism (rs ≥ 0.85; Pfattheicher et al., 2017) and not incrementally valid. We first provide epistemological guidance for establishing psychological constructs, namely, three hurdles that new constructs must pass: theoretically and empirically sound measurement, discriminant validity, and incremental validity—and then apply these guidelines to the self‐compassion scale. We then outline that the critique of Neff et al. (2018) is contestable. We question their decisions concerning data‐analytic methods that help them to circumvent instead of passing the outlined hurdles. In a reanalysis of the data provided by Neff et al. (2018), we point to several conceptual and psychometric problems and conclude that self‐compassion does not overcome the outlined hurdles. Instead, we show that our initial critique of the self‐compassion scale holds and that its dimensions are best considered facets of neuroticism. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The Messiness of Ethics in Education

Journal of Academic Ethics - This article considers the multifaceted concept of ethics and how, despite being a familiar notion within education, it is still much contested within literature and...