Family work for schizophrenia: some issues for Chinese immigrant families

This paper discusses some specific issues relevant to immigrant Chinese families in the context of family work for schizophrenia. The issues include shame and guilt, isolation and mistrust of officials, the importance of negotiation before details of problem-solving are worked out, high academic ambitions for children, and apparent ‘overprotectiveness’ in the Chinese culture. It is argued that cognitive-behavioural, goal-orientated family work could be adapted well for immigrant Chinese families with a member suffering from schizophrenia. A case study is presented to illustrate how such a family was helped.     

Underemployment: Consequences for the Health and Well-Being of Workers

This paper addresses the question of how the adequacy of a person's employment status influences their health. We draw on and extend the Labor Utilization Framework to distinguish between different forms of underemployment (hours, income, skills, and status) and test their relative effects on a range of physical health and psychological well-being outcomes. Using data drawn from a nationally representative sample (N=1,429) of adults of working age, we assess the concurrent effects of underemployment through a longitudinal design that controls for prior levels of health and well-being. The results indicate that underemployed workers do report lower levels of health and well-being than adequately employed workers. However, the relationship varies by both types of underemployment and indicator of health and well-being. We conclude by discussing future research to explore the relationship between underemployment and health and well-being.     

Type A Behavior and Marital Dissatisfaction: Disentangling the Effects of Achievement Striving and Impatience-Irritability

Previous research has documented an association between overall Type A behavior and marital dissatisfaction. The present study examines the nature of this relationship when a two dimensional approach to Type A behavior is adopted, and impatience-irritability and achievement striving are assessed separately. Subjects were 134 medical practitioners and specialists and their wives in South Africa. As predicted, husbands' impatience-irritability was associated with their own and their wives' marital dissatisfaction. However, neither their achievement striving nor global Type A behavior correlated with their own or their wives' marital dissatisfaction. The results are discussed in terms of the need for isolating the specific component of Type A behavior that is associated with marital dissatisfaction.     

Development and preliminary validation of the Penny Beliefs Scale – Weapons (PBS-W)

Weapons carrying and use is an area of increasing concern and frequent media attention. Despite this, there is a distinct lack of psychological research into the reasons that people carry and use weapons. At present there is no adequate measure of beliefs that facilitate carrying and using weapons and the present investigation sought to develop and validate such a tool: the Penny Beliefs Scale - Weapons (PBS-W). The PBS-W was developed using themes identified in a literature review and through consultation with experienced Forensic Psychologists. The factor structure, reliability, and validity were ascertained by administering the PBS-W to 212 school pupils in South Wales, who were aged between 16 and 18 years. The final version of the PBS-W comprises of 36 items that measure young people’s beliefs about carrying and using weapons and load onto one factor named Potency. The new scale has excellent internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha of .92), extremely good test-retest consistency (ICC = .833), male participants scored significantly higher on the PBS-W compared with female participants, and the PBS-W is significantly positively correlated with self-reported delinquency. These findings are discussed in the context of existing literature and future potential directions for research are proposed.     

Post-event Processing in Children with Social Phobia

In the aftermath of a distressing social event, adults with social phobia (SP) engage in a review of this event with a focus on its negative aspects. To date, little is known about this post-event processing (PEP) and its relationship with perceived performance in SP children. We measured PEP in SP children (n = 24) and healthy controls (HC; n = 22), aged from 8 to 12 years, after the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C). Children also rated their performance immediately after the TSST-C and 2.5 h later. SP children reported more negative and less positive PEP than controls. Regression analyses indicated that negative PEP was associated with social anxiety and perceived task performance independent of comorbid depression. The SP group rated their performance immediately after the TSST-C as worse compared to HCs and ratings remained stable over the following 2.5 h. Results are discussed in relation to current theories of SP.     

Good judgments do not require complex cognition

What cognitive capabilities allow Homo sapiens to successfully bet on the stock market, to catch balls in baseball games, to accurately predict the outcomes of political elections, or to correctly decide whether a patient needs to be allocated to the coronary care unit? It is a widespread belief in psychology and beyond that complex judgment tasks require complex solutions. Countering this common intuition, in this article, we argue that in an uncertain world actually the opposite is true: Humans do not need complex cognitive strategies to make good inferences, estimations, and other judgments; rather, it is the very simplicity and robustness of our cognitive repertoire that makes Homo sapiens a capable decision maker.