The Study of the Development of Civic Engagement Within Contemporary Developmental Science: Theory,Method, and Application

Within contemporary developmental science, models derived from relational developmental systems metatheory emphasize that the basic process involved in the ontogeny of civic engagement involves mutually-influential and beneficial relations between the developing individual and his or her complex and changing social, cultural, and physical contexts (represented as individual ← → context relations). The authors suggest that research on the development of civic engagement should be theoretically predicated, use change-sensitive, longitudinal methods, and be comparative across time and place. Using these facets of scholarship as a lens, we discuss the contributions to this special issue. We conclude that the present set of studies provides a useful basis for future research and applications aimed at understanding and promoting individuals’ civic contributions, and their support of social organizations promoting individual thriving and freedom, liberty, and social justice.     

The Effect of the Running‐Man Emergency Exit Sign and Its Installed Location on Human Directional Choice

Understanding the meaning of an emergency exit sign is essential for escaping from a building during a disaster. According to International Organization for Standardization 7010:2011, there are leftward and rightward running‐man exit signs indicating the location of an exit door. However, there is neither an application rule regarding which direction the sign should point nor a rule for where it should be attached in the horizontal dimension. We examined the effect of the heading direction of the running man and its horizontal locations on the selection of exit directions. A modified spatial Stroop task as an unforced‐choice task was designed by combining the running man's heading direction and its horizontal location. The results showed both facilitation and inhibition effects, conflict adaptation, and post‐error slowing reflecting top‐down control. These findings suggest that the heading direction of the running‐man exit sign includes evident directionality. This should be considered in designing and establishing standardized emergency exit signs. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emerging Practices of Counseling and Psychotherapy in China: Ethical Dilemmas in Dual Relationships

A qualitative study was conducted with 48 Chinese counselors and psychotherapists who were interviewed in 2006 and an independent sample of 50 participants who responded to a survey in 2014. This study aims to explore how the new emerging expansion of mental health practice is related to issues and challenges of dual role relationship and how the well-engrained values and social characteristics of Chinese culture influences perceptions and resolution of ethical dilemmas. The participants identified similar dual relationships in 2006 and 2014: (a) Incidental boundary crossings, a sexual or romantic relationship, a dual social relationship, and a professional dual relationship were the most frequently reported types of dual relationships encountered by Chinese practitioners, and (b) the socioeconomic and cultural context and the development trajectory of counseling and psychotherapy in China play a significant role in shaping practitioners’ behaviors. The comparison of the data in 2006 and 2014 indicated that practitioners in psychotherapy and counseling have an improved awareness and understanding of ethical issues, evidenced by the decreasing cases of romantic and sexual relationships and increasing cases of social dual relationships influenced by the interrelatedness of traditional Chinese culture.     

African-American and Latino Parents’ Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Adolescent Fighting and Its Prevention

Adolescent fighting affects 25 % of youth, with the highest rates among African-Americans and Latinos but little is known about parental views on youth fighting. The purpose of this study was to examine African-American and Latino parents’ perspectives on adolescent fighting and methods to prevent fighting. We conducted four focus groups with parents of African-American and Latino urban adolescents. Focus groups were stratified by race/ethnicity and fighting status. Groups were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed by three independent coders using thematic content analysis. Seventy-six percent of the 17 participants were female. Latino parents condoned fighting only as a last resort, and taught children about consequences of fighting, emotional regulation, and non-violent conflict-resolution strategies. African-American parents endorsed teaching non-violent strategies, but expressed some doubts about their effectiveness. African-American parents also suggested corporal punishment, but acknowledged that this may not be an optimal long-term strategy. Positive role modeling and involvement by teachers and other adults were cited as having important roles in fighting prevention. Suggested interventions included teaching adolescents non-violent conflict-resolution skills, anger management, and alternatives to fighting. Parents recommended that violence prevention programs incorporate the experiences of former fighters and be tailored to community needs. Study findings suggest that youth violence-prevention programs may benefit from addressing parental attitudes towards fighting and parent–child communication about fighting, teaching adolescents non-violent conflict-resolution skills, and tailoring programs by race/ethnicity. Promoting positive modeling and involvement by teachers and other adults also may be beneficial.     

Recollections of childhood bullying and multiple forms of victimization: correlates with psychological functioning among college students

This retrospective investigation examined the association among childhood bullying victimization, multiple forms of victimization, and psychological functioning in a college sample. Four hundred-and-eighty-two undergraduate students participated in the study (M = 19.98 years, SD = 1.82). The sample included 65 % women. For race/ethnicity, 66.4 % were European-American (N = 320), 16.8 % African-American (N = 81). For grade level, 21.6 % were freshmen (N = 104), followed by 38.2 % sophomores (N = 184), 16.2 % juniors (N = 78), and 23.4 % seniors (N = 113). Participants completed a survey packet of measures assessing childhood bullying victimization experiences and current levels of psychological functioning. Findings indicated that bullying victimization significantly predicted greater levels of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress (PTS) after controlling for other childhood victimization experiences. PTS symptoms were predicted by exposure to community violence and child abuse with bullying victimization was found to be the strongest predictor. College-level practitioners need to assess for a wide range of childhood victimization experiences, including bullying victimization.     

Mother–Toddler Affect Exchanges and Children's Mastery Behaviours during Preschool Years

This study examined the longitudinal relations of mother–child affect exchanges at 18 months with children's mastery motivation at 39 months. Observation and questionnaire data were collected from mother–child dyads when children were 18 months; 43 mothers again rated their children's mastery motivation at 39 months. Results suggested that after controlling for gender and the corresponding 18‐month mastery aspect, positive affect exchanges had long‐term positive relationships with children's persistence and competence, whereas dismissed affect exchanges had long‐term negative relationships with children's persistence and independent mastery. Findings suggest that children's autonomous mastery‐oriented endeavours have deep roots in their early mother–child affective interactions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pavlovian reward learning elicits attentional capture by reward-associated stimuli

Feature–reward association elicits value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) regardless of the task relevance of associated features. What are the necessary conditions for feature–reward associations in VDAC? Recent studies claim that VDAC is based on Pavlovian conditioning. In this study, we manipulated the temporal relationships among feature, response, and reward in reward learning to elucidate the necessary components of VDAC. We presented reward-associated features in a variety of locations in a flanker task to form a color–reward association (training phase) and then tested VDAC in a subsequent visual search task (test phase). In Experiment 1, we showed reward-associated features in a task display requiring response selection and observed VDAC, consistent with most previous studies. In Experiment 2, features presented at a fixation display before a task display also induced VDAC. Moreover, in Experiment 3, we reduced the time interval between features and rewards so that features appeared after a task display and we obtained marginally significant VDAC. However, no VDAC was observed when features and rewards were simultaneously presented in a feedback display in Experiments 4 and 5, suggesting that a direct association between feature and reward is not sufficient for VDAC. These results are in favor of the idea that response selection does not mediate feature–reward association in VDAC. Moreover, the evidence suggests that the time interval of feature and reward is flexible with some restriction in the learning of feature–reward association. The present study supports the hypothesis that theories of Pavlovian conditioning can account for feature–reward association in VDAC.     

Activated or deactivated? Understanding how cognitive appraisals can drive emotional activation in the aftermath of daily work events

Introduction

Past research has highlighted the relevance of cognitive appraisals in the link events-emotions (e.g., appraisal of an event's importance and its pleasant or unpleasant valence). We hypothesized a 3-way interaction between affective events (hassles and uplifts), cognitive appraisals of importance and intrinsic pleasantness on emotional activation.