Multicultural competency in research: examining the relationships among multicultural competencies, research training and self-efficacy, and the multicultural environment

Research on multicultural competencies has mainly focused on the practice dimension of psychology training and practice. Little theoretical or empirical research has examined multicultural research training and self-efficacy. In this study, 119 psychology graduate students filled out a Web survey focusing on the research training environment, research self-efficacy, multicultural competency, the multicultural environment, and social desirability. Results showed that multicultural competency, research training, and the multicultural environment were related to multicultural research self-efficacy. Hierarchical regressions showed that multicultural competency predicted students' research anxiety; social desirability predicted multicultural research utility, multicultural competency, and the research training environment; and multicultural competency predicted students' confidence in research and perceptions that their graduate training programs were multicultural. Implications are discussed.     

Continuity and change in the life story: a longitudinal study of autobiographical memories in emerging adulthood

If a person's internalized and evolving life story (narrative identity) is to be considered an integral feature of personality itself, then aspects of that story should manifest some continuity over time while also providing evidence regarding important personality change. Accordingly, college freshmen and seniors provided detailed written accounts of 10 key scenes in their life stories, and they repeated the same procedure 3 months and then 3 years later. The accounts were content analyzed for reliable narrative indices employed in previous studies of life stories: emotional tone, motivational themes (agency, communion, personal growth), and narrative complexity. The results showed substantial continuity over time for narrative complexity and positive (vs. negative) emotional tone and moderate but still significant continuity for themes of agency and growth. In addition, emerging adults (1) constructed more emotionally positive stories and showed (2) greater levels of emotional nuance and self-differentiation and (3) greater understanding of their own personal development in the 4th year of the study compared to the 1st year. The study is the first to demonstrate both temporal continuity and developmental change in narrative identity over time in a broad sampling of personally meaningful life-story scenes.     

Tempting today, troubling tomorrow: the roots of the precarious couple effect

The precarious couple effect occurs when men pair with women who are both critical and more verbally disinhibited than them. Evidence that dissatisfaction runs high in such relationships makes one ask why people enter them in the first place. In Study 1, respondents recalled that past partners who were verbally disinhibited were relatively active in initiating the relationship. In Study 2, verbally inhibited men evidenced ambivalence in that they disliked disinhibited women more than inhibited ones but these feelings of disliking did not translate into expectations of feeling tense during the interaction. Study 3 revealed that initial interactions between inhibited men and disinhibited women go smoothly unless (a) the women are critical and (b) the pair discusses a stressful topic. The authors suggest that members of precarious couples are drawn to one another because, in initial encounters, their communication styles are relatively symbiotic. Alas, this initial chemistry does not always endure.     

Construct validity of the misrepresentation scales of the psychological screening inventory

This study provides construct validity evidence and reliabilities (consistency and stability) for 5 misrepresentation (response distortion) scales of the Psychological Screening Inventory (PSI; Lanyon, 1970, 1973, 1978) in assessing 3 constructs: exaggeration of psychopathology, exaggeration of personal virtue, and exaggeration of health problems. Using data from forensic cases, the existence and independence of these 3 constructs were confirmed in data from the MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) and the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (Paulhus, 1986, 1991). The PSI scales were then shown to load highly on these constructs. The PSI scales also showed the expected patterns when their mean scores were examined for 15 sets of responses from participant groups with varied motivations to misrepresent. We present receiver operating characteristic data to show the success of the scales in distinguishing between simulators and appropriate comparison groups. Using the same data, we also present classification accuracy in terms of positive predictive power and negative predictive power based on a sensitivity level of 90% and misrepresentation base rates of .20 and .10.     

Content analysis of infanticide and neonaticide cases in the UK

Twenty cases, 14 infanticides and 6 neonaticides committed between 1989 and 2020 by biological mothers were analysed using Smallest Space Analysis for the presence of themes. Three themes associated with offender motivation were identified: Desperation, Disturbance and Rejection. Desperation theme included variables suggesting the mother committed the crime as a result of distress or perceived necessity. Disturbance suggested the motivation behind the offence to be as a result of the mother's caregiving role being disturbed; and the Rejection theme explained complete maternal rejection of the infant or new-born as the motivation behind the crime. Alongside the themes, three core variables were identified to be common for the crime regardless of motivation: the crime being committed at Home, the victim Female, and the crime being Denied by the mother. The implications of the findings are discussed including the potential for an investigative support tool and developing understandings of neonaticide and infanticide as separate crimes.     

Longitudinal associations between gender-typed skills and interests and their links to occupational outcomes

Although gender-based occupational segregation has declined in past decades, the world of work remains segregated by gender. Grounded in research showing that individuals tend to choose jobs that match their interests and skills, this study examined the longitudinal associations between gendered activity interests and skills from middle childhood through adolescence and tested gendered interests and skills, measured in adolescence, as predictors of occupational outcomes in young adulthood. Data were collected from 402 participants at four time points—when they averaged 10, 12, 16, and 25 years old. Results revealed that the longitudinal linkages between male-typed interests and skills were bidirectional, that both male-typed interests and skills in adolescence predicted working in male-typed occupations in young adulthood, and that skills, but not interests, predicted income. In contrast, female-typed interests predicted female-typed skills, but not the reverse, adolescent female-typed skills (but not interests) predicted working in female-typed occupations in young adulthood, and there were no links between female-typed interests or skills and income. Discussion focuses on the differential meanings and developmental implications of male- versus female-typed interests and skills.     

A test of the inventory of attitudes towards seeking mental health services

This study investigates the construct validity, composite reliability and concurrent validity of the Inventory of attitudes towards seeking mental health services (IASMHS). A large sample of Irish police officers (N = 331) participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor structure of the scale, while composite reliability results demonstrated that the IASMHS possessed excellent internal reliability. Structural equation modelling indicated that help-seeking propensity was the strongest predictor of intentions to engage in psychological counselling followed by psychological openness. Neuroticism was a weak, significant predictor of intentions. Implications of these results are discussed in relation to improving utilisation rates of mental health services.     

Career Counseling With Juvenile Offenders: Effects on Self‐Efficacy and Career Maturity

This study investigated the effect of career counseling on a juvenile offender population (N = 22). Results indicated the intervention produced significantly higher levels of career maturity and self‐efficacy for the treatment group compared with a control group.