Social status and shaming experiences related to adolescent overt aggression at school

Feelings of rejection and humiliation in interpersonal interaction are strongly related to aggressive behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between social status, shaming experiences, gender and adolescent aggressive behavior by using a status-shaming model. A population-based sample of 5,396 adolescents aged from 15 to 18 completed a questionnaire that asked questions regarding psychosocial background, shaming experiences, social status of family, peer group and school and involvement in physical or verbal aggression at school. Shaming experiences, i.e. being ridiculed or humiliated by others, were strongly related to aggressive behavior. Social status and shaming were related in the prediction of aggressive behavior, suggesting that a person's social status may influence the risk for taking aggressive action when subjected to shaming experiences. Medium social status seemed to have a protective function in the association between shaming experiences and aggression. This study confirms the importance of further evaluation of the role of perceived social status and shaming experiences in the understanding of aggressive behavior. Moreover, the results indicate the need for different kinds of status measures when investigating the associations between status and behavior in adolescent populations. The results may have important implications for the prevention of bullying at school as well as other deviant aggressive behavior among adolescents.     

Efficacy of a program to encourage walking in VA elderly primary care patients: the role of pain

Pain may be a barrier or a negative outcome of initiating and maintaining an exercise program in elderly patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of pain in a program designed to increase walking for exercise in 181 veteran primary care patients (60 - 80 years). Self-reported physical activity (min-walked per week) and pain were assessed at baseline, 6, and 12 months. Walking for exercise increased over time without significant changes in pain. Analyses suggested that baseline pain was not a barrier to initiating or maintaining a walking exercise program, nor did increased walking influence reports of pain. These results suggest that patients can be encouraged to engage in physical activity, even if they are currently suffering from pain.     

The value of observing an autopsy in clergy and pastoral care education

The value of observing an autopsy for clergy and students training to provide pastoral care is that it raises consciousness about death and dying, assists in the participants' healing from loss, provides resources for ministering to the bereaved, builds a network with other professionals responding to death and dying, and evokes viscerally-generated insights into theological questions concerning body and soul, life after death, and concepts of God in relation to death and bereavement.     

Does physical pain impair abstract thinking?

The ability to think abstractly constitutes a fundamental dimension of human cognition. Although abstraction has been extensively studied, its emotional and affective antecedents have been largely overlooked. One experiment was conducted to examine whether physical pain affects abstraction. Drawing on Construal Level Theory [Trope, Y., &; Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117, 440–463] and Loewenstein’s [(1996). Out of control: Visceral influences on behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 65, 272–292] visceral factors theory, we hypothesised that pain impairs abstraction because pain constricts people’s mental horizons and lead to a concrete, inward-focus toward oneself in the here and now. Physical pain was manipulated between subjects (N?=?150). The participants either kept their left hand immersed in cold (painful) water or neutral (painless) water while we measured abstract versus concrete behaviour identification, categorisation, and perceptual processing. Bayesian statistical analyses indicate substantial evidence against the hypothesis that pain impairs abstraction. In contrast to many other previously studied cognitive outcomes (e.g. attention), abstraction appears to be largely immune to acute, experimentally induced pain.     

Searching for Evidence of Transfer between Drug Facilitators

Four autoshaping experiments with pigeons examined the transfer of facilitation between drug stimuli. In Experiment 1 the presence and absence of methadone or phencyclidine signaled which of two keylight CSs were followed by grain (US). A different keylight CS was reinforced in the absence of the drugs. The drugs facilitated responding to the CS with which they were trained but did not facilitate responding to the CS reinforced in the presence of the other drug. Thus, transfer of facilitation across drug stimuli was not obtained. In Experiment 2 one of the drug facilitators was replaced by a tone. No evidence of transfer of facilitative function was obtained between the tone and the remaining drug facilitator. In Experiment 3 transfer was again not found using a design similar to that used in Experiment 1 except that the drugs did not simultaneously signal nonreinforcement of a keylight CS. In Experiment 4 the procedures of Experiment 1 were employed except that drug facilitators were replaced by distinct visual stimuli surrounding the response key. Clear evidence of transfer between the visual facilitators was obtained. The lack of transfer of modulatory control by drug stimuli in Experiments 1-3, coupled with its occurrence in Experiment 4 and previous studies, suggests that stimulus control by drugs may differ in important ways from stimulus control by conventional stimuli.     

Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury,Stress, and Self‐Differentiation

The authors surveyed 458 young adults and examined the relationships among stress, self‐differentiation, and nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI). They conducted multiple regression analyses to explore whether characteristics of self‐differentiation (i.e., emotional reactivity and “I position”) were related to NSSI after controlling for the effects of stress, as well as whether emotional reactivity and I position served as mediators in the stress–NSSI relationship. I position and emotional reactivity both contributed statistically significant variance to NSSI after accounting for stress. Moreover, both I position and emotional reactivity served as partial mediators in the stress–NSSI relationship. The authors discuss counseling and research implications.     

Attachment to God,Tenure, Race,and Participation in Congregational Life

The vitality of religious congregations is dependent on how effectively they attract congregants and mobilize participation, and people are more likely to participate when they share similar characteristics with other congregants. This study suggests attachment to God is a fundamental “behavioral and intrapersonal characteristic” which distinguishes participants from one another, contributing to varying levels of participation in congregational and religious life beyond service attendance. Using a national sample, we test several hypotheses related to this theoretical claim. Findings suggest that: (1) secure attachment to God is positively associated with congregational participation, (2) anxious and avoidant attachment are negatively associated with participation, (3) these relationships are moderated by length of time attending a particular congregation, and (4) secure attachment is associated with higher levels of participation in congregational life for blacks than it is for whites. By demonstrating a link between attachment to God and participation in congregational and religious life, this study affirms that intrapersonal characteristics structure the dynamics of religious congregations.