The Moral Value of Envy

It is common to think that we would be morally better people if we never felt envy. Recently, some philosophers have rejected this conclusion by arguing that envy can often be directed toward unfairness or inequality. As such, they conclude that we should not suppress our feelings of envy. I argue, however, that these defenses only show that envy is sometimes morally permissible. In order to show that we would not be better off without envy, we must show how envy is not merely morally permissible, but morally valuable. Here I provide a defense of envy's moral value. I argue that feelings of envy are integral to the value that moral agents place on the goods and talents that they judge to be central to a worthwhile life.     

Feeling Stares: Places,Persons, and Pets

The belief that one can feel others staring without actually seeing them look is a common social phenomenon. From a comparative viewpoint, staring is associated with dominance behavior or aggression. In humans, staring is often viewed as a negative behavior. Thus, being the object of a stare is potentially dangerous. We predicted that persons in vulnerable circumstances (e.g., an unfamiliar situation) or with strangers rather than with friends would be sensitized to detect signals or stimuli associated with danger. We also hypothesized that persons high in self-consciousness or who were in a negative mood would have an increased bias toward detecting stares. The situational-context hypotheses received higher support than did the dispositional hypotheses. Beliefs concerning animals and stare perception were explored.     

Defining Our Clinical Practice: The Identification of Genetic Counseling Outcomes Utilizing the Reciprocal Engagement Model

The need for evidence-based medicine, including comparative effectiveness studies and patient-centered outcomes research, has become a major healthcare focus. To date, a comprehensive list of genetic counseling outcomes, as espoused by genetic counselors, has not been established and thus, identification of outcomes unique to genetic counseling services has become a priority for the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC). The purpose of this study was to take a critical first step at identifying a more comprehensive list of genetic counseling outcomes. This paper describes the results of a focus group study using the Reciprocal-Engagement Model (REM) as a framework to characterize patient-centered outcomes of genetic counseling clinical practice. Five focus groups were conducted with 27 peer nominated participants who were clinical genetic counselors, genetic counseling program directors, and/or outcomes researchers in genetic counseling. Members of each focus group were asked to identify genetic counseling outcomes for four to five of the 17 goals of the REM. A theory-driven, thematic analysis of focus group data yielded 194 genetic counseling outcomes across the 17 goals. Participants noted some concerns about how genetic counseling outcomes will be measured and evaluated given varying stakeholders and the long-term nature of genetic concerns. The present results provide a list of outcomes for use in future genetic counseling outcomes research and for empirically-supported clinical interventions.     

How do associative and phonemic overlap interact to boost illusory recollection?

This project investigated the underlying mechanisms that boost false remember responses when participants receive study words that are both semantically and phonologically similar to a critical lure. Participants completed a memory task in which they were presented with a list of words all associated with a critical lure. Included within the list of semantic associates was a target that was either semantically associated (e.g., yawn) to the critical lure (e.g., sleep) or shared the initial (e.g., slam) or final (e.g., beep) phoneme(s) with the critical lure. After hearing the list, participants recalled each list item and indicated whether they just knew it was on the list or if they instead recollected specific contextual details of that item’s presentation. We found that inserting an initial phonemic overlap target boosted experiences of recollection, but only when semantically related associates were presented beforehand. The results are consistent with models of spoken word recognition and show that established semantic context plus initial phonemic overlap play important roles in boosting false recollection.     

Beliefs about emotion: implications for avoidance-based emotion regulation and psychological health

People’s beliefs about their ability to control their emotions predict a range of important psychological outcomes. It is not clear, however, whether these beliefs are playing a causal role, and if so, why this might be. In the current research, we tested whether avoidance-based emotion regulation explains the link between beliefs and psychological outcomes. In Study 1 (N?=?112), a perceived lack of control over emotions predicted poorer psychological health outcomes (increased self-reported avoidance, lower well-being, and higher levels of clinical symptoms), and avoidance strategies indirectly explained these links between emotion beliefs and psychological health. In Study 2 (N?=?101), we experimentally manipulated participants’ emotion beliefs by leading participants to believe that they struggled (low regulatory self-efficacy) or did not struggle (high regulatory self-efficacy) with controlling their emotions. Participants in the low regulatory self-efficacy condition reported increased intentions to engage in avoidance strategies over the next month and were more likely to avoid seeking psychological help. When asked if they would participate in follow-up studies, these participants were also more likely to display avoidance-based emotion regulation. These findings provide initial evidence for the causal role of emotion beliefs in avoidance-based emotion regulation, and document their impact on psychological health-related outcomes.     

Psychiatric Symptoms,Posttraumatic Growth,and Life Satisfaction Among Parents of Seriously Ill Infants: A Prospective Case-Controlled Study

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - We evaluated psychiatric symptoms, posttraumatic growth, and life satisfaction among the parents (n?=?34) of newborns...     

Effects of the SPARK Teen Mentoring Program for High School Students

Journal of Child and Family Studies - This study employed a randomized controlled trial with pre- and post-intervention measurement to investigate the impact of the Speaking to the Potential,...     

Recruiting Through the Stages: A Meta‐Analytic Test of Predictors of Applicant Attraction at Different Stages of the Recruiting Process

We used meta‐analysis and semipartial correlations to examine the relative strength and incremental variance accounted for by 7 categories of recruiting predictors across multiple recruitment stages on applicant attraction. Based on 232 studies (250 samples, 3,518 coefficients, n= 108,632), we found that characteristics of the job, organization, and recruitment process, recruiter behaviors, perceived fit, and hiring expectancies (but not perceived alternatives) accounted for unique variance in applicant attraction at multiple stages. Perceived fit was the strongest relative and unique variance predictor of applicant attraction albeit a nonsignificant predictor of job choice. Although not among the largest zero‐order predictors, recruiter behaviors accounted for substantial incremental variance at the first 2 stages. Organizational characteristics are more heavily weighed by applicants when maintaining applicant status as compared to the stage of application, and recruitment process characteristics are weighed progressively more as the recruitment stages advance. Job characteristics accounted for the greatest unique variance in job choice decisions. Job characteristics are more predictive in field studies, whereas recruiter behaviors, recruitment process characteristics, hiring expectancies, and perceived alternatives produced larger effect sizes in the laboratory. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications with future research suggestions.     

Diagnosis of Fragile X Syndrome: A Qualitative Study of African American Families

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is an inherited genetic condition with critical consequences to the proband and family members at all levels in the generations. Although evidence demonstrates that the rates of diagnosis for FXS are the same in all racial groups, age of diagnosis in African American children has been reported to occur later than in Caucasian children. Additionally, African American families are seriously under-represented in existing FXS research studies. As such, it is important to understand the possible disparities in the underlying factors to receiving a diagnosis in African American families with FXS. Herein, a qualitative approach was adopted to describe the overall FXS diagnosis experiences (pre-diagnosis, diagnosis, and post-diagnosis stages) of a convenience sample of 10 African American mothers. We identified three major findings among our participants: (1) FXS testing is not ordered immediately once a parent expresses concerns of developmental delays to the pediatricians, (2) the diagnosis is sometimes delivered in an insensitive manner with information often being outdated and unbalanced towards negative aspects, (3) communication issues among family members exists once the diagnosis is discovered. Although these qualitative data may not be representative of the whole group, these findings have significant implications for genetic counseling and our understanding in providing support and advocacy for African American families with FXS.