Turning Points in Adults' Lives: The Effects of Gender and the Amount of Choice

The study sought to discover what women and men in their 30s regard as the most important turning points in their lives, and whether the amount of choice they have in relation to these events influences the way in which turning points are evaluated. The study was part of the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, started in 1968. Data for the present study was collected by means of interviews conducted when the participants (n = 283) were 36 years old. Turning points were most often related to family, education, work, and social transitions. Women regarded parenthood, the health problems of people close to them, and moving to another community as turning points more often than men; whereas men regarded occupational events, military service, and changes in their lifestyle as turning points more often than women. Individuals tended to mention turning points over which they had a large amount of choice. The more personal choice the participants had enjoyed at the time of a turning point, the more positively they evaluated it at the time, and also later on.     

Moderate Aerobic Exercise, T'ai Chi, and Social Problem-Solving Ability in Relation to Psychological Stress

This study evaluated the importance of exercise mode, social problem-solving ability, gender, and age in relation to anxiety and perceived daily hassles. Adult participants were classified as moderate aerobic exercisers, T'ai Chi exercisers, or sedentary via completion of a questionnaire. Social problem-solving ability, state and trait anxiety, and frequency and severity of daily hassles were measured. As predicted, scores indicating effective social problem-solving ability were associated with fewer reported severe daily hassles and with lower scores on state and trait anxiety. For state and trait anxiety, a main effect of exercise mode emerged after age and gender were controlled. A 3-way interaction involving age, gender, and exercise mode suggested that age and gender moderate the effects of exercise on anxiety, that is, the stress-reducing efficacy of different exercise modes may be dependent on a person's age and/or gender. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

“Everybody is an Artist”: Arts‐based Education and Formerly Incarcerated Young Black Men's Academic and Social–Emotional Development in an Alternative School

Although arts‐based programming is shown to positively influence the development of youth exposed to adversity, little is known about the influence these programs have on formerly incarcerated emerging adult Black men enrolled in an alternative school. With educational resilience as a guiding framework, this qualitative case study explored the ways in which an arts‐based program in the context of an alternative school designed for formerly incarcerated young people facilitates emerging adult Black men's academic and social–emotional development. Data collection consisted of observations and interviews with school personnel and formerly incarcerated Black male students. Analysis and interpretation included a range of inductive techniques (coding, constant comparisons, and memoing). Results indicate that offering arts‐based activities fostered an environment where students could build caring and supportive relationships with peers and school personnel. Instructional practices that integrated music and poetry provided meaningful opportunities for the young men to participate, which appeared to enhance their motivation and attitudes (self, others, learning, and school) and academic self‐efficacy, and lessen their psychological and emotional distress. Study findings provide insights into how an arts‐based program in an alternative school can improve healthy development and academic achievement among formerly incarcerated young Black men transitioning into adulthood.     

Information distortion in the evaluation of a single option

Extending previous work on biased predecisional processing, we investigate the distortion of information during the evaluation of a single option. A coherence-based account of the evaluation task suggests that individuals will form an initial assessment of favorability toward the option and then bias their evaluation of subsequent information to cohere with their initial disposition. Three experiments tested this hypothesis. Initial disposition was manipulated (Studies 1 and 3) or measured (Study 2), and attribute ratings were collected as indicators of information distortion. Results from all three experiments indicate that attribute evaluations were biased to favor initial dispositions. These findings provide evidence that information distortion is one cause of primacy effects in judgment and decision-making settings involving a single option.     

Elderly homicide in Chicago: a research note

There is a body of knowledge about elderly crime victims, but we know little about the characteristics of elderly perpetrators, especially of homicide. The few studies that have been published are based on small samples and are somewhat dated. In an examination of homicides committed in Chicago over a 31-year period, we compared cases involving perpetrators aged over 60 years (n = 443) with those involving younger perpetrators (n = 24,066). There were a number of significant differences. Elderly killers were more likely to be White and to commit suicide afterwards. Their victims were more likely to be spouses, females, and aged over 60 years. Inter-racial homicide was more common for younger offenders. The low number of homicides involving the elderly is explained by reference to routine activity theory.     

Reduction in disability in a randomized controlled trial of telephone-administered cognitive-behavioral therapy.

OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the efficacy of telephone-administered cognitive-behavioral therapy (T-CBT) and telephone-administered supportive emotion-focused therapy (T-SEFT) in reducing disability among disabled patients with multiple sclerosis and depression. Telephone administration of therapy allowed care to be delivered to a more disabled population. This is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial; the primary outcome results for depression are reported in D. C. Mohr, S. L. Hart, L. Julian, C. Catledge, L. Honos-Webb, L. Vella, et al. (2005). DESIGN: A randomized controlled trial, comparing 16 weeks of T-CBT with T-SEFT. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Disability was measured using Guy's Neurological Disability Scale; fatigue was measured using the Fatigue Impact Scale; depression was measured using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. RESULTS: Patients in both treatments showed significant improvements in disability and fatigue. These improvements were related to reductions in depression. T-CBT produced significantly greater decreases in disability and fatigue, compared with T-SEFT, even after controlling for depression. The greater benefit of T-CBT on disability was mediated by physical fatigue. CONCLUSION: These findings support the hypothesis that significant reductions in disability can be achieved by reducing depression in patients with multiple sclerosis. There was also evidence that further reductions could be achieved through CBT-specific interventions that include a focus on symptoms such as fatigue management.     

Gaming magazines and the drive for muscularity in preadolescent boys: a longitudinal examination

The development of a drive for muscularity among boys has been linked to various cultural influences, one of which is exposure to mass media depicting the muscular male body ideal. We sought to determine whether self-reported exposure to four ideal-body magazine genres (health/fitness, fashion, sports, and gaming) predicted an increased drive for muscularity 1 year later. A sample of 104 Black and 77 White preadolescent boys (mean age 8.77) participated in a 2-wave longitudinal panel study. Controlling Wave 1 grade, perceived thinness/adiposity, and drive for muscularity, exposure to video gaming magazines predicted a significant increase in Wave 2 drive for muscularity, but only for White boys. Discussion calls for the inclusion of video gaming magazine exposure measures in future research on print media and male body ideals, along with empirical exploration of racial themes in gaming magazines.     

Global-feature classification can be acquired more rapidly than local-feature classification in both humans and pigeons

When humans process visual stimuli, global information often takes precedence over local information. In contrast, some recent studies have pointed to a local precedence effect in both pigeons and nonhuman primates. In the experiment reported here, we compared the speed of acquisition of two different categorizations of the same four geometric figures. One categorization was on the basis of a local feature, the other on the basis of a readily apparent global feature. For both humans and pigeons, the global-feature categorization was acquired more rapidly. This result reinforces the conclusion that local information does not always take precedence over global information in nonhuman animals.     

Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in people with schizophrenia

This study evaluated the hypothesis that trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity would be positively associated with schizophrenia symptoms. Forty-seven clients with schizophrenia were assessed for schizophrenia severity and for lifetime trauma history and PTSD symptoms in 2 independent symptom interviews; 35 (74%) participants reported at least 1 event in which there was threat of harm or life threat and subjective distress, and 6 (13%) had current PTSD. Trauma across the life span was associated with greater severity of PTSD. Within the total sample, PTSD symptoms were associated with greater emotional distress, but not with schizophrenia-specific symptoms. Distress among clients with schizophrenia and PTSD suggests the need for routine assessment of PTSD and development of PTSD interventions in this population.