Religious Affiliation Influences on the Health Status and Behaviours of Students Attending Seventh-Day Adventist Schools in Australia

Students attending Seventh-day Adventist (Adventist) schools in Australia have been shown to have better health status and behaviours compared to secular norms, yet these schools cater for a high percentage of non-Adventist students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of religious affiliation (Adventist/non-Adventist) on the health status and behaviours of students attending Adventist secondary schools in Australia. The sample included 1734 students who responded to a health and lifestyle survey that captured demographic details, self-reported height and weight, self-reported health status, mental health and select health behaviours. Students who identified themselves as Adventist reported significantly better health behaviours than the non-Adventist students in several behavioural domains, especially among the male students. However, this did not translate to a difference in health status. Further research is needed to understand the causal mechanisms responsible for the potential health advantage of Adventist students, which may include family or church religious influences.     

Associative and categorical relations in the associative memory illusion

What kinds of associations underlie the associative memory illusion? In Experiment 1, lists composed of horizontal, or coordinate, free associates elicited false recognition of critical lures much more often than did lists composed of vertical, or subordinate, category instances. Experiment 2 replicated this result, and showed that the difference between free associates and category instances was not an artifact of differential levels of forward or backward associative strength. Associative structure plays an important role in the associative memory illusion: The illusion is strongest when the critical lure lies at the same level of categorization as the studied items.     

The Family of Instruments That Assess Suicide Risk

In suicide assessment, Becks Scale for Suicide Ideation is used widely, though other adult and youth instruments are available. A creative, positive instrument is the Reasons for Living. Advantages of suicide questionnaires include rapid assessment, access to information that may be difficult to obtain by observations and verbal interaction, ease of completion for some, availability of established norms for some instruments, and indirect information provided by questionnaire responding. Disadvantages are the temptation to accept responses uncritically, the possibility that therapists or clients view the questionnaires as superseding the therapeutic relationship, the implication that suicide tendencies are static, and, at times, cost. Overall, sound clinical judgment is paramount when assessing for suicide.     

Motion tracking of parents’ infant‐ versus adult‐directed actions reveals general and action‐specific modulations

Parents tend to modulate their movements when demonstrating actions to their infants. Thus far, these modulations have primarily been quantified by human raters and for entire interactions, thereby possibly overlooking the intricacy of such demonstrations. Using optical motion tracking, the precise modulations of parents’ infant‐directed actions were quantified and compared to adult‐directed actions and between action types. Parents demonstrated four novel objects to their 14‐month‐old infants and adult confederates. Each object required a specific action to produce a unique effect (e.g. rattling). Parents were asked to demonstrate an object at least once before passing it to their demonstration partner, and they were subsequently free to exchange the object as often as desired. Infants’ success at producing the objects’ action‐effects was coded during the demonstration session and their memory of the action‐effects was tested after a several‐minute delay. Indicating general modulations across actions, parents repeated demonstrations more often, performed the actions in closer proximity and demonstrated action‐effects for longer when interacting with their infant compared to the adults. Meanwhile, modulations of movement size and velocity were specific to certain action‐effect pairs. Furthermore, a ‘just right’ modulation of proximity was detected, since infants’ learning, memory, and parents’ prior evaluations of their infants’ motor abilities, were related to demonstrations that were performed neither too far from nor too close to the infants. Together, these findings indicate that infant‐directed action modulations are not solely overall exaggerations but are dependent upon the characteristics of the to‐be learned actions, their effects, and the infant learners.     

Therapeutic Encouragement as Conceptualized by South Korean Youth Counselors

This study explored counselors’ conceptualization and use of encouragement as a therapeutic tool. Responses to two questions from 100 South Korean youth counselors were analyzed using consensual qualitative research–modified. As a result, six categories emerged under each domain. Implications for counseling and future studies are discussed. Este estudio exploró la conceptualización y el uso del apoyo como herramienta terapéutica por parte los consejeros. Usando el método modificado de investigación cualitativa consensual, se analizaron las respuestas proporcionadas a dos preguntas por 100 consejeros surcoreanos que trabajan con jóvenes. Como resultado, surgieron seis categorías bajo cada dominio. Se discuten las implicaciones para la consejería e investigaciones futuras.     

Mentorship behaviors and mentorship quality associated with formal mentoring programs: closing the gap between research and practice

Formal mentoring programs continue to gain popularity within organizations despite limited empirical research regarding how these programs should be designed to achieve maximum effectiveness. The present study examined perceived design features of formal mentoring programs and outcomes from both mentor and protégé perspectives. The outcomes examined were career and psychosocial mentoring, role modeling, and mentorship quality. In general, the results indicated that perceived input into the mentoring process and training perceived as high in quality were consistently related to the outcome variables. Implications for the design of formal mentoring programs and future theory development are discussed.     

PERSONALITY CHANGE IN WOMEN PHYSICIANS FROM MEDICAL STUDENT YEARS TO MID-40S

Scales from the California Psychological Inventory's (CPI; Gough, 1987) Externality and Control clusters, in conjunction with a case study, were used to investigate personality change in a sample of women physicians who entered a Pacific Northwest medical school in 1964–1967. A core of 40 women was retested in their early 30s and mid-40s. From mid-20s to early 30s, the physicians'decreased scores on CPI's Sociability and Empathy scales indicated a greater internality. Decreases on the Responsibility and Good Impression scales indicated greater tendencies to question duties and obligations. An increase on the Achievement-via-Conformance scale indicated greater ability to achieve in structured situations. From early 30s to mid-40s, a further shift toward internality was evidenced by decreased scores on Social Presence and Self-Acceptance. Gains in leadership potential and increases on the Responsibility, Self-Control, Good Impression, and Achievement-via-Conformance scales were also noted.