Does class size in first grade relate to children's academic and social performance or observed classroom processes?

This study evaluated the extent to which first-grade class size predicted child outcomes and observed classroom processes for 651 children (in separate classrooms). Analyses examined observed child-adult ratios and teacher-reported class sizes. Smaller classrooms showed higher quality instructional and emotional support, although children were somewhat less likely to be engaged. Teachers in smaller classes rated typical children in those classes as more socially skilled and as showing less externalizing behavior and reported more closeness toward them. Children in smaller classes performed better on literacy skills. Larger classrooms showed more group activities directed by the teacher, teachers and children interacted more often, and children were more often engaged. Lower class sizes were not of more benefit (or harm) as a function of the child's family income. First-grade class size in the range typical of present-day classrooms in the United States predicts classroom social and instructional processes as well as relative changes in social and literacy outcomes from kindergarten to first grade.     

Similarity and lightness effects in Ebbinghaus illusion created by keyboard characters

36 observers judged the size of a central S in variants of the Ebbinghaus figure having contextual Ss, $s, or Hs. When the figures were composed of similarly shaped elements, underestimation of the central S was obtained. Manipulations of lightness indicated that these underestimations were strongest for figures with gray contextual characters and a black central S and weakest for figures with black contextual characters and a gray central S. All black or all gray figures produced intermediate illusions. The data are consistent with Choplin and Medin's 1999 claim that figural properties rather than semantic similarity influences size contrast and further show that the visual processes underlying size contrast include interactions of contours.     

Building Leadership,Capacity, and Power to Advance Health Equity and Justice through Community‐Engaged Research in the Midwest

The Health Equity Advancement Lab (HEAL) at the University of Iowa College of Public Health began in 2012 to support students, researchers, and community members interested in tackling persistent health inequities through a community‐based participatory research (CBPR) approach. Using concepts from critical consciousness theory, we developed an approach to building students’, faculty members’, and community partners’ capacity to engage in CBPR to promote health equity that involved immersion in developing CBPR projects. Our paper describes the evolution of HEAL as a facilitating structure that provides a support network and engages diverse stakeholders in critical reflection as they participate in research to advance health equity, and resulting political efficacy and social action. We describe one HEAL‐affiliated research project that employs a CBPR approach and has a strong focus on providing transformative learning experiences for students, faculty, and community members. We highlight challenges, successes, and lessons learned in the application of critical consciousness as a framework that engages diverse academic and community partners seeking to promote health equity. We argue that critical consciousness is a relevant theoretical framework to promote transformative learning among students, faculty, and community partners to promote health equity research in diverse communities.     

Participatory work place intervention for stress prevention in primary health care. A randomized controlled trial

The aim of this study is to explore whether a participatory, organizational intervention can reduce work-related risk factors, and thereby prevent stress-related ill health. We build on the job demand-control and effort-reward imbalance models of stress. It is a two-armed randomized trial, with one primary health care unit receiving the intervention and a two-unit control group. Validated questionnaires for the assessment of psychosocial work environment and health were administered, at the baseline and at 6 and 12-month follow up. The primary outcome was job strain. Secondary outcomes were effort–reward imbalance, exhaustion, sleep, and recovery. Group-level objective data on workload and data about relevant processes during the study were continuously collected. The changes in the intervention group with regard to job strain, effort-reward imbalance, exhaustion, sleep and recovery were not statistically different from changes in the control group. For the non-exhausted employees though, reward was significantly higher at follow up compared to baseline, but only in the intervention group. An important piece of information is that the objective workload was statistically significantly higher in the intervention group throughout the study. Not all the components of the intervention were implemented as intended. Context and process information, such as objective data and implementation fidelity are necessary for a valid interpretation of the results.     

A dysphoric's TALE: The relationship between the self-reported functions of autobiographical memory and symptoms of depression

Autobiographical memory (AM) is believed to serve self, social and directive functions; however, little is known regarding how this triad of functions operates in depression. Using the Thinking About Life Experiences questionnaire [Bluck, S., & Alea, N. (2011). Crafting the TALE: Construction of a measure to assess the functions of autobiographical remembering. Memory, 19, 470–486.; Bluck, S., Alea, N., Habermas, T., & Rubin, D. C. (2005). A TALE of three functions: The self–reported uses of autobiographical memory. Social Cognition, 23, 91–117.], two studies explored the relationship between depressive symptomology and the self-reported frequency and usefulness of AMs for self, social and directive purposes. Study 1 revealed that thinking more frequently but talking less frequently about past life events was significantly associated with higher depression scores. Recalling past events more frequently to maintain self-continuity was also significantly associated with higher depressive symptomology. However, results from Study 2 indicated that higher levels of depression were also significantly associated with less-frequent useful recollections of past life events for self-continuity purposes. Taken together, the findings suggest atypical utilisations of AM to serve self-continuity functions in depression and can be interpreted within the wider context of ruminative thought processes.     

Activist Theatre: The Effects of Community Performance on System Justification and Willingness to Engage in Activism

System justification is a motivation to legitimize the status quo that disables individuals from changing oppressive social systems. Community performance has long been used as a tool to illuminate and challenge such systems of power. The goal of the present study was to provide an empirical test of the effectiveness of community performance in the context of gender‐based oppression. Specifically, the present study tested whether a community performance could decrease audience members' system justification and increase intentions to engage in collective and virtual action to correct these oppressive systems. The performance consisted of 18 community‐created pieces performed by 11 actresses before an audience of 165 members of the college and local communities across three days. A total of 153 audience members participated in the study. Results indicated that a 50‐min performance reduced system justification while increasing willingness to take collective and virtual‐based action. Limitations and implications are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can Affect Disengagement Produce Moral Standard Violation?

Bandura has suggested that people can escape the self-regulatory power of internalized moral standards by disengaging the standards, allowing violation. We consider the possibility that disengaging the emotional warning signs of impending self-censure may be sufficient to permit violation. To test this idea, we led some research participants to misattribute to a pill (actually a placebo) any feelings of tension and anxiety evoked by the prospect of violating their standards of fairness. As predicted, participants in the misattribution condition were more likely to self-favor than those in a no-misattribution condition. This effect was mediated by the amount of tension and anxiety attributed to the pill. The role that affect disengagement may play in moral decisions outside the laboratory is discussed.     

Giving hope a sporting chance: Hope as distinct from optimism when events are possible but not probable

Popular hope theories treat hope as an expectancy-based construct, with individuals more hopeful the greater their perceived likelihood of success. Consequently, the distinction between hope and other expectancy-based concepts (e.g., optimism) is unclear. The present research aims to identify the unique nature of hope, suggesting hope is invoked in particular when expectations of positive outcomes are low. As long as there is a possibility of those outcomes eventuating, individuals highly invested in them are more likely to hope; but with greater probability hope tends to align with optimism. In Study 1, for supporters of bottom-tier football teams strongly invested in the hoped-for outcome of their team winning, hope’s relationship with likelihood was cubic, accelerating with mere possibility; contrastingly, for optimism the relationship was linear. Study 2 replicated these findings for voters’ hope in state election outcomes. Hope is distinct from optimism and positive expectation; hope is tapped into when odds are low yet individuals are highly invested in the outcome.     

Social exchanges and subjective well-being among older Chinese: does age make a difference?

The authors examined the effects of social support and negative interactions on life satisfaction and depressed affect among older Chinese, and age differences in these associations. The sample consisted of 2,943 Chinese elders who were 60-94 years of age. Structural equation modeling results suggest that both social support and negative interactions have significant contributions to life satisfaction and depressed affect. Social support has stronger effects than negative interactions on life satisfaction; their effects on depressed affect are comparable. Further, depressed affect of old-old (70+ years) Chinese reacts more strongly to both social support and negative interactions than the young-old (60-69 years).