Investigating whether controlling and aggressive relationship behaviors are discriminant

Control is theorized as central to intimate partner aggression (IPA). Tools measuring nonphysical “controlling behaviors” in relationships have therefore been developed to identify the latent construct of control. However, the underlying assumption that “controlling behaviors” form a distinct subset of IPA has not been validated. This study investigates the divergent validity of acts considered as “controlling behaviors” against other aggressive acts used in relationships. The IPA and relationship literatures were reviewed to identify 1,397 items involving “controlling,” physical, sexual, and psychologically aggressive acts perpetrated and/or experienced by an intimate partner. In total, 101 item pairs were identified and used to measure IPA tactics across these categories. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis in a community sample (N = 561) found no evidence of a distinct factor of “controlling behaviors.” Behaviors labeled as “controlling” in existing measures were distributed across other factors, including “eclectic aggression,” “direct psychological aggression,” and “monitoring acts.” In Study 2A (N = 424 students), confirmatory factor analysis replicated the results of Study 1 and established configural measurement invariance (Study 2B), indicating no evidence for psychometric differences between samples. These results indicate that behaviors described as “controlling” in existing measures were not statistically distinguishable from other forms of IPA, and suggest that future research should investigate motivational, rather than behavioral, differences in the use of IPA. The findings challenge research to confirm whether a set of discrete behaviors can be used to accurately identify control in relationships and question the validity of tools that adopt this methodology.     

Spouses' responses to the dietary nonadherence of their partners managing diabetes

The association between patients' dietary nonadherence and spouses' involvement in patients' diabetes diet was examined, with spouses' anxiety about nonadherence considered as a mediator of this association. Daily diary data from 128 older adult patients with type 2 diabetes and their spouses were analyzed using multilevel models. Results revealed that on days when patients reported less adherence to their diabetes diet than usual, spouses reported greater anxiety about patients' diabetes management, which, in turn, was related to greater spousal persuasion and pressure the same day. The association between patients' nonadherence and diet‐related support on the same day was not mediated, however, through spouses' anxiety. The findings contribute to an understanding of spouses' responses to patients' nonadherence to their diabetes regimen.     

Sex differences in cognitive performance and style across domains in mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)

Animal Cognition - Given that the sexes often differ in their ecological and sexual selection pressures, sex differences in cognitive properties are likely. While research on sexually dimorphic...     

Introducing the Fourth Wave of the National Congregations Study

The fourth wave of the National Congregations Study (NCS-IV) was conducted in 2018–2019 with a nationally representative sample of congregations from across the religious spectrum. The NCS-IV included a fresh cross-section of congregations generated in conjunction with the 2018 General Social Survey and a panel of congregations that participated in the third NCS wave. Data were collected via a 65-minute interview with one key informant from 1,262 congregations. The cooperation rate was 74 percent; the conservatively calculated response rate was 69 percent. Information was gathered about multiple aspects of congregations’ social composition, structure, activities, leadership, and programming. Approximately two-thirds of the NCS-IV questionnaire replicates items from previous NCS waves. This introduction to the NCS-IV symposium describes NCS-IV methodology and special features of the new data. The three symposium articles present NCS-IV results about congregations’ political activities, racial and ethnic composition, and worship practices.     

A comparison of stimulus set size on tact training for children with autism spectrum disorder

Previous studies on skill acquisition have taught targets in stimulus sets composed of different numbers of stimuli. Although the rationale for selection of a stimulus set size is not clear, the number of target stimuli trained within a set is a treatment decision for which there is limited empirical support. The current investigation compared the efficiency of tact training in 4 stimulus set sizes, each of which included 12 stimuli grouped into (a) 4 sets of 3 stimuli, (b) 3 sets of 4 stimuli, (c) 2 sets of 6 stimuli, and (d) 1 set of 12 stimuli. Results of all 4 participants with autism spectrum disorder show tact training with larger (i.e., 6 and 12) stimulus set sizes was more efficient than training with smaller (i.e., 3 and 4) stimulus set sizes.     

Professional Development in Social Justice: Analysis of American Counseling Association Conference Programming

This study was designed as a content analysis of 2012–2017 American Counseling Association conference sessions to examine how social justice was presented. Four findings emerged from the qualitative content analysis: (a) rates of social justice sessions varied over time; (b) there were more multicultural sessions than social justice sessions; (c) populations that were addressed least often and most often were identified; and (d) there was a decline in the number of social justice content sessions. Implications are presented.     

The test-taking expectations scale: Psychometric properties and relations with test anxiety

The present research examined the psychometric properties of the Test-Taking Expectations Scale (TTES), an individual difference measure of unrealistic test-taking expectations. The present research also examined the relations among a revised measure and (a) Sarason's (1984) multi-component test-anxiety measure, (b) academic performance as indexed by actual course grades, and (c) verbal ability as indexed by scores on a vocabulary measure. Reliability and factor analyses employing initial and cross-validation samples revealed that four TTES items have low item-total correlations. The revised TTES, compared to the original measure, was found to be internally consistent, more factorially ‘pure’, and strongly correlated with test anxiety, particularly with tension and worry components. Although the revised TTES did not correlate significantly with measures of academic performance and vocabulary ability, regression analyses showed that the test anxiety and vocabulary measures did predict actual academic performance.     

Violence against women: Mental health effects. Part II. Conceptualizations of posttraumatic stress

A broad range of psychological aftereffects have been noted among women who have experienced male-perpetrated violence. These symptoms vary considerably among individuals, across social contexts, and across different types of violent encounters (Coley & Beckett, 1988; Goodman, Koss, & Russo, 1992; Koss, 1988; Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980). Nevertheless, a remarkably consistent picture of the psychological sequelae of violence—particularly sexual and physical assault—emerges from the empirical and clinical literature (Koss, 1988). In this article, we use the posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis—a frame that captures many of the disparate symptoms described by researchers—as a basis for exploring several conceptual models that have been developed to explain women's responses to violence.     

Memory Performance and Socio-Economic Status

Memory ability is affected by the physical, educational and health environments. The nature of these environments, in turn, differs across people with different socio-economic status (SES). Thus, it would be expected that memory performance would vary systematically with SES. However, memory researchers have yet to examine the relationship between economic variables and memory performance. This paper reviews several literatures (medical, public health, IQ, sociological and memory) to assess the relationship—if any—of socio-economic status to memory performance. The results of the review revealed that memory performance is strongly and directly correlated with SES. However, the results were not strong enough to determine whether the extent of this relationship differs across different kinds of memory. These results suggest that memory researchers should investigate further the nature of the relationship between SES and memory performance and take account of the possible influence of SES in the design and interpretation of memory data. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.