Researching a client's experience of preconceptions of therapy - A discourse analysis

This paper uses discourse analysis to look at clients' preconceptions of therapy, through the presentation of a case study. Further findings suggest that discourse analysis may be a useful approach to helping psychotherapists and counsellors as part of their practice.     

Reward improves cancellation and restraint inhibition across childhood and adolescence

Inhibitory control allows for the regulation of thought and action and interacts with motivational variables, such as reward, to modify behavior adaptively as environments change. The authors examined the effects of reward on two distinct forms of inhibitory control, cancellation and restraint. Typically developing children and adolescents completed 2 versions of the stop signal task (cancellation and restraint) under 3 reward conditions (neutral, low reward, and high reward), where rewards were earned for successful inhibitory control. Rewards improved both cancellation and restraint inhibition, with similar effects of reward on each form of inhibitory control. Rewards did not alter the speed of response execution in either task, suggesting that rewards specifically altered inhibition processes without influencing processes related to response execution. Adolescents were faster and less variable than children when executing and inhibiting their responses. There were similar developmental effects of reward on the speed of inhibitory control, but group differences were found in terms of accuracy of inhibition in the restraint task. These results clarify how reward modulates two different forms of regulatory behavior in children and adolescents.     

Secondary migration and relocation among African refugee families in the United States

The purpose of this study was to understand the secondary migration and relocation of African refugees resettled in the United States. Secondary migration refers to moves out of state, while relocation refers to moves within state. Of 73 recently resettled refugee families from Burundi and Liberia followed for 1 year through ethnographic interviews and observations, 13 instances of secondary migration and 9 instances of relocation were identified. A family ecodevelopmental framework was applied to address: Who moved again, why, and with what consequences? How did moving again impact family risk and protective factors? How might policies, researchers, and practitioners better manage refugees moving again? Findings indicated that families undertook secondary migration principally for employment, affordable housing, family reunification, and to feel more at home. Families relocated primarily for affordable housing. Parents reported that secondary migration and relocation enhanced family stability. Youth reported disruption to both schooling and attachments with peers and community. In conclusion, secondary migration and relocation were family efforts to enhance family and community protective resources and to mitigate shortcomings in resettlement conditions. Policymakers could provide newly resettled refugees jobs, better housing and family reunification. Practitioners could devise ways to better engage and support those families who consider moving.     

Associations of coping and appraisal styles with emotion regulation during preadolescence

We investigated the associations of appraisal and coping styles with emotion regulation in a community sample of preadolescents (N = 196, 9-12 years of age), with appraisal, coping styles, and emotion regulation measured at a single time point. In a previous study, we identified five frustration and four anxiety emotion regulation profiles based on children’s physiological, behavioral, and self-reported reactions to emotion-eliciting tasks. In this study, preadolescents’ self-reported appraisal and coping styles were associated with those emotion regulation profiles. Overall, findings revealed that children who were more effective at regulating their emotions during the emotion-eliciting tasks had higher levels of positive appraisal and active coping when dealing with their own problems. Conversely, children who regulated their emotions less effectively had higher levels of threat appraisal and avoidant coping.     

Endurantist and perdurantist accounts of persistence

In this paper, I focus on three issues intertwined in current debates between endurantists and perdurantists—(i) the dimension of persisting objects, (ii) whether persisting objects have timeless, or only time-relative, parts, and (iii) whether persisting objects have proper temporal parts. I argue that one standard endurantist position on the first issue is compatible with standard perdurantist positions on parthood and temporal parts. I further argue that different accounts of persistence depend on the claims about objects’ dimensions and not on the auxiliary claims about parthood and temporal parts.     

Patterns in parent–child conversations about animals at a marine science center

Parent-child conversations are a potential source of children's developing understanding of the biological domain. We investigated patterns in parent-child conversations that may inform children about biological domain boundaries. At a marine science center exhibit, we compared parent-child talk about typical sea animals with faces (fish) with talk about atypical sea animals without faces (e.g., sea stars), in particular with respect to anthropomorphic talk and use of animate pronouns. Parents talked about psychological states and used animate pronouns more often for typical than atypical animals; children showed a similar pattern for pronouns but did not differ in their property talk between typical and atypical animals. It was clearly parents who initiated the use of psychological properties and animate pronouns for typical animals. These patterns suggest that parent-child conversations draw boundaries between typical and atypical animals and could support children's inclination to anthropomorphize.     

Knowing your face: A componential analysis of self-perceived facial attractiveness

Facial attractiveness (FA) is a highly agreed upon and socially important characteristic, but contemporary research has not fully investigated individuals’ enhancement of their FA. We used the social relations model (SRM) to analyze data from 187 participants. In face-to-face groups of four, participants rated their own and others’ FA. We assessed the degree of FA enhancement using unconfounded measures of both self-insight and social comparison. Results indicated African Americans and men enhanced more than Caucasians and women. Race effects were mediated by psychological adjustment, while gender effects were related to meta-perceptions. Men tended to view themselves through a “frog prince” lens, such that they accurately predicted others’ lesser views of them but persisted in overly positive self-perceptions of FA. Findings suggest further consideration of SRM measures, meta-perceptions, and a focus on sample diversity in the study of self-enhancement.     

Increasing the probability of finding an interaction in work stress research: A two‐wave longitudinal test of the triple‐match principle

Research into work stress has attempted to identify job resources that can moderate the effects of job demands on strain. The recently developed triple‐match principle (TMP) proposes that job demands, resources, and strain can be conceptualized as being composed of cognitive, emotional, and physical dimensions. When a psychological imbalance is induced by job demands, individuals activate corresponding resources to reduce the effects of the demands. A closer match occurs when the resources are processed in the same psychological domain as the demands. The further away from a match, the less likely an interactive effect will become. Put simply, the likelihood of finding an interactive effect between job demands and job resources is greatest when demands, resources, and strain are based on qualitatively similar dimensions (i.e. cognitive, emotional, and physical). For example, emotional support from colleagues is likely to buffer the effects of emotional demands on emotional exhaustion. The TMP was tested in a sample of 179 Australian police officers in a two‐wave longitudinal study. The likelihood of finding an interactive effect was related to the degree of match between job demands, job resources, and strain with 33.3% of triple‐match interactions significant, 22.2% when there was a double‐match, and 0.0% when there was no match. These findings lend support to the TMP as a guiding framework, for research, to explore possible interactive effects in work stress research, and for practice, to inform interventions matching resources to occupational demands, to offset strain.     

Exploring urban students' constructions about school, work, race, and ethnicity

This qualitative study is an exploration of 32 urban high school students' narratives about the connection between school, work, and societal expectations of their future success related to their racial and ethnic background. The sample varied along 2 contextual dimensions: participation in a psychoeducational intervention (Tools for Tomorrow) and developmental status (i.e., half the sample were 9th-grade students and the other half were 12th-grade students). Using consensual qualitative research, the narratives revealed 3 major domains: future orientation; students' perceptions of society's expectations based on race and ethnicity; and students' perception of the role of their race and ethnicity in future success. Results reveal that the majority of students endorse a connection between school and work, believe that society holds low expectations for them based on their racial and ethnic background, and cannot predict their future success based on their background.