Determining whether attentional control settings are inclusive or exclusive

The aim of the present study was to determine whether attentional control settings operate with an inclusive rule (orient attention to stimuli that share a task-relevant feature with the target) or an exclusive rule (do not orient attention to stimuli that do not share a task-relevant feature with the target). All three experiments used a variation of the Folk and Remington (e.g., Folk, Remington, & Johnston, 1992) paradigm. In Experiment 1, cuing effects were found for combination cues (cues containing an onset feature and a color feature) with both onset and color targets. Experiment 2, using a delay between cue and target, revealed inhibition of return (IOR) for combination cues with onset and color targets. Unexpectedly, IOR was also found for onset cues with color targets, and this finding was confirmed in Experiment 3. These findings indicate that attentional control settings use an inclusive rule. Moreover, the presence of IOR with onset cues and color targets suggests that onset cues may automatically capture attention, but attention control settings allow for rapid disengagement when the onset cue does not contain a task-relevant feature.     

Constructive Development and Career Transition: Implications for Counseling

The ability to effectively manage career transition may be related to an individual's meaning-making framework, or constructive development. The implications of constructive developmental theory for career choice and implementation are explored. The interplay between career transition and developmental transformation is examined, and counseling strategies for assisting such transformation are proposed. Case illustrations are offered.     

Critical incidents for psychology students in a refugee camp: Implications for counselling

Malawi is host to over one million refugees from the Mozambican war. Although there are no recognized positions for professional counsellors in Malawi, the need for counselling war affected refugees has been recognized. The experience of two psychology students who worked with war affected children is investigated, using the technique of Critical Incidents Analysis. Key characteristics of this work are identified as a means to creating a training curriculum to prepare students for future placement in refugee camps.     

Gender differences over time in medical school stressors,anxiety, and the sense of coherence

Gender differences in the perception of medical school stressors, trait anxiety, and the sense of coherence were investigated in a longitudinal study in an Israeli medical school. The overall stressor score increased for both sexes from orientation to the second year of studies. The increase in the stressor score among women was due primarily to their increasing concern about professional status issues; for men, the academic demands factor contributed most to their increased overall stressor score. Trait anxiety increased and the sense of coherence decreased over time for both sexes. The gender difference in anxiety was significant in the first two stages, but disappeared in the third stage, indicating that although men had lower scores at all stages, their scores increased relatively more than women's over time. The findings suggest that the stressors of medical education have a negative effect on two personality resources needed to deal with life's demands.     

Youth Life Satisfaction: A Review of the Literature

A central construct within the positive psychology literature is life satisfaction. Whereas adult life satisfaction has been studied extensively, the life satisfaction of children and adolescents has only received attention more recently. This article provides a review of the extant research on youth life satisfaction. Empirical studies (n = 141) on life satisfaction among youth are reviewed. The review details how life satisfaction among youth relates to various other important emotional, social, and behavioural constructs. Evidenced by the review are the conditions that foster positive life satisfaction and the implications of positive life satisfaction among youth. Future directions in life satisfaction research among youth are briefly discussed.     

Correction to: Age-related differences in the attentional white bear

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - This article was originally published with errors in the graphs. It has been republished with corrections.     

Patterns, correlates, and barriers to medication adherence among persons prescribed new treatments for HIV disease.

New treatments for HIV can improve immune functioning and decrease mortality. However, lapses in adherence may render these complex regimens ineffective. Sixty-three men and 9 women on highly active antiretroviral therapy completed measures of medication adherence, psychological characteristics, and barriers to adherence. HIV viral load, a health outcome measure of virus amount present in blood, was also obtained. The sample was 36% African American and 56% Caucasian, with 35% reporting disability. Nearly one third of patients had missed medication doses in the past 5 days, and 18% had missed doses weekly over the past 3 months. Frequency of missed doses was strongly related to detectable HIV viral loads. Depression, side-effect severity, self-efficacy, and social support distinguished patients with good and poor adherence. Barriers also varied with adherence level. Implications for interventions promoting HIV treatment adherence are discussed.     

Network structure reveals clusters of associations between childhood adversities and development outcomes

Exposure to childhood adversity is common and associated with a host of negative developmental outcomes. The most common approach used to examine the consequences of adversity exposure is a cumulative risk model. Recently, we have proposed a novel approach, the dimensional model of adversity and psychopathology (DMAP), where different dimensions of adversity are hypothesized to impact health and well‐being through different pathways. We expect deprivation to primarily disrupt cognitive processing, whereas we expect threat to primarily alter emotional reactivity and automatic regulation. Recent hypothesis‐driven approaches provide support for these differential associations of deprivation and threat on developmental outcomes. However, it is not clear whether these patterns would emerge using data‐driven approaches. Here we use a network analytic approach to identify clusters of related adversity exposures and outcomes in an initial study (Study 1: N = 277 adolescents aged 16–17 years; 55.1% female) and a replication (Study 2: N = 262 children aged 8–16 years; 45.4% female). We statistically compare our observed clusters with our hypothesized DMAP model and a clustering we hypothesize would be the result of a cumulative stress model. In both samples we observed a network structure consistent with the DMAP model and statistically different than the hypothesized cumulative stress model. Future work seeking to identify in the pathways through which adversity impacts development should consider multiple dimensions of adversity.     

Trait anxiety,sense of coherence and medical school stressors: Observations at three stages

Abstract

Changes in personality characteristics during young adulthood were evaluated in a three-stage study of perceptions of stressors, trait anxiety and sense of coherence among students in a six-year medical school. Data were collected during the orientation program prior to the beginning of the first year of studies, and in the middle of the first and second years.

No differences on perceptions of stressors, anxiety and sense of coherence were found between different classes tested during the same stage in their medical school careers. Changes in these variables were found, however, over the stages. Overall stressor scores increased significantly in the second year (third stage), due primarily to students' assessments of two clusters of stressors as more threatening: academic demands and professional status. Only certain groups of stressors correlated with anxiety and sense of coherence. Anxiety scores increased and sense of coherence scores decreased over time. These results indicate that exposure to a stressful environment during young adulthood, such as the early years of medical school, is manifested in significant personality changes.