Revealing the invisible hand: The role of teachers in children's peer experiences

To introduce this special issue, the concept of the teacher as an “invisible hand” is presented as a metaphor to describe the potentially influential but relatively understudied contribution that educators are likely to have on children’s peer relationships and their broader interpersonal growth. Building from conceptual work distinguishing between the role of adults and peers in children’s social development, we summarize empirical support for the view that teachers are in a position to develop and guide the classroom as a society by simultaneously directing institutional expectations while also providing students with opportunities to collectively construct their own peer culture. Key social development constructs are reviewed from this lens, and the four articles and two commentaries that constitute this special issue are discussed in relation to their contributions to clarifying and extending current views of the role of teachers in school social dynamics. We conclude by considering intervention implications of this work, and we argue that teachers are the one professional in a child’s life who have the opportunity to view the whole child in relation to the social ecology in which he or she is embedded.     

Factor Structure of the PTSD Checklist in a Sample of OEF/OIF Veterans Presenting to Primary Care: Specific and Nonspecific Aspects of Dysphoria

Although DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include three primary symptom clusters, recent evidence from confirmatory factor analyses suggest that the latent structure of PTSD is better represented by four factors, which will likely be reflected in the upcoming DSM-5. Given this likely transition from three to four clusters, the present study sought to examine specific and non-specific aspects of dysphoria in the factor structure of PTSD symptoms in a sample of OEF/OIF combat veterans presenting to a Veterans Affairs primary care clinic. PTSD symptoms were assessed using the PCL-M (Weathers et al. 1993). Results from confirmatory factor analyses suggested that a dysphoria factor involving a number of non-specific distress symptoms may be an important part of the PTSD symptom profile. After controlling for variance due to general psychological distress, we further found that factor loadings on the dysphoria factor were attenuated but continued to significantly load onto the factor, suggesting that dysphoria may be a specific part of the PTSD symptom constellation.     

REBT: Past,Present, and Future

After a walk down memory lane, I take a tour through Ellis’s shifts in philosophy, plus shifts in self theory, and concepts of value. I contrast them all as an appeal to authority compared to pragmatism. The changes in Ellis’s thinking seemed to me more a tribute to Ellis’s diversity and his monumental contribution to psychotherapy than his refusal to be pinned down to core concepts.     

The Ecology of Teachers’ Experiences with Violence and Lack of Administrative Support

Teacher‐directed violence is a common, yet understudied, phenomenon. Perpetrators of violence against teachers include not just students, but also administrators, parents, and colleagues. Administrators are key stakeholders when it comes to shaping school climate and safety that can reduce or increase the negative impact of violence against teachers. In this study, 237 teachers’ qualitative responses from a larger sample of 2,431 anonymous, online survey responses were examined to better understand their experiences with incidents of violence and how administrators played a role in these experiences. Results reveal that lack of administrator support negatively impacts teachers at multiple levels, including teachers’ feelings (individual); challenges associated with addressing issues related to students, parents, and other perpetrators (interpersonal); and school systems and policies (organizational). This study highlights the importance of administrative support and illustrates how administrators’ actions and inactions can have ripple effects at each level of the school microcosm. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.     

Measurement of Religiosity/Spirituality in Adolescent Health Outcomes Research: Trends and Recommendations

The relationship between religious/spiritual (R/S) factors and adolescent health outcomes has been studied for decades; however, the R/S measurement tools used may not be developmentally relevant for adolescents. A systematic literature review was conducted to review and evaluate trends in measuring R/S in adolescent health outcomes research. In this review a total of 100 articles met criteria for inclusion. Relatively few (n = 15) included adolescent-specific R/S measures or items accounting for developmentally relevant issues such as parental religiosity or age-appropriate language. Future R/S and health research with adolescents would be strengthened by incorporating developmentally relevant R/S measurement tools, psychometrics, and multidimensional measures.     

“We” are familiar but “It” is not: Ingroup pronouns trigger feelings of familiarity

The notion that language can shape social perception has a long history in psychology. The current work adds to this literature by investigating the relationship between ingroup-designating pronouns and perceptions of familiarity. In two experiments, participants were exposed to nonsense syllables that were primed with ingroup (e.g., we) and control (e.g., it) pronouns before perceptions of the syllables’ familiarity (Experiments 1 and 2) and positivity (Experiment 2) were assessed. Because previous work has shown that ingroup pronouns are perceived positively (Perdue, Dovidio, Gurtman, & Tyler, 1990), and that positivity can trigger familiarity (e.g., [Garcia-Marques et al., 2004] and [Monin, 2003]), we predicted that syllables primed with ingroup-designating pronouns would be perceived as more familiar and positive than would syllables primed with control pronouns. These predictions were confirmed. Additionally, Experiment 2 provided suggestive evidence that the effect of ingroup pronouns on perceived familiarity is mediated by positivity. Implications of these results for the literatures on how language shapes intergroup biases and on how positivity triggers feelings of familiarity are discussed.     

The Tyranny of the Enfranchised Majority? The Accountability of States to their Non-Citizen Population

The debate between legal constitutionalists and critics of constitutional rights and judicial review is an old and lively one. While the protection of minorities is a pivotal aspect of this debate, the protection of disenfranchised minorities has received little attention. Policy-focused discussion—of the merits of the Human Rights Act in Britain for example—often cites protection of non-citizen migrants, but the philosophical debate does not. Non-citizen residents or ‘denizens’ therefore provide an interesting test case for the theory of rights as trumps on ordinary representative politics. Are they the ultimate success story of the human rights framework? Or was Michael Walzer correct to describe government of denizens by citizens as a modern form of ‘tyranny’? This paper argues that neither liberal rights theorists nor democratic republicans provide a coherent response to the existence of denizens. Liberal rights theorists overstate the extent to which a politically powerless status can secure individual rights, while democratic republicans idealise the political process and wrongly assume that all those affected by laws are eligible for political participation. The paper outlines an alternative model for assessing the accountability of states to their non-citizen population, informed by the republican ideal of non-domination. It identifies gaps in state accountability to denizens–such as where there is inadequate diplomatic protection—and argues that these gaps are particularly troubling if their exit costs of leaving the state are high.     

Career counseling: applying the systems theory framework of career development

In recent years, career development and career counseling have increasingly been informed by concepts emanating from the constructivist worldview. For example, the Systems Theory Framework (STF; M. McMahon, 2002; M. McMahon & W. Patton, 1995; W. Patton & M. McMahon, 1997, 1999) of career development has been proposed as a metatheoretical account of career development. Furthermore, its theoretical constructs may be applied to career counseling. Thus, the STF provides a theoretical and practical consistency to career counseling and addresses concerns about a gulf between career theory and practice. This article discusses the practical application of the STF of career development as a guide to career counseling.