Physical framework for a counselling environment in India: Thematic analysis of counsellors' perceptions

The influence of the physical environment on the counselling process is an inevitable part of a counselling session. However, there is little insight in Indian research into the desirable elements of the physical environment of the counselling room that helps facilitate a counselling session. Interviews were conducted with 10 professional counsellors in India. Thematic analysis of the data brought out various Basic and Organising themes under the following three Global themes: (a) Elements of the physical framework; (b) Counsellor's perspectives about the physical framework in counselling; and (c) Motivation to build a framework. The findings show how counsellors can systematise the physical framework to help construct the counselling session effectively.     

Mindfulness and social identity: Predicting well-being in a high-stress environment

Social identity processes and mindfulness are two important predictors of well-being. Yet, to date, these predictors have been studied independently, within separate research fields. This paper aims to provide an initial integration of these two research fields. Our research was conducted in a context characterized by multiple chronic stressors: A maximum security prison in Kenya. In particular, two studies measured social identification with a mindfulness group and dispositional mindfulness. We investigated the effects of these constructs on three well-being measures: mental well-being, resilience (Studies 1 & 2), and reduction of substance use (Study 2). Our results, replicated across two studies (Study 1: N = 82, Study 2: N = 145), revealed that both social identification with the mindfulness group and mindfulness predicted psychological outcomes. Social identification explained variance in mental well-being and resilience in addition to the variance explained by mindfulness. Study 2 additionally showed that both identification and mindfulness were positively related to a reduction in substance use. However, when examined together, social identification held all the explanatory power, and mindfulness was no longer a significant predictor. From the overall results, we argue that social identity processes can be fruitfully combined with mindfulness in well-being programs delivered in high-stress environments such as prisons. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Being In Front Is Good—But Where Is In Front? Preferences for Spatial Referencing Affect Evaluation

Speakers of English frequently associate location in space with valence, as in moving up and down the “social ladder.” If such an association also holds for the sagittal axis, an object “in front of” another object would be evaluated more positively than the one “behind.” Yet how people conceptualize relative locations depends on which frame of reference (FoR) they adopt—and hence on cross-linguistically diverging preferences. What is conceptualized as “in front” in one variant of the relative FoR (e.g., translation) is “behind” under another variant (reflection), and vice versa. Do such diverging conceptualizations of an object's location also lead to diverging evaluations? In two studies employing an implicit association test, we demonstrate, first, that speakers of German, Chinese, and Japanese indeed evaluate the object “in front of” another object more positively than the one “behind.” Second, and crucially, the reversal of which object is conceptualized as “in front” involves a corresponding reversal of valence, suggesting an impact of linguistically imparted FoR preferences on evaluative processes.     

Distractor interference during smooth pursuit eye movements

When 2 targets for pursuit eye movements move in different directions, the eye velocity follows the vector average (S. G. Lisberger & V. P. Ferrera, 1997). The present study investigates the mechanisms of target selection when observers are instructed to follow a predefined horizontal target and to ignore a moving distractor stimulus. Results show that at 140 ms after distractor onset, horizontal eye velocity is decreased by about 25%. Vertical eye velocity increases or decreases by 1 degrees /s in the direction opposite from the distractor. This deviation varies in size with distractor direction, velocity, and contrast. The effect was present during the initiation and steady-state tracking phase of pursuit but only when the observer had prior information about target motion. Neither vector averaging nor winner-take-all models could predict the response to a moving to-be-ignored distractor during steady-state tracking of a predefined target. The contributions of perceptual mislocalization and spatial attention to the vertical deviation in pursuit are discussed.     

Lexical representations of written nouns and verbs in Italian

This study investigates the differences in the input representations of verbs and nouns in the Italian mental lexicon. One visual lexical decision experiment in which the stem homograph effect (Laudanna, Badecker, and Caramazza, 1989) was evaluated on noun and verb targets is reported. Strong inhibitory effects on verb targets preceded by stem homographs relative to nonhomographic word pairs were found. The effects on verb targets were also much more reliable than the effects on noun targets. The pattern of results provides support for the hypothesis that noun and verbs are differently represented in the orthographic input lexicon.     

Can Temperament Identify Affectively Ill Patients Who Engage in Lethal or Near‐Lethal Suicidal Behavior? A 14‐Year Prospective Study

Among affectively ill patients followed naturalistically for up to 14 years, 36 committed suicide, 120 attempted suicide, and 373 had no recorded suicide attempt. Comparing these three groups on clinical and intake personality revealed that suicide completed within 12 months was predicted by clinical but not personality variables, and suicide beyond 12 months was predicted by newly derived temperament factors, not clinical variables. Attempters and completers shared core characteristics: previous attempts, impulsivity, substance abuse, and psychic turmoil within a cycling/mixed bipolar disorder. Such temperament attributes as impulsivity and assertiveness were the best prospective predictors of completed suicides beyond 12 months with a sensitivity level of 74% and specificity level of 82%.     

The influence of overlapping response sets on task inhibition

The aim of the present study was to examine the contribution of overlapping response sets to the occurrence of task inhibition, measured as n-2 task repetition cost. We had subjects switch among four tasks. Three tasks overlapped on both stimulus set and response set. A fourth, neutral, univalent task never overlapped on the stimulus set but, across three experiments, varied in terms of the degree of overlap in the response set. We found that overlap in response set affects task inhibition. We suggest that response set overlap increases the competition among tasks and, thus, triggers task inhibition to resolve this competition.     

Business students' evaluation of their internships

An 8-item evaluation of a business internship was completed by 363 junior and senior undergraduates. Students agreed or strongly agreed that the internship met the following goals and criteria of the for-credit course: adequacy of orientation, clarity of expectations, helpfulness of supervision, adequacy of feedback, application of business education, development of new knowledge and skills beneficial to career exploration, value of the placement and recommendation of employer for other interns. The importance of outcome assessment is discussed within the context of internship programs.     

Field dependency and the sense of object-presence in haptic virtual environments.

Virtual environment (VE) users often report having a sense of being present in the virtual place or a sense that the virtual object is present in their environment. This sense of presence depends on both the technological fidelity (e.g., in graphics, haptics) and the users' cognitive/ personality characteristics. This study examined the correlation between user's cognitive style on the field-dependency dimension and the level of object-presence they reported in a haptic VE. Results indicated that field-independent individuals reported higher presence ratings compared to field-dependent participants. We hypothesize that field-independents' advantage in reorganizing the perceptual field and constructing it according to their previously acquired internal knowledge enables them to cognitively reconstruct the VE experience more efficiently by selectively attending only to the relevant cues and by filling in the gap of missing information with their previous knowledge and creative imagination. This active and creative cognitive process may be behind the enhanced sense of presence. In addition, we raise a possible linkage between field dependency, the sense of presence, and simulator sickness phenomenon.