Students’ Need Satisfaction Profiles: Similarity and Change over the Course of a University Semester

Self-determination theory positions the satisfaction of students’ needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness as important determinants of various educational outcomes. In this study, we identify subpopulations of students characterized by distinct configurations of need satisfaction in the educational context, and assess the extent to which the nature of these configurations, and students’ individual profiles, remain stable over the course of a university semester. We also examine the role of perfectionism in the prediction of profile membership, and how these profiles relate to a variety of educational outcomes. A total of 521 first-year undergraduate university students completed our measures at the beginning and end of a university semester. We identified five need satisfaction profiles, which remained unchanged over the course of the study. Students characterized by higher levels of self-oriented perfectionism were more likely to be a member of a profile characterized by high levels of relatedness and global needs satisfaction associated with average levels of competence need satisfaction (“Globally Satisfied and Highly Connected” profile) relative to the other ones, and into the “Globally Satisfied” profile relative to the “Globally Dissatisfied, Highly Connected, and Competence Deficient” profile. Finally, the “Globally Dissatisfied, Highly Connected, and Competence Deficient” profile was associated with the least desirable outcomes (the lowest levels of students’ interest toward their studies, satisfaction, and attendance, and the highest levels of dropout intentions).     

From Context to Code: Information Transfer Constrains the Emergence of Graphic Codes

Humans commit information to graphic symbols for three basic reasons: as a memory aid, as a tool for thinking, and as a means of communication. Yet, despite the benefits of transmitting information graphically, we still know very little about the biases and constraints acting on the emergence of stable, powerful, and accurate graphic codes (such as writing). Using a reference game, where participants play as Messengers and Recipients, we experimentally manipulate the function of the task (communicative or non‐communicative) and investigate whether this shapes the emergence of stable, powerful, and accurate codes for both synchronous and asynchronous modes of information transfer. Only in the Dialogue condition, where Messenger and Recipient are two different persons communicating within the same time frame (i.e., synchronously), do we consistently observe the emergence of stable, powerful, and accurate graphic codes. Such codes are unnecessary for participants in Recall, where Messenger and Recipient are the same person transferring information within the same time frame, and they fail to emerge in Correspondence, where Messenger and Recipient are two different persons communicating across time frames (i.e., asynchronously). Lastly, in the Mnemonic condition, where Messenger and Recipient are the same person at different points in time, participants achieve high accuracy but with codes that are suboptimal in terms of power and stability. Our results suggest that the rarity and late arrival of stable, powerful, and accurate graphic codes in human history largely stems from strong constraints on information transfer. In particular, we suggest that these constraints limit a code's ability to reach an adequate tradeoff between information that needs to be explicitly encoded and information that needs to be inferred from context.     

Cross-validation of the very short form of the Physical Self-Inventory (PSI-VS): invariance across genders, age groups, ethnicities and weight statuses

In a recent review of various physical self-concept instruments, Marsh and Cheng (in press) noted that the very short 12-item version of the French Physical Self-Inventory (PSI-VS) represents an important contribution to applied research but that further research was needed to investigate the robustness of its psychometric properties in new and diversified samples. The present study was designed to answer these questions based on a sample of 1103 normally achieving French adolescents. The results show that the PSI-VS measurement model is quite robust and fully invariant across subgroups of students formed according to gender, weight, age and ethnicity. The results also confirm the convergent validity and scale score reliability of the PSI-VS subscales.     

Muscarinic receptors activity in the perirhinal cortex and hippocampus has differential involvement in the formation of recognition memory

In this work we probed the effects of post-trial infusions of the muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine on object recognition memory formation. Scopolamine was infused bilaterally immediately after the sample phase in the perirhinal cortex or dorsal hippocampus and animals were tested for short-term (90 min) or long-term (24 h) memory. Results showed that scopolamine impaired short-term memory when injected in either the perirhinal cortex or hippocampus. Nevertheless, scopolamine disrupted long-term memory when administrated in the perirhinal cortex but not when applied in the hippocampus. Long-term memory was unaffected when scopolamine was infused 160 min after the sample phase or 90 min before test phase. Our data indicate that short-term recognition memory requires muscarinic receptors signaling in both the perirhinal cortex and hippocampus, whereas long-term recognition memory depends on muscarinic receptors in the perirhinal cortex but not hippocampus. These results support a differential involvement of muscarinic activity in these two medial temporal lobe structures in the formation of recognition memory.     

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Older Adults

Insomnia is associated with significant morbidity and is often a persistent problem, particularly in older adults. It is important to attend to this complaint and not assume that it will remit spontaneously. In many cases, unfortunately, insomnia remains unrecognized and untreated, often because it is presumed that insomnia is an inevitable consequence of aging. Although the sleep structure naturally changes with advancing age, these changes are not necessarily associated with complaints of poor sleep, distress, or daytime consequences, while chronic insomnia clearly is. There is increasing evidence that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective for the management of chronic insomnia in the elderly and that it is of significant benefit for insomnia comorbid with medical and psychological conditions, also more prevalent in older age. The aim of this article is to familiarize clinicians working with older adults with the different components of CBT for insomnia and how to adapt the treatment to this population. A clinical case and session-by-session implementation of CBT for insomnia are described to illustrate information and guidelines provided in this article.     

Factor structure and measurement invariance of a short measure of the Big Five personality traits

The main purpose of this study is to assess the factor structure and the measurement invariance of the Mini-International Personality Item Pool (Mini-IPIP; Donnellan, Oswald, Baird, & Lucas, 2006). The Mini-IPIP is a brief instrument evaluating personality traits according to the Big Five models. Two samples were collected comprising nearly 800 participants. Confirmatory factor analyzes revealed a five-factor solution consistent with the Big Five model. Measurement invariance analyses showed that the Mini-IPIP was reasonably invariant across samples, genders and age groups. Overall, results pointed to a satisfactory factorial structure and an adequate invariance of the measure.     

Order,disorder, and the absolute: An experiment in dialogue

The first section of this dialogue is excerpted from an edited conversation between Sean Kelly and the late David Bohm, and focuses on the concepts of order, disorder, and the Absolute. The second section explores these concepts in greater depth, with Bohm maintaining the impossibility of absolute knowledge and the fundamental unintelligibility of the concept of disorder, preferring instead to speak of “orders of infinite degree” which emerge out of an “unknown ground.” Kelly responds by proposing the concept of “absolute knowing” as the cognitive process within which the concepts of order and disorder, the known and the Unknown are seen as dialectically related moments of the Absolute as complex whole. The third section is Edgar Morin's response to the preceding dialogue. He begins by outlining his views on the nature and limits of rationality, maintaining, with Bohm, the superiority of the “negative modality” of speaking about “being” or “reality.” In the second part, however, he proposes the notion of nature as “chaosmos,” which he understands as a creative “dialogic” of order, disorder, and organization.     

Depressive Symptomatology among HIV-Positive Women in the Era of HAART: A Stress and Coping Model

Objective: An enhanced stress and coping model was used to explain depression among HIV-positive women in healthcare and community settings where highly active anti-retroviral treatment (HAART) was commonplace. Method: HIV-infected women in four cities (N=978) were assessed, cross-sectionally, for mental and physical health, stress, social support, and other background factors. Results: Self-reported level of depressive symptomatology was high. Number of physical symptoms, illness intrusiveness, and perceived stress were positively associated with depressed mood, while coping self-efficacy and social support were negatively associated. Stress mediated the effect of health status on depression and coping self-efficacy mediated the effect of psychosocial resources on depression. Our enhanced stress and coping model accounted for 52% of variance in depressive symtpomatology. Conclusions: Interventions focused on improving coping self-efficacy, bolstering social supports, and decreasing stress in the lives of HIV-positive women may help to reduce the negative effects of HIV disease on mood.