Affordances in Interaction: The Case of Aikido

Our title can be read as trivially true, namely, that perceived affordances shape real-time interaction dynamics. A less trivial reading suggests that affordances themselves interact in a shared dyadic field, such that the number and quality of As and Bs affordances are dynamically coupled with bidirectional causality. In dance, martial arts, or team sports agents strategically comodulate each other's affordances while pursuing their aims. In Aikido, where agents try to break their opponents' balance, this trade-off globally approximates a zero-sum game—the better A's affordances are, the lousier B's affordances get. The agents are subject to ceaseless cross-causation in this shared field. They seek to obstruct their opponents' options while strategically enabling, augmenting, and sculpting their own by employing subtle perceptual manipulation skills, redirecting force, brinkmanship, and switching techniques opportunistically. To overcome static views, we conceptualize affordances as cascading and having fluid onsets; we also identify nested affordances in goal hierarchies and describe a spectrum of affordance functions. Ultimately, we suggest rethinking the ontology of affordances as being sensitive to dynamic engagements, hence defined relative to interpersonal emergence.     

“What Just Happened?”

The author discusses experiences in analysis during the formation of an object relationship, which can give rise to a phase of experiential “wholeness” when a particular piece of unconscious analytic work has been completed. The question of wholeness is also considered from an ontogenetic perspective. The difficulties in achieving a good object relationship are considered, including with those who have had little or no experience of a good internal object. Three stages in the formation of a good internal object relationship are proposed.     

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Father Engagement Questionnaire

While there has been increasing interest in promoting father engagement in parenting interventions for child wellbeing, both research and practice endeavors have been hindered by a lack of a measure of father engagement practices. This paper reports the development and evaluation of a comprehensive, practitioner-report measure of father engagement practices–—the Father Engagement Questionnaire (FEQ). Practitioners (N?=?589; 84.5% females; mean age?=?38.56) involved in delivering parenting interventions in Australia completed the FEQ, along with background demographics and questions regarding their own and organization’s practice. A separate sample of 28 practitioners completed the FEQ twice, with a two-week interim, to assess test–retest stability of the measure. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five factors corresponding to the measure’s five intended content areas: Confidence in Working with Fathers, Competence in Using Engagement Strategies, Perceived Effectiveness of Engagement Strategies, Frequency of Strategy Use, and Organizational Practices for Father Engagement. Each of these scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability and test–retest stability. As the five scales appear to be related but distinct, it is recommended that the FEQ is used as a multidimensional measure of father engagement. In terms of predictive validity, higher scores on the Confidence in Working with Fathers, Frequency of Strategy Use, and Organizational Practices for Father Engagement scales were associated with a higher likelihood of practitioner-reported father attendance. The results provide support for adequate psychometric properties of the FEQ as a research and clinical tool for assessing and monitoring father engagement practices.     

Reappraisal inventiveness: impact of appropriate brain activation during efforts to generate alternative appraisals on the perception of chronic stress in women*

Background and objectives: Previous research indicated that more left-lateralized prefrontal activation during cognitive reappraisal efforts was linked to a greater capacity for generating reappraisals, which is a prerequisite for the effective implementation of cognitive reappraisal in everyday life. The present study examined whether the supposedly appropriate brain activation is relevant in terms of more distal outcomes, i.e., chronic stress perception.

Design and methods: Prefrontal EEG alpha asymmetry was recorded while female participants were generating reappraisals for stressful events and was correlated with their self-reported chronic stress levels in everyday life (n?=?80).

Results: Women showing less left-lateralized brain activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during cognitive reappraisal efforts reported experiencing more stress in their daily lives. This effect was independent of self-efficacy beliefs in managing negative emotions.

Conclusion: These findings underline the practical relevance of individual differences in appropriate brain activation during emotion regulation efforts and the assumedly related basic capacity for the generation of cognitive reappraisals to the feeling of being stressed. Implications include the selection of interventions for the improvement of coping with stress in women in whom the capability for appropriate brain activation during reappraisal efforts may be impaired, e.g., due to depression or old age.     

The Development,Pilot, and Process Evaluation of a Parent Mental Health Literacy Intervention Through Community Sports Clubs

The mental health literacy of parents may be critical in facilitating positive child and adolescent mental health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to develop, pilot, and evaluate a targeted parent mental health literacy intervention through community sports clubs. Sixty six parents (M_age?=?44.86?±?5.2 years) participated in either a brief mental health literacy intervention workshop delivered through community sporting clubs (n?=?42) or a community-matched control group (n?=?24). Participants’ mental health literacy was assessed at baseline, post-intervention and at 1 month follow-up. A mixed methods process evaluation was conducted with intervention participants to determine the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. Participants in the experimental group showed greater increases in depression literacy, anxiety literacy, knowledge of help seeking options and confidence to assist an adolescent experiencing a mental health disorder, compared to those in the control group. Post-intervention changes in the experimental group were maintained at 1 month follow-up. A mixed methods process evaluation revealed that parents found the intervention content engaging, relevant to their needs, and practically useful in terms of actively supporting adolescent mental health. Findings provide evidence that a brief, targeted intervention through community sports clubs might be a particularly useful method of improving parental mental health literacy and facilitating positive youth mental health outcomes.     

Advancing Ego Development in Adulthood Through Study of the Enneagram System of Personality

A rapidly growing number of working professionals, academic communities, and businesses have applied the Enneagram personality system of nine types to enhance psychological growth in their personal and professional lives. However, there are no existing studies that measure the effects of the application of Enneagram training programs to promote ego development. This study examined if ego development took place among individuals enrolled in Enneagram training programs in the Narrative Tradition. Two groups of participants (N?=?122) were assessed using the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT) at baseline (pretest) before the training began and then again 18 months later (posttest); one of the groups participated in Enneagram Intensive training programs (n?=?73) and the other group participated in introductory Enneagram trainings (n?=?49). Data revealed an advancement in ego development among some of the participants who received at least 40–50 h of training. The findings suggest that Enneagram Intensive trainings may be beneficial for promoting psychological growth and ego development. Clinical applications and future research directions are discussed.     

The effect of self‐identity alongside perceived importance within the theory of planned behaviour

Self‐identity often predicts behavioural intentions after standard theory of planned behaviour (TPB) components are accounted for. However, it has been claimed this is due to conceptual similarity between self‐identity and perceived importance of the behaviour. We examined this claim within the context of recycling food waste. Participants (N = 113) completed questionnaires assessing intentions, attitude, perceived behavioural control, perceived norms, perceived importance, self‐identity, and past behaviour. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that self‐identity and perceived importance were distinct constructs. Further, after accounting for TPB components and perceived importance, self‐identity explained a significant amount of additional variance in intentions. The present findings therefore do not support this particular argument against the predictive utility of self‐identity.     

Eight-Year Latent Class Trajectories of Academic and Social Functioning in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

We examined trajectories of academic and social functioning in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to identify those who might be at risk for especially severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. We estimated a series of growth mixture models using data from two subsamples of children participating in the NIMH Collaborative Multisite Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) including those with at least baseline and 96-month data for reading and mathematics achievement (n = 392; 77.3% male; M age = 7.7; SD = 0.8) or social skills ratings from teachers (n = 259; 74.9% male; M age = 7.6; SD = 0.8). We compared latent trajectories for children with ADHD to mean observed trajectories obtained from a local normative (i.e., non-ADHD) comparison group (n = 289; 80.6% male; M age = 9.9; SD = 1.1). Results indicated six latent trajectory classes for reading and mathematics and four classes for teacher social skills ratings. There was not only a relationship between trajectories of inattention symptoms and academic impairment, but also a similarly strong association between trajectory classes of hyperactive-impulsive symptoms and achievement. Trajectory class membership correlated with socio-demographic and diagnostic characteristics, inattention and hyperactive-impulsive symptom trajectories, externalizing behavior in school, and treatment receipt and dosage. Although children with ADHD display substantial heterogeneity in their reading, math, and social skills growth trajectories, those with behavioral and socio-demographic disadvantages are especially likely to display severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. Evidence-based early screening and intervention that directly address academic and social impairments in elementary school-aged children with ADHD are warranted. The ClinicalTrials.gov identifier is NCT00000388.     

Education as hospitality: welcoming foreigners into a common world

ABSTRACT

The present article aims at examining the specific difficulties that the school form – the modern educational institution par excellence – faces in order to attain hospitality as the raison d'être of the educational process. Educational activity is here understood as a form of hospitality which involves caring for the newcomers and for the physical and symbolic place into which they arrive. A cinematographical narrative drawn from Bégaudeau’s Entre les Murs supplements this analysis of some of the challenges we are faced with when dealing with students from different national backgrounds, beliefs and forms of life.