The Roles of Social Media Use and Friendship Quality in Adolescents’ Internalizing Problems and Well-being

Journal of Happiness Studies - Adolescents spend increasing amounts of time using social media, but whether social media use has a beneficial or harmful role in internalizing problems and...     

Imams in Flanders: A Research Note

This paper presents the results of an exploratory, mixed-method study on imams in Flanders. The research question was mainly who are they?, in an attempt to draw the first picture of their socio-demographic background, ethnicity, functions, and expectations with respect to their position in Flanders, or in Belgium more broadly speaking. The first three sections give context information about Muslims, Islam, and mosques in Belgium and Flanders. In the next sections, the research design and the results are presented. This presentation focuses on four issues: imams as immigrants; their tasks and workload; their job situation and attitude towards official recognition and payment; and finally their ambiguous attitudes towards government initiatives. We give also some reflections in dialogue with research on imams in other Western European countries. The conclusion discusses the challenges for imams and the government to become real partners within the further integration process of the Muslim community in Flanders and Belgium.     

Object-based and egocentric mental rotation performance in older adults: The importance of gender differences and motor ability

In this study, mental rotation performance was assessed in both an object-based task, human figures and letters as stimuli, and in an egocentric-based task, a human figure as a stimulus, in 60 older persons between 60 and 71 years old (30 women, 30 men). Additionally all participants completed three motor tests measuring balance and mobility. The results show that the reaction time was slower for letters than for both human figure tasks and the mental rotation speed was faster over all for egocentric mental rotation tasks. Gender differences were found in the accuracy measurement, favoring males, and were independent of stimulus type, kind of transformation, and angular disparity. Furthermore, a regression analysis showed that the accuracy rate for object-based transformations with body stimuli could be predicted by gender and balance ability. This study showed that the mental rotation performance in older adults depends on stimulus type, kind of transformation, and gender and that performance partially relates to motor ability.     

Midlife Women's Negotiations of Barriers to and Facilitators of Physical Activity: Implications for Counselors

The authors investigated barriers to exercise and facilitators that enable midlife women to engage in an active lifestyle. Findings provide counselors with insight into the meanings that women ascribe to physical activity so they can better assist clients in making choices that enhance their overall health and wellness.     

The role of subjective theories for leadership evaluation

This study reviews prior construct-related validity research in assessment centres. Special focus is placed on disentangling possible explanations for the construct-related validity findings. The conclusion is that we now have a much better picture of the reasons behind the construct-related validity findings. Careful assessment centre design and high interrater reliability among assessors seem necessary albeit insufficient conditions to establish assessment centre construct-related validity. The nature of candidate performances is another key factor. This study next discusses how these empirical findings have changed how assessment centres are conceptualized (theoretical advancements framed in the application of trait activation theory), analysed (methodological advancements), and designed (practical advancements).     

Infants' mu suppression during the observation of real and mimicked goal‐directed actions

Since their discovery in the early 1990s, mirror neurons have been proposed to be related to many social‐communicative abilities, such as imitation. However, research into the early manifestations of the putative neural mirroring system and its role in early social development is still inconclusive. In the current EEG study, mu suppression, generally thought to reflect activity in neural mirroring systems was investigated in 18‐ to 30‐month‐olds during the observation of object manipulations as well as mimicked actions. EEG power data recorded from frontal, central, and parietal electrodes were analysed. As predicted, based on previous research, mu wave suppression was found over central electrodes during action observation and execution. In addition, a similar suppression was found during the observation of intransitive, mimicked hand movements. To a lesser extent, the results also showed mu suppression at parietal electrode sites, over all three conditions. Mu wave suppression during the observation of hand movements and during the execution of actions was significantly correlated with quality of imitation, but not with age or language level.     

Decomposing retrieval and integration in memory for actions: A multinomial modeling approach

Typically, action phrases are recalled better if participants are asked to enact the phrases than if they are just asked to remember them. When investigating which processes constitute this enactment effect a difficulty is that observable effects in standard memory tests are ambiguous because such tests require several processes. In the present article, we introduce a multinomial model that decomposes observable memory performance into a retrieval parameter and a parameter concerning the item-specific processing and integration of an action phrase. These parameters are estimated from free recall and cued recall performance. The model fitted the data of two experiments designed to test it. Experiment 1 demonstrated the basic usefulness of the model by showing expected differences in the integration parameter in the absence of unexpected differences in the retrieval parameter. Experiment 2 extended the conditions under which the model is useful by showing expected differences in the retrieval parameter even in the presence of unexpected differences in the integration parameter. Together, these findings support our theoretical framework according to which enactment generally boosts integration of action phrases, but increases retrieval only for phrases with context cues.     

Differential recall of central and peripheral details of emotional slides is not a stable phenomenon

A number of studies have reported that central information of an emotional scene is well retained, whereas peripheral details of such a scene are poorly recalled. Experiment 1 tested the hypothesis that attentional narrowing is responsible for this phenomenon. In addition, an attempt was made to increase the ecological validity of the experiment by giving extensive self-relevant instructions. Results showed that, although an emotional slide elicited eye-movements consistent with attentional narrowing, the corresponding recall patterns were absent. Experiments 2 and 3 explored some of the variables that might be responsible for the latter result. Experiment 2, relying on the original design of Christianson and E.F. Loftus (1991), found enhanced recall of central information of an emotional scene. Experiment 3 systematically varied stimulus exposure and interstimulus interval durations. However, the results of this experiment were rather complex and did not fully support the predicted differential recall patterns. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed. It is suggested that other methods (e.g. increasing levels of emotion rather than involvement) may be more suitable for testing the attentional narrowing hypothesis of emotional memory.     

Diagnosespezifische Strukturdefizite

Central to this work are the axes structure and treatment requirements of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostic in Childhood and Adolescence (OPD-CA), which were studied on a sample of n?=?195 inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric patients [mean age (M)?=?12.9 years, SD±10.1 years] in Austria. The study shows the overall poorer structure of male patients in all structural dimensions and the better treatment requirements of older compared to younger patients. Structural deficits not only affect the capacity for insight and motivation for treatment and the working alliance, but also the possible presence of morbid gain. In the diagnosis-specific analysis it was shown that patients diagnosed as F6 were understructured in emotional control, while patients with a diagnosis F9 have more structural deficits in the self-object differentiation. Patients with F3 and F4 diagnosis have better structural capacities for treatment, but their higher degree of insight and motivation for treatment is counterbalanced by an equally high gain of illness. The implications of these findings for treatment planning are discussed.