Combining Indian and Western Spiritual Psychology: Applications to Health and Social Renewal

We introduce the topic of Indian/US collaboration in studying religion and spirituality (R/S), providing both historical and philosophical context. A fully in-depth and comprehensive study of R/S will require taking into account three potential types and sources of knowledge: (1) theoretically and intellectually oriented knowledge as exemplified by William James; (2) empirically oriented knowledge as exemplified by Gordon Allport; and (3) experience- and realization-derived knowledge based on reports from eminent spiritual figures. We sketch the distinct but mutually informative challenges of clinical and epistemic integration. We suggest several topics for future collaboration, arguing that the most comprehensive study of R/S will require combining the western attention to empirical knowledge with the Indian psychology movement’s attention to realization-derived knowledge. Suggested topics include processes of learning from spiritual exemplars and teachers; health effects from engagement in Hindu or other Indian religious practice; psychological and health effects of specific spiritual practices; the importance and influence of the focus used in meditation; the effects of japam, Ramnam, or similar repeated short prayers; how diverse spiritual practices affect mindfulness; and the nature and means of fostering skills for living in a religiously plural society.     

Sex differences and the effect of instruction on reorientation abilities by humans

This study examined whether differences in the amount of information provided to men and women, in the form of verbal instruction, influenced their encoding during a reorientation task. When a navigator needs to orient, featural (e.g., colour or texture) and geometry (e.g., metric information) are used to determine which direction to begin traveling. The current study used a spatial reorientation task to examine how men and women use featural and geometric cues and whether the content of the task’s instructions influenced how these cues were used. Participants were trained to find a target location in a rectangular room with distinctive objects situated at each corner. Once the participants were accurately locating the target, various tests manipulating the spatial information were conducted. We found both men and women encoded the featural cues, and even though the features provided reliable information, participants generally showed an encoding of geometry. However, when participants were not provided with any information about the spatial aspects of the task in the instructions, they failed to encode geometry. We also found that women used distant featural cues as landmarks when the featural cue closest to the target was removed, whereas men did not. Yet, when the two types of cues were placed in conflict, both sexes weighed featural cues more heavily than geometric cues. The content of the task instructions also influenced how cues were relied upon in this conflict situation. Our results have important implications for our understanding of how spatial cues are used for reorientation.     

Low Working Memory rather than ADHD Symptoms Predicts Poor Academic Achievement in School-Aged Children

This study examined whether working memory (WM), inattentive symptoms, and/or hyperactive/impulsive symptoms significantly contributed to academic, behavioral, and global functioning in 8-year-old children. One-hundred-sixty 8-year-old children (75.6% male), who were originally recruited as preschoolers, completed subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition, Integrated and Wechsler Individual Achievement Test–Second Edition to assess WM and academic achievement, respectively. Teachers rated children’s academic and behavioral functioning using the Vanderbilt Rating Scale. Global functioning, as rated by clinicians, was assessed by the Children’s Global Assessment Scale. Multiple linear regressions were completed to determine the extent to which WM (auditory-verbal and visual-spatial) and/or inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptom severity significantly contributed to academic, behavioral, and/or global functioning. Both auditory-verbal and visual-spatial WM but not ADHD symptom severity, significantly and independently contributed to measures of academic achievement (all p < 0.01). In contrast, both WM and inattention symptoms (p < 0.01), but not hyperactivity-impulsivity (p > 0.05) significantly contributed to teacher-ratings of academic functioning. Further, inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity (p < 0.04), but not WM (p > 0.10) were significantly associated with teacher-ratings of behavioral functioning and clinician-ratings of global functioning. Taken together, it appears that WM in children may be uniquely related to academic skills, but not necessarily to overall behavioral functioning.     

Parent and teacher effects on academic coping and classroom engagement: Testing a motivational model

Little is known about the contextual antecedents and consequences of children’s academic coping. One hundred and eighty-three-sixth grade students participated in a study that examined a process model whereby children’s perceptions of parent and teacher behaviors were associated with children’s coping strategies through children’s appraisals of failure. It also examined whether these coping strategies were then associated with students’ classroom engagement. Results revealed that parent autonomy support was indirectly associated with defensive coping through its effects on children’s appraisals of failure. There was also some support that cognitive appraisals, particularly threat appraisals were indirectly associated with child reported engagement through coping, suggesting that coping appraisals impact children’s engagement and participation in the classroom through their effects on coping behavior/strategy use. The findings underscore the importance of parent autonomy support for children’s appraisals of failure, coping, and engagement.     

How does frustration make you feel? A motivational analysis in exercise context

Not all exercisers experience the same psychological benefits. The understanding of motivational processes and their relation with emotional consequences of exercise should be considered in the context of the exercisers motivation. This was a cross-sectional study of 153 gym users (M?=?36.21 years, SD?=?8.44; 44.9% men, 55.1% women; M years exercise?=?8). Weekly attendance averaged 4.3 (SD?=?2.6) sessions per week; reported exertion intensity was 5.6 (SD?=?2.1) (scale: 0–11). The basic psychological needs (BPNs) posited by self-determination theory, motivational regulation, and emotional response to physical activity, were measured. Possible mediators of BPN-emotion relationships were analyzed. BPN satisfaction was associated with a positive emotional response to exercise which was partially mediated by the effect of autonomous regulation on positive activation and psychological well-being. Mediation models indicated that the negative effects of BPN frustration were counteracted by autonomous regulation. Exercise professionals should be able to create psychologically supportive contexts and identify behaviors associated with need frustration so as to enhance emotional responses to exercise.     

Impulsive choice and pre‐exposure to delays: iv. effects of delay‐ and immediacy‐exposure training relative to maturational changes in impulsivity

Impulsive choice describes preference for smaller, sooner rewards over larger, later rewards. Excessive delay discounting (i.e., rapid devaluation of delayed rewards) underlies some impulsive choices, and is observed in many maladaptive behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, gambling). Interventions designed to reduce delay discounting may provide therapeutic gains. One such intervention provides rats with extended training with delayed reinforcers. When compared to a group given extended training with immediate reinforcers, delay‐exposed rats make significantly fewer impulsive choices. To what extent is this difference due to delay‐exposure training shifting preference toward self‐control or immediacy‐exposure training (the putative control group) shifting preference toward impulsivity? The current study compared the effects of delay‐ and immediacy‐exposure training to a no‐training control group and evaluated within‐subject changes in impulsive choice across 51 male Wistar rats. Delay‐exposed rats made significantly fewer impulsive choices than immediacy‐exposed and control rats. Between‐group differences in impulsive choice were not observed in the latter two groups. While delay‐exposed rats showed large, significant pre‐ to posttraining reductions in impulsive choice, immediacy‐exposed and control rats showed small reductions in impulsive choice. These results suggest that extended training with delayed reinforcers reduces impulsive choice, and that extended training with immediate reinforcers does not increase impulsive choice.     

Accidents happen: Psychological empowerment as a moderator of accident involvement and its outcomes

Research in the occupational safety realm has tended to develop and test models aimed at predicting accident involvement in the workplace, with studies treating accident involvement as the starting point and examining its outcomes being more rare. In this study, we examine the relationship between accident involvement and a series of outcomes drawing upon a learned helplessness theory perspective. Specifically, we predicted that psychological empowerment would moderate the relationship between prior accident involvement and outcomes. We tested our hypotheses on a sample of 392 employees and their 66 supervisors working in an iron and steel manufacturing firm in Southern Turkey, using data collected from employees and their supervisors via four separate surveys. Results suggest that accident involvement was positively related to supervisor‐rated employee withdrawal, production deviance, and sabotage only when psychological empowerment was low. The results illustrate that workplace accidents have indirect costs in the form of higher withdrawal and maladaptive behaviors, and organizations may inoculate employees against some of these outcomes via higher psychological empowerment.     

An external review of the conclusions regarding the peak direct training module

Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge—Direct Training Module (PEAK‐DTM) is a commercially available assessment and curriculum for individuals whose language skills are not developmentally adequate. In their review of PEAK‐DTM, Reed and Luiselli (2016) analyzed the extant literature on PEAK‐DTM and concluded that it has a sound and growing body of empirical support on its efficacy, usability, and psychometric properties. Similar conclusions are mirrored in the PEAK‐DTM literature and promotional material. I review these conclusions and contend that many overrate the research that backs them. Suggestions for a more rigorous research agenda on PEAK‐DTM and its related modules are provided.