Group‐level effects of forgiveness: Group cohesiveness and collective action in social dilemmas

Forgiveness research has predominately focused on individual/relational outcomes such as well‐being and closeness. Less research has examined group outcomes such as cohesiveness or collective action. Forgiveness studies have also emphasized the victim's or transgressor's perspective, neglecting the effects of forgiveness on ingroup members who have neither given nor received forgiveness. We theorize that forgiveness promotes collective action among ingroup members through group cohesiveness and that transgressors' apologetic reactions impact this process. In a laboratory experiment, 229 students (175 females) were led to believe they were in a social dilemma with three others. Some participants witnessed group members forgive an apologetic, obstinate, or neutral defector, whereas others witnessed an unforgiving response. Forgiveness of apologetic and neutral defectors increased later cooperation among ingroup members. This effect was generally mediated by group cohesiveness. Our findings suggest that forgiveness can impact cooperation on a group level, providing a path to successful resolutions to collective action problems. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Separation of ADHD Inattention and Hyperactivity-Impulsivity Symptoms: Pathways from Genetic Effects to Cognitive Impairments and Symptoms

Both shared and unique genetic risk factors underlie the two symptom domains of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. The developmental course and relationship to co-occurring disorders differs across the two symptom domains, highlighting the importance of their partially distinct etiologies. Familial cognitive impairment factors have been identified in ADHD, but whether they show specificity in relation to the two ADHD symptom domains remains poorly understood. We aimed to investigate whether different cognitive impairments are genetically linked to the ADHD symptom domains of inattention versus hyperactivity-impulsivity. We conducted multivariate genetic model fitting analyses on ADHD symptom scores and cognitive data, from go/no-go and fast tasks, collected on a population twin sample of 1,312 children aged 7–10. Reaction time variability (RTV) showed substantial genetic overlap with inattention, as observed in an additive genetic correlation of 0.64, compared to an additive genetic correlation of 0.31 with hyperactivity-impulsivity. Commission errors (CE) showed low additive genetic correlations with both hyperactivity-impulsivity and inattention (genetic correlations of 0.17 and 0.11, respectively). The additive genetic correlation between RTV and CE was also low and non-significant at ?0.10, consistent with the etiological separation between the two indices of cognitive impairments. Overall, two key cognitive impairments phenotypically associated with ADHD symptoms, captured by RTV and CE, showed different genetic relationships to the two ADHD symptom domains. The findings extend a previous model of two familial cognitive impairment factors in combined subtype ADHD by separating pathways underlying inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms.     

The Role of Social Toxicity in Responses to a Slowly-Evolving Environmental Disaster: The Case of Amphibole Asbestos Exposure in Libby,Montana, USA

Experiencing a disaster has significant negative effects on psychological adjustment. Case study accounts point to two consistent trends in slowly-evolving environmental disasters: (a) patterns of negative social dynamics, and (b) relatively worse psychological outcomes than in natural disasters. Researchers have begun to explicitly postulate that the social consequences of slowly-evolving environmental disasters (e.g., community conflict) have their own effects on victims’ psychological outcomes. This study tested a model of the relationship between those social consequences and psychological adjustment of victims of a slowly-evolving environmental disaster, specifically those whose health has been compromised by the amphibole asbestos disaster in Libby, MT. Results indicate that experiencing greater community conflict about the disaster was associated with greater family conflict about the disaster which, in turn, was associated with greater social constraints on talking with others about their disease, both directly and indirectly through experiencing stigmatization. Experiencing greater social constraints was associated with worse psychological adjustment, both directly and indirectly through failed social support. Findings have implications for understanding pathways by which social responses create negative effects on mental health in slowly-evolving environmental disasters. These pathways suggest points for prevention and response (e.g., social support, stigmatization of victims) for communities experiencing slowly-evolving environmental disasters.     

Reasoning About Single-Sex Schooling for Girls Among Students,Parents, and Teachers

The number of United States public schools offering single-sex education for girls has increased dramatically in the past decade. Rationales for all-girls schools are diverse and grounded in differing gender ideologies. We examined reasoning about all-girls schools among school stakeholders (i.e., individuals affected by single-sex schools, including students, parents, and teachers) in the Southwestern United States. Specifically, middle school students attending all-girls (n?=?398) and coeducational (n?=?191) schools, mothers of middle school students attending all-girls (n?=?217) and coeducational (n?=?64) schools, and teachers employed at all-girls (n?=?18) and coeducational (n?=?97) middle schools rated the veracity of multiple rationales for girls-only schools. Specifically, we examined rationales for single-sex schooling related to gender differences in learning, gender differences in interests, girls’ ingroup preference, and gender discrimination. Endorsement of rationales differed across participant role (student, parent, teacher) and school type (single-sex, coeducational). Overall, stakeholders affiliated with an all-girls school were more supportive of each rationale than stakeholders affiliated with coeducational schools. Teachers affiliated with the single-sex school strongly endorsed gender differences in learning as a rationale for single-sex schooling. Endorsement of rationales did not vary across participant gender. The implications of these findings for educational policy and the interpretation of research on single-sex schooling are discussed.     

The Emerging Role of Technology in Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy for Anxious Youth: A Review

Research documents the application of cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) with technology either as therapeutic adjuncts or stand-alone interventions. The literature evaluating the feasibility and efficacy of using technology with CBT for youth experiencing internalizing disorders is small though steadily emerging. Technological approaches offer cost-effective and efficient service to an increased number of anxious youth for whom a CBT treatment would be otherwise unavailable. The present article aims to review the use of two broad types of technology in CBT for anxious children and adolescents: computer- and internet-based CBT and mobile mental health applications (i.e., mobile phone, smartphone, and tablet technology). Within each section, we provide an overview of the advantages and general principles of each type of technology, and review evidence for the use of each type of technology along with examples of current applications. Finally, we discuss ethical issues, barriers, and future directions for the use of technology in facilitating dissemination of effective treatments.     

Ownership Status and the Representation of Assets of Uncertain Value: The Balloon Endowment Risk Task (BERT)

Owners tend to overvalue possessions relative to non‐owners: a phenomenon known as the endowment effect. In three experiments, using markets for goods of uncertain value, we investigated whether this can be partly attributed to misperceiving an asset's profitability or to uncertainty about a good's utility. To test our hypotheses, we devised the Balloon Endowment Risk Task, in which participants can sell or buy their right to participate in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. Once purchased/retained, a virtual balloon is pumped to accrue money, which is lost if the balloon bursts. Participants first learn about the risky asset (balloon) by observing others playing the Balloon Analogue Risk Task before they enter the market. In Experiment 1, we replicated the endowment effect; yet, owners and non‐owners predicted pumping the same number of times and subsequently did so when given that opportunity. In Experiments 2 and 3, the level of uncertainty about the balloon's profitability was manipulated by modifying the number of bursts that participants viewed in the initial learning stage. When more diagnostic information was provided, making the average burst point easier to estimate and reducing value uncertainty and increasing confidence in valuation, the endowment effect diminished although mean estimates of the average burst point did not differ between owners and non‐owners. Thus, endowment effects were partly attributable to value uncertainty but could not be explained by owners and non‐owners having divergent perceptions of the asset's payoff distribution. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coping with anxiety and rebuilding identity: A psychosynthesis approach to culture shock

As the number of international students continues to increase worldwide, their experience of culture shock has been well-researched. Missing, however, from the culture shock literature is the perspective of psychosynthesis psychology and its methodology to deal with the affective, behavioral, and cognitive (ABC) aspects of shock and adaptation. This article illustrates two psychosynthesis techniques that student sojourners found helpful in their acculturation process. Firstly, the self-identification exercise eased anxiety, an affective aspect of culture shock. Secondly, the subpersonality model aided students in their ability to integrate a new social identity, the cornerstone of the cognitive aspect. With a new integrated identity, students changed their behavior (the second ABC component) and new creative energies were released. These qualitative findings are supported by the testimonies of nine international student sojourners in the Netherlands who received psychosynthesis counseling. In addition, a case study demonstrates subpersonality integration and its role in helping students to come into relationship with themselves as well as others. The self-identification exercise and subpersonality model are not only effective tools for aiding sojourners in their adaptation to a host country, but viable methodologies for anyone searching to synthesize a new personal and social identity.     

Progress Toward Understanding the Structure and Determinants of Job Performance: A focus on task and citizenship performance

Job performance criterion models have become more popular and more often investigated. The current research adds to this literature by testing performance models focusing on ability and personality predictors of task and citizenship job performance. Air traffic controllers (N = 928) completed cognitive ability and personality predictor measures, were administered a performance test assessing two possible mediators, and were evaluated using supervisor and peer ratings of two task performance, one citizenship performance, and an overall performance dimension. Path analyses largely confirmed that ability predicts primarily task performance and personality predicts primarily citizenship performance. The mediation related to task knowledge and skill on the task performance side was confirmed, and the overall fit of the performance models was quite good. Discussion focuses on how the present research furthers progress toward mapping relations among individual differences and individual performance constructs, beyond using overall performance as the endogenous performance variable.     

Subjective Well-Being of Older African Americans with DSM IV Psychiatric Disorders

This study examined demographic and mental health correlates of subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction, happiness) using a national sample of older African Americans with psychiatric disorders. We used a subsample of 185 African Americans, 55 and older with at least one of thirteen lifetime psychiatric disorders from The National Survey of American Life: Coping with Stress in the Twenty-first Century. The findings indicated that among this population of older adults who had a lifetime psychiatric disorder, having a lifetime suicidal ideation was associated with life satisfaction but not happiness. Further, having a 12-month anxiety disorder or a lifetime suicidal ideation was not associated with happiness. Having a 12-month mood disorder, however, was negatively associated with an individual’s level of happiness, as well as their life satisfaction. Additionally, there were two significant interactions. Among men, employment was positively associated with life satisfaction, and marriage was associated with higher levels of happiness among men but not women. The overall pattern of findings reflects both similarities and departures from prior research confirming that well-being evaluations are associated with multiple factors.     

Gambling primates: reactions to a modified Iowa Gambling Task in humans,chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys

Humans will, at times, act against their own economic self-interest, for example, in gambling situations. To explore the evolutionary roots of this behavior, we modified a traditional human gambling task, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), for use with chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys and humans. We expanded the traditional task to include two additional payoff structures to fully elucidate the ways in which these primate species respond to differing reward distributions versus overall quantities of rewards, a component often missing in the existing literature. We found that while all three species respond as typical humans do in the standard IGT payoff structure, species and individual differences emerge in our new payoff structures. Specifically, when variance avoidance and reward maximization conflicted, roughly equivalent numbers of apes maximized their rewards and avoided variance, indicating that the traditional payoff structure of the IGT is insufficient to disentangle these competing strategies. Capuchin monkeys showed little consistency in their choices. To determine whether this was a true species difference or an effect of task presentation, we replicated the experiment but increased the intertrial interval. In this case, several capuchin monkeys followed a reward maximization strategy, while chimpanzees retained the same strategy they had used previously. This suggests that individual differences in strategies for interacting with variance and reward maximization are present in apes, but not in capuchin monkeys. The primate gambling task presented here is a useful methodology for disentangling strategies of variance avoidance and reward maximization.