Convergent Validity of the Early Memory Index in Two Primary Care Samples

Karliner, Westrich, Shedler, and Mayman (1996) developed the Early Memory Index (EMI) to assess mental health, narrative coherence, and traumatic experiences in reports of early memories. We assessed the convergent validity of EMI scales with data from 103 women from an urban primary care clinic (Study 1) and data from 48 women and 24 men from a suburban primary care clinic (Study 2). Patients provided early memory narratives and completed self-report measures of psychopathology, trauma, and health care utilization. In both studies, lower scores on the Mental Health scale and higher scores on the Traumatic Experiences scale were related to higher scores on measures of psychopathology and childhood trauma. Less consistent associations were found between the Mental Health and Traumatic Experiences scores and measures of health care utilization. The Narrative Coherence scale showed inconsistent relationships across measures in both samples. In analyses assessing the overall fit between hypothesized and actual correlations between EMI scores and measures of psychopathology, severity of trauma symptoms, and health care utilization, the Mental Health scale of the EMI demonstrated stronger convergent validity than the EMI Traumatic Experiences scale. The results provide support for the convergent validity of the Mental Health scale of the EMI.     

Attachment and Relational Aggression: Power as a Mediating Variable

Evidence illustrates that insecure romantic attachment predicts higher levels of relational aggression. However, no research has attempted to explain that relationship with mediating variables, such as relationship power, which is associated with attachment and partner violence. Data for this study included 457 couples from Wave 2 of the Flourishing Families Study. Actor Partner Interdependence results indicated that insecure attachment was significantly predictive of relational aggression actor effects. There was also a significant partner effect between male insecure attachment and female relational aggression, and power was a significant mediator between attachment and relational aggression for males and females.     

Objecting (to) Infrastructure: Ecopolitics at the Ukrainian Ends of the Danube

Abstract

In southern Ukraine, two hydraulic infrastructures continue to exist despite environmentalist campaigns that have exposed them as fragile, broken, or unprofitable. The Danube–Dnister Irrigation Project, a Soviet mega-project that diverted water from the Danube and turned the Sasyk estuary into a reservoir, receives state funding despite a 1994 ban on its use for irrigation. The Bystre Shipping Canal, built in 2004 despite domestic and international opposition, is losing money but continues to operate. These cases exemplify the material politics of infrastructuring in which infrastructure is understood as an antagonistic process of assembling networks of humans and nonhumans rather than a fixed facility. This approach helps explain how the confluence of unruly coastal matters and the politics of expertise have facilitated the re-embedding of these shipping and irrigation infrastructures’ in bureaucratic networks. These cases show that obduracy and fragility, as well as visibility and invisibility—conditions that figure prominently in infrastructure studies—should be considered in terms of oscillation rather than as ontologically distinct or static conditions. This analysis highlights the limits of the modernist search for scientific certainty in resolving environmental conflicts in Ukraine, and some possibilities to experiment politically with new decision-making procedures. This account can thus point beyond reform impulses that re-enact modernist narratives of progress within a strict nature-society divide.     

High Hopes? Educational,Socioeconomic, and Ethnic Differences in Parents’ Aspirations for their Unborn Children

Parents’ aspirations shape children’s development. In this study, over 6700 pregnant women and over 4300 of their partners from the Growing Up in New Zealand cohort responded to a question about their hopes, dreams, and expectations for their unborn children. Responses were coded according to a Maslowian hierarchy of needs. Mothers and their partners predominantly mentioned self-actualization and physiological aspirations for their unborn children, but their responses varied as a function of parental ethnicity and level of educational achievement and less so as a function of socioeconomic status. Mothers of European ethnicity, and parents with higher levels of educational achievement, mentioned more aspirations for their children—especially for self-actualization and belonging—than mothers of non-European ethnicity and parents with lower levels of educational achievement. These findings are discussed with respect to Maslowian theory and cultural developmental theories, and in terms of understanding the aspirations of parents from diverse backgrounds.     

The Psychometric Equivalence of the Personal Wellbeing Index for Normally Functioning and Homeostatically Defeated Australian Adults

Understanding subjective wellbeing (SWB) at the population level has major implications for governments and policy makers concerned with enhancing the life quality of citizens. The Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) is a measure of SWB with theoretical and empirical credentials. Homeostasis theory offers an explanation for the nature of SWB data, including the distribution of scores, maintenance and change over time. According to this theory, under normal conditions, the dominant constituent of SWB is Homeostatically Protected Mood (HPMood), which is held within a genetically determined range of values around a set-point. However, in extreme circumstances (e.g., financial hardship, chronic illness), HPMood may dissociate from SWB, as cognitive/emotional reactions to the cause of homeostatic challenge assume control over SWB. This study investigates two groups as people scoring in the positive range for SWB and people who are likely to be experiencing homeostatic defeat/challenge. We test whether the reduced influence of HPMood on SWB due to homeostatic defeat has implications for the validity of SWB measurement. Participants were 45,192 adults (52 % female), with a mean age of 48.88 years (SD = 17.35 years), who participated in the first 23 surveys of the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index over the years 2001–2010. Multiple regression analysis, multiple group confirmatory factor analysis, and Rasch modelling techniques were used to evaluate the psychometric performance of the PWI across the two groups. Results show that while the PWI functioned as intended for the normal group, SWB in the challenged group was lower across all PWI domains, more variable, and the domain scores lacked the strength of inter-correlation observed in the normal, comparison group. These changes are consistent with predictions based on homeostasis theory and one major implication of the findings is that SWB measures may not function equivalently across the entire spectrum of possible domain satisfaction scores.     

Enhancing the Conceptualization and Measurement of Implicit and Explicit Affective Evaluations: A Case Study in Disordered Eating

Affective evaluations (i.e., evaluations of affectively evocative stimuli) play important roles in many behaviors, including clinically relevant behaviors like disordered eating. Understanding automatic and controlled affective evaluations can enhance prediction and treatment of more deliberate versus more impulsive clinical behaviors, respectively. However, methodological and theoretical shortcomings cloud the implicit affective evaluation literature, particularly as applied in clinical psychology. This article aims to improve the clinical science of implicit and explicit affective evaluation by capitalizing on theoretical and methodological advancements drawn from implicit social cognition. We recommend three key enhancements to the affective evaluation literature: improve the structural comparability between indirect and direct measures, assess evaluations on both valence and arousal dimensions of affect, and carefully characterize and select stimuli. Additional improvements to analytic approaches (e.g., mixed effects modeling and process dissociation) are also recommended. Such efforts will advance our theoretical understanding of the relative contributions of automatic and controlled processes to clinically relevant affective evaluation, thereby informing assessment and improving intervention. Applying advanced methodologies of implicit cognition to clinical phenomena will also reiterate and reinforce the use of these advances in social psychology.     

Giving Thanks is Associated with Lower PTSD Severity: A Meta-Analytic Review

Journal of Happiness Studies - A rising interest in the psychological community in resilience has spurred research examining psychological resources that promote resilience to psychopathologies...