The possible selves of international students and their cross‐cultural adjustment in Canada

We assessed 93 international students’ reports of their expected and feared possible selves in terms of their thematic content and configuration, and examined the relations between possible selves and cultural adjustment in Canada. The results showed that international students mostly envisioned possible selves in career, education, intrapersonal, and interpersonal domains, and reported more balanced configurations than matched configurations of possible selves. Balanced possible selves in the educational domain were associated with better psychological well‐being, but balanced selves in the intrapersonal domains were linked with more frequent sociocultural difficulties. The findings suggest that the content of international students’ possible selves reflects not only their academic‐focused and career‐inspired sojourn, but also their intercultural experiences with various ethnic groups in the Canadian multicultural society. As well, they speak to the motivational significance of possible selves, particularly the balanced possible selves, for supporting international students’ motivation to pursue an international education and for facilitating a successful cross‐cultural sojourn.     

Relations Between PTSD and Distress Dimensions in an Indian Child/Adolescent Sample Following the 2008 Mumbai Terrorist Attacks

Posttraumatic stress disorder’s (PTSD) four-factor dysphoria model has substantial empirical support (reviewed in Elhai & Palmieri, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25, 849–854, 2011; Yufik & Simms, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119, 764–776, 2010). However, debatable is whether the model’s dysphoria factor adequately captures all of PTSD’s emotional distress (e.g., Marshall et al., Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119(1), 126–135, 2010), which is relevant to understanding the assessment and psychopathology of PTSD. Thus, the present study assessed the factor-level relationship between PTSD and emotional distress in 818 children/adolescents attending school in the vicinity of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The effective sample had a mean age of 12.85 years (SD?=?1.33), with the majority being male (n?=?435, 53.8 %). PTSD and emotional distress were measured by the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index (PTSD-RI) and Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) respectively. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) assessed the PTSD and BSI-18 model fit; Wald tests assessed hypothesized PTSD-distress latent-level relations; and invariance testing examined PTSD-distress parameter differences using age, gender and direct exposure as moderators. There were no moderating effects for the PTSD-distress structural parameters. BSI-18’s depression and somatization factors related more to PTSD’s dysphoria than PTSD’s avoidance factor. The results emphasize assessing for specificity and distress variance of PTSD factors on a continuum, rather than assuming dysphoria factor’s complete accountability for PTSD’s inherent distress. Additionally, PTSD’s dysphoria factor related more to BSI-18’s depression than BSI-18’s anxiety/somatization factors; this may explain PTSD’s comorbidity mechanism with depressive disorders.     

Poverty after Birth: How Mothers Experience and Navigate U.S. Safety Net Programs to Address Family Needs

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Although pregnancy and the first year of life are sensitive windows for child development, we know very little about the lived experiences of mothers living in...     

An Eye-tracking Analysis of the Effect of Prior Comparison on Analogical Mapping

The present research examined the effect of prior experience on the distribution of attention during judgments of analogical similarity. Identifying analogical similarity requires mapping a set of relations in one situation onto a matching set of relations in an analogous situation. Analogical mapping is difficult when the common relational structure is embedded in contexts with dissimilar surface features and irrelevant surface similarities. Prior comparison of analogs may help subjects find future relational correspondences and ignore surface similarity (Markman and Gentner 1993). In the present study, attention was measured with eye tracking, which was monitored while subjects rated the similarity of analogous scenes. Experimental but not control subjects had previously compared scenes with the same structure. Eye fixation data indicated that prior comparison did not affect attention to structure-relevant objects, but significantly reduced attention to irrelevant surface-similar objects. Scanning data showing that both groups scanned within scenes more than between scenes were consistent with structure-mapping models of analogy.     

Is Self‐Determined Functioning a Universal Prerequisite for Motive–Goal Congruence? Examining the Domain of Achievement in Three Cultures

ABSTRACT Research has shown that capacity for accessing implicit motives promotes congruence between the implicit and the explicit motivational system: Individuals able to test a conscious goal for its fit with their implicit motivation commit themselves more fully to self‐congruent goals. However, it has not yet been shown whether this is a universal phenomenon or limited to Euro‐American cultures in which individual needs are less strictly constrained by the social environment than in other cultural contexts. Thus, the present study examined whether self‐determination interacts with the implicit achievement motive to predict how much importance individuals from Cameroon, Germany, and Hong Kong ascribe to achievement goals. Moreover, the importance ascribed to goals should indirectly predict life satisfaction via success in goal realization. Results showed that the associations described above are valid in all three cultural groups and are discussed in terms of their implications for the universal processes characterizing motivation.     

Age differences in reasons for exercising

We tested the hypothesis that there are age-related differences in reasons for exercising. Adults (n=461), ranging in age from 18 to 86, were asked to indicate if they had considered different types of consequences in their exercise decisions, and how important they thought those consequences were to consider. A three-factor consequence measure examined individuals’ consideration and importance evaluations of various categories of exercise consequences. Results provided mixed support for the hypotheses that younger individuals exhibit greater concern for interpersonal attraction outcomes, while older individuals exhibit greater concern for health outcomes. These results have implications for designing educational and motivational training programs.     

Research ethics for mental health science involving ethnic minority children and youths

In response to U.S. Public Health Service projects promoting attention to disparities in the outcomes of mental health treatments, in July 2001, the American Psychological Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Fordham University Center for Ethics Education convened a group of national leaders in bioethics, multicultural research, and ethnic minority mental health to produce a living document to guide ethical decision making for mental health research involving ethnic minority children and youths. This report summarizes the key recommendations distilled from these discussions.     

Multinational data show that conspiracy beliefs are associated with the perception (and reality) of poor national economic performance

While a great deal is known about the individual difference factors associated with conspiracy beliefs, much less is known about the country-level factors that shape people's willingness to believe conspiracy theories. In the current article we discuss the possibility that willingness to believe conspiracy theories might be shaped by the perception (and reality) of poor economic performance at the national level. To test this notion, we surveyed 6723 participants from 36 countries. In line with predictions, propensity to believe conspiracy theories was negatively associated with perceptions of current and future national economic vitality. Furthermore, countries with higher GDP per capita tended to have lower belief in conspiracy theories. The data suggest that conspiracy beliefs are not just caused by intrapsychic factors but are also shaped by difficult economic circumstances for which distrust might have a rational basis.     

A Criminal Schema: The Role of Chronicity, Race, and Socioeconomic Status in Law Enforcement Officials' Perceptions of Others

This study investigated the extent to which law enforcement (LE) officials' perceptions of criminality are biased by the chronic nature of, and the racial and Socioeconomic status (SES) features of, their cognitive schemas of the typical criminal. One-hundred twenty undergraduate psychology students and 121 LE officers participated in this study. Part 1 of this study hypothesized that a chronic criminal schema used by LE would result in LE subjects perceiving criminality in ambiguous situations. Contrary to the hypothesis, laypersons were more likely to view an ambiguous situation as criminal than were LE subjects. Part 2 of this study hypothesized that when exposed to the actions of a Black and/or lower SES criminal suspect, LE subjects would perceive more guilt, perceive more deceptiveness, place less value on exculpatory information, and place more value on incriminating information than would students. The results supported this second hypothesis with regard to race, but not SES.