Bringing Psychological Safety to the Field of Human Development: An Introduction

Human development is characterized by individual agency to create change, to a greater or lesser extent depending on contextual circumstances. This special issue focuses on psychological safety as a construct that may help developmentalists understand the way that individual and contextual factors come together to limit or support agency to shape one’s development. This introduction to the issue on psychological safety frames this construct and the included articles through the lens of relational developmental systems theory. Specifically, authors explore psychological safety as a construct at the intersection of individual context. They use multiple methods and draw across disciplines to explore psychological safety in adolescence, during the transition to parenthood, in the workplace, and at the organizational level. Overall, findings suggest that additional research and practical focus on psychological safety may increase the likelihood that individuals may enact their agency to engage in opportunities and experiences that support human development.     

Differential effects of assisted cycling therapy on short-term and working memory of adolescents with Down syndrome

Persons with Down syndrome (DS) suffer from prefrontal cortex dysfunction and deficits in executive functions. The current study examined the effects assisted cycling therapy (ACT) on short-term (STM) and working memory (WM) in adolescents with DS. During ACT, the cadence of participants on a stationary bicycle was augmented with an electrical motor to 180% of the voluntary cadence. Participants completed eight weeks of ACT (n?=?17), eight weeks of voluntary cycling (VC) at their own preferred cadence (n?=?16), or eight weeks of no cycling (np?≥?.149) and working memory improved only in the ACT group (Hedge’s g?=?1.66; p?=?.003). The results indicate that assisted high-cadence cycling (i.e. ACT) produces superior neural benefits in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex compared to VC.     

Comparison and Analysis of Selected English Interpretations of the Tao Te Ching

In the last 150 years, the ambiguous and enigmatic 81 chapters of the Tao Te Ching have been translated, interpreted and adapted into the English language more than 100 times. The Tao and its subtle philosophy is currently being actively assimilated into mainstream western culture as evidenced by the popularity and volume of Taoist works. The purpose of this study was to analyse this phenomenon. First, a database of English translations of the Tao Te Ching was established. This database documents the vast number of Tao Te Ching translations in print from 1868 to the present. Second, specific chapters of selected English translations of the Tao Te Ching were compared using holistic and content analysis. The holistic methods focused on the overall semantic connotation of the selected chapters. The specific (linguistic) analysis methods entailed the use of a computerised content analysis program (hyperRESEARCH for Macintosh). Through these inquiries, a specific understanding of the cross-cultural relationship between East and West was investigated.     

When Beliefs Lead to (Im)Moral Action: How Believing in Torture's Effectiveness Shapes the Endorsement of Its Use

Does believing in torture's effectiveness shape the endorsements of its use? Using a multimethod approach across six studies, we provide converging evidence that efficacy beliefs can help increase understanding of individual differences and situational influences on torture support. Studies 1a and 1b found that torture opinions contained more efficacy‐based language than other types of harm and that people relied more on torture efficacy than torture's inherent morality when conveying their views. Study 2 assessed predictors of torture favorability including effectiveness and other key covariates, revealing that efficacy beliefs strongly predicted torture favorability—an association that retained its predictive validity above and beyond individual differences known to influence torture support. Mediation analyses further showed that efficacy beliefs explained key associations with torture support. Studies 3 and 4 used moral dilemmas requiring decisions about torture versus other harm. Results showed that individuals who believed harm would be effective were more likely to endorse its use; this was especially evident for torture judgments. Study 5 replicated the torture‐efficacy effect while also revealing efficacy effects for other interrogation techniques, thus suggesting the effect is driven more by the instrumental objective of torture than harm or moral violations. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Dropping Safety Aids and Maximizing Retrieval Cues: Two Keys to Optimizing Inhibitory Learning During Exposure Therapy

The inhibitory learning model of exposure therapy posits that clinical anxiety is most effectively treated when clinicians employ strategies that maximize the (a) violation of negative expectancies and (b) generalization of nonthreat associations. Translation of basic learning research to exposure therapy via this explanatory model underscores two keys to optimizing inhibitory learning during exposure: dropping safety aids and maximizing retrieval cues. Although topographically similar, safety aids and retrieval cues are functionally distinct as well as therapeutically incompatible. In the present article, we delineate safety aids and retrieval cues in the context of exposure therapy from an inhibitory learning perspective, providing illustrative case examples of how clinicians may address the two when treating patients with clinical anxiety.     

Social support coping style predicts women’s cortisol in the laboratory and daily life: the moderating role of social attentional biases

Background and Objectives: Social stress and associated coping responses can profoundly influence women’s stress physiology and health. Implicit social attentional biases can also influence psychological and physiological stress responses. The purpose of this study was to explore whether a coping style characterized by greater use of social support predicts indices of cortisol activity in laboratory and daily life contexts among female university students. We hypothesized that the relation of this coping style to cortisol activity would be moderated by women’s attentional biases.

Methods: Seventy-four women (M_age?=?19.44, range: 17.8–27.8, 64% White) completed an interpersonal stress task and an attentional bias task in the lab, along with a self-report coping inventory. Participants provided five saliva samples during the lab protocol, followed by three saliva samples per day for three consecutive weekdays. Outcome measures included cortisol response to lab tasks (AUCg), diurnal cortisol slope, diurnal AUCg, and cortisol awakening response (CARi).

Results: A coping style characterized by greater use of social support predicted lower lab AUCg and lower, flatter average diurnal cortisol slope for women with attentional avoidance compared to women with attentional vigilance (ps?<?.05).

Conclusions: Responding to stress by using social support is linked to lower cortisol responses to social stress and diurnal cortisol activity for women with implicit avoidance of social threat cues.     

Psychological Predictors of Health Anxiety in Response to the Zika Virus

The threat of a United States (U.S.) Zika virus pandemic during 2015–2016 was associated with public anxiety. Such threats represent opportunities to examine hypotheses about health anxiety. The present study investigated psychological predictors of Zika-related anxiety during the 2015–2016 outbreak. U.S. adults (N?=?216) completed a battery of measures assessing Zika-related anxiety as well as psychological variables hypothesized to predict anxious responding to the threat of a domestic Zika outbreak. Contrary to hypotheses, regression analyses indicated that only contamination severity overestimates and greater Zika knowledge significantly predicted Zika-related anxiety. Study limitations and clinical implications are discussed.     

Gender,Sacrifices, and Variability in Commitment: A Daily Diary Study of Pregnant Heterosexual Cohabitors and their Partners

We use interdependence theory and the inertia model to examine how gender and daily relational sacrifices predict daily variability in relationship commitment across a week in 43 U.S. couples who are unmarried cohabitors expecting their first child together (total of 455 days of data). We examined three variants of daily relational sacrifices: frequency, ease, and awareness for both individuals and partners, and we tested for gender differences. Using an Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM), we found that both women and men reported lower variability in commitment when men were perceived as highly aware of the sacrifices made for them. Additionally, women experienced lower variability in commitment when their male partners reported engaging in easier sacrifices. In contrast, women reported higher variability in commitment when they reported greater frequency of sacrifices for their partner. The results can be of practical use for practitioners working with expectant cohabitors and their partners given the unique role gender plays relative to how sacrifices shape variability in daily commitment.