Brief psychosocial assessment of a clinical sample: an evaluation of the Personal Problems Checklist for Adults

In light of the requirements for managed health care organizations to use assessment instruments that are psychometrically sound, cost and time efficient, and theoretically useful, the present study examined the psychometric properties of one such potential instrument, the Personal Problems Checklist for Adults (PPCA). Designed to measure problems in 13 areas of everyday functioning, the PPCA along with the Brief Symptom Inventory were completed by 132 individuals in an outpatient drug rehabilitation program. Counselor ratings on the Adjective Check List were also obtained. Results clearly showed that personal problems as measured by the PPCA were related to self-reported psychological symptoms and to perceptions by their counselors. The PPCA proved to have good psychometric properties and warrants greater attention by testing psychologists given its potential to meet criteria set forth by managed health care.     

Are self-enhancing cognitions associated with healthy or unhealthy biological profiles?

Self-enhancement is variously portrayed as a positive illusion that can foster health and longevity or as defensive neuroticism that can have physiological-neuroendocrine costs. In a laboratory stress-challenge paradigm, the authors found that high self-enhancers had lower cardiovascular responses to stress, more rapid cardiovascular recovery, and lower baseline cortisol levels, consistent with the positive illusions predictions and counter to the predictions of the defensive neuroticism position. A second set of analyses, replicating the "illusory mental health paradigm" (J. Shedler, M. Mayman, & M. Manis, 1993), also did not support the defensive neuroticism hypothesis. The association between self-enhancement and cortisol was mediated by psychological resources; analyses of the cardiovascular results provided no definitive mediational pathway. Discussion centers on the potential stress-buffering effects of self-enhancing beliefs.     

Dyslexia linked to talent: global visual-spatial ability

Dyslexia has long been defined by deficit. Nevertheless, the view that visual-spatial talents accompany dyslexia has grown, due to reports of individuals with dyslexia who possess visual-spatial strengths, findings of elevated incidence of dyslexia in certain visual-spatial professions, and the hypothesis that left-hemisphere deficits accompany right-hemisphere strengths. Studies have reported superior, inferior, and average levels of visual-spatial abilities associated with dyslexia. In two investigations, we found an association between dyslexia and speed of recognition of impossible figures, a global visual-spatial task. This finding suggests that dyslexia is associated with a particular type of visual-spatial talent-enhanced ability to process visual-spatial information globally (holistically) rather than locally (part by part).     

Portrait of the self-enhancer: well adjusted and well liked or maladjusted and friendless?

Research has variously portrayed self-enhancement as an indicator of narcissistic defensiveness or as a concomitant of mental health. To address this controversy, the present study used multiple measures of self-enhancement along with multiple measures and judges of mental health, comprehensively assessing their relationship. The results indicated that self-enhancement is positively associated with multiple indicators of mental health and with a more favorable impact on others. Discussion centers on a reconciliation of discrepant portraits of the self-enhancer.     

Evaluation of a Sesame Street Multimedia Intervention for Families Transitioning Out of the Military

Although transitioning out of the military can be stressful for everyone in the family, the children’s experience has received minimal attention in both clinical lore and research. This study is an evaluation of Sesame Workshop’s multimedia program for families who are transitioning out of the military into civilian life; the program is aimed at improving parents’ confidence and skills in assisting their children with the transition, and at improving young children’s transition-related adjustment. Via a randomized controlled trial design, we evaluated the utilization, acceptability, and impact of this free, online program with 200 military caregivers. Caregivers who received the Sesame program reported increased self-efficacy in helping their child cope with the transition (e.g., making new friends, talking with their child about leaving the military) compared to those assigned to the control condition. Further, caregivers in the intervention condition reported fewer overall child emotional and behavioral problems and a significant reduction in levels of hyperactivity/inattention in their children. Further, the primarily online modality of the Sesame program yielded high caregiver satisfaction and utilization; this approach may warrant further research as an effective means of reaching busy military families.     

The Thrill of Creative Effort at Work: An Empirical Study on Work,Creative Effort and Well-Being

The connections between creative effort at work and four measures of subjective well-being are studied using data on a sample of 922 Jewish Israeli adults who are salaried employees. The paper finds that self-reported creative effort aimed at making work more enjoyable is positively associated with global evaluation of life; with purpose and meaning in life, and with positive emotions. No significant link with negative emotions was found. This study also finds significant associations with three additional intrinsic features of work-creative tasks; independence at work and intellectual work-and various measures of subjective well-being, even when controlling for age, gender, marital status, having children, education, time worked, financial satisfaction, subjective health and religiosity. The robustness of the links between intrinsic features of work and subjective well-being demonstrate that work serves not only as a means to material ends, but also as a direct source of personal happiness, meaning and satisfaction.     

Does self-affirmation, cognitive processing, or discovery of meaning explain cancer-related health benefits of expressive writing?

Although expressive writing has positive effects on health, little is known about the underlying psychological mechanisms for these effects. The present study assessed self-affirmation, cognitive processing, and discovery of meaning as potential mediators of the effects of expressive writing on physical health in early-stage breast cancer survivors. A content analysis of the essays showed that self-affirmation writing was associated with fewer physical symptoms at a 3-month follow-up assessment, with self-affirmation writing fully mediating the effects of the emotional expression and benefit-finding writing conditions on reduced physical symptoms. Cognitive processing and discovery of meaning writing were not associated with any physical health outcomes. Consistent with evidence showing that self-affirmation plays an important role in buffering stress, the present study provides the first evidence for self-affirmation as a viable mechanism underlying the health benefits of expressive writing.     

Cultural differences in the impact of social support on psychological and biological stress responses

Social support is believed to be a universally valuable resource for combating stress, yet Asians and Asian Americans report that social support is not helpful to them, resist seeking it, and are underrepresented among recipients of supportive services. We distinguish between explicit social support (seeking and using advice and emotional solace) and implicit social support (focusing on valued social groups) and show that Asians and Asian Americans are psychologically and biologically benefited more by implicit social support than by explicit social support; the reverse is true for European Americans. Our discussion focuses on cultural differences in the construal of relationships and their implications for social support and delivery of support services.     

The loyal member effect: on the preference for ingroup members who engage in exclusive relations with the ingroup

The goal of this article was to investigate an indirect form of intergroup differentiation in children in the context of racial attitudes: the preference for ingroup members who interact positively with other ingroup members rather than with outgroup members. Study 1 confirmed this general hypothesis with preschool and 1st-grade children, demonstrating that respondents preferred the ingroup member who played only with other ingroup members, evaluated this child more positively, and felt more similar to him or her. Studies 2 and 3 tested the boundary conditions of the phenomenon. Study 4 analyzed developmental changes demonstrating that the effect is no longer observed among 9- to 11-year-old children. Overall, these studies suggest that engaging in positive interactions with the outgroup might have its costs in terms of a relative devaluation and rejection by one's peers. Results are discussed by stressing the importance of intragroup processes for the regulation of intergroup relations among very young children.     

Uncertainty, entitativity, and group identification

Two studies examined the effects of self-uncertainty and ingroup entitativity on group identification. From uncertainty reduction theory (Hogg, 2000), it was hypothesized that people would identify most strongly with their group if they felt self-conceptually uncertain and the group was highly entitative. Study 1 was a field experiment (N = 114) in which the perceived entitativity of participants’ political party was measured, and self-uncertainty was primed (high vs. low). Study 2 was a laboratory experiment (N = 89) with ad hoc non-interactive groups. Uncertainty was primed as in Study 1, but perceived entitativity was manipulated. In both cases the dependent variable was a multi-item measure of group identification. The hypothesis was fully supported in both studies—participants identified more strongly when they were uncertain and the group was highly entitative. Implications of this research for the role of uncertainty and social identity in extremism, orthodoxy, and ideological belief systems are discussed.