Predicting the suicide attempts of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth

In this study predictors of serious suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth were examined. Three groups were compared: youth who reported no attempts, youth who reported attempts unrelated to their sexual orientation, and youth whose attempts were considered related to their sexual orientation. About one third of respondents reported at least one suicide attempt; however, only half of the attempts were judged serious based on potential lethality. About half of all attempts were related to youths' sexual orientation. Factors that differentiated youth reporting suicide attempts and those not reporting attempts were greater childhood parental psychological abuse and more childhood gender-atypical behavior. Gay-related suicide attempts were associated with identifiability as LGB, especially by parents. Early openness about sexual orientation, being considered gender atypical in childhood by parents, and parental efforts to discourage gender atypical behavior were associated with gay-related suicide attempts, especially for males. Assessment of past parental psychological abuse, parental reactions to childhood gender atypical behavior, youths' openness about sexual orientation with family members, and lifetime gay-related verbal abuse can assist in the prediction of suicide attempts in this population.     

Performance differences among four organizational commitment profiles

The authors drew from prior research on organizational commitment and from configural organizational theory to propose a framework of affective and continuance commitment profiles. Using cluster analyses, the authors obtained evidence for 4 of these profiles in an energy industry sample (N=970) and a sample of 345 employed college students. The authors labeled the clusters: allied (i.e., moderate affective and continuance commitment), free agents (moderate continuance commitment and low affective commitment), devoted (high affective and continuance commitment), and complacent (moderate affective and low continuance commitment). Using a subset of the employed student sample (n=148), the authors also found that the free agents received significantly poorer supervisor ratings of performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and antisocial behavior than any other group.     

Cultural Stereotypes and the Self: A Closer Examination of Implicit Self-Stereotyping

Recent research and theory on implicit self-stereotyping suggests that individuals nonconsciously incorporate stereotypes about their social groups into the self-concept; however, evidence as to whether this holds true for negative stereotypes remains limited. Using a subliminal priming measure, the current research found that women (Experiment 1) and White Americans (Experiment 2) implicitly associated the self with in-group stereotypic traits but not out-group stereotypic traits. Of importance, both groups implicitly self-stereotyped on negative in-group traits to a similar extent as they did on positive in-group traits. Moreover, exploratory analysis showed that the degree to which White Americans associated positive, but not negative, in-group stereotypes with the self was related to higher self-esteem. Implications of implicit self-stereotyping on self-esteem and stereotype-consistent behavior are discussed.     

Long-term Effects of Subliminal Priming on Academic Performance

This research examines the temporal range of subliminal priming effects on complex behavior. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were subliminally primed with words either related or unrelated to intelligence before completing a practice exam, administered 1 to 4 days before an actual course midterm. Results revealed that the intelligence primes increased performance on the midterm compared to neutral primes. Experiment 1 demonstrated that being told that the priming task was designed to help exam performance moderated the effect of the intelligence primes. In Experiment 2, practice test performance mediated the effect of the primes on midterm performance. These experiments demonstrated that subliminal priming may have long-term effects on real-world behavior, and demonstrates one means by which long-term priming effects may occur.     

Exploring the Construct Validity of the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale in a Clinical Sample

The resistance of the Personal Orientation Dimensions (POD) to deliberate attempts at creating a favorable impression was investigated. Two groups of college students were used: (a) 21 students completed the POD under standard instructions, then received information about actualization, and completed the POD again under instructions to Create a very good impression; (b) 21 students completed the POD under standard instructions, then received information not related to actualization, and completed the POD again under instructions to create a very good impression. An analyses indicated that providing students with information about actualization did not facilitate their ability to create a favorable impression on the POD. The POD profiles produced by both groups changed significantly, and in a similar direction from pretest to posttest. Evidence is presented suggesting the existence of a "lie profile" which distinguishes deliberate attempts to create a favorable impression on the POD. These findings provide support for the resistance of the POD to deliberate attempts at creating a favorable impression.     

Military police investigator perspectives of a new self-reflective approach to strengthening resilience: A qualitative study

In this study, we explored participants’ experiences of a unique form of resilience training. The aims of this study were to obtain rich information about the participants’ experience of the resilience intervention based on adaptive self-reflection, their ability to report the private stress experience and coping efforts when faced with a stressor, their perceptions of training applicability to other contexts, and whether the training was able to encourage the reappraisal of stressors as growth opportunities. A qualitative design was employed with a sample of 21 investigator trainees from the Australian Defence Force School of Policing. Following implementation of the program, trainees provided written responses to seven open ended questions and participated in one focus group designed to embellish understanding of the survey answers. The analysis identified both strengths and limitations in the way respondents were able to recall and report on their private stress experience and coping efforts and several domains where the resilience training seemed to have its effects. Moreover, the respondents reported increased confidence in their ability to manage stressors in the future, recognition of stress in others and the potential to assist them, and a changed view of stress as an opportunity for personal development. Based on these findings, potential improvements in the training materials are recommended. Moreover, the findings suggest coping and emotion regulatory self-reflection may encourage the application of useful strategies and reinforce personal resilient capacities and coping self-efficacy.     

Extending the Validity of the Personality Assessment Inventory's (PAI) Level of Care Index (LOCI) in Multiple Psychiatric Settings

The purpose of this study was to extend the validity and clinical application of the Level of Care Index (LOCI) from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) in 2 independent psychiatric samples. In Study 1 (N = 201), the LOCI effectively differentiated level of care (inpatients from outpatients), and was also meaningfully associated with risk factors for psychiatric admission (e.g., suicidal ideation, self-harming behavior, previous psychiatric admission, etc.), even after controlling for other demographic variables (range of Cohen's ds = 0.57–1.00). Likewise, the LOCI also incremented other risk indicators (suicide and violence history) and relevant PAI indexes (i.e., Mean Clinical Elevation, and Suicide and Violence Potential) in predicting level of care, and explained an additional 6% to 12% of variance in the target variable. Diagnostic efficiency analyses indicated LOCI scores in the range of 15 to 18 optimize positive and negative predictive power, and classification rate. In Study 2 (N = 96), the LOCI was found to be significantly higher in those with a recent psychiatric admission within the past 6 months (d = 0.64), as compared to those without an admission. Similarly, those who were admitted for suicide risk had significantly higher mean LOCI scores as compared to those who did not (d = 0.70). The clinical implications of these findings and potential application of the LOCI are discussed.     

Recalled aspects of original encoding strategies influence episodic feelings of knowing

We tested the hypothesis that the feeling of knowing (FOK) after a failed recall attempt is influenced by recalling aspects of the original encoding strategy. Individuals were instructed to use interactive imagery to encode unrelated word pairs. We manipulated item concreteness (abstract vs. concrete) and item repetitions at study (one vs. three). Participants orally described the mediator produced immediately after studying each item, if any. After a delay, they were given cued recall, made FOK ratings, and attempted to recall their original mediator. Concreteness and item repetition enhanced strategy recall, which had a large effect on FOKs. Controlling on strategy recall reduced the predictive validity of FOKs for recognition memory, indicating that access to the original aspects of encoding influenced FOK accuracy. Confidence judgments (CJs) for correctly recognized items covaried with FOKs, but FOKs did not fully track the strategy recall associations with CJs, suggesting emergent effects of strategy cues that were elicited by recognition tests but not accessed at the time of the FOK judgment. In summary, cue-generated access to aspects of the original encoding strategy strongly influenced episodic FOKs, although other influences were also implicated.     

Linking Peer Victimization to the Development of Depressive Self-Schemas in Children and Adolescents

Previous theory and research suggest that childhood experiences are more likely to generate depressive self-schemas when they focus attention on negative information about oneself, generate strong negative affect, and are repetitive or chronic. Persistent peer victimization meets these criteria. In the current study, 214 youths (112 females) with empirically-validated histories of high or low peer victimization completed self-report measures of negative and positive self-cognitions as well as incidental recall and recognition tests following a self-referent encoding task. Results supported the hypothesis that depressive self-schemas are associated with peer victimization. Specifically, peer victimization was associated with stronger negative self-cognitions, weaker positive self-cognitions, and an elimination of the normative memorial bias for recall of positive self-referential words. Effects were stronger for relational and verbal victimization compared to physical victimization. Support accrues to a model about the social-developmental origins of cognitive diatheses for depression.