Indigenous and Interdependent Perspectives of Healing: Implications for Counseling and Research

Because of the dramatic increases of culturally diverse individuals in the United States, indigenous perspectives of healing must be understood in the context of interdependent cultural selves. The authors present an extensive review of the literature with a focus on understanding the role of spirituality, balancing energies, close social networks, and interconnectedness in indigenous healing perspectives and philosophies. Examples of indigenous healing approaches are presented, and implications for counseling and research are discussed.     

A cross-cultural comparison of the coexistence and domain superiority of individuating and relating autonomy

The consensus definition of autonomy in the psychological literature emphasizes self-governance through free volition, not separation or independence from others. Since the concept of self may differ cross-culturally, several researchers have tried to incorporate types of self into the notion of autonomy; however, only the dual model of autonomy has been able to do this while retaining an emphasis on volition. The dual model describes two distinct forms of autonomy-individuating and relating-each with superior function in a specific domain of individual functioning. Individuating autonomy represents a volitional capacity to act against social constraints and offers a route to achieve an independent self-identity by expressing individualistic attributes and distinctions. Relating autonomy represents a volitional capacity to act by emphasizing the harmony of self-in-relation-to-others, the quality of interpersonal relationships, and self-transcendence. These two forms of autonomy have been shown to coexist at the individual level in a Taiwanese sample. This study takes the next step, with a cross-cultural test of the coexistence and domain superiority hypotheses of individuating and relating autonomy. Participants included 306 college students from Taiwan and 183 college students from the United States. Structural equation modelling by multigroup analyses confirmed the cross-cultural equivalence of the two-factor individuating autonomy and relating autonomy measurement model. Across both samples the two forms of autonomy were shown to be mutually inclusive and not exclusive or independent. The domain-superior function of each form of autonomy was also confirmed cross-culturally; each form of autonomy has a dominant, but not necessarily exclusive, domain of functioning. Specifically, individuating autonomy was more associated with intrapersonal than interpersonal domain dependent variables, while relating autonomy was more associated with interpersonal than intrapersonal domain dependent variables. Limitations of the study and considerations for future research are discussed.     

On the locus of redundancy effects in a letter-detection task

It takes longer to detect a target if it is the initial letter of a nonredundant letter string such as BNHTW than if it is the initial letter of a redundant letter string such as BBBBB (Johnson, 1986b; Johnson & Blum, 1988). The results of the present study reveal that the redundancy effect also occurs for mixed-case letters strings (e.g., BbbBb) and digit strings (e.g., 22222). In addition, these results suggest that the cause of the redundancy effect is not related to the visual properties of the noninitial letters per se but is instead related to the presence of the target in noninitial positions. Together, these results rule out a number of hypotheses about the cause of the redundancy effect and suggest that the locus of this effect is in processes involved in response selection and/or the read-out of information from the perceptual system.     

Movement and focused attention: a failure to replicate.

Our original goal was to explore the nature of the grouping-by-movement phenomenon reported by Driver and Baylis (1989). In their studies, distractors that moved in common with a centrally located target had a larger influence on focused-attention performance than did more proximate but stationary distractors. These results seemed particularly important since they suggested, contrary to the predictions of space-based models of attention, that attention could be allocated to noncontiguous regions of the visual field. Their results also suggested mandatory processing of stimuli with common motion. Unfortunately, we were unable to replicate this grouping-by-movement effect. In the conditions of Experiment 1 in which we replicated Driver and Baylis's methodology, stationary distractors produced a larger response-compatibility effect than did the more distant distractors that moved in common with the target. In Experiment 2, we redundantly coded the centrally located target and the far distractors with common movement and color. However, the results were identical to those obtained in Experiment 1. The stationary near distractors that appeared in a different color from the target and the far distractors produced the largest response-compatibility effect. In a final experiment, we attempted to compensate for the reduced acuity of the moving distractors by adjusting their size by a cortical magnification factor. However, even with this manipulation, we found a larger response-compatibility effect for the stationary near distractors than for the moving distant distractors. Our results suggest that subjects are capable of selectively processing a target item that moves in common with distractors.     

Object-based attention occurs regardless of object awareness

In this study, we investigated whether awareness of objects is necessary for object-based guidance of attention. We used the two-rectangle method (Egly, Driver, & Rafal, 1994) to probe object-based attention and adopted the continuous flash suppression technique (Tsuchiya & Koch, 2005) to control for the visibility of the two rectangles. Our results show that object-based attention, as indexed by the same-object advantage—faster response to a target within a cued object than within a noncued object—was obtained regardless of participants’ awareness of the objects. This study provides the first evidence of object-based attention under unconscious conditions by showing that the selection unit of attention can be at an object level even when these objects are invisible—a level higher than the previous evidence for a subliminally cued location. We suggest that object-based attentional guidance plays a fundamental role of binding features in both the conscious and unconscious mind.     

Forgetting the unforgotten affective autobiographical memories in nonclinical dissociators

Inefficient memory inhibition has been observed in nonclinical and clinical dissociators. Paradoxically, dissociators also report unusual forgetfulness. Investigating how forgetting emerges in dissociators may uncover the antecedents for their self-report memory problems. We postulated that set switch can link inefficient memory inhibition to forgetting. Recollection detour, which involves an affect switch, may elicit forgetting of previously uninhibited memories in nonclinical dissociators. This hypothesis was verified in participants with high- and low-dissociation proneness via a retrieval practice paradigm using positive and negative autobiographical memories. After the study and retrieval-practice phases, memories of the practiced affect category were tested without and with intervening recall of the unpracticed affect category in the control and detour condition, respectively. Nondissociators showed reduced recall in the control condition, replicating the retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) effect and recollection detour did not alter the RIF effect. By contrast, nonclinical dissociators showed the RIF effect in the detour condition but not in the control condition. Detour to recollecting memories of another affect category rendered an aftereffect of forgetting of previously uninhibited memories in nonclinical dissociators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Work stress and employee well‐being: The critical role of Zhong‐Yong

In the pursuit of well‐being at work, work stress is always an inescapable challenge. However, existing research shows that the relationships between work stress and employee outcomes are inconsistent, which indicates that the concept of work stress needs further investigation. Moreover, Zhong‐Yong serves as a cognitive strategy to coping with stress as well as being a pivotal life wisdom and practical rationality. Using a questionnaire survey, this study explores the relationship between work stress, employee well‐being, and Zhong‐Yong beliefs. The work stress was classified into challenge‐ and hindrance‐related stress while emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction were used as well‐being indicators. Using a sample of 394 employees from private enterprises in Taiwan as subjects, the results show that (1) hindrance‐related stress is destructive to employee well‐being; (2) challenge‐related stress is positively associated with emotional exhaustion but has no significant relation with job satisfaction; (3) Zhong‐Yong beliefs mitigate the harm from hindrance‐related stress on employee well‐being; and (4) Zhong‐Yong beliefs weaken the negative effects of challenge‐related stress on emotional exhaustion, and transform challenge‐related stress into eustress for job satisfaction.     

Interactive Effects of Habitual Cuing and Media Features on Evaluation: A Dual-Process Model

Consumers tend to express positive attitudes toward communication sources that reflect their predispositions toward these sources, that is, their habitual cuing. To move beyond the effects of communication sources such as advertising, word of mouth (WOM), and critical reviews, this article applies a dual-process model to determine how the interaction of habitual cuing and the media features of a movie influence evaluations of movie advertising. Six quasi-experimental designs and an analysis of variance to assess the data indicate that greater cultural discount of an original movie leads to more favorable consumer evaluations when the habitual cuing has come through WOM rather than reviews; numbered sequels also gain favorable evaluations as a result of forward spillover effects or reduced satiation. Finally, for named sequels, consumers exhibit more favorable evaluations when habitual cuing comes through reviews rather than WOM.     

The Relation of Reciprocated and Nonreciprocated Friendship Nominations to Peer Social Competence for Chinese Elementary School Children

The authors examined associations between different forms of children’s friendship nomination reciprocity (mutual, unilateral given, unilateral received) and other measures of children’s peer social competence (liking, loneliness, overt aggression, perceived popularity) for 501 Chinese third- to sixth-grade students. Using a multigroup path analysis (with gender as group), for both boys and girls, all three forms of friendship nominations were negatively related to self-reported loneliness. Mutual friendship nominations and unilateral received friendship nominations were positively related to peer nominations for liking and to peer nominations of perceived popularity. The path between unilateral received friendship nominations and perceived popularity was higher for boys than for girls. Also, for boys only, mutual friendship nominations and unilateral received friendship nominations were each negatively related to peer nominations of overt aggression. These patterns are somewhat different from research examining the association of forms of friendships to peer social competence for children in Western cultures. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of the relation of different forms of friendship nominations to children’s peer social competence as well as the broad association of culture for these relations.     

Mixed Picture of Readiness for Adoption of Evidence-Based Prevention Programs in Communities: Exploratory Surveys of State Program Delivery Systems

An emerging literature highlights the potential for broader dissemination of evidence‐based prevention programs in communities through existing state systems, such as the land grant university Extension outreach system and departments of public education and health (DOE–DPH). This exploratory study entailed surveying representatives of the national Extension system and DOE–DPH, to evaluate dissemination readiness factors, as part of a larger project on an evidence‐based program delivery model called PROSPER. In addition to assessing systems’ readiness factors, differences among US regions and comparative levels of readiness between state systems were evaluated. The Extension web‐based survey sample N was 958 and the DOE–DPH telephone survey N was 338, with response rates of 23 and 79 %, respectively. Extension survey results suggested only a moderate level of overall readiness nationally, with relatively higher perceived need for collaborative efforts and relatively lower perceived resource availability. There were significant regional differences on all factors, generally favoring the Northeast. Results from DOE–DPH surveys showed significantly higher levels for all readiness factors, compared with Extension systems. Overall, the findings present a mixed picture. Although there were clear challenges related to measuring readiness in complex systems, addressing currently limited dissemination resources, and devising strategies for optimizing readiness, all systems showed some readiness‐related strengths.