MFT Students’ Recount Experiences of Attending Phone and Online Overeaters Anonymous Meetings

The purpose of this study was to explore Marriage and Family Therapy students’ experiences attending Overeaters Anonymous (OA). Utilizing a qualitative survey administered in an addictions course at an institution located in a rural area of the United States, 18 marriage and family therapy (MFT) graduate students reflected on their participation in both online and telephone meetings. In this study, MFT students provided their perspectives regarding the feasible utilization of Overeaters Anonymous in clinical treatment, with an emphasis on the consideration of social support for clients who may reside in rural areas. Three major themes emerged which included (1) enlightenment through exposure; (2) OA as a viable adjunct to therapy; and (3) convenience and comfort. The study addressed recommendations for MFT education, clinical implications, and future research.     

The Impact of Culture on Well-Being: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

This paper examines the effect of culture on subjective well-being. By exploiting the natural experiment of migration we are able to separate the effect of culture (intrinsic cultural disposition, values, beliefs, norms) from other extrinsic institutional, economic and social factors. Using data from five rounds of the European Social Survey we find that holding constant the external environment (living in the same residence country) and controlling for the important socio-demographic attributes, immigrants from countries with high levels of life satisfaction report higher life satisfaction than immigrants from countries with low levels of life satisfaction. The effect of satisfaction in the birth country lasts across generations and is stronger for immigrants who are more attached to the culture of their birth country. Since any observed differences among the immigrants is their cultural background (their birth countries), the results can be interpreted as the effect of culture on life satisfaction. Our results suggest that besides economic and social variables, institutions and personal characteristics, cultural factors play an important role in satisfaction.     

Perceived cultural importance and actual self-importance of values in cultural identification

Cross-cultural psychologists assume that core cultural values define to a large extent what a culture is. Typically, core values are identified through an actual self-importance approach, in which core values are those that members of the culture as a group strongly endorse. In this article, the authors propose a perceived cultural importance approach to identifying core values, in which core values are values that members of the culture as a group generally believe to be important in the culture. In 5 studies, the authors examine the utility of the perceived cultural importance approach. Results consistently showed that, compared with values of high actual self-importance, values of high perceived cultural importance play a more important role in cultural identification. These findings have important implications for conceptualizing and measuring cultures.     

Early Adolescents’ Responses to Witnessing Gender-Based Harassment Differ by their Perceived School Belonging and Gender Typicality

The current study examined bystanders of gender-based harassment (GBH) in early adolescence. Specifically, it examined whether early adolescents’ sense of school belonging, perceived peer support, and self-perceived gender typicality predicted how they respond to witnessing GBH (e.g., whether they confront the perpetrator, seek social support, or ignore it), and whether they feel good or worried about confronting perpetrators of GBH. U.S. 7th and 8th graders (n?=?594; 300 male early adolescents and 294 female early adolescents; M_age?=?12.74, SD?=?.70) completed measures of same- and other-gender typicality, school belonging, peer support, and experiences witnessing GBH. Students reported how often they had witnessed GBH, how they thought they would feel about confronting the perpetrator of GBH, and how they responded (or thought they would respond) to witnessing GBH. The more strongly early adolescents felt a sense of belonging to their school, (a) the more worried and good they felt about confronting GBH and (b) the more likely they were to both confront perpetrators of GBH and to seek social support after witnessing GBH. Early adolescents who were lower in gender typicality felt less positively about confronting GBH, but they were more likely to report confronting perpetrators of GBH. These results indicate that bystander interventions targeting GBH should focus on increasing students’ sense of school belonging and considering individuals simultaneously as both targets and bystanders.

     

Posterror slowing predicts rule-based but not information-integration category learning

We examined whether error monitoring, operationalized as the degree to which individuals slow down after committing an error (i.e., posterror slowing), is differentially important in the learning of rule-based versus information-integration category structures. Rule-based categories are most efficiently solved through the application of an explicit verbal strategy (e.g., “sort by color”). In contrast, information-integration categories are believed to be learned in a trial-by-trial, associative manner. Our results indicated that posterror slowing predicts enhanced rule-based but not information-integration category learning. Implications for multiple category-learning systems are discussed.     

Belief about immutability of moral character and punitiveness toward criminal offenders

The present research examined the association between belief about immutability of moral character and punitiveness toward criminal offenders. Overall, participants who believed that moral character is immutable (entity theorists) were more punitive than those who believed that it is changeable (incremental theorists). More important, the present research identified two mediational paths: Entity theorists made more internal attribution of criminal behavior and held stronger expectation of offenders' recidivism, both of which in turn led to stronger punitiveness. Also, contrary to some researchers' speculation, entity theorists did not perceive less controllability in criminal behavior. Implications for implicit theory research and criminal justice research are discussed.     

Differentiating Psychotic Patients From Nonpsychotic Patients With the MMPI–2 and Rorschach

Rorschach responses of 36 process and 23 reactive schizophrenics have been evaluated for presence of primary and secondary process thinking, and for oral, anal, sex, aggression, and anxiety content. Responses of the process schizophrenics involved more primary process than secondary process thought, whereas the reactive schizophrenics' responses showed more secondary than primary process thinking. A linear trend, parallel for both groups, was noted with regard to frequency of content responses, such that anxiety was greater than aggression, which was greater than oral, which was greater than sex and in turn was greater than anal. In both groups oral content was least invaded by primary process thinking, the remaining categories tended to cluster.     

Comparing the Self-Concepts of Persons With and Without Physical Disabilities

Tam and Watkins (1995b) explored the basis of self-concepts of physically disabled and nondisabled Hong Kong Chinese adults and developed the hierarchical multidimensional self-concept models. Two questionnaires that measure self-concept were developed and validated for those groups. The questionnaires share 41 common items in 6 self-concept areas. In the present study, the 2 groups' responses were compared via univariate analysis of variance. The nondisabled participants (n % 200) were found to have statistically significantly higher means than their disabled counterparts (n % 214) in total self-concept, material self-concepts, and physical self-concepts. There were no significant differences in their family, social, and work self-concepts. The nondisabled participants reported greater openness (indicated by higher self-criticism scores).     

Response Inhibition and ADHD Traits: Correlates and Heritability in a Community Sample

Endophenotypes or intermediate phenotypes are of great interest in neuropsychiatric genetics because of their potential for facilitating gene discovery. We evaluated response inhibition, latency and variability measures derived from the stop task as endophenotypes of ADHD by testing whether they were related to ADHD traits in the general population, heritable and shared genetic risk with ADHD traits. Participants were 16,099 children and adolescents, ages 6 to 18 years who visited a local science center. We measured ADHD traits using the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD-symptoms and Normal-Behavior (SWAN) rating scale and performance on the stop signal task (SST)—response inhibition (SSRT), response latency (GoRT), and response variability (GoRTSD). Regression analysis was used to assess the relationship of cognitive measures and ADHD traits while controlling for family, age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and treatment status. Heritability of ADHD and cognitive traits was estimated using SOLAR in 7,483 siblings from 3,507 families that included multiple siblings. Bivariate relationships between pairs of variables were examined. Individuals with greater ADHD trait scores had worse response inhibition, slower response latency, and greater variability. Younger participants and girls had inferior performance although the gender effects were minimal and evident in youngest participants. Inhibition, latency, variability, total ADHD traits, inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity scores were significantly heritable. ADHD traits and inhibition, but not latency or variability were coheritable. In the largest study in the general population, we found support for the validity of response inhibition as an endophenotype of ADHD.