Explaining the use of text-based communication media: an examination of three theories of media use

The present study examined the factors associated with individuals' use of three different text-based communication media: e-mail, cell-phone texting, and Facebook Wall postings. Three theoretical perspectives, including media richness theory, uses and gratifications, and perceived network effects, were examined. Using data from a survey of college students (N=280), the study found that the theoretical constructs from these theories play different roles when applied to different technologies. The results suggest that a simultaneous consideration of technological attributes, users' motivations, and social circumstances in which users select and use the technology is useful for fully understanding the dynamics of the selection and the use of a given technology.     

Time-dependent adhesion of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer film to a flat indenter tip characterized using a cohesive-zone law

The work of adhesion between a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer film and a flat diamond tip was measured by instrumented indentation. The results showed that the apparent work of adhesion between the tip and the PDMS film increases with increasing dwell time and retreating velocity; on the other hand, the indentation depth has no significant effect on adhesion. The indentation experiment was analysed with viscoelastic finite element simulations with rate-dependent cohesive elements, from which the time evolution of adhesion was quantitatively implemented into a rate-dependent cohesive-zone law.     

Task relevance modulates processing of distracting emotional stimuli

Relatively little is known about the integration of people's fear-related dispositions and their expectations about stressful events. This research used information integration theory to examine how participants’ anxiety sensitivity and event expectancy are integrated to determine their social anxiety. Three studies were conducted—two with university students and one with anxiety clinic patients—in which participants were presented with multiple scenarios of a socially embarrassing event, each representing a different degree of event probability, from which subjective expectancies were derived. Independent variables included anxiety sensitivity (low, moderate, high) and event expectancy (low, medium, high, no probability information). Participants were asked to indicate their anxiety (dependent measure) in each expectancy condition in this 3 × 4 mixed, quasi-experimental design. The results of all three studies strongly suggest that anxiety sensitivity and event expectancy are integrated additively to produce social anxiety. Additional results and their implications for the treatment of anxiety-related disorders are also discussed.     

An Exploration of Coaching Research in Journal of Applied Sport Psychology from 1989 to 2017

This article seeks to examine the treatment of coaching research within Journal of Applied Sport Psychology (JASP) and, specifically, to explore whether the Association for Applied Sport Psychology’s mission in recognizing the coach as a performing “other” is being adopted in the field. The study followed a 3-phase design. In Phase 1, an exhaustive search was conducted to identify all coach-related research published in JASP from 1989 to 2017. Phase 2 consisted of accessing the 101 identified articles from a total of 690 articles that had been published in JASP during the review period. In Phase 3, articles were categorized into the multidisciplinary sport and exercise psychology (M-SEP) and contemporary multidisciplinary sport and exercise psychology (C-SEP) periods, and analysis of the articles was completed. Main results indicated that articles that focused on coach perceptions about different topics related primarily to SEP decreased in focus from 40% in the M-SEP period to 23% in the C-SEP period. A prominent focus in both periods was the impact of coaches (often interpersonal behaviors) on their athletes’ performance (M-SEP?=?35%, C-SEP?=?46%). A coach performance focus was coded in only 10% of articles in both periods. Articles decreased in their explicit discussion of how research applied to consulting from 60% to 44% across periods. The findings suggest that currently the literature in JASP does not directly provide SEP professionals with effective knowledge application for working with coaches as a performer within the sport context. This review emphasizes the lack of research positioning of coach as a performing “other” within JASP and may increase awareness of viewing the coach as a performer within the field of applied sport psychology.

Lay Summary: This study was a review of research articles published within the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology (JASP) between 1989 and 2017. Only research with a main focus in coaching was included in the review. A multiple-step process was used to examine the articles and pinpoint the type of research about coaches that was being published in JASP. Results showed a large focus on how coaches contribute to their athletes’ performance, however, a lack of research examining aspects of the coach themselves and how they might enhance their own performance as a coach.     

Genetic Counseling/Consultation in South-East Asia: A Report from the Workshop at the 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Human Genetics

This paper reports on the workshop ‘Genetic Counseling/Consultations in South-East Asia’ at the 10^th Asia Pacific Conference on Human Genetics in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in December 2012. The workshop brought together professionals and language/communication scholars from South-East Asia, and the UK. The workshop aimed at addressing culture- and context-specific genetic counseling/consultation practices in South-East Asia. As a way of contextualizing genetic counseling/consultation in South-East Asia, we first offer an overview of communication-oriented research generally, drawing attention to consultation and counseling as part of a communicative continuum with distinctive interactional features. We then provide examples of genetic counseling/consultation research in Hong Kong. As other countries in South-East Asia have not yet embarked on communication-oriented empirical research, we report on the current practices of genetic counseling/consultation in these countries in order to identify similarities and differences as well as key obstacles that could be addressed through future research. Three issues emerged as ‘problematic’: language, religion and culture. We suggest that communication-oriented research can provide a starting point for evidence-based reflections on how to incorporate a counseling mentality in genetic consultation. To conclude, we discuss the need for creating a platform for targeted training of genetic counselors based on communication-oriented research findings.     

Work–Family Conflict and Flexible Work Arrangements: Deconstructing Flexibility

Workplace flexibility has been a topic of considerable interest to researchers, practitioners, and public policy advocates as a tool to help individuals manage work and family roles. In this study, meta‐analysis is used to clarify what is known about the relationship between flexible work arrangements and work–family conflict by deconstructing the flexibility construct. We found that the direction of work–family conflict (work interference with family vs. family interference with work) and the specific form of flexibility (flextime vs. flexplace; use vs. availability) make a difference in the effects found. Overall, the significant effects were small in magnitude.     

The Relationship between Trauma and Financial and Physical Well-Being Among Cambodians in the United States

This study focused on the relationship between trauma and financial and physical well-being of Cambodian refugees in the United Sates. Trauma was defined by three variables: whether or not trauma had been experienced in Cambodia, the number of traumas experienced, and the number of years spent in refugee camps. It was hypothesized that these trauma variables would predict financial and physical health among Cambodians in the United States. A discriminant analysis showed significant relationships between the trauma variables and current employment status, and multiple regression analyses showed that trauma predicted income and physical health.     

Parental,Peer, and Teacher Influences on the Social Behavior of Hong Kong Chinese Adolescents

Intensive interviews and self-report questionnaires were used to investigate parental, peer, and teacher influences on the prosocial and antisocial behaviors of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. Students came from 5 academically different high schools. Results indicated that perceived parental influence was positively associated with frequency of prosocial behavior and negatively associated with frequency of delinquent behavior. Students with good relationships with their parents and peers showed lower frequencies of antisocial behaviors than did students with bad relationships. Adolescents in different identity statuses (achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, diffusion; E. H. Erikson, 1968) showed different patterns of prosocial and antisocial behaviors. For example, adolescents in the identity achievement group exhibited high frequencies of prosocial behaviors and low frequencies of antisocial behaviors, but those in the identity moratorium group exhibited quite high frequencies of both prosocial and antisocial behaviors.     

Children's Inferences of Causal Events During Story Understanding

Second-grade children's inference of causal events was studied. Each of the 24 children heard 2 stories containing 6 event episodes. Each story was followed by either a sentence recognition or a cued-recall test. Event episodes explicitly stated an event followed by its outcome. Enablement episodes explicitly stated an action that was causally antecedent to the event, followed by the outcome of the event. Filler (control) episodes explicitly stated an action causally unrelated to the event, followed by the outcome of the event. The results indicate that the children more frequently inferred events from enablements than they inferred enablements from events, and that the children did not make the inferences at the time of reading, but instead made them when queried at the time of the test. This conclusion is suggested because there was false recognition of events but no false recall.     

The Relation of Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior to Personality and Peer Relationships of Hong Kong Chinese Adolescents

The prosocial and antisocial behaviors of 2,862 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents were investigated. The major findings were as follows: (a) boys were more antisocial than girls; (b) negative peer influences were significantly stronger in boys than in girls, whereas positive peer influences were significantly stronger in girls than in boys; (c) antisocial adolescents tended to perceive their best friend as antisocial and exerting more negative influences on them, whereas prosocial adolescents tended to perceive their best friend as prosocial and exerting more positive influences on them; (d) antisocial behavior was positively associated with psychoticism and neuroticism; and (e) academic achievement tended to have a positive relation with prosocial behavior and a negative relation with antisocial behavior.