Women,Human Rights,and Counseling: Crossing International Boundaries

As the world becomes more globalized, psychological and counseling issues have become more pronounced. As social justice issues become illuminated on a global scale, there is increased attention to women as identified victims of social injustices and human rights violations. This article examines the role of professional counselors working with women from an international perspective with the intention to heighten awareness and understanding of the interrelationship of global women's issues and effective counseling interventions.     

Something for nothing: understanding purchasing behaviors in social virtual environments.

The present paper is composed of two studies. The first study explored the variables influencing the purchase of avatar-related products through the avatar users' survey research. This proposed a theoretical model of the purchase of avatar-related products using attitude toward an avatar, subjective norm, self-presentation, identification, and immersion. Although significant relationships were found for the individual links, the model was not supported. The second study focused on which variables predict the intention to use avatar-related products. A model was tested with avatar non-users. Results indicated that all relationships among variables in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), such as perceived ease of use of avatar, perceived usefulness of avatar, attitude toward using avatar, and intention to use avatar-related products, were strongly supported, as was the link between Internet self-efficacy and perceived ease of use of avatar. Also, the peer groups' subjective norm component which was a unique variable successfully predicted intention to use avatar-related products. Overall, all hypotheses were supported and the data were judged to be consistent with the model.     

Perceptions of Singles and Single Parents: A Laboratory Experiment1

Two hundred forty undergraduates rated their perceptions of an individual for a job requiring relocation using a 2 × 3 (Gender: Single Male, Single Female × Child: No Child, 3‐Year‐Old, 6‐Year‐Old) between‐subjects experimental design. Findings indicate that single parents are perceived as having a more difficult time adjusting to a move but are also perceived to be more mature than childless singles. Single parents are also more likely to be offered a job that did not require relocation and are more likely to be awarded a merit‐based stipend than childless singles. Support was also found for the hypothesized mediating role of perceptions of adjustment and maturity in understanding actions taken toward single parents. The results are discussed in terms of implications for future research and applied practice.     

The Relation Between Chosen Role Models and the Self-Esteem of Men and Women

This study was designed to investigate choice of role models and levels of self-esteem within a sample of college students (N = 120). Participants rated themselves and their chosen role models on 29 character traits, which allowed determination of the self-perceived likeness of the participant to their role models (difference score). The difference score was then correlated with four subtypes of self-esteem. As predicted, participants chose more same-sex than other-sex role models; women were more likely than men to choose other-sex role models. The results indicated that choice of same-sex, as opposed to other-sex role models, is not indicative of higher levels of self-esteem in general. However, self-perceived likeness of role model to participant is significantly related to self-esteem, particularly for women.     

Distinguishing true from false memories in forensic contexts: Can phenomenology tell us what is real?

We studied the extent to which subjective ratings of memory phenomenology discriminate true‐ and false‐memory responses, and whether degree of gist‐based processing influences false memory and phenomenology, in a classic forensic task, the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS). Participants heard a narrative of a robbery followed by suggestive questions about the content of the narrative. They were asked to rate the items they recognized as studied using the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ). Consistent with studies of word lists, there were phenomenological differences between true and false memory responses: memory phenomenology was richer for true than for false memories, which supports opponent‐process accounts of false memory such as fuzzy‐trace theory. Thus, phenomenology is a useful means for differentiating experienced from non‐experienced events in forensic contexts. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Associations of Psychosocial Factors with Maternal Confidence Among Japanese and Vietnamese Mothers

We conducted this cross-sectional study among 392 Japanese and 294 Vietnamese mothers who attended routine child health visits in a Japanese city and at a tertiary hospital in Vietnam, in order to investigate the prevalence and associated sociodemographic, parenting, and psychological characteristics of low maternal confidence in child rearing among them. All data were collected from medical files in Japan, and from medical files and self-administered questionnaires in Vietnam. The proportion of mothers without secure feeling of confidence in the present study was 22% in Japan and 66% in Vietnam. Significant factors associated with a lack of confidence were first-time motherhood and unintended pregnancy in the Japanese dataset and younger age in the Vietnamese dataset. In both groups, a higher proportion of mothers who lacked confidence reported negative parenting outcomes than did confident mothers. Among the three psychological measurements (mood, self-efficacy and depression), higher self-efficacy was associated independently with a significantly reduced risk of not having confidence in child rearing. These results suggest the importance of developing parenting support programs to help Japanese and Vietnamese mothers, particularly those who are young, first-time mothers or who became pregnant unexpectedly, improve their self-efficacy.     

Terror management among Taiwanese: Worldview defence or resigning to fate?

Terror management theory (TMT) proposes that people who are reminded of their mortality should be motivated to defend their cultural worldview. Studies 1 and 2 examined whether the TMT worldview defence‐buffering effect found in Western cultures could be generalized to Asians in Taiwan. No such effect was found in the present studies. This non‐significant result was robust when either a stronger distraction task was used (study 1) or when a subliminal manipulation of mortality salience was utilized (study 2). A meta‐analysis, including 24 TMT experiments in East Asia, was also conducted (study 3). The average effect size (d = 0.11, r = 0.055) of worldview defence among these experiments was not significantly different from zero. Study 4 found that mortality salience manipulation also did not change Taiwanese participants' view of reincarnation; however, it did make them more inclined to resign to fate, suggesting that they might be using this symbolic means to defend their anxiety of death. The issue of the generality of TMT to Asians was discussed.     

Temptation Bias: Can Self-enhancement Limit the Influence of Gender Stereotypes?

Temptation bias is the tendency to see oneself as better than others at resisting temptation. To understand the influence of self-enhancement and gender stereotypes on temptation bias, 215 undergraduates from a university located in the southwest region of the United States compared their ability to resist ten sexually tempting scenarios to that of others in general, and to their romantic partner (Study 1). An additional 151 undergraduates from the same university rated their own or their partner’s ability to resist seven sexually tempting scenarios compared to other men and women (Study 2). Results revealed that temptation bias was present but reduced when romantic partners were the comparison targets; and when comparing themselves to others, women displayed temptation bias regardless of the gender of the referent while men displayed temptation bias only when comparing themselves to men.     

Distressed Mothers and Their Infants Use a Less Efficient Timing Mechanism in Creating Expectancies of Each Other’s Looking Patterns

The prediction of events and the creation of expectancies about their time course is a crucial aspect of an infant's mental life, but temporal mechanisms underlying these predictions are obscure. Scalar timing, in which the ratio of mean durations to their standard deviations is held constant, enables a person to use an estimate of the mean for its standard deviation. It is one efficient mechanism that may facilitate predictability and the creation of expectancies in mother-infant interaction. We illustrate this mechanism with the dyadic gaze rhythm of mother and infant looking at and looking away from each other's faces. Two groups of Hi- and Lo-Distress mothers were created using self-reported depression, anxiety, self-criticism and childhood experiences. Lo-Distress infants (controls) used scalar timing 100% of the time, about double that of Hi-Distress infants. Lo-Distress mothers used scalar timing about nine times as much as Hi-Distress mothers. The diminished use of scalar timing patterns in Hi-Distress mothers and infants may make the anticipation of each other's gaze patterns more difficult for both partners.     

Moving toward interdisciplinary dialogue in mentoring scholarship: An introduction to the Special Issue

The study of mentoring spans a wide range of disciplines including psychology, organizational behavior, education, and social work, among others. However, until recently there has been little interdisciplinary dialogue among mentoring scholars. In this Special Issue we attempt to lay the groundwork for interdisciplinary research on mentoring by examining this phenomenon through the lens of youth mentoring, academic mentoring, and workplace mentoring. In this introduction we outline the aims of this Special Issue, provide a common definition of mentoring to guide the reader through the articles that follow, summarize the knowledge gained from the included articles, and offer insight into what we believe are important next steps for developing a multidisciplinary perspective on mentoring.