An Exploration of Moral Rebelliousness with Adolescents and Young Adults

The present pair of studies investigated the assessment, correlates, and evaluation of “moral rebels” who follow their own moral convictions despite social pressure to comply. In Study 1, self, peer, and teacher ratings of adolescents' tendencies to be a moral rebel were positively intercorrelated. In Study 2, young adults' tendencies to be a moral rebel were associated with relatively high self-esteem scores and relatively low willingness to engage in minor moral violations and need to belong scores. Both adolescents and young adults reported relatively favorable attitudes toward a morally rebellious peer, especially when they themselves had heightened ratings on this characteristic.     

Does attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have a dimensional latent structure? A taxometric analysis

An understanding of the latent structure of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is essential for developing causal models of this disorder. Although some researchers have presumed that ADHD is dimensional and others have assumed that it is taxonic, there has been relatively little research directly examining the latent structure of ADHD. The authors conducted a set of taxometric analyses using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (ns between 667 and 1,078). The results revealed a dimensional latent structure across a variety of different analyses and sets of indicators for inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and ADHD. Furthermore, analyses of correlations with associated features indicated that dimensional models demonstrated stronger validity coefficients with these criterion measures than dichotomous models. These findings jibe with recent research on the genetic basis of ADHD and with contemporary models of ADHD.     

Mentoring in China: Enhanced Understanding and Association with Occupational Stress

Purpose  

Given the increased usage of mentoring programs in multi-cultural settings, including the Chinese workplace, the present study examined Chinese employees’ understanding of mentoring relationships and whether mentoring played a role in their occupational stress process.     

The role of phantom recollection in false recall

Although high levels of phantom recollection (illusory vivid experience of the prior "presentation" of unpresented items) have been found for false recognition, little is known about phantom recollection in recall. We examined this issue with Deese/Roediger-McDermott lists using two paradigms: repeated recall and conjoint recall. High levels of phantom recollection were observed with both standard behavioral measures and the parameters of fuzzy-trace theory's dual-recall model. In addition, phantom recollection and the true recollection that accompanies presented items appear to involve different retrieval processes, because they were dissociated by manipulations such as number of recall tests and list strength.     

Parental Leave of Absence: Some Not So Family-Friendly Implications1

This experiment examined the effects of ratee gender, type of leave of absence, and level of performance on perceptions of organizational commitment, work commitment, family commitment, and recommendations for organizational rewards. The proposed 3-way interactions between gender, type of leave of absence, and performance level were not supported; however, main effects and 2-way interactions were revealed. Moreover, perceived organizational commitment and work commitment were found to moderate the relationship between performance level and reward recommendations. The findings also indicated that men who were depicted as taking a leave of absence from work for parental reasons were less likely to be recommended for rewards than were males who had not taken a leave of absence.     

Mastery motivation: Appropriate tasks for toddlers

Mastery motivation is the inherent drive which leads young children to explore and master their environment. This research explores the relationship between age and the ability to complete a task, and the appropriateness of using new shapes and mazes to assess mastery motivation in toddlers.     

Caregiver Involvement in the Intensive Mental Health Program: Influence on Changes in Child Functioning

We examined behavioral markers of caregiver involvement and the ways in which family participation was related to treatment outcomes in 47 elementary school children with SED enrolled in a school-based intensive mental health program. Measures of caregiver involvement included therapeutic home visits, attendance at therapeutic meetings, completion of ratings on the daily point sheet, and extra communications with the therapeutic team on the point sheet. Greater initial impairment was associated with greater caregiver involvement. Greater caregiver involvement was linked to improvement in child thought processes, increased ability to provide emotional and social supports for the child, and greater overall child functioning at discharge. Our findings also reflected increased therapists’ attempts to provide additional in-home services in cases where caregivers demonstrated a decline in their ability to provide for their children’s physical and material needs, or in which therapists discovered that the family functioning was more impaired than what was initially assessed. We provide a case study that exemplifies many of these findings.     

Satisfaction with Components of the Therapeutic Model: Perspectives of Consumers and Professionals

We provide information about consumer and provider perceptions using a mixed-model pilot study within the Intensive Mental Health Project (IMHP), a school-based treatment service for children with SED and their families. Caregiver, youth, and provider questionnaires developed for this project elicited quantitative and qualitative information on treatment satisfaction, therapeutic alliance, and active involvement in treatment. Caregivers and children overall had positive perceptions of the services they received through IMHP. Providers reported very good working relationships with most children and families. Consumers also provided constructive comments about how to improve services. Our results add support to the importance of therapeutic alliance and collaboration, which are guiding principles of the IMHP.     

Social influence effects on automatic racial prejudice.

Although most research on the control of automatic prejudice has focused on the efficacy of deliberate attempts to suppress or correct for stereotyping, the reported experiments tested the hypothesis that automatic racial prejudice is subject to common social influence. In experiments involving actual interethnic contact, both tacit and expressed social influence reduced the expression of automatic prejudice, as assessed by two different measures of automatic attitudes. Moreover, the automatic social tuning effect depended on participant ethnicity. European Americans (but not Asian Americans) exhibited less automatic prejudice in the presence of a Black experimenter than a White experimenter (Experiments 2 and 4), although both groups exhibited reduced automatic prejudice when instructed to avoid prejudice (Experiment 3). Results are consistent with shared reality theory, which postulates that social regulation is central to social cognition.