Health and Well-Being in Highly Cohesive Units of the U.S. Army1

A large civilian literature on the role of social support in health and well-being suggests that military units high in unit cohesion should provide their members both significant protection from physical and mental illness and high levels of job satisfaction. This hypothesis was tested with a questionnaire survey of soldiers in Special Forces “A-teams”, generally viewed as the U.S. Army's most cohesive permanent units. As predicted, A-team soldiers reported greater physical and psychological well-being and greater satisfaction with job and career than did soldiers in conventionally organized units, be they Special Forces, airborne, or mechanized infantry. The best predictors in our battery of demographic, personality, and cohesion measures were ratings of social support from and satisfaction with one's Army unit, and relatively more “internal” scores on the Rotter locus-of-control scale. From these data and extensive participant observation we conclude that unit cohesion provides the soldier considerable protection from the stresses of military life, even in peace, and that it is organizational rather than individual variables that are primarily responsible for the very high levels of cohesion and/or social support in Special Forces A-teams.     

The psychological unconscious. Found, lost, and regained.

In response to Greenwald's article on contemporary research on unconscious mental processes, the authors address three issues: (a) the independence of much recent research and theory from psychodynamic formulations; (b) the broad sweep of the psychological unconscious, including implicit perception, memory, thought, learning, and emotion; and (c) the possibility that the analytic power of unconscious processing may depend both on the manner in which mental contents are rendered unconscious and the manner in which they are to be processed.     

The effect of the repeated presentation of a standard interval on the reproduction of the standard

The Langley Porter Neuropsychiatrie Institute, San Francisco, California 94122 Eleven human Ss (five male and six female) reproduced intervals of 1, 2, and 3 sec delimited by clicks after the standard intervals had been repeated one, three, or five times. The absolute error of reproduction decreased with increasing repetition of the standard for intervals of 2 and 3 sec. The effect was more pronounced with increasing duration among female Ss.     

“Hooking Up” at College: Does Religion Make a Difference?

Recent attention from media, scholars, and religious leadership has focused on the dating activities of college students, particularly in relation to casual physical encounters or what some have termed "hooking up." In this article, we examine the impact of both individual and institutional religious involvement on "hooking up" in a national sample of college women ( N = 1,000). The results of our analysis reveal several important patterns. First, Catholic college women are more likely to have "hooked up" while at school than college women with no religious affiliation. Second, conservative Protestant college women are less likely to have "hooked up" while at school than college women with no religious affiliation; however, this difference is mediated or explained by church attendance, which is protective against "hooking up." Finally, women who attend colleges and universities with a Catholic affiliation are more likely to have hooked up while at school than women who attend academic institutions with no religious affiliation, net of individual-level religious involvement.     

The Relevance of People Versus Objects in Explaining Females’ Advantage over Males in Appearance Accuracy

Do females remember their surroundings better than males? Does it matter who or what is in those surroundings? In small groups, 108 undergraduates from a Midwestern university in the USA were instructed to pay attention to a videotaped person (target) while seated in an office with an experimenter (non-target). Afterwards, in a surprise recall task, participants’ memory for the appearance of the target, non-target, and office was tested. Females’ greater interpersonal orientation was predicted to give them an advantage over males in memory for only the people. Results showed that females had better memory for the target and non-target but not the office. Discussion centers on the importance of people versus objects in explaining females’ greater appearance accuracy.     

The Contribution of Music to Positive Aging: A Review

Many people value music as an important part of their everyday lives. The published literature reveals that the role of music in life is varied: it can be recreational, educational, social, emotional, therapeutic, and spiritual. The importance and relevance of music depends on the life needs and interests of the individual and the social group within which he/she lives. It is now widely recognized that music for many older people is crucial in supporting a sense of well-being. The article reviews the evidence on the role of music in promoting health and well-being, and how it can produce positive psychological and physiological benefits for individuals. The aim of this article is to increase awareness among health professionals of the importance of music and discuss how it can be used to add to older people's lives.     

Psychosocial mediation of religious coping styles: a study of short-term psychological distress following cardiac surgery

Although religiousness and religious coping styles are well-documented predictors of well-being, research on the mechanisms through which religious coping styles operate is sparse. This prospective study examined religious coping styles, hope, and social support as pathways of the influence of general religiousness (religious importance and involvement) on the reduced postoperative psychological distress of 309 cardiac patients. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that controlling for preoperative distress, gender, and education, religiousness contributed to positive religious coping, which in turn was associated with less distress via a path fully mediated by the secular factors of social support and hope. Furthermore, negative religious coping styles, although correlated at the bivariate level with preoperative distress but not with religiousness, were associated both directly and indirectly with greater post-operative distress via the same mediators.     

Microaggressions and Perceptions of Cultural Humility in Counseling

The purpose of this study was to explore how microaggressions affect counseling outcomes. Participants were 128 racial/ethnic minority individuals who had been in counseling within the past year. Results indicated that identity attributions were associated with counseling outcomes (i.e., working alliance and perceived improvement in counseling). Furthermore, perceptions of cultural humility mediated the relationship between negative emotion due to rupture and counseling outcomes (i.e., working alliance and perceived improvement in counseling).     

Number of solutions effects in stem decision: support for the distinction between identification and production processes in priming

Three experiments explored the distinction between identification and production processes (e.g., Gabrieli et al., 1999). A stem decision test was introduced, in which participants were asked to state whether there were any English words that began with the presented three-letter stems. In Experiment 1, stem decision priming was robust for single-solution stems, but much reduced for many-solution stems. In Experiment 2, the solutions effect in stem decision was replicated in a within-subjects design, as was the contrast between the presence of priming in a many-solution stem completion test and the absence of priming in a many-solution stem decision test. In Experiment 3, for each critical many-solution stem in the stem decision test, participants studied three words that began with those three letters. Again, priming was not observed. These results were consistent with the notions that (a) many-solution stem completion relies on production processes, (b) the stem decision test eliminates production processes, and (c) single-solution priming relies on identification processes, regardless of whether the test is stem completion or stem decision.