“Vamos a la Escuelita Arte Terapia”: An Art Therapy Protocol for Promoting Resilience with Latino Farm Worker Children

Children of Latino farm worker families risk experiencing emotional and behavioral issues. Yet mental health resources are often inaccessible because of transportation and communication disparities. Subsequently, there is a need for accessible therapy-based programs which cross language and cultural barriers. The pilot study, la Escuelita Arte Terapia, sought to address the compounding needs of the children by running a six-week art therapy protocol within a Latino farm worker community in southern Georgia. The average attendance was 95 percent, with approximately 25 children between the ages of 2 and 7 attending each session. Observational data revealed that several therapeutic goals were successful in building internal resiliency while working to reduce risk factors and improve the participant’s school-readiness. Specifically, participants displayed increased developments in their fine and gross motor skills, creative development, emotional expression, behavioral focus, and social engagement. Several factors contributed to the success of la Escuelita Arte Terapia, which included how the promotores acted as mediators between the art therapists and the families, the art therapists’ supportive role, the art therapy milieu, and the community connections. It is hoped that future endeavors will build on the intervention proposed to help determine how art therapy can address emotional and behavioral disparities with Latino farm worker children.     

Prevalence and correlates of suicidal behavior among adult female victims of intimate partner violence

The prevalence and correlates of suicidal threats and attempts among 662 racially and ethnically diverse adult female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) were studied. One in five women had threatened or attempted suicide during her lifetime. They observed that multiple logistic regression results indicated that women at greater risk of severe or potentially lethal assaults as measured by the Danger Assessment and those who reported having a chronic or disabling illness were more likely to have threatened or attempted suicide. A linear association was found between age and suicide threats/attempts, with younger women having increased odds. Finally, African American IPV victims were less likely to have threatened or attempted suicide as compared to Latina victims. Study implications are discussed.     

Familiarity and personal experience as mediators of recall when planning for future contingencies

In this article, we demonstrate that planning tasks enhance recall when the context of planning (a) is self-referential and (b) draws on familiar scenarios represented in episodic memory. Specifically, we show that when planning tasks are sorted according to the degree to which they evoke memories of personally familiar scenarios (e.g., planning a picnic), recall is reliably superior to tasks that fail to do so (e.g., planning an Arctic trek). We discuss the implications of these findings for planning tasks and their relation to episodic memory.     

The implicit theories of firesetters: A preliminary conceptualization

The importance of cognition in the facilitation and reinforcement of criminal behavior has been highlighted and recognized in numerous offender populations. In particular, professionals have theorized that various offender populations hold offense-supportive schemas or implicit theories that require treatment in therapy. However, the role of cognition in deliberate firesetting has received no focused conceptual or theoretical attention. Using current research evidence and theory relating to general cognition and the characteristics of firesetters, this paper outlines a preliminary conceptual framework of the potential cognitions (in the form of implicit theories) that are likely to characterize firesetters. Five implicit theories are proposed that may be associated with firesetting behavior. The content, structure, and etiological functions of these implicit theories are described as well as the cognitive similarities between firesetters and other offender types. Future research implications and practical implications of the proposed implicit theories are also discussed.     

Finding parallels in fronto-striatal organization

Evidence suggests that lateral frontal cortex is hierarchically organized such that rostral frontal regions support more abstract representations than caudal regions. A recent fMRI study of language processing proposes that striatum may exhibit an analogous organization. We consider this hypothetical correspondence at both the cognitive and anatomical levels.     

Cross-cultural differences and similarities in proneness to shame: An adaptationist and ecological approach

People vary in how easily they feel ashamed, that is, in their shame proneness. According to the information threat theory of shame, variation in shame proneness should, in part, be regulated by features of a person's social ecology. On this view, shame is an emotion program that evolved to mitigate the likelihood or costs of reputation-damaging information spreading to others. In social environments where there are fewer possibilities to form new relationships (i.e., low relational mobility), there are higher costs to damaging or losing existing ones. Therefore, shame proneness toward current relationship partners should increase as perceived relational mobility decreases. In contrast, individuals with whom one has little or no relationship history are easy to replace, and so shame-proneness towards them should not be modulated by relational mobility. We tested these predictions cross-culturally by measuring relational mobility and shame proneness towards friends and strangers in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Japanese subjects were more shame-prone than their British and American counterparts. Critically, lower relational mobility was associated with greater shame proneness towards friends (but not strangers), and this relationship partially mediated the cultural differences in shame proneness. Shame proneness appears tailored to respond to relevant features of one's social ecology.     

Finding the Lost Sheep: A Panel Study of Business Students' Intrinsic Religiosity,Machiavellianism, and Unethical Behavior Intentions

This research investigates 266 business students' panel data across 4 time periods and tests a theoretical model involving intrinsic religiosity, the love of money (Time 1), Machiavellianism (Time 2), and propensity to engage in unethical behaviors (PUB; Times 3 and 4). There was a short ethics intervention between Times 3 and 4. We identified good apples and bad apples using the PUB measure collected at Time 4. From Time 3 to Time 4, good apples became more ethical, whereas bad apples became less ethical after the ethics intervention. Moreover, for the whole sample, intrinsic religiosity deterred unethical intentions not only directly but also indirectly through the absence of Machiavellianism. Before the ethics intervention, intrinsic religiosity curbed unethical intention directly for good apples but indirectly for bad apples. After the intervention, only the indirect effect was significant for bad apples. Intrinsic religiosity offers us hope to open the hearts of the lost sheep and bring them home. Research results were discussed in light of this study's theoretical, empirical, and practical contributions; Judeo-Christian ethics and values; challenging roles of educators and executives in educating Gen-Yers; creating a sea change of the ethical social norm in schools, organizations, and society, or ethical community building, and promoting ethical behavior; and future directions for research.     

Psychological models in predicting uptake of prenatal screening

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to determine which psychological models are most useful in predicting uptake of a prenatal screening test, maternal-serum alphafetoprotein screening for spina bifida and Down's syndrome. 1000 women eligible for the test completed standardised self-report questionnaires at two routine clinic visits to an antenatal clinic prior to the time when the test could take place. 902 underwent the screening test; 51 declined the test; and 47 did not undergo the test, giving no reason for this to staff. Knowledge of the test, the subjective expected utility attached to the test, and attitudes to doctors and medicine were all significant predictors of uptake behaviour. Results of a discriminant function analysis demonstrated distinct psychological processes underlying each of these three uptake behaviours, explaining 21% of the variance in uptake of screening. If uptake of screening is examined not as a dichotomous variable but as a group of behaviours, predictive models are identified accordingly. This would lead to rnodels of health-related behaviours as a heterogeneous rather than homogeneous phenomena, predicted and influenced by different causes.     

Modelling decisions to undergo genetic testing for susceptibility to common health conditions: An ancillary study of the Multiplex Initiative

New genetic tests reveal risks for multiple conditions simultaneously, although little is understood about the psychological factors that affect testing uptake. We assessed a conceptual model called the multiplex genetic testing model (MGTM) using structural equation modelling. The MGTM delineates worry, perceived severity, perceived risk, response efficacy and attitudes towards testing as predictors of intentions and behaviour. Participants were 270 healthy insured adults aged 25–40 from the Multiplex Initiative conducted within a health care system in Detroit, MI, USA. Participants were offered a genetic test that assessed risk for eight common health conditions. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that worry, perceived risk and severity clustered into two disease domains: cancer or metabolic conditions. Only perceived severity of metabolic conditions was correlated with general response efficacy (β?=?0.13, p<0.05), which predicted general attitudes towards testing (β?=?0.24, p<0.01). Consistent with our hypothesised model, attitudes towards testing were the strongest predictors of intentions to undergo testing (β?=?0.49, p<0.01), which in turn predicted testing uptake (OR 17.7, β?=?0.97, p<0.01). The MGTM explained a striking 48% of the variance in intentions and 94% of the variation in uptake. These findings support use of the MGTM to explain psychological predictors of testing for multiple health conditions.     

Health professionals: A source of variance in health outcomes

Abstract

The behaviour of health professionals is rarely considered systematically by psychologists. This paper makes the following argument: first, that the behaviour of health professionals is influenced by other factors as well as medical knowledge; second, that various psychological models of human behaviour previously used only in considering the behaviour of patients may also be used to explain, predict and change the behaviour of health professionals; third, to implement effective care the behaviour of health professionals needs to be considered alongside that of patients.