The moderating effect of trigger intensity on triggered displaced aggression

Many instances of aggression result in excessive retaliation in response to a seemingly trivial triggering event. The triggered displaced aggression paradigm (TDA; Miller, Pedersen, Earleywine, & Pollock, 2003) provides an experimental vehicle for exploring such occurrences. Participants were either provoked or not and were subsequently exposed to a neutral, mild, or moderately strong triggering event from a second bogus participant. Consistent with TDA theory (Miller et al., 2003), disjunctively escalated aggressive behavior occurred only among previously provoked participants when responding to the mild triggering event, but not the moderately strong or neutral trigger. Independent of provocation, the neutral triggering event elicited very low levels of aggression, whereas the moderately strong trigger elicited moderate levels of aggression. Implications for instances of real world aggression are discussed.     

Contextual Influences on Marriage

Abstract— Current proposals to promote and strengthen marriage among low-income populations focus on values and behavioral skills as primary targets of intervention. Marital research that examines contextual influences on marriage calls these emphases into question. Ethnographic and survey research reveal no evidence that populations experiencing higher rates of divorce value healthy marriages any less than other populations do. Longitudinal and observational research reveals two mechanisms through which the environment of a marriage may enhance or constrain effective relationship maintenance. First, some environments contain fewer sources of support and pose more severe challenges than others, presenting marriages in those environments with greater burdens than marriages in more supportive environments are faced with. Second, when demands external to the marriage are relatively high, even couples with adequate coping skills may have difficulty exercising those skills effectively. Together, such findings suggest that successful policies and interventions to strengthen marriages need to acknowledge the environments within which marriages take place.     

A Standard of Care for the Assessment of Suicide Risk and Associated Treatment: The Florida State University Psychology Clinic as an Example

The Florida State University has established a set of guidelines to be used as a standard of care for suicide. This standard of care guides therapists through a suicide risk assessment that focuses on key variables related to suicidal behavior that are among the best predictors of completed suicide. This standard of care includes necessary components of suicide risk assessment, critical steps to follow to ensure the safety of suicidal patients, treatment recommendations, and guidelines for minimizing the legal risk of the therapist. Though this standard of care was developed in a research and training clinic, these principles may be applied to all clinicians offering psychological services to patients, regardless of the nature of the clinic or setting.     

Multidimensional assessment of family involvement among urban elementary students

Family involvement in children's education is fundamental for academic success. This study extended the research on the Family Involvement Questionnaire for Early Childhood (FIQ-EC) by further developing the measure and testing its use with low-income urban elementary students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses affirmed three salient and reliable family involvement dimensions for a large sample of urban first- through fifth-grade students: Home-based Involvement, School-based Involvement, and Home–School Communication. Multivariate analyses demonstrated the significance of caregiver educational background, family characteristics, and child gender to involvement dimensions. Caregiver age or children's grade level did not significantly relate to family involvement dimensions. This study contributes to evidence for a multidimensional understanding of family involvement.     

Age differences in personality traits across cultures: self‐report and observer perspectives

Using self‐report measures, longitudinal studies in the US and cross‐sectional studies from many cultures suggest that the broad factors of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience decline from adolescence to adulthood, whereas Agreeableness and Conscientiousness increase. Data are inconsistent on the rate of change during adulthood, and on the generalizability of self‐report findings to informant ratings. We analysed cross‐sectional data from self‐reports and informant ratings on the Revised NEO Personality Inventory in Czech (N = 705) and Russian (N = 800) samples. Some curvilinear effects were found, chiefly in the Czech sample; informant data generally replicated self‐reports, although the effects were weaker. Although many of the details are not yet clear, there appear to be pan‐cultural trends in personality development that are consistent with the hypothesis of intrinsic maturation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Affect, Curiosity, and Socialization-Related Learning: A Path Analysis of Antecedents to Job Performance

This study examined the influence of affect, curiosity, and socialization-related learning on job performance, with 233 service industry employees from a diverse variety of occupations completing surveys at their places of work. Both state and trait curiosity and socialization-related learning (learning associated with employee socialization) were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between affect (operationalized as state and trait anxiety and anger) and job performance. Structural equation analyses indicate that the data are consistent with the theoretical models proposed. As expected, anxiety negatively influences curiosity, socialization-related learning, and job performance; conversely, anger positively influences curiosity, socialization-related learning, and job performance. Overall, the findings suggest that affects indeed predict perception of job performance, but through the mediation of curiosity and the learning associated with the socialization process. These results highlight the importance of the complex interplay between affect, curiosity, and learning when thinking about successful employee socialization and best possible job performance.     

Grounding Human Dignity

Abstract: What is the future of human dignity? Is there a limit on what can be done to human organisms? To approach such questions this article reviews some traditional understandings of human dignity and then offers a shift in perspective. Traditional areas in which human dignity has been grounded include the doctrine of the image of God, the notion of humanity as a reconciliation of opposites, the chronological place of humans in the process of creation, God's free grace, and the human capacity for union with the divine. Maintaining that dignity is reserved for the later stages of human development, the author suggests we shift our thinking from notions of dignity to those of value. A fertilized egg as a living organism is to be valued for its uniqueness and nature, but it does not acquire dignity until it individualizes within the larger process of embryogenesis.