Cognitive functioning in young "social drinkers": is there impairment to detect?

Literature on the cognitive effects of nonexcessive alcohol use suggests that relatively high-quantity-per-occasion use may be related to subsequent decreases in sober-state abstracting skills in adults, but provides no clear prediction for youth. The need to identify persistent alcohol-intake effects on cognition is particularly acute for the period of adolescence and young adulthood because even slight damage may impair developmentally significant skills. We examine the relation between multiple measures of neuropsychological status and both continuous and categorical measures of alcohol-use patterns in an age- and sex-stratified sample of 1,308 18-, 21-, and 24-year-olds. The results of correlational and hierarchial regression analyses suggest that cognitive performance bears little direct relation to drinking behaviors in young nonclinical males and females. Although the data provide no strong support for the hypothesis of a causal relationship between alcohol use and cognitive functioning, there is a slight suggestion that frequent high-quantity consumption may become a salient parameter of use as subjects age. Prospective longitudinal data are needed to explore the directional causality of effects.     

A short-term longitudinal examination of young adolescent functioning following divorce: The role of family factors

The purposes of this study were to examine young adolescent functioning over a 2-year period after divorce and to assess the role of two family factors, interpersonal conflict and the parent-adolescent relationship, in predicting such functioning. One hundred and twelve young adolescents, their mothers, and their social studies teachers served as participants. One-half of the adolescent were from recently divorced families and one-half were from married families. Mothers completed measures concerning interparental conflict and the parent-adolescent relationship, adolescents completed a measure of the relationship, and teachers completed measures assessing four areas of adolescent functioning. The results indicated that adolescents from divorced families were functioning less well than those from married families. There were no changes in adolescent functioning and the parent-adolescent relationship from the first to second year postdivorce. High levels of interparental conflict in divorced families were associated with more parent-adolescent relationship problems. In turn parent-adolescent relationships problems served as the best predictor of concurrent and subsequent difficulty in adolescent functioning.This study was supported, in part, by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research.     

Individual Reactions to New Technologies in the Workplace: The Role of Gender as a Psychological Construct

Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), individual reactions to a new technology and technology usage behavior were studied over a 12-month period among 552 employees being introduced to a new computer-based system in the workplace. When considering gender as a psychological construct by employing Bern's Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), important distinctions were revealed. Specifically, masculine gender-typed individuals exhibited the same pattern as did men in previous research; feminine gender-typed individuals were different from women in that they were influenced only by subjective norm and PBC. The balanced decision-making process was observed only in the case of individuals categorized as androgynous. The high percentage of women who tested to be androgynous explains the divergence in results from the previous work, and provides evidence of changing gender roles for women in today's organizations and society.     

Objectification Theory as It Relates to Disordered Eating Among College Women

Objectification theory (B. L. Fredrickson & T. A. Roberts, 1997) demonstrates how sociocultural variables work together with psychological variables to predict disordered eating. Researchers have tested models that illustrate how certain constructsof objectification theory predict disordered eating, but a more comprehensive model that integrates a combination of constructs central to the theory (i.e., sexual objectification; self-objectification; body shame; poor interoceptive awareness of hunger, satiety, and emotions) has not yet been examined. In this study, we incorporated these variables within an inclusive model based on the assertions of B. L. Fredrickson and T. A. Roberts (1997) and examined it with 460 college women. Structural equation modeling analyses suggested that the model provided a good fit to the data and supported most propositions set forth by objectification theory and the eating disorders literature.     

Randomized controlled trial of a brief problem-orientation intervention for suicidal ideation

Empirical evaluations suggest that problem orientation, the initial reaction to problems, differentiates suicidal youth from nonchnical controls and nonideating psychiatric controls. One promising area for intervention with suicidal youth relates to enhancing this specific coping skill. Nonclinical participants (N = 110) with active suicidal ideation were randomly assigned to receive a brief problem-orientation intervention or a control procedure. The current study evaluated the benefits of a brief prevention intervention based on the Problem-Solving Therapy model. Exposure to a brief video intervention regarding problem solving and coping skills was sufficient to elicit significant decreases in suicidal ideation and depression, but the intervention did not elicit improvements in problem orientation or other problem-solving abilities. These findings provide preliminary support for a brief, video-based problem-solving and coping skills module. However, considerable work in developing secondary prevention interventions remains.     

The Lost Millennium: Psychology During the Middle Ages

The Psychological Record - The medieval period—roughly the 1,000 years from the classical Greco-Roman age to the Renaissance and modern era—has long been neglected in the history of...     

Gender moderates the relation between implicit and explicit self-esteem

Relative to men, women are more strongly socialized to trust their feelings and intuitions. We thus expected that the association between implicit and explicit self-esteem would be stronger for women than for men. That is, if implicit self-esteem contains a large intuitive, experiential or affective component, then people who are in touch with their feelings and intuitions should be more likely to report explicit self-esteem scores that are congruent with their implicit self-esteem scores. Six studies supported this idea by showing that the association between implicit and explicit self-esteem is indeed stronger for women than for men. This finding held in three different cultures and for two different measures of implicit self-esteem. We discuss the implications of this finding for debates regarding the nature and validity of implicit self-esteem.     

Exploring links between polychronicity and well-being from the perspective of person–job fit: Does it matter if you prefer to do only one thing at a time?

This research examined polychronicity, which refers to an individual’s preference for working on many things simultaneously as opposed to one at a time. It was hypothesized that supplies–values fit on this temporal variable is related to well-being. Specifically, it was predicted that deficient and excess polychronicity supplies are associated with poorer well-being, and that well-being is uniformly high along the continuum of polychronicity fit. It was also hypothesized that fit effects are stronger for individuals who place high importance on how their time is allocated than for individuals who place low importance on that dimension. Participants in Study 1, a laboratory experiment, were students (N = 266); participants in Study 2, conducted in a field setting, were employees of Canadian organizations (N = 746). No fit effects were observed in Study 1. Consistent with the hypotheses, however, fit on the dimension of polychronicity was related to job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and psychological strain in Study 2. The role of value importance as a moderator of the relation between supplies–values fit and well-being was not supported.