The cortisol awakening response: Associations with trait anxiety and stress reactivity

This study investigated the extent to which trait anxiety and state anxiety in response to stress are associated with the cortisol awakening response (CAR).Fifty-one healthy participants were recruited. State anxiety measures were taken in anticipation of and during a laboratory stressor. Salivary cortisol levels were measured immediately upon awakening (at 0, 15, 30, and 45 min) on two consecutive mornings. Cortisol awakening response was assessed by the area under the curve with respect to zero (AUC_G).The magnitude of the CAR was found to be negatively associated with both trait anxiety and anticipatory anxiety. Moreover, regression analysis showed that the effects of trait anxiety on the AUC_G were mediated by anticipatory anxiety.These results suggest that the CAR is influenced by trait anxiety. Moreover, the effect of trait anxiety on the CAR seems to operate by impacting on psychological stress reactivity (i.e., anticipatory anxiety).     

Effects of race and precipitating event on suicide versus nonsuicide death classification in a college sample

Race group differences in suicide death classification in a sample of 109 Black and White university students were examined. Participants were randomly assigned to read three vignettes for which the vignette subjects' race (only) varied. The vignettes each described a circumstance (terminal illness, academic failure, or relationship difficulties) that preceded the vignette subject's ambiguously premature death. Participants were asked to describe "what happened." Black participants were significantly less likely than White participants to attribute a vignette target's death to suicide and also less likely to report that suicide is acceptable. Implications for future research and prevention efforts are discussed.     

Varieties of Moral Personality: Beyond the Banality of Heroism

ABSTRACT Four perspectives dominate thinking about moral heroism: One contends that moral action is primarily instigated by situational pressures, another holds that moral excellence entails the full complement of virtues, the third asserts a single superintending principle, and the fourth posits different varieties of moral personality. This research addresses these competing perspectives by examining the personalities of moral heroes. Participants were 50 national awardees for moral action and 50 comparison individuals. They responded to personality inventories and a life‐review interview that provided a broadband assessment of personality. Cluster analysis of the moral exemplars yielded three types: a “communal” cluster was strongly relational and generative, a “deliberative” cluster had sophisticated epistemic and moral reasoning as well as heightened self‐development motivation, and an “ordinary” cluster had a more commonplace personality. These contrasting profiles imply that exemplary moral functioning can take multifarious forms and arises from different sources, reflecting divergent person × situation interactions.     

Intervening in the Lives of Youth with Complex Behavioral Health Challenges and Their Families: The Role of the Wraparound Process

Wraparound is an individualized, team-based service planning and care coordination process intended to improve outcomes for youth with complex behavioral health challenges and their families. In recent years, several factors have led wraparound to become an increasingly visible component of service systems for youth, including its alignment with the youth and family movements, clear role within the systems of care and public health frameworks, and expansion of the research base. In this paper, we provide a review of the place of the wraparound process in behavioral health, including a discussion of the opportunities it presents to the field, needs for further development and research, and recommendations for federal actions that have the potential to improve the model’s positive contribution to child and family well-being.     

Promotions Spontaneously Induce a Positive Evaluative Response

Research has suggested that conscious cognitive processes mediate positive responses to promotions. In contrast, we find that exposure to promotional stimuli evokes a positive evaluative reaction spontaneously and that this reaction generalizes to products that are evaluated subsequently. Three experiments support our predictions and rule out alternative possibilities. Specifically, we find that promotions spontaneously evoke positive evaluative responses and that these responses mediate liking for a target product. Our findings also identify conditions under which promotion‐generated evaluative responses are transferred to products unrelated to the promotion and indicate the type of product categories that are likely to produce this effect. The theoretical and substantive implications of this research are discussed.     

Affect Labeling to Facilitate Inhibitory Learning: Clinical Considerations

Exposure-based treatments known to be effective for a wide range of psychopathology are thought to work via inhibitory learning, where new learning acquired during exposure exercises inhibits previously learned fear and avoidance responses. One way in which this inhibitory learning may be enhanced is through affect labeling, during which clients verbalize their internal emotional experiences. Theoretically, affect labeling may be a subtle, implicit form of emotion regulation and may facilitate more explicit forms of extinction learning. Experimental research suggests that affect labeling may lead to attenuated fear responses to emotionally evocative stimuli in healthy samples and may be a helpful strategy in reducing physiological arousal experienced during exposure tasks, particularly for clients with inhibitory deficits. Research with clinical samples is limited and mixed, at best. Case examples illustrate how affective labeling may help get a client “unstuck” from unproductive processing loops, can contribute to shifts in perspective and meaning making, and may modulate distress and promote distress tolerance. We argue that routine use of affect labeling in clinical care is premature. When used, it should be employed strategically within a broader case conceptualization and may be of a limited benefit beyond what is already employed in quality exposure therapy.     

The Legacy,Leadership, and Hope of Pan‐African Women as a Missional Focus for Theological Education

This article analyzes the experience and self‐understanding of Pan‐African women of faith, who have often been viewed at the margins of church history and in the larger context of this history. This article challenges this marginal location. It argues that through the theological lens of the ecumenical Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace—and under the tenets of via positiva, via negativa, and via transformativa—the historical, present, and future pilgrimage of Pan‐African women of faith and their vision of hope needs to be further examined for a more inclusive embrace and accompaniment of the ecumenical community. Theological education should be a priority in preparing leaders for advancing the agenda of justice and peace. The article concludes by detailing the past, recent, and future work of the Pan‐African Women's Ecumenical Empowerment Network (PAWEEN) and its partners.     

Pan‐African Women of Faith and a Vision of Inclusive Global Theological Education

This article provides an introduction to the Pan‐African Women's Ecumenical Empowerment Network (PAWEEN), formally established as a network in 2015, but which traces its origins back to the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Busan, the Republic of Korea, in 2013. PAWEEN provides an opportunity for a mutual invitation to deep listening and concerted engagement to make the realities of past and present living, of faith and agency visible. It is one example of a network under development, grounded in the liberating gospel message and committed to the aim of a transformative theological education, which extends this invitation to all who share this common concern and vision.     

The influence of social factors and implicit racial bias on a generalized own‐race effect

The current study sought to determine whether the experimentally reported ‘own‐race effect’ is other‐race specific, or whether it is a generalized effect. The perceptual processing of own‐ versus two groups of other‐race faces was therefore explored in White and South Asian individuals. Participants completed a computer‐based discrimination task of White, South Asian and Black face‐morphs. Results showed a generalized own‐race effect for White and South Asian participants discriminating own‐ versus other‐race (White/South Asian and Black) faces, such that individuals demonstrated a perceptual discrimination advantage for own‐ versus other‐race faces in general. These findings were linked to implicit racial bias and other‐race individuating experience, demonstrating that social variables play an important role in the magnitude of the own‐race effect. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.