Measuring Spiritual Fitness: Atheist Military Personnel,Veterans, and Civilians

This study investigated the impact of transcendent item phrasing (i.e., phrasing which assumes the respondent believes in certain sacred or supernatural concepts) on the validity of the U.S. Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program’s spiritual fitness scale when administered to atheist military personnel, veterans, and civilians. Results indicated that the inclusion of transcendent phrasing led to reduced concurrent validity for the spiritual fitness scale when administered to atheist military personnel and veterans, reduced concurrent and predictive validity when administered to atheists’ but not Christians’ spiritual fitness. Notably, the removal of transcendent phrasing actually led to increased concurrent validity for Christian respondents. Taken together, these findings suggest the Revised scale, which is composed of items that do not rely on transcendent phrasing, produces better psychometric outcomes for both atheist and Christian respondents. Implications for the CSF program and the measurement of spiritual fitness are addressed.     

Understanding the Construct of Maximizing Tendency: A Theoretical and Empirical Evaluation

More attention is being given to the stable, dispositional tendency to maximize when making decisions. Within the growing body of research has been an exchange regarding the appropriate means of measuring maximizing tendency. Guided primarily by psychometric and statistical analyses, these studies have critiqued and revised existing maximizing tendency scales and/or introduced new measures. Importantly, many of these discussions seem to ignore theoretical considerations of the construct of maximizing. In this article, we revisit the original work of Herbert Simon, from where the theory of maximizing tendency was developed, and provide a theoretical account for how maximizers can be distinguished from satisficers and the implications therein for the measurement of maximizing tendency. Across two studies, we provide an updated psychometric, correlational, and behavioral comparison of the two most popular maximizing tendency scales: the Maximization Scale and the Maximizing Tendency Scale. Results demonstrate that the Maximizing Tendency Scale is more theoretically and psychometrically valid than the Maximization Scale. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Typologies of Helicopter Parenting in American and Chinese Young-Adults’ Game and Social Media Addictive Behaviors

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Helicopter parenting has emerged as a prevalent phenomenon in families with adult children. Due to its developmentally inappropriate nature, helicopter...     

Differences in adults’ spatial scaling based on visual or haptic information

Cognitive Processing - The present study examined differences in adults’ spatial-scaling abilities across three perceptual conditions: (1) visual, (2) haptic, and (3) visual and haptic....     

Adaptive memory: determining the proximate mechanisms responsible for the memorial advantages of survival processing

J. S. Nairne, S. R. Thompson, and J. N. S. Pandeirada (2007) suggested that our memory systems may have evolved to help us remember fitness-relevant information and showed that retention of words rated for their relevance to survival is superior to that of words encoded under other deep processing conditions. The authors present 4 experiments that uncover the proximate mechanisms likely responsible. The authors obtained a recall advantage for survival processing compared with conditions that promoted only item-specific processing or only relational processing. This effect was eliminated when control conditions encouraged both item-specific and relational processing. Data from separate measures of item-specific and relational processing generally were consistent with the view that the memorial advantage for survival processing results from the encoding of both types of processing. Although the present study suggests the proximate mechanisms for the effect, the authors argue that survival processing may be fundamentally different from other memory phenomena for which item-specific and relational processing differences have been implicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).     

Gender Stereotypes Depicted by Western and Korean Advertising Models in Korean Adolescent Girls�� Magazines

Using content analysis based on Goffman??s (1979) typology, the authors examined gender role stereotypes in Korean fashion magazines targeting adolescent girls. Korean women were more stereotypically portrayed than any other group as smiling, pouting, and with a childlike or cute expression. On the other hand, Western women were more stereotypically portrayed than any other group in the categories of licensed withdrawal and body display. In some categories, male models were more female-stereotypically portrayed than female models of a particular race. Implications of the findings, future research suggestions, and limitations of the current study are discussed.     

Speed discrimination in 6- and 10-month-old infants follows Weber's law

The speed of a moving object is a critical variable that factors into actions such as crossing a street and catching a ball. However, it is not clear when the ability to discriminate between different speeds develops. Here, we investigated speed discrimination in 6- and 10-month-old infants using a habituation paradigm showing infants events of a ball rolling at different speeds. The 6-month-olds looked longer at novel speeds that differed by a 1:2 ratio than at the familiar ones but showed no difference in looking time to speeds that differed by a 2:3 ratio. In contrast, the 10-month-olds succeeded at discriminating a 2:3 ratio. For both age groups, discrimination was modulated by the ratio between novel and familiar speeds, suggesting that speed discrimination is subject to Weber's law. These findings show striking parallels to previous results in infants' discrimination of duration, size, and number and suggest a shared system for processing different magnitudes.     

Mental Disorders,Comorbidity, and Pre‐enlistment Suicidal Behavior Among New Soldiers in the U.S. Army: Results from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS)

We examined the associations between mental disorders and suicidal behavior (ideation, plans, and attempts) among new soldiers using data from the New Soldier Study (NSS) component of the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS; N = 38,507). Most new soldiers with a pre‐enlistment history of suicide attempt reported a prior mental disorder (59.0%). Each disorder examined was associated with increased odds of suicidal behavior (ORs = 2.6–8.6). Only PTSD and disorders characterized by irritability and impulsive/aggressive behavior (i.e., bipolar disorder, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder) predicted unplanned attempts among ideators. Mental disorders are important predictors of pre‐enlistment suicidal behavior among new soldiers and should figure prominently in suicide screening and prevention efforts.     

The Development of Social Exclusion Detection in Early Childhood: Awareness of Social Exclusion Does Not Always Align with Social Preferences

ABSTRACT

Starting in the preschool years, children show socially exclusive behaviors, such as intentionally leaving out another child from a ball game. Prior research investigating social exclusion understanding in preschoolers primarily used interview methods and it is clear that the verbal and cognitive skills necessary to identify and reason about social exclusion become more sophisticated with age. Yet it is unknown how children’s ability to identify social exclusion relates to their own behavior, such as their social preference for socially inclusive or exclusive individuals. Further, whether such social preferences remain stable or change across development is an open question. Thus, the current study investigated whether the ability to identify social exclusion develops in tandem with social preference behavior by assessing 3- to 6-year-old children’s (N = 256) identification of social exclusion and preferences between socially exclusive and inclusive agents. Five- to six-year-old children correctly identified social exclusion and preferred inclusive agents over exclusive agents across two experiments. Three- to four-year-old children could correctly identify social exclusion, but did not show evidence of a preference for inclusive agents over exclusive agents. Children were also able to detect implicit, nonverbalized social exclusion equally well as explicit, verbalized social exclusion across development. These findings suggest that young children’s social preferences are not wholly dictated by their ability to identify socially exclusive agents. This divergent pattern of social preference from identification has implications for interpreting social preference behavior in young children.