Low-Income Families With Potential Adolescent Gang Involvement: A Structural Community Family Therapy Integration Model

The purpose of this article is to propose a community structural intervention for low-income families who present to therapy with the concern of an adolescent at risk for gang involvement. Families are affected by multiple interacting systems. In congruence with systems theory, changing a part of the system will essentially affect the interrelated parts of the system. The proposed intervention utilizes structural family therapy and community family therapy as a model to impact change at the family system, its interrelated systems, and the system at which the family is embedded.     

Investigating the Effects of a Persuasive Digital Game on Immersion,Identification, and Willingness to Help

Abstract

Recent years have seen a tremendous rise in the development and distribution of persuasive games: digital games that are used to influence players’ attitudes and/or behavior. Three studies (N_{Study 1}?=?134; N_{Study 2}?=?94; N_{Study 3}?=?161) tested the effects of a persuasive game on immersion, identification, and willingness to help. The results showed that playing the persuasive game did not result in substantially stronger willingness to help, relative to the control conditions. Video and printed text resulted in more immersion than the digital game, but playing the game resulted in substantially higher perceptions of embodied presence.     

Reduced willingness to approach genuine smilers in social anxiety explained by potential for social evaluation,not misperception of smile authenticity

ABSTRACT

We investigate perception of, and responses to, facial expression authenticity for the first time in social anxiety, testing genuine and polite smiles. Experiment 1 (N?=?141) found perception of smile authenticity was unaffected, but that approach ratings, which are known to be reduced in social anxiety for happy faces, are more strongly reduced for genuine than polite smiles. Moreover, we found an independent contribution of social anxiety to approach ratings, over and above general negative affect (state/trait anxiety, depression), only for genuine smiles, and not for polite ones. We argue this pattern of results can be explained by genuine smilers signalling greater potential for interaction – and thus greater potential for the scrutiny that is feared in social anxiety – than polite smiles. Experiment 2 established that, relative to polite smilers, genuine smilers are indeed perceived as friendlier and likely to want to talk for longer if approached. Critically, the degree to which individual face items were perceived as wanting to interact correlated strongly with the amount that social anxiety reduced willingness to approach in Experiment 1. We conclude it is the potential for social evaluation and scrutiny signalled by happy expressions, rather than their positive valence, that is important in social anxiety.     

It Only Looks the Same From a Distance: How U.S., Finnish,and Irish Schools Support Struggling Readers

This study examined how U.S., Finnish, and Irish educators identified and supported struggling readers. Using Johnston's (2011) framework for evaluating reading interventions and activity theory (Engeström, 1999), we interviewed educators in four U.S., three Irish, and three Finnish schools. In the United States, the adoption of three beliefs—reductionist reading philosophy, difficulties as cognitive and remediated through instruction, and reading problems as unexpected phenomena—reinforced a skills-driven approach. Irish and Finnish educators adopted a more holistic view of reading, and teachers used formative assessment to support struggling students over extended periods while working collaboratively with other staff. Discussion focuses on how these beliefs influenced divisions of labor, roles and responsibilities, and the urgency with which difficulties were addressed.     

Contemporary MFT Models’ Alignment with Relational Common Factors

Common factors theorists believe that therapy is effective, not only because of model specific elements, but also, because of common factors that cut across various treatment models. Common factors include extra-therapeutic factors such as treatment setting, therapeutic alliance, therapist variables and client variables. Common factors researchers have proposed a set of relational common factors that are unique to the practice of marriage and family therapy, including the ability to conceptualize difficulties relationally and the ability to disrupt dysfunctional relationship patterns. In this paper, I analyze and compare relational common factors in three contemporary models: narrative therapy, solution-focused therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Finally, I discuss significant implications for theorizing, training and supervision.     

How Sex and College Major Relate to Mental Rotation Accuracy and Preferred Strategy: An Electroencephalographic (EEG) Investigation

The Psychological Record - The electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to investigate variation in mental rotation (MR) strategies between males and females and different college majors. Beta...     

Philosophical intervention and cross-disciplinary science: the story of the Toolbox Project

In this article we argue that philosophy can facilitate improvement in cross-disciplinary science. In particular, we discuss in detail the Toolbox Project, an effort in applied epistemology that deploys philosophical analysis for the purpose of enhancing collaborative, cross-disciplinary scientific research through improvements in cross-disciplinary communication. We begin by sketching the scientific context within which the Toolbox Project operates, a context that features a growing interest in and commitment to cross-disciplinary research (CDR). We then develop an argument for the leading idea behind this effort, namely, that philosophical dialogue can improve cross-disciplinary science by effecting epistemic changes that lead to better group communication. On the heels of this argument, we describe our approach and its output; in particular, we emphasize the Toolbox instrument that generates philosophical dialogue and the Toolbox workshop in which that dialogue takes place. Together, these constitute a philosophical intervention into the life of CDR teams. We conclude by considering the philosophical implications of this intervention.     

A meta-analytic review of the Dark Triad–intelligence connection

We conducted a meta-analytic review of the relations between general mental ability (GMA) and the Dark Triad (DT) personality traits—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—to determine if individuals who display socially exploitative social qualities tend to be more intelligent or less intelligent. Across 48 independent samples, GMA showed no consistent relation with any DT trait. These effects were not sufficient to support either the “evil genius” hypothesis (highly intelligent individuals tend to display socially exploitative personality traits) or the “compensatory” hypothesis (less intelligent individuals compensate for their cognitive disadvantages by adopting manipulative behavioral tendencies). However, these relations were moderated, to some extent, by the sex and age of the participants, type of sample studied, and the measure of GMA.     

The relation between achievement goal and expectancy-value theories in predicting achievement-related outcomes: A test of four theoretical conceptions

Although achievement goal and expectancy-value theories are both dominant in the achievement motivation literature, the relation between goals and expectancy-value variables in predicting achievement-related behaviors remains unclear. The present study evaluated the empirical validity of four contrasting theoretical conceptions which posit that (1) goals and expectancy-value variables are independent predictors of achievement-related outcomes (2) goals predict expectancy-values, (3) goals mediate the relation between expectancies and task-values, and (4) goals partially mediate the relation between expectancy-values and achievement outcomes, in predicting course performance, career intentions and academic aspirations. Path models evaluating these conceptions were tested separately in mathematics and language arts domains among 697 6th and 8th grade students. Results supported the fourth theoretical approach suggesting that expectancy-value variables predict achievement-related outcomes both directly and indirectly through achievement goals. These findings provide insight about the relation between expectancy-value and achievement goal theories and highlight their complementary role in predicting achievement behaviors.     

Self-Stigma in Substance Abuse: Development of a New Measure

Little attention has been paid to the examination and measurement of self-stigma in substance misuse. This paper aims to fill this gap by reporting on the development of a new scale to measure self-stigma experienced by people who are misusing substances, the Substance Abuse Self-Stigma Scale. Content validity and item refinement occurred through an iterative process involving a literature search, focus groups, and expert judges. Psychometric properties were examined in a cross-sectional study of individuals (n?=?352) receiving treatment for substance misuse. Factor analyses resulted in a 40-item measure with self devaluation, fear of enacted stigma, stigma avoidance, and values disengagement subscales. The measure showed a strong factor structure and good reliability and validity overall, though the values disengagement subscale showed a mixed pattern. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for studies of stigma impact and intervention.