Muslims in the West: A select bibliography

The presence of Muslims in the West has posed a challenge to the self-assured populations of Europe. This bibliography provides an overview of available scholarship in the English language on the situation of Muslims in Western Europe and in areas of traditional European settlement. It is demonstrable that the conditions they face vary according to established relationships between religion and state in each country, the laws that govern immigration, naturalization and citizenship, the heritage of tolerance, the acceptance of alternative social values and the willingness to allow Muslim participation in the democratic process.     

Manifesto for the future of work and organizational psychology

This manifesto presents 10 recommendations for a sustainable future for the field of Work and Organizational Psychology. The manifesto is the result of an emerging movement around the Future of WOP (see www.futureofwop.com), which aims to bring together WOP-scholars committed to actively contribute to building a better future for our field. Our recommendations are intended to support both individuals and collectives to become actively engaged in co-creating the future of WOP together with us. Therefore, this manifesto is open and never “finished.” It should continuously evolve, based on an ongoing debate around our professional values and behavior. This manifesto is meant, first of all, for ourselves as an academic community. Furthermore, it is also important for managers, decision makers, and other stakeholders and interested parties, such as students, governments and organizations, as we envision what the future of WOP could look like, and it is only through our collective efforts that we will be able to realize a sustainable future for all of us.     

Is no praise good praise? Effects of positive feedback on children's and university students’ responses to subsequent failures

Background. According to Dweck and colleagues, praise can be delivered using person (‘you are clever') or process terms (‘you worked hard'). Research suggests that giving people process praise after success can help them deal better with subsequent failures because it attributes outcomes to effort rather than fixed ability. However, research has thus far inadequately addressed how these types of praise compare to receiving no evaluative feedback. Aim. The aim of the present research was to examine the effects of person and process praise compared to a control group where only objective outcome feedback was given. Samples. In Study 1, 145 British school children aged 9–11 years took part. In Study 2, participants were 114 British university students. Method. In both studies, participants read three scenarios and were asked to imagine themselves as the main character. In each scenario, they succeeded in an educational task and received either person, process, or no praise. Participants then read two scenarios, where they failed at a task. Following each scenario participants evaluated their performance, affect, and persistence. Results. After one failure, participants who received person praise reacted most negatively on all dependent measures. However, those in the process condition did not differ significantly from those in the control group. Conclusions. These findings suggest that process feedback may not be inherently positive; instead person feedback seems particularly detrimental.     

Systems-centered® group psychotherapy: putting theory into practice

Systems-centered therapy (SCT) is derived from a theory of living human systems and practiced in individual and group therapy. Excerpts from an inpatient group illustrate how SCT norms, particularly functional subgrouping and the hierarchy of defense modification, are introduced within the first few minutes of an SCT group. The importance of modifying roles is also discussed, as is the significance of system hierarchy, isomorphy, and energy as applied in the practice of SCT.     

Impact of value congruence on work-family conflicts: the mediating role of work-related support

Based on past research regarding the relationship between person-environment fit and work-family conflict (WFC), we examined the mediating effects of perceived organization/supervisor support on the relationship between person-organization/supervisor value congruence and WFC. A structural equation model was used to test three hypotheses using data collected from 637 workers in Taiwan. Person-organization value congruence regarding role boundaries was found to be positively correlated with employee perception of organizational support, resulting in reduced WFC. Person-supervisor value congruence regarding role boundaries also increased employee perception of organizational support, mediated by perceived supervisor support. Research and managerial implications are discussed.     

The Role of Romantic Involvement and Social Support in Italian Adolescent Mothers’ Live

This study examined the experience of mothering in adolescence in the context of romantic involvement and social support. 30 adolescent mothers completed measures of adolescent self-development and motherhood, romantic relationship experience, availability of and satisfaction with social support, and parenting stress. Findings suggest that young mothers benefit greatly from the support of a partner, as evidenced by a more functional understanding of motherhood and the maternal role, greater satisfaction with social support, and lower levels of psychological distress. Education on social support should be made available to young mothers to address stress associated with adolescent parenting.     

Dimensions of achievement goal orientation and coping in South African wheelchair rugby players with quadriplegia

This study investigated the relationship between dispositional achievement goal orientation (task and ego) and coping ability in wheelchair rugby players with quadriplegia. The sample consisted of 16 (15 males and 1 female) players between the ages of 25 and 44 (M=33.7 years; SD=8.7) who were selected for South Africa's national training squad in preparation for the 2011 International Wheelchair Rugby Federation (IWRF) Asia-Oceania Championship. Players self-reported on their perception of success and athletic coping skills. The data were analysed for correlational associations between dimensions of achievement goal orientation and psychological skills associated with coping in sport. Findings revealed that players have both high task and fairly high ego orientation of which task orientation was significantly correlated with coping ability.     

Interventional Use of the Parent–Child Interaction Assessment–II Enactments: Modifying an Abused Mother's Attributions to Her Son

I. It was hypothesized that male Ss will project more on situations pertaining to the lives of men than on situations pertaining to the lives of women and that female Ss will project more on situations pertaining to the lives of women than on situations pertaining to the lives of men.

II. It was further hypothesized that male Ss and female Ss will not differ with regard to the amount of projection elicited by male and female pictorial figures. Transcendence Indices were used as measures of the amount of projection. Ss were 30 male college students and their wives. Hypothesis I was confirmed for men only. Hypothesis II was confirmed for men and for women.     

Plasticity of brain and cognition in older adults

Aging is typically related to changes in brain and cognition, but the aging process is heterogeneous and differs between individuals. Recent research has started investigating the influence of cognitive and physical training on cognitive performance, functional brain activity, and brain structure in old age. The functional relevance of neural changes and the interactions among these changes following interventions is still a matter of debate. Here we selectively review research on structural and functional brain correlates of training-induced performance changes in healthy older adults and present exemplary longitudinal intervention studies sorted by the type of training applied (i.e., strategy-based training, process-specific training, and physical exercise). Although many training studies have been conducted recently, within each task domain, the number of studies that used comparable methods and techniques to assess behavioral and neural changes is limited. We suggest that future studies should include a multimodal approach to enhance the understanding of the relation between different levels of brain changes in aging and those changes that result from training. Investigating inter-individual differences in intervention-induced behavioral and neuronal changes would provide more information about who would benefit from a specific intervention and why. In addition, a more systematic examination of the time course of training-related structural and functional changes would improve the current level of knowledge about how learning is implemented in the brain and facilitate our understanding of contradictory results.