Only qualifications count: exploring perceptions of continuing professional development within the career guidance sector

This paper explores the views of a group of career development practitioners undertaking a postgraduate qualification as a form of continuing professional development (CPD). It offers insights into how these practitioners perceive and view different forms of CPD. A case study methodology was adopted to gather examples of the CPD activities practitioners engaged in and the value placed on these in supporting the development of professional practice. Their views were synthesised to create a typology representing a differentiated model of CPD. The model proposes three types of CPD: operational, experiential and formal. Formal CPD is perceived as having the highest value in developing professional practice. The study supports a deeper understanding of how careers practitioners engage with and understand CPD.     

Social connectedness as a source and consequence of meaning in life

Multiple studies have shown that the sense of belonging and connectedness contribute to meaning in life, but does meaning also influence social connectedness? The present research examines the reciprocal relationships between meaning and different types of connectedness: intimate, relational, and collective. Analyzing data from a nationally representative longitudinal study (Study 1) with cross-lagged panel models, we found that only collective connectedness was prospectively associated with meaning, whereas meaning was prospectively associated with all three types of connectedness, controlling for life satisfaction. The beneficial effect of meaning extended to behavioral indicators of collective and intimate connectedness (Study 2). Higher levels of meaning in life were prospectively associated with an increased likelihood of joining voluntary associations and getting married, and, for people high in marital satisfaction, with a decreased likelihood of marital separation. Together, these findings suggest that the relationship between social connectedness and meaning in life is bidirectional.     

Longitudinal Associations Between Fathers’ Heavy Drinking Patterns and Children’s Psychosocial Adjustment

Psychosocial adjustment in children of alcoholics (N = 114) was examined in the year before and at three follow-ups in the 15 months after their alcoholic fathers entered alcoholism treatment, testing the hypothesis that children's adjustment problems will vary over time as a function of their fathers' heavy drinking patterns. Three unique patterns of heavy drinking in alcoholic fathers were identified through cluster analysis. The results demonstrated significant and meaningful associations between these drinking patterns in fathers and adjustment problems in children over time. Overall, children whose fathers remained mostly abstinent following their treatment showed lowest and decreasing adjustment problems, while children whose fathers continued and increased heavy drinking following their treatment showed greatest and increasing adjustment problems over time.     

Information processing biases and panic disorder: relationships among cognitive and symptom measures

To test cognitive models of panic disorder, a range of information processing biases were examined among persons with panic disorder (N=43) and healthy control participants (N=38). Evidence for automatic associations in memory was assessed using the Implicit Association Test, interference effects related to attention biases were assessed using a modified supraliminal Stroop task, and interpretation biases were assessed using the Brief Body Sensations Interpretation Questionnaire. In addition, the relationship between information processing biases and clinical markers of panic (including affective, behavioral, and cognitive symptom measures) was investigated, along with the relationships among biases. Results indicated more threat biases among the panic (relative to control) group on each of the information processing measures, providing some of the first evidence for an implicit measure of panic associations. Further, structural equation modeling indicated that the information processing bias measures were each unique predictors of panic symptoms, but that the bias indicators did not relate to one another. These findings suggest that cognitive factors may independently predict panic symptoms, but not covary. Results are discussed in terms of their support for cognitive models of panic and the potential for automatic versus strategic processing differences across the tasks to explain the low relationships across the biases.     

Stereotype strength and attentional bias: Preference for confirming versus disconfirming information depends on processing capacity

In two experiments, we investigated the relationships among stereotype strength, processing capacity, and the allocation of attention to stereotype-consistent versus stereotype-inconsistent information describing a target person. The results of both experiments showed that, with full capacity, greater stereotype strength was associated with increased attention toward stereotype-consistent versus stereotype-inconsistent information. However, when capacity was diminished, greater stereotype strength was associated with increased attention toward inconsistent versus consistent information. Thus, strong stereotypes may act as self-confirming filters when processing capacity is plentiful, but as efficient information gathering devices that maximize the acquisition of novel (disconfirming) information when capacity is depleted. Implications for models of stereotyping and stereotype change are discussed.     

From Glossy to Greasy: The Impact of Learned Associations on Perceptions of Food Healthfulness

We demonstrate that consumers have learned that unhealthy snacks such as potato chips tend to be sold in glossy packages, whereas healthier snacks such as crackers tend to be sold in matte packages (in studies 1–3). As a result, consumers who see a snack food package with a glossy [matte] surface will infer lesser [greater] healthfulness of its contents (study 4), consume less [more] of it (study 5), and be more likely to choose a glossy [matte] package from an assortment of snack packages if motivated to engage in tasty [healthful] eating (study 6). Theoretical and managerial implications as well as future research opportunities are discussed.     

Researching self-help/mutual aid groups and organizations: Many roads, one journey

Self-help and mutual help groups are defined and the status of the literature described and reviewed. Self-help groups are different from peer and nonprofessional services under the supervision of professionals. Controlled studies of mutual help groups may be neither possible nor desirable as the method of choice by which to understand the phenomena of interest. Other approaches to research, including worldly evaluations, and ways of construing self-help organizations, that is, as normative communities and political action organizations rather than as psychological treatments, are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented.     

“Math is Hard!” The effect of gender priming on women’s attitudes

In three studies, we examined the effect of a self-relevant category prime on women’s attitudes towards the gender-stereotyped domains of arts (positively stereotyped) and mathematics (negatively stereotyped). In Study 1, women who were subtly reminded of the category female (Study 1a) or their gender identity (Study 1b) expressed more stereotype consistent attitudes towards the academic domains of mathematics and the arts than participants in control conditions. In Study 2, women who were reminded of their female identity similarly demonstrated a stereotype-consistent shift in their implicit attitudes towards these domains relative to women in a control condition. The potential role of the working self-concept in mediating social category priming effects as well as the practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

负启动效应的抗抑制理论及其新进展

负启动效应及其机制是近年来认知心理学研究的重点课题。该文从情景提取说、短暂辨别说以及随意刺激—反应联结的自动化提取理论三个方面论述了负启动效应的抗抑制理论及其新发展,以期为进一步探讨负启动效应的形成机制提供帮助。     

Longitudinal pathways between mental health difficulties and academic performance during middle childhood and early adolescence

There is a growing appreciation that child functioning in different domains, levels, or systems are interrelated over time. Here, we investigate links between internalizing symptoms, externalizing problems, and academic attainment during middle childhood and early adolescence, drawing on two large data sets (child: mean age 8.7 at enrolment, n = 5,878; adolescent: mean age 11.7, n = 6,388). Using a 2‐year cross‐lag design, we test three hypotheses – adjustment erosion, academic incompetence, and shared risk – while also examining the moderating influence of gender. Multilevel structural equation models provided consistent evidence of the deleterious effect of externalizing problems on later academic achievement in both cohorts, supporting the adjustment‐erosion hypothesis. Evidence supporting the academic‐incompetence hypothesis was restricted to the middle childhood cohort, revealing links between early academic failure and later internalizing symptoms. In both cohorts, inclusion of shared‐risk variables improved model fit and rendered some previously established cross‐lag pathways non‐significant. Implications of these findings are discussed, and study strengths and limitations noted.

Statement of contribution

What is already known on this subject?

• Longitudinal research and in particular developmental cascades literature make the case for weaker associations between internalizing symptoms and academic performance than between externalizing problems and academic performance.
• Findings vary in terms of the magnitude and inferred direction of effects. Inconsistencies may be explained by different age ranges, prevalence of small‐to‐modest sample sizes, and large time lags between measurement points.
• Gender differences remain underexamined.

What does this study add?

• The present study used cross‐lagged models to examine longitudinal associations in age groups (middle child and adolescence) in a large‐scale British sample.
• The large sample size not only allows for improvements on previous measurement models (e.g., allowing the analysis to account for nesting, and estimation of latent variables) but also allows for examination of gender differences.
• The findings clarify the role of shared‐risk factors in accounting for associations between internalizing, externalizing, and academic performance, by demonstrating that shared‐risk factors do not fully account for relationships between internalizing, externalizing, and academic achievement. Specifically, some pathways between mental health and academic attainment consistently remain, even after shared‐risk variables have been accounted for.
• Findings also present consistent support for the potential impact of behavioural problems on children's academic attainment.
• The negative relationship between low academic attainment and subsequent internalizing symptoms for younger children is also noteworthy.