Transparency for the Public Good: When Feeling Powerful Does and Does Not Affect Willingness to Sacrifice for the Environment

In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that the effect of feeling powerful on willingness to sacrifice for the preservation of shared resources depends on whether such willingness is expressed publically or privately. Participants were randomly assigned to either a power priming condition or a control condition and then completed measures assessing their attitudes, future intentions, and willingness to sacrifice for environmental conservation. Consistent with our hypothesis, the psychological experience of power decreased people's environmental attitudes and willingness to sacrifice for the environment, but only when these responses were made privately. These findings suggest that a sense of power, when experienced in private, influences the way individuals feel about and intend to engage in pro-environmental sacrifice. The findings also suggest that this effect may be eliminated when judgments are made transparently, in public view.     

Home environmental influences on children's language and reading skills in a genetically sensitive design: Are socioeconomic status and home literacy environment environmental mediators and moderators?

This twin study examined how family socioeconomic status (SES) and home literacy environment (HLE) contributes to Chinese language and reading skills. It included 312 Chinese twin pairs aged 3 to 11. Children were individually administered tasks of Chinese word reading, receptive vocabulary and reading‐related cognitive skills, and nonverbal reasoning ability. Information on home environment was collected through parent‐reported questionnaires. Results showed that SES and HLE mediated shared environmental influences but did not moderate genetic influences on general language and reading abilities. Also, SES and HLE mediated shared environmental contributions to receptive vocabulary and syllable and rhyme awareness, but not orthographic skills. The findings of this study add to past twin studies that focused on alphabetic languages, suggesting that these links could be universal across languages. They also extend existing findings on SES and HLE's contributions to reading‐related cognitive skills.     

Finding the Right Value: Framing Effects on Domain Experts

By defining the essence of a policy problem, an issue frame shapes how individuals think about a political issue. In this research, we investigate framing effects among domain experts, an understudied yet increasingly important set of individuals in the policymaking process. Because domain experts have extensive and highly structured knowledge on a particular topic, they are likely to actively process issue frames to which they are exposed. Consequently, we hypothesize that frames consistent with experts' values will be particularly influential, whereas frames inconsistent with their values will lead to contrast effects. We test our hypotheses on a unique set of domain experts by examining professional farmers' attitudes toward no‐till agriculture. Using an experimental design, we find evidence that environmental values interact with frames to influence farmers' interest in no‐till, especially when farmers are exposed to a novel frame.     

日常环境中的暴力暴露对攻击行为的长期影响:一个有调节的中介模型

以850名大学生为被试,探讨日常环境中的暴力暴露与攻击行为的关系,并在此基础上提出一个有调节的中介模型,考察攻击性信念的中介作用和人际信任的调节作用。结果发现:(1)日常环境中的暴力暴露对攻击行为有显著的正向预测作用;(2)攻击性信念在日常环境中的暴力暴露与攻击行为的关系中起部分中介作用;(3)攻击性信念的中介作用会受到人际信任的调节。对于低人际信任个体,攻击性信念起部分中介作用;对于高人际信任个体,攻击性信念的中介效应不显著,日常环境中的暴力暴露对攻击行为只有直接作用。     

Associations between childhood adversity and daily suppression and avoidance in response to stress in adulthood: can neurobiological sensitivity help explain this relationship?

Background and objectives: Although it has been postulated that psychological responses to stress in adulthood are grounded in childhood experiences in the family environment, evidence has been inconsistent. This study tested whether two putative measures of neurobiological sensitivity (vagal flexibility and attentional capacity) moderated the relation between women’s reported exposure to a risky childhood environment and current engagement in suppressive or avoidant coping in response to daily stress.

Design and methods: Adult women (N?=?158) recruited for a study of stress, coping, and aging reported on early adversity (EA) in their childhood family environment and completed a week-long daily diary in which they described their most stressful event of the day and indicated the degree to which they used suppression or avoidance in response to that event. In addition, women completed a visual tracking task during which heart rate variability and attentional capacity were assessed.

Results: Multilevel mixed modeling analyses revealed that greater EA predicted greater suppression and avoidance only among women with higher attentional capacity. Similarly, greater EA predicted greater use of suppression, but only among women with greater vagal flexibility.

Conclusion: Childhood adversity may predispose individuals with high neurobiological sensitivity to a lifetime of maladaptive coping.     

What can regular and timely student feedback tell us about the teaching and learning processes?

Most studies on the evaluation of teaching focus on the input (teacher traits) or the output (student-generated products) of the teaching and learning processes. This article is based on a case study that examines the three components of teaching and learning: input, output and process. It presents a framework for collecting quantitative and qualitative data on the quality of instruction, assessment and feedback, and learning environment in college composition courses to complement the feedback provided by the end-of-course student evaluations of teaching for the purpose of monitoring, guiding, and improving instruction.     

Relations Between Instructional Practices and On-Task Behavior in Classrooms Serving American Indian Students

Achievement disparities between American Indian students and non-American Indian peers are persistent and well documented. Student engagement is a promising target for intervention given its relation to academic achievement. This study investigated the relation between specific teacher practices (opportunities to respond [OTRs], praise, and reprimands) and classroom on-task behavior in an urban, public K–8 school that serves primarily American Indian students. OTRs and praise were positively associated with student on-task behavior, whereas reprimands were negatively associated with on-task behavior. Results from multilevel logistic regression indicated that OTRs significantly increased the likelihood that a classroom was highly on-task, whereas the reprimands significantly decreased the likelihood. Praise did not have a significant effect after controlling for the other variables in the model. Results are interpreted in a context of evidence-based instructional practices for increasing OTRs and praise, decreasing reprimands, and ultimately enhancing on-task behavior in an urban classrooms serving primarily American Indian youth.     

The effect of classroom environment on problem behaviors: A twin study

Children's behavior problems, both internalizing and externalizing, are a function of both genetic and environmental influences. One potentially important environmental influence is the classroom environment. This study of 1941 monozygotic twin pairs examined whether children whose parents rated them as similarly high or low on a number of problem behaviors were rated in the same way by teachers when they were together versus separated in their classrooms at school. Results showed that twins in the same classrooms were rated by their teachers more similarly on each dimension of problem behavior than were twins who were separated into different classrooms, suggesting that the classroom environment is important in predicting differences between twins in terms of problem behaviors at school. In addition, parents' ratings of problem behaviors were lower for twins placed in the same classroom versus twins in different classrooms. Thus, there is reason to consider whether, at least during the early school years, parents should be allowed to make the decision to not separate twins at school.     

Autonomy support,basic need satisfaction and the optimal functioning of adult male and female sport participants: A test of basic needs theory

Grounded in Basic Needs Theory (BNT; Ryan and Deci, American Psychologist, 55, 68–78, 2000a), the present study aimed to: (a) test a theoretically-based model of coach autonomy support, motivational processes and well-/ill-being among a sample of adult sport participants, (b) discern which basic psychological need(s) mediate the link between autonomy support and well-/ill-being, and (c) explore gender invariance in the hypothesized model. Five hundred and thirty nine participants (Male = 271; Female = 268; M _age = 22.75) completed a multi-section questionnaire tapping the targeted variables. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that coach autonomy support predicted participants’ basic need satisfaction for autonomy, competence and relatedness. In turn, basic need satisfaction predicted greater subjective vitality when engaged in sport. Participants with low levels of autonomy were more susceptible to feeling emotionally and physically exhausted from their sport investment. Autonomy and competence partially mediated the path from autonomy support to subjective vitality. Lastly, the results supported partial invariance of the model with respect to gender.     

AN ISLAMIC APPRAISAL OF MINDING THE GAP

The neglect of psycho‐spiritual needs of patients as they traverse the modern healthcare system has been a featured theme in medical literature over the past decade. This literature, which often highlights in‐patient palliative care, as well as acute and critical care settings, influences practice guidelines and protocols of doctors and nurses. In this essay, I review some of the pertinent issues raised in the literature and examine the validity of placing an ethical perspective on this issue. I also compare Islamic theocentric perspectives with secular, non‐theistic perspectives on restoring psycho‐spiritual care for patients. I then develop a framework for pastoral intervention based on aspects of the Islamic tradition and elaborate this framework by addressing clinical contexts and cases. The essay is an exposition based upon a review of the modern medical literature, an analysis of some of the traditional Islamic written sources, and the observations of the investigator, a practicing physician and an American Muslim.