Effects of occupational future time perspective on managing stressful work situations

According to the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Carstensen, 2006), older adults perceive their future time as increasingly limited, which motivates them to focus more on emotional goals and prefer passive emotion‐focused strategies. This study aims to investigate the effect of occupational future time perspective (OFTP) on the use of problem‐solving strategies in stressful work situations and to examine the effectiveness of these strategies on psychological well‐being. A sample of 199 Chinese clerical workers responded to a structured questionnaire on problem‐solving strategy use in relation to hypothetical work scenarios. Results revealed that relative to those with limited OFTP, workers with expansive OFTP preferred problem‐focused and proactive strategies in both low‐ and high‐emotionally salient scenarios. Workers with limited OFTP consistently preferred passive strategies irrespective of emotional salience. OFTP moderated the effect of problem‐focused strategies on psychological distress. In particular, there was a significant negative relationship between problem‐focused strategies and psychological distress among workers with expansive OFTP, but such pattern of relationship was not observed among workers with limited OFTP. Findings of this study inform the training strategies employed by practitioners to fit the developmental goals of workers in order to maximise their strengths at work.     

Reducing the Risk for Preschool Expulsion: Mental Health Consultation for Young Children with Challenging Behaviors

Increasing numbers of young children are being expelled from child care settings because of their problem behavior. Access to mental health consultation is related to lower rates of expulsion, but additional data are needed to document the pathways through which mental health consultation reduces the risk of expulsion. We report on outcomes from a 4-year project designed to reduce the number of children expelled for problem behavior in a large suburban county in Maryland. Two master’s-level professionals provided behavioral consultation to child care providers who identified nearly 200 children at imminent risk for expulsion. Child care providers rated children’s social skills and problem behaviors at referral and discharge using the Preschool Kindergarten Behavior Scales and the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. Statistically significant increases in social skills and reductions in problem behaviors were seen for children who received individualized consultation. More than three-quarters of the children who were at risk for expulsion were able to be maintained in their current child care placement; of those that changed placements, only half (n = 13) were removed involuntarily. These findings provide additional support for mental health consultation as a promising strategy to reduce the risk for expulsion for young children with problem behaviors.     

Suboptimal tradeoffs in information seeking

Explicit information-seeking actions are needed to evaluate alternative actions in problem-solving tasks. Information-seeking costs are often traded off against the utility of information. We present three experiments that show how subjects adapt to the cost and information structures of environments in a map-navigation task. We found that subjects often stabilize at suboptimal levels of performance. A Bayesian satisficing model (BSM) is proposed and implemented in the ACT-R architecture to predict information-seeking behavior. The BSM uses a local decision rule and a global Bayesian learning mechanism to decide when to stop seeking information. The model matched the human data well, suggesting that adaptation to cost and information structures can be achieved by a simple local decision rule. The local decision rule, however, often limits exploration of the environment and leads to suboptimal performance. We propose that suboptimal performance is an emergent property of the dynamic interactions between cognition and the environment.     

中转站系统框架的心理学研究

通过总结人类问题求解的特点,我们提出了问题求解的一种中转站系统框架。本文采用口语报告分析所进行的研究表明该框架是一种问题求解方面的知识结构和有效的启发式求解策略。实验证明了次序性、熟悉性、类似性和系统控制性是决定求解能力和效率的关键因素。说明了中转站及其排序、强规则和弱规则及其相互配合、以及中转站系统的控制策略在较大程度上反映和模拟了人在求解复杂的专门问题时的知识结构和控制过程。     

Intolerance of uncertainty and difficulties in emotion regulation: Proposal for an integrative model of generalized anxiety disorder

Introduction

The Intolerance of Uncertainty Model (IUM) is a well-tested model of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

Improvements in Unmarried African American Parents' Rapport,Communication, and Problem‐Solving Following a Prenatal Coparenting Intervention

This report examines effects of a coparenting intervention designed for and delivered to expectant unmarried African American mothers and fathers on observed interaction dynamics known to predict relationship adjustment. Twenty families took part in the six‐session “Figuring It Out for the Child” (FIOC) dyadic intervention offered in a faith‐based human services agency during the third trimester of the mother's pregnancy, and completed a postpartum booster session 1 month after the baby's arrival. Parent referrals for the FIOC program were received from a county Health Department and from OBGYNs and Pregnancy Centers in the targeted community. All intervention sessions were delivered by a trained male–female paraprofessional team whose fidelity to the FIOC manualized curriculum was independently evaluated by a team of trained analysts. At both the point of intake (“PRE”) and again at an exit evaluation completed 3 months postpartum (“POST”), the mothers and fathers were videotaped as they completed two standardized “revealed differences” conflict discussions. Blinded videotapes of these sessions were evaluated using the System for Coding Interactions in Dyads. Analyses documented statistically significant improvements on 8 of 12 variables examined, with effect sizes ranging from moderate to large . Overall, 14 families demonstrated beneficial outcomes, 3 did not improve, and 3 showed some signs of decline from the point of intake. For most interaction processes, PRE to POST improvements were unrelated to degree of adherence the paraprofessional interventionists showed to the curriculum. However, better interventionist competence was related to decreases in partners' Coerciveness and Negativity and Conflict, and to smaller increases in partner Withdrawal. Implications of the work for development and delivery of community‐based coparenting interventions for unmarried parents are discussed.     

分析哲学的兴趣:在哲学与生活之间--从批判理论和生活世界的视角对罗素和维特根斯坦的一个批评解读

分析哲学是有其人文和社会的兴趣与关怀的。本文试图从批判理论的视角．运用哲学与生活世界相关联的解释学方法,分别解读了分析哲学创始人之一的罗素的逻辑分析哲学与他作为一个哲学家的社会批判兴趣之间的关系,以及前期维特根斯坦的逻辑语言分析哲学和后期的日常语言分析哲学与维特根斯坦所属的生活世界的关系。指出分析哲学由于没有建立在对现代性的科学一形而上学思维方式和生活方式的足够反思基础上,所以它对形而上学的批判兴趣最终仍然导致了一种非批判的形而上学。     

无处不在的伤害:二元论视角下的道德判断

道德二元论认为人际伤害是道德认知的典型模板.道德判断由规范违反,消极情感,感知到的伤害结合产生, 并经由二元比较与二元完型, 完成从下至上,从上至下的认知加工.道德失声现象的产生源于混淆了主客观伤害; 电车难题剥离了道德二元模型, 有趣但可能不符合普遍的道德认知; 不同领域的道德判断皆可在二元论的框架下得到解释.未来的研究可以考虑:意图与痛苦影响道德判断的实证; 跨文化研究的开展; 统一认知系统与模块化认知系统的辩证; 伤害的人际与非人际划分以及其他相关因素的检验.     

Diverse multi-week physical activity programs reduce ADHD symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ObjectivePhysical activity (PA) has been proposed as an adjunct treatment and secondary prevention intervention for attention-deficit hyperactivity/impulsivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). However, meta-analyses testing effects on symptoms and functional impairment have yielded conflicting results.MethodsA systematic search of eight databases yielded 15 randomized controlled trial and 2 quasi-experimental design studies—including N = 881 youth (M = 9.75 years, 71% male)—that tested the effects of multi-week PA programs on symptoms and impairment of children with [or at-risk for] ADHD and/or ODD.ResultsRandom effects meta-analyses favored PA groups on omnibus ADHD measures (g = −0.42, 95%CI[-0.62;-0.21]), combined ADHD symptoms (g = −0.50, 95%CI[-0.82;-0.17]), inattention (g = −0.41,95%CI[-0.82; 0.00]), and hyperactivity/impulsivity (g = −0.30, 95%CI[-0.56;-0.04]). Heterogeneity was moderate across studies (I² = 49%, 95%CI[12%-to-70%]). Significant differences favored PA programs whether inclusion required diagnosis, programs augmented frontline treatments, and active or passive comparison groups were utilized.ConclusionDiverse PA programs can reduce ADHD symptoms, especially where they intentionally pursue this end.     

Sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects during strategy execution: An event-related potential study in arithmetic

When participants accomplish cognitive tasks, they obtain poorer performance if asked to execute a poorer strategy than a better strategy on a given problem. These poorer-strategy effects are smaller following execution of a poorer strategy relative to following a better strategy. To investigate ERP correlates of sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects, we asked participants (n = 20) to accomplish a computational estimation task (i.e., provide approximate products to two-digit multiplication problems like 38 × 74). For each problem, they were cued to execute a better versus a poorer strategy. We found event-related potentials signatures of sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects in two crucial windows (i.e., between 200 and 550 ms and between 850 and 1250 ms) associated with executive control mechanisms and allowing conflict monitoring between the better and the cued strategy. These results have important implications on theories of strategies as they suggest that sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects involve earlier as well as later mechanisms of cognitive control during strategy execution.