Improving performance by anchoring movement and “nerves”

Golf’s governing bodies’ recent decision to ban all putting styles “anchoring one end of the club against the body” bridges an important practical problem with psychological theory. We report the first experiment testing whether anchoring provides technical and/or psychological advantage in competitive performance. Many “greats” of professional golf from Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods have argued against anchoring, believing that it takes “nerves” out of competitive performance and therefore artificially levels the playing field. To shed more light on the issue, we tested participants’ performance with anchored and unanchored putters under low and high pressure when controlling for the putter length. We found no statistically significant evidence for a technical advantage due to anchoring but a clear psychological advantage: participants who anchored their putters significantly outperformed unanchored counterparts under high, but not low, pressure. Results provide tentative evidence for the ban’s justification from a competitive standpoint. However, before any definite conclusions can be made, more research is needed when using high-level golfers.     

Predictors of Engagement in Family Mediation and Outcomes for Families that Fail to Engage

An important limitation to the effectiveness of family mediation in assisting separated parents is parents failing to engage in the mediation process. In 524 parents who presented to a telephone‐based mediation service, 113 (22%) initiating parents withdrew from mediation before the other parent was invited to participate, 241 (46%) initiating parents had respondent parents who declined to participate in mediation, and 170 cases (33%) completed mediation. We tested whether socio‐demographic variables, psychological distress, coparental acrimony, parenting problems, or children's behavioral difficulties predicted mediation engagement. High interparental acrimony predicted failure to engage in mediation, but none of the other variables predicted mediation engagement. We followed a sample of 131 families that did not mediate and found they showed elevated psychological distress, acrimony, parenting problems and child adjustment difficulties, which remained unchanged 6 months later. Further research is needed to explore strategies to enhance respondent parent engagement with mediation, and to address the negative outcomes for those separated families not proceeding with mediation.     

Treatment Efficacy of Multiple Family Therapy for Chinese Families of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The treatment efficacy of multiple family therapy (MFT) for Chinese families of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has not been studied in the past. In this paper, the effect of MFT on different aspects of the lives of the parents in the experimental group (n = 61) was compared with the effect of only the psychoeducational talks on parents in the control group (n = 53). The results of a MANOVA have shown that by the time they reached the posttreatment phase, the parents who had completed the full 42 hours of the MFT program perceived their children's ADHD symptoms as being less serious and less pathological than they had originally thought compared to the parents in the control group. The effect of MFT on parent–child relationships, parenting stress, parental efficacy, hope, and perceived social support was statistically insignificant. Contributions and limitations of our study are discussed.     

Dyadic Coping in Couple Therapy Process: An Exploratory Study

This study aimed at moving beyond previous research on couple therapy efficacy by examining moment‐by‐moment proximal couple and therapist interactions as well as final treatment outcomes and their reciprocal association. Seven hundred four episodes of dyadic coping within 56 early therapy sessions, taken from 28 married couples in treatment, were intensively analyzed and processed using a mixed‐methods software (T‐LAB). Results showed that negative dyadic coping was self‐perpetuating, and therapists tended to passively observe the negative couple interaction; on the contrary, positive dyadic coping appeared to require a therapist's intervention to be maintained, and successful interventions mainly included information gathering as well as interpreting. Couples who dropped out of treatment were not actively engaged from the outset of therapy, and they used more negative dyadic coping, whereas couples who successfully completed treatment showed more positive dyadic coping very early in therapy. Results highlight the role of therapist action and control as critical to establishing rapport and credibility in couple therapy and suggest that dyadic coping patterns early in therapy may contribute to variable treatment response.     

Quelle validité pour une mesure de la satisfaction au travail en un seul item ?

Single-item measures of job satisfaction have several advantages. However, there still exist debates on their use. In this article, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this type of measurement, and present an empirical study to compare the results of the assessment of job satisfaction with measures which, in theory, should be linked with it (perceived stress, psychological distress, satisfaction with life). The results tend to highlight the validity of the single-item measures of job satisfaction. Indeed, on the one hand, the observed correlations between the single-item measure and the global or multifactorial job satisfaction measures are satisfactory (from .65 to .85). On the other hand, correlations with other relevant measures in occupational health are all significant (P < .01) and between .239 and .529. We present, then, some results highlighting the influence of some job characteristics on job satisfaction for the sample interviewed. Finally, we discuss the application of a single-item measure, emphasizing the benefits of it and especially the idea that this evaluation offers a consideration of the subjective perception of job satisfaction.     

Psychological support for families of ICU patients: longitudinal documentation of the service

This study is the first systematic effort to investigate psychological services provided to relatives of ICU patients at Nicosia General Hospital. Documentation of psychological sessions provided to relatives of ICU patients for the years 2011–2014 was analyzed. To investigate possible differences in the total number of sessions for the referenced years, the records were analyzed using patients’ demographics, the outcome of hospitalization and the total number of sessions with relatives. A questionnaire was sent to the ICU staff aiming to identify their perception towards the need for psychological support. A total number of 863 psychological sessions were conducted with 640 relatives of 345 patients hospitalized in the ICU. Results indicate that more sessions are recorded when the outcome of younger patients’ condition worsens, whereas the number of sessions decreases for older patients’ families. When comparing the personnel’s beliefs, regarding the importance of providing psychological services to different age groups, significant difference was found suggesting that the older the patient the less sessions they believe are required indicating a possible ageism bias.     

Engagement With Self‐Practice/Self‐Reflection as a Professional Development Activity: The Role of Therapist Beliefs

A number of research studies support self‐practice/self‐reflection (SP/SR) as an experiential learning process that facilitates the acquisition of therapeutic skill in a number of cognitive‐behavioural therapy (CBT) competencies and as showing potential as a valuable professional development activity. Engaging therapists to participate in SP/SR programmes is sometimes difficult, and when they are offered the option to participate in SP/SR programmes as part of professional development, relatively few volunteer. This study investigates the role of therapist beliefs about SP/SR as a potential obstacle to engagement. An online survey was developed to assess the strength of 14 commonly held therapist beliefs concerning the consequences of participating voluntarily in a SP/SR programme. Participants were a combined sample of 44 Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners and high‐intensity CBT therapists employed by an Improving Access to Psychological Therapies service in the United Kingdom. Few negative beliefs about SP/SR emerged. The majority of respondents believed SP/SR programmes were relevant to their work situation, but perceived “lack of time” as a significant barrier to participation. Three factors are considered in relation to introducing SP/SR as a workforce professional development activity: (a) The importance of managing therapist perceptions regarding time; (b) SP/SR as a mechanism to increase self‐care and reduce burnout; and (c) The need to focus mental health services' attention on the potential of SP/SR programmes to increase staff morale and improve service delivery.     

The mystery of “should”: Procrastination,delay, and reactance in academic settings

The study explores the effect of trait reactance on procrastination and delay in students of two study programmes differing in the structuring of academic tasks and the role they play in course assessment. Both subsamples (n = 97 and 139) completed measures of trait reactance, chronic academic procrastination, self-reported task procrastination and actual task delay. The data were analyzed using path analysis and SEM. As hypothesized, psychological reactance positively predicted procrastination, especially the ‘chronic delay’ component underlying all three procrastination-related measures. However, some of the effect of reactance on this delay-dependent component of procrastination was apparently suppressed by what might have been a subjective (delay-independent) component of self-reported task procrastination. Furthermore, reactance was significantly related to delay only when good performance on the task was of relatively high importance. Apart from providing evidence for a possible link between reactance and procrastination, the results also demonstrate that it is important to distinguish between the experiential and objective (temporal) components of procrastination, as the two might be represented by completely different nomological networks.     

中学生心理求助意愿问卷的编制

目的:编制中学生心理求助意愿问卷。方法:经过初测后再选取260名中学生测试该问卷,并进行信度和效度的检验。结果:全量表的克隆巴赫a一致性系数为0.873(n=235,p<0.01);因素分析结果显示为经过初测后确定的四个因子的总方差贡献率为53.644%,四个因子分别为意愿倾向、评价、效果预期、心理卫生知识。结论:中学生心理求助意愿问卷具有较好的信效度,可以作为测查中学生心理求助态度和意愿的工具使用。     

Relations between stress and work outcomes: The role of felt challenge, job control, and psychological strain

Recent research on reported work stress indicates stress may not always be deleterious for an individual or organization. Research in this area, however, has not yet examined a variety of work outcomes, the mechanism by which stress leads to such outcomes, and the moderators of this effect. The present study hypothesized that two types of reported stress (challenge- and hindrance-related) have a divergent relationship with work outcomes (relating to desirable and undesirable outcomes, respectively) and a similar (positive) relationship with psychological strain. We also hypothesize felt challenge as a mechanism through which challenge stress relates to desirable outcomes and job control as a moderator of the effect. Results from a heterogeneous sample of university staff employees (N=461) supported many of the hypotheses. The two types of stress differentially related to work outcomes yet both positively related to psychological strain. In addition, felt challenge mediated the relationship between challenge-related stress and work outcomes, yet the effect of challenge-related stress did not depend on job control.