Teaching Helping Skills Courses: Creative Activities to Reduce Anxiety

Helping skills courses play a vital role in counseling curriculum, but also tend to bring excessive anxiety for students, to the point of impeding their ability to successfully implement skills. This article describes specific creative and experiential activities, aimed at reducing anxiety in a helping skills course for counselors-in-training.     

休闲活动对我国老年人认知功能的影响

本文通过分析中国老年健康影响因素跟踪调查(CLHLS)2011年的数据,研究了参与休闲活动对老年人认知功能的影响。研究发现,参与各项休闲活动比例较高的老年人,其认知功能缺损的比例相对较低。回归分析结果表明,当控制了样本的人口特征(包括年龄、受教育程度、性别、居住地)、社会经济地位、健康状况、以及生活习惯等变量以后,参与社交类、益智类、以及轻度户外活动的程度越高,我国老年人认知功能缺损的可能性就越低。这些发现鼓励我国老年人在晚年积极参与上述几类休闲活动从而降低其认知功能衰退的风险。     

How generative drawing affects the learning process: An eye‐tracking analysis

Generative drawing is a learning strategy in which students draw illustrations while reading a text to depict the content of the lesson. In two experiments, students were asked to generate drawings as they read a scientific text or read the same text on influenza with author‐provided illustrations (Experiment 1) or to generate drawings or write verbal summaries as they read (Experiment 2). An examination of students' eye movements during learning showed that students who engaged in generative drawing displayed more rereadings of words, higher proportion of fixations on the important words, higher rate of transitions between words and workspace, and higher proportion of transitions between important words and workspace than students given a text lesson with author‐generated illustrations (Experiment 1) or students who were asked to write a summary (Experiment 2). These findings contribute new evidence to guide theories for explaining how generative drawing affects learning processes.     

Life Satisfaction After Spousal Loss: The Potential Influence of Age,Gender, and Leisure

Life satisfaction is considered an important part of successful aging. The purpose of this study was to examine how age, gender, and participation in leisure activities influence the life satisfaction of widowed older adults. Results suggest that age, gender, and changes in physical activity participation are possible predictors of widowed older adults’ life satisfaction. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

经济活动中的道德理性

经济活动不仅是人们的物质生产活动,也是人们“理性化”的认知活动和实践活动。它既体现了人类主体对技术、工具手段的认知理性,又体现了人类主体“合理性”、“合目的性”的价值理性。而道德价值理性是一切合理有序的经济活动的价值标矢和理性基础。     

The interplay between parental behaviors and adolescents' sports-related values in understanding adolescents' dropout of organized sports activities

Using short-term longitudinal data, the primary goal of the present study was to examine the interplay between adolescents’ sports-related intrapersonal (e.g., sports values) and interpersonal factors (e.g., perceived parental involvement) in relation to sports dropout. A secondary goal was to explore the direction of effects in the association between intra- and interpersonal factors. A total of 420 adolescents (39% girls, M_age = 14.06; SD_age = 0.33) responded to a set of survey questions over two consecutive years. Results from structural equation modeling suggested that parental involvement predicted adolescents’ dropout one year later, via sports values. Further, the results suggested that the direction of influence is mainly from parents to adolescents. Overall, the findings indicate that adolescents whose parents attend their practices and games perceive sports activities as fun, important and useful; as a result, adolescents are less likely to dropout. The findings offer an improved understanding of how parents’ behaviors may influence adolescents’ dropout of organized sports.     

The role of preacademic activities and adult-centeredness in mother-child play in educated urban middle-class families from three cultures

The present study analyzes similarities and differences in cultural beliefs about mother-child play and their manifestation in maternal and children’s play practices in three different educated urban middle-class cultures. Based on the general assumption that mother-child play is an important context for child learning and development in educated urban middle-class communities that should result in cross-cultural similarities in mother-child play, the current study also hypothesized culture-specific accentuations, namely a stronger emphasis on preacademic vs. non-academic play activities and on adult-centered vs. child-centered modes of interaction in Chennai, India, (n = 28) than in Münster, Germany, (n = 35) and New York City (NYC), USA, (n = 36). Maternal goals and strategies were assessed in semi-structured interviews and mothers from Chennai emphasized play goals and preacademic goals to similar degrees, whereas mothers from Münster and NYC accentuated play goals. In line with their emphasis on preacademic goals and strategies, Chennai mothers showed significantly more preacademic activities during play with their 2-year-olds, especially explicit teaching. Furthermore, Chennai mothers’ stronger emphasis on play directives and children’s higher levels of responsive play complemented the pattern of more adult-centered beliefs and practices. In contrast, mothers from Münster and NYC were more likely to emphasize child-centeredness, with significantly more goals revolving around child immersion in play activities and autonomy-supporting play practices, including autonomous exploration, toddlers’ leadership and control, and maternal responsiveness. Unexpectedly, toddlers from NYC engaged the most in preacademic activities, especially responding to maternal quizzing.     

Basketball jones: Fan passion,motives, and reactions to the suspension of the National Basketball Association season due to COVID-19

The suspension of the 2019–2020 National Basketball Association (NBA) season due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant that NBA fans were unable to engage in an activity that they loved in the midst of a global health crisis. In this research, we assessed if fan responses to the suspension were associated with different types of fan passion and motives. Shortly after the NBA season suspension, NBA fans (N = 395) completed online surveys assessing harmonious and obsessive passion for being an NBA fan, motives for watching games, and various attitudes and responses to the suspension. We found that both fan passion and motives predicted responses to the suspension, particularly obsessive passion which predicted greater levels of distress, coping responses, and negative attitudes toward the suspension. These findings have implications for both the passion and fan motives literatures.     

Environmental Ethics as Applied to Outdoor Physical Practices: An Analysis Through the Lens of Hans Jonas

In times of social and moral crises, sport has often been called to boost individual moral development. By the same token, outdoor activities are viewed as good educational practices to enhance environmental responsibility. However, the present paper argues that these physical activities are currently following the same technological development trend as the mainstream society, and challenges this trend itself in terms of sustainability by critically asking this question: Do outdoor activities really enhance environmental responsibility? The research supporting this paper is based on a qualitative inquiry using interviews with outdoor activities practitioners: mountain guides and white water sports instructors. The findings of this research show that environmental responsibility development depends on the sport contexts. It is fostered in slow and none-technological activities (e.g. trekking) and lowered in fast and technological activities (e.g. canoeing, kayaking). The paper concludes with the following paradox reached by the preliminary research results: the birth of modern technology calls for greater need of environmental responsibility, but it may also prevent its development at the same time.     

Public religious activities,stress, and mental well-being in the United States: the role of religious reframing in coping

Religious reframing is applying religious beliefs to an assessment of stressful personal situations. If public religious activities (e.g., religious volunteering) meet the necessary criteria to enable religious reframing, they may serve to limit (or “buffer”) the negative impact of stressors (e.g., family conflict) on mental well-being. Based on this dynamic, two out of three public religious activities (i.e., religious volunteering and religious group activities, but not religious service attendance) were predicted to buffer stress based on their capacity to enable religious reframing. Predictions were supported by hierarchical linear regressions using data for Americans aged 40 and older (N?=?2579). This research proposes a framework for using religious reframing as the basis for making predictions about relative stress-buffering performances. It also finds that religious service attendance – the most common form of public religious involvement – does not enable religious reframing to the point of effectuating stress buffering.