Treating the Lesbian Batterer

Summary

The phenomenon of lesbian battering challenges mainstream assumptions about battering and defies traditional ways of defining and understanding domestic violence. This article identifies and illuminates variables critical to understanding and treating lesbian batterers. In particular, intrapsychic factors in the treatment of lesbian batterers are considered via an integration of the theoretical constructs of personality development with attachment theory, state and affect regulation, shame, pathological vindictiveness, and variables specific to lesbian domestic violence. Finally, two case examples and treatment considerations are discussed.     

Optimism predicting employees' creativity: The mediating role of positive affect and the positivity ratio

We examine how optimism predicts creativity both directly and through the mediating role of positive affect and the positivity ratio (the ratio between the frequency of positive and negative affective states). Five hundred and ninety five employees reported their positive and negative affect, as well as their optimism. Their creativity was reported by supervisors. The main findings are the following: (1) optimism predicts creativity both directly and through the mediating role of positive affect and the positivity ratio; (2) the relationship between the positivity ratio and creativity is curvilinear, in such a way that an “excessive” ratio is detrimental to creativity. The findings stress the relevance of optimism both for individuals and organizations, and suggest that examining positivity ratios is fruitful in the creativity domain, as it has been in other domains, and that negative affect should not be viewed simply as an obstacle when studying employees' creativity.     

MMPI-2 configurations among victims of bullying at work

Bullying at work, the systematic exposure to psychological violence and harassment in the workplace, places a serious strain on many employees. The aim of this study was to investigate psychological correlates of bullying among former and current victims using the MMPI-2. A total of 85 individuals, recruited among members of two Norwegian associations of bullying victims, participated in the study. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) Bullied victims have an elevated personality profile on the MMPI-2, although different kinds of personality profiles may be distinguished; (2) the personality profiles of the victims are related to the type of behaviour and the intensity of the behaviours experienced by the victim. Both hypotheses were confirmed. The study demonstrated, using cluster analysis, that the sample of bullied victims can be divided into three personality groups (“The seriously affected”, “The disappointed and depressed”, and “The common”.) The elevated 3-2-1 personality profile was most typical. Surprisingly, the victims of the common cluster reported the highest level of exposure to bullying, suggesting a vulnerability factor among the other victims. The scores on the new MMPI-2 Content scales were also analysed. The seriously affected group reported a high level of generalized anxiety, fear of specific incidences, and many health concern worries.     

Retail employees' self-efficacy and hope predicting their positive affect and creativity

The study shows how retail employees' self-efficacy and hope predict their creativity, both directly and through the mediating role of positive affect. Five hundred and seven retail employees reported their hope, self-efficacy, and positive affect, their supervisors reporting their creativity. Three main findings are: (1) hope and self-efficacy predict creativity; (2) positive affect also predicts creativity; (3) positive affect partially mediates the relationship between both dimensions of positive psychological capital (self-efficacy and hope), and creativity. The study suggests that retail organizations may foster employees' creativity by encouraging conditions that cultivate employees' hope and self-efficacy, as well as their positive affect.     

Cross‐level interactions of individual trait positive affect,group trait positive affect,and group positive affect diversity

The purpose of the current study is to examine the cross‐level three‐way interactions among individual trait positive affect (PA), group trait PA, and group PA diversity on individual work outcomes. Drawing on situation strength theory, we hypothesized that the relationship of individual trait PA with work outcomes depends on the strength of a group's affective contexts including group trait PA and PA diversity. The hierarchical linear modelling results for 261 employees in 42 South Korean organizational teams showed that individuals' trait PA was positively associated with their team commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The findings also demonstrated that individual trait PA had the strongest relationship with team commitment when group trait PA was low and PA diversity was high simultaneously. In addition, the relationship between individual trait PA and OCB was found to be stronger for affectively diverse groups than for homogeneous groups.     

Flourishing of Students in a Tertiary Education Institution in South Africa

The aims of this study were to examine the relationship between flourishing and academic performance (AP), life satisfaction (SWT), and positive affect (PA). A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used on a convenience sample of university students (n = 845). The Mental Health Continuum Long Form (MHC-LF), Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) and Satisfaction with Life Scales (SWLS) were administered. Academic performance was determined through averaging all the participants' modules for the first semester. Individuals with moderate levels of flourishing typically performed in the ‘above average’ to ‘excelling academically’ range. Furthermore, a large number of individuals who were underperforming were also languishing. Flourishing students experienced higher levels of positive affect and life satisfaction, as well as lower levels of negative affect than their languishing and moderately flourishing counterparts. The relationship between flourishing and academic performance is complex, it would seem that flourishing/languishing plays a role in academic performance. Finally, flourishing relates to both PA and SWL, which supports the construct validity of flourishing's conceptualisation.     

Why people rehearse their memories: Frequency of use and relations to the intensity of emotions associated with autobiographical memories

People may choose to rehearse their autobiographical memories in silence or to disclose their memories with other people. This paper focuses on five types of memory rehearsal: involuntary rehearsal, rehearsal to maintain an event memory, rehearsal to re-experience the emotion of an event, rehearsal to understand an event, or rehearsal for social communication. A total of 337 participants recalled event memories, provided estimates of how often each event was rehearsed and for what reason, and rated the affective characteristics of the events. Rehearsal frequency was highest for social communication and lowest for rehearsals aimed at understanding events. For many rehearsal types, rehearsal was more frequent for positive than negative events. Frequently rehearsed events tended to show less affective fading. The pattern changed when events were socially rehearsed. For positive events, increased social rehearsal was related to a reduction in affective fading. For negative events, increased social rehearsal was associated with increased affective fading.     

Relation of positive memory recall count and accessibility with post-trauma mental health

ABSTRACT

Positive memory encoding and retrieval deficits have an empirical relation with several post-trauma outcomes. Drawing from the Contractor et al. model, we examined relations between positive memory characteristics and post-trauma mental health indicators. A trauma-exposed community sample of 203 participants (M_age?=?35.40 years; 61.10% female) was recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Participants completed measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; PTSD Checklist for DSM-5), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), posttraumatic cognitions (Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory), affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule), count/number of recalled specific positive memories (Autobiographical Memory Test) and accessibility of a specific positive memory (i.e., subjective ease of recalling details of a memory; Memory Experiences Questionnaire-Short Form). Linear regression results indicated that PTSD intrusion severity, PTSD negative alterations in cognitions and mood (NACM) severity, PTSD alterations in arousal and reactivity (AAR) severity, self-blame, and positive affect significantly and negatively predicted the count of specific positive memories. Further, PTSD NACM severity, PTSD AAR severity, negative cognitions about the self, and negative affect significantly and negatively predicted accessibility of a specific positive memory. Thus, count/accessibility of specific positive memories was associated with several post-trauma mental health indicators; this highlights the relevance and potential impact of integrating positive memories into trauma treatment.     

Perceptions of treatment control moderate the daily association between negative affect and diabetes problems among adolescents with type 1 diabetes

Perceived control over diabetes may serve to buffer the relationship between adolescents’ experience of daily negative affect and daily problems with diabetes. In a daily diary study including 209 adolescents (ages 10.5–15.5) with type 1 diabetes, we examined how daily affect related to daily fluctuations in experience of diabetes problems, and whether perceptions of control moderated these daily associations. Using hierarchical linear modelling, we found that day-to-day experiences of negative affect were associated with more frequent daily diabetes problems. Perceptions of treatment control moderated associations between negative affect and number of problems; negative affect was more strongly associated with number of problems among teens perceiving lower versus higher treatment control over their illness. The same pattern of association was not apparent for personal control. Results suggest that perceived treatment control may help to buffer detrimental associations between negative affect and adolescents’ ability to successfully manage their diabetes.     

Eating styles in the morbidly obese: Restraint eating,but not emotional and external eating,predicts dietary behaviour

Objectives : The research explored (1) the relationships between self-reported eating style (restraint, emotional and external eating) and dietary intake and (2) emotional eater status as a moderator of food intake when emotional, in a morbidly obese population.

Design : A sample of 57 obese participants (BMI: M?=?51.84, SD?=?8.66) completed a five-day food diary together with a reflective diary, which assessed eating style and positive and negative affect daily.

Main outcome measures : A dietician-scored food pyramid analysis of intake.

Results : Restraint eating was the only predictor (negative) of overall food intake and the variable most strongly associated with the consumption of top-shelf foods. Emotional and external eating were unrelated to food intake. Emotional eater status did not moderate food intake in response to positive and negative mood states.

Conclusion : The findings indicated largely analogous relationships between eating style and dietary intake in this obese sample compared with previous results from healthy populations. The lack of predictive validity for emotional eating scales (when emotional) raises questions over people’s ability to adequately assess their eating style and consequently, the overall validity of emotional eater scales.