CROSSING THE DIVIDE: LESSONS FROM DEVELOPING WIND ENERGY IN POST‐FACT AMERICA

The income and careers that come with building wind turbines have become a lifeline for many factory towns and farming communities. Generating electricity from the wind puts increasingly cheap power on the grid, saving consumers billions a year. And it is one of the biggest, fastest, cheapest ways to reduce carbon pollution, reducing the threat of climate change. Yet as wind farms have rapidly spread to forty‐one states, their developers must make their case anew with each community that hosts them. Facts matter, but so do empathy, honoring deep connections to neighbors and landscape, and developing mutual respect. Successful wind farm developers listen first for shared values and speak with inclusive language, to communicate with potential opponents across divides of misunderstanding and motivate local residents to adapt to and benefit from change.     

Detecting Clusters/Communities in Social Networks

Cohen's κ, a similarity measure for categorical data, has since been applied to problems in the data mining field such as cluster analysis and network link prediction. In this paper, a new application is examined: community detection in networks. A new algorithm is proposed that uses Cohen's κ as a similarity measure for each pair of nodes; subsequently, the κ values are then clustered to detect the communities. This paper defines and tests this method on a variety of simulated and real networks. The results are compared with those from eight other community detection algorithms. Results show this new algorithm is consistently among the top performers in classifying data points both on simulated and real networks. Additionally, this is one of the broadest comparative simulations for comparing community detection algorithms to date.     

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence and Cognitive Style in Institutionalized Older Adults' Quality of Life

Despite previous evidence showing a positive relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and quality of life (QoL), associating older adults' emotional processing with several health indicators, few studies have explored both the IE and the a mechanisms through which they affect QoL. This cross-sectional study analyzes the mediator role of optimistic and pessimistic cognitive styles in the relationship between perceived EI (PEI) and QoL in 115 institutionalized older adults from Southern Spain. Regression analyses showed, after controlling for cognitive style, that PEI predicted a significant percentage of variance in: Health (β = .25, p < .01), Functional abilities (β = .20, p < .05), Activity and leisure (β = .17, p < .05) and Life satisfaction (β = .21, p < .05). Additionally, multiple mediation analysis revealed that cognitive style partially mediated the relationship between PEI and Health, Activity and leisure and Life satisfaction. Thus, PEI could promote personal but not external or environmental QoL aspects, highlighting the importance of developing emotional skills for healthy aging.     

Associations among Life Events,Empathic Concern,and Adolescents' Prosocial and Aggressive Behaviors Toward Specific Targets

The goal of the present study was to examine the links between life events and adolescents' social behaviors (prosocial and aggressive behaviors) toward specific targets and to examine how empathic concern may play a role in these associations. The study examined two hypotheses: both the mediating role of empathic concern and the moderating role of empathic concern. The sample included 311 high school students from the Midwest (M age = 16.10 years; age range = 14–19 years; 58.7% girls; 82.7% White, 13.6% Latino). The results demonstrated support for the moderation model as well as complex links between life events and prosocial and aggressive behaviors toward specific targets. The discussion focuses on the role of empathic concern in understanding how life events are ultimately associated with adolescents' social development.     

Observer judgmental accuracy of personality: Benefits related to being a good (normative) judge

The current study tested the hypothesis that accuracy of personality judgment would be positively related to beneficial life outcomes. 189 participants observed targets across 5 dyadic interactions and made judgments of the 10 targets on the Big Five traits. Self and acquaintance ratings were used as the accuracy criteria. Normative accuracy for all traits was related to agreeableness, and normative accuracy for some traits was positively related to interpersonal control, interpersonal support, positive affect, and life satisfaction. Distinctive accuracy was not related to beneficial outcomes. These results imply that normative accuracy based on observation is associated with beneficial outcomes, whereas distinctive accuracy is not.     

Compulsive buying and life aspirations: An analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic goals

This study intends to gain better insight into the role the life aspirations described in the framework of Self-determination theory play in compulsive buying. Profiles based on the importance and likelihood for extrinsic and intrinsic personal goals in three groups with low, moderate, and high compulsive buying propensities from a general population representative sample (N = 2159) were initially established. Moreover, results from MANCOVA analyses showed that the high propensity group obtained significantly higher scores on the importance placed on each and every one of the extrinsic goals of financial success, image, popularity, and conformity, and on the likelihood of attainment of image and conformity. As for the intrinsic aspirations, it was confirmed that while the high risk group presented similar or significantly higher scores on the importance placed to them, they obtained significantly lower scores for the likelihood of attaining all the intrinsic goals of self-acceptance, affiliation, community feeling, physical health, and safety. Accordingly, interventions focused on the potentiation of the perceived likelihood of attainment of intrinsic goals, jointly with the reduction of the importance ascribed to extrinsic aspirations, may contribute to the effective treatment and prevention of compulsive buying.     

The Community Psychologist as Critical Friend: Promoting Critical Community Praxis

Community‐engaged researchers have a responsibility to community partners to get beyond the traditional researcher stance to take on the active role of critical friend. On the basis of my own community research experiences in the USA, in this article, I argue that there is added value in taking on the practice of critical friendship to encourage a higher degree of critical reflection and critical practice in our partners and in our work together. In the context of long‐term, trusting relationships with community partners, researchers can play the role of critical friend working together to shape critical community praxis on the basis of critical theorizing, critical reflection, and a shared commitment to working for social justice. Those trying to make a difference in communities are often isolated and can benefit from opportunities for dialogue with other community practitioners within a critical frame of reference. Although not without risks and challenges, stepping into this role allows us to put into sharper relief the gap between community practice that challenges injustice and practice that maintains it. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making Sense in and of the Asexual Community: Navigating Relationships and Identities in a Context of Resistance

Despite some increased visibility in recent years, the asexual community and asexuality generally remain largely unknown. Aiming to demystify asexuality, this paper discusses the context of anti‐asexual animosity in which the (largely American) asexual community is situated. Specifically, the asexual community constructed itself in response to hostility, including explicit anti‐asexual discrimination, homophobia against asexual people perceived to be lesbian or gay, and the negative impact of (implicit) pathologising low sexual desire. This theoretical paper outlines some of the unique challenges asexual people face negotiating identities and relationships; the collective sense‐making strategies they use (generating language and discourse) to do so; and why these things are central to understanding asexual people's experiences. This is accomplished through a purposeful review of literature and a case study of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network as an asexual community space. Understanding the challenges asexual people face and the resources they invoke to overcome them helps applied psychologists develop the cultural competence they need to work effectively with the asexual people they will encounter. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perspectives on Systems Change Among Local Change Agents: A Comparative Study

Community organizers and activists draw on multiple traditions of community building and collective action in attempts to galvanize change. The diversity of perspectives on social change processes indicates corresponding differences in perspectives on systems and what is required to change them. Twenty‐two in‐depth interviews with community organizers and activists in the Midwestern USA were conducted to identify differences in perspectives on systems change efforts. Four models used by organizers were identified: action/issue‐centric, identity‐centric, relationship‐centric, and organizing‐development. Strategies for recruitment, issue selection, leadership determination, and action were compared across models. Analyses revealed that some models might be better suited to action on certain issues (e.g. identity‐centric models when organizing around homelessness), whereas others may have advantages for use in certain settings (e.g. relationship‐centric models in congregations). These findings suggest that practitioners and scholars should pay close attention to contextual factors and focal issues when determining strategies for creating systems change. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Community Story,Relationality and Process: Bridging Tools for Researching Local Knowledge in a Peri‐urban Township

In intervening in social challenges impacting local communities, Western forms of dispute/conflict resolution have been critiqued for imparting norms, values and practices that marginalise worldviews of indigenous people. From a decolonizing stance, indigenous scholars have emphasised the need for recovery of ‘lost’ values, beliefs and practices to advance indigenous knowledge. We highlight some of the conceptual challenges associated with applying ‘indigenous knowledge’ and culture‐specific ‘indigenous methodologies’ to a marginalised peri‐urban, ethnically plural township community situated on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa. In embracing the mutuality of indigenous and Western knowledge forms, we explore three elements: the community story, relationality and process in relation to initial engagements with our study community. We attempt to transcend the dualism between ‘Western’ epistemologies and ‘indigenous knowledge’ through these ‘bridging concepts’. What is offered is not a formula or model but an orientation that aims to foster mutual learning through collaborative partnerships within and between communities and researchers with a view to inspiring possibilities for creative and meaningful solutions for violence prevention and dispute/conflict resolution. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.