Dispositional and comparative optimism interact to predict avoidance of a looming health threat

Research indicates that when confronted with a health threat, individuals high in both dispositional and comparative optimism employ a more avoidant style of coping than individuals high in dispositional but low in comparative optimism. We examined the hypothesis that threat distance moderates this interactive optimism association. In two studies, participants were randomly assigned to a looming or distant threat condition. Study 1 revealed that in the looming threat condition, participants high in both forms of optimism were more likely to minimise the threat and less inclined to seek additional health information relative to participants high in dispositional but low in comparative optimism. In Study 2, the same interaction pattern emerged on a measure of psychological abstraction suggesting these variables combine to alter broad information processing strategies. Implications for considering multiple forms of optimism when delivering health status information are discussed.     

Emotion Regulation and Coping Strategies in Pedagogical Students with Different Attachment Styles

Abstract : Emotion regulation (ER) and coping strategies were compared in 242 pedagogical students from the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, with different attachment styles: secure (51.3%), fearful (31.9%), preoccupied (14.2%), and dismissive (2.7%). The students’ ages ranged from 18 to 24 years ( M = 19.02; SD = .92), and the majority were female (95.0%). They completed three questionnaires assessing their attachment styles and their use of ER and coping strategies. It was determined that the students used the majority of ER and coping strategies sometimes. Somewhat different patterns in the use of ER and coping strategies were, however, present in each attachment‐based group. Significant differences between these groups appeared in their use of the ER strategies of social support, suppression, and comfort eating, and in the coping strategies of seeking social support and escaping or avoiding stressful situations.     

The Psychological Benefits of Humor

In Men and Their Religion: Honor, Hope, and Humor (2002), I proposed that men have two primary ways of being religious—the religion of honor and the religion of hope. I also proposed that because these two religions do not always have their desired outcomes, men have developed a third way of being religious, the religion of humor. In A Time To Laugh (2005) I have expanded on my claim in Men and Their Religion that if men have three religions—honor, hope, and humor—the greatest of these is humor. In the course of doing the necessary research for a book on humor, I acquired and read a few books and a host of articles that explored the psychological benefits of humor. While I did not report on these studies in the book, I believe they are relevant to the assumption that a religion will have psychological benefits for those who embrace it. This article therefore provides a review of empirical studies of the psychological benefits of humor in order to answer the question whether a religion of humor is likely to have psychological benefits and, if so, what these might be.     

辱虐管理的应对：基于人际拒绝的多动力模型分析

随着辱虐管理产生破坏性影响的作用机制不断得到丰富和完善, 受辱虐下属选择特定应对方式的原因以及有效性成为未来辱虐管理的研究方向。基于人际拒绝的多动力模型, 梳理了在不同质量LMX的关系情境中受辱虐下属的应对方式, 并提出特定应对方式可能引起辱虐管理的恶性循环的假设模型。建议未来研究通过丰富下属的应对行为变量、增加人格和环境的调节机制以完善受辱虐下属的应对模型, 并以此为基础探究辱虐管理的消极互动机制, 为打破辱虐管理恶性循环提供理论支持。     

The possible benefits of difficulty: how stress can increase and decrease subjective well-being

This study explores the effects of stress, trauma, coping and growth orientation on subjective well-being. Based on cognitive stress theory, it was hypothesized that adversity may contribute to increased or decreased well-being, depending on the subsequent meaning these experiences are given. Survey data from Norwegian UN/NATO veterans (N= 142) showed that stress and well-being were negatively associated (r=-0.20, p < 0.05) at the level of zero-order correlations. However, a full structural equation model revealed that the effect of stress on well-being was mediated positively through a problem-focused coping process combined with a growth component. Stress was negatively mediated through an avoidant-focused coping process and a distress component. The effect from stress was fully mediated in the model. The hypothesis that stress can produce both increased and decreased subjective well-being was confirmed.     

Stressors, Quality of the Child–Caregiver Relationship, and Children's Mental Health Problems After Parental Death: The Mediating Role of Self-System Beliefs

Investigated whether three self-system beliefs, fear of abandonment, coping efficacy, and self-esteem, mediated the relations of stressors and caregiver–child relationship quality with concurrent and prospective internalizing and externalizing problems in a sample of children who had experienced parental death in the previous 2.5 years. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 340 children ages 7–16 and their surviving parent/current caregiver; the longitudinal analyses employed a subset of this sample that consisted of 100 children and their parents/caregivers who were assessed at three time points. A multirater, multimethod measure of caregiver–child relationship quality and a multirater measure of children's mental health problems were used. The cross-sectional model supported a mediational relation for fear of abandonment, coping efficacy, and self-esteem. The three-wave longitudinal model showed that fear of abandonment at Time 2 mediated the relation between stressors at Time 1 and internalizing and externalizing problems at Time 3. Implications of these findings for understanding the development of mental health problems in parentally bereaved children and designing interventions for this at-risk group are discussed.

监狱警察应对方式与心理健康水平研究

本文通过对重庆市监狱警察应对方式和心理健康水平的抽调研究,发现调查对象倾向于采取成熟的应对方式,且其心理健康水平优于普通人群,在对应对方式有效性的评价（认识）、采取的应对方式（行为）和心理健康水平（结果）三者之间存在一致性;男女狱警在应对方式和心理健康水平方面都存在一些差异,且差异显著。这提示我们在进行应对方式干预时要注意男女狱警不同的两性特征和角色期望。     

心理资本在工作压力源和压力反应问的作用：调节还是中介？

谊研宛采用工作压力源量表、压力反应量表以及积极心理资本问卷对天津市某企业230名员工进行了调查。分析了心理资本与工作压力源和压力反应的关系及其作用机制。结果发现：（1）工作压力源对压力反应有显著的正向预洲作用;（2）心理资本对压力反应有显著的负向预测作用;（3）心理资本在工作压力源与压力反应之间起部分中介作用而不是调节作用,其中中介效应占总效应的比例为16％;（4）心理资本在各种工作压力源与压力反应问均起到中介作用,中介效应和直接效应的比值介于17．4％-26．1％之间。     

How the disadvantaged appraise group-based exclusion: The path from legitimacy to illegitimacy

Although many forms of differential treatment based on group membership are perceived to be legitimate, disadvantaged group members’ responses to discrimination have been studied primarily in contexts in which such treatment is appraised as illegitimate. This has resulted in an impoverished understanding of differential group-based treatment and a failure to illuminate the processes by which discrimination can shift from being seen as legitimate to being viewed as illegitimate. We discuss the determinants of disadvantaged group members’ legitimacy appraisals and the de-legitimisation process, whereby forms of discrimination appraised as legitimate come to be increasingly perceived as illegitimate. Whether group-based exclusion is addressed collectively or individually depends on socio-structural factors such as the pervasiveness of discrimination, impermeability of intergroup boundaries, and the availability of cognitive alternatives to the status quo. We conclude that understanding the antecedents and consequences of legitimacy appraisals is necessary to develop a comprehensive account of disadvantaged group members’ experiences of group-based discrimination.