Positive post‐disaster images: A daydream machine?

This study explores the impact of post‐earthquake images inserted in a vigilance task, in terms of performance, self‐reports of task‐focus, and cerebral activity using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Vigilance tasks present a sequence of stimuli in which only a few are pre‐designated critical or target stimuli requiring an overt response from the participant. Seventy‐one residents participated (51 women, 20 men) by taking part in a vigilance task with task‐irrelevant images inserted in the sequence. There were three conditions consisting positive (emotive inducing), negative (emotive inducing), and control (devoid of meaning) images embedded in the vigilance task to assess possible impacts on vigilance performance. The images were obtained through crowdsourcing and represented parts of the city 3–4 years post‐earthquake. Task performance was assessed with signal detection theory metrics of sensitivity A’ and bias β’’. This enables the separation of an individual's ability to accurately discriminate critical signals from non‐critical stimuli (sensitivity) and shifts in their willingness to respond to any stimuli whether critical or not (bias). Individuals viewing the positive images, relating to progress, rebuild, or aesthetic aspects within the city, had a more conservative response bias (they responded less to both rare critical and distractor stimuli) than those in the other conditions. These individuals also reported lower task‐focus, as would be expected. However, contrary to expectations, indicators of cerebral activity (fNIRS) did not differ significantly between the experimental groups. These results, when combined, suggest that mind wandering events may be being generated when exposed to positive post‐earthquake images.     

Effectiveness of a Group Therapy Program for Children with Psychosocial Deficits: Benefits of Concurrent Participation in Organized Activities

Prior research suggests children’s involvement in organized activities predicts positive outcomes, although benefits for youth with psychosocial deficits remain unclear. This study examines if activity participation predicts response to a group therapy program for children with psychosocial deficits and if improvements depend on children’s functioning within the organized activity context. Participants were 178 children (M age?=?9.6 years) enrolled in a group therapy program. Greater activity participation significantly predicted improvements in family functioning and social skills, suggesting the value of participation in organized activities for youth with psychosocial deficits.     

青少年理想自我表征的丰富性及其调节作用研究

本文尝试对青少年理想自我表征丰富性进行量化研究,并着重从压力缓冲和人际交往角度探讨了理想自我表征丰富性对个体心理健康的调节作用,以及理想自我表征丰富性与弹性的关系.研究结果表明,青少年理想自我表征丰富性不存在年龄差异,而在性别上存在差异,且这种差异主要存在于初中男女生之间;丰富的理想自我表征有利于缓冲青少年对压力的负性体验,并在一定程度上影响他们在同学中的人缘.此外,理想自我表征丰富性对心理健康的调节主要通过弹性中介发挥作用,预示着理想自我表征丰富性可能是青少年弹性的重要构成成分.     

Reappraisal Buffers the Association Between Stress and Negative Mood Measured Over 14 Days: Implications for Understanding Psychological Resilience

Reappraisal is thought to be an adaptive emotion regulation strategy, and research suggests that individuals who habitually reappraise report more positive patterns of affect overall. However, some experimental studies indicate that a greater tendency to reappraise can exacerbate stress response, and it is unclear whether reappraisal confers resilience or exacerbates response to naturally occurring stressors. In order to address this, the present study investigated whether reappraisal prospectively moderated the association between daily stressors and daily negative mood measured over 14 days. Participants (n = 236) completed a measure of reappraisal at baseline, before completing daily online entries of stress and positive and negative mood. Data were analysed using multilevel modelling. Results suggested that reappraisal moderated the association between stress and negative mood, such that higher levels of reappraisal were associated with lower levels of negative mood in response to stress. Moreover, higher reappraisal was also independently associated with lower levels of daily negative mood and higher levels of positive mood. These results suggest that higher reappraisal may confer resilience to stress. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The Role of Maternal Acceptance in the Relation Between Community Violence Exposure and Child Functioning

Children in the United States are exposed to considerable community violence that has been linked to child functioning. However, not all those exposed, experience negative outcomes. Recent research has focused on factors that “buffer” or protect children from negative consequences of violence exposure. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the potential buffering or moderating role of maternal acceptance in the relationship between community violence exposure and internalizing and externalizing problems. Subjects were 268 urban African American first graders. Community violence exposure was significantly related to symptoms of post-traumatic stress, but did not correlate with either internalizing or externalizing problems for all children, after control for demographics, maternal mental health, and general life stress. However, children's perceptions of maternal acceptance moderated the relationship between violence exposure and internalizing and externalizing problems which included being withdrawn, anxious-depressed, and demonstrating delinquent behavior. Children with the lowest levels of self-reported maternal acceptance were most impacted by community violence. In this sample of urban first graders, low levels of maternal acceptance placed children at greater risk for adverse outcomes associated with community violence exposure compared to moderate and high levels of maternal acceptance.     

The role of event relevance and congruence to social groups in flashbulb memory formation

ABSTRACT

Flashbulb memories are vivid, confidently held, long-lasting memories for the personal circumstances of learning about an important event. Importance is determined, in part, by social group membership. Events that are relevant to one’s social group, and furthermore, are congruent with the prior beliefs of that group, should be more likely to be retained as flashbulb memories. The Fukushima nuclear disaster was relevant to ongoing political conversations in both Germany and the Netherlands, but, while the disaster was congruent with German beliefs about the dangers of nuclear energy, it was incongruent with Dutch support for nuclear power. Danish participants would not have found the disaster to be particularly relevant. Partially consistent with this prediction, across two samples (N?=?265 and N?=?518), German participants were most likely to have flashbulb memories for the Fukushima disaster. Furthermore, event features thought to be related to flashbulb memory formation (e.g. ratings of importance and consequentiality) also differed as a function of nationality. Spontaneously generated flashbulb memories for events other than Fukushima also suggested that participants reported events that were relevant to national identity (e.g. the Munich attacks for Germans, the Utøya massacre for Danes, and Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17 for Dutch participants).     

Bullying Behaviors and Victimization Experiences Among Adolescent Students: The Role of Resilience

The role of resilience in the relationship between bullying behaviors, victimization experiences, and self-efficacy was examined. Participants were 393 (191 young men, 202 young women) adolescents (M age = 15.88 years, SD = 0.64 years) from schools in Coimbatore, India, who completed scales to assess bullying behaviors and victimization experiences, resilience, and self-efficacy. Multigroup structural equation modeling, with separate groups created according to participant gender, revealed that resilience mediated the relationship between bullying behaviors and self-efficacy in young men. Young men engaged in bullying behaviors and experienced victimization more frequently than young women. The findings of the study have implication for designing intervention programs to enhance resilience among adolescents and young adults to enable them to manage bullying behaviors.     

Exploring Sensory Integrative Treatment in Chronic Schizophrenia

An investigation of the efficacy of sensory integrative treatment of the psychiatric status and physical functioning of patients with chronic schizophrenia is reported. Patients were involved in sequenced sensory integrative treatment over a seventeen week period. Significant improvement was found in scores of the NOSIE-30 as well as on some of the usual idicators of sensory integrative status: thumb-finger opposition, diadochokinesis, eye pursuits and balance. Length of treatment time was linearly related to amount of improvement.     

Timescapes of Security: Clocks,Clouds, and the Complexity of Security Governance

This article pulls together the disjointed complexification of security studies. Such analytical overview suggests that the perspective of “timescapes” allows for exploring the complexity that shapes meanings and practices of security and its governance. In this respect, it is the imperative to change that suggests the significance of complexity thinking to security studies—that is, it is alone in taking the discontinuities of global life seriously. Security, in this regard, is not merely about the clockwork of survival, but is redefined through the cloudlike adaptive contingency of “security as resilience.” In this setting, the security governance of complexity is identified through its dancing to the timescaped rhythms of uncertainty, cognitive challenges, complex risks, and exaptation prompted by the heterogeneity of global life.     

Helping South Asian Immigrant Women Use Resilience Strategies in Healing from Sexual Abuse: A Call for a Culturally Relevant Model

This article calls for the counseling and psychological field to construct a culturally relevant model for working with South Asian immigrant women survivors of sexual abuse to support their resilience and healing. Patriarchal norms of South Asian culture and acculturative stressors in the United States are examined to understand how they influence survivors' abuse experiences. The literature on South Asian women's experiences of intimate partner violence is reviewed in addition to resilience studies with women of color who have survived sexual abuse. Practice and research implications are presented.