Enhancing Emotional and Social Competence in a Group of South-African School Beginners: A Preliminary Study

This study piloted the efficacy of a short-term intervention program for socio-emotional development in pre-schoolers.in a South African setting. Participants were 48 learners, aged between 5 and 6 years (22 boys, 26 girls). A proportion of the participants (n=26) took the socio-emotional competence development intervention. Programme effects were measured using the Social Competence and Behavioural Evaluation, Preschool Edition (SCBE) and the Griffiths Developmental Scales—Extended Revised (GMDS-ER). Between group comparisons showed significant gains in internalization and social competence skills in favour of the intervention group as compared to the control group.     

Development of Community Psychology

The growth and development of community psychology in Zambia has been necessitated by many social problems encountered by Zambians be they health, economic or psychological. The work of governmental and nongovernmental organizations at community level has contributed to the development of this sub-field of psychology. Community psychology in Zambia has many challenges to overcome, including the lack of trained manpower and availability of funds. Community psychology has great potential to contribute to the wellbeing of different communities in Zambia.     

Benefits to the Spanish research community of regional content expansion in Web of Science

The regional content expansion of Thomson Reuters (formerly ISI) Web of Science added approximately 1,600 journals to the database with a regional as opposed to international focus. Web of Science coverage has grown to reflect the changing nature of global research publication trends and the additional regional journals provide greater visibility to high quality local studies beyond their traditional boundaries. The cited references indexed from the regional journals represent the influence of those journals on both the global and local research communities. This study analyses the impact of adding Spanish regional journals to Web of Science on the publication and citation patterns of Spanish research. The findings demonstrate a recent increase in research output from Spain and this is explained by more Spanish research being produced rather than due to the indexing of more Spanish journals; indeed it is shown that the majority of Spanish research is not published in Spanish journals. An analysis of Spanish journal citations uncovers a Spanish regional citation network previously undetected and serves as valuable information for evaluators of Spanish journals.     

In- and out-of-school peer groups of immigrant youths

Multiethnic societies typically aim to have immigrant and native youths mix and be friends, preferably in all contexts in which they spend time. Schools and neighbourhoods are the two settings where youths spend the most time with peers during adolescence. The present study explored the in- and out-of-school peer groups of 174 immigrant junior high school pupils (Mean age = 14.39) who attended an integrated school but lived in a segregated neighbourhood. A person-oriented approach was used and cluster analyses were conducted both within and across the two settings. The results show that youths mostly have the same kind of friendship formations in both settings, regardless of the ethnic composition of each setting. In terms of adaptation, the results consistently show that for boys, having only immigrant friends is related to problematic adaptation in both settings. No relationship between peer formations and adaptation was found for girls. The study highlights the importance of considering gender and viewing youths as embedded in systems of multiple settings, in order to achieve true integration.     

Parent-rated socio-emotional development in children with language impairment in comparison with typically developed children

Children with language impairment (LI) and children with typical development (TD) were assessed by their respective parents using The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (Swedish version SECDI) and Greenspan Socio Emotional Growth Chart (GSEGC). The aim was to investigate socio-emotional and language development in children with LI and TD with respect to possible differential patterns and relations between the groups. The results highlight a clear association between language and socio-emotional development. Children with LI were rated similar to young language-matched children with TD, but significantly lower relative to age-matched TD children, particularly concerning symbolic stages of development: the use of linguistic symbols as well as related areas such as symbol play and symbolic mental ability. The results are discussed in light of presumable background factors and possible consequences for children or sub-groups of children with LI.     

Promoting emotional well-being through the use of humour

Humour skills programmes are believed to assist in improving emotional well-being by increasing self-efficacy, positive thinking, optimism and perceptions of control, while decreasing negative thinking, perceptions of stress, depression, anxiety and stress. The study aims to evaluate a programme investigating this possibility. Volunteers from the community (37 females and 18 males, aged M?=?38 years) were randomly assigned to a humour group, a social group or a non-intervention control group. The programme, consisting of a manual and a booklet of measures assessing indices of well-being, was administered over an 8-week period. Data were collected at baseline, post programme and at 3-month follow-up. Results revealed that unlike the control and social groups, the humour group demonstrated a significant increase in several indices of emotional well-being. Specifically, increases occurred with self-efficacy, positive affect, optimism and perceptions of control, while decreases were found in perceived stress, depression, anxiety and stress levels.     

The benefits of self-compassion and optimism exercises for individuals vulnerable to depression

The effectiveness of two online exercises intended to help individuals experience (1) self-compassion (n?=?63) and (2) optimism (n?=?55) were compared to a control intervention where participants wrote about an early memory (n?=?70). A battery of tests was completed at 1 week following the exercise period, and at 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-ups. Both active interventions resulted in significant increases in happiness observable at 6 months and significant decreases in depression sustained up to 3 months. The interventions were examined in relationship to dependency and self-criticism, both related to vulnerability to depression. Individuals high in self-criticism became happier at 1 week and at 1 month in the optimism condition in the repeated measures analysis. A sensitivity test using multi-level modeling failed to replicate this effect. More mature levels of dependence (connectedness) were related to improvements in mood up to 6 months in the self-compassion condition. This study suggests that different personality orientations may show greater gains from particular types of positive psychology interventions.     

Influencing value priorities and increasing well-being: The effects of reflecting on intrinsic values

A four-week experimental study (N?=?113) examined the effects of reflecting on intrinsic values. In the experimental group, participants learned about the distinction between intrinsic (e.g. having close relationships) and extrinsic (e.g. being popular) values, wrote about two personal intrinsic values, and then reflected on these values weekly for four weeks. In the control group, participants completed parallel exercises related to the daily details of their lives. Results revealed that participants in the intrinsic values group experienced greater well-being immediately following the written reflection than participants in the control group. Four weeks later, the more engaged participants felt in the reflection exercises, the more they prioritized intrinsic over extrinsic values and the greater their well-being. These effects occurred only for participants in the intrinsic values condition. The implications for changing value priorities and improving well-being are discussed.     

Happy-productive groups: How positive affect links to performance through social resources

Abstract

The current study extends the Broaden & Build theory to the collective (i.e. groups) level of analysis, focusing on the mediating role of group social resources (i.e. cohesion, coordination, teamwork, supportive team climate) between group positive affect (i.e. enthusiasm, optimism, satisfaction, comfort) and group performance (i.e. in-and extra-role performance, creative performance). To test our hypotheses, we conducted two studies using independent samples. Study 1 is a laboratory study with 449 participants nested in 112 small groups who performed an organizational simulation creative task. Study 2 is a field study that aggregated scores of 2159 employees nested in 417 groups. In both the lab and field studies, structural equation modeling results revealed that group social resources fully mediate the relationship between group positive emotions and performance.     

Ecological issues of justice

In the first part of this article the author explores the implications for justice of the wider range of parties holding moral standing that environmental ethics has recently disclosed. These implications concern the equitable treatment of future generations and nonhuman creatures, and are relevant both to policies, such as approaches to global warming, and procedures, which may need to be revised to give an equitable voice to unrepresented interests. Later the author considers some radical implications of regarding humanity as stewards of the planetary environment, a view defended in his recent book Creation, Evolution and Meaning. If all adult humans have this role, but many are prevented from discharging it by poverty and related constraints, then those who are thus disempowered need to be empowered to exercise this role. This requirement of equity would arise not from their moral patienthood but from what is involved in respecting them as moral agents. Some approaches to tackling global warming are considered in this connection.