When learning is not enough: A process model of expatriate adjustment as cultural cognitive dissonance reduction

Although considerable organizational research exists on the topic of expatriate adjustment and early departure, little has focused on the actual psychological processes causing change in adjustment outcomes. Specifically, researchers have not focused on cognitive dissonance that arises from adopting or condoning culturally expected behaviors that are inconsistent with the expatriate’s own values or attitudes. We propose that dissonance experiences and the methods used for dissonance reduction influence expatriates’ adjustment outcomes and, in turn, their tendency for early departure. We further specify key situational and individual difference constructs that regulate these causal relationships. Along with a greater understanding of cross-cultural adjustment, the current model suggests new directions for expatriate research and management.     

分配不公正下的退缩行为：程序公正和互动公正的影响

以160名中学教师为被试,采用2×2的完全随机设计,以模拟故事（scenarios）的方法呈现刺激,研究了在职称评定中分配不公正的前提下,程序公正/不公正,互动公正/不公正对教师的退缩行为（消极怠工、拒绝帮助、离职、对校长的消极态度）的影响。结果表明,在分配不公正条件下：（1）程序公正、互动公正均影响教师的消极怠工程度;（2）程序公正、互动公正均影响教师的拒绝帮助行为程度,而且交互作用显著;（3）互动公正影响教师对上司的消极态度,程序公正无显著影响;（4）程序公正和互动公正对离职意愿影响均不显著     

Adolescent identity--a qualitative approach: self-concept, existential questions and adult contacts

In-depth interviews were performed with 12 adolescents (Swedish students, 16-19 years). Three questions were probed; what do adolescents say on the subjects of (a) themselves, (b) their existential questions, and (c) their adult contacts. The first two questions were aimed at elucidating the process of identity development, the last one at factors that may be influencing this process. The results showed that (a) balancing and controlling one's own needs and wishes in relation to others' was a central issue, (b) existential questions mainly concerned the personal future, (c) adult contacts outside the family were scarce and (d) all respondents expressed a need for adult contacts as sources of knowledge and experience. The conclusions are that identity formation during late adolescence consists of integrative issues where adults play a specific and important role.     

The Best Friendships of Shy/Withdrawn Children: Prevalence, Stability, and Relationship Quality

The mutual best friendships of shy/withdrawn and control children were examined for prevalence, stability, best friend's characteristics, and friendship quality. Using peer nominations of shy/socially withdrawn and aggressive behaviors, two groups of children were identified from a normative sample of fifth-grade children: shy/withdrawn (n = 169) and control (nonaggressive/nonwithdrawn; n = 163). Friendship nominations, teacher reports, and friendship quality data were gathered. Results revealed that shy/withdrawn children were as likely as control children to have mutual stable best friendships. Withdrawn children's friends were more withdrawn and victimized than were the control children's best friends; further, similarities in social withdrawal and peer victimization were revealed for withdrawn children and their friends. Withdrawn children and their friends reported lower friendship quality than did control children. Results highlight the importance of both quantitative and qualitative measures of friendship when considering relationships as risk and/or protective factors.     

From Neurotic Guilt to Existential Guilt as Grief: The Road to Interiority, Agency, and Compassion Through Mourning. Part II

This study is a continuation of an article that was published in the previous issue of The American Journal of Psychoanalysis (Volume 66, Number 3, September 2006). The case of Helen is illustrated in terms of the analysand’s developmental mourning, countertransference, interiority, antilibidinal ego, and transformation of aggression into self-agency.Susan Kavaler-Adler, Ph.D., ABPP, is Founder and Executive Director, Training Analyst, Faculty Member, and Supervisor at the Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, New York.     

The role of career adaptability resources in dual career pathways: A person-oriented longitudinal study across elite sports upper secondary school

ObjectivesObtaining education is an important milestone in athletes’ preparation for their professional career after sport. Literature indicates that combining school and sport is not an easy task for many aspiring youth athletes. It has been proposed that career adaptability, which refers to psychosocial resources enabling individuals to solve complex occupational transitions, present and anticipated vocational development tasks, and career related challenges could be a relevant concept for applied work with student-athletes. In this study, we examined whether there are distinct developmental profiles of career adaptability among adolescent athletes across the upper secondary school years. We also investigated the associations between career adaptability and sport withdrawal and academic achievement.Design and methodsA total of 391 Finnish-speaking student-athletes completed the questionnaire on career adaptability (Career Adapt-Abilities Scale – Dual Career Form; Ryba & Aunola, 2015; Ryba et al., 2017) at the beginning and end of upper secondary school. The participants’ background information about their sport participation and grade point average were collected upon completion of each grade of upper secondary school. The data were analysed using cluster analysis, cross-tabulation, and one-way analysis of variance.ResultsFour distinct adaptability profiles were identified: higher adaptability, lower adaptability, increasing adaptability, and decreasing adaptability. Higher and lower adaptability profiles showed stable levels of adaptability across time, whereas the adaptability level either increased or decreased in the other two profiles. Student-athletes with a lower career adaptability profile were overrepresented among those who withdrew from competitive sports, and they reported lower grade point averages than those with higher scores of career adaptability.ConclusionsHigh scores of career adaptability were associated with high grades, whereas low scores of career adaptability were associated with low grades and a probability to withdraw from competitive sport. Therefore, it is recommended that career adaptability be considered as important self-regulation resources for sustaining dual career pathways over time.     

Framing COVID-19 as an existential threat predicts prejudice towards Chinese people via anxious arousal

We tested the hypothesis that perceived existential threat stemming from COVID-19 elicits anxious arousal, which can manifest in prejudice toward the perceived source of the threat (Chinese people). Americans (n = 474) were randomly assigned to a condition in which COVID-19 was framed as a high existential threat to the United States or to a condition in which COVID-19 was framed as a low existential threat to the United States. They then completed self-report measures of anxious arousal as well as subtle and blatant prejudice towards Chinese people. As expected, participants in the high threat (vs. low threat) condition reported greater anxious arousal which, in turn, predicted greater subtle and blatant prejudice. The high threat (vs. low threat) condition also indirectly predicted greater subtle and blatant prejudice via greater anxious arousal. Results advance knowledge on the reactions people had to perceiving COVID-19 as an existential threat during the early phase of the pandemic.     

Some thoughts on the existential lens in group psychotherapy

Existential psychotherapy provides a useful perspective, or lens through which to view the practice of group psychotherapy. The field encompasses a variety of theoretical and practical points of view, many not usually thought of as existential. Some relate to the therapist, some to the enterprise of psychotherapy, and some to conceptions of psychic or external reality. This paper identifies several of these vertices, emphasizing especially (1) the importance of relationship in psychotherapy, (2) the problem of meaning (3) addressing existential concerns, especially the centrality of death as a problem in living, and (4) the task of the therapist. Attention is paid to the historical development of these ideas. The work of Martin Buber, Otto Rank, Wilfred Bion, and Viktor Frankl is especially emphasized, although proto-existential concepts from other waters are also noted. The heart of the paper deals with the application of these vertices to group psychotherapy. Extensive attention will be given to the differing viewpoints of Hugh Mullan and Irvin Yalom. Practical applications in group psychotherapy, including clinical vignettes, are offered.This paper was originally delivered, in somewhat different form, at the National Group Psychotherapy Institute of the Washington School of Psychiatry on April 23, 1995. It was dedicated to Hugh Mullan, who had been one of my teachers at the school two decades earlier.     

Motivations for social withdrawal and academic adjustment in emerging adulthood

While social withdrawal in childhood is typically associated with lower academic functioning, little is known about how motivations for social withdrawal may be connected to academic adjustment in emerging adulthood. The purpose of the present study was to examine associations between social withdrawal motivations (i.e., shyness, avoidance and unsociability) and indices of academic adjustment, including academic achievement (i.e., grade point average [GPA]) and academic motivation (i.e., intrinsic value, self-efficacy and test anxiety), while accounting for gender and conscientiousness. Participants were 623 emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 25 (M_age = 20.15, SD = 1.67; 79% female) who were currently attending university. Hierarchical regression results showed that shyness was negatively associated with intrinsic value and self-efficacy. Whereas shyness was positively associated with test anxiety, avoidance was negatively associated with test anxiety. Social withdrawal motivations were not associated with GPA. The findings suggest that some motivations for social withdrawal play a role in university students’ academic motivation, but not their academic achievement.     

Internet Addiction: A Logotherapeutic Approach

Internet addiction (IA) is both the most rapidly growing addiction and the least understood addiction ( Watson, 2005 ). For counselors, treatment issues surrounding the disease are also growing. At the forefront is the lack of understanding concerning treatment protocol to manage the challenging recovery and maintenance stages after IA behavior has been controlled. The authors discuss Viktor Frankl's logotherapy as an effective approach to treating IA.