Psychopathology and languishing are distinct

ABSTRACT

Hall-Simmons and McGrath have proposed that character strengths can moderate the impact that clinical symptoms have on functioning. This notion is reasonable in light of existing evidence. Specifically, we provide secondary analyses from recently published data suggesting that character strengths can moderate the impact of psychopathology on functioning. We argue however that this conceptual work should only the first step in developing a comprehensive model of how flourishing can be promoted and languishing avoided.     

Posttraumatic Growth in Trauma Survivors: Associations With Attachment to God and God Representation

Individuals often turn to religion or spirituality to cope with or make sense of trauma. In this study of 222 university students who reported a history of trauma, we examined whether God representation and attachment to God were associated with posttraumatic outcomes. Trauma outcomes include both the negative impacts of trauma and the perceived posttraumatic growth (PTG) that can occur in trauma survivors. Results revealed that both an authoritarian representation of God and an avoidant attachment to God were predictive of experiences of PTG.     

Corporate Capitalism and the Common Good: A Framework for Addressing the Challenges of a Global Economy

This article ventures a framework for assessing the contributions capitalism might make to the common good. Capitalism has manifest strengths—efficiency, growth, support for human freedoms, encouragement for collaboration among nations that are not natural allies. Processes that generate these goods have negative consequences as well—the exploitation of labor, environmental harm, the marginalization of the "least advantaged," the reduction of politics to strategies for advancing special interests. To constrain the negative consequences, public oversight is necessary. The challenge is to devise policies that will limit the harms while protecting conditions that enable free markets to flourish. The paper concludes with an illustrative sketch of policy proposals that exemplify this goal.     

How Change Happens: Controlling Images,Mutuality, and Power

SUMMARY

Change is inevitable but it can go in a positive direction toward growth or in a negative direction. Extending Patricia Hill Collins' concept of controlling images (2000), we can see how these images interact with relational images and strategies of disconnection to obstruct growth on both the societal and the personal level. In therapy, change is defined as movement-in-relationship toward better connection; and increased connection leads to growth. Several aspects of therapy that lead to deeper and wider connection are explored, especially increasing the patient's power. Prior versions of parts of this article were presented at the Jean Baker Miller Summer Training Institutes in 2001 and 2002 and at the 2002 Learning from Women Conference sponsored by the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute and the Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

As therapists, we're “in the business” of change–change for the better. That's our goal. Another word for change for the better is growth. Change is the essence of life. It is most obvious in children but it is a necessity through all of life. Change will occur inevitably but it can go in a positive or a negative direction. Further, I believe change toward growth creates pleasure. We feel most alive and zestful when we are engaged in this expanding activity.     

Estimating Complex Measurement and Growth Models Using the R Package PLmixed

Measurement models, such as factor analysis and item response theory models, are commonly implemented within educational, psychological, and behavioral science research to mitigate the negative effects of measurement error. These models can be formulated as an extension of generalized linear mixed models within a unifying framework that encompasses various kinds of multilevel models and longitudinal models, such as partially nonlinear latent growth models. We introduce the R package PLmixed, which implements profile maximum likelihood estimation to estimate complex measurement and growth models that can be formulated within the general modeling framework using the existing R package lme4 and function optim. We demonstrate the use of PLmixed through two examples before concluding with a brief overview of other possible models.     

The meaning of service questionnaire and its association with psychological growth among Veterans

ABSTRACT

Few studies have investigated what soldiers find meaningful after being exposed to highly stressful events and what positive effects they might have in the aftermath. This study reports the psychometric properties of a newly developed questionnaire, Meaning of Service (MoS), and its application to the study of how strongly meaning-making processes are associated with psychological growth. One hundred eighty-four Norwegian Air Force Veterans who have participated in various missions abroad in different branches of the military completed the MoS questionnaire along with other scales reflecting psychological growth, hardiness, resilience, stress, and exposure, as well as personal and mission characteristics. The principal component analysis mainly identified three major meaning themes as expected from previous qualitative research (Confirmation of ability, Cohesion of peers, and Significance of effort). The hierarchical regression analysis showed that all three meaning themes and two coping strategies were associated with psychological growth, and that Confirmation of ability (coping and recognition of coping) seems particularly important to enhance Veterans’ prospects of psychological growth. Future research directions are proposed including suggestions for minor modifications of the questionnaire.     

Examining the relationship between hardiness and perceived stress-related growth in a sport injury context

This study examined the relationship between hardiness, coping and perceived stress-related growth (SRG) in a sport injury context. Due to the exploratory nature of the study, a cross-sectional design was employed, whereby 206 previously injured athletes (148 male, 58 female, M_age = 22.23 years) who had recently returned to sport completed three questionnaires: Dispositional Resilience Scale, Stress-Related Growth Scale, and Brief COPE. Pearson product–moment correlations and Preacher's and Hayes's (2008) bootstrapping procedure were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed a significant positive relationship between hardiness and perceived SRG. Two coping strategies were found to mediate this relationship: emotional support and positive reframing. This would suggest that those higher in hardiness may have fostered SRG by mobilising their social support for emotional reasons (e.g., moral support, sympathy or understanding) and having the ability to construe their injury in positive terms; however, more rigorous methodologies are needed to confirm or refute these observations. These findings support some of the central tenets of Joseph and Linley's (2005) organismic valuing theory and provide implications for professional practice. Future researchers should embrace qualitative inquiry to enhance the interpretability and meaningfulness of these findings (e.g., interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis), and use prospective, longitudinal pre-to-post sport injury designs to further substantiate them.     

Association of preterm birth and intrauterine growth restriction with childhood motor development: Brisa cohort,Brazil

The present study investigated the association between preterm birth PT conditions, intrauterine growth restriction IUGR and the combination of both PT-IUGR with infant motor development. A cohort with 1006 children was monitored during prenatal, at birth, and two years of age. Bayley-III screening was used to evaluate of fine and gross motor skills. The data did not indicate an increased risk for motor delays in the PT or IUGR, composed mainly by mild cases. However, the combination of the conditions PT-IUGR increased the risk of delays in motor, which emphasizes the importance of monitoring the motor development of the group.