Forget about the future: effects of thought suppression on memory for imaginary emotional episodes

Whether intentional suppression of an unpleasant or unwanted memory reduces the ability to recall that memory subsequently is a contested issue in contemporary memory research. Building on findings that similar processes are recruited when individuals remember the past and imagine the future, we measured the effects of thought suppression on memory for imagined future scenarios. Thought suppression reduced the ability to recall emotionally negative scenarios, but not those that were emotionally positive. This finding suggests that intentionally avoiding thoughts about emotionally negative episodes may inhibit representations of those memories, progressively reducing their availability to recall.     

初中生生活事件、心理韧性与学习倦怠的关系

目的:探讨初中生的学习倦怠、生活事件和心理韧性的关系。方法:从济宁市四所初级中学抽取465名初中生,以青少年生活事件量表、青少年心理韧性量表、中学生学习倦怠问卷为研究工具,对初中生进行测查。结果:初中生的学习倦怠水平随年级增长呈逐渐升高趋势;男生的学习倦怠水平显著高于女生;心理韧性作为中介变量,影响到生活事件与学习倦怠之间的关系,中介效应占总效应的比例为42.4%。结论:培养学生的心理韧性可以有助于降低他们的学习倦怠水平。     

Suggestibility effects persist after one year in children who experienced a single or repeated event

The study of long-term memory for repeated events has important implications for understanding autobiographical memory in a forensic context. Recall accuracy and suggestibility for details of an instance of a repeated event versus a single event were examined in children aged 5–6 and 7–8 years after a one-year delay. Children who reported an instance of a repeated event were more likely to report that a non-experienced detail had occurred and reported less correct information than did single-event children. After one year a significant suggestibility effect was still present. The present experiment provides further evidence for both the capabilities and limitations of children's long-term recall and reinforces the importance of non-suggestive interviews of children at all stages of investigation.     

Coping Strategies and Locus of Control as Mediating Variables in the Relation Between Exposure to Political Life Events and Psychological Adjustment in Israeli Children

The relation between political life events and distress was examined with particular emphasis on coping strategies and locus of control as two possible mediators. Subjects were 88 Israeli children. Results partially supported a linear relation between reported impact of exposure and distress. Findings for coping strategies as a mediator suggested, counterintuitively, that greater use of coping strategies is related to more experienced distress. Findings for locus of control as a mediator suggested that subjects with external locus of control experience greater distress, other than in the case of depressive symptomatology. These results indicate that coping strategies and locus of control play a complex role in the stress-outcome relation, the precise nature of which remains to be resolved. Theoretical, clinical and political implications of the findings are discussed.     

Evaluating Environmental Arrangement as Setting Events: Review and Implications for Measurement

Environmental arrangement alters the physical, social, or programmatic aspects of classrooms to increase task engagement, facilitate prosocial behaviors, and reduce or prevent the challenging behaviors of children and youth. Research shows specific arrangements can affect student engagement and deportment, but this literature is not well integrated theoretically or empirically with other effective behavior change tactics. This article proposes that some environmental arrangements may serve as setting events for child behavior change. Setting events and environmental arrangement were defined and critically outlined. A total of 43 physical environmental arrangement articles were reviewed as to the specific type of arrangement and research methodology. Several methodological problems (e.g., lack of measurement or control of antecedents, consequences, or environmental arrangements, manipulation of more than one environmental arrangement) precluded conclusions about the setting event function of environmental arrangements. Suggestions for future research on setting events and environmental arrangements are proposed.     

Social skill in third and sixth grade children: A moderator of lifetime stressful life events and behavior problems?

We investigated relationships among stressful lifetime life events, social skill, and behavior problems in children. Participants were 159 third graders, 138 sixth graders, and their mothers. Mothers reported on their children's life events, social skill, and behavior problems. Children self-reported on their social skill and behavior problems. Increased numbers of stressful life events significantly predicted increased behavior problems in third and sixth graders. Increased social skill significantly predicted decreased behavior problems in third and sixth graders. Social skill served a stress-protective role for third but not sixth graders; third graders with increased life events and better social skill had fewer behavior problems than their less socially skilled peers. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed, and suggestions for future resilience research are presented.     

Setting events controlling social verbal exchanges between students with developmental delays

The peer social verbal exchanges (social conversational units) between four developmentally delayed students were studied as a function of setting events. A single conversational unit consisted of a verbal exchange in which each individual functioned as both speaker and listener. Each unit included a three term verbal contingency. Data were collected by trained observers viewing videotapes of 20-minute sessions in which running times were burned onto the videotape. Frequencies of social conversational units were measured under two conditions. Comparisons were made between sessions in which the teacher responded only when spoken to and sessions in which the teacher was absent using a combined reversal and multiple schedule design. Results showed that peer conversational units emerged at high rates when the teacher was absent and at low or nonexistent rates when the teacher responded only when spoken to in the living room setting. The setting and audience control for peer verbal exchanges were discussed as functions possibly of either a punishing audience, establishing operations, or response deprivation.