The effectiveness of a peer-helping programme that increases subjective well-being

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a peer-helping programme in increasing the subjective well-being of a group of university students compared with a control group with the same characteristics who did not receive the intervention. The intervention recipients consisted of 13 male and 17 female participants. The peer helpers were 22 female and 8 male participants. The peer-helping programme consisted of three stages: training in helping skills, implementation and facilitating supervision sessions. The short-term effects of the programme were investigated using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale. The programme's long-term effects were evaluated using the Life Satisfaction Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. The results indicated that the short-term subjective well-being effects of the intervention activities were statistically significant. Additionally, the results revealed statistically significant increases in positive affect and life satisfaction and significant decreases in negative affect in the intervention group compared with that in the control group. Peer-helping programme may be used to increase individuals’ subjective well-being.     

Raising Salafī Children in the West

Despite the importance salafīs place on children’s education, this aspect of their discourse has hardly been studied. The present article examines how salafī jurists based in the Arab world, salafī imams based in the West and salafī authors of English-language children’s books conceptualize the norms for raising children, and what they believe should be done specifically to assure the virtuous Islamic upbringing of children in Western societies. Exploring issues ranging from what constitutes proper schooling to whether Muslim children may befriend non-Muslim children and whether it is permissible to celebrate birthdays, play foosball or play with dolls, the article analyses the educational challenges salafī communities in the West face as enclaves that resist both majority secular societies and the majority among Muslim minorities, and presents the nuances, and in some cases contestations, among salafī leaders as to how these challenges should be addressed and prioritized.     

What happens in a psychoanalysis?

A group of experienced analysts has developed scales and a coding manual illustrated with clinical examples to evaluate recorded analyses and psychodynamic therapies. The analytic process scales (APS) assesses three dimensions: (1) the contribution of the analyst: helping to develop a relationship in which the analyst can provide clarification and interpretation of transference and resistance; (2) the contribution of the patient: the communication of experience and the expression of feeling in ways which provide information about needs, wishes and conflicts, accompanied by self-reflection; and (3) interactional characteristics of the emerging relationship, explored by studying sessions divided into psychoanalytically coherent segments. A preliminary study of nine sessions has established that the variables assessed by the APS can be rated reliably. Study of the analysts' contributions illuminated their varied and complexstructure. Important differences emerged among the three patient-analyst pairs studied, and changes in scores over time tracked developments in the analytic work which would imply different treatment outcomes. The APS appears to be a reliable tool facilitating the systematic study of psychoanalyses.     

家长投入对中小学生学业投入的影响:有中介的调节模型

以北京市12所中小学的4160名学生为调查对象,采用层次回归方法考察了家长投入对子女学业投入的影响以及家长自主支持/控制的教养风格和子女的学业心理需要满足在其中的作用。结果发现:(1)中小学生的家长投入程度随学段升高而降低;(2)家长注重在家辅导方面的投入,在参与社区及学校活动等方面的投入较为欠缺;(3)家长投入对子女的学业投入具有显著的正向预测作用;(4)家长自主支持/控制的教养风格在家长投入与子女学业投入的关系中起调节作用,且该调节效应部分地通过子女的学业心理需要满足这一中介变量产生作用。     

创造性思维的社会文化基础

创造性思维作为创造性的内核, 是个体在一定社会文化背景上产生新颖独特且实用观点或产品的思维形式。文章基于社会文化的三层次模型, 分别从文化观念、文化活动或经历以及文化工具三个层面, 围绕人性价值观、中庸取向、非价值性文化传统、海外旅居、多语种学习、以及文化工具所涵盖的文化规则、符号和实物七个方面阐述了社会文化对创造性思维的影响。未来研究有必要在此基础上继续从文化与社会因素的依存性、个体差异控制、文化和创造性思维的类型差异以及多重研究取向协作四方面深入。     

Trajectories of Parenting Processes and Adolescent Substance Use: Reciprocal Effects

Drawing on transactional theories of child development, we assessed bidirectional links between trajectories of adolescent substance use and parenting processes from early through mid adolescence. Hierarchical generalized models estimated trajectories for 3,317 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, exploring both between- and within-individual effects. Between individuals, adolescents reporting more regular family activities and greater father and mother knowledge of friends and teachers experienced lower levels of substance use through mid adolescence. Similarly, adolescents with more frequent substance use reported lower family activities, father knowledge, and mother knowledge, though these differences dissipated over time. More conservative within-individual differences indicated a prospective protective effect of family activities, with increases in adolescent participation in family activities predicting later declines in substance use. Results support the central importance of engagement in regular family activities, and suggest the need for further exploration of transactional processes between parents and children in the development of risk behaviors.     

Preliminary evidence of diurnal rhythms in everyday behaviors associated with positive affect

The authors used the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) to track within-day variability in everyday behaviors associated with positive and negative affect across two samples. The EAR is a portable audio recorder that periodically samples snippets of ambient sounds from participants’ momentary environments. The recorded sounds are then coded for different behaviors. The study tested whether previous findings regarding diurnal patterns in self-reported mood extend to naturalistically observed behavior. Across both samples, behavior associated with positive affect (i.e., socializing, laughing, and singing) varied according to a sinusoidal 24-h rhythm centered around participants’ average waketime while behavior associated with negative affect (i.e., arguing and sighing) did not. Further, there was preliminary evidence that personality traits can moderate these rhythms (e.g., their amplitude).     

Locus of control and home mortgage loan behaviour

The present study investigated the impact of locus of control on home mortgage loan behaviours. The results showed that participants with stronger external control were more likely to purchase a lower priced home, have a lower ratio of mortgage loan amount to the total home value, and have a shorter term of mortgage loan. Moreover, among participants who have owned a home, those not using mortgage loans showed more external control than those using mortgage loans; among participants who have not owned a home but want to buy a home, those not planning to use mortgage loans showed more external control than those planning to use mortgage loans.     

腔内泌尿外科技术应用中的若干思考

近年来腔内泌尿外科迅速发展,在泌尿外科领域广泛应用.回顾历史,腔内泌尿外科器械是在与多种学科相互交叉和渗透的过程中发展的,学科交叉促进了腔内泌尿外科器械的发展和应用;腔内泌尿外科技术是医学人文关怀的体现,符合现代医学模式的要求.我们应加强医学与其它学科的交叉,促进腔内泌尿外科的发展,使疾病诊治更具人文精神.