大学生幸福感提升的纵向研究：适合度和努力的调节作用

考察提升大学生幸福感的不同干预练习的效果及其调节变量。120名大学生参与前测,其中104名完成5周的干预和后测。随机分配大学生每周从事感激、乐观和生活事件记录,对他们的幸福感和抑郁进行前测和后测。结果表明,5周干预练习后,与记录生活事件组相比,感激组的幸福感显著上升,感激组和乐观组的抑郁显著下降;另外,与练习活动更匹配和更努力的被试获益更大。可见感激和乐观是对中国大学生有效的幸福感干预练习,且个人与练习的适合度和个体的努力程度调节干预效果。     

The Role of Small and Medium-Sized African-American Churches in Promoting Healthy Life Styles

The issues of poor health care, poverty, crime, and HIV infection make it more difficult for minority communities to combat substance abuse and other diseases that are prevalent in the African-American community. Faith communities in general, and African-American churches in particular, are a largely untapped, but potent, resource to reduce the toll of substance abuse and other health issues. Information about ministers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding leading health indicators, the frequency with which they discuss these issues from the pulpit, and organizational readiness to develop and implement interventions can be the foundation of clergy training and health intervention efforts.     

Combating prejudice and racism: new interventions from a functional analysis of racist language

Based on a conversational model of language‐use‐in‐social‐context, this article focuses on one particular form of racist and prejudiced talking that has not received enough attention—conversations in which racist statements function to maintain groups and relationships rather than seriously promote racism. Despite their casualness, such statements are still pernicious, and a range of potential interventions are proposed for this language function. These involve actively altering a community's discursive resources to include more rejoinders to racist comments. Such rejoinders must be utilized in the most appropriate way for any relationship, and this might mean polite corrections, witty repartee, strong put‐downs to silence someone making racist comments, or as counter‐jokes to racist jokes, depending upon the social context and power relations involved. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Cognitive Behavioral Adherence Intervention for Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes

This study examined the impact of a cognitive behavioral intervention for nonadherent adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Six youths having problems following the diabetes regimen received training in cognitive restructuring and problem solving during individual sessions. A multiple baseline design across participants was used. Treatment effectiveness was assessed through 24-hr recall adherence interviews with adolescents and frequency of testing data was downloaded from glucose meters. Data was also collected for diabetes-specific stress. Five youths displayed improvement on at least one self-care behavior. Furthermore, the results suggest that the cognitive behavioral intervention was effective in diminishing diabetes-related stress in two participants. Cognitive behavioral interventions show promise for increasing self-care behaviors among nonadherent youths with type 1 diabetes. However, individual youths varied in their response to treatment. Further research is needed in developing procedures to better meet the needs of youths, improve youth participation, and enhance treatment effectiveness.     

Personal autonomy in group‐based interventions

Marginalized individuals are often caught in a vicious cycle of economic or health problems, a lack of social connection and disempowerment. The present research examines interventions that provide opportunities for social inclusion to break this cycle. Specifically, in two longitudinal field studies, we examined the effect of social inclusion on self‐efficacy and hope in two vulnerable groups, namely, 68 residents in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre (Study 1) and 48 marginalized adults taking part in activities organized by a community organization (Study 2). Although somewhat counterintuitive, we hypothesized that social inclusion would affect self‐efficacy by fostering feelings of personal autonomy. The hypothesis was supported by results from both studies revealing an indirect effect from social inclusion via personal autonomy on self‐efficacy and hope. The findings are discussed in relation to how group inclusion may stimulate the development of personal autonomy in disadvantaged adults, an important factor in their recovery and mental health.     

An Open Trial of Web-Based Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Perinatal Women at Risk for Depressive Relapse

Depression occurring during pregnancy and postpartum (i.e., the perinatal period) is common and associated with adverse outcomes for women and their offspring. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has been shown to reduce risk for depressive relapse among at-risk individuals generally, and recent adaptations document the efficacy of MBCT among perinatal women specifically. In addition, MBCT, when delivered using a web-based format (Mindful Mood Balance [MMB] program), has demonstrated acceptability and feasibility for at-risk individuals generally. The aim of the present open trial study was to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of MMB for use with pregnant women at risk for depressive relapse (N = 37). We predicted that MMB would be feasible and acceptable as assessed by session completion and participation in phone coaching calls, home practice completion, and self-reported satisfaction via questionnaire and interview. We also predicted that women would not demonstrate significant worsening of depression symptom severity during MMB, consistent with our focus on prevention. A brief case example based on a composite of participants is presented to illustrate the MMB structure and content and the phone coaching protocol. Participants demonstrated engagement with the program, reported perceiving benefits in the intended depression prevention targets of MMB, and sustained minimal to mild depressive symptom severity over the course of the program. Given these promising results and the potential benefits of averting depression for women and their families, further development and rigorous testing of MMB among at-risk pregnant women is warranted.     

Buddhist insight meditation (Vipassanā) and Jon Kabat-Zinn’s “Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction”: an example of dedifferentiation of religion and medicine?

For about 25 years, mindfulness meditation has attracted growing attention. Developed in the context of a traditional Asian religious tradition, mindfulness meditation originally served soteriological goals. In therapeutic settings, it has been claimed, it has become a secular ‘consciousness technology’. So far, studies have mainly been interested in clinical evidence for salutogenetic effects. Questions about if and how practices such as “Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction” (MBSR) are to be conceptualized as ‘religious’ still require further analysis. To provide a more fitting criteriology, we propose to distinguish between ‘salvific’ (‘liberating’) and ‘salvetive’ (‘healing’) settings of meditation, with the latter denoting a more ‘therapeutic’ outlook. It will be argued that MBSR bears elements of salvetive and salvific meditation. In the paradigm of a functional differentiation between ‘religion’ and ‘biomedicine’, MBSR’s presence in biomedical institutions seems to provide a counter-example, which will be discussed in the final section.     

An ethnographic inquiry of cooperative learning implementation

Qualitative research methods were employed to explore variations in teacher implementation of a research-based model of cooperative learning. Participants included five middle school math and science teachers who were trained in the Johnson, D.W. and Johnson, R.T. [Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1983). The socialization and achievement crisis: Are cooperative learning experiences the answer? Applied Social Psychology, 4, 199-124.] model of cooperative learning. Implementation was examined via interview and observation. Principles from cognitive psychology defined constructs for study, which included teacher concepts, plans, and enactment of cooperative learning in the classroom. Study design included features characteristic of ethnographic inquiry: prolonged engagement, purposeful sampling, persistent observation, multiple source data collection, and recursive interpretation. Triangulation of data sources revealed that relationships between concepts, plans and enactment were mediated by teaching style, teaching context, and degree of teaching expertise. Findings suggest that when attempting to implement cooperative learning lessons, teacher may benefit from attention to teacher and student roles, curricular requirements, instructional time, and classroom management skills. Findings further demonstrate the important contributions of qualitative research to the cooperative learning literature.