Parallel lives: Community psychology in Latin America and the United States

Comparing the history of community psychology as it developed in the U.S. during the 1960s with the community psychology that developed 10 years later in Latin America, one is reminded of the title of Plutarch’s masterpice,Parallel Lives. Although there was very little contact or communication between the first community psychologists in these regions, very similar principles and orientations evolved. These similarities are particularly striking given the many ways in which the U.S. and Latin American contexts and histories differ. Since most readers are expected to be familiar with the history of community psychology as it developed in the U.S., this paper focuses primarily on the development of community psychology in Latin America in order to highlight areas of convergence as well as divergence from the U.S. experience. This paper is based on an address presented at the Fourth Biennial Conference, Society for Community Research and Action, Division 27 of the American Psychological Association, William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1993. The author acknowledges the valuable help received from J. R. Newbrough and from the referees in the revision of this paper.     

MFT trainee adjustment to program lifestyle stress: The TAPS scale

The 30-item Trainee Adjustment to Program Stress (TAPS) scale was developed to measure lifestyle stress of family therapy trainees. Initially, 70 items were generated from propositional statements based on four constructs. Following pilot testing, 329 out of 900 (37%) student members of the American Association for Mariage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) returned TAPS questionnaires. Internal consistency reliability analyses and principal components and factor analyses produced a final 30 item TAPS scale appropriate for use in family therapy training programs. Reliability and validity measures are reported.     

目标设置过程的理性特征分析

本文运用个案研究方法 ,从人类理性的角度分析了企业在不同的生产经营条件下的目标设置方式 ,发现不确定性和目标难度对管理者的目标设置过程有很大的影响。在确定的 ,且任务较容易的情况下 ,目标设置是以一种与理性期望模型相一致的方式进行的 ,而在高度不确定的条件下 ,管理者则倾向于采用渐进适应的模式设置目标。对管理者的经营活动作进一步深入的分析发现 ,在高难度的任务目标情景中 ,决策者更多地从战略的层次 ,而不是从具体的层次上寻求实现目标的途径 ,从而提出了目标难度与实绩的“策略搜索层次”假设     

Effects of differential reinforcement on the behavior and self-esteem of children with emotional and behavioral disorders

Students in a residential special school for children with emotional and behavioral disorders participated in a study designed to reduce their levels of inappropriate behavior. The residential care staff rated the students' behavioral problems and their class teachers rated their overt self-esteem pre and post intervention. In addition, the students completed self-ratings of their self-esteem. The students were divided into two groups, experimental and control. A multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to assess behavioral changes in the experimental group. Both groups received tangible rewards to the same level but only the experimental group received them contingent upon behaving appropriately. Results showed that the experimental group students made substantial reductions in their levels of inappropriate behavior, which were maintained at a three-month followup. Also, ratings of their behavioral problems by residential child care staff suggested that this improvement in behavior had generalized beyond the classroom to the residential setting. However, no significant differences were found between the pre- and post-intervention ratings of their self-esteem or teacher ratings of their overt self-esteem.     

Psychology and mind-body segregation: Are we part of the problem?

Despite advances in behavioral medicine and health psychology, the health care system and medical education continue to show resistance to a truly biopsychosocial model of medical practice. Psychologists in medical settings have generally been identified as challenging the concept of mind-body duality and the segregation of biologic and psychosocial sciences in medicine. However, examples are presented of how psychologists contribute to and perpetuate mind-body segregation via exclusive theoretical conceptualizations, arbitrary definitions of professional behavior, and dogmatic constraints on the limits of psychology's field of knowledge.     

Realism,instrumentalism, and the intentional stance

One of Dennett's principal arguments for an instrumentalistic construal of intentional attributions (e.g., attributions of belief, etc.) is that such attributions are environment relative. I argue that one can and should adopt a realist perspective toward such attributions, but accommodate their environmental relativity by treating intentional properties as relational properties. By doing so one acquires a useful perspective on experimental cognitive psychology; in particular, one can overcome the temptation to treat ecological accounts and information processing accounts as incompatible alternatives and come to see them as mutually supportive. Treating intentional properties as relational may be counter-intuitive, but I provide examples of how other sciences have had to treat what seem to be intrinsic properties as relational.     

The effects of situational performance constraints on intrinsic motivation and satisfaction: The role of perceived competence and self-determination

Situational performance constraints, task interest, and pay contingencies were manipulated in a laboratory study in order to investigate the cognitive mechanisms associated with the previously observed detrimental effects of constraints on affective task reactions. It was hypothesized that feelings of task competence and self-determination would account for both the direct and the interactive effects of constraints on motivation and satisfaction. The results of the study indicated that despite the fact that participants' performance was being constrained and they were aware of these constraints, the mere presence of the constraints alone failed to result in lower levels of satisfaction or motivation on a proofreading task. Post hoc analyses suggested that the constraints, in fact, led to negative affective task reactions when they also reduced participants' feelings of competence and self-determination. Interestingly, participants' generalized locus of control was associated with such effects. Internals tended to maintain stronger feelings of competence and self-determination than externals in the presence of constraints, thereby also maintaining greater motivation and satisfaction.     

The effects of feedback consistency and feedback favorability on self-perceived task competence and perceived feedback accuracy

The present study, employing a 2 × 2 true-experimental design and regression analyses assessed the main and interactive effects of feedback consistency (consistent vs inconsistent), and feedback favorability (acceptable vs superior), for feedback given at two time periods on measures of perceived feedback accuracy and self-perceived task competence. Among the study's findings were that (a) the perceived accuracy of feedback at the second period was a function of the favorability of feedback received at the first time period, (b) the self-perceived task competence levels of subjects were jointly determined by the favorability of feedback received at both time periods, and (c) the perceived accuracy of feedback was a function of its consistency. Organizational implications of the study's results are offered.     

初中生友谊质量与孤独感的变化轨迹:一项多元潜变量增长模型分析

为考察初中生友谊质量与孤独感的变化轨迹及两者间的关系,采用关系网络问卷、孤独感量表对西安市的875名初中生（M=12.73±0.18;男生494名）进行三年追踪测量,使用多元潜变量增长模型进行分析。结果发现：（1）初中三年,中学生的友谊质量逐渐提高,孤独感水平逐渐下降;（2）初一时的友谊质量和孤独感水平存在显著的个体差异,初中三年期间二者的发展速度也存在个体差异;（3）初一时的友谊质量可显著预测初一时的孤独感水平（β=-1.77,p<0.001）及随后的发展速度（β=0.20,p<0.05）;（4）男生的孤独感水平初始值高于女生,友谊质量的初始值则低于女生;高SES个体孤独感的起始值高于低SES个体。本研究结果揭示了初中三年期间个体友谊质量与孤独感的动态变化关系及友谊质量对孤独感的预测作用,对改善青少年孤独感的现状有一定的现实指导意义。