Emotional Abuse in Childhood and Attachment Anxiety in Adult Romantic Relationships as Predictors of Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are characterized by interpersonal problems. These problems might arise not only in current, but also in past relationships. To test this hypothesis, recollections of abuse and neglect in childhood and representations of adult attachment to the romantic partner were related to dimensional ratings of the 10 DSM-5 personality disorders. Ultimately, 110 patients of a psychosomatic clinic took part in the study. All data were collected with self-report measures. Among the different types of child abuse and neglect, emotional abuse was shown to be most frequently correlated with personality disorders. Attachment dimensions avoidance and anxiety were both associated with personality disorders; anxiety, however, showed stronger correlations. The results reveal that personality disorders come along with enduring adversities in close relationships, mainly experiences of emotional abuse and attachment anxiety, starting in the family of origin and continuing in adult attachment bonds.     

Blaming the Victim: University Student Attitudes Toward Bullying

Numerous studies have examined adolescent attitudes toward bullying, but limited research has explored college students’ attitudes toward victims of bullying. Using data collected from three southern universities (n = 1,135), the current research investigates demographic, experiential, and behavioral factors that are likely to influence whether university students attribute blame to bullying victims. Findings indicate that most university students report prosocial attitudes toward bullying. Victim blaming and minimizing attitudes were most common among males, heterosexuals, and those with a history of prior bullying perpetration during junior high or high school. Individuals reporting a higher frequency of drug use were significantly more likely to support victim blaming attitudes, and those who engaged in more frequent alcohol use were significantly more likely to minimize bullying.     

The sense of entitlement in romantic relationships: ethnic and religious aspects

One’s sense of entitlement is activated and influences one’s interactions and attitudes in a wide range of contexts, but it rather seems especially relevant in the context of the romantic relationship, as this particular type of relationship serves as a unique meeting point between needs, wishes, and expectations. While a number of studies have indicated that both exaggerated and restricted forms of sense of entitlement in couple relationships seem to be maladaptive and put people at risk for emotional problems, the core question of the current study dealt with the possible contribution of ethnic and religious aspects. As expected, ethnicity was shown to be a predictor of relational entitlement. Israeli Arabs were higher on inflated and restricted senses of entitlement than Israeli Jews were. Findings also indicated that among the Jewish sector, young religious Jews were higher on restricted sense of entitlement and lower on assertive sense of entitlement than were young secular Jews. Findings were discussed in terms of the unique situation of the Arab minority in Israel as well as the role of religious values in shaping the sense of relational entitlement in couple relationships.     

Self-regulated learning among teacher education students: Motivational beliefs influence on the use of metacognition

In the present study, we examined the relationships between motivational beliefs (self-efficacy, task value, and control of learning beliefs) and use of metacognitive learning strategies among teacher education students in Uganda. The sample comprised of 649 students selected from seven universities. Data were collected using several scales from the modified Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. Task value and self-efficacy independently and significantly predicted students’ reported use of metacognition. Students’ self-reported self-efficacy and task value explained 38% of the variance in their use of metacognition. The evidence suggests interventions aimed at improving teacher education students’ metacognitive skills to focus on enhancing their efficacy and value beliefs.     

The Role of Teachers' Social-Emotional Competence in Their Beliefs About Peer Victimization

One hundred fifty preservice teachers and 25 in-service teachers were surveyed to examine whether mental representations of relationships, confidence about managing bullying, empathy toward victims, and emotional expressiveness were associated with their peer victimization-related beliefs. Teachers' confidence about managing bullying was positively associated with their prosocial peer beliefs. In addition, the belief that the distress that children experience as a result of being victimized should be dismissed was negatively related to teachers' positive representations. Teachers' reports of positive emotional expressiveness were negatively related to normative, assertive, avoidance, and dismissive victimization-related beliefs and positively related to prosocial peer beliefs. In contrast, teachers' reports of negative emotional expressiveness were negatively related to prosocial peer beliefs and avoidance victimization-related beliefs. In-service teachers reported slightly higher positive expressiveness than preservice teachers did. Minority teachers reported higher scores for positive expressiveness, empathy, and lower negative classroom expressiveness than nonminority teachers did. Implications of these findings for practice are discussed.     

Strength of Religious Faith: A Comparison of Intercollegiate Athletes and Non-Athletes

This pilot study explored the strength of religious faith in a sample of intercollegiate athletes and non-athletes. Participants were 226 undergraduate students (57 athletes) at the University of Florida who were enrolled in undergraduate courses. Strength of religious beliefs were assessed with the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith—Short Form. Findings indicate that athletes reported higher levels of religious faith than non-athletes. Implications of these findings on future research and applied sport practice are discussed.     

Association of Normative Beliefs and Anger with Aggression and Antisocial Behavior in Russian Male Juvenile Offenders and High School Students

Examined the association of anger experience and two types of normative beliefs with physical aggression and nonaggressive antisocial behavior in 361 juvenile offenders and 206 high school students in Russia. All participants were male and ranged in age from 14 to 18 years. Higher frequency of aggressive acts was significantly associated with higher levels of anger and stronger beliefs that physical aggression is an appropriate course of action in conflicts. After statistically controlling for nonaggressive antisocial behavior, the relationship between physical aggression and antisocial beliefs was not significant. Similarly, with physical aggression controlled, nonaggressive antisocial behavior was uniquely associated with approval of deviancy, but not with anger or beliefs legitimizing aggression. Juvenile offenders reported higher levels of anger experience and higher frequency of aggression and antisocial behavior compared to high school students. There were no differences in normative beliefs between these two groups. This specificity of association of social-cognitive and emotion-regulation processes to aggressive and nonaggressive forms of antisocial behavior may be relevant to understanding the mechanisms of cognitive-behavioral therapy for conduct disorder and antisocial behavior.     

不同经验群体的学习观比较

通过对361名具有不同的学科经验和实践经验的被试进行学习观的测查,发现不同经验群体在学习的可控性、学习的速度、知识的组织性以及知识的稳定性等学习观的四个维度上表现出不同程度的差异。     

Dysfunctional beliefs in panic disorder: The Panic Belief Inventory

The Panic Belief Inventory (PBI) was developed to assess beliefs that increase the likelihood of catastrophic reactions to physical and emotional experiences in panic disorder. In the first stage of scale development, 197 panic disorder patients completed the PBI and standard self-report inventories of psychiatric symptomatology. An exploratory factor analysis yielded a 4-factor solution from which a 35-item instrument with 4 scales was constructed. The shortened measure and its scales had good internal consistency and convergent validity and moderate discriminant validity. Subsequently, 22 panic disorder patients who received cognitive therapy completed the PBI and other self-report inventories of dysfunctional cognitions at intake, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, termination, and several follow-up intervals. Results indicated that the PBI decreased significantly across treatment, with the largest decline occurring between intake and 4 weeks into treatment. The PBI correlated more strongly with dysfunctional cognitions associated with anxiety than dysfunctional cognitions associated with depression. These results provide preliminary evidence that the PBI has adequate psychometric characteristics, is useful to assess change in dysfunctional beliefs during treatment, and has the potential to advance cognitive theories of panic.