Peer status in an ethnic context: Associations with African American adolescents' ethnic identity

This investigation examined the association between ethnic identity centrality and peer status for African American adolescents who represented a sizable proportion, yet numerical minority within a high school context. Initial analyses indicated that a traditional sociometric nomination procedure did not adequately characterize peer status for African American adolescents. A modified nomination procedure varying the ethnicity of nominators yielded measures of African American adolescents' peer acceptance/rejection and perceived popularity as rated by African American or European American peers. Results suggest that high levels of peer acceptance and popularity as rated by African American peers were associated with high ethnic identity centrality; however, acceptance and popularity as rated by European American peers were unrelated to ethnic identity centrality among African American adolescents. Findings suggest the importance of examining peer status of African American adolescents with consideration given to ethnicity as a relevant context.     

The Theory-Practice Gap in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Reflections and a Modest Proposal to Bridge the Gap

This paper examines the issues related to the gap between theory and practice in the area of cognitive-behavioral therapy. The article begins with a review of the evidence for such a gap, and having demonstrated that the gap exists, provides a discussion of some of the factors that are likely important in its genesis and maintenance. The article then focuses on potential strategies to reduce the theory-practice gap that go beyond the common recommendation for both efficacy and effectiveness research. In particular, we provide recommendations for protocol planning and design, training and competency maintenance, dissemination research, and implementation and policy change. We conclude with the proposition that theory and research should not only inform practice, but that practice should have a reciprocal benefit on theory and research.     

A Contrastive Analysis of Emotional Terms in Bed-Night Stories Across Two Languages: Does it Affect Learners' Pragmatic Knowledge of Controlling Emotions? Seeking Implications to Teach English to EFL Learners

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - The present investigation aimed at studying emotional terms (ETs) in Persian and English bed-night stories for children by adopting a contrastive analysis...     

The Discursive Construction of the 1978–1979 Iranian Revolution in the Speeches of Ayatollah Khomeini

This article examines the discursive construction of the 1978–1979 social movement that ultimately became the Iranian Revolution, as constructed through the discourse of the charismatic leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. This article illustrates that Khomeini was able to strategically co‐opt the Shiite symbolism of the Battle of Karbala to bring together the most unlikely of bedfellows to unite in one common opposition movement. We first provide a summary of the socio‐political events that contextualised Khomeini's discourse and then examine two commemorative declarations given by Khomeini in the key months before the overthrow of the Pahlavi regime. We will illustrate, via a discourse‐historical analysis, that the two primary narratives prominent in Khomeini's discourse are as follows: (i) the continuation of the Battle of Karbala and (ii) the idea of a foreign conspiracy and a dangerous foreign other. We will also describe various discursive strategies that rendered Khomeini's discourse purposefully vague enough to appeal to Iran's fragmented opposition. Although the conspiratorial appeal of Khomeini's speeches has been discussed in the literature, we seek to show that it is the co‐opting of a national myth in an all‐encompassing language that drives the mass appeal of the discourse. The methods described in this study can be utilised by social and community psychologists seeking to understand how political actors discursively construct history in such a way as to serve their political ends. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reduced Contact Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions for Adult Depression: A Review

Depression is a highly prevalent and debilitating mental health condition. Evidence suggests that there is a widening gap between the demand for and availability of effective treatments. As such, there is a vast need for the development and dissemination of accessible and affordable treatments for depression. In the past decade, there has been a proliferation of reduced client-therapist contact protocols for depression. In this article, the authors review and compare the efficacy of reduced contact cognitive-behavioral interventions for adult depression across two degrees of therapist-client contact (i.e., no therapist-client contact versus minimal therapist-client contact interventions). The authors also discuss the methodological and theoretical limitations of this research base. The present review suggests that a) reduced contact interventions for depression can be effective in remediating the symptoms of depression; b) the effect sizes of some reduced contact protocols may approximate those reported in traditional protocols involving significantly greater client-therapist contact; and c) protocols which employ some form of client-therapist contact, on average, generate higher effect sizes than those that are purely self-help in nature. A discussion of the theoretical and applied implications of such findings, as well as areas in need of further research, is provided.     

Adolescent girls' and boys' weight-related health behaviors and cognitions: associations with reputation- and preference-based peer status.

In this study, the authors examined associations between preference- and reputation-based peer status and weight-related behaviors and cognitions for both adolescent boys and girls. Sociometric measures of peer like-ability and peer-perceived popularity, as well as self-reported measures of body size, dieting behavior, and weight-related cognitions were collected from a sample of 441 adolescents in Grades 11 and 12. Results revealed weight-related cognitions for girls (concerning obesity) and boys (concerning musculature/fitness). Peer-perceived popularity, but not like-ability, was significantly associated with both boys' and girls' body size and dieting. Lower levels of popularity were associated with heavier body shapes for girls and with both thin and heavier body shapes for boys. Findings suggest that peer status is an important source of social reinforcement associated with weight-related behaviors and cognitions.     

The Effects of Dysphoria and Personality on Negative Self-Referent Attitudes and Perceptions of the Attitudes of Others

The cognitive model of depression posits that depressed individuals harbor more dysfunctional self-referent attitudes, but little is known about how depressed individuals perceive the attitudes and perceptions of others in their social arena. This study examined whether dysphoric individuals perceive others to hold equally negative attitudes about themselves, and whether such perceptions depend on sociotropic (i.e., highly invested in social approval and relationship success) and autonomous (i.e., highly invested in vocational or academic achievement and goal attainment) personality styles. A sample of undergraduate students (N = 197) was recruited, and after the assessment of their depression symptoms and personality style, participants read vignettes that described negative scenarios, and imagined that these scenarios occurred to themselves or the general university student. After reading each vignette, participants also rated their agreement with a number of statements that assessed dysfunctional attitudes. Results indicated that elevated dysphoria (i.e., showing signs of depression) scores were positively associated with dysfunctional self-referent attitudes. Further, moderational analyses examining the interaction of sociotropy and dysphoria did not support the hypothesis that individuals higher on dysphoria and sociotropy were less likely to perceive others as harboring negative attitudes about themselves in comparison to those with elevated dysphoria and lower levels of sociotropy. Last, individuals showing elevated dysphoria and higher scores on subdomains of autonomy were more likely to perceive others as exhibiting negative attitudes about themselves than those with low levels of the trait. These findings, their implications, and strengths and limitations of the current investigation are further discussed.