Life Span Development is a required course for majors in psychology and a general education elective for students at large at our university. This article follows the journey of a redesign project that focused on infusing diversity into both small and large lecture classes, with emphases on both course content and pedagogy.
Internalized disorders such as anxiety and depression are among the most common psychological problems in adolescents. An important risk factor in the development of these disorders is stress, which can increase the risk of developing emotional difficulties. This study sought to evaluate the effects of the In vivo program, which is aimed at developing stress coping skills. A multi-case research design was used with three girls and three boys aged 13 to 17. Internalized symptoms and program adherence were measured using questionnaires; stress was measured using a biomarker, salivary cortisol. The results demonstrate that boys showed a clinically significant improvement in internalized symptoms, whereas no improvement was observed in girls.
The Needs-based model of quality of life has been employed in the development of a wide range of disease-specific quality of life measures over the last 20 years. The model argues that disease prevents need fulfilment and that effective interventions enable individuals to satisfy more of their fundamental human needs. Rather than adopting an existing theoretical framework, the needs-based model developed through grounded theory techniques. Several theories of needs have been advanced during the last 70 years, many of which are well known. This article relates the needs-based model of quality of life to the major published theories of human needs. Several of the theories focus on the development of societies rather than individuals – dependent on the disciplines and interests of the authors; who include sociologists, economists and psychologists. Most theorists also believe that there is a hierarchy of needs. The needs theories suggest that there are varying numbers of fundamental needs, but these tend to overlap across the theories. Statistical analyses of data collected with the needs-based quality of life measures support the view that there is a single, fundamental need.
As human beings we need to relate to others; the exercise of our professional roles demands it. Relationships, however, bring about challenges to the self that require us to act with integrity. Different approaches to integrity configure different ways of cognitively and intuitively feeling and acting in our relationships. Moreover, different ways of understanding human development are related to different ways of understanding integrity in the self. While not an exhaustive account, we sketch out three models of human development that capture much of this diversity, the so-called autonomous self (AS), processual self (PS) and inter-processual self (IPS). Each has a particular way of defining integrity in the self and understanding action. The AS and PS models understand integrity as internal coherence thanks primarily to rational exercise, with priority given to the content of action, while relations are seen as resources. AS and PS focus on cognition through rational or emotional and external mastery of our relationships and our relationship to our own integrity (self-integrity is also handled as a cognitive exercise mirroring how external relations are understood). The IPS understands integrity as the dynamic to growth and cognition itself as a relational act that, when it arises from within, affects all dimensions of the person and hence how to ethically relate to others and ourselves. Different kinds of integrity are also related to practical wisdom. Based on this, we explore consequences of these different ways of understanding self-integration and relationships for approaching management and leadership roles to open up reflection in the field of management on leadership, relational integrity and personal development.
BACKGROUND Although expectancy-value models of motivation have been applied to understanding children’s physical activity in a variety of contexts, the construct of cost has received relatively less attention. In the present study, perceived cost for engaging in mandatory physical education (P.E.) classes is explored. In particular, we examine different dimensions to cost as well as how cost may be related to children’s competence beliefs and values, perceived autonomy-support, and P.E. engagement. METHODS Two hundred fifty-eight fifth-graders were surveyed in their P.E. classes. Children responded to items assessing cost, competence beliefs, intrinsic value, and attainment value for P.E., as well as perceived autonomy-support of the P.E. teacher. RESULTS Two distinct types of cost were identified through factor analysis: personal discomfort cost and social cost. Personal discomfort cost was negatively related to competence beliefs and values, engagement in P.E., and perceived autonomy-support. CONCLUSIONS Perceived cost appears to be a useful way to understand why some children may be less engaged in P.E. classes. P.E. teachers may be able to mitigate cost by engaging in tactics that are autonomy-supportive in nature, such as providing children with choices and rationales for activities.
Abstract An exploratory reading intervention using ASL stories, some with no visual handshape rhymes and others with handshape rhymes, to foster English print vocabulary was evaluated. Four signing deaf students, who were prelingually and profoundly deaf, between the ages of seven and eight years of age and reading at the first-grade level or below were engaged in the intervention. During group story time sessions, stories in American Sign Language (ASL) were presented on PowerPoint slides that included stories translated into both ASL and English, and short lessons using bilingual strategies. Using a pretest-posttest design, the print words were presented within ASL stories across three conditions; 1) with no ASL handshape rhyme, 2) with ASL handshape rhyme, and 3) with English word families (e.g., cat, sat, bat) that rhyme. Students’ vocabulary scores were significantly higher on the ASL stories with handshape rhymes, marginally significant in the non-rhyming ASL stories, and non-significant in the ones with rhyming English word families. This findings point to the importance of rhyme for young deaf children attending ASL/English bilingual programs and suggest that creating ASL stories with rhyme can help to bootstrap literacy. Future directions for research are recommended.
In early Psychoanalysis was discovered that preverbal experiences during and before birth are meaningful and can influence later experience in a hidden way. Especially in Humanistic Psychology these observation were elaborated. This paper gives an overview of pre- and perinatal perspectives to different observations practical fields and fields of the humanities. It aims to demonstrate the many fields to which Prenatal Psychology can provide valuable resources. Among them, I would like to emphasize the great practical significance it holds for the field of obstetrics, the health sciences, psychotherapy and the humanities. The challenge of Prenatal Psychology is its trans-disciplinary character. It integrates different levels of quantitative and qualitative levels of observation. So far, research has been mostly conducted by individuals or in the framework of small interdisciplinary groups such as the International Society for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine (ISPPM) in Europe and the Association for Prenatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) in North America. However, the great theoretical and practical significance requires increased social awareness and action.
In dealings with fairness and equality, it is time to rekindle interest in the notion of life chances. In today’s world, many of the lesser endowed in the West see their opportunities dwindle when they do not share in the accumulation of wealth by the happy few or lose jobs to Asian Tigers, environmental concerns, artificial intelligence, or the impact of covid-19. To turn this tide, the paper introduces a mechanism design of situational contracting that, drawing on innovative insights from behavioural economics, can improve opportunities, capabilities and employability, serve a spectrum of ideologies, and reveal how far societies are prepared to go in dealing with the downside of globalisation.
Is having a degree of a postgraduate programme necessary and indispensable? Over the recent decades, it is noticeable to find that experienced professionals with a postgraduate degree would move up the corporate ladder relatively faster than those who do not. Because of that, professionals seeking for master degree or above are growing. In parallel, many universities in Hong Kong are offering various postgraduate programmes to attract potential applicants resulting in severe competition among universities themselves. Leveraging on the Discrete Choice Model (DCM) and sensitivity analysis, this study examined how the six essential attributes would make an impact on the ranking of a postgraduate programme. To validate the model, three hundred and thirty-nice responses were collected through a mass survey. Our findings highlighted that reputation of the university, practicality of the programme, focuses on future economies and cost of the programme were more important factors than location of the university and internationalization of students’ profile for potential applicants to choose a postgraduate programme in Hong Kong. This study intended to offer practical insights and direction for universities when designing a better and more attractive postgraduate programmes.
Introduction: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been mainly studied in children, even though it persists into adulthood; only recently has adult ADHD received the required attention. ADHD research in Arab speaking countries is relatively scarce. Objectives: This scoping review has as objectives to provide a comprehensive overview of adult ADHD research in the 22 Arab countries, to identify gaps in the literature and inform future research. Methods: The scoping review is underpinned by the five-stage framework of Arksey and O'Malley. Eight electronics databases were searched for published and unpublished literature as well as conference proceedings from conception date of databases until February 2018. Results: The literature search yielded 2,792 citations after removal of duplicates, out of which 11 articles and conference proceedings were included. Publications were concentrated in the 21st century. ADHD diagnosis and sample differed between each study, where a variety of screening and diagnostic tools were used among clinical and community samples. National prevalence of adult ADHD only exists for Lebanon and Iraq as they are part of the World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys initiative. Also, adult ADHD is highly comorbid with bipolar and substance use disorder and related entities. Conclusions: This is the first methodologically rigorous scoping review focusing solely on adult ADHD in the Arab region. We found that adult ADHD is quite prevalent in the Arab World where studied, linked to serious impairment, and is highly comorbid, yet it is under-researched and undertreated across the Middle East and North Africa.
This paper uses a UK panel study dataset, to investigate effects of stressful ‘life events’ on mental health. Various events – including poverty, unemployment, and illness – increase the risk of depression. There may be delayed effects of a stressful event: many people experience a slow recovery from depression. This paper reports evidence that in ‘General Health Questionnaire’ GHQ-12, feeling ‘worthless’ shows the slowest recovery after a harmful event: up to about nine years. Evidence in this paper is reported as charts, showing gradual recovery from traumatic events; and regression analysis. These charts are broadly consistent with regression results. Keywords: Depression; life events; slow recovery; GHQ-12; worthlessness
Low self-esteem has been identified as a strong predictor of onset, maintenance and relapse in eating disorders. This suggests that treatment directly addressing low self-esteem might improve recovery. The Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based group for low self-esteem is a six session manualised programme based on Melanie Fennel’s model for low self-esteem. It was developed at Newbridge House, a child and adolescent eating disorder inpatient unit in the UK. Although the use of CBT for low self-esteem is established in adult services, the Newbridge programme, adapting the same principles for children and adolescents, is to our knowledge, the first of its kind. This paper reports a service evaluation (N=63) which examines the efficacy of this group in improving low self-esteem for 12-17 year olds with a primary diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa (AN). Paired-samples t-tests compared the differences in pre- to post-group and post-group to follow-up. Results indicate significant improvements in self-esteem as shown by improvements on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale, which are maintained at follow-up. This highlights that group manualised CBT for low self-esteem is effective for young people with AN and indicates the need for future controlled studies.
Social capital theory suggests that the norms, obligations, and information adolescents receive from their social relationships act as a form of capital that can be traded in social situations. The implications of this theory are clear when considering growth in positive outcomes: more social capital should provide greater growth. However, the implications are less clear when considering potential protective effects against negative outcomes. We conduct a systematic review of the literature on social capital to examine the evidence for these protective effects. We discuss what social capital is and how it has been applied to youth previously before moving to a review of the relevant literature linking social capital and a number of negative outcomes. We find evidence that social capital does generally protect youth from negative outcomes; however, the evidence for some outcomes, such as mental health, are mixed. We review the implications of our findings and suggest avenues for future research.
Concerns about how maternal employment affects the development of children continue to attract research attention. Most of the literature focuses on how maternal employment affects children’s behavioral development. However, some studies have examined the longer term impact of maternal employment on adolescent and young adult affective functioning, including risk of depression. The current study explored the relationship between maternal employment during four developmental stages and subsequent risk of depressive symptoms in young adulthood. The BDI-II, DIRI Personal Distress Scale, and measures assessing maternal employment history were administered to 452 undergraduates. Four 2 x 3 MANOVA (sex x maternal employment status [full-time, part-time, nonemployment] during the participants’ infancy, preschool years, elementary school years, and adolescence) were conducted to investigate the effect of maternal employment during each of the four stages of development on subsequent development of depressive symptoms and personal distress. A significant interaction effect showed that sons whose mothers were employed part-time during their infancy reported higher rates of subsequent depression on the BDI-II than those whose mothers were nonemployed or employed full-time. For both men and women, a history of part-time maternal employment during the child’s infancy was associated with reports of greater personal distress in young adulthood. Maternal employment during the other three developmental stages was not associated with significant differences in subsequent depression or personal distress.
This paper presents the technical details of the software package SDT in the R computing and graphics environment, implementing a convex quadratic program that was recently proposed in the literature on self-determination theory of human motivation. Three main features are addressed, with their accompanying code for computation in R: first, the application of the quadratic program and corresponding code for the analysis of the extent of motivation internalization or externalization; second, for exploring the simplex structure assumption of motivation; and third, for adjusting the confounded scoring protocol, called the self-determination or relative autonomy index, to account for the mixture of internal motivation and external motivation. We describe the functions of the R package SDT. The computations are demonstrated with example data accompanying the package, so researchers can run the methodology on their own datasets.
A Bayesian parametric and the semiparametric approach are compared to estimate the nonpolynomial direct and the instantaneous indirect effect among latent factors in the Structural Equation Model (SEM). Nonpolynomial indirect relationships are especially common in the psychological, biometrical, and physical fields. However, the assumption of normality within the parametric framework limits the statistical inferences of the nonlinear direct and indirect estimates. The semiparametric Bayesian approach is applied using the truncated Dirichlet process with a stick breaking prior to track the instantaneous indirect effect that are derived from a composite of nonpolynomial nonlinear functions (e.g., exponential, logarithm, and sine) in a simulation study. The results show that the semiparametric approach provides more accurate estimates as well as a higher accuracy in recovering nonpolynomial direct and indirect effect among latent factors.
We use a modified dictator experiment to examine subjects’ willingness to pay for a ‘fair’ outcome and how this is influenced by social efficiency. We find that subjects exhibit a downward-sloping demand for the fair outcome that increases when the fair outcome is socially efficient and decreases with the experimental stakes. Because a subject’s relative emphasis on payoff maximization, fairness and social efficiency may likely be related to personality type, we add controls for personality preferences as measured by the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This also allows for a more precise examination of gender effects. We find that personality preferences are important determinants of decision making. Controlling for personality preferences, we find that women are more likely to choose the fair outcome then men. This effect is particularly strong when the unequal payoff outcome favors the (passive) responder.
This article presents a self-report inventory, the “Emotion Scale”, conducted on the basis of Dabrowski’s theory (1964) to understand the emotional development of the gifted. Two subscales, “Emotional Functions” and “Emotional Cognition” were included with 26 items. The coefficients of internal consistency (Cronbach α =.769), stability(.657~.769) and the expert validity(.714~1.000) were well reported. The formal study included 123 mathematically gifted students and 132 regular students from senior high schools in Northern Taiwan. The participants were administered with three instruments: “The Emotion Scale”, “The Me Scale” (OEs Scale), and “The Basic Personality Inventory”. The research findings indicated that the gifted students had better emotional adjustment than the regular students on three scales. There was positive correlation (t=.33, p<.01) between the score of emotion development and the intellectual OE but negative correlation (-.14, p<.05) between the score of emotion development and Emotional OE. The significant negative correlation (-.49, p<.01) between the score of emotion development and the score of Basic Personality Inventory was also found. Through the Stepwise Regression analysis, the researchers found the intensive emotional Over-excitability(EOE) significantly predicted personal maladjustment. Teachers and parents of the gifted are suggested using “The Emotion Scale” and “The Me Scale” to understand the emotional needs of their students/children and provide at-risk students/children with differential guidance and counseling.
Many people with serious mental illnesses continue to experience premature mortality and complex physical health problems. Navigation and guided care methods have been expanded to reach many different populations – all of whom face varying barriers to health care and social services. A navigator guides consumer/patients around health system obstacles with ultimate goals of achieving access to care. Navigator and peer programs have had the most positive effect in helping mental health consumer/patients link to primary care. The voices of consumer/patients, peers, and other navigators are integral to the science and art of navigation for mental health. Effective navigation models, trained navigator and peer professionals have enormous potential to help consumer/patients achieve optimal physical and mental health outcomes.
