The Central African Republic (CAR) is a country with a long history of violent conflict, extreme poverty, and little to no mental health infrastructure for a population with profound exposure to ongoing trauma. In 2015, 70% of the population was displaced internally or to surrounding countries, and 80% had witnessed violence. An empirical study of mental health in CAR found that 50% to 80% of the population reported clinically significant anxiety or depression. Such epidemiological data suggest extremely high levels of distress, yet more culturally relevant information is needed to better understand contextual responses to trauma, and associated mental health needs. To address this empirical gap, the present study engaged in a collaborative partnership with humanitarian organizations and local religious groups in CAR to conduct a series of focus groups with community members. Qualitative exploratory research methodology was used, as it can inform the development and delivery of intervention, and shape policy initiatives to increase mental health endeavors that promote healing from trauma. Focus group discussions were recorded, transcribed, and then coded, resulting in 3 primary themes: safety/disarmament and reestablishing education; traumatic experiences of physiological arousal and generalized distress; and subsequent idioms of distress and lack of mental health treatment or availability of services. These themes illustrate the importance of further developing and maintaining systems that provide safety, education, and mental and physical health care services to the general population in CAR. Ongoing conflict jeopardizes the formation of new systems, and investment in established systems that need improvements and resources. Without government and political support, these endeavors will continue to languish until peace and stability is widespread throughout the country.

Rwanda experienced a ferocious genocide in 1994, with 800,000 people killed in 100 days. It remains a stain on the world's conscience because the international community failed to intervene. This article is part observation and part reflection on the country's recovery from the genocide. I have been traveling there for over 10 years and have witnessed the destruction and reconstruction of the country. This reconstruction has been on both a societal and an individual level. The article describes a number of strategies employed by the government to bring Rwanda back from its shattered state, many of which have proven successful. Addressing the trauma on an individual level remains a significant challenge. Rwanda's recovery from the genocide has been remarkable, but efforts to heal individuals need to continue in order to build a country that looks to the future rather than one that is haunted and defined by its genocide.

Three studies examined the hypothesis that a child's prosocial self-schema predicts prosocial behavior. In Study 1, only self-aware boys showed a self-schema-behavior relation. Study 2 altered both salience of donating opportunity and relationship of recipient to donor. The hypothesized Self-Awareness x Self-Schema interaction was significant, and there were no gender differences. Study 3 systematically manipulated the salience of the donating opportunity. All participants were self-aware. For boys in high and low salience conditions, prosocial self-schema predicted donating behavior. For girls, prosocial self-schema predicted behavior only in the high salience condition. The findings demonstrate that self-schemas can regulate behavior when participants are self-aware. Girls, however, may require higher salience of the donating opportunity for the self-schema to affect their behavior.

ABSTRACT Two studies examined the impact of public self‐consciousness (PSC) and the audience's characteristics on withdrawal from embarrassing situations In Study 1 subjects verbally responded to a series of hypothetical events of an embarrassing nature before audiences described as either strangers or friends Subjects high in PSC expressed similar tendencies to withdraw no matter who the audience was, whereas low PSC subjects reported that they were less likely to withdraw when the audience was composed of friends as compared to strangers Study 2 had high and low PSC subjects perform an embarrassing act in front of either a friend or two types of strangers–those they either would or would not interact with in the future Low PSC subjects withdrew sooner from an audience of strangers they would have to interact with than from either an audience of friends or strangers they would never see again Again, high PSC subjects responded similarly to the three audiences They tended to withdraw quickly no matter who the audience was Discussion focuses on the role situational and dispositional factors play in withdrawal from embarrassing situations

FROMING, WILLIAM J.; ALLEN, LETICIA; and JENSEN, RICHARD. Altruism, Role-Taking, and SelfAwareness: The Acquisition of Norms Governing Altruistic Behavior. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1985, 56, 1223-1228. Acquiring the norm of altruism is conceived as a 3-step process: presocialization, awareness that others value altruistic behavior, and, finally, adoption or internalization of the altruistic norm. To test the model, children in grades 1 (6-year-olds) to 3 (8-year-olds) donated M&Ms to other children in 1 of 4 experimental conditions-in private, or in the presence of an evaluative adult, a nonevaluative adult, or a mirror. Secondand third-grade children increased their donations in the presence of an evaluative adult. This increase signaled their attainment of Step 2 in the sequence. Study 2 was based on the hypothesis that the impact of the evaluative adult was mediated by the development of role-taking abilities. In this study, children donated in private or in the presence of an evaluative adult. Non-role-takers did not respond differently to the 2 situations. Roletakers showed a significant increase in their donation rates in the presence of an evaluative adult compared to non-role-takers. Discussion centers on the implications of the findings for understanding the development of altruistic behavior.

It is proposed that many of the releasing or disinhibiting effects caused by models can be accounted for by information-processing mechanisms, without recourse to the concept of reinforcement. More specifically, it is suggested that the process of viewing a model's behavior involves the activation of an interpretive schema. This renders the information the schema incorporates more accessible for subsequent use. If the schema incorporates (or is closely related to) behavior-specifying information, that information becomes more accessible as well, thus making it more likely to influence overt behavior. Two studies are reported that assessed the plausibility of this reasoning. In Experiment 1 subjects who had viewed an aggressive model perceived greater hostility in the behavior of an ambiguous stimulus person that they subsequently encountered than did control subjects. This finding is consistent with the assumption that the model's behavior activated a conceptual schema for use in interpretation. In Experiment 2 subjects in whom an aggressive schema had been activated under a guise displayed greater aggression in their subsequent behavior in a different context than did control subjects. This finding is consistent with the assumption that activating the conceptual schema also activated behavioral information. The discussion centers on the implications of the findings.

FROMING, WILLIAM J., ALLEN, LETICIA; and UNDERWOOD, BILL. Age and Generosity Reconsidered: Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Evidence. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1983, 54, 585593. Generosity has been assumed to increase in a simple linear fashion between the ages of 5 and 10. With data gathered both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, these 2 studies demonstrate the existence of a nonlinear trend in addition to the linear trend. Interviews confirmed that several postulated mechanisms underlying donating behavior change in a linear trend but none of the factors examined could account for the nonlinear trend. The implications of these findings for our current understanding of donating behavior are discussed.

Different methods of inducing self-awareness have generally been assumed to be interchangeable. The present paper argues that the two most widely used manipulations of self-awareness—audiences and mirrors—differ in an important way: specifically, audiences increase focus on the public aspects of the self, whereas mirrors focus attention on the private aspects of the self. It is further argued that the standards that are used to regulate behavior depend upon which of these self-aspects is taken as the object of attention. Attention to the private self may result in behavior that reflects personal attitudes; attention to the public self may cause behavior to become more consistent with societal expectations. This reasoning was tested in two studies in which subjects served as “teachers” in an aggression paradigm. Each subject in Experiment 1 opposed the use of punishment in learing, but felt that other people favored it. Compared to the control condition, the presence of a mirror led to decreased levels of shock, and the presence of an evaluative audience led to increased levels of shock. Experiment 2 made use of subjects who favored the use of punishment but felt that others were against its use. Compared to the control group, the presence of a mirror led to increased levels of shock whereas the presence of an evaluative audience led to decreased levels of shock. Taken together, these findings indicate that self-awareness manipulations need to be chosen according to the aspect of self that is to be the object of self-attention. Discussion centers on the implications of the public-private distinction.

A study was conducted to test the reasoning that two types of dispositional self-consciousness would be associated with two different influences on compliance behavior. The study utilized a paradigm in which subjects are induced to make incorrect responses on a perceptual task by means of simulated group pressure. Based upon results of previous research, the following predictions were made: that private self-consciousness—the disposition to be conscious of one's thoughts, feeling, and covert self-aspects—would be inversely correlated with compliance; and that public self-consciousness—the disposition to be conscious of one's social self-aspects—would be positively correlated with compliance. The data from the study provided support for both of these predictions. Discussion centers on the theoretical implications of these findings.

Journal of PersonalityVolume 48, Issue 1 p. 15-23 Mood and personality: A search for the causal relationship1 Bill Underwood, Corresponding Author Bill Underwood University of Texas at AustinRequests for reprints should be sent to Bill Underwood, Department of Psychology, the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712.Search for more papers by this authorWilliam J. Froming, William J. Froming University of FloridaSearch for more papers by this authorBert S. Moore, Bert S. Moore University of California at Santa BarbaraSearch for more papers by this author Bill Underwood, Corresponding Author Bill Underwood University of Texas at AustinRequests for reprints should be sent to Bill Underwood, Department of Psychology, the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712.Search for more papers by this authorWilliam J. Froming, William J. Froming University of FloridaSearch for more papers by this authorBert S. Moore, Bert S. Moore University of California at Santa BarbaraSearch for more papers by this author First published: March 1980 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1980.tb00962.xCitations: 18 1 This research was supported by Grant 14-7499-0181 from the University Research Institute of the University of Texas to the first author. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract Previous findings of correlations between mood and personality variables were noted. It was suggested that the establishment of a causal relationship was crucially important, not merely to the understanding of how mood is related to personality but to the conceptualization of mood as a source of error in personality measurement as well. A prior attempt to establish a causal role for mood failed, but may have done so for methodological reasons. The present study investigated the influence of a mood manipulation on personality measures. There was also an opportunity to replicate prior correlational findings independent of the effect of the mood manipulation. College students were asked to think of happy, sad, or affectively neutral events and then filled out several personality measures. A manipulation check confirmed that different moods were induced by this procedure. The prior correlations between mood and personality variables were replicated, but the mood manipulation did not affect any of the personality measures. The implications of these results for personality measurement and for the relation between mood and behavior were discussed. REFERENCES Abramowitz, S. I. Locus of control and self-reported depression among college students Psychological Reports, 1969, 25, 149–150. 10.2466/pr0.1969.25.1.149 CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Dean, D. Alienation: Its meaning and measurement. American Sociological Review, 1961, 26, 753–758. 10.2307/2090204 Web of Science®Google Scholar Eagly, A.H. Involvement as a determinant of response to favorable and unfavorable information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Monographs, 1967, 7 (3, Whole No. 643). 10.1037/h0025080 Google Scholar Gouax, C., Lamberth, J., & Friedrich, G. Affect and interpersonal attraction: A comparison of trait and state measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972, 24, 53–58. 10.1037/h0033375 PubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Hale, W. D., & Strickland, B. R. 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It was suggested that while moods clearly are subject to tremendous variation, there may nonetheless be some utility in considering long-term differences in mood, that is, in treating mood as a personality characteristic. People who are characteristically at different points of a mood dimension may show real differences in behavior that are not totally obscured by short-term mood variation. This approach may also facilitate the investigation of components of mood other than level, which is the focus of most state mood questionnaires. A personality instrument for happy and sad moods, the Mood Survey, was factor-analyzed and found to have two primary subscales: Level and Reactivity. These intercorrelated subscales were shown to have consistent advantages over a state measure of mood both in predicting personality characteristics and in pointing to new hypotheses about the nature of mood.