Psychological aspects

Attachment, a vital part of human life, is defined as a strong emotional bond with a caregiver that is formed through repetitions of behaviors that children adjust to accordingly. One forms a view on relationships that transfers from parents to peers as a result of their internal working model (IWM). A secure attachment can form a healthy model while an insecure one may form an unhealthy, negative model. The present study assesses preadolescents' attachment styles toward their friends and examines whether their attachment styles interact with peers' attachment styles to predict liking of the peers and aggression toward the peers.

This study investigated friend influence on school engagement in a sample of 160 stable same-sex friendship dyads (94 female dyads and 66 male dyads) from five senior high schools and four vocational schools in a small city in central Finland. Longitudinal data were collected during the first and second years of upper secondary school, approximately one year apart, and self-reports were available from both members of each friendship dyad. The framework of the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Kenny, Kashy & Cook, 2006) was used to estimate friend influence on school engagement in a model that did not distinguish same-sex friends, in a direct-effects model that distinguished friends based on relative levels of school burnout, and in a multiple-group model for distinguishable friends that investigated perceptions of maternal affection as a moderator of friend influence. Results suggest that the higher burnout partner in a friendship dyad influenced a decline in the lower burnout partner's school engagement only when the lower burnout partner perceived low maternal affection. When the lower burnout partner perceived high maternal affection, there was no evidence of negative influence by a higher burnout partner. Patterns of influence did not vary as a function of sex or school track. The importance of distinguishing friends on a theoretically and statistically meaningful basis to learn who influences whom, and of investigating indirect effects models when studying friend influence is also discussed.

Economic game theory has been a challenge to traditional models of selfish human nature. Resource acquisition games, such as the dictator game, which have been primarily played by adults, have revealed that humans are inclined to share even when it is not in their best interest to do so. Few studies have been conducted on the development of resource distribution in children, and fewer still have explored the effect of context and level of involvement of a second player in such games. In the current study, 179 children from kindergarten, first, and second grades participated in a modified dictator game with another player. Children were randomly assigned to one of four conditions; a control condition, where they played individually with an anonymous player, or one of three experimental conditions with two players who each played with varying levels of involvement with the second player. It was found that kindergarteners shared significantly less across conditions than first and second graders, with first and second graders sharing similar amounts. The presence of another player significantly increased the amount of sharing for all grades. Additionally, second players shared significantly less than first players. Developmental and contextual patterns of sharing are discussed.

Approximately 1.76 million men and women have served in the Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) military campaigns since October 2001. The transition from living in a war zone to resuming a fulfilling life at home is often difficult for veterans. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to gain understanding of the issues that complicate health for veterans and approaches veterans used to resolve complicating health issues associated with the challenge of coming home from war. Qualitative data collection and analysis was guided by story inquiry method. Quantitative data was collected using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey, Version 2 (SF-36v2) and analyzed using QualityMetric Health Outcomes[TM] Score Software, Version 4.0. Seven OEF/OIF veterans who had completed at least one tour of duty in Iraq since October 2001 participated in this study. Three themes emerged from the qualitative data that capture the complicating health issues that participants encountered when coming home from war: flipping the switch, figuring out how to belong, and living the stress of a new normal. Two themes emerged from the qualitative data that capture approaches used to resolve complicating health issues associated with returning home from war: connecting with others and choosing a positive attitude. Quantitative data revealed that the majority of participants scored at or above general population norms on three of the subscales that measure physical health, as well as on two of the subscales that measure mental health; however a significant percentage scored below norms on the subscale that measures social functioning (57%) and on the subscale that directly measures mental health (43%).

Evidence suggests that self-reports of the frequency of an event, the most common way of measuring rates of conflict, are an unreliable source of data and that minor changes in question format can result in major changes in the results obtained (Bless, Bohner, Hild & Schwarz 1992; Schwarz, 1991; Schwarz, 1999; Winkielman, Knauper & Schwarz, 1998). In the conflict literature, different studies report different rates of conflict and different associations between conflict frequency and individual adjustment. Therefore, the present study examined how alterations in the measurement of conflict frequency affected how many conflicts participants reported and whether different measures of conflict were differentially associated with psychological adjustment outcomes (i.e., alcohol use, drug use, depression, delinquency, and interpersonal support). Response scales, reference periods, and question formats of conflict measures were manipulated to examine differences in conflict frequency reports. Results indicate that the changes in conflict measurement produce varied amounts of conflict across conditions and that changes in the measurement of conflict frequency change the associations between conflict frequency and adjustment outcomes.

The purpose of the current study was to examine differences in pro-social behaviors, bullying behaviors, engagement in school success skills, and perceptions of classroom climate between grade 5 students in the treatment group who received the Student Success Skills (SSS) classroom guidance program (Brigman & Webb, 2010) and grade 5 students in the comparison group who did not receive the intervention. School counselors in the treatment schools implemented SSS with students in grade 5 after being trained in the manualized use of the program and other study-related procedures. The study followed a pre-post quasi-experimental design employing various self-report measures of behavior (PRQ, SE-SSS, MCI-SFR, and TMCI-SF). A series of ANOVA and ANCOVA analyses were then conducted to determine if there were statistically significant differences between the groups. Effect size estimates were also calculated for each measure. The data supported the SSS classroom guidance program as a viable intervention for positively affecting student behavior. Significant differences were noted between the treatment and comparison schools in the following areas: (a) increased pro-social behaviors, (b) decreased bullying behaviors, (c) increased engagement in school success skills, and (d) student perceptions of improved classroom climate. This study provides empirical support showing that students who are taught skills in key areas evidence benefits across several outcomes. The study also indicates that aggressive behaviors, like bullying, can be influenced by programs that do not specifically target those behaviors. Furthermore, it supports the positive impact school counselors can have on student success by implementing an evidence-based program.

The American Association of Colleges and Universities reports that over 50% of the students entering colleges and universities are academically under prepared; that is, according to Miller and Murray (2005), students "lack basic skills in at least one of the three fundamental areas of reading, writing, and mathematics". Furthermore, approximately 30% of the students in a state university undergraduate quantitative business course fail or withdraw from the course. The purpose of this study was to explore non-cognitive and cognitive factors that may be related to the academic success of those students enrolled in the course. To this end, a survey was conducted, collecting the perceptions and opinions of 301 undergraduate college of business students with regard to relevant constructs such as cognitive load, mathematics and general self-efficacy, math anxiety, and motivation. Additional data were collected from the students' transcripts. Findings revealed that the significant cognitive factors contributing to the academic success were the overall GPA of the students as well as the average of their grades in the two prerequisite courses. The statistically significant non-cognitive factors related to the final exam score were the students' perceived levels of cognitive load and mathematics self-efficacy. A moderating effect of mathematics self-efficacy was revealed between the final exam score and overall GPA; however, other selected potential moderators of the final exam score and cognitive load were not significant. Post-hoc analyses verified no significant difference in the final exam score for gender or race; however, a statistically significant difference was found on cognitive load for different instructors. The findings emphasized the importance of prior knowledge and instructional design as both are sensitive to cognitive load (Mayer & Moreno, 2003; Sweller, 1999).

Sports and its effects on children have been researched for the benefits that it may bring. The purpose of this study is to see if sports competency, assessed by both peer reports and self-reports, benefits both boys and girls and whether it protects children who generally are gender-atypical from adjustment difficulties and also to see if there are any interactive influences of cross-gender typing and sports competency on self-esteem, depression, and other adjustment indexes. Our results found that there was a significant interaction between sports competence and cross-gender typing when looking at popularity and also a significant interaction between sports self-efficacy and cross-gender typing when looking at self-esteem. Our data did not provide sufficient support for our buffering hypothesis, but it allowed for us to conclude that self-esteem of low-cross-gender-typed children profit more from high sports self-efficacy and suffer more from low sports self-efficacy than the self-esteem of high-cross-gender-typed children.

This work is comprised of altered, found familiar objects. They are stacked and are covered with Egyptian paste, then fired in a burn-out kiln. Through transformation by fire the objects become post-apocalyptic relics. Raised in an Irish Catholic alcoholic home by a raging perfectionist mother, the kitchen was a battlefield - the home, a place of great drama. After dish throwing and frying pan swinging, dinner was precisely laid out on a clean white tablecloth - order covering disorder. The failed domestic environment of my childhood informs this body of work and is inflected by recovering psychological states. Empowered through feminist critique and filtered through my study of Jungian psychology, these objects enact a precarious balance between the known and the estranged. Through the process of transmutation, a cathartic space is generated, giving space for viewers to potentially confront their memories of home.

Resource allocation theory, Polich (2007) suggests cortical measures may attenuate when processing demands increase. Thirteen HIV-negative women (M = 36.5) and 15 HIV-positive women (M = 36.1) infected were instructed to view neutral and negative IAPS images and then to detect rare tones in a subsequent auditory oddball task. A 2 x 2 ANOVA for the auditory P3 did not indicate a main effect for picture valence however an interaction was found between picture valence and serostatus at location Fz, F(1,24) = 18.99, p<.001. During the visual ERP sequence an interaction between valence and serostatus was found at the Pz location, F(1,24) = 18.99, p<.001, meaning the late positive potential (LPP) was not modulated between viewing neutral and negative images in HIV-positive women. These findings suggest that the manifestation of HIV in women may alter the neural processing of emotions, though not to the detriment of a subsequent cognitive task.