Ja Davidson

Engagement With Beauty: Appreciating Natural, Artistic, and Moral Beauty

The Engagement With Beauty Scale (EBS), designed from the aesthetics of I. Kant (1790/1987), G. W. F. Hegel (ca. 1835/1993), and T. Aquinas (ca. 1260/1947) and the psychological work of J. Haidt (J. Haidt & D. Keltner, 2004), measures engagement with natural, artistic, and moral beauty. In Studies 1 and 2, the authors describe scale construction, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, and temporal stability. In Studies 1 and 2, the authors also establish concurrent validity with the Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence subscale of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (C. Peterson & M. E. P. Seligman, 2004), the Gratitude, Resentment, and Appreciation Test (P. C. Watkins, K. Woodward, T. Stone, & R. L. Kolts, 2003), and the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (R. L. Piedmont, 2004). In Study 3, the authors used the EBS Artistic Beauty subscale to differentiate students engaged in the arts from those who were not.

Does the daily choice making of adults with intellectual disability meet the normalisation principle

Abstract Background This study examined whether daily choice availability for adults with intellectual disability was consistent with Nirjes (1973) normalisation principle. Method Ratings of the daily choice availability of 59 people with intellectual disability in group homes and 198 individuals without intellectual disability in family homes were obtained. Results Level of disability, rather than age, affected choice availability of adult participants. Choice availability was significantly lower for adults with more severe intellectual disability, but no significant difference was found between adults with milder disability and those without intellectual disability. Quadratic and bilinear models were fitted to data from 198 adults and children without disability. The better fitting bilinear model showed an increase in choice availability during childhood that plateaued on reaching adulthood. Choice availability age‐equivalents were calculated, which were age‐appropriate for adults with milder intellectual disability, but substantially lower than expected for adults with moderate to severe disability. Conclusion The normalisation principle was met for adults with milder intellectual disability, but not for adults with more severe disability.

A Conflict Resolution Model

The Conflict Resolution Model was formulated by a group of Australian psychologists who set about integrating the literature on achieving mutually beneficial outcomes in a conflict situation in order to create a best-practice prescriptive process for conflict resolution. A number of experimental studies conducted at the University of Tasmania with students and school-aged children have found significantly improved outcomes in resolving conflict following training in listening, assertiveness, and problem-solving skills identified in the model. These skills are also core elements of the theory of healthy relationships formulated in 1970 by Thomas Gordon and implemented in Parent Effectiveness Training (PET). Research on both programs is presented here.

Ordinary and Recurrent Dream Recall of Active, Past and Non-recurrent Dreamers During and After Academic Stress

The role of stress in the onset and frequency of recurrent dreams was investigated by comparing dream recall of students undergoing naturalistic stress conditions. Thirty nine students in active, past and non-recurrent dream groups (n = 13) recorded frequency of nights per week involving overall and recurrent dream recall in the week prior to mid-term examinations and in a neutral study week in second semester. Self-report measures of everyday hassles and uplifts, anxiety and positive and negative affect experienced during these conditions were also collected. Anxiety and negative affect were reported as significantly higher in the pre-examination week. Overall the groups reported dreams on significantly more nights in the pre-examination week than the post examination week. Recurrent dream nights increased during the stress week for the active recurrent dream group but there was no change in recurrent dream recall for the other groups. These findings are consistent with theories that the experience of emotional stress is a critical factor in the onset and persistence of recurrent dreams.

Shame-proneness and achievement behaviour

High shame-prone individuals attribute transgressions and negative outcomes to characterological faults, experiencing global feelings of self-debasement and enduring negative affect. As such, they are likely to be more vulnerable to the negative effects of failure, performing poorly and reducing practice effort irrespective of ameliorating or mitigating circumstances. In this study the latter assumption was tested for high relative to low shame-prone students, examining performance outcomes and practice effort following humiliating failure relative to face-saving failure and success. High shame-prone and low shame-prone students completed measures of state anxiety and negative affect prior to attempting to solve 20 anagrams serving as a performance measure, and 16 unicursal tasks, assessing practice effort. Following face-saving failure, low shame-prone students spent less time on the unicursal tasks, attempting fewer items and solving fewer problems. They also reported greater negative affect and higher anxiety. Implications are drawn in terms of the manner in which the unproductive attributions of shame-prone students following failure are best modified.

Suicidal behaviour, social networks and psychiatric diagnosis.

SummaryThe aim of this investigation was to examine the relationship between social network deficits and the occurrence of suicidal behaviour, and to describe the short-term interpersonal consequences of a suicidal attempt. Two questionnaires, concerned with the extent and self-perceived adequacy of social network, formed the basis of a structured interview. Fifty-two suicide attempters were interviewed within 48 hours of their attempt, and again six weeks later, and undertook a weekly self-rating task. A group of 52 non-suicidal individuals of comparable age, sex, social class, and marital and employment status underwent the same interview programme. The results indicate that the social networks of suicide attempters are impaired relative to non-suicidal individuals, and that improvement in the social network following an attempt is limited to attempters with no formal psychiatric disorder, and to measures of perceived adequacy and satisfaction. The findings add support to the importance of psychiatric assessment of the nature and the adequacy of the social network in relation to suicidal individuals.

Effects of brief training in cooperation and problem-solving on success in conflict resolution

This study evaluated the effects of short periods of training in cooperation and problem solving, which are two major components of the Conflict Resolution Model (Littlefield, Love, Peck, & Wertheim, 1993). Forty experimental participants were trained or not trained in each component in a 2 × 2 factorial design. During the evaluation phase, each experimental participant interacted with an untrained participant to make a joint recommendation on an issue about which they held opposing views. The discussions were videotaped and rated blind by two independent raters on five process measures and an outcome measure. Training in each component significantly improved success on the outcome measure, raised scores on the related process measures, and generalized to at least some of the other process measures. The only exception was brainstorming, where training was successful only in the group that also received cooperation training.

Dream imagery and emotion

The relationship between prominent visual imagery and emotion within dreams was investigated in relation to E. Hartmanns (1996) contextualizing image (CI) theory and M. Seligman and A. Yellens (1987) dual imagery theory. Fifty-nine students recorded dreams over a 2-week period and submitted 115 dreams for analysis. Participants recorded ratings of emotion type and emotion intensity in each scene. Prominent visual images were identified and scored for intensity and detail by independent judges. As hypothesized from Hartmanns theory, there was a significant positive relationship between CI intensity and emotion intensity in the CI scene, emotion intensity generally peaked in the CI scene, and dreams containing a CI had higher overall ratings of emotion intensity than non-CI dreams. The result for the correlation of detail of prominent imagery with emotion was inconclusive, with a low positive correlation across CI scenes. This raises the possibility that the CI is not a unitary construct. Copyright 2005 by the Educational Publishing Foundation.

Conflict resolution in the family: A pet evaluation study

Conflict resolution models have been widely advocated but less widely tested. Parent Effectiveness Training (PET; Gordon, 1975) and Youth Effectiveness Training (YET; Hall & Zener, 1979) incorporate a simple conflict resolution technique. PET has now received considerable empirical support (Cedar, 1985; Levant, 1983). Few studies, however, have used behavioural measures rather than questionnaires. The experimental subjects in the present study were 13 parent-adolescent dyads who completed the appropriate Effectiveness Training program (PET/YET). Assessment of videorecorded interactions in a role-play conflict situation showed significantly greater improvement in conflict resolution skills from pretraining to posttraining in the experimental group compared to the matched control group, for both parents and adolescents. No significant changes were found on the Parent Attitude Survey (Hereford, 1963), the FIRO-B (Schutz, 1967), or the Self Esteem Inventory (Coopersmith, 1967). Methodological issues and possible flow-on effects from children learning conflict resolution skills in the family are discussed.

A Comparison of Patient Clinical and Social Outcomes Before and After the Introduction of an Extended-Hours Community Mental Health Team

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the addition of standard community treatment to a hospital-based service in a regional district of Australia. Method: The study was a naturalistic investigation of a routine clinical service and utilized a longitudinal panel design. Two matched groups of seriously mentally ill patients were recruited, one before the addition of the community mental health team (CMHT) and one after. Each sample was followed up for one year using a semistructured questionnaire and instruments including the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Global Assessment Scale, the Life Skills Profile and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale as well as hospital records. Results: Patients in both groups showed similar patterns of improvements. Although the aims of the new service included reducing in-patient utilization and improving social functioning, there were few significant differences between the two groups. While the number of admissions and length of stay were lower in the post-CMHT sample most were admitted rather than treated in their homes by the CMHT. Conclusion: The study concludes that better outcomes might have been achieved if the aims of the CMHT had been limited to either crisis or rehabilitation interventions, but not both. More attention needs to be paid to the service context in which model programmes are introduced so that new developments can be more closely tailored to the realities of what is likely to be achievable.