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Article in press
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The Effect of Internal Locus of Control and Social-Emotional Learning on Life and Relationship Satisfaction
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Abstract [+]
Objective
The current study examined the impact of a non-governmental organization’s academic tutoring and mentoring program on the social-emotional learning (SEL) and subjective well-being of 240 marginalized young women.
Participants
One-hundred-fifty-nine currently enrolled 7-12th grade students with a mean age of 16.39, SD=1.55; 40 students who were enrolled in college with a mean age of 20.25, SD=1.57, and 25 who had graduated from college with a mean age of 22.48, SD=2.16 and their leaders participated.
Methods
All participants completed in a survey that assessed the degree of participants’ locus of control, expectations of success (self-efficacy), current goals and career-related aspirations and their satisfaction with their relationships and life in general. Twenty-one of the participants and all leaders also were interviewed.
Results
Regression analyses revealed that both the participants’ self-management and the leader’s locus of control were significant predictors of the participants’ internal locus of control. Congruent with interview findings, latent structural equation analysis revealed that three manifest variables of social-emotional learning, “self-management”, “social awareness”, and “self-efficacy” had direct positive effects on participants’ subjective well-being (i.e., their satisfaction with life and relationships).
Conclusion
Culturally sensitive approaches to mentoring and training are needed and helpful. Future research should be carried out to mitigate design limitations and further the current study’s addition to the body of research on social-emotional learning and well-being.
Keywords
Self-management; Self-efficacy; Social awareness; Social-emotional learning (SEL); Internal locus of control; Life satisfaction; Relationship satisfaction; Subjective well-being (SWB).
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Current Issue
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A Case Study Exploring Pre-Service Teachers’ Programming Difficulties and Strategies when Learning Programming Languages
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Understanding the importance of training young people, this study sought to explore the early experience of pre-service teachers in their computational practices in terms of the difficulties they faced and the strategies they used while learning how to program. Based on convenience sampling, four participants were recruited from an undergraduate course focusing on computer science education in K-12. The literature on novice programmers’ difficulties and their strategies was used to establish the conceptual background for this study. We collected four semi-structured interviews with pre-service teachers, a total of five hour-long classroom observations, and 19 class activities (archival data). After conducting a content analysis, findings showed four categories in which pre-service teachers face difficulties: (a) understanding the computational concepts (semantic); (b) using the concepts inappropriately (syntax); (c) developing a program (algorithmic thinking), and (d) identifying problems (debugging). We also found five categories in which pre-service teachers overcome their difficulties: planning, using resources, seeking support, guessing and checking, and looking for visual assistance. This study emphasized that pre-service teachers encounter several difficulties in learning computational concepts through programming languages, which should be considered in pre-service teacher education.
Keywords
Computational Thinking; Computer science education; Pre-service teachers; Problem solving strategies.
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Looking Back, Moving Forward: Reflection on Race and Racism
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This paper addresses the history of racism, its manifestation and its impact. It recognises that racism is both interpersonal and structural. It is embedded in the way society and organisations are structured, through policies and practices that disadvantage black people. It is important now to work towards racial justice for the sake of a better and shared future.
Keywords
Racism; Race; Black lives matter; Psychotherapy; Belonging; Identity and black identity; Internalised racism; White racism.
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How Self-Reflection Influences Use of Cognitive and Analytical Language
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Abstract [+]
Objective
We examined cognitive processes and analytic expression according to emotional prime, hypothesizing that negative affect may increase rumination as seen in analytic language (that is, lead to language of “explaining”), as well as insight and causality, reflecting language focused on specific reasons.
Method
Sixty-four participants were assigned randomly to write about either “positive aspects of myself ” or “aspects of myself that I would like to change”. These narratives about positive and negative characteristics were subjected to the linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC) in order to examine how the manipulations influenced expression.
Results
More insight and causation in language was seen in participants’ language that focused on positive (rather than negative) aspects of themselves, but more discrepancy was seen when writing about negative qualities. These findings were not a function of wordiness.
Conclusion
Causality and insight were prevalent in language after positive prompting, perhaps because people were providing rationale and support for positive self-talk. Discrepancy suggests counterfactual thought and was common in writing from a negative prompt.
Keywords
Language use; Analytical language; Sex differences in linguistics.
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The Tale of Two Schools: Investigating the Understanding of Mental Health by Students, Parents and Teachers in Rural and City Bangladesh
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Abstract [+]
Objectives
The main aim of the study was to investigate the understanding and attitudes of mental health held by students, parents and teachers using strength and difficulty questionnaire (SDQ) scores and qualitative responses. Attitudes towards mental health and well-being are important as they can increase stigmatization and prevent young people seeking help and support.
Methods
To assess the understanding of mental health needs of students the SDQ was administered to parents (n=18; rural n=12 and city n=6), teachers (n=22; rural n=16 and city n=6), and students (n=23; rural n=17 and city n=6). In addition to this, semi-structured interviews were undertaking with students (n=14; rural n=9; city n=5) and parents (n=14; rural n=8; city n=6). Further, written narratives were received from teachers (n=12; rural n=6; city n=6). SDQ results were subjected to the non-parametric Mann Whitney-U with the Bonferroni correction applied and qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis.
Results
SDQ results showed students in the rural location had significantly higher mental health needs than those in the city location (p<0.017). Thematic analysis revealed that parents in the rural location do not understand the term ‘mental health’ and therefore, it is not seen as a problem despite high needs. Teachers in all locations and parents in city location have a limited understanding of what mental health means.
Conclusion
There is a lack of understanding about what mental health by parents in the rural community and a limited understanding of what mental health is by all teachers and parents within the city community. Even though high-SDQ scores were observed in both the rural and city location, SDQ scores were significantly higher in the rural location. These findings support the need for future mental health advocacy within Bangladesh schools.
Keywords
Mental health; School; Bangladesh; Education.
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Call for a ‘Live Third’: The Impact of Institutional and Psychiatric Racism on Adebayo’s Physical and Mental Health
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The author refers to a personal experience and feels it important to do so in order to highlight a crippling and appalling inhumanity by some towards black people. Much of what is written here is presented in the first person owing to the personal nature of the narrative. It manifests through stereotyping, stigmatisation, and racism towards non-white people. Racism is both institutional and interpersonal, and it is endemic. What gets played out in society is often repeated at an individual level. As a psychotherapist, the author affirms the need for clinical practitioners to move from a position of dismissal and objectification of Black lives, and to wake up to the terrifying fact of the early mortality of black people’s lives from the trauma of racism which is very much imbedded in institutional policies and procedures.
Keywords
Black people; Trauma; Mental health; Psychiatric racism; Schizophrenia.
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Building Resilience in Children to Prevent Social Aggression: The Principles of Behavioral Sciences
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An Urgent Request for Evidence-Based Mental Health Intervention Research in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries
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Exploring the Notion of Performance in Branch Sales Managers: A Narrative Approach
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How the Desensitization of Police Violence, Stereotyped Language, and Racial Bias Impact Black Communities
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Previous Issue
Building Resilience in Children to Prevent Social Aggression: The Principles of Behavioral Sciences
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Abstract [+]
Most anti-bullying programs today are punitive. They rely heavily on schools enforcing procedures based on reporting, investigating, punishing, and labeling bullies. This paper challenges the notion that bullying behavior can be regulated effectively by legislative bodies and policymakers. Schools are communal ecosystems featuring unique social norms and behaviors. For example, in school, a student reporting a classmate to authorities may be labeled a ‘snitch’ because ‘tattling’ violates accepted social norms. Furthermore, the current legal definitions of bullying are confusing and complicated. In many cases, even trained lawyers have difficulty identifying acts of bullying. We suggest, the better approach to preventing bullying in schools, even the workplace, is to ground interventions using psychological frameworks to strengthen children’s social and emotional competence. We contend that social development models provide the psychological frameworks society needs to develop emotionally stable children and
adults while providing them with the internal fortitude to bounce back effectively from adverse situations like bullying.
Keywords
Bullying prevention; Social-emotional learning (SEL); Social development; Emotional strength; Social aggression; Anti-bullying; Self-awareness; Social-emotional competence; Power imbalance; Intentional; Columbine; Intervention.
An Urgent Request for Evidence-Based Mental Health Intervention Research in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries
PDF 271.56 KB
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Exploring the Notion of Performance in Branch Sales Managers: A Narrative Approach
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Abstract [+]
Aim
The purpose of this study was to identify factors that affect the performance of branch sales managers (BSM) of a private bank in India. It also aimed to identify factors that differentiate high performing BSMs from the rest.
Methods
A phenomenological methodology known as narrative analysis was used to uncover the lived experiences of Branch sales managers. Open-ended semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 Branch sales managers situated across the Northern, Western and Southern Regions of India who were pre-classified in two pools of talent–high performers and average performers based on their performance ratings.
Results
Results yielded two distinguishing profiles of high and average performing BSMs known as ‘Bulls’, and ‘Bears’ respectively. Ramifications of individual’s personality, family structure and education profile, birth order, educational and vocational choices, influence of their past work experience, etc., were found to contribute to distinct patters of wok behavior and thereby performance.
Conclusion
Sales organizations will need to hire both “Bull I/Bull II” and “Bears” as each brings a different work ethos that is critical for high and consistent performance within the sales function. Organizations will need to create specific performance levers to engage the “Bull I/Bull II” and “Bears”.
Keywords
Bears; Bull I; Bull II; Sales performance; Sloths.
How the Desensitization of Police Violence, Stereotyped Language, and Racial Bias Impact Black Communities
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As the access to create media continues to expand, issues related to the desensitization of police violence, stereotyped language (racial baiting), and implicit bias within the criminal justice system are brought to the forefront highlighting the negative and harmful relationships between the criminal justice system and Black communities. In order to address these issues on a national scale, a call to action is made for psychologists to assist in restructuring the understanding of the relationship of violence, cognition, and media in order to advocate for social justice. Psychological research on the topics are discussed as well as how the field of psychology can inform training within police departments and the communities they serve.
Keywords
Police violence; Racial bias; Black communities.
Connect with us
Editor-in-Chief
Donald M. Hilty, MD
Associate Chief of Staff, Mental Health Northern California Veterans Affairs Health System 10535 Hospital Way, Mather, CA 95655 and Professor, and Vice-Chair, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences University of California, Davis School of Medicine
Associate Editors
Guy Balice, PhD
Associate Professor Department of Clinical Psychology The Chicago School of Professional Psychology 617 W 7th Street Los Angeles, CA 90017, USA
E. Cruz Eusebio, PsyD, NCSP
Distinguished Associate Professor Department of School Psychology Faculty Council Chair-Chicago The Chicago School of Professional Psychology 325 N. Wells Street #519 Chicago, IL 60654, USA
N. Clayton Silver, PhD
Associate Professor Department of Psychology University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA
Deborah A. Gagnon, PhD
Professor of Psychology Member, Health Sciences Faculty Chair, Division of Social Sciences Coordinator, Cognitive & Brain Science Coordinator, Science, Health, & Values Wells College Aurora, NY 13026, USA