Suchergebnisse

The present study examines the associations between coping efforts and psychological (internalizing and externalizing symptoms) and behavioral adjustment in a sample of 373 male juvenile offenders (ages 14–17) during the first month of incarceration. Social support seeking was associated with a more rapid decline in internalizing symptoms and lower levels of externalizing symptoms. Acceptance had a stress‐buffering effect with regard to internalizing symptoms, whereas denial predicted higher levels of these symptoms. The only coping variable related to violent behavior was active coping, which was associated with lower rates of violent offending among youth with any violent incidents. The importance of fostering coping skills and increasing positive coping options for incarcerated adolescents is discussed.

Adolescents take more risks with peers than when alone. It is not clear how peer presence affects adolescents' risky decision making, however. We used the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT)—a game used to assess decision making involving risk and reward—to examine how peers affect late adolescents' exploration of relevant environmental cues, ability to learn from the outcomes (positive and negative) of that exploration, and ability to integrate feedback to adjust behavior toward optimal long‐term outcomes. One hundred and one 18‐ to 22‐year old males (M = 19.8 years) were randomly assigned to play the IGT either alone or observed by peers. Late adolescents tested with observers engaged in more exploratory behavior, learned faster from both positive and negative outcomes, and evinced better task performance than those tested alone.

This study examines whether changes in impulse control and sensation‐seeking across adolescence and early adulthood reflect independent or interdependent developmental processes. Data are drawn from a national longitudinal study (N = 8,270; 49% female; 33% Black, 22% Hispanic, 45% non‐Black, non‐Hispanic). An autoregressive latent trajectory model is used to test whether development in one trait influences development in the other. Although levels of these traits are inversely correlated, we do not find evidence that change over time in either trait is influenced by the prior level of the other. This failure to reject the null hypothesis is consistent with the view that sensation‐seeking and impulse control are the products of distinct neuropsychological systems that develop independently of one another.

Remaining committed to goals is necessary (albeit not sufficient) to attaining them, but very little is known about domain-general individual differences that contribute to sustained goal commitment. The current investigation examines the association between grit, defined as passion and perseverance for long-term goals, other individual difference variables, and retention in four different contexts: the military, workplace sales, high school, and marriage. Grit predicted retention over and beyond established context-specific predictors of retention (e.g., intelligence, physical aptitude, Big Five personality traits, job tenure) and demographic variables in each setting. Grittier soldiers were more likely to complete an Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) selection course, grittier sales employees were more likely to keep their jobs, grittier students were more likely to graduate from high school, and grittier men were more likely to stay married. The relative predictive validity of grit compared to other traditional predictors of retention is examined in each of the four studies. These findings suggest that in addition to domain-specific influences, there may be domain-general individual differences which influence commitment to diverse life goals over time.

Abstract. We investigated processing speed for deservingness-relevant versus deservingness-irrelevant information. Female students read stories involving deserved, undeserved, or neutral outcomes. We recorded participants' reaction time (RT) in processing the outcomes. We also measured individual differences in "belief in a just world" as a proxy for deservingness schematicity. RTs for deserved and undeserved outcomes were faster than for neutral outcomes, B = −8.45, p = .011, an effect that increased the stronger the belief in a just world (e.g., B = −3.18, p = .006). These findings provide novel evidence that the construct of deservingness is central in human social relations, and suggest both universal and particularistic schemas for deservingness.

AbstractThe dual systems model of adolescent risk‐taking portrays the period as one characterized by a combination of heightened sensation seeking and still‐maturing self‐regulation, but most tests of this model have been conducted in the United States or Western Europe. In the present study, these propositions are tested in an international sample of more than 5000 individuals between ages 10 and 30 years from 11 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, using a multi‐method test battery that includes both self‐report and performance‐based measures of both constructs. Consistent with the dual systems model, sensation seeking increased between preadolescence and late adolescence, peaked at age 19, and declined thereafter, whereas self‐regulation increased steadily from preadolescence into young adulthood, reaching a plateau between ages 23 and 26. Although there were some variations in the magnitude of the observed age trends, the developmental patterns were largely similar across countries.