Sex differences, sex composition, and group problem solving.

Males and females solved Maier's (1952) horse trading problem while working alone or in groups. Men tended to solve the problem better individually but also to profit from group discussion. Women in mixed groups seemed better motivated to solve the problem than those in groups composed of all females. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding concerns about interventions to promote forgiveness: A review of the literature.

A new area in psychotherapy practice and research has arisen addressing therapeutic interventions to explicitly promote forgiveness. There is wide variation in the response to this new area including enthusiastic acceptance, wary openness, and vigorous opposition. Unfortunately, these reactions are not often based on a thorough understanding of the empirical literature and result in concerns about using forgiveness interventions in therapy that may or may not be warranted. The authors identify these potential concerns, framing them as concerns about the impact on clients, concerns related to therapist skill or knowledge, and concerns about the effect on the therapy process. The authors address these concerns with a review of the relevant research on forgiveness in therapy. Based on this review, the authors conclude that some skepticism of the new forgiveness interventions is warranted, although serious consideration needs to be given to these interventions at appropriate times. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can group interventions facilitate forgiveness of an ex-spouse? A randomized clinical trial.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of 2 versions of an 8-session forgiveness group intervention for divorced individuals. Participants (randomized, n = 192; analyzed, n = 149) were randomly assigned to a secular forgiveness condition, a religious forgiveness condition, or a no-intervention comparison condition. Measures of forgiveness and mental health were obtained at pretest, posttest, and 6-week follow-up. Participants in both intervention conditions increased significantly more than comparison participants on self-reported forgiveness of an ex-spouse and understanding of forgiveness. Participants in the secular condition showed a greater decrease in depressive symptoms than comparison participants. Intrinsic religiousness did not moderate intervention effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to group interventions for trauma survivors.

Group interventions for trauma survivors offer cost-efficient opportunities for members to join fellow strugglers in coping with trauma-related feelings of alienation and mistrust. For adults, supportive, psychodynamic, and cognitive-behavioral models have been described in the literature, each offering common as well as unique group therapy features. For older children and adolescents, integrated and cognitive-behavioral models are available, and there is general empirical support for the use of group therapy regardless of the model chosen. Group psychological debriefing immediately following trauma exposure may be useful for normalizing reactions, but evidence for its effectiveness in preventing trauma-related psychopathology is lacking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A dynamic process model of forgiveness: A cross-cultural perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss cultural similarities and differences in the processes of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a complex construct without a consensual definition. Generally speaking, forgiveness is the process that involves a change in cognitions, emotions, motivations, and behaviors regarding the transgressor (R. D. Enright & R. P. Fitzgibbons, 2000). Scientific interest in forgiveness has rapidly increased in the recent years, but whether the conceptualizations and underling mechanisms of forgiveness are similar across cultures still remain unclear. A dynamic process model of forgiveness is proposed in this paper, which includes the sociocultural, cognitive, emotional, motivational, and behavioral aspects of forgiveness processes. Particular processes that are likely to differ across Eastern–Western cultures are identified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability, sex differences, and validity in the leaderless group discussion technique.

"Three leaderless Group Discussion judging techniques involving leadership rankings by observers, recorders, and participants were applied to 228 college subjects arranged in 19 all male and 19 mixed sex groups of six each. Judging-agreement within and among ranking conditions was high." Sex was not important. The results were so promising that this approach is recommended as both a predictor and a criterion. From Psyc Abstracts 36:05:5GF45K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Co-leader similarity and group climate in group interventions: Testing the co-leadership, team cognition-team diversity model.

This study tested a coleadership, team cognition-team diversity model of coleader similarity and dissimilarity and its effect on group processes. This model suggests that group coleaders will be most effective when coleaders share cognitions about the group but are dissimilar in terms of their skill sets and behavior within the group. Specifically, the current study examined whether coleader dissimilarity in behavior was related to the group climate in eight coled intergroup dialogue groups at a large university. Results gave partial support to the coleader, team cognition-team diversity model, as coleader dissimilarity was related to increased overall engagement and conflict within the group. Coleader dissimilarity was related to decreasing conflict and increasing avoiding, suggesting that the relationship between coleader similarity and group processes is more complex than implied by the coleadership, team cognition-team diversity model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in forgiveness: The role of future time perspective.

This study investigated whether the age trend in forgiveness is partly attributable to age differences in time perspective. Eighty-nine younger and 91 older adults were randomized into 3 experimental conditions: time-expanded, time-limited, and neutral. They responded to hypothetical offensive scenarios and rated the degree to which they would forgive the perpetrator. Results showed that older adults were more forgiving than younger adults, but regardless of age, those in the time-limited condition were more forgiving than those in the time-expanded or the neutral condition. An Age × Time perspective interaction showed that only in older adults did a time-expanded manipulation lead to lower forgiveness than the neutral condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prevention and remediation through group interventions.

Reviews the book, The handbook of group intervention for children and families edited by Karen C. Stroiber and Thomas R. Kratochwill (see record 1998-07256-000). This book addresses current needs of psychologists and other mental health practitioners who are working across ecologies to address problems of children and youth. As such, this text is an excellent resource for school psychologists, school counselors, and others who are attempting to broaden service delivery systems and procedures. Although this handbook is appropriate for practitioners across a variety of mental health disciplines, it also meets the current needs of school psychologists by addressing gaps often found in school psychology service delivery and training models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rumination, emotion, and forgiveness: Three longitudinal studies.

In 3 studies, the authors investigated whether within-persons increases in rumination about an interpersonal transgression were associated with within-persons reductions in forgiveness. Results supported this hypothesis. The association of transient increases in rumination with transient reductions in forgiveness appeared to be mediated by anger, but not fear, toward the transgressor. The association of rumination and forgiveness was not confounded by daily fluctuations in positive affect and negative affect, and it was not moderated by trait levels of positive affectivity, negative affectivity, or perceived hurtfulness of the transgression. Cross-lagged associations of rumination and forgiveness in Study 3 more consistently supported the proposition that increased rumination precedes reductions in forgiveness than the proposition that increased forgiveness precedes reductions in rumination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unraveling the role of forgiveness in family relationships.

Testing the idea that the process of forgiveness is intrinsically different across diverse relationships, this study examined the role of forgiveness in different family relationships. In 2 laboratory sessions 1 year apart, 114 families (each including 2 parents and 1 child) completed a new measure of family forgiveness and many individual-level, relationship-level, and family-level variables that have been previously linked with forgiveness. After validating the measure of family forgiveness in cross-sectional analyses, investigators performed longitudinal analyses to examine the role of forgiveness in each family relationship over the 1-year interval. Results indicated many important positive consequences of forgiveness on individual traits, aspects of each family relationship, and general family environment. However, there were also important asymmetries in associates of forgiveness across parent-child and parent-parent relationships, demonstrating the relationship-bound nature of forgiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex and anxiety differences in eyelid conditioning.

Data concerning the relationship between eyelid conditioning performance and 2 S variables, Ss' sex, and scores on the MA scale, are examined. In studies employing standard procedures, high-anxiety Ss were superior to low-anxiety Ss in 23 of 27 comparisons, and females superior to males in 18 of 19 comparisons. In contrast, the direction of the differences was split approximately equally between high- and low-anxiety Ss and between males and females in studies in which conditioning was presented within the context of masking probability-learning task. (31 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fit to forgive: Exploring the interaction between regulatory focus, repentance, and forgiveness.

Three studies, using diverse methodologies and measures, were conducted to examine the role that the regulatory focus of an injured party and of a transgressor (E. T. Higgins, 1997, 2000) plays in explaining the relationship between repentance and forgiveness. The authors predicted that when a victim's regulatory focus (i.e., promotion vs. prevention) was congruent (i.e., fit) with the regulatory focus of a transgressor's repentance (i.e., promotion vs. prevention), there would be greater forgiveness compared with when there was incongruence (i.e., mismatch). Three studies supported these predictions. The results also confirmed one potential explanation for why apologies are not always successful at eliciting forgiveness, namely, feeling right. This research suggests that regulatory focus theory can help inform the scientific study of forgiveness and its related processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The road to forgiveness: A meta-analytic synthesis of its situational and dispositional correlates.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 137(2) of Psychological Bulletin (see record 2011-03899-006). In Table 2, weighted population correlations and associated standard errors and confidence intervals are incorrectly reported. In Table 3, weighted population correlations and associated confidence intervals are incorrectly reported, as well as the Q statistic for trait forgiveness. Corrected data are presented. The authors note that substantive interpretations of the results are not affected by the corrections. The median absolute value correction for the weighted population correlations in both tables is r = .01.] Forgiveness has received widespread attention among psychologists from social, personality, clinical, developmental, and organizational perspectives alike. Despite great progress, the forgiveness literature has witnessed few attempts at empirical integration. Toward this end, we meta-analyze results from 175 studies and 26,006 participants to examine the correlates of interpersonal forgiveness (i.e., forgiveness of a single offender by a single victim). A tripartite forgiveness typology is proposed, encompassing victims' (a) cognitions, (b) affect, and (c) constraints following offense, with each consisting of situational and dispositional components. We tested hypotheses with respect to 22 distinct constructs, as correlates of forgiveness, that have been measured across different fields within psychology. We also evaluated key sample and study characteristics, including gender, age, time, and methodology as main effects and moderators. Results highlight the multifaceted nature of forgiveness. Variables with particularly notable effects include intent (r? = ?.49), state empathy (r? = .51), apology (r? = .42), and state anger (r? = ?.41). Consistent with previous theory, situational constructs are shown to account for greater variance in forgiveness than victim dispositions, although within-category differences are considerable. Sample and study characteristics yielded negligible effects on forgiveness, despite previous theorizing to the contrary: The effect of gender was nonsignificant (r? = .01), and the effect of age was negligible (r? = .06). Preliminary evidence suggests that methodology may exhibit some moderating effects. Scenario methodologies led to enhanced effects for cognitions; recall methodologies led to enhanced effects for affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group composition and group therapy for complicated grief.

This prospective study investigated the impact of group composition on the outcome of 2 forms of time-limited, short-term group therapy (interpretive, supportive) with 110 outpatients from 18 therapy groups, who presented with complicated grief. The composition variable was based on the patient's level of quality of object relations. The higher the percentage of patients in a therapy group who had a history of relatively mature relationships, the better the outcome for all patients in the group, regardless of the form of therapy or the individual patient's quality of object relations score. The findings have direct clinical implications for composing short-term therapy groups for outpatients with complicated grief and possibly for other types of group therapies and patient problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Friendship Jealousy in Young Adolescents: Individual Differences and Links to Sex, Self-Esteem, Aggression, and Social Adjustment.

Children's vulnerability to jealousy surrounding their best friends was explored in 2 studies. Study 1 involved 94 adolescents who reported on their friendship jealousy on a newly created measure. Results indicated that the jealousy measure had sound psychometric properties and produced individual differences that were robust over time and free from socially desirable responding. As expected, girls and adolescents with low self-worth reported the greatest friendship jealousy. Study 2 involved 399 young adolescents and extended the measurement of self-report jealousy to a broader age range. In addition, Study 2 included assessments of jealousy provided by friends and other peers. Self- and peer-reported jealousy were only modestly associated and had somewhat distinct correlates. Structural modeling revealed that young adolescents' reputation for friendship jealousy was linked to behaving aggressively and to broader peer adjustment difficulties. Both self- and peer-reported jealousy contributed to loneliness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in vulnerability to drug self-administration.

Recent evidence from both human and animal studies indicates that there are sex differences in all phases of the addiction process, including initiation and acquisition of use, patterns and levels of use, the progression to addiction, and relapse. This brief review summarizes a series of studies on sex differences in drug self-administration in rats on which the Wyeth Young Psychopharmacologist Award was based and relates these findings to human clinical data. Briefly, preclinical findings show that female rats acquire drug self-administration at a faster rate, work harder to obtain drug infusions, "binge" for longer initial periods of time and show a more diurnally dysregulated pattern of self-administration under extended-access conditions, and respond at higher levels under reinstatement testing conditions compared with male rats. Similar results have been reported in humans, suggesting a biological basis of sex differences in vulnerability to drug abuse. A number of biological mechanisms have been explored, and the results show that ovarian hormones play a critical role in modulating the reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse in females. Preclinical studies, in conjunction with human studies, should further inform a sex-specific model for differences in drug abuse, and such a model may be useful for developing prevention and treatment strategies for drug abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in problem-solving performance as a function of attitude differences.

Men make significantly higher scores than women on a scale of attitudes toward problem solving. Attitude scores "have some positive relationship to performance scores." From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:1GD56C. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vengefully ever after: Destiny beliefs, state attachment anxiety, and forgiveness.

Two studies examined how destiny beliefs (that potential relationships are or are not "meant to be") interact with state attachment anxiety to predict forgiveness tendencies. In Study 1, participants experienced an experimental manipulation of attachment anxiety (vs. security) before indicating the degree to which they would forgive a series of hypothetical partner offenses. In Study 2, participants reported every 2 weeks for 6 months (14 waves in total) on offenses enacted by their partner and indicated the degree to which they forgave the partner, both concurrently and 2 weeks later. Consistent with predictions, results revealed Destiny Beliefs × State Attachment Anxiety interaction effects: Strong (relative to weak) destiny beliefs predicted reduced forgiveness tendencies for individuals experiencing state attachment anxiety, but such beliefs were not associated with forgiveness for individuals experiencing state attachment security. Results from Study 2 suggest that this interaction effect was significantly mediated through trust in the partner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)