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Welcoming accountability is a responsive and responsible virtue that can be shown in relation to people or to God, a higher power, or transcendent guide. Our interdisciplinary team defined transcendent accountability (TA) and developed a 10-item scale using classical and item response theory methods. Across diverse US samples (total N = 990) the scale exhibited internal consistency, construct validity, incremental validity, known-groups validity, and test-retest reliability. TA showed positive correlations with religious and spiritual variables, transcendent virtues (gratitude to God, eschatological hope), human virtues (gratitude, accountability, forgiveness), relationality (agreeableness, empathy), responsibility (conscientiousness, self-regulation), values-congruent autonomy, meaning, and flourishing. It had inverse correlations with negative attitudes and symptoms (personality disorder, anxiety, depression), and weak associations with searching for meaning and social desirability. TA predicted unique variance in spiritual flourishing, meaning, and relational repair. Transcendent accountability is a valuable construct that complements gratitude to God (GTG) and advances positive psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embracing accountability to others for one's responsibilities within relationships is important for flourishing, yet underexamined. An interdisciplinary team defined the construct of accountability and developed an 11-item single-factor Accountability Scale. In national samples with US census demographic representation (total N = 1257), we conducted psychometric analyses using methods from classical test theory (exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses) and item response theory. The Accountability Scale demonstrated internal consistency, construct validity, test-retest reliability, and incremental validity. Accountability correlated positively with relational variables (agreeableness, empathy) responsibility-oriented variables (conscientiousness, self-regulation), virtues (gratitude, forgiveness, limitations-owning humility), relational repair, perceived meaning presence, and flourishing, inversely with symptoms (personality disorders, temper, anxiety, depression), and weakly with searching for meaning and social desirability. Accountability scores superseded demographic variables, conscientiousness, and agreeableness to predict relational repair, perceived presence of meaning in life, and flourishing. We offer the accountability construct and scale to advance human flourishing research and applied work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the principles of the scholarship of teaching and learning, we evaluated 2 learning strategies to determine if they could improve student exam performance in general psychology. After the second of 3 exams, we gave students the option of participating in a specific learning activity and assessed its impact using the third exam. In Study 1, participating students generated a minimum of 3 questions per week over course material. Lower performing students who participated improved their exam performance such that they were indistinguishable from stronger students who did not participate. In Study 2, students had the option of generating concept maps over course material. Generating concept maps significantly improved performance. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure, and 2 notes.)

Teaching parents how to forgive transgressions of parenting partners may reduce negative emotions, increase positive emotions, and, thus, decrease parenting stress. We implemented a waiting-list design to investigate the efficacy of a 9-hour psychoeducational group intervention, Forgiveness and Reconciliation through Experiencing Empathy (FREE), presented to 27 parents and caregivers of children 0-9 years old. Participants receiving FREE exhibited increased forgiveness of a target offense by the parenting partner and increased forgiveness of all parenting offenses. This study offers initial evidence that an intervention to promote forgiveness and reconciliation in parents could be beneficial and might improve parenting relations. DOI: 10.1080/01926180902945723

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00586.x Byline: Jack W. Berry (1), David C. Schwebel (1) Abstract: ABSTRACT This study used two configural approaches to understand how temperament factors (surgency/extraversion, negative affect, and effortful control) might predict child injury risk. In the first approach, clustering procedures were applied to trait dimensions to identify discrete personality prototypes. In the second approach, two- and three-way trait interactions were considered dimensionally in regression models predicting injury outcomes. Injury risk was assessed through four measures: lifetime prevalence of injuries requiring professional medical attention, scores on the Injury Behavior Checklist, and frequency and severity of injuries reported in a 2-week injury diary. In the prototype analysis, three temperament clusters were obtained, which resembled resilient, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled types found in previous research. Undercontrolled children had greater risk of injury than children in the other groups. In the dimensional interaction analyses, an interaction between surgency/extraversion and negative affect tended to predict injury, especially when children lacked capacity for effortful control. Author Affiliation: (1)University of Alabama at Birmingham Article note: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jack W. Berry, UAB Injury Control Research Center, Suite 401, 933 19th Street South, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-2041. E-mail: Jack.Berry@ccc.uab.edu.

The Social Problem Solving Inventory-Revised Scale (SPSI-R) has been shown to be a reliable and valid self-report measure of social problem-solving abilities. In busy medical and rehabilitation settings, a brief and efficient screening version with psychometric properties similar to the SPSI-R would have numerous benefits including decreased patient and caregiver assessment burden and administration/ scoring time. Thus, the aim of the current study was to identify items from the SPSI-R that would provide for a more efficient assessment of global social problem-solving abilities. This study consisted of three independent samples: 121 persons in low-vision rehabilitation (M age=71 years old, SD=15.53), 301 persons living with diabetes mellitus (M age=58, and SD = 14.85), and 131 family caregivers of persons with severe disabilities (M age = 56 years old, SD = 12.15). All persons completed a version of the SPSI-R, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Using Rasch scaling of the SPSI-R short-form, we identified a subset of 10 items that reflected the five-component model of social problem solving. The 10 items were separately validated on the sample of persons living with diabetes mellitus and the sample of family caregivers of persons with severe disabilities. Results indicate that the efficient 10-item version, analyzed separately for all three samples, demonstrated good reliability and validity characteristics similar to the established SPSI-R short form. The 10-item version of the SPSI-R represents a brief, effective way in which clinicians and researchers in busy health care settings can quickly assess global problem-solving abilities and identify those persons at-risk for complicated adjustment. Implications for the assessment of social problem-solving abilities are discussed. Keywords: social problem solving; rehabilitation; screening; health conditions; medical settings

Our objective was to examine the effectiveness of a brief individualized problem-solving intervention for family with caregivers of persons with recent-onset spinal cord injury (SCI). Family caregivers were randomly assigned to a usual care control group (N = 30) or an intervention group (N = 30) in which participants were to receive three face-to-face problem-solving training sessions (PST), educational materials, and telephone contacts as requested over the first year of caregiving. The participants included 60 caregivers (49 women, 11 men). The Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised, the Inventory to Diagnose Depression, and the SF-36 were administered at baseline, 6 months and 12 months. Caregivers in the intervention group reported a significant decrease in dysfunctional problem-solving styles scores over time; there were no observable effects for PST on caregiver depression. There was also some indication that the intervention had beneficial effects on caregiver social and physical functioning. An intervention for new caregivers featuring brief PST, education, and contact may be associated with lower dysfunctional problem-solving styles over time and may promote certain aspects of caregiver quality of life. We also discuss limitations and implications of the present study. Keywords: caregiver; randomized controlled trial; spinal cord injury; problem solving

As part of a system-wide university intervention to help build stronger Christian character, an emphasis was placed on helping students become more forgiving. This effort involved chapel programs, newspaper articles, [...]

The need for empirical research that contributes to the prevention and arrest of marital distress is increasing. Factors identified through research as being influential in the stability of marriage include [...]

Research carried out in 2016 by the authors investigated the challenges that doctors in training experience around leadership and followership in the NHS. The study explored contemporary healthcare leadership culture and the role of followership from the perspective of early career doctors. It found that the leadership and followership challenges for these doctors in training were associated with issues of social and professional identity, communication, the medical hierarchy, and relationships with senior colleagues (support and trust). These challenges were exacerbated by the busy and turbulent clinical environment in which they worked. To cope with various clinical situations and forms of leadership, doctors in training engage in a range of different followership behaviours and strategies. The study raised implications for medical education and training and suggested that followership should be included as part of formal training in communication and team working skills. The importance of both leadership and followership in the delivery of safe and effective patient care has been brought sharply into focus by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article revisits these challenges in light of the pandemic and its impact on the experiences of doctors in training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]